The 5% Challenge starts on 1/6, Practice week 12/30

Ceriusly1

🍁❄As the seasons change, the leaders of the 5% Challenge are working in the background to set up the next challenge. We provide “Pre-Challenge Activities” for our members to ponder while waiting for take-off.
The 5% Seasonal Challenge is my success story. Wanting to share how the 5% has helped me. I thought I would post my response to activity #1.

Countdown & Pre-Challenge Activity #1: INFORMATION and YOUR INPUT! ℹ️🔠

The 5% Challenges started on Spark People in the Spring of 2010. Winter 2024 is challenge #57. I’m not going to share the activity information. If you would like to take a look, here is the link to the 2024 Winter 5%.

This first activity has me really "digging deep"!

I would be as big as a house without this challenge! I was fortunate to be invited to the very first 5% challenge way back in the Spring of 2010. I lost weight and made friends. I felt great!

BUT!

My life has been like a teeter-totter with its ups and downs and a merry-go-round with all the cycles I've gone through. After 4 seasons with the challenge, I hit a plateau and thought oh well, what's the use? I was ready to give up yet again, but I had volunteered to lead a Spark team from my area of PA so I felt obligated to follow through with that but my heart wasn't in it. No members posted regularly, so I felt my time was wasted. I thought I wasn't cut out for leadership but, someone thought I could do something, and asked me to help lead the Teddy Bear team on the 5% Challenge. All I had to do as the Motivational Leader was highlight a member daily. Easy? It was, and I enjoyed it but the main reason I did it was selfish. I've always been able to do for others what I couldn't do for myself. I now had an obligation and I take my obligations seriously.

The rest may be history, but I no longer feel obligated. I come back season after season, not because I am a leader, (although I do love the challenge and what I do as a leader), I come back for every Challenge member because they support me, and they lift me up, when I am down. If I have a rough time someone always comes through with a word or an image that makes me smile or, think, or do something different. If I have a negative attitude, someone, lets me know lovingly and gently.

This is one of my favorite motivational phrases. I had it on my Spark Profile for years.

So Spark People is no more and MFP has embraced us, and I’m still coming back. I come back every season because you all inspire me to make changes that change me.

Merry Christmas,and Thanks for reading! Ceri (Ceriusly1) Overall Co-Leader, 2024 Winter 5%Challenge