Costume Changers FAQs answered!

elana1987

Hi everyone!

I received an overwhelming response from MFPers interested in the Halloween challenge I put together, and I'm so excited about that! Along with a lot of interest came a lot of questions (totally fine!), so I decided to post this to answer a lot of the questions I received. Here we go!

WHAT'S THE CHALLENGE?
The challenge starts on 9/19 and ends on 10/31 (6 weeks), and the goal is to lose 5% of your current body weight as well as log 100 miles (by walking, running, biking, swimming, etc.).

WHEN DO WE REPORT OUR STATS?
Since the challenge starts and ends on Mondays, we'll check in every Monday!

HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN IT'S TIME TO REPORT THE STATS?
No problem - I'll post a link to my status every Monday morning as a reminder! If you're part of the challenge, definitely add me as a friend! As a leader, I'm here to support and encourage you every step of the way.

HOW DO WE REPORT THE STATS?
Please go to (then bookmark/favorite/etc.) this Google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmK9A0h-0IAXdFV4ejZkZWhiZy1QQU5NLU5hSUxVUXc&hl=en_US#gid=0
You will enter your user name, challenge starting weight, and challenge goal weight to begin with. Then each Monday, you will log your weight and miles for the week. I will take care of totaling all of your stats each week!

WHAT SHOULD MY STARTING WEIGHT BE?
Well, that's up to you! It can either be your current weight now, or what your weight is on Monday.

HEY, HOW DO I GET THAT TEAM BANNER IN MY SIGNATURE?
Take this URL and place it in your signature page:

[xxx]

http://i.imgur.com/mAaAy.jpg

[/xxx]

and replace the "xxx" with "img"

IF I'M DOING ANOTHER EXERCISE (i.e. Zumba), HOW CAN I COUNT THE MILEAGE FOR THAT?
The best way I know how is to track your steps with a pedometer. I don't want anyone buying something that they weren't planning on having already, but it's definitely an accurate way to get credit for doing exercises like that! 2000 steps = 1 mile.

CAN I STILL JOIN?
Definitely - I had tried to "close" the group early on, but lots of people were still interested (awesome!). By having the Google doc, it puts a bit more responsibility on each person, so it makes having a larger group feasible. If you're definitely committed to this (effort is key! I can't say for sure that I'll be able to hit my 5%, but I'm going to try as hard as I can!), then join away!

If you have any other questions, please let me know and I will update this!! Costume Changers: let's do this!

Hugs,
Elana

wutamunkee

AWESOME!!!!!!!

Biglovelovesme

Thanks Elana.
You are doing a great job organizing this and I am confident that I can speak for most of us in saying that we really appreciate it!
Cheers
:drinker:

CaptainMFP

Great job in organizing this!

jvinmill

Thanks Elana! Your leadership skills are commendable! Very excited to change costumes

ASPhantom

Yeah!

This will be fun!

Thanks so much for getting this going and everything!

musicgirl88

can't wait to start...hopefully this time the image will work in my signature! thanks for starting all this!!

Amandalovesfood89

Awesome!!

killerqueen17

The Google doc is a great idea for a group of this size! Thanks for doing this

shankleefranklee

I really have no idea how to use google docs. I guess that sounds so silly.

When i view it will i view myself as #1? or did i do it wrong?

DawnLosing

Great idea, can't wait to start!!

ActiveFaith10

hi. put in your name on the next column (along with weights preceding), right below the previous user. and right click A and hit sort A-Z and you should be fine

jenkamac

one final question for me: for this coming Monday the 19th, should we input the total miles we "hope" to accomplish that week - since the challenge starts that day we won't have logged any miles yet. Does that make sense? Thanks!

omardragon

I deleted the first entry username I'm very sorry it was my laptop touch pad

ActiveFaith10

I really have no idea how to use google docs. I guess that sounds so silly.

When i view it will i view myself as #1? or did i do it wrong?

you click on the cell you want to fill then type.
no problem, i put you in a cell and put it alphabetically

gods_gal

I'm in. I have already figured how many miles I will need to walk each day of the challenge and I can totally do this!! So excited!! I love challenges!! Thanks, Elana!!

Deathwithab

I'm pumped for this to start! My legs are ready for that 2.4 miles or more a day

I also agree with the rest , you are doing a fantastic job running this challange

missyyclaire

Thanks for starting this Elana, and for keeping it open to all of us, I really appreciate it. All your info here made total sense to me and I was able to sign up on the Google doc and add the banner. Great instructions!

I did a 'test drive' today at my favorite mall and learned that 3 laps around it, including the little side kick sections equals 2.55 miles. So, if I can get my tail over to that mall each day, I should be in pretty good shape to make the 100 mile goal.

Thank you again for starting this. It's a reasonable goal to aim for, yet it pushes me just a little more than I've been doing the past couple of weeks.

caroln3

thanks for starting this challenge!

Dandersonjr32

This will be fun. Every I repetition I do now will be motivated by the fact that I have to show EVERYONE my silly Halloween costume. Nothing like the threat of abject personal humiliation to motivate your work outs.

Or, I should say, the desire to impress.

butters1

thanks a ton Elana!

butters1

thanks a ton Elana!

bubblesburst80

bump

mamabearr

Woohooooo!

2011_4mygirls

Thank you so much for all the effort you are putting into this challenge! I am excited to get started!!! Bring on Monday!!! WOOHOO~

elana1987

Yay!! So excited to see all this enthusiasm... you all are amazing (and inspirational). I MFP.

Also - it is my pleasure to put this together! So happy to do it!

KettyLan

Hello Elena! You are a great leader!!! hope you keep adding new challenges as soon as this one ends... and if you do please let us know...

thanks for the motivation!!!!

pettmybunny

Must be fate that I stumbled on this the day I decided to come back to MFP. Hope you don't mind if I add myself to the google document!

sock_17

So excited!!

mfkfoster

Sorry I finally did it! I entered my stuff on the Google doc and I copy and pasted the banner! I'm going to try very hard to lost the 10 pounds but I'm not sure I can. I seem to be stuck this week so far. I might have a bigger problem with the exercise. I'm waiting until the doc gives me the ok to start again.
We can do this!

Brooke1585

Hi All! I am excited to start this challenge and thanks to Walkdmc for invitiing me! I look forward to starting Monday (even though I usually don't look forward to Mondays...lol).

So I just visited the spreadsheet and I must say this is the cleanest challenges (reporting weight and etc) that I've done. Kudos to elana1987. :drinker: (I don't drink so that's one of my daily glasses of water..lol).