Need suggestions for workplace "get fit" challenge

FFXXIV

Hello! A co-worker and I are at the beginning of our journeys to losing weight and living a healthier life. We are able to support each other as well as keep tabs on each other, but we came up with the idea to get other colleagues involved. The idea behind it is that if we surround ourselves with like-minded people who are trying to achieve similar goals, the harder we will work and the more likely we will accomplish something.

I decided that June 1, 2013 to September 1, 2013 is a good time frame for this challenge (13 weeks). Once a week will be the weigh-in day and the person who lost the most percentage of weight wins a prize of sorts.

My first question is: if your place of work were to hold a contest similar to this, would you participate? How likely will you follow-through to the very end?

Next, I plan on creating a newsletter of sorts to hand out on weigh-in day every week. I want to include different topics about getting healthy and losing weight. I am trying to create a list of topics to include and so far I have:

- Getting started
- Setting goals and tracking progress
- Adding cardio/weight training
- Nutrition and meal planning
- Cooking at home/bringing lunch vs eating out
- Recipes
- What to do when reaching a plateau
- Overcoming emotional eating
- Adding fruits and veggies (or weekly challenges like, eat 5 different colors of fruits/veggies everyday for a week)
- Workout playlists/music that pumps you up
- Weight loss vs Fat loss
- Tracking your steps with a pedometer
- Eat this not that
- Long term maintenance
- Couch to 5k

For each of the topics, I would include articles found online and whatnot. Obviously, neither I nor my coworker are experts by any means, but I feel like with a little bit of research, we can get started on the right foot and we can help create healthier habits (like bringing a bag of apples for everyone instead of a box of donuts haha).

I mainly got this idea of weekly handouts from my time doing Weight Watchers a few years ago. Every week, they handed out a new newsletter with all sorts of useful information and little tidbits of inspiration to keep you motivated.

Do any of you know of any good websites we can use for articles? And as far as topics goes, got any suggestions for interesting/inspiring/fresh ideas? What can I do, as facilitator of this challenge, to motivate everyone and keep things fair?

Any help is appreciated! If this is a terrible idea, please let me know what you think! If this idea is awesome, let me know too! Keep in mind that I would LOVE my coworkers to hop on this website and track that way (it would make things sooooo much easier), but some of them are not very tech savvy, so that isn't an option. We will have to track the good ole fashioned way.

Thanks for reading

zmeplay

You can also talk about the importance of water. Perhaps you can have a 'snapple' corner where you give a quirky fact. People tend to remember those.

runlilyrun

I think maybe you should have two prizes - one for weight loss, and one for 'achievement' - so getting totally built, learning to run, whatever.

Also I'd put C25K much earlier in the list, maybe swap it out with what to do when you reach a plateau. I know I'd wanted to get active and didn't know how and when I heard about C25K it seemed instantly more achievable.

shadowkat57

Check out Nerd Fitness for some article ideas, and free workouts http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/
Have daily mini-challenges - stair climbing, star jumps, squats etc.
Include some ideas for exercises people can do in their chairs/at their desks - heaps available if you google it.
Get people to share recipes.
Have a shared lunch every week or so, where everyone brings a healthy plate.
Organise an active weekend event, maybe as the finale - say, a BBQ with a game of cricket or football, or mini foot races, egg and spoon races etc.

I'd totally join!

mom9198

If there are cash or gift prizes, a non-participant should take and record measurements. When I participated in something similar, no one knew each other's percentages or numbers until the end. It definitely kept me motivated till the very end!

cals83

I have an issue with contests that go by the percent of weight you lose. A few years ago I knew someone who was like 115 pounds (i dont know the exact number) who joined one of these. She didn't really make any changes, didn't lose any real weight...just wore heavier clothes and drank a ton of water before weighing in the first day.

Other people legitamitely busted their butts and shed off noticeable weight.

But because it was by percent and she was so small to begin her 5 pound water fluctuation made a 10% difference where the larger people who made noticeable differences and dropped a size or two, they were only at a 9% difference.

I think that keeping body fat in mind would be beneficial to a contest like this. Scales aren't necessarily accurate at giving you the correct number but I think they are great for measuring changes.

FFXXIV

@zmeplay: I forgot water! Thanks for the suggestion and a "Snapple Corner is a great idea.

@runlilyrun: extra goals or achievements is a great idea! And I think I'll move the C25K to the 4th week (since its a 9 week program, it will be completed by the 13the week).

@shadowkat: Thank you for the website, I will definitely check it out. I love the mini challenges idea too!

@mom9198: I'd love to have cash prizes but the only way I can do that is by having the participants put in money too. I don't know if people will be willing to do that, but I will definitely try to find out if they are!

@cals83: I never thought about ways to cheat! If we don't measure by weight, how do we measure body fat? Maybe we can go by clothing size or something instead?

So many great ideas so far!

FFXXIV

Bump for visibility

TammyS327

Instead of doing most weight lost, maybe do highest percentage of weight lost. Heavier people lose more weight faster and so do men. So a 150 pound person that loses 30 pounds has a bigger percentage of weight lost than 300 pound person that loses 30 pounds. It levels the playing field a little. Does this make sense?

michele2377

We did this at work, we had cash prizes and we got them by paying 5$ once a week to weigh in. Everyone that signed on stuck through till the end.

fitplease

I think this is the best site for C25K: http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/c25k/Pages/couch-to-5k.aspx
There is also the original: www.c25k.com

Active.com might also be of interest.

fitplease

You can also talk about the importance of water. Perhaps you can have a 'snapple' corner where you give a quirky fact. People tend to remember those.

But not too much water. (That can lead to other problems.)

FFXXIV

But not too much water. (That can lead to other problems.)

What sorts of problems?