Hello Everyone!


After giving it considerable thought, I’ve decided to make some significant changes to the structure of our habits group starting November 1.


I have been thrilled to see your responses to the new monthly challenges. To me, that’s what habit building is all about. Pick a goal, map out a strategy, select a trigger and reward, and then practice, practice, practice. Selecting our own monthly challenge is the key. This is a habit we want to create for ourselves.


I like the monthly challenges so much that I’ve decided to make them the focus of our group. As such, I’m going to discontinue the regular weekly challenges. I think we can have too many challenges and they can become a distraction. We will still have an occasional weekly challenge, such as Fall Declutterfest coming up in a few weeks, but it won’t be a regular occurrence.


Most things are not going to change. We will still have Move it Monday every week, still have the monthly challenges, still have the Projects Page, and we’ll still have an occasional weekly challenge. I have posted a page of all our past weekly challenges. My hope is this archive will be a source of ideas for possible monthly challenges as well as a handy reference page. Especially for those of us who are new to MFP and this group, creating healthy habits can be overwhelming. There are so many possible changes to make and so many new habits that could be created. I think this page will really help.


Bluntly, one of the driving forces behind this change is my own time. Like most of you, I have a job, a family, other volunteer commitments, and other interests. While I see the merits of weekly challenges, the pull of having to commit part of every Sunday to creating a new challenge got to be too much. These changes will make managing this group much more sustainable for me and I like that!


I want this group to help each of us make positive, lasting changes in our lives. Real change comes from identifying a goal and a game plan for achieving that goal, and then sticking with that plan even when it’s hard. Forming new habits takes time and lots of actions that must be repeated over and over again until they become part of our daily routine. Nobody has ever lost any weight by reading about the healthy actions that other people are taking. We already know what to do. We have enough information. The fundamentals of eating smaller portions, more fruits and veggies, less sugar, less junk food, and all while exercising more and sitting less haven't changed. We just need to act. It's the "doing" that's the hard part for most of us and a supportive, encouraging group like this can make all the difference in our success. The monthly challenges are an excellent framework for making real progress in our lives and I'm excited to give them the spotlight!

All the best,

Denise