On behalf of the overall leadership team (Ceri @Ceriusly1 ~ Heidi @hicim705 ~ Barb @ladyluk1, and Diane @Dianedoessmiles1, as well as the leaders of our eight individual challenge teams (Fit Force ~ Mission Slimpossible ~ Positively Strong 4 Life ~ Rain Dancers ~ Red Hots ~ Shape Shifters ~ Tenacious GR8TERS ~ Thinner Winners) …





👋WELCOME👋 to our 🆕newest🆕 5% Challengers as well as our returning 👫friends👫!
This is our FIRST Seasonal Challenge of 2025 and we hope that you will join us in celebrating the New Year, New Season and, most of all ~ celebrating a Bright, Shiny New YOU!!

We hope that you take some time to read about and take part in the pre-Challenge activities as they are designed to help you get prepared for success. The Winter Challenge always starts toward the beginning of a new year and is designed to help us to support some of the resolutions that you may have made when December 31, 2024 became January 1, 2025. The New Year reminds us that we are winding down our ‘end of year’ celebrations and gatherings and begins to turn our focus on trying to be our best selves.

The beginning of a new year, month, week and/or season is the perfect time to make some new resolutions (either 📢loud and proud📢 or 🔕🔇silently, as a promise to yourself🔇🔕). Whatever you choose to do ~ please remember, you are doing this for YOU; your health and your well-being. Jump in and join us to be the ‘BEST YOU’ that you can be and make that wonderful commitment to YOU!
For the several hundred of us that join the Seasonal 5% Challenges from one season to the next, we come here because we are looking to make a change. We are seeking support, cultivating our long-time friendships and connecting with new members. We also look for structure and continuity. Most of our 5% Challengers followed us from SparkPeople after they closed their site in the summer of 2021. Our sense of community and support has helped us to welcome new friends and Challengers from the MFP site who are now regulars to our seasonal Exercise/Healthy Lifestyle Challenges.
In doing some research to write these activities, an older article was found on the internet that discussed Team Challenges and our own 5% Seasonal Challenge was highlighted. Lynn, @kaliswalker (one of the original founders of the 5% Challenge) was interviewed ~ here is the link to the article. It discusses the importance of teams, and the 5% Challenge model was in the spotlight in this article that was written in 2016: https://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=memberrun_challenges_can_help_you_find_success
(As of this writing in December 2024, this article still shows up and it is worth the read).


The story continued (and continues) to grow: When SparkPeople closed, we, the current Overall Leadership Team, realized that without SparkPeople and its team spirit, we (and hundreds of our 5% Challenge friends) would be lost and struggling. We sprang into action and searched for an alternate site where we could continue our journey; and continue to write our story. Although many sites were considered, MyFitnessPal was ultimately chosen as our 'new home' with the start of the 2021 winter 5% Challenge. Bringing the 5% Challenge to MFP was a true labor of love, and, with full disclosure, was not smooth sailing as we had hoped, but the Overall Challenge Leader Team put their heads down and worked hard to continue and MAKE IT WORK! At this point, our Challenges are enjoyable and are doing what they were intended to do ~ to provide a space where you can practice healthy habits and where you can chat with other, like-minded MFP members and where you are encouraged to meet a new friend or two! We continue to have faithful 5% Challenge ‘followers’ from SparkPeople, and are fortunate to have been able to spread our message to MPF and it’s members and welcome them into our 5% Challenge Community.

This past year, the 5% Challenges went through some changes. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we decided to change the 8-week to a 10-week format. After a few rounds, however, we decided to settle into our tried & true 8-week Challenge format. 2024 also reminded the Overall Leadership Team that we are mighty despite having been presented with our share of real-life obstacles. As a result, we were not the mighty fabulous five that we had once been and struggled to find time for ourselves, never mind the demands of our volunteer time here running the Challenges. We quickly developed strategies to work together to forge ahead. We collaborated with one another by sharing thoughts and ideas to stay on track and we revamped our 5% Challenge ‘travel/LTGL’ format into a more exercise-based and healthy habit focused format. Switching to a new format came with its own share of issued, but we are proud that we were able to keep the Challenges going and even more proud that, in the end, 2024 was still a successful year.



🗬🤔 Now that you have been provided with a bit of a background of the 5% Challenge, please think about what YOU need and how YOU are going to be approaching the 2025 Winter 5% Challenge. Will you continue to practice healthy habits that you have already learned and are working for you? Are you looking to begin something entirely new? Are you still trying to identify where you are right now and what you would like to get out of the next 8 weeks? There are no right or wrong answers here as everyone’s healthy lifestyle goals/journey are unique - like we all are. 🤔🗭

😊Your FIRST Countdown Activity for this Challenge will be for YOU to decide where YOU would like to go on YOUR Seasonal 5% Journey (as an added bonus, how YOU would like to begin to write YOUR HEALTHY LIFESTYLE JOURNEY STORY). Everyone's reason for joining this Challenge is different. We would like you to dig down deep to share what your motivation is for coming here. We would like you to share what brings you here, and even more importantly - what keeps you coming back! Perhaps there are things that you would like to get out of your personal 5% journey that we haven't discussed and/or researched. Why don't you write down some of YOUR ideas ~ we might even be able to incorporate some of those things in this or future Challenges!😊

✍️Feel free to add your comments to this thread outlining your exercise and healthy habits plan for a successful 2025 Winter 5% Challenge (if you blog, please consider writing about this topic. You may add the link to your blog here or you may simply wish to copy/paste your writing here - or do both!), but please consider sharing!!
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PLEASE NOTE:
ALL challenge weeks run from Saturday through Friday - you will be expected to record your exercise and ‘Healthy Habits’ points based on weekly Challenge themes. You are expected to record these points daily or at least as often as you can during the week but no later than 11:59 pm each Saturday (your local time). In addition, you are expected to weigh in one time per week by 11:59 pm every Saturday (your local time). Your individual team leaders and/or team mates will help to answer any and all questions about where to record your points.


🔮 Our 2025 Winter 5% Challenge Teams are currently being set up. 🔮

✉️You will be invited to your individual team soon and you will have enough time to begin to get to know your team leaders and team mates. Until then, get to know some of the Challengers in the 5% Challenge Community that will be participating right along with you.

📢Announcements will be made when invitations to your individual teams are sent. Please visit this team, the 2025 Winter 5% COMMUNITY TEAM often as this will be the best source for up-to-date information.