And the results are in. Congrats to the winner for the fourth challenge, Alesha and to the second and third place finishers who were in a tight battle, Denny and Amber!

I know this took much longer than we have been used to in the past but for many it was a difficult run this time through. For those of you that are new please do not judge this competition on the way this one took place.

For those of you that put your all into this congratulations, you lost weight!!! In fact as I look through the point totals it appears as though those that made most of your points each week met your weight goal and in many cases exceeded what you set out to prove!! WAY TO GO!!

It is now time to claim your prize. I will email each person, beginning with the winner, and include a list of prizes that are available. Once you have chosen I will contact the person who offered the prize and let them know who they owe. I will send this email to both the giver and the getter.

Please be considerate and quickly arrange for the transaction to take place. To view a list of possible prizes please click the link above to the far right “Individual Prizes Submitted #4”.

Again congrats to all those that met your goal, to those that did not push harder next time. Speaking of next time we will be beginning another 10 week challenge beginning on April 1, 2009 and no this is not a joke, see you all back then!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 - Now that the cruise is a thing of the past, I would recommend a cruise to everyone, I am back on track. Sorry for not getting the results posted from week five, as I stated in my email there is no internet in the deep blue sea.

No quirky comments this time around simply get on it. If you have not turned in results for a specific week there is no number next to your name for that week. Please figure our the totals and get those to me. I will count them as zeros if I get no results in the next week or so.

hang loose!

Monday, December 29, 2008 - From fourth to first. That is right ladies and gentleman we have a new leader. Not only is she the new leader but she is the first to reach her weight loss goal. Lets all congratulate Amber on reaching her goal. YEA AMBER!!!

Also notice that some of us have not really been bit by the desire bug it seems. For those of us, me included, that have faltered lets forget the past and climb back on the saddle, lets ride this thing out and get back in this thing.

Everyone needs to remain focused on the goal, healthy living, and we can make the world a better place! Alright maybe not the world but certainly you can make a better you. Now that is Cheezy!!

Friday, December 26, 2008 - FIRST notice that I have updated the links above to include the weekly challenges and the Individual prizes are now set up also, check them out at the links above. Sorry for the lateness of this report. A combination of Christmas responsibilities as well as late arrival of data pushed this release back. I hope that the holidays reached everyone well and that they were at least able to think about how they should be cutting back. I know that I thought about it alot as I was putting another chocolate or cinnamon roll in my mouth.

Well as you can see from the results there are starting to be some close races and some who seem to have fallen on hard times. Don’t let this discourage you as in the end the weight loss is a major factor in determining the winner. And remember that no matter how today or even this week turned out there is plenty of time to turn it around. This is to help change our lives not simply to win a prize.

Stay strong and continue to focus or re-focus if needed. Lets go get 'em!

Monday, December 15, 2008 - After the first week it is evident that we are all in need of this challenge. For some a strong start has already seen some great results, to those few keep up the good work. To many the start seems to be slower but that is why we make it a 10 week challenge. Do not give up, keep pushing and striving to better yourself.

If you have not submitted your points for this week please get them to me. You only lose 1 point for not submitting on time and even that point is often times awarded during the first week as it is new to many.

Feel free to leave a comment or encouragement for others and as always let me know what you would like to see different or how we can improve this great challenge.

Thursday, November 27, 2008 - It is that time of year again. Time to remember that we are not immortal and that simple changes can bring long lasting results. To that end we will be beginning the Bland Family & Friend Challenge. You will notice above are some links where you can review the rules and guidelines. We have changed the calculator a little but it is still a simple way to report your points at the end of each week. If you feel that some additional changes would make the challenge more interesting or better in any way please feel free to leave a comment here or contact me via email.

The competition will begin on Monday, December 8, 2008 and run for 10 weeks or through Sunday, February 15, 2009.

As part of the first week the weekly challenge will be to turn in the prize that you will be donating to the competition and the weekly challenge that you would like to see done. There will be no other weekly challenge during the first week. If there are more participants then weeks we will draw the weekly challenges out of a hat so some will be used and others will not.