PFP Week 1 Update

Hi everybody! I'm so glad many of you decided to join me in this challenge. I'm horrible at motivating myself, so hopefully this will finally do the trick!

• At the top of the page, just below my header is now a Pound for Pound Challenge tab. You can click that to see the PFP information, all of the participant bios, and I will add the update links to it weekly.

• Each Monday I am going to be posting an update, so if participants could please e-mail me any updates they want to share by Sunday, that would be much appreciated. You do not have to update every week, but I will try to check in with everybody as often as I can.
  

• The update post will include a menu plan for the upcoming week. One of the things I noticed is that I make bad choices when I haven't planned ahead and shopped accordingly.

• I will also include a tip to share for that week to keep us all moving in a positive direction. It could range from a product I like, an exercise, a healthy recipe, a motivating book or movie, etc.
  

• If you have anything you would also like to share with the group you are encouraged to do so! I have added all of the participants to a private Facebook group where you can chat amongst yourselves, share recipes, ask for support, brag about progress, etc.
  

I know this is a bit confusing in the beginning, so please let me know if you have any questions or need clarification!

My progress for the week:
Unfortunately, I kind of held off until this post for an "official" start to the challenge. Hopefully this will kick my ass into high gear since it's up and I'm being held accountable now. There were two days this past week Johnny and I had to go to the mall by our house (gag), which equaled a lot of walking around. I also tried to consciously make wiser meal choices, but could have been better. I just shopped and bought really great items, so that will make the coming week easier. I'm weighing myself daily and that has been fluctuating in a four pound window. For now I think it's safe to say I haven't lost anything yet.

My menu plan for the week:
Ground chicken tacos with fat free cheese and sour cream
Cabbage nests
Butternut squash soup (made with skim milk in place of cream)
Sweet and sour chicken casserole (in my head it's good!)
1 crust chicken pot pie (idea from Biz)

Tip for the week:
Dailymile is a terrific free resource for tracking your exercise progress. I have mine linked to my Facebook account, so it auto-posts to my wall. It allows you to select a workout, use Google maps to outline your routes, keep track of time spent working out, asks how you felt, lets you add notes about the workout, and calculates the calories you burned.

After you add your workouts, it compiles all of the information in an easy-to read progress report you can view by day, week, month, or at year's end. I used it during the summer when I was in North Carolina and loved it! It's a great tool to really see the time and effort you put into exercising, even if the scale doesn't always reflect it.