My daughter Melanie and I invented a diet challenge and there are only four simple rules:

1. Eat no gluten or processed sugar
2. Eat 6 cups veggies daily
3. Exercise a minimum of 1/2 hour, three times per week
4. Get enough rest at night and rest when you are tired or stressed instead of eating

By following the rules we earn “stars” or points toward our challenge.

• Each day we eat no gluten or processed sugar, we earn a star.  The only exception is honey or real maple syrup which are OK.
• Each day we eat 6 cups veggies we earn a star.
• Each day we exercise we get a star.  Once we have exercised for the minimum of three days that week, we get an extra 3 stars.
• Resting is something we decided would not earn stars, but a rule to follow which is very helpful toward weight loss.

There are two ways to earn a reward: either through the earning of stars, or through weight loss.  At the end of each month of the challenge, the one with the most stars is treated to something by the other . . . it could be going out to eat, or to a movie, or to an article of clothing, or what ever we decide; but not very expensive necessarily.  The weight loss prize is a bit bigger . . . the one to lose a certain amount of weight (each person must be aiming for the same amount of weight loss for each challenge) first gets treated by the other to a new outfit to wear, up to a certain amount of money determined by the participants.

When we began this, my sister Cheryl jumped into the challenge to lose a couple pounds and eat a more healthy diet.  We are having fun with this and keeping in close touch with each other to help each other stay on the path of weight loss, because we want to see each other succeed as much as we want to succeed ourselves.

Once we lose the weight we want to lose, we are going to continue on this diet challenge to maintain our ideal weights and continue to have fun competitions for prizes!

Of course there are ways to eat enough high calorie foods to gain weight, even on this diet, but our desire is to lose weight and win the competition so we do not work to find ways around the purpose of the diet, we work toward weight loss and success!

You may know someone who would like to enter into a challenge like this with you, to make your journey more fun and rewarding!  Feel free to copy us if you like what we’re doing, or create something unique just for your needs.  Most of all, have fun with your goals and the prizes you set up, and I believe you will enjoy your process to success a whole lot more.