SPOTLIGHT #1

Karlie Badger

Hey guys! I am Mindie’s cousin. My name is Karlie. I am 27 years old. I’m a wife mother of two beautiful kids. I am a florist by trade and a stay at home mom. I own my own company Garden House Floral my website is www.gardenhousefloral.com check it out. I love plants and flowers always have. I’m a friend to everyone, easy to talk to, and I’m a great listener.

Let me take you back to the prime years of my life. I was 20 years old, the healthiest I had ever been. Exercise was a joy and eating healthy was not a problem at all. I was all about myself and what I wanted and what would make me happy. It was great. I met my husband Mike (who will be spotlighted this weekend) we fell in love and got married shortly after in 2005.

I knew marrying Mike would be wonderful and great and awesome. It IS!!!! What I didn’t know is how being married and all the added responsibilities would affect my personal life. We had our little boy exactly a year after we got married. The weight quickly piled on. I was so comfortable in my situation I forgot how important it was to keep myself healthy, my focus shifted to my son and the care of my home and my husband. We had our baby girl in 2008 and it got worse and worse. I was at my fattest Fall of last year. Mike and I decided it was time. Enough letting ourselves go. There were a few instrumental occurrences that got us to the mentality we are in, (post for another time).

I am here, NOW!!! It’s TIME and I am in it to WIN it!!!
My weight has always been an issue ever since I can remember much like a lot of you I’m guessing. Until recently I just didn’t care about myself. I was careless with what I ate and how much I ate. I sat on the couch all day and was super depressed in the winter. I would get spurts of motivation to try a diet, but that would quickly fade. Out of frustration and with lack of results, and I was back where I started maybe even worse off than when I started. I’ve heard the term yo‐yo dieting. I was there. I was sad, I was depressed.

Me on the left: 2005 before I got married Me on the right: 2011 how did that happen
TODAY!!! I am 30+ pounds lighter and not even halfway to my goal, but I am on my way. I am consuming 1200 calories a day and counting every one on My Fitness Pal online. I drink 145 ounces of water a day. And I exercise at least 4 times a week. Accountability is essential. I have a group a few of us started at our church, we meet every Monday to weigh in and talk about our accomplishments and struggles for the week. Mike and I are a part of Slim Down Sandy, we weigh in weekly and meet up for meet and greets with others on board. I couldn’t do this without the support of my Husband Mike he is my inspiration. I can’t wait for everyone to meet him on here.

Find and do what works for you. Stick to it, exact to the plan. That is my advice. I’m no expert ;)

Thanks Mindie for getting this going! Just one more way to be successful!

Good luck everyone!

I post on www.skinnyjeansgalforme.blogspot.com feel free to become a follower!

Okay, okay, okay. I am sure most of you are anxious to see this months results. I will have to say that there are a couple that still need to weigh and still more that just couldn't or didn't want to this month, which I get. I know we will all hit a wall or have a bad month so I have decided that everyone gets one month that they don't have to weigh if they choose. But, I will also say, that it won't really matter in the end, your percentage loss is your percentage loss. If you didn't do well this month don't give up. Keep pressing on and just like me your inner diet light bulb will switch on. Mine finally came on because summer is coming up and with summer coming up swimsuit season is just around the corner and I really don't want to put a swimsuit on the body that I have now. I am also competing in a couple of half marathons which I would love to have anyone join me. The first one is this next Saturday. I have one in Provo in June and another down Bryce canyon in July. I am contemplating signing up for the lottery for St George marathon which is in October. I know crazy, right? I am not 100% on that one though. Remember you don't have to run a half marathon, you can walk too. Which I will do for this first one but hopefully by July I will be able to run most of it. We shall see. If any of you need an extra hand in the diet area I am going to MD Diets which has a great plan. You can look them up on the web to find out more information. Alright now onto the serious stuff.....

Aprils loss percentages

Jennifer Loukas 5.3%

Mindie Booth 3.9%

Karlie Badger 3.8%

Lindsey Montague 3.6%

Michael Badger 3.5%

Don Rowley 2.9%

Barbara Larsen 2.6%

Ryan Fenton 2.4%

Mandi Frost 2.2%

Kathy Brasher 1.9%

Kathy Smith 1.8%

Joel Frost 1.7%

LeRoy Larsen 1%

Tina Irwin .8%

Vicki Peterson .5%

Tammy Hetherington .5%

Caren Solt .5%

Aundrea Hill 0%

Jay Brasher N/A

Brent Peterson N/A

Tyler Solt N/A

Dawn Booth N/A

Jessica Ward N/A

Alex Munoz N/A

Lenna Hanson N/A

Natalie Stansworth N/A

I just want to add that some of the N/A people still are planning on weighing, so when they do weigh I will update them below. I am excited for this week that we are starting our spotlights. Again if there is anyone that doesn't want to participate it that please let me know. Thank you all again for participating. I am really looking forward to the next five months to see how well we all do.

Last week

So we are coming up on our last week for this first month of the biggest loser. I am so excited to see how everyone has done. I will admit I didn't do as well as I had hoped for this first month but thats why we are doing this for five more months. I know I said that I would post some recipes and I haven't forgotten, I will get to it some time this week. I hope everyone is glad that they entered this competition, if you put your minds and bodies to it its really going to pay off!!

6 new competitors

Hey guys I just wanted you all to know that we had 6 more people join our competition. I can't believe it, that brings our group up to 26 people which is so amazing. I can't thank you all enough for doing this with me. I hope that you all had a great first week. My whole family got the flu and we are still on the mend. But one good thing about the flu is you don't feel much like eating. I look forward to starting up the gym again though. I haven't been in over a year.

One good reminder that one of our new joiners gave me over the weekend is how important water is. It is so good for our bodies. I think the recommended daily intake is 8-10 glass a day but the more you drink the better. I have a couple of recipes that I will get posted this week that we love at our house.

New Competitors

Leroy Larsen

Barbara Larsen 22%

Mike Badger

Karlie Badger 28.3%

Mandi Frost 30.8%

Joel Frost 21.9%

Yay, we did it. We are finally here. Thank you all again. I am so excited and relieved that people would do this with me. I do so much better when I have something that I am working toward and we may have four more people join which would make first place $750.00. That can buy the winner a whole new wardrobe. So on your mark, get set, Go!!!

I will have to be honest, already this first week has been really hard. I have had sick kids and that hasn't make eating well and exercising easy. But, I will say that its not the end of the world. On the biggest loser web site I was reading about the Bobs 80/20 philosophy. If you work really hard you will be successful 80% of the time but you will have to allow yourself 20% slack for when you might slip up or not have a great day. Don't give up its not worth quitting because you had one or two bad days. Get back on track and start again.

There is a wide range of goal which is great! I hope that everyone of us reaches our goals by the end of this adventure. Don't get discouraged about your goals though. This is a hard thing to accomplish for most of us. For some it might be not as hard. My Dad read this quote to us on Sunday and I thought that it fit perfect for this challenge that we are doing. Richard G. Scott said "Repeatedly, I have been impressed to learn that to reach a goal never before attained, we must do things never before done." Remember this when you are frustrated or having a hard day. It will all be worth it in six months when we are all a little thinner and a lot healthier!

Competitors and their goals:

Tyler Solt 15.4%

Alex Munoz 37.5%

Caren Solt 13.6%

Kathy Smith 12%

Vicki Peterson 21%

Brent Peterson 26.8%

Tammy H. 20.6%

Tina Irwin 17.6%

Kathy Brasher 9%

Jay Brasher 15.3%

Dawn Booth 11%

Mindie Booth 27.9%

Don Rowley 12.6%

Ryan Fenton 13.4%

Andrea Hill 14.5%

Lindsey M. 14%

Natalie S. 27%

Jessica Ward 23.6%

Jennifer Loukas 20%

Lenna Hanson 28.8%

Now for me to attain my goal I have to burn 2750 calories a day and only eat 1250 calories. Now you may ask yourself is this practical? I say no it is not but that it my goal. Hopefully even if I don't reach my goal during the next six months I will be well on my way there.

Please keep us updated on how you are doing, yummy healthy recipes you have found and fun things that your are doing to stay active. Our next weigh in is April 9th. That is 3 1/2 weeks away so lets get our butts in gear.

Weigh ins will be May 7th, June 4th, July 9th, August 6th and September 10th for our final weigh. The employees at the auction will be the day before since you weigh on fridays and all of these dates are Saturdays. I had to change the August date from our original schedule because I will be out of town that day. The weigh in will be from 9-10 a.m. If you can't make it during this time please, please let me know so that I don't have to wait around all day. We can schedule another time for you just let me know. I may have to change the times also depending on when my kids soccer and T-ball games are. I am home most of the time during the day so its not a problem to reschedule.

GOOD LUCK!

Ready, Set, Go!

I am so excited about this opportunity. Forgive me for any errors that I might not catch as I am updating this blog and posting things. I never claimed to be an expert in the writing department. I imagine if you are reading this then you have committed to my challenge and are joining me on this exciting journey, which I am sure will prove to be pretty difficult as well as very rewarding. Please tell us about your progress, your frustrations and anything that you find that will benefit us in anyway.

During this challenge I plan to participate in a couple of half marathons in the area and would love to have anyone join me who might be interested. I mostly walk but hope by the end of the summer I will be jogging a lot more. If you are discouraged by the length of 13 miles try something like a 5k or 10k. Races are always fun to participate in and in most cases you get a cool shirt too.

Again thank you again for joining me. Let the party begin.....