Weight Loss Challenge: Week 1

Reto de Rebaja : Week 1

Great news! The first week of Reto de Rebaja was a HUGE success! I met with all of the participants individually and we created a personalized diet and exercise plan with daily, monthly, and weekly goals. We also took their measurements, blood pressure, blood sugar, body fat percentage, “before” photos and discussed their target weight along with their 10% and 15% weight loss goals. We also reviewed their food and exercise journals and talked about ways to improve them.

 At this point we have 20 participants between the ages of 17 and 59. Three of the participants are male and the remaining 17 are female. Using BMI we classified each participant as having a healthy weight, over weight, obese, or extremely obese.  I am not a huge fan of using BMI, but it is a good way for the participants to visualize their weight loss goals. We are starting with 4 overweight participants, 15 obese participants, and 1 extremely obese participant. The average starting BMI is 33, and the average starting body fat percentage is    .  I am very happy to say that in the first week the group lost 62 pounds!!!! That is an average of about 4 pounds a person (4 people have not been weighed yet).

The participants will continue to meet with me individually on a weekly basis. We also have one mandatory group meeting every week and two optional exercise classes. In the group meeting this week we talked about how weight loss is a physical, emotional, and spiritual journey, how to count calories, negative thinking and how to change negative thoughts into positive ones, and how to eat healthy at special events. The last topic was very important because Semana Santa or Easter week is next week. It is usually a time of vacationing, drinking, and eating a lot (especially habichuelas con dulce- a very high calorie Dominican treat). We also spent some time to congratulate the group on their success, and I gave out two healthy prizes to the participants the highest percent of weight lost. We also created a group goal of 500 pounds, and if we reach it each participant will get a water bottle. (I chose a water bottle as the prize because while reviewing the participants food journals I realized that most of them are not drinking nearly enough water.) We finished the meeting off with 30 minutes of exercise J

Here are a few of the “before” photos of the participants: