I'm 5 yrs out from byoass/11 yrs out from sleeve and at goal. I've been adminning a small WLS board since I inherited it in 2015 - we have a close group of mostly ladies (a couple of gents) and most of our people are fairly far out from surgery but we do have a few newbies. We do 2 Weightloss Challenges a yr and they're pretty fun, We have 3 prizes and they're decent prizes. 6 wks long, % of lbs lost, weekly weigh ins, rules - the whole sha-bang. Lots of support. The last challenge, I was going thru some stuff and I let life get in the way and while it went off without a hitch, as my co-admins are amazing, it wasn't the same as usual. I promised everybody the summer challenge would be GREAT!

I started working on it (yes, I have help from my co admins) and I have daily education, Fun Food Facts, I do something where I ask everyone to say something supportive to someone they don't know well, and I try to do small weekly challenges. It hard doing everything online. I do a hydration challenge, a moving challenge (try to park a little further, put in a few more steps in ur day), no fast food for 7 days , no snacking for 7 days, do (however many) crunches (however many) wall push ups, etc. You get the idea. The challenges are getting stale. Thinking about doing a "take ur pic in an outfit on day 1 and on last day and see how it looks" challenge.

If you were in an online challenge, what would you appreciate doing? What would be fun? What kind of information would u like to see or know? What kind of support would you like to see or get? If you'd like to get involved, you r more than welcome to join us! It starts July 24 and goes 6 week. I will be posting info on it on the website in the coming weeks but u can certainly do a search on challenges and bring up a TON of them! We're on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/SupportWLS (or look for Recipe For A New Life). We'd love to have you, however you DO need to be 6 weeks out from surgery (for fairness, as you lose a TON of weight early on, not quite fair). But you can certainly come over and support the challengers!

ah...throwback to the good ole days when @GreenTealael used to post monthly challenges or fun type activities!

i remember there being exercise challenges, photo-taking challenges, self-discovery challenges...they were super fun.

you can see examples of these fun things she hosted by searching the forum for the word "challenge" in the title, written by GreenTealael...

Maybe a 7 day breakfast/lunch/dinner challenge (pick one) where participants have to have a different breakfast etc every day for 7 days, posting pics and recipes (if applicable) I find I can get in to a rut when trying to eat healthier, eating the same things over and over again. This would challenge users and also give others new ideas to try.

Also a ‘wear something different’ challenge when you have to wear something outside of your normal comfort zone, say a skirt instead of trousers, or a different colour to your usual palette, different hair, make-up etc etc. Users can post a pic of their usual look and then their different look. Getting supportive feedback from others can be a great help in boosting confidence. Again, it’s trying to get people to try something different to open up their choices.

On 6/17/2024 at 7:51 PM, ms.sss said:

ah...throwback to the good ole days when @GreenTealael used to post monthly challenges or fun type activities!

i remember there being exercise challenges, photo-taking challenges, self-discovery challenges...they were super fun.

you can see examples of these fun things she hosted by searching the forum for the word "challenge" in the title, written by GreenTealael...

Wow! These were the wonder years ❤️