ANOTHER THING I HAVE ASKED EACH OF THE 15 PARTICIPANTS TO DO IS TO SEND A WEEKLY AFFIRMATION TO AN INDIVIDUAL THEY ARE COMMITTING TO "HOLD ACCOUNTABLE" AS A WAY OF HELPING EACH OTHER TO MAINTAIN THEIR COMMITMENTS TO THEMSELVES.

HERE'S A GREAT EXAMPLE OF A WEEKLY AFFIRMATION I JUST RECEIVED...


Good morning LS,

Congratulations on living up to your agreements to yourself of exercise and water intake.

You lived up to your 2000 calorie diet as well with just one day of going over. And you have an immediate plan and positive attitude to stay below the 2000 calorie diet this week!

I enjoyed talking with you Saturday, you are affirming, insightful and encouraging to me.

I value you as a coaching partner. It was also great to "small talk" a little and begin to get to know each other better.

I am so excited and admire you for the obstacles you will and have overcome to reach your goals in August.

It takes someone with perseverance, motivation, resolve and such a positive attitude to do that, not to mention courage and hard work.

You exemplify all those things. I believe you can reach your goals and I am proud of your consistency, attitude and willingness to do the work, in the midst of a busy and stressful schedule...

One of the things that stands out to me this week is your resolve to learn to swim well and participate in the immersion swimming group.

I pray that this is a positive experience for you, that they help you well. This is a challenge for you and you are willing to do this for yourself. How exciting to see yourself accomplish this and then swim in the triathlon this August.

Hope your bike ride went well. You have added that on this week and that is exciting to know that you are moving toward your goals.

You have already said you have more energy and feel stronger. What long-term benefits we receive from following this plan.

Hope your dinner went well with your daughter! And hope you are blessed this week with peace and success.

RR

BY THE WAY...
FOR THOSE OF YOU FOLLOWING OUR GROUP'S ASTOUNDING PROGRESS TO TRANSFORM THEIR PHYSICAL HEALTH & FITNESS, WHEN YOU SEE THE PHRASE:

"Congratulations on living up to your agreements to yourself"

ANYWHERE IN ONE OF THESE AFFIRMATION EMAILS...
THAT IS CODE LANGUAGE MEANING THAT THE INDIVIDUAL HAS, INDEED, LIVED-UP TO ALL THEIR COMMITMENTS FROM THE PREVIOUS WEEK.

THAT CODE PHRASE IS FOR MY BENEFIT IN SUPPORTING THE ENTIRE GROUP.

IF I DON'T SEE THAT PHRASE, IT'S AN ALERT TO ME TO GET MORE INVOLVED TO HELP THE INDIVIDUAL SET WEEKLY GOALS THEY ARE COMMITTED TO ACHIEVING.

EACH WEEK, I ASK EVERY PARTICIPANT TO SEND THEIR WEEKLY GOALS TO AT LEAST ONE OF THEIR PARTICIPANT PEERS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY. SEE HOW WONDERFULLY CLEAR THIS WEEKLY GOAL IS THAT I JUST RECEIVED...

F & I,

Here are my commitments for the week beginning 4/30/07:
- Train 4 times for 40 minutes each,
with a the following taking place
- :17 miles on the stationary bike &
- jog/walk 2 miles in a single session.
- Lose 2.5 pounds
- My caloric intake will be less than 1741 calories.

Z G

P.S. I will schedule a peer group conference call for Sunday, 7:15 PM.

ALSO, I HOLD EACH OF THE 15 PARTICIPANT ACCOUNTABLE TO SCHEDULING A "PEER-COACHING ACCOUNTABILITY CALL" EVERY WEEK WITH TWO OTHER PARTICIPANTS IN "THE FITNESS RACE"

AREN'T THEY DOING A GREAT JOB IMPLEMENTING?

MORE FABULOUS PROGRESS FROM PARTICIPANTS IN THE FITNESS RACE; READ THIS PROGRESS REPORT I WAS JUST cc'd ON...

Hi SF,

Congratulations on coming up with strategies to meet your agreements to yourself this week.

You had some great progress last week with the 7 lbs weight loss and keeping within your calorie intake goal. Scheduling your swimming, time as you did, will help you to accomplish that training goal this week. I'm looking forward to hear your report on that specific goal. You're doing a great job tracking your activity and progress. Keep it up!

Blessings,

LM

READ THIS INSPIRING PROGRESS REPORT FROM AN ACTUAL PARTICIPANT IN "THE FITNESS RACE"...

Report on AJ for 4/27/07
Your race goal: Chicago Accenture Triathalon, August 26, 2007, SPRINT Distance
You are on track for attaining your goal
The most positive progress since the last report:
Were able to swim 1 lap without stopping - twice this week!
Last week's commitments:
To resume logging food intake, to run 2 miles - outside - without stopping, to swim 1 lap without stopping, to get your bike out of the basement and to the bike shop for tune up. To continue to work out with weights.
Items you actually completed this week:
Registered for Harbor Lights Tri
Got the bike out of crawlspace
Resumed logging food
Ran/walked 2 miles in 21:25 minutes
Swim twice, 10 laps the first time in 25 minutes, 10 laps the second time in 23.5 minutes (was able to swim at least 1 lap in good form without stopping both times)
Played 18 holes of golf (I walked the whole 18)
Missed your weight training this week because you had to reschedule and couldn't get a new appt at an open time in your calender
Put a plan together for Harbor Lights

Your commitments for the upcoming week are:
10 laps in the pool in 21.5 minutes
Run 2 miles in under 20 minutes
Weigh 239 pounds on 5/3/07
Catch up with Daily Devotional and start doing it every day (Faithfully Fit).
Your most important result for this next week will be:
To swim two laps in the pool without stopping.
Great job AJ!! You're doing it!
See ya at the finish line - with a smile on your face!

I.I.

HERE'S AN EMAIL I WAS CC'D ON BY TWO MEMBERS OF "THE FITNESS RACE" REMEMBER, BEFORE MAKING THE COMMITMENT TO THEMSELVES AND THIS EFFORT, NOBODY ON THIS TEAM HAD ANY REGULAR PHYSICAL TRAINING ROUTINE. READ THIS INSPIRING EMAIL BETWEEN TWO PEERS...

Hi URV,

...on living up to your agreement to yourself last week.

One more successful week of making smart choices about your health!!

Great news about being part of the Chicago Triathlon. I'm really looking forward to the finish lines and all our smiling faces.

Over the past week you have continued with your running regiman. You covered approximately 11 miles. Way to go!! You were able to add some weight training so as to tone up those muscles. You defininitely have the motivation to achieve your goals. As soon as you meet with your swimming coach there will be nothing between you and the Chicago Tri but a few hours of training. Keep up the great work!!

Your plan for the next week is to run 3.5 miles one of the days and 2 miles every other day. In addition you are going to do some ab exercises and weight training during 3 of the days. No sweets is also your goal for the week. As we learned in day 2 of Faithfully Fit, we can do anything when we ask God for help. I'll keep you in my prayers for a defense against the sweets if you keep me in yours for a defense against snacks. Deal?

Keep up the great work!!!

AJ

PLEASE NOTE FROM THIS E-MAIL FROM A MEMBER OF OUR FITNESS RACE TEAM HOW SPECIFIC THE GOAL IS FOR THE WEEK. THE SPECIFICITY OF EACH MEMBER'S GOAL IS A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE TO THOSE STRUGGLING WITH THEIR WEIGHT ABOUT WHAT REALLY WORKS.

AS JIM ROHN SAYS... SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES! ARE YOUR GOALS AS SPECIFIC AS THESE...

Dear Mark,

My goals for this week are:
1. Run 1.5 hours
2. Weight training 1.5 hours
3. Swim 1 hour

My most important result for the week is to lose 3 lbs.

LM

It's official, we have fifteen people participating in The Fitness Race.

Just for background, I made an offer to mentor between 10 - 20 people to "take charge" of their health & fitness so long as they agreed to make transformational changes in their life.

My deal to the group:
I'll inspire, create accountability & mentor the group until the end of September to help each person acheive their stated transformational health & fitness goals.

Their deal to the group:
Each member agrees to...
- Set a transformational health & fitness goal
- Do what I say I'm going to do
- Show up on time
- Not give up (under any circumstances) before the end of September
- four hours of physical training per week
- one hour of accountability per week

Here's a progress report I just got from one of our actual participants:

Dear ZC,

Congratulations on setting your key event goals and your commitment to complete your strategies to meet your agreements to yourself this coming week.

Attached are the Excel File / methods I have used to track my progress which we went through this morning. You are welcome to use it or any piece which fits what you want to track. Please let me know if you have any questions. I would also be happy to go through this again with you and help in any way you would like.

I think the keys for you as we talked about this morning are:

Set you exercise goals
Get moving physically on a regular bases
4 to 5 times a week
It should not leave you drained
Get to the point of being winded and back off a bit
Start counting the calories you are eating on a daily basis
Start adjusting the foods you eat to support your goals

I am slowly learning that the basics of fitness are pretty simple. It is all a function of getting our heart rates up on a regular basis and burning more calories that we eat. If we start to do this we will become more healthy. If we can achieve 1000 calorie deficit daily through a combination of exercise and nutrition, we will start to lose 2 lbs per week (3500 calories = 1 lbs). Everything that I read indicates that 1 to 2 lbs a week is a healthy goal because it requires that we change our habits over an extended period of time. In my case, I want to lose 50Lbs and I am targeting 2 lbs per week which means it will take me about 26 weeks to get their.

Take care my friend,

QQ

Very inspiring stuff.

I'll include many of these interactions between the fifteen participants.