weight loss challenge?

Here is my random thought of the day.

As previously mentioned, I have been working on getting the rest of the baby weight off and I haven't been trying hard enough. I am really unhappy about what I see when I look in the mirror and when I try to find something to wear. It's even worse this time of year when you are trying to find clothes to go to Christmas parties and gatherings.

I have 6 years of experience coaching others through their weight loss journey, and from that I have come up with a few things that I know are important to success and the number one things is absolutely accountability!

With that being said, I'm trying to think of a way to make myself accountable. Accountable to someone other than Jason, because as much as a husband wants to help, sometimes they are really more of a hinderance than a help. I know there are other people out there that are struggling as well, whether it be from baby weight or just weight in general and maybe there is something we can all do together to be successful. A work out buddy is always great because you won't cancel on someone else the way you would cancel on yourself. My problem is that most of my friends that would be interested in doing the "team thing" live too far away. Plus, I can't just go out with someone to the gym or for a walk or anything like that because of the kids, one car, and the weather!

I know there are a lot of people I know are on facebook several times a day, this gave me an idea. I'm thinking of sending out a message, either privately or as my own status, to see who might be interested in doing something where we can be accountable to each other.

Some of the things I've been thinking about could involve the following things that would be accessable to the people interested in getting involved:
- keeping a food diary
- posting your daily thoughts/emotions
- exercise journal
- challenges and how you overcame them, or didn't in some cases
- amount of weight you want to lose and updates on how you're doing
- mini contests for extra motivation (for those of us that are a little competitive)
- reward system
- ideas and tips for other people in the group

These are just a few of the things I'm thinking about. I'm not sure when I want to start. I was thinking the new year but really, why wait? The longer I do nothing about it, the longer I am unhappy about how I am right now. No amount of weight would be too much or too little. 5 lbs to one person is like 50 to another person.

I don't want this to be like Herbal Magic in the sense that other people are responsible for my success, I just know that for myself, knowing other people are going through what I'm going through helps me handle things, especially because I have a lot of friends out there that are Stay at home moms right now with more than one kid. I also find that sometimes a little competition helps me be successful, not competition saying that I want to kick all your butts, but for example, when I did my run club a few years ago, you met once/week with the class for a run, then the instructor gave us homework, you could do it or not do it, it was up to you, but I ALWAYS did it because I knew that if I didn't, I'd go to class next time and be way behind everyone else, no one likes to be behind everyone else. I had huge success with this.

So I guess what this post is about, is to see if you have any ideas as to how to make this work or if you'd be interested in doing something like this as a group. Looking forward to some feedback