And THAT's how the winning team was determined!

I would like to start off by thanking you for patiently waiting for the winner to be announced!  Who knew that measuring a gazillion different improvement areas would be so difficult?  This being the first challenge I have facilitated, I did a lot of research beforehand to ensure an easy and accurate method for determining a winner (I'm sure this shocks you that I would research something like this).  I use Microsoft Excel extensively (as in I spreadsheeted my wedding guest list to calculate the probability of attendance and most likely head count), and I was that nerd who took AP Calculus in high school in order to test into additional math credits in college.  But after having actual real data to analyze for the challenge, I quickly realized there may be numerous calculation methods, all accurate in their own right.  For those of you who know me well, you can picture how this scenario might drive me into a state of lunacy.  Realizing my obsession could quickly spiral [further] out of control, I decided to involve the new statistics guy at work, Dror.  He was pleased to drop what he was doing to help on what was clearly a very important project so I could use the most valid calculation method.  This also happened to be his first real encounter with me, so there's that......  I'm sure he's impressed.  Anyway, I am now completely confident in the calculation method, and I am ready to announce the winners!!!!!


BUT FIRST!  I would like to congratulate a few individuals.  Congratulations to....

• Brendan from The Perfect 10 for losing the highest percentage of weight AND inches!  He lost a whopping 33 lbs in 10 weeks, and had a 24% improvement in combined waist/hip measurements.  Woot woot!  Check out his improvement in these pics!



Now I just need to get him on a Maintain Don't Gain Challenge! Good job, Brendan!

• Julie from The Perfect 10 for the most-improved squat test, and for third in overall fitness testing improvement (not including balance).  Guess that P90x paid off, huh? 
• Lindsey from Krugbugs 'n' da Haus for the best overall improvement on fitness testing.  She had the highest percentage improvement for sit ups, push-ups, AND balance.  Her balance was ridiculous, by the way.  I cut her off at 5 minutes.  FIVE MINUTES!  This chica was also second on inches lost, and third overall for weight loss (this skinny-mini surprised us all!)
• Darci from Krugbugs 'n' da Haus for getting second most-improved in sit ups, push-ups, and balance (we know what you and your sister must have worked on!!) and for third in combined inches lost (another surprise from this team!), and third in squat test improvement. She also had ZERO STRIKES for missed workouts - talk about dedication!
• Suzie from Weapons of Mass Reduction for the second highest percentage of weight lost (woot woot!  That's my teammate!!), second most-improved sit up test, and third most-improved balance testing.
• Amy from $600 Richer for the most improved squat test!
• Check out these pics of Rod from Team Holler! What a transformation!!  Try to make those big suits work for a bit longer so you don't have to keep dropping green each time you drop a size. :) 



Time for another suit! Holla!

• EVERYONE who hung in there and finished the challenge!

Okay, it's time to show you how the teams did.  This was a team challenge. Weight loss and inches lost were taken as a team (imagine your whole team on the scale together or wrapped up in the measuring tape together - awkward!), and fitness tests were combined as a team to find overall improvement in each category. 

You may remember from the challenge packet provided 10 weeks ago that each team would be ranked (1st through 6th since we had 6 finishing teams) in each category. Then your rankings would be averaged to get your overall rank, or score.  The team with the best ranking wins!  And THAT's how the winner is calculated! 

This means each category is given equal weight or importance. It also means it doesn't matter by how much you win a category...you simply get a ranking of "1" for any category you win, a "2" for any category you get second, etc.  So blowing everyone out of the water in one specific category doesn't increase your points (Brendan and Lindsey...you two come to mind!).

With that said (had to get the fine print out of the way!)...

The second runner up in the team New Year, New You Challenge is.....WEAPONS OF MASS REDUCTION! (That's us, that's us!!).   This team scored second in overall weight lost, and second in fitness improvements and balance.  Suzie was absolutely dedicated, and helped make up for her teammate who whooped it up in Park City, UT for a week!  Thank you for keeping me motivated, Suzie!!

 

The first runner up in the New Year, New You Challenge is...... PERFECT TEN!  This team got first place in total weight lost and inches lost.  Brendan's amazing weight-loss abilities were known at the beginning of the challenge, and he didn't disappoint.  In addition, Julie appears to have been under-estimated.  No one expected any inches lost from this skinny-mini, but she surprised us! 

I cannot even tell you how close the runner up and the winner were to each other.  At one point, I turned to the exercise logs to see if that could help with a tie-breaker.  But after checking the numbers twice and thrice, and getting a statistician involved in complex formulas and spreadsheets, the winner of the New Year, New You Challenge is.....

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KRUGBUGS 'N' DA HAUS!

This team got first in fitness test and balance improvements.  In addition, they ranked high for total inches lost (as a percentage) as well as weight-loss.  They shocked and awed in all categories of the challenge.  Extremely dedicated to their gym time, this team buckled down and made working out a priority.  Good job, guys!!  Now go indulge with your extra cash (which is missing about $100 right now because I bought a road bike today - but I will replace ASAP!) :)

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Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to the motivating pot of money! Just remember, it doesn't end here.  I've talked to a few of you about other goals you have....don't give up just because the challenge is over.  It's time for a little break and a good cheat meal though....give yourself that!   If you need any extra motivation, or have questions, or if I can help in any way whatsoever, just let me know!