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! 



Behind Enemy Lines

Our last team's picture is finally in!!!  Drum roll please......

Meet "Weapons of Mass Reduction," consisting of Suzie and Amanda (Yes, that's right, my team is the last one to get a picture in - I don't need any more comments on the situation as I am well aware). 

I would just like to say there are a couple reasons, other than the obvious, this picture should have been taken sooner.  For one, Suzie carried that damn pizza box around in her car for a week - probably not a great idea for someone obsessed with pizza and doing her best to avoid temptation (good job, Suzie!).  Second, had we taken the picture the first three times we planned it, we could have done it somewhere other than the gym.  It is NOT a good idea to take a pizza box into a gym.  We were surrounded....fatigued after a killer workout (it looks like we couldn't even smash the pizza box!!)....we were so vulnerable!  Also, matching camo shirts at the gym brought even more attention to our thoughtless pizza box (Notice the guy at the right glaring at us from the elliptical).  But we survived, and now have to work out extra hard to show the angry mob we are nothing you want to mess with!  Or at the very least we are serious, and we were not mocking them....please don't hate us!!

Suzie and I met in Bootcamp, and have challenged each other since.  This chica shows me up everyday with heavier weights and faster speeds, and she keeps me going!  So watch out challengers!  We've seen each other through major accomplishments, semi-major breakdowns (it's amazing what constant cravings and no alcohol for long periods of time will do to your mental state), and minor setbacks (damn you Asian Nights and your fabulous slushies!).  Anyway, enough of the heart-felt rah-rah stuff (that you all know I'm SO good at, right?).  Get ready, because "Weapons of Mass Reduction" is going to blow you away in this challenge (wow - there's some creative word play there! Huh?!)

A Good Starting Number?

We're getting to the end of our team introductions.  Here we have Brendan and Julie, colleagues of mine who are calling themselves "Perfect Ten."  Everyone give them a big warm welcome.  "HI BRENDAN AND JULIE!"

You may look at Miss Slender Julie there and assume this team isn't much competition.  Let me fill you all in on a little secret.  Brendan can lose more weight in 10 weeks than any other healthy person I've ever heard of!  During a friendly little competition a couple years back, he lost over 11% of his body weight in 9 weeks. That's just plain ridiculous!  So watch out for the incredibly shrinking man and his slender P90X sidekick!  That's right, Julie is doing the hardcore P90x workouts and coming back to dominate the fitness test improvements.

Let me fill you in on another little secret.  They are not calling themselves "Perfect Ten" because they are planning on an outstanding performance in the Challenge.  That's what you would probably initially think, right?  Nope!  Actually, they are much less mature than that and thought it was funny that they perfectly resembled the number ten.  In case you don't see it clearly, let me draw it out for you......

Now that's clever.  Make sure you actually eat in this competition, Brendan!  Good luck, guys!

Pile it on!

Take a gander at this fabulous cluster!  This, my friends, is our next team.  Meet Justin, Megan, and Amy (in that order), or “$600 Richer” as they are misguidedly referring to themselves. Please muster up a hello for our most recent team.  “Ahem…yes, hi there.” (I know you all have that sing-songy voice in your head right now going, "Awkward!")

Alright, I pretend to think this is absurd, but in all honesty, I LOVE THIS TEAM PHOTO!  My favorite thing about it are the events leading up to snapping this photo…the team wants a funny pose, everyone agrees this would be a ridiculous, and therefore, awesome choice, it’s time to get into position, the girls start feeling it’s too much, Justin gets on the floor in anticipation, the girls continue to feign modesty, Justin waits on the floor, the girls reluctantly (but not that reluctantly) get into position.  I almost peed my pants during this whole escapade and it completely made my day.  This may look vaguely familiar to you....maybe you've seen it here?

This is another team that everyone should watch out for!  Megan is enduring her husband's workouts nearly everyday.  He used to play football, so I'm sure his workouts are FUN (on top of being her husband and therefore the LAST person you want telling you how to do things).  Justin has been going nearly everyday at lunch, and therefore only has time for one portion of lunch these days.  Amy works out in the evenings, so I don't get to spy on her at the gym, but from what I hear she's super motivated.  This team is huge competition, people!  (However, they have jinxed themselves by choosing the name "$600 Richer," so there!)  Good luck team!

I now leave you with some images for your enjoyment....action shots of the events from above...



Action shots - getting into position



 



Waiting patiently..."Come on, ladies!  What are you waiting for?!"



And Another Team....

Please meet and welcome our next team, who apparently is not into coming up with a name and will therefore be known as “Those Who Shall Remain Nameless” from this point forward (or at least until they get me a team name!).  Hi ladies!

Kara (left) has spent the last year or more putting up with some Bootcamp friends and letting us drag her to races and workouts from time to time.  Since she has seemed a willing victim up to this point, I naturally pushed the Challenge onto her as well and left her little opportunity to escape. And I’m glad I did! She found a victim of her own and brought Shelley in tow for pre-assessments and measurements.  By the way, Shelley was the ONLY participant who actually asked if she could do jump squats for the 60 second squat test instead of just squats (showoff!)…Do I sense an intimidator? 

Good luck, ladies! 

Who's our exterminator?

Everyone, please welcome the first team that is not a married couple (which is good, since there are three of them)!  Meet the "Krugbugs 'n' da Haus," made up of Lindsey and Darci Krug, and Shauna Hausmann. Everyone say hello!  HELLO!

I've already decided I need to watch out for this team - they are sassy, stubborn, and a bit sneaky.  Lindsey is already getting into my subconscious and creating cheesecake cravings.  I'm onto you!  (I happen to know she works at Pizza Hut AND that she is addicted to cookies - so it may be easy to overwhelm her willpower? Don't test me, Lindsey. Don't test me.). 

Besides trying to sabotage their competition, this team is stubborn and ready to prove themselves!  Shauna is a mother of two and extremely motivated in her personal and professional life, and I'm sure that will carry over to the challenge.  Darci is a gym-junkie.  I see her sneaking out at lunch to fit extra workouts in (we need to find a way to put a stop to that.  Two workouts a day...are you serious?).   These bugs may be hard to squash! 

HOLLERRRRRR!

Everyone, give a big shout out to our next team, Rod and Jalene! HOLLA!

They have appropriately chosen the name "Team Holler!"  I'm not sure if this is because they feel they will be so good in the challenge that they are already excited, or because Rod clearly pronounces the "r" when using this term of excitement.  [By the way, as a side note, the Urban Dictionary defines holler as "a friendly term used to express excitement by a person lacking color (caucasians)." They follow this definition with an example that reads:

Karen: "Hey there's a hot party tonight."
Pat: "HOLLER!"  fyi: karen and pat are both preppy white kids" LMFAO!]

When Rod isn't making an attempt at modern lingo, he's working a desk job and attending sales meetings (where there is lots of eating going on!).  However, lunch hours lately are spent at the gym and this participant is committed....holler!  Jalene is a busy bee, and somehow always manages to keep in great shape!  While she may not have an ounce to lose, she's hoping to build up her strength and kick ass in the fitness tests (and of course keep Rod on track!) Good luck...oh, & HOLLERRRR!

Watch out - They're "In It to Win It!"

Alright, challenge participants, give a big HELLO to the "ITTI" team (like itty-bitty?) :)
HELLO ITTI's!! 

Okay, actually, they are "In It To Win It," or IITWI, which naturally sounds better as ITTI.  :) 

Meet LynAnn and Brian, aka "Hendo."  This couple has quite the athletic background.  But coaching basketball, running kids all over the city to different practice times, trying to attend all the family games, and organizing and participating in community events of all sizes has side-lined this busy couple.  I'm not sure how these two find time to even eat, let alone eat WELL, but this challenge is just what they need to get going! 
So watch out - did I mention they are both athletes?  That's code for competitive!!  Does this mean you'll be running those suicide drills with your Rocky girls, Hendo?!  Good luck, ITTI's!!



Team "I Like Sausage".....mmmmm....and so do I!

This is team "I Like Sausage."  Everyone, say hi to Mike and Tara. 

Hi Mike and Tara!!

As you can see, Mike and Tara are the outdoorsy sorts.  When Tara isn't putting people back into alignment, and when Mike isn't traveling around selling his optic products, these two will be found either hitting the slopes, getting dirty on their mountain bikes, or drinking great beer! 

Mike enjoys his food, so much so that he has an album of food photos on facebook.  I'm sure this was a ploy to taunt the rest of us as we were being so good, but now you're a part of it too, Mike!! 

Welcome to the challenge you two.  Maybe we need another dance off to make up for my missed workout this week? :)

Meet the Team - "Couch to 5Keg"

Meet our first team!  This is Shane and Kristi, aka "Couch to 5Keg!"  Hello Guys!

Kristi works out in the mornings with the Billings Adventure Bootcamp, and Shane enjoys eating at Taco Johns and drinking on week nights...looks like Kristi may have her work cut out to motivate the other half of her team!  They have two little ones at home, so time is a bit hard to come by, but the challenge means no more pizza nights guys! 

Thanks for joining the challenge!