It has been long coming, but I am ready to break the big news! Starting this week I am kicking off THE BIGGEST WINNER CHALLENGE.
Let me tell you what it is all about. But... before I do, please make sure to bookmark and follow this blog: THE BIGGEST WINNER CHALLENGE. Make sure to SUBSCRIBE to it, get RSS or e-mail feed for it, and friend it up through Google Friends.
In a minute I am going to tell you WHY I called this blog THE BIGGEST WINNER CHALLENGE, but meanwhile I would like for you to read the next few paragraphs to find out HOW I got to start it.
THE BEGINNING
A few weeks ago I was hosting a 3-Day Green Smoothie Challenge. One of the participants, who responded to the call to the challenge, contacted me to ask for material and told me the following:
"My health goals are pretty simple, but lifestyle changing! I want to fuel my body with healthy, nutritious food that are eaten in smaller portions. I want to stay away from processed food because I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I know it's because of what I'm eating and/or not eating. I know that once I'm eating smaller, healthy, colorful meals that are not processed, I will lose weight.
Ialso want to start exercising but right now, I'm too tired/lack the energy to do it.
I am going to be 30 in May and I have only been near a healthy weight once in my life. I lost weight when I was 18 and kept it off until I had my daughter when I was 21. And, unfortunately, I have been steadly gaining and losing a little and then gaining more, for the last 9 years. I WANT TO BE HEALTHY and be the mom I want to be and need to be for my kids (and wife for my husband). I am ready to do whatever it takes to get healthy. I don't want a quick fix, I want a lifestyle change for my entire family!
~Diana"
Diana went on to participate and completed the 3-Day Green Smoothie Challenge. She kept me posted on her progress:
"I am officially hooked on green smoothies! Thank you for the 3 day challenge because it really helped give me a place to start!
I had never even heard of wheatgrass before reading your blog. I am completely new to this lifestyle and still know very little. I am just amazed at how much better I am feeling since I began drinking the smoothies. Today my mom noticed that I have more energy and she asked me to tell her more about what I have been doing…now she wants to do the 3 day challenge for herself! Woo-hoo! I can’t thank you enough for all of your time and research that you have put in!
~Diana"
WHY THE BIGGEST WINNER
After the 3-Day Challenge was over I was planning to do another a once-in-a-lifetime challenge: I was going to announce auditions, through my blog, to find a family/person who wanted a radical-forever type of change in their life. A change that would bring them health, vitality, clarity of mind and spirit, and help lose weight, if they were struggling with it. It would not be like the Biggest Loser Challenge, because our goal will not be about weight loss primarily, although that will be a big part of it. Instead it will be dubbed as THE BIGGEST WINNER CHALLENGE because the participants will gain control of their health, emotions, their relationship with food and each other AND lose weight.
I mentioned it in passing to Diana... and she got hooked onto the idea. Little did I know that for the last year she had been praying for God to make a way for her to get to better health, to lose weight, and to LIVE well, not temporarily, but for the rest of her life.
My conditions were simple, yet strict:
- The contestant(s) had to have the backing of immediate family;
- Be willing to change his/her/their diet to vegan overnight;
- Be willing to be weighed, poked and prodded ;) as well as interviewed and featured on my blog;
- AND stick with my instructions and close supervision for 3 months!
Diana e-mailed me to tell me that she would do whatever it takes to be picked. I gave it time, to see if she really meant it. While I was thinking about how I would audition for the Biggest Winner Challenge, Diana was able to not only solicit the support of her immediate family, but recruit her husband Dan, and her Mom , Barb, to participate in the Challenge if they were chosen.
She got me! I called off the auditions and send her all necessary paperwork to get started. During our first meeting Diana's father, Allen, had signed up for the Challenge as well.
This blog is a journal of Diana's family journey to better health, weight loss and well being through unprocessed living and whole foods vegan diet.
MEET THE BIGGEST WINNER CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS
Diana's goals are weight loss, lower cholesterol, getting rid of sleep apnea and achieving optimal health.
Dan's goals are optimal health, lower cholesterol, better digestion and muscle gain.
Barb's goals are weight loss, optimal health, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and other health improvements.
Allen's goals are to be a support system for his wife and to achieve optimal health.
Elena [that's me] and my husband Demetrye will be guiding the contestants through diet and fitness changes to achieve their goals.
You can read the story of our journey to better health on the ABOUT page of this blog.
Now that you have read the story and met the participants, I I hope that you will follow us and cheer on the contestants until they get to the finish [start] line in 90 days!
Head on over to THE BIGGEST WINNER CHALLENGE blog. SUBSCRIBE to it, get RSS or e-mail feed for it, and friend it up through Google Friends.
