get fit for 2011

Back in January, we created the Get Fit For 2011 community group and contest to help us all follow through on our health and fitness goals for the New Year. If you completed the 12 challenges, you're hopefully basking in the glory of all your hard work as we saunter into the Summer months.

We've announced the 12 weekly prize winners, and now it's time to meet our grand-prize winner. Please help me in congratulating Sugar reader TiVo! She is headed to Los Angeles for a personalized Get Fit Boot Camp, including a round-trip flight to LA, a four-night stay at the W Hollywood, a personal training session with celebrity trainer Jeanette Jenkins, a nutrition consultation with C & J Nutrition, and four workout sessions with our very own FitSugar editors to be featured on PopSugar LivingTV.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest! Be sure to join in the weekly fitness challenges in our Get Fit For Summer to help you prepare for the beach.

Please help me in congratulating the last round of weekly winners in the Get Fit For 2011 giveaway.

• Week 10: stef42678 — she hoped to ditch the vice of late night snacking.
• Week 11: sassymolassy — shared her fave snack: Greek yogurt pumpkin snack during catch-up week.
  
• Week 12: wesoslim — check out her awesome before-and-after pics.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the weekly challenges. It was so much fun. Stay tuned to learn our grand-prize winner — we will be announcing the lucky lady soon.

We have made it to the final week of our 12-week community challenge and giveaway. Congratulations! All your posts, recipes, and reviews have been truly inspirational.

This week's challenge: write a blog post in the Get Fit community group sharing the results of your three months of healthy living. Do upload a photo of yourself — before and after, or re-assess your fitness level and share the results. Let us know how you've improved.

By completing any of these challenges, you will be automatically entered for a chance to win our weekly prize — a $100 New Balance gift card and our grand prize! At the end of the three-month challenge, we will pick a grand prize winner at random from all of the weekly challenge entries. Remember, the more you participate, the more chances you have to win the grand prize: a Get Fit Boot Camp in Los Angeles that includes a round-trip flight to Los Angeles, a four-night stay at the W Hollywood, a personal training session with celebrity trainer Jeanette Jenkins, a nutrition consultation with C & J Nutrition, and four workout sessions with our very own FitSugar editors that will be featured on PopSugar LivingTV.

If you're ready to join the fun and feel the community support, log in and head directly to Get Fit For 2011. Need a little help making a blog post? Here are tips on posting in our group.

You have until 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, April 3, to complete any of these challenges. Ready. Set. Blog!

Not only is a nutritional counseling session with C&J Nutrition part of the grand prize for our Get Fit For 2011 giveaway, but the duo of registered dietitians want to help you catch up on your Get Fit For 2011 challenges. These gals have some great advice for giving up a vice, the 10th challenge of the contest. Here are their tips.

Very few people can quit a vice cold turkey. Most of us need some sort of ongoing support to stick with healthy changes until they're ingrained in our life enough to make them permanent. That support comes from many different places — co-workers, family, friends, etc. — but the most important source of support is YOU. Here are a few tips for helping yourself stick with the plan to give up a vice, both immediately and in the longterm.

1. Set goals that are challenging yet attainable. It feels great to meet a goal. It feels even better to struggle a bit and feel challenged and finally meet a goal. On the other hand, it doesn't do you any good to set a goal that is unrealistic for your life. Instead, set a goal that you can achieve but that will challenge you. In order to determine this, ask yourself what it would take on a daily basis to achieve your goal/give up your vice. If your list of daily activities to achieve the goal are things that are feasible with some effort, then it's challenging yet realistic. If your list gives you an ulcer because you're pretty sure you can't (or won't) do most of the things on it consistently, then it's probably not a realistic goal for you right now.
2. Make mini-goals and track them daily. What are the daily habits it will take to make your goal a reality? If you're giving up mindless snacking in front of the TV at night, the daily mini-goals might be: Making a list of things to do other than eating at night and checking it when you feel like snacking; doing exercises in between commercial breaks on TV; putting all food into cabinets and out of sight after a certain time; eating all snacks from a portioned out bowl — not straight from the container. Once you have your mini-goals solidified, write them down, visit them daily, and keep track of your achievements.

Keep reading for two more great tips!

There are only two weeks and two challenges left in our Get Fit For 2011 giveaway. We created weekly health and fitness challenges to help you stay on track for the beginning of the year. If you missed any of the challenges, now is your chance to play catch up and complete any you might have missed. Remember the more you participate, the greater your chances of winning!

This week's challenge: Complete any of the previous challenges by creating a blog post in our Get Fit For 2011 community group. Here's a list of all the challenges — have you completed each of them?

• Write up your fitness and health goals for 2011
• Write a blog post of your food journal
• Share a photo of your fitness life
• Upload a healthy recipe
• Share a workout
• Tell us your healthy go-to snack
• Review a fitness DVD
• Share your fitness must haves
• Give up a vice for a week and blog about it

By completing any of these challenges, you will be automatically entered for a chance to win our weekly prize — a $100 New Balance gift card and our grand prize! At the end of the three-month challenge, we will pick a grand prize winner at random from all of the weekly challenge entries. Remember, the more you participate, the more chances you have to win the grand prize: a Get Fit Boot Camp in Los Angeles that includes a round-trip flight to Los Angeles, a four-night stay at the W Hollywood, a personal training session with celebrity trainer Jeanette Jenkins, a nutrition consultation with C & J Nutrition, and four workout sessions with our very own FitSugar editors that will be featured on PopSugar LivingTV.

If you're ready to join the fun and feel the community support, log in and head directly to Get Fit For 2011. Need a little help making a blog post? Here are tips on posting in our group.

You have until 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, March 27, to complete any of these challenges. Ready. Set. Catch up!

Enter to win our Get Fit For 2011 giveaway by completing any challenges you may have missed! Proving that it's never to late to start, FitSugar reader Jennyanne completed the first challenge of our contest and shared her health and fitness goals for the year.

My fitness goals for the year include cutting out most processed foods and sticking to natural sweets (fruit instead of cake).  I also would like to start running again and would like to try a 5K. I now do cardio at the gym, mostly elliptical, but would like to take advantage of the great outdoors more.

You, too, can enter to win our weekly prize of a $100 New Balance gift card and our fabulous grand prize — a four-day fitness boot camp in LA. Complete any of the previous challenges in our Get Fit For 2011 community group. The more you participate, the greater your chances of winning!

Flickr User PannPhotos

Enter to win in the Get Fit For 2011 giveaway by completing any challenges you may have missed, like FitSugar reader oatmealrunner, who shared her review of the Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown DVD for the eighth challenge of our Get Fit For 2011 giveaway.

I've decided in an effort to stay fit and save some cash, I am going to try a variety of DVD workouts (via Netflix) and give you my review. This way you know what videos are worth renting/buying and which ones you can leave on the shelf. Now onto the review.

I purchased the Yoga Meltdown workout DVD sometime ago but have not thoroughly reviewed it. Being an fairly dedicated yogi (6 years of practice and counting), I was curious to see what Jillian was going to do — yoga and yelling don't exactly mix if you ask me — but I was willing to go into it open-minded.

The DVD consists of 2 workouts: level one and level two. I felt that level one focuses a lot on arms, whereas level two is more about the legs and abs. Each workout is approximately 30 minutes, which is great if you're strapped for time.

See the review when you read more

Enter to win by completing any challenges you may have missed, like FitSugar reader bcn1000, who shared a yummy recipe for strawberry oat muffins for the 11th challenge of our Get Fit For 2011 giveaway.

1 cup rolled oats   
1 cup water/milk/buttermilk (water only has the lowest calories, but buttermilk is yummy)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 c sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped fresh/frozen strawberries (or blueberries, if you use blueberries, omit cinnamon and add 1 tsp lemon zest instead)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour a muffin pan, or use paper liners.
3. In a small bowl, combine oats and water/milk, and let stand 5 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
5. In a large bowl, beat together the egg, applesauce, sugar and vanilla.
6. Blend in the oat mixture,  let stand a couple minutes to absorb moisture. Stir in the flour mixture, just until moistened.
7. Fold in berries. Fill muffin cups — I use about 1/4 c batter for each.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serves 12

You, too, can enter to win our weekly prize of a $100 New Balance gift card and our fabulous grand prize — a four-day fitness boot camp in LA. Complete any of the previous challenges in our Get Fit For 2011 community group. The more you participate, the greater your chances of winning!

Please help me in congratulating the latest round of winners in the Get Fit For 2011 giveaway.

• Week seven: mandaleebee — check out her favorite sweet and savory snacks.
• Week eight: speedi25 — see her DVD review.
  
• Week nine: AlysiaM — check out her must-have fitness gear.

Each of these gals won a $100 Nike gift card! The more you participate, the more chances you have to win our weekly prizes and ultimately our grand prize — A Get Fit Boot Camp in Los Angeles including a roundtrip flight to Los Angeles; a four-night stay at the W Hollywood; a personal training session with celebrity trainer Jeanette Jenkins; a nutrition consultation with C&J Nutrition; and four workout sessions with our very own FitSugar editors that will be featured on PopSugar Living TV!

Have you completed the 10th challenge? Give up a vice and post about it in the Get Fit For 2011 group by 11:59 PST Sunday, Feb. 20. Stay tuned for your 11th challenge; we'll be posting it Monday morning.