In preparation for the Yappy Neigh Year that is coming up in a couple days, we are excited to bring you Tawnee’s project that she has been working on for several months now. The following blog is written from Tawnee to you.
Hey everyone, the last blog probably left you wondering what challenge we were talking about and now I’m going to tell you all about it. It seems in everyones new years resolution we all want to lose a few pounds, especially after Christmas dinner. I’ve come up with a new program to help motivate you to become healthier and help animals all at the same time.
The program, Lose It For Animals, is simple: set a healthy target weight loss, find sponsors, and when you reach your goal, your sponsors will donate to help animals and the horses here at the shelter. It’s win win win for everyone!
All Roads Communication has teamed up with me. The owner of All Roads Communication became a vegan and lost over 60 pounds without any additional exercise! Simply eating healthier took the weight right off. The owner of All Roads Communication has brought a challenge to this program to go vegan for 7 days and see how much weight you lose.
In the early part of May 2010 I decided that something had to be done. I had tried losing my pregnancy pounds for years, and it never seemed to work. I had pretty much given up hope, but in May I decided to get serious when I was reaching almost 150 pounds. I’m only 5’3″ and that extra weight was showing.
In preparation for getting a little more serious I wanted to find some help. The Biggest Loser TV show was a huge push. I did some research and found a website called “Lose It!” It had some very fun tips, I could easily count the calories I was eating and track my weight from day to day. To see their website, click here.
Tracking my weight on my iPhone became fun and easy with the Lose It! app. It really kept me motivated! It’s a free app too. Losing 10 pounds was fun, then when it hit 20 it was really exciting, now I’m only a couple pounds away from my target weight. How did I do it? I made healthier eating choices. I cut the potato chips, no soda (drinking calories is the fastest way to pack on pounds) and ate less. The progress was exciting! There are a couple glitches on the graph, one of which was being away from home at the Police Academy furthering my goal of becoming a Humane Officer.
All Roads Communication is backing up their challenge with $2011 to be donated to the shelter, but it will only be made possible by you. For the first 100 people who take the challenge of going vegan for a week, they will donate $20.11 per person. That money is waiting, we can do it, but I need you help! Just don’t eat our friends for a week and the money goes to help the horses.
This may be difficult for some of you who are thinking about taking the challenge, but really, it’s only 7 days. You can do it! You might even find out you love it. A person who goes vegan saves around 100 animals a year. That should be good motivation in and of itself.
There is a great free starter kit that may help you out for this challenge at Mercy for Animals website. You can find it by clicking here. In the meantime, if you want material to read while it’s being shipped to you, you can read a great article by clicking here.
I know going vegan may seem like “What am I going to eat?” I’ve been a vegan my whole life and as you can tell from my May photo, I certainly wasn’t starving to death. In fact, I was perhaps the closest thing to an obese vegan I’ve ever met. There is a website that has a lot of great information and they have a great iPhone app to help people figure out what to eat when they go vegan. To visit the website, click here.
The iPhone app takes you through each meal one step at a time. If you are going to take this challenge, which I urge you to do as the shelter could really use the money, I highly suggest you download this app if you have an iPhone. It has great recipes and can help you through the 7 days. Then 7 more days because you love it!!!
I’m not trying to push being a vegan down everyones throats, I’m just excited about the challenge that All Roads Communication has given you. So many times I have seen people come to the shelter saying “I want to get a horse to help me lose weight.” Ideally, you should make a goal of losing it with the prize being able to adopt a horse. Motivation is the key to successful weight loss. I went from size 8, my old pants I’m holding up on the left have been on the blog a lot of times, to now I wear a size 4. It’s simply amazing, I still have a hard time putting on my new pants thinking “Are these really going to fit me?”
Now for the program I’m launching. It is called “Lose It For Animals” and it’s a way for a lot of people to get together who have common interest (loving animals) and losing weight where we can all motivate each other and we can all rejoice as each pound is lost. To help out the animals, we need you to make a list of people you know who share your love for animals. Contact your family and friends by phone or by email (emails might be easier but talking over the phone might just get better results.) Let them know your weight goal, let them know how much you need to lose to reach your goal, and ask if they will sponsor you to lose weight to help save animals. I recommend $5 a pound per sponsor, every dollar really does help! Then invite them to join the Lose It For Animals Facebook group to watch your progress and inspire them!
You can join the Facebook group, Lose It For Animals, by clicking here. I actually made a personal Facebook account just to start this up. I’m in the spotlight so much I’ve never had a personal account before, but I want to personally cheer you on! So, join the group, post a target weight, and watch the pounds start coming off! We can all do this together.
Say you have 20 pounds to lose, and you find 5 sponsors to donate $5 a pound you lose. When you hit your target weight, that is $500 donated to help the animals! Talk about a win-win situation! I can’t wait to see you on there, I am on there and waiting for you to join right up! Click here.
If you don’t have a Facebook account, please email me to let me know you are doing the challenge and start losing weight for animals.
Please consider doing the challenge as a new-year kickoff for a healthier you. Help us reach the goal of 100 people doing the challenge so we get all $2011 for a great start to 2011!
Yappy Neigh Year!
Tawnee
PS – Please don’t keep me waiting on the new group, I’m excitedly waiting on there for you!