Good morning, all!

It’s Wednesday, and not only is it hump day (am I the only one who giggles like a ten year old boy at that saying?) – it’s also the day where we say hello to our friend the scale.

How did it go? Are you still on speaking terms with Ms. Scale? Did you give her the stink eye? Did you kneel down and give her a kiss?

However it went, you know the drill…blog all about it and link up! We want to hear all about your week. Good, bad and ugly.

If you had a great week? High five, friend! You rock!

Not so good? Hugs and a huge kick in the tush. We love you, but get on with it already. We KNOW you can do it.  Rah rah!

Make sure you make the rounds and hit up your other sisters (and brothers) blogs. Everyone needs some bloggy lovin’.

MINI CHALLENGE

Last week our mini-challenge was kicking fast food to the curb! How did it go? I am happy to report that we partook in NO fast food in this house last week. And believe me, I was tempted. When it’s 5:oo and nothing is defrosted for dinner and the baby is in full blood curdling scream mode (colic, oy vey) and the three year old is attempting to make his own dinner out of eggs and watermelon? It’s hard not to get in the car and drive to the nearest golden arches (and liquor store). My best weapon is a fridge full of fresh veggies and whole wheat pasta. I can usually cobble together something edible in ten minutes. That’s even faster than hitting the drive thru.

This week is a new challenge, and it’s one that I NEED, badly: for this week, SLEEP  7+ HOURS PER NIGHT (or go to bed one hour earlier). I have a two month old. Wish me luck.

To accomplish this goal, I need to:

• Realize that being well rested is more important than catching up on housework. It can wait.
• Go to bed without my iPad and leave the TV off. It’s amazing how much later I stay up if I’m stalking people on Facebook reading.
• Get the baby to go to sleep when I say. If someone knows how I can do this, I’ll pay you a million dollars.

Do you have any other tips for getting more (and better quality) rest? Feel free to share them in the comments below!

Don’t forget, New Balance is sponsoring this challenge, and that means the winners will get a new pair of New Balance Bootcamp Training Shoes. How sweet is that? To be eligible to win, your team will need to check-in EACH WEEK BY 9 p.m. CENTRAL TIME. No exceptions.

One last thing! If you want to join the challenge, make sure you register HERE first, mkay? You can join anytime!

Now get out there and burst into summer! Burst I say! (Not literally. That would be gross.)

CHECK IN FORM:

Good morning Power of One’ers!

It’s that time of the week, the one where we tiptoe over to the scale, gently nudge it so as to not disturb the beast and then ease ourselves onto it so that it gives us a happy, wonderful number in return.

So head on over to your scale and check in with your friend to see how good of a week you had! And then come back and tell us all about it.

Some news this week:

• We have a new project going on this month where failure is actually a good thing! Have you started? We’re linking up on Friday!
• Registration is now open Team Shrinking Jeans! Kick-off is February 12th which is just around the corner!
• The Shrinking Jeans Olympics is now fully under way! Have you signed up for an event yet? Here is the official announcement with all the details, the scoring system, and the master schedule of events.

ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

Thank you so much to CLICK, who is sponsoring our grand prize! For this challenge, we’ll have a gift certificate for a pair of Nike ID Running Shoes and $150 worth of CLICK Espresso Protein Drinks! That’s $300 in prizes for one random winner who checks in each week of the challenge!

Be sure to follow our fabulous sponsors on Twitter! @DrinkCLICK and @EatSmartScales They’re awesome!

You can also find CLICK and Eat Smart Productson Facebook!

Eat Smart Products will also be sponsoring a giveaway each week for one random winner. (Thank you!!)

GIVEAWAY!

Today we’re giving away ANOTHER awesome EatSmart Precision Digital Bathroom Scale(thanks to EatSmart Products)! Woot! Because you need yourself a super awesome scale to keep track of your super awesome weight-loss.

To enter, you must be registered for this challenge and you’ll need to:

• Fill out the check-in form below for one entry (this is mandatory!)
• Leave a comment below telling us what differences you’ve noticed about yourself so far this challenge. Do you feel lighter? More confident? Happier? Frustrated? Tell us how you’re feeling!
• Blog and link-up in the linky widget for an extra entry!

This giveaway will end tonight at midnight PT. One winner will be chosen via random.org and announced tomorrow. Good luck!

Holy shoot this thing is going quickly! Writing to you today from exile island, myself! *looks around at other exilees and waves hello!*

I hope you had a wonderful week this past week, we sure have had a lot going on. Like, for instance, our challenges, logging minutes and taking part in the Exposed movement. Have you? Have you visited your sisters who have? Bring the tissues. It is beautiful. Thanks to Melissa for starting it all. I think it’s an awesome way to chime in on the Monthly Project, which is all about pledging to love ourselves (by the way, did you take the pledge yet? Here it is.)

We also have a couple giveaways going on right now like an awesome tee from our friends at Girlz N Gear and a copy of EA Sports Active so get in on those!

Now for the good part. Head over to the scales and bring us back your findings, right down here on this little form down here. (OOOh I hope it’s good news!) Have a great week!!

While we’re at it, let us not forget the good old rules!!
1. This week’s Fitness & Non-fitness challenge will be announced this afternoon.
2. You must fill out the weigh-in form (in this post) by 9 p.m. CENTRAL TIME. No exceptions at all. If when you fill out the form, you don’t get a confirmation saying your information was received (on the screen) then it didn’t work. In that case, email support@shrinkingjeans.net to let us know your stats and who you want to vote off. If you don’t weigh in, you are disqualified from the challenge. Period.
3. You do not have to vote anyone off of your tribe. If someone doesn’t get a majority of votes (or if no votes are cast), the person with the lowest % of weight-loss this week will be sent to Exile Island. In the event of a tie in votes, the person with the lowest % of weight-loss will be the tie breaker.
4. When logging your minutes on the weigh-in form, add up your minutes exercising from Thursday-Tuesday.
5. Tribal Council will be posted tomorrow (Thursday) evening. The tribe who won the Immunity Idol will be announced, along with the 2 tribes being sent to Exile Island. We will also announce the person from each tribe being sent to Exile Island. After the Tribal Council vlog goes up, we will be updating the Shrinkvivor Tribes page – we’ll add in Exile Island and remove anyone who did not weigh-in.
6. Remember, if you are sent to Exile Island, it’s not the end of the challenge! You are still in the running for some great prizes as the Exile Shrinkvivor. You must still report in on a weekly basis, or you will be removed from Exile Island.

Thank you to CLICK! And LAND’S END! And EA Sports Active! And FITNESS COFFEE! All of our Shrinkvivor sponsors!

While our Shrink-a-Versary month has come to a close here at the Sisterhood, we’re already looking ahead at all the wonderful things we have in store for each and everyone one of you! When all nine of us get to brainstorming, we come up with some fabulous ideas, so stay tuned!

Keep in mind that our current challenge, the Shrink-a-Versary Extravaganza Challenge, doesn’t end until December 16th. We also have 2 fitness challenges going right now: the Globetrotting with the Sisterhood challenge and the EA SPORTS Active 6-week Active for Life challenge.

I would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of our prize sponsors. Without them, the last month’s Shrink-a-Versary certainly wouldn’t have been as exciting as it was!

• Gock’s Frocks
• Proctor & Gamble
• BornFit
• Moving Comfort
• KOR
• One More Mile
• Kellogg’s
• EA SPORTS Active
• RoadID
• Run U Mother
• Hungry Girl
• J & Ds Foods
• Steph Enos
• Simply Salads Cookbook
• Weight Watchers
• Desperately Seeking WordPress
• Melt It Off
• The Healthy Pantry

For a complete list of our giveaways, click here. You’ll find links to all these fine companies (and more) there!

This is it, Sisters and Brothers! After 7 long weeks, we’ve finally come to the end of this challenge! WOOHOOOOOO for all of you that stuck it out.

First off, I’d like to thank all the sponsors for this week’s Weigh-in Giveaway:

Tia

Margie

Plain White Press

And a big thank you to all of the sponsors we’ve had throughout this challenge!

Without further adieu….RUN, don’t walk, and gingerly step on your scales. Take a deep breathe and look down at the number. Remember it. Blog about. Tell us how it makes you feel. Did you shrink? How much? If not, do you know why? Pour your hearts out to us. Let it all out. We want to hear about your successes, your triumphs, your wins. We also want to hear about your failures, and stumbles. Why? Because we love you, and we’ve all been there.

TEAM CAPTAINS****Make sure you email your final team weights (not losses) to Christy befofre 9 p.m. Central time tonight to christy@shrinkingjeans.net.********

This challenge had some new twists. We instituted a team setting, and while it was a lot of work, we think it was so much fun. What do you think? Do you see that poll over there to right in the sidebar? Please vote. The majority is going to rule for the next challenge. Teams or no teams?

Speaking of the next challenge…we’ve got some great stuff up our sleeves! Be sure to check back often for announcements. The new challenge will be starting in the next 2 weeks, and we’d love to have you join us. We’re also looking for some more corporate type sponsors for prizes as well, so if you’re a PR person, or know a PR person, send them our way. As always, we welcome any of our members to sponsor prizes as well! Please and thank you!!

Make sure you check back tomorrow to see which team took this challenge down! Is it gonna be Team SAGE, or will they get knocked off their pedestal?

If you’re going to Blogher, be sure to let us know here. We have a great giveaway from BornFit for one lucky lady!

Everyone who weighs in today before 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time is eligible to win this week’s giveaway! A random winner will be drawn and announced tomorrow!

As always, make sure you’re following us on Twitter. You can also subscribe to our posts via a reader or email up there in the top righthand sidebar!

I know, it’s Monday. I forgot to announce the winner of our giveaway last week! OOPS. Sorry!

The winner of the handmade jewelry by the talented and gorgeous Steph is…

MEL from A Box of Chocolates!

Congrats, girl! Email me (melissa@shrinkingjeans.net) and we will get your prize on it’s way!

The beautiful Steph from Team Sage is sponsoring this week’s weigh-in giveaway! She is donating her own beautiful, handmade jewelry!

How do you win?

Step on your scale, blog about it, and leave a comment in tomorrow’s weigh-in post linking to it! (Or just leave your results/thoughts in the comments if you don’t blog.) All comments received by 11:59PM Central time will be elgible to win and the winner will be randomly chosen and announced the following day! Good luck!

Here are our winners…

First, a $15 iTunes gift card from Stesha over at Hot Chocolate Caramel Mocha goes to…

Tracey F.!!!

and the copy of Lite ‘N’ Up: Laugh Yourself Skinny, from Plain White Press goes to…

Michelle L.!!!

CONGRATULATIONS, girls! Email me (melissa@shrinkingjeans.net) with your contact info and we will get your prizes on their way!

We have two more awesome prizes to give away this week! First, a handmade bracelet made by the beautiful and talented Sandi from What Were We Thinking?

THE WINNER IS….

Melissa F.! Seriously, girl?? Can I please, PLEASE have some of your luck?

Next, a copy of Lite ‘N’ Up: Laugh Yourself Skinny…

THE WINNER IS…

Mendie!!

Congrats, ladies! Mendie, please email me with your contact info so we can get your prize on it’s way!

Ready to hear what awesome prizes we are giving away tomorrow?? Of course you are!

First, a handmade bracelet made by the beautiful and talented Sandi from What Were We Thinking?

and second, a copy of Lite ‘N’ Up: Laugh Yourself Skinny, donated by Plain White Press.

Thank you to both of our sponsors this week!!

To be entered to win, all you have to do is step on the scale tomorrow, look at the number… and either leave your results in a comment on the weigh-in post or blog about your progress and leave a link in the comments of that post. Simple, no? REMEMBER, THIS IS NOT THE WEIGH-IN POST!!

All comments left before 11:59pm Pacific time tomorrow will be eligible to win one of these prizes. Two winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Thursday, July 2nd!