Why the GAME works....

The food: yes, very clear, eat this, not that...The pure foods...not organic, not RAW, not just fresh off the farm, but most foods, at least when you start cooking, that are as basic as they come...
The sleep: yes, study, after study, after study, after study shows that the road to weight loss is paved in Zzzz's.  Get 7 hours, at least, you will LOVE it once you start it.  And how wonderful to have something other than yourself force you to go to bed.
The exercise: I was going through a website with former Biggest Loser contestants.  I use to watch this show religiously, but knew that these folks had to move away from home, exercise 8 hours a day and get yelled at to lose their weight...and MOST have gained some, if not all, back...I am not moving away from my family, don't have time or want to exercise 8 hours a day and NEVER want to do a weight loss program so fast that the moment I leave it, I gain 50 pounds back...NEVER.  Exercise on Game ON, minimum of 20 mins...that is NOT asking for much!
The water: Never have I seen a game where water was such a controversial subject.  I played this game 3 times, then had bladder surgery because I was NOT going to give up the amount of water I was taking in (truth be told, needed the surgery for 10 years, but after starting the game, realized that with my water increase, the original problem was 10 times worse...fixed it, now, no problem :)...and yes, I still pee all the time too...but I get where I am going first :))
The habits: Giving up a bad/gaining a new.  This game, I gave up complacency in regards to a wedding cookbook I am making for my cousin...who was married last May...yikes.  I now have 24 recipes typed and ready to laminate....yay for me...and my embarrassed self who still has not sent a present.  I have a year, right?
And my good habit: Sun Salutations every day...will admit to not loving it, but I do think the stretching and slow breathing is really, really good for me...
Communications:
THIS is why the GAME works.  Yes, you can play the game, do all of the above, and still succeed...but what you get from the GROUP communication, particularly as a woman, is leaps and bounds anything else you get, at least in my opinion, from this game.  The Game On! book stresses playful picking at each other.  We are not so good at that because we ALL want each other to succeed.  Our men in our game don't participate very much on our message boards, but they are getting what they need...perhaps the accountability or some of the things above.
But for the women, the checking in, sometimes several times a day, keeps us focused, in touch and from reaching to that dark chocolate, delicious Breadery pumpkin bread which will sit in my kitchen until my day off tomorrow.



Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.

- Virginia Burden