Hot Body Challenge: Results

The Hot Body Challenge was a complete success. Here's a detailed recap.

What I did:
For six weeks, I committed to a clean and healthy meal plan and daily workouts.

There weren't many breaks. Take a look at my daily diet and workout logs. Cheat foods were rare. And there were only four rest days without any exercise.

I ate four to six meals per day. And my workouts varied from traditional weights and cardio to yoga to Zumba to just push-ups or manual squats.

Why I did it:
I was determined to get back to my pre-pregnancy size by the time my twins turned 1. I needed to lose 10 pounds or 3 percent bodyfat to get me back to looking like my old self -- so I used these numbers to establish a six-week goal.

When my doctor gave me the OK to workout about a month and a half after delivery, I got myself back in the gym. But I started off slowly.

I didn't want to dive right back into it. My old training schedule would have been far too intense. Plus, I felt like I was in someone else's body. I had to learn how to pace myself and adjust my workouts to accommodate the 30 pounds I had picked up.

I slowly made progress ... and I mean slowly.

By the time my twins were 6 months old, I had only lost 7 pounds. It was at this point that I decided to turn up the intensity. Over then next four months, I lost about 13 pounds. And about two months from the boys' first birthday, I knew I had to get really serious.

This is when I set the six-week, 10-pound or 3 percent goal.

But I knew needed a little push! Something extra to make sure my goal became and accomplishment and not a dream.

So, I came up with the six-week Hot Body Challenge.

How I stuck to it:
There's strength in numbers, right? So I decided to get a group of friends together to join me.

Through Facebook, I put together a group of 17 friends -- each of whom wanted to make some improvments to their diet and or workouts.

I led and motivated the group with various daily challenges -- for example, do 50 push-ups, 100 squats, drink 60 ounces of water. I posted links to fitness-related articles and provided tips to help stay on track.

I supplemented this with Twitter updates and blogs posts.

This group really helped me stick to it. Accountability and support helped tremendously.

Results
I hit my goal and lost 10 pounds exactly! In six weeks, I went from 146.6 lbs to 136.6 lbs. And my bodyfat  went from 21.9 percent to 19.6 percent.

Going forward
Though the challenge is over, I will continue to stick with my diet and exercise routines.

Sure, I'll allow myself a few more treats from time to time. And I won't workout so intensely every day.

But eating healthy and exercising is not something to do for a specific amount of time. It's a lifestyle. I'm going to stick with it to keep myself looking  and more importantly -- feeling -- great!