For those of you who made it through the entire challenge- nice work!! If there’s one thing I learned throughout this process, it’s that challenges are hard to sustain for 3-4 weeks. I know that I lost a lot of my challenge mojo right around the 2 week mark, so if you can relate- know that you’re not alone! The thing though, is that I don’t care if you did 2 days, 2 weeks or 24 days- I was just happy to see you participating even a little bit! The goal of each challenge was to make you happier, healthier and fitter- whether by food choices, movement choices, good deeds, etc.- I wanted you to move through the craziest month of the year with some purpose and deliberate choices that made you more present in each and every day.

In my 2 week check in, I shared how I went about each challenge, which was a fun way for me to take a look back and in turn, get motivated for the final push. But, I think what I enjoyed most about the challenge was seeing YOUR check-ins. I know it can be challenging to take photos of everything and post on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, but seeing your creativity with the challenges and seeing you DO them and participate with me and the others was incredible. You guys pushed me to continue and give it my all, so I thank you for that.

I’m here today to share the “winners”, but I put that word in quotations because everyone who participated was really a winner. You took the time out of your busy schedule to do something to better yourselves or others and that is worth a big pat on the back! Although I asked you to check in and post on social media how you were going about each challenge so that I could see who was participating, even if you were holding yourself accountable with your own tracking sheet that’s totally fine. We are all motivated differently and that’s what is so fun!

But, with that said, I have to give a big shout out to Lauren Hudak and Courtney Iacocca- congrats, ladies! You are the winners of the challenge.

Lauren is my downstairs neighbor and I’m so fortunate that we have been able to become friends over the past year and a half. She has run a number of marathons (super fast, too!) and was afraid that this challenge would interfere with her training. After I explained that it wasn’t a fitness-only challenge, she decided to participate and throughout the 24 days challenge, she did not miss a single day and posted photos each day of her participating in the. What I loved about Lauren’s participating was that she often included co-workers and friends to take the stairs, go for a walk and bring lunch. Her posts and challenge executions (weird word to use, but had a writers block!) were so thoughtful and deliberate and even after long days at work, she would still make it a priority to move and release some stress.

Courtney and I work together and I had the chance to get to know her when she participated in my bootcamp back in the fall. I remember her emailing me saying she wanted to just try one class and go from there since she wasn’t “good” at working out. Well, the day after our first class, she came into my office and paid for the full 4 weeks saying she loved it and felt so welcomed and able to do everything we were doing. This made me SO happy, so you can only imagine how happy I was when she decided to participate in my challenge. Courtney had to travel for a few days and still got in her workouts and other challenges. She tried a new yoga studio and has made it part of her routine to get there when she can. She tried new recipes and learned to grease the baking sheet better 😉 She paid it forward by giving her tow guy a Starbucks gift card. Courtney’s enthusiasm throughout the challenge was so awesome- congrats, friend!

To refresh your memory, the prizes are as follows:
New Balance has been gracious enough to donate 2 awesome gym bags! I don’t know about you, but I can NEVER have too many gym bags. This one looks like a great size, too!

**DRINKmaple has also agreed to provide each winner with a 2 pack of their Pure Maple Water drink. I was luck enough to get a chance to try a sample and I have to say I really enjoyed it! I’m not a big coconut water fan, so this was a great substitute.

**A caddy of 16 mixed larabar bars. Larabars have been a longtime favorite bar of mine- have you tried them? Most of the flavors are made up of only a few ingredients, which is key for me. When I look at ingredient labels of other bars, I’m always astounded at how many ingredients there are! A 16 pack should keep you happy for a while 😉

**Lastly- a customized workout and/or workout video from me! The workouts I post on my blog normally may not be what you’re looking for, so with this, you can tell me exactly what you like/don’t like/want to work on and I can go from there! I can even do a real time workout video for you to have and use.

SO, Lauren and Courtney, please email me at burpeestobubbly@gmail.com with your addresses and I will get your information over to the companies so they can ship you your goodies. Also, please include what type of workout you’d like me to create for you: video, HIIT, strength, core, full body, super sets, time workouts, stations, etc. Take a look at my workout page if you need some ideas on what you’re looking for!

Again, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who participated. I was so happy to see friends from college and the gym, as well as friends from the blog world participating- you ladies did awesome! And, if you’re interested in another challenge, let me know 🙂