Losing weight can be such a long journey and like any journey it can be more enjoyable with a friend along. While we don’t require that you and your fitness partner live in the same town, there is still much you can do to help encourage and inspire each other to accomplish your healthy living goals.

Here are some ways your partner can be of help to you (and you for her!)

* Call when cravings are at their worst: When you’re having an insatiable urge to dive into a bowl of ice-cream or head for the couch with a bowl of potato chips, phone your friend to get the encouragement for healthier choices.

*Swap for inspiration: Boredom can drive you to hop off the healthy wagon, so spice things up by swapping healthy recipes, strength training tips, fitness DVDs, workout ideas, health magazines, and running playlists courtesy of your fellow fit-minded pal.

*Set up weekly exercise dates: If you live in the same town, why not get together for a yoga class, a long walk or a bike ride? But even if you aren’t located in the same community you can connect by cell phone and share a long walk . Making a commitment to someone else that you will exercise daily can add incentive to follow through.

*Create healthy living goals together: Whether you both want to lose a certain number of pounds during our competition, add daily exercise into your life or even just learn to drink a lot of water each day, having someone to share your goals with will help you both achieve them. Make sure and share with your partner not only what your personal healthy living goals are but why you desire to achieve them. This will help you bond as a team.

*Share your food journal every night: It keeps you both accountable when another pair of eyes is reading the list of food eaten that day. This can also give you ideas of healthy foods that work well toward your healthful goals. There is a sharing option on myfitnesspal.com or you can just text or e-mail each other what you eat.

Your weekly challenge for the first week of our competition is:

1. Weigh and measure yourself Wednesday morning- Day #1 and write down your beginning statistics. 

2. Make sure you have read the Rules, FAQ's and Report tabs so you know what things you need to be tracking every day of the competition.

3. Phone, talk in person or E-mail your healthy living partner and share with her your specific healthful goals for this round of competition and why they mean so much to you.

4. If you do not already have a myfitnesspal.com account set one up before Wednesday.

5. If you do not yet have any friends on myfitnesspal.com friend at least 3 people

6. Make a plan to share what you eat daily and how you have exercised with your partner (throughout the competition) . The easiest way to do this is to go to myfitnesspal.com and choose settings/ choose Diary settings/ and set your diary sharing either to public or friends. This way your partner can check your daily food intake and exercise.

7. For this week enjoy contact (text, phone, in person, e-mail, instagram, tweet, smoke signal, carrier pigeon) with your partner daily. Encourage one another to develop all the healthy habits.

If you do ALL of these things you can claim the 35 weekly bonus points for Week #1