500 calories via exercise. That's tailored to folks like me who detest counting calories, yet love getting sweaty. Most cardio machines provide a readout of the approximate caloric burn, but you can always use this trusty activity calculator. Plug in your stats, and it'll tell you the caloric burn of various activities. Choose one that you can see yourself doing each week, or make it a combo and do one activity in the AM (vigorous housecleaning) + a PM activity (gardening).

Burn 500 calories the combo way. This is probably the best method, as it combines the two. Moderately eat + moderately workout and 7 days later…wham! 1lb gone *theoretically* I will almost bet you may lose even more than 1lb with this method as you consistently workout. But of all 3 it gives the most flexibility. One day you may *only* have a 100 calorie deficit going due to that pesky donut, but the next day an hour on the elliptical burns 600 calories and you are back on schedule.

Please keep in mind, none of this is set in stone. The goal is to consistently work at burning calories and track how much you are approximately burning. The whole point of this challenge is to demystify losing weight and armed with basic education, put control back in your hands.

Have you been trying to lose weight by food alone? And 7 days later the scale barely budges, total up your caloric deficit and see if you were truly on track to shed a lb in 7 days. Even if you weren't, it may mean keep doing what you are doing, 4-5 days later, you'll hit the 3500 mark.

So pick your poison, Daily Check In's start Monday and there'll be some icons under the smileys for you to post how many calories you burned that day. All 2 homework assignments, do require some thought and planning. If you didn't get a chance to answer it when it was posted, there is no rush. Take a few days to figure out your own personal game plan.