Christmas 2016 to Valentine's Day 2017 Challenge

[Bobbinyc]

Welcome all Challengers!  What an amazing group we have!

Let's all continue together to take off the excess pounds and keep getting healthier.

This challenge will begin on Christmas and finish on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. 

All you need to join this challenge is to post your stats regarding your weight, and check in weekly or as often as you'd like. We are a great support group and enjoy keeping up with each other and being there for our ups and downs.  Generally we have found that the more we check in and offer support, tips, info,  and ideas to others, the more we get for ourselves.

We list our weight, as well as any other goals we might have related to being healthy (such as increase water, more active minutes, etc).  Developing good health habits is primary.

A little rundown of terminology for anyone who is new.

USW- Ultimate Starting Weight

CSW- Current Starting Weight (for this challenge)

GW- Goal Weight   (for Feb 14)

UGW- Ultimate Goal Weight   (what your healthy target weight is)

PW- Previous Weight

CW- Current Weight

MFP- My Fitness Pal

List as much info as you like.  Some people include age, gender, height....whatever seems relevant to you.

We keep it as serious or light as we feel, but we always keep it focused on being as healthy as possible, while we support each other kindly.  We can do this together!!

[A_Lurker]

I'll be in.  I'm going to get a starting weight tomorrow, although I've got a lunch out as well. 

[Bobbinyc]

@A_Lurker  I can guess what my starting weight is (same as the past 4 months!) but, I'll post anyway.  Enjoy your lunch, and I hope you enjoy the holiday as well.  And I'm so glad we will be continuing this together.

[_Lilac_]

I'm in! I'll also post my weight and goals tomorrow. 

We had our family gathering today and I ate more than I usually do for the meal but I was sensible. I had 2000 calories 'left to eat' before dinner, as per fitbit calculations. There's NO WAY I ate that much. My main concern is the amount of sodium in the food, which might show on the scale in the morning. I'm drinking my water to attempt to flush it. It's 9pm but I might get on the treadmill for a bit since I have only 5300 steps and AGAIN none in the aerobic zone. 

Ok, tomorrow is the start to a new challenge! New goals! New determination! New me and you!

[BLLingg]

THANK YOU, @Bobbinyc for starting us off with the Terminology!!!  This will help me (and others I'm sure!) In my/our Airhead moments!

I'm definitely in but I won't have my Stats until I return to Work on Tuesday.  I'm going to weigh Today & Tomorrow as usual but with a twist.  I'll be weighing on Mom's Scales, not mine.

By the by, I dropped by Today to issue this very same Challenge!  You know what they say about Great Minds!  😉  Good thing you were faster on the draw than me or we wouldn't have had the Terminology right up front!!!

[_Lilac_]

New Challenge yay:

---

USW- 380

JSW- 355  (Joining start weight in my first challenge)

CSW- 321

GW- 310   (for Feb 14)

UGW- I'll be happy under 200  

Here we go! 7.5 week challenge. I am being more conservative about my goal this time, but I'll adjust as needed. 

Going forward I'll concentrate on my daily 30-60 min of fat burning/aerobic heartrate exercise. I also need to be more dilligent about eating breakfast at a decent hour. Otherwise my whole day gets skewed and I'm eating supper too late. 

My challenges/roadblocks are going to be:  Weather, laziness, boredom in food choices. 

I shall prevail!!

[Bobbinyc]

@BLLingg Good to see you here!  I started last night knowing some people get an earlier start than I do or are in different time zones and might want it up sooner.  I also thought I'd sleep in - no such luck.

I just copied those terms from another challenge.  

[_Lilac_]

I am back! So, I looked back at the Thanksgiving to Christmas challenge and noted the goals I'd set for myself. I'd hoped to lose 10 lb but it was only a 4 week challenge. I thought I hadn't lost much at all but in reality, I started out at 329lb and got to 321lb today. So, 8 lbs isn't much to sneeze at in 4 weeks! I'm actually very happy with that, after thinking I hadn't lost much. Phew. Ok. Here we go. 

[Bobbinyc]

I'm so happy we are doing this together!

USW - (since sidelined with foot surgery) 191

CSW for this challenge 186.5 

GW - since I haven't lost anything at all in months, I'm going for 185!

UG - to be healthy and appreciate what I am able to do

 The scale hasn't moved at all in months but, I'm lifting more weight and actually feel a lot stronger, I'm definitely more agile, my balance problems are gone, I'm more flexible, and my stamina is better.  I don't get out of breath easily and just generally feel physically more capable, despite still being tired a lot.  And I learned that my thyroid is way off and am working on that. So main goal is to feel better.  And if the scale would even give me a tiny bit, that would be nice.

This challenge I want to focus on being stronger, drinking more water, trying new forms of activity, increasing time doing cardio to 40 min. most days, and not getting discouraged by the tiredness or the scale.  

[_Lilac_]

Everyone is going to be soooo sick of me today but my (adult) children are sleeping and I have no one to yap at. After my last post I had too much energy so I went out for a 42 min walk in the cold wind and over icy sidewalks. My mom and her hubby drove along on their way home from visiting his grandchildren and great grandchildren for present annihilation, and I think they were surprised to see me out chugging along. They turned and came back to ask why I was out walking on Christmas morning. Haha. Saw two young guys huddled in the entranceway of the YMCA, hiding from the cold wind. It's closed, of course. I wish they had somewhere warm to be, with family or friends. There weren't too many others out. An older man on his way to mass. The wind was setting off car alarms all around the neighbourhood. Anyway, 42 min walk at 119 heartrate average. It was only 4700 steps. I'll do some more later. My sister sent leftover sweets home with my kids, so I'm going to remind them to stash them away for their own use. Breakfast is consumed, hot tea in hand, dog in lap, the other has situated himself on a pile of clean laundry on my bed (maybe not so clean now), and it's only 10:30am. What am I going to do the rest of the day?

[Bobbinyc]

@_Lilac_  I love the things you share.  Aside from being inspired, I learn a lot about determination and coping.  Good for you for getting your heart rate up! My adult child is sleeping too.  Do they ever outgrow that?  I went for a walk and will go to the gym soon to speed walk on the treadmill, lift weights, use their weird balance equipment.  I also decided to try one new thing today to start my challenge off right but I haven't decided what yet.

I'm going to a shelter for people who are homeless this afternoon to help out, and then a women's shelter, so I have to get the activity in this morning.

[almost_where]

Christmas Weight = 267

Sunday-1 - (01/01)
Sunday-2 - (01/08)
Sunday-3 - (01/15)
Sunday-4 - (01/22)
Sunday-5 - (01/29)
Sunday-6 - (02/05)
Sunday-7 - (02/12)
Valentine's Day Goal 255

Gonna be a challenging challenge during the heart of winter but I'm game, Good luck everyone.

[Tybokitty]

I'm in. Not sure how far I will get. Fractured my little toe so walking is not easy unless I'm barefooted. Heaven forbid I have to wear a shoe. I will figure out something for exercising other than walking. Didn't make my goal for Xmas but I'm okay with what I lost. It's a start so I will just keep on moving. These challenges are great because everyone is so supportive. Will post tomorrow or Tuesday my weight goals. Gotta feeling went up during the holidays.  Hope everyone had a great Christmas. 

[Tybokitty]

@_Lilac_ The good thing is you got up and moved. Even if you are stepping while watching tv, you are moving. Kudos for going out in the cold. 

[Tybokitty]

@Bobbinyc Thank you Bobbyinyc. I was wondering if there would be another challenge. Joining the Christmas challenge group helped me to stay focus and want to move more. Plus I learn new things from what other people post. I've learnt a lot from all the other people. 

[Tybokitty]

Here is my current from last week. Will update with new on Tuesday. 

CW 12/25/16 - 168

CSW 12/27/16  -
GW   160 (by Feb 14, 2017
UGW  - 145

[A_Lurker]

Okay, for the challenge:

USW- 407

CSW- 360 (Feb 2016)

CW - 266.4

GW- 254.4   (for Feb 14)

UGW- No idea yet 

So I wasn't going to start back to counting calories but I decided it wasn't a bad thing for a little while.  I was doing well with not counting until the Christmas season came along.  I had some seriously bad eating last week yet managed to come down 0.2 lbs.  This actually tells me that I was possibly undereating for a while since my weight dropped significantly after eating way too much chocolate on Thurs evening.  For me this pretty much tells me that I might not have been eating enough.  I've seen this before where my body hangs on desperately (even going up) when I'm not eating enough.  Then I'll eat more and lose the weight.  Yep, I know I'm strange.  I had two people give me gifts of chocolate on Thursday at work and I meant to leave them in the office (to share when I was back this week - when neither of those people would be in).  I brought them inside on Thurs (too cold to leave them in the car) and started into them - not really ending until Friday when I finished them off.

So, roughly 7.5 weeks at ~1.6 lbs/week and that should bring me 12 pounds lost as a goal.  Mentally I'm looking for where I'll be on Feb 2nd (1 year since starting to lose weight).  Ideally I'm looking to be sub-260, although in the end it doesn't matter if I'm 95 lbs lighter or 100 lbs lighter at that point - just that I'm lighter.

Good luck all! 

[_Lilac_]

I told you you'd get sick of me today...

I have now taken the dogs for a walk of 3100 steps at a fat-burning heartrate pace. That's a full hour of walking outside today in total, just over 3 miles. That's pretty decent for a non-pool day. I've eaten 1350 calories so I'll need something later, yogurt, fruit, a little granola. We'll see. 

I'm still waiting for the city to get its act together and flood the outdoor rink surfaces so I can make the attempt at skating. I wish I could do it in my own backyard, but I'd soon find frozen piles of doggy doo on my smooth ice and fall for sure! But how fun would that be to go whenever I wanted and just skate around with the comfort of home and my hot kettle within reach.

Doctor Who Christmas special on tonight so the nerds are going to arrive soon to watch (I include myself in that description). I might hide in my room and watch it tomorrow. I'd go out but there's no public transportation and I bet all the movie seats are sold out. Ok, that's enough from me today. I'll follow up in a few days.

Have a great night everyone. 

[A_Lurker]

@_Lilac_- I think I'm at least a couple of seasons behind on Dr Who.  I record a lot of stuff (cable into the computer) and keep it (okay, I'm not only a packrat, but an electronic one as well).  I've been putting stuff together to watch on the rowing machine, eliptical, or the treadmill once the room is set up.  I think you just added another item to my list. 

[Glenda]

                                    Tybokitty,  I bought my first stationary bike at a garage sale for $25.  I knew that I had NO thigh muscle and wouldn't be getting any significant exercise on it.  Maybe there is a Craig's list or somewhere you could get a bike being used as a clothes rack to use while your toe is broken?  At first I could only ride my bike for a very few minutes, but before very long I could ride an hour while reading a book .  They are not bad at all.   By the way I was ALWAYS walking but walking doesn't help the thigh muscle much and it is good to work on thigh muscle as you get older they will help you to avoid falls.