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!!

[GettingfitinSC]

Thanks for the encouragement! You're right- the day wasn't over yet. We're a pretty sedentary family in the evenings, but that's something that will need to change if I'm to make a lasting change with my weight. I took the advice and did the Leslie Sansone Happy Walk. My toddler son thought it was hilarius and did it with me. He absolutely loved it, and I enjoyed it as well. Another great- I'm still steps ahead of my 19 year old daughter who also got a FitBit for Christmas. 🙂 Of course, I started a day ahead of her; she didn't get hers set up until after Christmas. Otherwise, she would probably be ahead of me. 🙂

Technical question- When I entered the 15 minutes of activity, I put 1 mile as the distance walked, but it calculated 2558 steps while my fitbit was about 1500 steps. Should I enter the steps walked according to fitbit or leave it as a mile, which makes my steps different from what the fitbit says? I hope that question makes sense. 

Thanks! 

[_Lilac_]

@GettingfitinSC I'm not sure you have to enter the activity since your fitbit would have tracked it. Did you sync and it shows as 'walking' on the dashboard or in the graph of activities? Sometimes your fitbit is set to track an activity (jog, walk, swim) if it's longer than 15 min or 20 min...not sure what the pre-set amount is. But I went in and manually changed it to 5 or 10 min. Not sure if it makes a difference. The only thing I manually log is my water aerobics class. Otherwise, my walking shows up appropriately.

Fitbit is quite user friendly and does much of the 'thinking' work for us. 

When I was new to using fitbit, I tracked all my food and made sure I was at a 1000 calorie deficit, but what I didn't realize was that fitbit was already calculating that deficit (eg. 'You can still eat 750 calories') so I was actually working on a 2000 calorie deficit. Fitbit wants to make it as easy as possible for us, I think.

I'm glad you liked the happy walk and had fun with your toddler. We should always have fun exercising. About the steps...you should probably stick to the fitbit steps. It might not have recorded all of them, though. Sometimes if you aren't moving your arm it doesn't track. If you are shopping with a cart, holding onto the rails on a treadmill, carrying a bag, holding a toddler's hand, etc, the wrist-worn fitbit won't always recognize it as walking. On the treadmill I have to take my blaze out of the band and put it in my bra to record my heartrate and steps. 

Hope this helps a bit?

[A_Lurker]

@rshew- as someone who had unacceptable blood sugars a year ago there are a number of ways that you can approach it.  My A1C level classed me as diabetic and they started me on pills, which I didn't tolerate.  I didn't really pay enough attention to how many carbs I ate with each meal.  I stopped taking the pills and decided to work on my weight.  With the weight loss I've brought my A1C level back to a normal one.

[collegehusky]

got the alta for christams and im so addicted! I just want to look like myself again.

USW-130.6

CSW-129.2

GW- 121

UGW- 115-118

[collegehusky]

Wow you lost so much thats amazing! How did you do it and how long did it take you? Any tips? Good luck with the rest of your goals:)

[dancefoxtrot]

@GettingfitinSC

Great idea to not focus on the days when it is harder to get lots of steps. It is a process and if we can keep eating healthfully and get most of our steps the lbs. will leave us. 

All the best,

Barbara G

[UKJulieJ]

                                    Had a lazy day yesterday so going to make up for it today already been on a brisk walk outside. Going to aim for 12,000 steps today as didn't even make 4,000 yesterday !

Hi, Susan our staring stats and 14/2 goal as very similar so let's make this interesting and cheer each other on. Hopefully we'll both achieve our goal.

[Gayle1018]

REJOICE!!  I finally decided to get over myself and weigh in after 3 weeks of being rotten and not getting my steps or exercises.  was prepared for 3-5 lb gain. Thank God it was 1/2 a pound, don't know how that happened but sooooo Greatful - I was getting remotived with this challenge and everyones comments.

So watch out 2017--- Gonna make it to my UGW!   

USW- Ultimate Starting Weight  196.6

CW: 161

GW for valentine’s Day :  154

UGW  143  (and maintain!!! 142-146 range)

Motived for success!  Happy New Year all.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi everyone!

USW: 224.5 lbs (7/6/16)

CSW: 177.0 (12/23/16)

CW 176.5 (12/30/16)

CW (01/06/17):

CW (01/13/17):

CW: (01/20/17):

CW: (01/27/17):

CW: (02/03/17):

CW: (02/10/17):

GW: 167 (02/14/17):

UGW: 155

Week one of the challenge in the books for me and I'm down 0.5 lbs. I'm happy with that! Since I'm down a total of 48 lbs for the year I think I'll celebrate and spend my day off today shopping for some new clothes! After I exercise of course😀! 

[GettingfitinSC]

Thank you, You were correct. I was logging each time I had walked 15 min or more, but I wasn't supposed to. I thought I had to log each activity, but when I read it, that's only if you forgot your tracker or did something that doesn't count steps. I'm learning. 🙂 I'm off to walk a little this morning. Hope everyone has a great day! 

[alegria16]

Last night I went on the first date I've had in over a decade with a gentleman I met on an online dating site. I was feeling pretty gross while figuring out what to wear, as I'm heavier now than I have ever been while "on the prowl." I look like a potato or a pumpkin depending on the outfit. LOL (He himself is soft and rounded and incredibly attractive.) The date went really well; we found conversation easy; and we both want to get together again soon. Yay!

[WandaC]

USW- 159

CSW- 159

GW- 150   (for Feb 14)

UGW- 145  (what your healthy target weight is)

[_Lilac_]

@alegria16  Good for you!!! What courage and spirit of adventure. I'm glad it went so well. When there is a connection with another person, the potato or pumpkin physique doesn't matter. I hope you have lots of great dates!

[_Lilac_]

I walked 5000 steps while doing 3 laps of the mall with my mom this morning. The walking club renews memberships on Jan.2 and I might join so I'll always have a place to put my coat while in the mall. There's a security-locked locker room where people keep their shoes, coats, it's video monitored at all times, etc etc. $15 for the year. Not too bad. 

I did a bit of housework (oh, I need to do a bunch more), but I have a chill now and got super tired when my head went a bit wonky, so I might nap. I plan on making a soup this afternoon, packed with veggies and hardly any calories. I'll be doing some treadmill later to make up my other 5000 steps. My daughter keeps prodding me to eat but I haven't been feeling hungry. It's 12 noon and I had my first bite. Just so blah. It's probably why my head isn't feeling good, why I'm tired and chilled. At least she's here to nag at me, right? She worries about me a lot since I'd been rushed by ambulance to the hospital that time. I would be nagging me too.

Catch you later, after my 10k is complete!

[A_Lurker]

@_Lilac_- feeding your body is part of the journey.  I know some mornings I just can't face food, but I know that I need to eat something so eventually I do.  I know from past experience that low calories one day isn't a problem.  However, the longer you do it the more likely you're going to lose some of that great enthusiasm we love seeing.

Also, have you had your iron levels checked recently?  Tiredness and the chills could be an indicator.

[em.kz]

Hey guys! I woke up feeling great today because after three days away visiting family without weighing myself and without doing a great job of watching what I eat, I expected to have gained weight. As I stepped on the scale, I thought to myself I'll be okay as long as it's less than 5 lbs. (I gave myself a lot of wiggle room because I'm pretty new to this and don't yet know how much my weight changes day-to-day) But when the numbers came up, I ended up having lost almost a pound since I left! Now I'm off to the gym to burn some more calories!

USW - 161.6 (12/25/16)

CSW - 161.6 (12/25/16)

CW - 159.4 (12/30/16)

CW -  (01/06/17)

CW -  (01/13/17)

CW -  (01/20/17)

CW -  (01/27/17)

CW - (02/03/17)

CW - (02/10/17)

GW - 155 (2/14/17)

UGW #1 - 140

UGW #2 - 135

[GettingfitinSC]

@em.kz That's awesome! Don't you just love it when you've done better that you expected? It makes me want to burn even more calories and lose even more. Keep it up! 

[GettingfitinSC]

@_Lilac_ Walking at the mall is great for cold/rainy days or just for a change of pace. I hope the soup helps you to feel better. Soup is good for the days you just don't feel like eating. 🙂 

[_Lilac_]

@A_Lurker and those darned hormones. Ugh.

[Bobbinyc]

@alegria16  I agree with _Lilac_.  What a wonderful risk to take and gift to give yourself.  I have to catch myself if I make excuses for not doing something "until I lose weight" or "not looking like this".  It's all nonsense.  We deserve to live bravely.  And first time out you had a good time - wonderful.