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]

Weigh in was good today- 230.7 down from 235 at Christmas. Tomorrow is official weigh in though and it will probably jump back up a pound or 2. I fluctuate between 1-3 lbs daily, but it's slowly working it's weigh down. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day with steps...under 1200 steps. I took a 3 hour nap and simply don't feel like doing a video. Emotions have a lot to do with motivation, and I'm emotionally drained today. Wish I was the type to go for a run or something when I'm upset but I do the opposite. I may try to do a walking video in a bit, or just determine to get up tomorrow and get to moving...:( Not giving up though- I'll get my game face back on tomorrow...Actually, it's a little motivating to just read everyone's posts on here and take time to write something myself. I should have done that earlier today. 

[_Lilac_]

@GettingfitinSC I think that's EXACTLY why I write so much on here. I find it helps motivate and psych myself up. If you know you are emotionally drained and wish you were the type to go for a run when you are upset....you know what I'm going to say. Make yourself into that type. "Easier said than done." I can hear you. Well, mentally hear you. Because that's me too. This journey is about changing the way we think....so I'm going to poke you, annoy you, and nag you. It takes a push of a button, one step, then another, and soon you are bouncing along with Leslie Sansone and that very peppy dude on the left of her who has boundless energy. He bugs me. Haha. Honestly, and you know this, you get your legs going and you instantly start to feel better and happier and then halfway through the video you are cheering at yourself for getting up and changing the way you dealt with your problem. *poke* *poke*....come on. One button. One step, two step. 

I'll do it with you. I'm booting up youtube...I'm searching for the video...I'm ...hitting play! 

[A_Lurker]

@em.kz- I see lots of fluctuations with daily weighing.  I can go up or down a number of pounds overnight.  You can link your fitbit account to trendweight.com and it will give you a better idea of how the overall weight is going.

[lsenger]

I 

I would like to be in this group, but I'm not sure how this works.  

[em.kz]

@A_Lurker Thank you for that link! I checked it out at it's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Luckily, according to my stats on there, I am still on track to make my goal weight for this challenge!

[Gettingthere17]

Ok--so the weight is shifting.  According to Aria scale I am down 4 lbs since new years.  Now the challenge is keeping it off this next week while celebrating a big milestone B-day in Las Vegas.  I'm not tempted really by the food-but by the alcohol---can't wait for that delicious Hershey's Bar Chocolate Martini!!!!!!!!  I know we will be walking a lot so that is good so I can count my steps and calories.

[BLLingg]

Well, @lsenger, you already took the first Step.  You're here!  From here, there are different options. 

I'm not sure everyone logs their Weight but almost everyone does!  If you go to the very first posting https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Manage-Weight/Christmas-2016-to-Valentine-s-Day-2017-Challenge/m-p/1... you'll find the Codes most of us use when we log our Weight.

I'm not sure if everyone has a specific Goal for Valentines Day.  Most of us do though.  However, the important point to keep in mind is that we haven't failed (and we're not failures!) if we don't reach that Goal.  A lot of us in here were in the Christmas Weight Loss Challenge. Some of us made our Goal.  Some didn't.

Some of us log in Weekly.  I log every Monday.  Others do it on Friday.  The Day doesn't matter.  Even missing a Week isn't a catastrophe.  Some log in less often.  Some, a lot less often.  Some do a brief mid Week update to report extra Good or extra Bad changes.  It's not easy to "fess up" in Public to what you weigh.  It's not easy to "fess up" when you gain instead of losing!  If you do, though, you won't regret it!!!

After Valentines Day, I'm willing to bet we start a New Challenge.  Maybe Valentines Day to Independence Day.  Or the First Day of Summer (20 June).  Or Mother's Day.  Who knows?  The "to" Date isn't all that important.

Sharing, trusting, encouraging (giving & receiving), helpful advice, camaraderie.  These are what you can experience in here.  How much you experience depends upon how much of yourself you put into the Challenge.

[GettingfitinSC]

Hi All! It's going to be a better day today. I'm up and ready to go and get my steps in today. Here are my stats for this week.

USW and CSW= 235 at Christmas

CW= 230.5

GW= 225

UGW 125

Thanks _Lilac_ for the encouragement last night. I'll follow through with it today. 🙂 

[smwcbrie]

@Gettingthere17- awesome, keep up the good work!!

[juli1321]

Good morning everyone! This is my first posted weigh in It looks like I am down 2.4 this week!

CSW: 155

CW: 152.6

GW: 145

[juli1321]

I just realized that I forgot to mention that I started on January 1st.

[smwcbrie]

@juli1321- congrats!!

[Glenda]

                                    I have 4 scales and they all weigh a little differently, as much as 1.4 pounds.  Good catch  Smwcbrie

[GettingfitinSC]

Question: Is the only way to post by repyling to someone else's post? That's the way that I've been posting but my posts aren't always a reply to someone. Seems like there should be a separate 'post' button, but I'm not finding it. 

---

[_Lilac_]

@GettingfitinSC  I just hit reply on any of them and it just posts without any specific reference to the one I hit 'reply' on. If I want to direct it at someone in specific, I simply hit the 'at' symbol and it pulls up a list of names, I choose the one I want and then, boom...they are highlighted and they get an email I'm talking to them. 

You are able to 'quote' by hitting reply on a specific post then clicking the 'quote' button on the top right of your own post. 

[smwcbrie]

Happy Sunday, everyone!

USW- 170.4 on 1/1/17

CSW- 168.6 on 1/3/17

CW- 167.4 on 1/8/17

GW- 163.8 (for 2/14/17)

UGW- 135 (ish)

I started The Harcombe Diet on Friday, so today is day 3 of that. I've lost 1.3 lbs on that in just two days. No calorie counting, just eating whole foods. My oldest daughter started today. Very excited about it and cannot wait to see how it goes.

I hope everyone has a great day and a wonderful week coming up!

[A_Lurker]

@GettingfitinSC- it's not a typical threaded forum, so just hit reply on any post.  When I do my weekly weigh ins I usually go find my old post so I can easily quote from it.

[A_Lurker]

---

@A_Lurker wrote:

USW- 407

CSW- 360 (Feb 2016)

PW - 266.4 (12/25/16)

CW - 266.0 (-0.4 lbs)

GW- 254.4   (for Feb 14)

UGW- No idea yet 

---

So my weight was actually going up most of the week so I eventually increased my calories at the end of the week.  It did the trick and my weight came down this morning.  So, on the days I'm hitting over 4000 calories burned I'm going to do 2750 calories in.  For those that haven't been around that long, historically I don't do well on lower calories.  I have better luck with increasing my calories and keeping my activity levels up.

USW- 407

CSW- 360 (Feb 2016)

PW - 266.0 (1/1/17)

CW - 264.2 (-1.8 lbs)

GW- 254.4   (for Feb 14)

UGW- No idea yet 

[em.kz]

It's a great day to have a great day!! I got up nice and early this morning because Mom has to be at church early, so I am a couple thousand steps ahead of where I normally am at this time in the day. After a few near-miss lake effect snow batches, we are finally getting hit with some snow. However, Mom and my brother had to stay at church longer this morning so I'll be able to get extra steps in with some shoveling. I hope you're all doing well, staying active, and having a nice weekend!

[IdahoSandy]

I've been snowed in for the week due to a historic storm!  I made it to the gym a couple of times, but most of the week I was trapped in my house. This gave me the opportunity to read about nutrition, exercise plans and motivation ideas (and read the community boards).

Since I wasn't very active last week, I focused on my calorie and water intake.  I think I reduced my sodium level. I ended up losing a little weight!  

USW 208 lbs (5/22/16)
CSW 179.8 (1/3/17)

CW 177.7 (1/8/17) woo hoo!
GW 169.8 (by 2/14/17)
UGW 158 (5/22/17)