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!!

[em.kz]

@A_Lurker Thank you for your message, that is something to keep in mind. My goal for this challenge is to lose about 7 pounds, going from 161.6 to 155. My longterm goal rests around 140 so I definitely have a ways to go.

[Heatseeka]

@ almost_where,

The calorie calculator is a huge discovery. Thank you for putting that up. I've been following my Fitbit for the past 2 months in an attempt to push myself in terms of hitting a goal weight. So far I've seen some change, but there are times when I think that Fitbit may not always be an accurate means of approach weight management. 

In short, 

Thank you. 

[sierradreamin17]

Since the One Week Sugar-Free Challenge started, I have been noticing how much sugar is in everything.  I got rid of a lot of stuff - cereals, pasta sauces, etc.  Today I noticed that my daughter's vitamins have sugar and my son's cough medicine has it.  Sheesh!  This challenge is making me so much more aware of the products I buy.  Great help!

[BLLingg]

@_Lilac_, tell your Daughter she's too young to not marvel at God's Wonders!  And you are NEVER too old to marvel at them!!  So feed your "obsession" often so that it remains healthy!!!  (From Message# 526)

[BLLingg]

Two Days ago, @em.kz, I added the USDA's "SuperTracker" to my FitBit connections.  https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/  The Permissions were:  "location and GPS, Fitbit devices and settings, food and water logs, weight, heart rate, sleep, friends, profile, activity and exercise."

They have a place to calculate your Calorie Goals for Weight Loss or Maintenance or Gain.  It's under "Your Five Top Goals" then Calories.  There's a Link to "Body Weight Planner."

And you can set "Your Five Top Goals."  Categories include Weight Management, Physical Activity, Calories, Food Groups, and Nutrients.  You can only do 5 Total though, not 5 within each.  For myself, I'm Goaling for Food Groups (Protein) and Nutrients (Calcium, Vitamin D, Sodium, and Saturated Fat) since these are really weak areas for me.

They have a lot more in there but I haven't had time to do much digging.

[dancefoxtrot]

Hi all

148.7 back from wonderful fun time on cruise ship and danced and worked out daily so lost a bit.  Ate mostly veggies, fish and fruit. Happy to not have extra lbs to lose. Off to work or I' ll be late so will catch up later. 

Best to all,

Barbara G

[Cherylwith5]

USW- 231

CSW- 210.8

GW- 195  (for Feb 14)

UGW- 135

CW- 210.8 (1/4/2017)

CW - 212.6 (1/11/2017) Ugh!!!

CW - 212.0 (1/18/2017)

MFP- Cherylwith5@gmail.com

5' 1"

47 yo

[HeartBiller]

@A_LurkerI completely understand what you are saying and I am more than happy with the loss I have already had...lol. I guess my disappointment came in from being on this Daniel fast.. I guess I just had it in my mind that being on a totally healthy diet, one would "have" to lose weight. For lack of a nicer way of saying it, lol If I had eaten something that was really good...lol. It wouldn't have disappointed me as much...lol. If that makes sense. I completely understand the ups and the downs. I guess I just had too high of an expectation for this Daniel Fast...lol. I do not to get high expectations... but some how we always do...lol.

[HeartBiller]

@almost_whereThank you so much!

[HeartBiller]

@GlendaI totally understand people getting the equipment and not using it... BUT for us, me and my husband are doing this together and have recently gotten a few family members to join us on our journey. So I feel like if I can get some stuff set up, not only will my husband and I start to benefit from this, that hopefully we can encourage some of our family members to start working out as well. I guess a place where we are comfortable and don't feel judged constantly. I do already have some stuff, (Treadmill, powerhouse gym, and a glider) but they are just in my living room...lol. I would like to have a room, where my sister might feel more comfortable to exercise. She is not comfortable exercising in front of anyone. I buy all my stuff second hand. I never buy anything new..lol. I am a bargain hunter. I guess my thing is not knowing exactly what exercises is good for what area...lol

[HeartBiller]

@A_LurkerThank you for the website

[_Lilac_]

@Bobbinyc  I'm not able to attend the womens march in the nearest city hosting one, it's 3 hours away by car, but I'm trying my hand at knitting the hats. Gee, I'm really failing at doing the ribbing. I've looked up instructions and I think I might have it now. Are you attending?

Today so far: Mom and I walked the mall (7000 steps so far), I had a really good lunch, took my meds, working on the water, and now I'll nap then knit some more. I took my fitbit off in case it tried to count my stitches for me...and all the frustrated waving of my arms and furious gesturing I was doing when it messed up. 

Hope everyone is having a great day!

[GershonSurge]

@HeartBiller,

There are many options for resistance training, and they all work to varying degrees. The least expensive option is using a single dumbbell for all exercises. It is arguably the most effective because free weights exercise the small balance muscles, too. You can vary the exercise if your body doesn't like some motions.

If I were setting up a home gym, I'd buy this dumbbell set at Walmart. You and your husband could share one set. Normally, I only use two different weights each day. (By slowing or speeding up an exercise, you can effectively increase or decrease the weight.) You could group the exercises so you'd only have to change the weights once.

The other thing I'd buy is an inclined bench. 

To get started, you can select one dumbbell or bodyweight exercise for each muscle group from here.

[Glenda]

HearBiller, I have a Glider too. It will be helpful to you if you can establish a routine probably. If you get off your treadmill and get right on the glider and do 5 minutes of arm exercises (biceps?) then you can do something for triceps & be done maybe with arms. At least I'm more sure to get it done that way. I do have a room with a treadmill, glider, ab lounge, incline / upside down thing, and rowing machine but I do other exercises other places. ( weights, grip, balance, bike and stair-climber in other places.) I rearranged for Christmas too.

..............the hungry-girl.com website today's email had exercise equipment today all under $25. a 4 pack of exercise bands, 3 pairs of little dumbbells on a stand, a balance ball, and yoga mat if you are at all interested.

[CorgiOnslaught]

I'll give quick recap of my journey so far!

I realized I needed to start losing some weight when I hit 237 lbs back in 2013. Christmas of 2017 I was at an all time low of 195 lbs and slacked (quite a bit) ending up at my current weight of 208 lbs. That doesn't really detail how I made it but it took a LOT of work and I look forward to getting close to my college weight!

USW- 237

CSW- 208

GW- 200  

UGW- 190   (what your healthy target weight is)

PW- 237

CW- 208

MFP- My Fitness Pal

[CorgiOnslaught]

If you're looking for cheap workout equipment check out auction sites/estate sales/used sports equipment stores. I convinced the girlfriend and myself to buy some and have been using it regularly. It's all resistance bands, free weights, exercise balls, and kettlebells but they are extremely versatile!

[SunsetRunner]

Yesterday was a banner step day and today is looking good. I do get frustrated that the FitBit Blaze only gives me about 1500-2000 step credits for 60 minutes of spin class. I am also having trouble with it capturing my heart rate during exercise. I wear a chest strap so that I can see my HR on the machines. Sometimes the two rates are close (the FitBit is almost always a bit lower) and sometimes they are 40-50 beats off! Other times it doesn't detect one at all. I have tried different positions on my wrist (I originally followed the inch above the wrist bone instructions) and keeping my wrist straight but don't see a consistent improvement. Any advice would be appreciated.

[_Lilac_]

@SunsetRunner To catch the spin steps a suggestion would be to attach the blaze to the part of your body that's moving. The foot. Since it comes out of the band, you could set it securely in your sock, hoping to pick up the heart rate. I've used it in my bra. The problem with it on the wrist is that it isn't moving since you are holding onto the handle/bar. I hope this helps

[Annabel398]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

... I do get frustrated that the FitBit Blaze only gives me about 1500-2000 step credits for 60 minutes of spin class. ...

---

I did a 45-min spin class Monday and my Fitbit (Charge 2) counted 2,717 steps (+313 calories), so I wanted to check to be sure you're using the exercise shortcuts, which will be much more accurate.

So, in the app, go to your account, tap on Blaze, then scroll down to Exercise Shortcuts. If Spinning is one of the six listed, great, go to the next paragraph. If not, tap Edit, delete one of the ones you don't do, then tap "+ Exercise shortcut" and pick Spinning. Now you have spinning set up as one of your shortcuts. (Sync your app with your Blaze before going on.)

When you go to spin class, swipe your Blaze to the Exercise menu, tap, and then swipe to Spinning. Tap the Play button and it will start recording.  You can see real-time stats like heart rate, minutes, etc. Don't forget to turn it off when you're done! Pressing the upper right button on your watch will show you your summary stats.

I hope this helps!

[SunsetRunner]

@Annabel398 yes I use the shortcuts - that was one of the first thing I did on the app since I spin 3X a week. Maybe the lower steps is due to my heartrate not being detected all the time.

I don't think I could comfortably put the blaze into my sock and the strap isn't big enough to go around my ankle. I have always based my workouts on HR so as long as I use my chest strap during my workout, I know where my HR is. I just know I go more steps in a day than the FitBit indicates.