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!!

[_Lilac_]

The snowstorm last night left us with about 10 inches of the stuff. By the time I got up this morning my wonderful neighbour had cleared our driveways and the plows had been very thorough through the night, so the streets are well-groomed. They have a layer of snow but it's hard-packed and smooth. Big dog with cabin fever so I took him for our walk but within a few minutes he was limping and shivering in cold, so I brought him home. The little dog was perfectly fine and we walked our longer walk. I returned home to shovel the deck off and make a path to the backyard. On the heartrate graph I can see exactly where I started to shovel because there's a spike and it continued on at a higher rate. So, I got 4000 steps but I need more. I'll probably go for a walk by myself later, since the road conditions are pretty good. I might also do a longer youtube video. 

Keep going everyone! Another week is down. My scale showed .5lb loss but since I'm on a 8-9 day loss cycle I will expect it to drop in the next few days. I'm feeling encouraged, been doing everything right, going to treat myself today with some alone time to work on a writing project. The dogs are napping, my daughter left for work and the tv is off. So nice and quiet except for my ancient fridge buzzing and rumbling. *note to self...price fridges*

[SunsetRunner]

I agree that the way the forum is set up is a bit confusing. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I exceeded the 10000 steps yesterday but today will be my down day. I don't normally do a workout on Sunday. I am still trying to make the step goal though. Food is always a struggle for me - I love to eat. On a positive note, I fit into a skirt today that hasn't been able to zip up since before Christmas. Baby steps!

[bookseller]

today's weight: 152.6

goal: to be 142 by Feb. 14. That's 2 lbs a week. I think that'll be super challenging, but doable and healthy. I've set the fitbig foodplan log, to "harder" intensity which is 2 lbs a week making me 142 by Feb. 14th! I am simultaneously following the book,"Hormone Reset" by Sara Gottfried, M.D. because I have a feeling my hormones (after menopause), are pretty out of whack (my own intuition and I took the assessment in her book ) and are impacting what my body does with food in a negative way aka, it's really hard to lose weight even when I exercise a ton. She doesn't think it isn't as simple as calories in, calories out, especially for women, but believes hormones govern all aspects of fat loss. In order not to shock our bodies too much she suggests focusing on one of the 7 metabolic hormones every few days and adjusting meal plan accordingly. So, for the next 3 days I'll be working on estrogen levels by excluding red meat (I already do that), eating 35 gms vegetables a day (I usually 20-25) keeping carbs under 50grams (I usually eat double that) and 50%of total cals in good fats.(I don't usually eat that much fat, but yay!). So a few manageable tweaks...worth a try for sure. Alright, thanks for reading, and have a great, healthy Sunday!

[_Lilac_]

Whew I'm hungry. Belly rumbles, pangs and everything. I had a late lunch and did a 33 min walking video (2 mile) on youtube. It was exhilerating. But then I got starving! Nothing in my house looks good. I just have to suck it up, buttercup and eat the boring food. Haha. I'm so 'below' on calories today that I need to do something. I've had lots of water. I even got some writing done! Pretty successful day. 

[Glenda]

                                    Lilac,  I hope like heck that you get step credit for snow shoveling.  Surely!!!  So were you 4000 steps including some for snow or just the 2 walks?  Either way you are amazing.  Do folks with a foot of snow manage to train dogs to use a litter box or do they go out in blizzards?  There was a cat show here in Houston yesterday with a picture in the paper.  I can't imagine how people train those cats to allow stranger to  hold & handle them like that.  Amazing.

[_Lilac_]

@Glenda the 4000 steps was for the dog walking and shovelling but the fitbit doesn't recognize the shovelling as a lot of movement, just the increased heartrate. And no, dogs don't use a litter box. You shove them outside, they lift their legs then run in as fast as they can. My large southern dog will hold his pee 16 hours to avoid the cold, but I pull him out when he's being that ridiculous. I got another 3000 steps doing the walking video and i'll go meet my daughter after her shift at 11pm, which will bring my total up over 10000 for the day. I sat around a lot too. Lazy and productive. Gotta balance things out right?

[lsenger]

USW: 219

I can't remember the other abbreviations.  I will look at them tomorrow.  I am typing from my phone.

Weight on January 1st: 207

Weight today: 203.8

I will weigh on Mondays to report.

Weight by February 14th: 195

Ultimate goal weight: 150

I have been focusing on 10,000 steps, staying in the zone and drinking water.  I have included more veggies.

[lsenger]

Awesome job!!

[BLLingg]

It's been a Roller Coaster Week yet there's no apparent (visible?) correlation with my Intake vs Outgo! 

• 0102 - Out exceeded In by 883 and on 0103 weighed 181.4;
• 0103 - Out exceeded In by 196 and on 0104 weighed 180.4
• 0104 - In exceeded Out by 758 and on 0105 weighed 180.4;
• 0105 - Out exceeded In by 897 and on 0106 weighed 180.2;
• 0106 - Out exceeded In by 869 and on 0107 weighed 180.2;
• 0107 - In exceeded Out by 14 and on 0108 weighed 181.8;
• 0108 - Out exceeded In by 629 and today weight 181.0

And now for my "Official" Weekly Weigh In!

28 July 2010 - PW - 280.8  (Just discovered an old Log.)

06 June 2016 - USW (in FitBit) - 216

27 Dec - CSW - 183.4

1. 02 Jan - Goal - 182.2 - CW 182.6
   
2. 09 Jan - Goal - 181.0 - CW 181.0
   
3.  16 Jan - Goal - 179.8
4. 23 Jan - Goal - 178.6
5. 30 Jan - Goal - 177.4
6. 06 Feb - Goal - 176.2
7. 13 Feb - Goal - 175

14 Feb - GW - 175

UGW - (but not a "Healthy" BMI) - 150

[Bobbinyc]

Check in:

SW 12/25 186.0

1/2    186.0

1/9     186.0

My weight has been the same for months, despite increasing activity, eating well.  I gain a .5 if I eat in restaurants a lot, and it goes back to 186.  I had gained 30 pounds when I was sick last year and I assumed it would come right off.  Nothing.   I have tried focusing on just being as healthy as possible - active, good food, lots of water (not great at that).  Sometimes I get discouraged and get way way off track.  And then try again.  Nothing changes.  I know my thyroid is off, but still.  I couldn't keep my weight this steady if I tried.  I kind of gave up the past week and wasn't active and  ate junk which I try so hard not to do. I didn't gain any weight. I might stop weighing myself- it's too weird.  I am hoping to get back on track now and just focus on health.  

[alegria16]

@BobbinycYou'll start to lose again. Sometimes our bodies just don't want to budge for a while. It's frustrating. But focusing on health and not necessarily the movement of the scale (or lack thereof) is the most important part. Sending positive thoughts your way!

[Gayle1018]

Yeppie!  had a good week last week.   Since it was too darn cold to walk outside, was able to meet a friend and walk an inside track so we both could get our 10K steps in... wish it was easier to get there during the week...  So have great outlook and resolve again after weigh-in  

USW- Ultimate Starting Weight  196.6

 Start of challenge 161  as of (12/30/16)

CR 157.4 

GW for valentine’s Day :  154

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

Have a good week all!!!

[alegria16]

USW (6/19/16) = 204 lbs
SW (12/26/16) = 193

1/2/17 = 192

CW (1/9/17) = 191
GW (2/14/16) = 187
UGW = 155

A teeny bit down! I haven't done anything differently, but I'll take it! Maybe it's getting back into a regular cycle of life after so much travel between September and December (where I gained back about 10 pounds of the weight I'd lost over the summer).

Nothing new on the new fella. He seems to be doing that thing where they retreat for a time. So I'll go do my thing while he does his for a bit.

[Cele21]

USW- 215.0

CSW- 213.4

LW- 213.4

CW- 212.4

GW- 199.4

UGW- 150

Another unexpected loss - hope these surprises continue 🙂

[HeartBiller]

I don't know why but I seem to be to good with logging and tracking during the weekends.. It seems like life is always so rush rush. I wish I knew had to take time to log and track all I need to. I would love to spend more time on here replying to many peoples post. I read them all and want to reply to so many but am always in such a rush to get back to what ever I was doing when I took 5 minutes to jump on here and post. I am going to work on that. It is something I really want to make happen!!

Anyhow, its not official weigh day until tomorrow, so I won't post anything about my weight just yet, but am very hopeful for a descent lose since we are doing this Daniel Fast and it is all natural foods. I haven't been getting all my steps in everyday, but not doing too horrible most days. I have had a few days that looked pretty sad.

I guess I will pop back in tomorrow with my official weekly weight...lol. I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to our new week.

[_Lilac_]

The struggles of weight loss:  I was tying the full garbage bag in my kitchen and took a few steps when I had to gasp. My pants slid off my rump and fell to my thighs. I had to open my legs quick or they'd have hit the floor. I'm glad no one was around to witness that!!! 

[Annabel398]

12/25 | (start) 134.2

1/1      ███▌-0.7

1/8     ██████████ -1.9 (goal -1.4)

1/15    ██████████▌-2.1

1/22   ██████████████ -2.8

1/29   █████████████████▌-3.5

2/5     █████████████████████ -4.2

2/12    ████████████████████████▌-4.9

2/14    █████████████████████████▌ goal: 129.1 (-5.1)

This looks good (weighed on Sunday), but I've already bounced back up again  I swear, I have lost and regained the same 2-3 pounds about a dozen times since November. However, I just bought a three-pack of spin classes so I'm determined to get below the next landmark weight and push on to my VDay goal.

The weather is doing its typical Texas thing--below freezing yesterday, up to mid-70s tomorrow... I'm a cold-weather wimp, so I'm rooting for balmy days again!

How's everyone else doing? 

[bookseller]

weight loss so far with my new aria, fitbit and eating 1lb of veggies a day. And yes, I know it's probably mostly water, but still I really needed to see movement because I've been stuckkkkkkk for awhile now. So, yay. Also, helps to post it on here just keep it real.

Jan 7th: 153.6

Jan 8th: 152.4

Jan 9th: 151.2

[_Lilac_]

@Annabel398  It is -28C here, which is -18F. Can't be a cold weather wimp around here!!

[Glenda]

Alegria16, The February Consumer Reports magazine has a good article on online dating if you can get a copy somewhere. They surveyed 115,000 people about their experiences, 9,600 who had used them in the last 2 years to rate them. 44% of respondents said their experience led to a serious long-term relationship or marriage. But they found it frustrating and difficult and gave them a lower rating for services rendered than for computer tech support services !!! ho ho ho.

..........there is no incentive for the sites to make the experience speedy. If you find a partner on the first date they don't make much money off you. Some people tried 4 sites. But however painful and time-consuming it often does produce the intended result if used well and you persevere. They think you are best off using the big3: Match.com, OkCupid & Plenty of Fish because they are the most popular and "when you are fishing drop your line in the most crowded ponds. OkCupid & Tinder, both free are more popular among millennials. Generation X & baby boomers were more likely to use paid subscription-based sites.

...........They give advice on crafting a "Profile with Polish. Don't lie about age or anything, Have a good headshot with eyes showing, & a full body shot too. (no surprises later) Be brief and make people smile.

.........Don't take it personally and don't give up. It is an 8 page article and includes avoiding scams and a dating dictionary.