Christmas Weight Loss Challenge

[Purplepiggie]

I have decided since it is 90 days til Christmas the best gift I can give myself is better health. In the past 9 months I have slowly lost 40lbs give or take usually stays a between 35-40lbs. I would like to lose another 20lbs + by Christmas. This would put me at almost the halfway point for my weight loss. I was doing paleo for a while but found myself bingeing on cheat meals and eating way to many things that I shouldn't. So now I have decided no foods are off limit I will log every bite of everything and if I choose to eat more than allotted for my activity I will have to be more active to stay within my calorie deficit for the day and see how everything goes from there. Feel free to join me on this journey. Also add me as a friend so we can challange each other.

Moderator Edit: Corrected subject

[BLLingg]

Good Point, @_Lilac_!  I need to take a look at my Calorie Deficit and my BMR.  I have a tendency to go below my BMR occasionally.

[A_Lurker]

@BLLingg- I set my goals 25 pounds at a time.  I've never been my correct weight (not since I was a kid) so I'm not really sure where I'm heading.  My family doctor gave me a number much higher than I would have picked, but at the moment I'm not even heading for that number.  I have no specific time in mind - I'll get there when I get there. 

[almost_where]

Week 1 - 283 - (11/06)

Week 2 - 278 - (11/13)

Week 3 - 275 - (11/20)

Week 4 - 274 - (11/27) 

Week 5 - 272 - (12/04)

Week 6 - 272 - (12/11) - CW

Week 7 - - - (12/18) 

Christmas Goal = 269.99 lbs.

-0 lb

Odd week for sure, good luck everyone.

[A_Lurker]

@A_Lurker wrote:

USW: 407.0

CSW: 360.0 (Feb 2016)
PW: 267.4 (11/27/16)
CW: 265.8 (-1.6)
GW: 259.2 (Christmas)
LT: 2.14 lbs/week for 44 weeks

I'm not surprised to have not lost more this week.  I've had multiple meals out and I'm now into the full cookie ball making swing.  I do my best not to pick at what I'm making, but I know I do some.  So for the moment I'm looking at maintaining around where I am until Christmas (whichever meal I have with my mother) and then I'm going back to calorie counting for a little while.  I was doing well with planning, not counting, but too many other meals made it difficult to keep track (even mentally).

USW: 407.0

CSW: 360.0 (Feb 2016)
PW: 265.8 (12/04/16)
CW: 265.0 (-0.8)
GW: 259.2 (Christmas)  <-- not really aiming for this anymore
LT: 2.11 lbs/week for 45 weeks

[BLLingg]

I'll be changing my Profile Target Goal to 175 before I log 185#.  But there's no panic now.  Dern it!

14 Nov (CW = 191.8)

21 Nov (G 191;  Reached 190.2)

28 Nov (G 190;  Reached 188.2)

05 Dec (G189;  Up to 189)

12 Dec (G188;  Down to 185.2 then back up; at 186.6 Today!)

19 Dec (G187)

Christmas (G 185)

At least I'm still below Today's Micro Goal!  Not worried.  (Too much.)  I know it'll go back down!!  Besides, I've taken care of that extra Pound!!!

[BLLingg]

With Christmas less than 2 Weeks away, what comes next?  Valentines Day?  20 June (first Day of Summer - with Swimsuits not far behind for some of us/you)?? 

I really like this "Mid Term" Challenge and the camaraderie we have!  It's as good as the other Shorter Term Challenges!  They work well together, buttressing and supplementing one another—AND me!!!

[HeartBiller]

Well it has been what seemed like a long crazy super hectic weekend. I have always (and still do) look forward to the weekends just to rest from work. BUT the weekends are so much harder on me weight wise. I do not do near as well over the weekend as I do during the week. I had my grandson's birthday party Saturday. I didn't really do bad, I only had one hotdog and 2 very small bites of the cake. (just the cool whip off the top...lol) ( I love cool whip frosting) anyhow, it was already a struggling day for me. Sunday we generally go out to lunch after church.. I didn't do so well there, Had ribs.. maybe a few to many.. :-(, then last night we went to a Christmas play that a friend of ours son was in and they had snacks everywhere... I WAS BAD... I need this holiday to be over... Did I mention sweets is my major weakness.... 😞

I didn't gain any weight I don't think, but I sure don't think I lost any.... Tomorrow will tell.

I used to love this time of year so much, but the more commercialized it gets the less I like it. But to be honest, I really don't know why this week has been such a struggle for me. It has been a struggle in everything this past week/weekend. Just so much going on with work, family and then you add the holidays in and it sometimes is just too much. I won't whine too much...lol. Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and rest of the week. I will check in tomorrow with my official weight.

[HeartBiller]

Well it has been what seemed like a long crazy super hectic weekend. I have always (and still do) look forward to the weekends just to rest from work. BUT the weekends are so much harder on me weight wise. I do not do near as well over the weekend as I do during the week. I had my grandson's birthday party Saturday. I didn't really do bad, I only had one hotdog and 2 very small bites of the cake. (just the cool whip off the top...lol) ( I love cool whip frosting) anyhow, it was already a struggling day for me. Sunday we generally go out to lunch after church.. I didn't do so well there, Had ribs.. maybe a few to many.. :-(, then last night we went to a Christmas play that a friend of ours son was in and they had snacks everywhere... I WAS BAD... I need this holiday to be over... Did I mention sweets is my major weakness.... 😞

I didn't gain any weight I don't think, but I sure don't think I lost any.... Tomorrow will tell.

I used to love this time of year so much, but the more commercialized it gets the less I like it. But to be honest, I really don't know why this week has been such a struggle for me. It has been a struggle in everything this past week/weekend. Just so much going on with work, family and then you add the holidays in and it sometimes is just too much. I won't whine too much...lol. Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and rest of the week. I will check in tomorrow with my official weight.

[Annabel398]

10/10 | (start)

10/17 ████▌-0.3

10/24 █████████████▌-2.7

10/31 ████████████████████████ -4.8

11/07 ████████████████████▌-4.1

11/14  ████████████████████████████▌-5.7

11/21  ███████████████████████████▌-5.5

11/28  ████████████████████████████████ -6.2

12/05 ████████████████████████████████████▌-5.6

12/12 █████████████████████████████████████████ -6.8

12/19 █████████████████████████████████████████████▌

12/25 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ (goal: -10)

Hmm... Bad news: Last week set me back quite a bit. Good news: Made good progress this week. 

It really is eye-opening how much slacking off on exercise for just a few days slowed me down. I am now busily scouring Craigslist for exercise equipment. 

The discussion around resetting goals/intermediate "mini-goals" has been interesting. I started out setting mini-goals but have now shifted to slightly larger ones, because a) I'm not too easily discouraged, and b) I realized that if you keep setting 10 lb goals and then resetting them, you never get the weight badges with the big numbers! I admit it, I love badges!

How's everyone else doing?

[Glenda]

                                    Annabel398,  I want to suggest a goal for all of you in this group.   Take your picture or have your friend take your picture so that when you lose weight you can win money and inspire others.  What if you lose a bunch and you don't have an appropriate picture?  

at http//www.livestrong.com/before-after-contest terms  you can read about the current contest which ends at Christmas or something  but they do this over and over.  The prize is $250.   visa gift card .  You just submit the before and after picture, 10 sentences about the amount of weight you lost, fitness & nutrition changes, obstacles overcome, what you are most proud of & what inspired you.  The most recent lady they reported went from 245 to 145 and she was wearing jeans and a knit shirt in her before picture & was standing.  You don't have to do a swim suit thing (which some suggest you do to inspire yourself) but you might want to have on clean clothes and comb your hair for a picture displayed to the public?  They don't expect you to have done it quickly particularly.  You are losing weight anyway.

[A_Lurker]

@Annabel398- I thought of that myself, about setting a larger goal.  My first goal was 300 pounds, which gave me a 60 pound lost badge.  At that point I started setting 25lb goals, so I'll never see a larger badge.  I decided that I'm okay with that though. 

[BLLingg]

I don't believe it, @Glenda!  There has to be something whacko with whoever wrote what you read!!!  I can't be THAT much out of the Norm!?!?!?  Over the past 10 Weeks, I averaged 46.3 different Foods per Week!?!?  (I'm not impugning what you said!  I just can't believe the veracity of the Stats!!)

[BLLingg]

Whine all you need to, @HeartBiller!  That's a place I've been many a time, something I've done more times than I can recall!  And I'm sure I'm not the Lone Ranger!!  If we can't be open & honest here, then we're down for the count!!!  Sometimes you're down, sometimes you're flyin' high!  We're here to listen.  Maybe advise. 

But it sure feels mighty hard to whine outloud when it seems as though every one else is so strong while we're feelin' as weak as a New Born Kitten!!!

[HeartBiller]

@BLLinggThanks for the permission to whine. Some times we need that. However I think I have been doing a lot of it...lol. Maybe not as  much here as at home..lol. This past week was a real struggle for me.. Not just weight wise, but in general. I guess with the Christmas holiday getting so close everyone and everything has gone haywire...lol. We have been short staffed at the office for almost 2 weeks now and when you are a small office... anyone out throws a wrench in things. Then at home all the hustle of getting ready for Christmas.. Just seems life is so super busy.

[HeartBiller]

In regards to the goal or mini goal... I guess I didn't give that much thought when I first got the fit bit and I just added what I wanted my ultimate goal to be.... Now, in my head and like here in this group, I set MANY mini goals..lol. I usually set them for 5 to 10 pounds depending on the time frame I have. For me personally I guess each goal is 5 pounds.. lol. I always want to aim for the scale to say either like 9.9 or 4.9, depending what number I am close to...lol. Today I had a goal of 169.9, just so I could see the 6 as my second number, lol. Well I didn't make that goal, but I am very excited about today anyhow, because today's weight makes me EXACTLY 40 pounds I have lost. Anyhow, my Christmas goal which I may or may not make..lol., was picked for this challenge just because it will make exactly half way to my ultimate goal.. So all in all it is just our personal preference. My sister said to me,.. You are crazy for setting your goal for 125, those days are gone...(she said it with love) She likes to set just mini goals.. You know I may not ever get to 125, but who knows, maybe I will... So I guess that's my 2 cents on it all...lol.

Now for my weekly official weigh in

MY stats
USW - 210 lbs
SW - 210 lbs
10/25/16 - 178.4 lbs
11/01/16 - 177.6 lbs - 0.8 lbs
11/08/16 - 174.8 lbs - 2.8 lbs
11/14/16 - 174.3 lbs  - 0.5 lbs

11/22/16 - 171.6 lbs - 2.7 lbs
11/29/16 - 175.2 lbs  3.6 Gain 😞

12/06/16 - 171.4 Lost the 3.6 I had gained plus lost 2 more ounces .. . - 3.8 lbs 12/13/16 - 170.0 lbs - 1.4 lbs

Total Lost so far this challenge - 8.4 pounds Exactly 40 lbs down from my ultimate start!!!
Goal Weight by Christmas - 167.5
UGW - 125 lbs

[Gayle1018]

morning, still alive and trying.  But holiday baking is getting to be my downfall!  packaging everything up and it's out of the house tomorrow!!   Plus getting my tooth pulled should help- it's snowing, so hard to get the steps in.. All in all - need some  major inspiration to get back on track and not slide through the holiday season...  enough whining,- so far to day doing well on eating and water, but steps.... not so good

[Glenda]

BLLingg, Do you cook? I eat the same stuff over and over mostly. This week I ate some gifts though. Corn relish which I dearly love and never see any recipe for and some hot Thi (foreign and probably mis spelled) sauce, but may be as good and hot as the sauce I made for the carrots recently. I cook hardly anything but the carrot dish at Thanksgiving was so good I made it twice. It had red chillies.

[Birkenhead]

Hi Gayle1018!  'Invent' steps!  Take the longest route in the house and while foods are baking put in steps.  Make several trips to the pantry/fridge for items rather than one trip getting all at once. While packing boxes take steps after each one packed by walking around the room you are in or around the house.  Walk around during TV commercials or after each chapter of a book/article in a magazine.  And when you take the packaged boxes to the car for mailing make a trip with each box individually rather than carrying all at once.  I try to invent steps all the time (am retired and find it difficult to maintain activity level I had while working) and by doing so usually go above my 10,000 goal for the day.  Sounds silly but it works 🙂

[HeartBiller]

@Gayle1018I guess since we are trying to get the scale to go DOWN... I shouldn't feel so badly that one of those packages isn't coming my way...lol. I absolutely love Christmas and all the goodies that come with it.. BUT I am trying very hard to get through this Christmas without having all the goodies... BUT I will not lie, it is not an easy task! I am so glad we have so many wonderful people here for support!

I do the long trips to help get steps in. I will do the very things we raised our kids not to do...lol. I go to the fridge and get one item at a time out and walk it across the room and then go back for the next one...lol. But hey I am the one paying the electric bill so I guess I can open and close it as much as I want...lol. It is just so funny when you remember telling your kids not to open and close it like that...lol.

Best of luck to all on our journey!

[SunsetRunner]

Ok, here it goes for this week. Couple of glasses of wine on the weekend but didn't splurge on food and felt very satisfied with myself!

SW = 204.6

W1(G 202) =201.6 (-3) 11/20

W2 (G200) =204.2 (+3) 11/27

W3 (G198) =201.1 ( -3.1) 12/05

W4 (G198) =200.0 (-1.1) 12/13

Really, really wanted to see 199, next week for sure!

Hope everyone has a great week. Love the discussion of mini-goals, that is helpful for me.

[jlow]

Stayed the same, but I'm OK with that, since I 'fell off the wagon' a couple of times...

Keep it up everyone!  Just knowing you're all working at it too is helping me stay on track.

Hoping some of you may friend me 'fitbit@lowtek.ca' ; perhaps we can do some step challenges?

jl

Nov. 8th SW - 186.5

Nov. 13th - 186.6 (I'm calling this the same)
Nov. 22nd - 188
Nov. 29th CW - 186.8

Dec. 6th - 185.2

CW Dec. 13th - 185.3
Dec. 24 GW - 179