Halloween to Thanksgiving (U.S.) Challenge 2016

[Bobbinyc]

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Halloween to Thanksgiving Challenge!!!

This challenge will begin on Halloween October 31st and finish on Thanksgiving (U.S.) November 24th. This is a little less than 4 weeks!  It helps us be realistic about weight loss goals and practice good habits before the next set of  holidays.

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 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 Nov. 24)

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_]

@A_Lurker Yes, you are so busy and have enough worries that it's difficult to take care of yourself when there are so many responsibilities. Things are close to resolving. You will have time to plan.

I'm struggling to have supper before it's too late. After my nap I had my apple and cheese but now I'm not hungry for supper and it's 7pm. I have NO interest in cooking and would rather get cereal and fruit, something easy. So I think I'm going to cross the steak and mushrooms and string beans off the plan and scavenge. 

[A_Lurker]

@Bobbinyc if it was just me I'd have just picked up some lettuce and had cheese, turkey pepperettes and some fruit.  Since I was cooking for my mother we did some chicken tortilla soup (I had purchased it as an impulse at Costco) with a side of toasted cheese.  It was nice, however, I'm still pretty low in calories for the day.  I'll go look for something else shortly.

I bought a stove on the way home.  It will be delivered tomorrow and I need to do some shopping on the way home anyway.

[A_Lurker]

@_Lilac_ I'm off to scavenge as well myself.  Happy hunting...

[Bobbinyc]

plan for today was:

log all food.  DONE

wake up and do yoga  - gentle, small amount  to get the juices flowing  DONE

walk 10,000 - with at least 30 consecutive minutes at cardio rate    - not quite 10,000, but did 40 min cardio

20 flights stairs  DONE

set alarm for every hour to move and drink water - and do it at least 8 times  did 6 glasses - alot for me

1/2 hour of another physical activity DONE

Putting it in writing and posting, made me much more determined to get it all done.

[_Lilac_]

@A_Lurker I settled on a cup of granola, 3/4 cup 2% milk, banana, and two single stick fruit juice popsicles.

I spent two hours mistakenly watching two episodes of the 600lb life show. Even though it was depressing because it reminded me so much of physically caring for an obese person with terminal cancer (moving him, washing, and how hard it was for him just to live), it made me realize how lucky I am for being the size I am, how I haven't let it get too far, how much success I've had, and how much motivation I can generate on my own. I can move. I can walk and for a long distance. I even jogged the length of about 4 houses on my street two times today while I walked the dogs. And I didn't injure myself! I can do this. 

[_Lilac_]

@Bobbinyc  Yay. I think logging everything will show you the great things you are doing. You set goals and met them. That's why I started out the last challenge doing weekly happiness goals. By accomplishing them, I was motivating myself and enjoying the journey. I should start doing that again just because it made me...happy. 

I applaud your yoga. I don't think I'd be able to do it with my poor balance and coordination. There are chair yoga videos on youtube so I might try that so I don't fall down a lot. I also can't do a lot of moves that involve being on the floor...because I can't get off the floor. Hahaha. Remember that old thing, "I've fallen and I can't get up." 

I hope you make more goals tomorrow and beat them!

[DJC_63]

@Bobbinyc  Because you always remind me of the day that I was stressed out and upset so I went to the gym, I wanted to share with you what I did today.  My Mom has always had issues with not respecting boundaries.  As my sister-in-law says, she's a "boundary crusher".  I discovered tonight that once again she had done something that I've asked her numerous times not to do with my belongings. I got so frustrated and angry, so once again I went to the gym. Today was supposed to be my recovery day, but I needed to get that aggravation out. I will probably be hurting tomorrow but I had over 12,000 steps today! (my typical days step goal is 6,000 steps)

Maybe I'll even lose a half a pound!

[DJC_63]

That's great, @Bobbinyc! Congrats on hitting all of those goals! I need to start setting goals too.

[Gayle1018]

I'm so exited after a 2.5 week holding steady and no loss showing,  decided to weigh in today,  down 3LB!!  woo hoo!  Thanks to the challenge this last week I've been making sure to get my steps in and water.   

thanks for the motivation and encouragement!  -35 total since last May...

[Bobbinyc]

@Gayle1018  Gayle, that's terrific!  Our bodies rarely go in a straight line.  It's a biological process and there is more to it than we know.  We have to respect that.  I like to think that if we do our part, eventually our bodies will find the weight that is healthiest.  

[Bobbinyc]

@DJC_63  Wow!  You truly amaze me.  When we are stressed, it is so easy to lose motivation.  But that's exactly when we need to take super good care of our health.  I hope you aren't hurting too much today, but look at what you can do!  Enjoy feeling proud of yourself.

(and I'm so glad you are posting more again )

[HeartBiller]

Ok, I am new to this, but after reading the other post... I am sort of lost..lol. Not hard for me...lol. SO I am wondering if I am hurting my self worse by not eating more. I have the fitbit and I (most days) track everything I eat. I rarely ever am in the green. I am always under.. I "thought" this would help me lose more. Am I wrong? It is always a struggle for me. I guess I just assumed the less food the better.

[Bobbinyc]

Plan for today:

log all food.

wake up and do yoga  - gentle, small amount  to get the juices flowing  DONE

go to gym and do strength and stretching, work smaller muscles, balance DONE

walk 7,000 - with at least 30 consecutive minutes at cardio rate

20 flights stairs

set alarm for every hour to move and drink water - and do it at least 8 times

[Gayle1018]

@HeartBiller - Might wanna try GREEN etc,  I was in the Yellow and not going anywhere so got off track, was green with a day of RED,  then back on track.     I think sometimes the body hoards calories if it thinks it's not getting enough verse burn them.    Hang in there the truth will "weights" out. 

[Bobbinyc]

@_Lilac_  Just to be clear - when I say yoga it should be in quotes.  Any yogi looking at me would think "What on earth is that woman doing?"  After being bed/chair ridden all last winter, I had lost  a lot of muscle, balance, flexibility, stamina, etc.  I signed up for several things hoping it would help.  I have been in a yoga/pilates class and, believe me, I don't fit in.  When the teacher says to bend knees, put an arm across one thigh, twist to the right, look up to the left, wrap one foot around your leg, bring the right arm over your head, etc etc. and then breathe... yeah, right.    All I can do is burst out laughing.  So I hold on to a chair and try to stand on one foot.  And yeah, getting up from a mat is really hard!  Everyone rocks forward and bounces up on their feet.  I can't even find my feet! I keep a chair near me.  So every morning I try to do some moving around, walk, a jumping jack or two,  and stretching a bit to get the juices flowing and get the stiffness out. I do one warrior pose for balance and to tell myself I will be a warrior all day.  I can hold it for 2 seconds.   Now that's what I call yoga!

[HeartBiller]

@Gayle1018 I guess I will try going more to the green... I have only had a few green days.. Almost all are yellow, and here I thought I was doing a good thing...lol.

[_Lilac_]

Missed going to the pool today but decided to do a lot of housework. I've been neglecting my surroundings while taking care of myself. I did three trips to the basement for laundry and moving things into storage. I did all the dishes and cleaned my kitchen. Then my daughter said, "Do you want to go to the Y and work out?" So I did 30 min on the recumbent bike and 15 on the treadmill (without falling off or having a seizure). That's success. I had a great lunch and intend to do more housework. And the dogs need their walks. So far so good today!

[A_Lurker]

@HeartBiller - how much to eat is a complicated question.  For some people eating too much can stall weight loss or cause weight gain.  For some people eating too little can (over a period of time) supress your metabolism and stall weight loss.  There are some who eat very few calories and lose lots of weight quickly.  I'm in the middle group.  Eating too little seems to stall my weight loss.  I'm not talking about one day of too few calories, but say a week.  Back when I was only weighing weekly I could almost guarantee that a week with a deficit of 1500-2000 a day would result in almost no loss (one week a gain) and then I would raise my calories the next week and drop the weight I should have, plus some from that week.

Weight loss isn't purely linear.  There are so many things in play.  Everyone has their favourite way of eating.  Myself, I simply treat it as a budget.  I burn roughly 3500+ calories a day.  My budget is 2500 calories.  If I have a low burn day I eat less.  If I want to eat something I simply make sure that it fits within my budget.  Mostly I eat homemade meals, but at night when I'm low in calories for the day I will definitely eat some food that most wouldn't consider diet food.  I'm am lowering that a bit as I go.

[Bobbinyc]

Plan for today:

log all food. DONE

wake up and do yoga  - gentle, small amount  to get the juices flowing  DONE

go to gym and do strength and stretching, work smaller muscles, balance DONE

walk 7,000 - with at least 30 consecutive minutes at cardio rate  not quite

20 flights stairs  DONE

set alarm for every hour to move and drink water - and do it at least 8 times   - uh oh

[_Lilac_]

I kinda splurged on food today, making homemade banana bread muffins. My daughter brought me home my favourite chicken wings in the world (3 of them), and I had a mini pizza earlier. I'm still under goal for calories so I'm not too worried. I had too much salt though, so I'll be worrying about swelling and retaining water. I have 9800 steps but by the time I take the dogs for their bedtime pee and get ready for bed, I'll make 10000. 

Tomorrow is the writers' group meeting so if the weather cooperates, I'll walk all the way there. It's approximately 1.75 miles. 

Continue on for a healthy weekend everyone!