July 4, 2017 challenge

[Bobbinyc]

Welcome to the next Challenge!

This one will start today, May 30 and go to July 4th.  That gives us 5 weeks to work toward our next set of goals as we try to lose weight or maintain in a healthy way.  

Everyone is welcome to join this terrific group. You can post once weekly or every day - whatever you like - to share your journey, give and get support, offer advice, get some tips.  We have celebrated each other's successes, and empathized with the setbacks.  I personally found, the more I respond to others, the easier it is for me to focus on my own journey in a positive way.  We have seen great progress in previous challenges, in weight loss, health, learning, and non-scale success, because we are in it together and focusing on being healthier and living better lives.

Some of the terms used to report our weight:

USW - ultimate starting weight - the heaviest weight when you began to lose

SW - starting weight for this challenge

CW - current weight for the day you report in

GW - goal weight for this challenge, for Halloween

UGW - ultimate goal weight that you intend to reach eventually

Some people also include their height, their age, their BMI.  

All  you need to do to join, is start posting, usually with some of the weight information.

I do find this to be an amazing group of smart, wise, kind, and determined people.  I look forward to this next challenge, and sharing this journey and all we learn with each of you.

Bobbi

[WalkingLisa]

This weeks results:

USW -  386

SW - 317.5

5/30/2017   SW -    317.5

6/6/2017     CW -    316.8  | -0.7 lbs  🙂

6/13/2017   CW -

6/20/2017   CW - 

6/27/2017   CW -   

7/04/2017   GW-    299.9

UGW-  165

[em.kz]

Weekly Weigh-In #1

USW - 161.6 (12/25/16)

SW - 141.8 (5/30/17)

CW - 142.0 (6/6/17)

CW -  (6/13/17)

CW -  (6/20/17)

CW -  (6/28/17)

GW - 138.0 (7/4/17)

UGW #1 - 140

UGW #2 - 135

This last week was a bit of a rollercoaster. I started heading down and actually hit 140.0 but since then have just swung back up to 142.0 today. Hopefully it starts heading down again this next week!

[OrionNebula]

@ThatGreen I have a horrible time finding my pulse - always have! The neck is impossible. I used to be able to find it on my wrist, but even that is difficult now.

I thought I wasn't going to make my step goal for sure. I spent most of the day in class or grading papers. However, walking around the classroom helped and I took the pup for a long walk. I sealed the deal with some dancing. I'm still waiting for the scale to change. I tend to hold onto weight (probably as water) around this time of the month, though, so I'll probably see a rapid drop in a few days (by rapid I mean 2 pounds seemingly overnight).

I achieved a non-scale victory today as well. I walked up the stairs to my classroom and my legs didn't burn and I wasn't the slightest bit out of breath. Yes!

[Rozekara]

@Tybokitty Can you give us some ideas on what to eat? I would love to hear some suggestions as I eat way too many carbs!

[Tybokitty]

I was told lean meats, chicken, fish, watch the red meats, beans. Good fat - olive oil, peanut butter. And good carbs that are not empty. I actually have gone online and looked some of this stuff up. My fitness pal is a good place to start. Then I just watch what I eat. For me it seems to be the protein I need the most or I crave it.

Sent from my iPhone

[Bobbinyc]

@Rozekara  Generally, current thinking and research is: 1. no junk food.  No sugars, no processed starches like pasta, boxed cereals, etc.  Read labels.  If it has added sugars or things you can't pronounce, including all the artificial sugars, or if it is very processed grains...it translates as little nutrition for a lot of calories and things that aren't healthy.  2. Eat as close to natural as possible.  That means, food is not naturally in boxes or cans or processed.  It should look like the real food.  Real vegetables, real fish, chicken, turkey (if you eat that), real fruit.  3. Grains should be whole grains - whole wheat or quinoa, steel cut oats, etc.  If it is processed, they remove the healthy parts.  

So, meals might look light a protein (for me it is fish, beans or lentils) and lots of veggies.  They say the plate should be 1/2 to 3/4 vegetables.  Eat lots of greens. As fresh as possible.  Sometimes I add a bit of quinoa.  Or I'll steel cut oats for breakfast.

You can make a huge salad and add some  protein - say beans, or chicken to it.

For me, it has been more about eliminating the junk (my body is not a garbage can, why put junk in it?) and eating as clean as possible (I try fresh, organic when I can)

Also, drink lots of water.  Avoid the plastic bottles if possible.

I hope this helps.

[Bobbinyc]

For those new to trying to eat healthier, I learned a lot from two docs on PBS frequently:

Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Dr. Mark Hyman.  They don't push any fads or quick weight loss, but promote good health, which leads to a healthy weight loss.  Fuhrman has lots of recipes.

If you aren't used to cooking, and this is new, don't pressure yourself.  Do a little bit at a time, may one new thing each week or so.  You'll get there.

But cut out the junk.

And, sad to say, ice cream and chocolate have too much fat and sugar to not be junk 

Pasta too.

When you start to think about giving your body the nutrition and energy it needs, it starts to get a bit easier.  The beginning of the learning curve can be tough, but keep asking for help and you will get there.  We have people here who are experts on health, experts on food prep, have great healthy recipes....we are all in this together.

[ThatGreen]

@Bobbinyc  While some ice cream or a piece of chocolate every now and then isn't the best thing I can feed my body, it is still good for my well-being

[OrionNebula]

@Bobbinyc While it's a pretty good rule of thumb to avoid products with complicated chemical names if you want to avoid processed foods, that line of thinking is a bit anti-intellectual and may also cause you to skip over some food that's perfectly ok. Important vitamins have some weird chemical-sounding names such as Niacinimide (B3), Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), and Tocopherol (E). Of course, if you spot them on the label, it means they've been added to the product as part of processing. However, if the only processing was adding a few vitamins to my food, I personally would still call it clean. I'd also like to point out that all of our food contains a myriad of compounds with very complicated chemical names (Gala apples, for example, contain n-Hexyl-2-methylbutanoate). I think that if someone really wants to make informed choices about their food, the best bet is to learn more about common compounds used in the food industry and what types of processing exist and decide what the they are comfortable consuming.

Also, yes to avoiding plastic water bottles. The disposable type are so wasteful (and so many don't make it into the recycling bin), and there is a risk of BPA leaching into your food and water when using plastic containers. However, even BPA-free may not be as safe as we think. New research into BPS (the replacement for BPA) is finding that it's not so great, either.

[RachelShrinks]

I'm currently working through a (very difficult for me) dietary protocol for Hashimoto's (autoimmune hypothyroidism). It involves giving up (hopefully only temporarily) dairy, gluten, sugar, soy, caffeine, and alcohol. I rarely eat dairy, making my own vegan yogurt and such, and I'm not a huge fan of breads and pastas, but soy? That has been very difficult. My daughter is dairy allergic and soy has been the mainstay of her dairy- and cheese-like existence. She likes coconut milk, but it's completely lacking in protein and calcium, making it sort of useless for a 6yo's growing body. I could add calcium and pea protein powder to it, but that just makes it more processed... I've taken to doing with her what I do with my oldest who still drinks milk: The ones who need it get it and the ones who don't get something else. Time-consuming life, but there it is.

A great time-saver for me is protein and veg prep on the weekends. I don't cook a week worth of meals or anything, I just boil a bunch of eggs, cook and slice a slab of meat, and (yes, this is cooking) make a big lentil and rice stew. Then I make sure I have a ton of veggies cut. When I go to make lunches, each person gets the clean protein he or she wants, and clean veggies are cooked when needed or put into lunches raw. Add fresh fruit, and lunch is served. I do a modified version for dinners—particularly for my wife as chemotherapy has so destroyed her taste buds that she can't tolerate much but plain protein and a little veg anyway—adding a sauce the kids like or cooking an entree that is big enough to give me at least two nights of leftovers. If kids want grain, they can have, but my wife and I are mostly grain free.

My problem comes from eating too much of all this good stuff. I'm going to try this week to measure more consistently. And pack myself a bag for the day. I work from home, so I have full run of the kitchen. If I pack a bag for myself when I make everyone else's lunches at night, maybe I can stick to that bag?

Anyway, I didn't do my weigh in yesterday, so here it is:

USW 194 (1/1/2017)

CSW 165.3 (5/30)

CW (6/7) 163.6 (-1.7) Made my birthday goal early! YAY!

GW (6/14) 162.9 (edge it down 🙂 )

CGW (7/4) 159.9 (3.7 pounds—~1 lb a week)

UGW 145-ish? I keep revising, but basically anything under 150 is good

Cheers all!

[_Lilac_]

I went walking with Mom in the natural park this morning. My daughter wanted to go shopping for business-casual clothing for her new job. I went along to get potting soil. I spied myself in a full length mirror and I went, "Wow." While she shopped I glanced around the plus sized section and found some items to try on. I got some!! Second store...I got more! 2X. (I've come from 4X-5X)  I also bought new bras so my shape will be improved inside the new clothes. I am soooo cute! LOL. It was a really good day to find clothes that didn't make me feel disgusting and lumpy and massive. As I shrink I'm going to go broke. Haha. And I have to get rid of my big stuff. I am against wastefulness so it's very difficult for me to bag up clothes for donation or throwing out...I always think, "I could keep it to sleep or lounge in." or "But it's sooo comfy."

I just feel so good today. Over 10,000 steps, busy and active all day long. Time to make supper and relax. It was definitely a non-scale victory day!

[Daithílocha]

@_Lilac_ Such a happy feeling when we see the results of all our hard work. I so get the resistance to waste it's been drilled into me from childhood.  However this time I am doing something with clothes that no longer fit (well when I get there). It's like I have my fat clothes my very fat clothes my thin clothes and my inbetween ones.  Most are outdated and I will never wear again but I just seem to struggle with letting them go.  I read the life changing joy of tidying up by Marie Kondo recently and whilst I didn't take all her theories it really is a great book.  Tomorrow is weigh in for me and hoping for positive results I have been super good with my exercise less so with food today but nothing like what I would usually do if I wasn't on this challenge.  

[Daithílocha]

@RachelShrinks Kudos to you so much work.  I'm interested in dairy alternatives you use for your young child.  My 8 yr old is not allergic to dairy but he has excema and hay fever and those type of things.  I recently switched him to goats milk but I find it limited in variety how does soy work for your kIds?  Really admire your commitment makes me feel lazy I'm going to make more of an effort with his diet he's a brutal eater won't eat eggs or cheese at all and his appetite is tiny he is so thin when he gets sick it's awful he has no.reserves.

[IdahoSandy]

4TH OF JULY CHALLENGE
USW 208 lbs (5/22/16)
SW 166.9 (5/30)
CW 167 (6/6)
GW 161.9 (7/4)

Plan: mfp food tracker and exercise 5 days per week

[Daithílocha]

I have lost 2.5 lbs but am adjusting my goals to be more sustainable and to have a goals for this challenge of 2lb weekly loss.  And more importantly to keep up the exercise and logging food.

[_Lilac_]

I am resting a bit today. After all that shopping in the mall yesterday, I am worried about my knee so I'll take it easy. I walked up to the vet to get meds for big dog and came home. 3600 steps. I was going to mow but my yard is in full sun right now and it's 30C/86F, our hottest day so far. And the other day it was 5C/41F. We don't consider it summer when we have the potential of frost warnings overnight! I'll mow later when the sun is on the other side of the house.

The baby crow has learned to fly. He was in a tree with one parent and the other parent was watching over them. My neighbour and I named him 'Rocky' since he was a trooper and kept trying. I just saw him fly over to my roof. He's clumsy and looks a little disheveled compared to the adults, but he's doing great. He'll be attacking the squirrels over my seeds soon enough.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Thursday. It's almost Friday! Has anyone heard from @HeartBiller I'm starting to get worried.

[dancefoxtrot]

@OrionNebula  Yuck BPS now.  I have BPA free water jugs that I bring home reverse osmosis  water in, but I keep them out of the sun.  I'll have to read up on the darned dangers of BPS. It is most important to not have plastic bottles in cars that heat up in the sun as it releases the toxic chemicals.  I really don't think @Bobbinyc was saying avoid B3, 6 or 12 and Vit E tocopherols but as you pointed out they are usually added after the nutrition is removed from processed food.  I understood the main message was eat mostly veggies, fresh raw or cooked lightly and lean protein. Dr. Fuhrman.com has lots of good recipes as well as Eat to Live cookbook. 

I eat scrambled eggs with feta cheese some days for breakfast or whole multigrain cereal with blueberries or Greek yogurt and berries.  I try to eat a salad most days and well as veggies. I eat beans,lentils, fish, yogurt, cheese, nuts and seeds for protein. There are good veggie burgers that are ready to eat in 2 minutes and frozen veggies to eat in 4 minutes. 

Easy and healthy. 

Enjoy,

Barbara G

[_Lilac_]

Walked with Mom in the park again today before the rain set in. It's miserable now. I also took a walk with my daughter to the pharmacy/bank so I have over 8000 steps. My knee complained on the way home so I'll not do too much more. The last few days I've been hungry. Both physically and mentally. And I'm also retaining fluid...these things like hunger and water retention and pain just seem to feed off each other and snowball. I'm aware of it. I'm working through it. 

Not much else is happening. This group is quiet the last day or so. Everyone is so busy! Now that the weekend is here, I hope people stop in and post. 

Have a good weekend all!

[dancefoxtrot]

Yea @_Lilac_  I like your "I'm so cute"  Good for you.  I can give my over large things to a charity thrift store or a homeless shelter because I know that it will be needed and make someone else happy.  I have a hard time throwing things away that she have use.  That said I have too many stained gardening and repair funky clothes to further stain. One of my issues that I struggle with of holding on to too many things! 

Great that you and others are making progress. 

Best,

Barbara G

[dancefoxtrot]

@RachelShrinks

I admire your work to meet the varied needs of your daughters. Wow.  I eat too much of the good stuff as well and the last 10 lbs are very hard for me to lose it seems.  I hope that your Hashimoto's goes into remission to make your weight loss easier. 

Best,

Barb