New Year 2018 to Valentine's Day Challenge

[_Lilac_]

Welcome to the newest challenge! We are celebrating our scaled and non-scaled victories and progress. Following are some acronyms typically used by those who post. Some of us also track body fat or measurements, please add those as you wish.

USW - Ultimate start weight

SW - starting weight for the challenge

CW - current weight 

PW - previous week's weight

GW - goal weight for the challenge

UGW- ultimate goal weight

I hope everyone had successful and fun winter holidays. Many of us are continuing on or beginning again or newly starting our healthy journeys. Big reminders...have FUN, enjoy life, laugh every day, stay positive, drink your water, move your butt, come share with us.

To join, please simply post and you are in! Have a great time, let's get this going!

[Cele21]

Hi Everyone! These challenges have been on-going for a couple years. Once one ends another is started up usually in line with major holidays so I'm sure there will be a Valentine's day to ..... once this one ends.

[Cele21]

USW- 215.0 (2/4/14)

1stCSW- 211.4 (2/14/17) First Challenge Starting Weight

2ndCSW - 210.8 (4/18/17) Second Challenge Starting Weight

3rdCSW - 212.0 (5/31/17) Third Challenge Starting Weight

4thCSW - 209.8 (7/4/17) Fourth Challenge Starting Weight

5thCSW - 209.0 (9/04/17) Fifth Challenge Starting Weight

LCSW - 206.4 (10/31/17) Last Challenge Starting Weight

CSW - 212.4 (1/1/18)

LW- 208.4

CW- 208.4

GW- 200.0 (February14th)

UGW- 150

No movement down but at least it's not up this time.

[lynda604]

Hi

I haven't checked in for a while, still doing ok...the week before was busy at work and so didn't get as many workouts in and now this week sick with a bad cold.

Last week my weight was: 173.2

Current Weight: 172.2

Challenge Weight: 171

Slowed down but I'll take any loss....need to feel better and get back to the gym...I am close to the Valentine's Weight challenge, hope to be on target.

Take care all...

[Autumnwinds]

USW - 308

SW - 280

1W- 280 (08th)

2W- 275 (15th)

3W- 271 (22nd)

4W- 266 (29th)

CW - 266* (5th)

GW - 265

UGW- 148

I have been sick most of last week, still sick this week.  No change in weight, guess that is a good thing.  Hopefully I will recover over the next few days.

Congratulations to those that met their goals this week & good luck  to  those still to weigh in.

[almost_where]

Starting Weight - 320 (1/07)

  Sunday1 - 318 (1/14)
  Sunday2 - 314 (1/21)
  Sunday3 - 312 (1/28)
  Sunday4 - 315 (2/04)
  Sunday5 - 000 (2/11) 313 Target

Valentine's Day Goal - 312 Target

+3 lb

[almost_where]

Starting Weight - 320 (1/07)

  Sunday1 - 318 (1/14)
  Sunday2 - 314 (1/21)
  Sunday3 - 312 (1/28)
  Sunday4 - 315 (2/04)
  Sunday5 - 000 (2/11) 313 Target

Valentine's Day Goal - 312 Target

+3 lb

[_Lilac_]

I've decided that my 'steps' just aren't doing it for me. I must come to terms with the fact that I'm not getting enough of an aerobic workout. My walks and water aerobics and livingroom marching/jogging get me to a 110-115 heart rate, which is not in the fat-burning zone. Sigh. Okay. So having said that, I have to get sweating. I hate sweating. And when I do bump up my exercise, I hurt myself because I'm still too heavy and it causes injuries. How can I win at this?? I have to do some research because this plateau is lasting much too long and I'm getting more lazy. Soul searching time. 

[erinwdesign]

@_Lilac_ this sounds similar to my challenge with hiking not being enough anymore. For me to lose I've found I need to spend serious time in the cardio and peak zones even, which is why I added spin class to my routine. In general, cycling or swimming are good options for heavier folks since they're not hard on the joints. 

[Cele21]

@_Lilac_ - I remember on some of the older Biggest Loser shows when someone was injured they had them do more arm/core exercises, high reps with lower weights, and they usually lost just as much weight without re-injuring the leg/knee. Maybe keep your walking etc. where it is and add some upper body work with light hand weights that can be done while seated? Or boxing moves?

[_Lilac_]

Plateau busting day 1:

I got up with the full intention of going to water aerobics. I got dressed, packed my bag, put ice cubes in my water bottle to fill up when I get there....and then I took the garbage out. There's a thin layer of snow on top of the ice that's been building over the last week. We've had melt/freeze/melt/freeze. So I slipped twice just putting the bags at the curb. There's no way it would be safe to walk to the YMCA since we have no sidewalks available (that's a whole other story). So...I came back in, put on a show I recorded on the pvr and did my marching/jogging in the livingroom. I took @Cele21's advice and added even more arm movements and ramped up the intensity. I did interval jogging. I got 5500 steps doing it so I'll do another workout later. I'm going to make sure I track all my food too. I am resuming strict recording of everything. Something has to budge!!!

When my plateau started, someone close to me began their own journey. In the time I've been stuck on this plateau, she's lost 55lb. And I'm still stuck. It's so frustrating! Okay, enough self-pity. Just gotta work at it. 

I'll check in later to keep myself accountable.

[_Lilac_]

@erinwdesign  I can't 'swim' really since I have a bad shoulder and I feel like an uncoordinated puffer fish with tiny fins that don't help me move when I flap them! If I perform swim movements I just don't go anywhere. Surprised if I don't go backward. Water aerobics had been a blessing when I started out because it was 45-50 min of continuous exercise without any damage to joints. Now, I just can't get my heart rate up enough while doing it. 

Cycling...my gut is big so I can only use the recumbent bikes. That would require me to go to the gym. It is so uncomfortable. I know others experience this...it's not just me...but people LOOK at fat people in the gym. Scan you from head to toe, look surprised, look annoyed, judgmental. They don't want to see fat people in a gym, but they expect you to lose weight...but not in front of them. Ya know?? I can't even go into the women's change room because they stare at me or examine me judgmentally. I go into the co-ed family room because children are just less rude and accept you for who you are. And the parents are too busy with the kids to bother with you. They avert their eyes completely from other adults.  Ya, these are my insecurities, but it's certainly limiting. 

Excuses excuses. Well, I'm not really making excuses to get out of exercising..because I DO exercise, just not in the traditional 'gym' ways. I'll make it work. I have to. I've been doing this for a year and a half, stuck in a plateau for about 6 months. This just isn't gonna fly with me. I'm too determined. 

[MackieMesser]

I think if we just track our inputs versus our outputs we hit our goals. I have stuck  to mine and it is working. I have a goal of two pounds a week and have been able to hit it.  I am a male and consume 1800 calories a day.  I also include my beer calories which has really reduced that consumption!  I walk a minimum of 10K steps.  My original goal was to drop 60 pounds and so far I have dropped 17.  I eat a lot more green veg that I used to and even grow my own micro greens. I try to stay away from processed food as it is so calorie dense yet doesn't seem to fill me up... but wow, a huge salad with a protein and no dressing sure does.  Just keep at it. Persistence always pays off!

[_Lilac_]

Sorry for another post...I looked up my heart rate chart for the workout I did this morning. It says 18 min at cardio level and 21 min at fat burning level. 0 minutes at peak. Apparently I burned 455 calories (and before people say 'How did you burn that many??' you must realize I'm 286ish lbs and burning calories at this weight is quite easy...it's when the calories burned are much more than calories eaten and you STILL don't lose weight that drives ya crazy). So, I guess the workout wasn't so bad. I'll do another later or finally move my treadmill out of the corner (stuck behind the couch) and use it while watching another hour-long show. I find increasing the incline to be a good boost to intensity. It starts making a funny noise when I do it though. Sigh..struggles. 

[_Lilac_]

@MackieMesser  70 lbs down here, doing exactly as you suggest. Tracking input and output, but it stops working. After 70 lbs quite quickly, the body rebels and needs to catch up. Metabolism changes are needed so even though I might eat 1500 calories and burn 3000, the numbers should affect the scale...but they don't. That's when a rest is needed. This plateau is natural. It's just getting to be a little too long and I have to figure out the intricacies of my new metabolism. My heart rate used to soar during exercise but now it doesn't. I'm more fit, but that means it takes extra to get where I need to be. It sure is easy at the beginning for a really heavy person, just need to MOVE. It gets more complex though. 

I'm glad it's working so well for you. It's a rush! Keep up the great work. I'm determined to give a positive report within the week.

[erinwdesign]

well, here's me, once again, frustrated by how I've inexplicably gained back 5 lbs! I did do some social things this weekend that caused it to be less great nutritionally than I have been lately, but not an extra 16,000 calories worth of not great! Like, not great to the level that I'd think okay, maybe I wouldn't lose as  much this week kind of not great. And worse, I think it's a real 5 lbs not just water, because my heart rate's gone back up too. Where the HECK does this come from?!

[_Lilac_]

@erinwdesign  Oh, how I wish I had the answers. LOL. I honestly think you will find it dropping off just as quickly as it came on. Any combination of salt and carby stuff like bread or alcohol or hormones would make me accumulate some extra water weight. I'd be chugging the water or plain hot tea and watching for it to drop. I'll watch to see your 'hooray' in the next few days.

[_Lilac_]

Plateau busting day 2:

As per my fitbit, I've done my 10,000 steps including 11 min of cardio but 64 min in the fat burning zone. After breakfast and lunch I've had 1100 calories. Seems a lot but I've already burned 3500 calories today. 

Three seizures have left me a little blah and tired, but I have some work to do from a seated position. Hopefully I can concentrate. (My daughter and I have a side business doing editing and proofreading). 

I'll check in with my daily totals later.

I hope everyone is doing great today!

[khreed]

@_Lilac_ I admire you so much. You really keep going despite the setbacks that are thrown your way. I have NOTHING to complain about, and yet I do. I have really risen to this challenge and have yet to lose a pound. I feel better, I'm definitely stronger, etc., but I got into this wanting to lose weight. Reading your post helps me keep everything in perspective.

[lynda604]

SW 194

PW: 172.2

CW: 171.5

challenge goal 171

this is less than a week...small loss but still a loss...working out less...still sick 

good luck to all - we're almost near Valentine's Day!

[lynda604]

@_Lilac_hang in there, I know it sucks when we plateau, it happens to everyone. Any movement is better than no movement and an injury (which will lead to no movement). It's really true "patience is a virtue"....good for you looking up plateaus.

[singingbarbell]

A little update! I’m up to 2200 cals now, 10k steps consistently day!! New stats:

USW-190 lbs 8/29/17-after reverse dieting
SW-184.4
CW-181
PW-184.4
GW- 180 for 1 lb a week
UGW-150 lb