Valentines Day to April 18th

[BLLingg]

@Bobbinyc, I hope it's ok for me to plagerize your Christmas to Valentine's Day Topic Starter but it was absolutely perfect!!!

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 Valentine's Day and finish on (American) Tax Day - 18 April 2017.   (Really!  It's the 18th this Year, not the 15th!)

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!!

[TravellingSunny]

@Bobbinyc I did it! I smashed it out of the park! 201 flights of stairs in a single day. I can still only do two or three in a row before I run outta air and need a break. But, I am getting stronger.

[TravellingSunny]

@GettingfitinSC Sugar was a huge hurdle for me. I have a wicked sweet tooth and I will EAT some cakes and pies. I tried cutting back, but was never really successful that way. I found that by forcing myself to switch to sugar substitute, I could keep my calories under control. I eat dark chocolate every night, but I use Splenda in my morning coffee. Priorities. 😉

[Bobbinyc]

@TravellingSunny  Congrats on a job well done!  That's a lot of stairs!  And you inspired me.  ok, I only did 33, but for me, that's just fine.  

Sugar is my weakness too.  A little while ago I started a one week challenge to have no added sugar.  Everyone who did it was amazed at how much sugar is in everything - spaghetti sauce, frozen chicken dinners, - things that have no business having sugar in them.  It really heightened our awareness of real food vs. processed containerized foods.

[DJC_63]

@meg5168  Ive had plantar fasciitis before and it's painful!  Sorry to hear that you are having to deal with that. 

I do the challenges every week with a group of women, I'd be happy to add you. We're not the kind to get 20,000 steps a day or anything like that (well except for 1 woman the past few weeks). I like it because it's not a high-activity, extremely competitive group.  I'll send you a friend request so I can add you if you want.

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@meg5168 wrote:

I'm a little late to this party but better a week late than none at all!

My primary issue right now is getting in exercise when I am dealing with a very painful plantar fasciitis flareup 😞 . I had a pretty stagnant February but am trying to eat healthier and do more yoga/pilates at home in March! It sucks because I really love running and dance, but those aren't options right now.

I also am a recovered anorexic—I was very underweight and ill in college (10 years ago) and over the years after recovery I gained a lot of weight and for a long time was afraid to try to lose it because I had never done so in a healthy way. But it's been 3 months now and so far I'm actually doing this in a reasonable way! 💪  I'm pretty proud of that.

Also, I don't have many IRL friends who are active FitBit users so am always happy to become friends for challenges and stuff here! 

F, 30 years old, 5'9"

USW- 199 (on Jan 1)
CSW- 188
GW for 4/18 - 175
UGW- 165

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[DJC_63]

I'm late in posting my weekly stats, but here I am! Last week was rough because I ran out of my sleep medicine so I was hardly getting any sleep, like 7 hours in 2 days. But I finally got that straightened out so I can sleep again. I've been more active so I'm seeing my weight go down VERY slowly, which is always the case for me. I was at the gym last night and was angry at what someone said to me on Facebook, so I did extra weight on my resistance training, I ache ALL OVER today! I'll have to avoid that in the future.  🙂

USW - 207.5

SW - 196.3 (2/13/17)

PW - 197.3 weekly average

CW - 196.9 weekly average

GW - 189.9

[TravellingSunny]

@Bobbinyc - A whole week without added sugar would be tough for me.  When I got my first Fitbit in 2015, I had lofty goals of losing a thousand pounds and becoming Miss Universe and all, but I quickly found out that for me it wasn't just about exercising.  When I realized I wasn't losing weight even with all of the exercising I was doing, I started logging my food and was SHOCKED at how awful my habits were.

It's been two years, and I've managed to completely change my habits.  I still have sweets, but I rely heavily on Sugar-Free foods and Splenda or Truvia for my coffee, cereal, grapefruit, etc.  So, when I do have chocolates, the real sugar is sooooo sweet to me that I don't eat as much as I used to.

I'm still logging my food, but now I'm feeling ready to exercise these extra pounds off.  (And, I upgraded my Fitbit from Flex to Charge 2, so I'm excited about the heart rate tracking and the stair tracking!)  I was about 30 pounds overweight according to my BMI, but I'm down 13 pounds in the last seven weeks, so I'm hoping this is my year.  🙂

[TravellingSunny]

@DJC_63 - Well done working your frustration out on the resistance training!  I need to take a lesson from you here - that would be a great way to burn some extra calories the next time I'm irritated with my husband.  LOL!

[Linda17]

I had that for awhile. But in my case, the cause was OLD SNEAKERS. I tend
to hang onto sneakers too long, until they hurt my feet. If you're active,
sneakers should be replaced after 6 months.

[TT_is_me]

@DJC_63 I hear ya about frustrated/angry exercise lol! I used to clean when I was mad but now I run. I've done that a couple of times before  (maybe even once or twice this week). Though it's good for my body, I always have to make sure I'm not stewing on the issue at hand but try to mentally work through it. Sometimes I do better than others. Either way, the endorphins from the exercise usually help with my mood. Hope you can move past the dumb comments on Facebook, hun. You seem like a friendly and spunky person on here!

[Bobbinyc]

@DJC_63  Congrats on the loss!  Good to see that you are being active.  Sorry to hear about the sleep deprivation.  I go through periods with it - ugh!

[Bobbinyc]

@TravellingSunny 13 pounds in 7 weeks is fantastic! You have really turned around a lot of things in the past two years.   The sugar challenge was interesting in that it ended up not being about giving it up so much as cutting back and seeing where all the hidden sugars are and really getting to know how much you are consuming.  What an eye opener!

Are you doing flights of stairs again today?  (I'm not sure my knees can take it 😉

[Bobbinyc]

@TT_is_me  Your words to DJC are warm and wise.

I watched the news last night before bed - I usually try not to, but I wanted to learn more about our meetings with Russia.  An attorney general being caught lying about "meeting with a foreign enemy" doesn't make for a good night's sleep.  And I'm so angry about it that I'm sure I'll get in a whole lot of steps today.  It's either that or eat sweets, so I'm putting on my sneakers.

[Cherylwith5]

USW- 231

CSW- 210.0

GW- 200

UGW- 135

PW- 211.8

CW- 210.0

CW - 209.4 (2/23)

CW - 209.8 (3/1)

MFP- cherylwith5@gmail.com

[meg5168]

@DJC_63 yes I would love that! Saw your request this AM and accepted 🙂 

[_Lilac_]

@Linda17  I hang onto everything too long. I have clothes in the closet that I must have had for 20 yrs. Hahaha. When I started walking in August I got myself some of those new foam-filled sneakers that were soooo comfortable compared to what I'd been using, some that were practically worn through. I tried on the old ones again after using the new ones and couldn't believe how horrible they'd been and I'd put up with it. Now, my new ones are still great but soon I'll need new. The abuse they've taken! I've gone from 355lb to 308lb in those shoes, daily pounding of 10k steps or more and they are still going strong. At those kind of weights, your shoes don't last long. I think I've got some good miles out of them, though. I'll need to go shopping and use my current ones as indoor-treadmill shoes. 

[meg5168]

@Bobbinyc yes plenty of stretches! also rolling my foot around on a frozen water bottle every night, and trying out different shoe inserts. folks in another thread here had a lot of great reccs as well. i'm not convinced it's gone for good but it's nice not to be in horrendous pain when i first get out of bed every single morning, lol.  

[_Lilac_]

@Bobbinyc  For a while I was having trouble sleeping after watching the news. I had bad dreams and I was waking often in the night and my thoughts were constantly on the political stuff and frustration. I had to stop watching or I'd go insane. I'll turn it on once or twice a day for only a few min. just to get the gist then I turn it off again. Yesterday, we had three horrible incidents in Canada. There seems to be this air of people thinking it's acceptable to now mistreat others or publicly express their hatred. It's just not acceptable. Ever. I worry so much about my son living in our biggest city, Toronto, where he might be attacked for being brown, for having an African name, for being outspoken about his beliefs/lack of beliefs. I have nightmares in my worries. I'm working through it all the best I can. 

I'm proud of you for putting on your sneakers instead of eating the sweets. I've been doing the same but I've felt pretty crappy physically this week and haven't made my step goal a couple of days, even though I've been really close. I have to meet it today!

[meg5168]

@GettingfitinSC @TravellingSunny 😂 i feel you about the running to the bathroom all the time when you're drinking enough water! hahaa. i swear i get most of my steps in walking through my office to the water fountain to refill my water bottle every hour...and then walking to the bathroom 87 times a day to pee as a result.

[RachelShrinks]

@meg5168: I'm dealing with PF right now, too, and it's driving me nuts! I love running, but I've been babying my foot for the last two weeks, because the last time I had it, I moved back into running too fast and then I couldn't do it at all for about three months! I have, however, now gotten addicted to interval training on the stationary bike (riding your bike fast in Chicago is a dangerous proposition, so the stationary is safer :)), so at least I have that to console me. Hoping to start running lightly next week. Good luck—it's an annoying problem, for sure!

I've been feeling kind of discouraged this week because the scale hasn't moved at all and I've been killing it with step counts and calorie burns, plus watching what I eat. But then I went to the doctor yesterday for a check on my medication (I started using Cymbalta for my fibromyalgia about six weeks ago and you're supposed to be monitored to make sure it ain't screwing you up) and I've lost 14 pounds since he last saw me. He was THRILLED! And my blood pressure (which had started to creep up in the last year or so) was back down to my normal 110/70! 

But I still wish the scale would move :).

Gonna try some stair work today. @TravellingSunny has inspired me! I live in a 50-floor building (I work from home), and our stairwell is open, so I can try to go as far as I want. I did it a few days ago to get my 50-floor badge, and I found, 1) I had to stop every couple of flights, and 2) it was logged as high intensity interval training! My pulse bounces from 168 at the end of a couple-few floors down to 130 as I rest in between. No gym needed!

Have a great day, people—whether the scale is moving in the right direction or (in my case) NOT!

[_Lilac_]

On to good news! Mom is back to walking! Yay. We did 3 laps of the mall and when done we went into Walmart to get her a few things. Ta-da...they've brought the bikes out to display. And in the row of bikes was a beautiful women's cruiser. It was marked down on clearance and I thought...hmmmm....and when I got home I looked up the specs and reviews. It's got a 4.5/5 stars review and one of the questions asked about the product was if there was a weight limit. The product expert said that there was no specific weight limit but it was tested with people 200-300lb range and they did fine, depending on their build for balance, etc. Ok, I'm 308lb officially so I'm CLOSE ENOUGH!! That's my motto for my treadmill too...Close enough! 

My large dog needs more activity. I'd love to train him to run alongside the bike. Now, if we are walking, he'll lunge at cyclists going by. I hope by running beside me, he'll break that bad habit. I know he'd rather run than walk. 

I'm in the process of trying to reach my sister, who has an SUV and can help me transport the thing home. I haven't ridden a bike since I was...er..um...16???? 32 years??? This is nuts. There are so many things I haven't done in decades. Dance, ride a bike, ice skate...what happened to make me like this? The wonderful thing is that I'm doing things now. It took a while but I'm doing it.

Ok, been on my butt long enough. Have a great day everyone. Dust off that bike or skateboard or roller skates and do something FUN today that you haven't done in a very long time. I love being a kid as an adult. Grey hair and purple clothes. I'm definitely gonna be one of those crazy old ladies.