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!!

[terryrunning]

@Brujita Thanks for your graphic post in the last challenge.  Too many of us read so quickly we didn't see the small print about the next challenge.  Or we were waiting for @Bobbinyc or @dancefoxtrot to start it.  

I am new to this and do not have a fitbit.  I have a different brand.  My sister has fitbit and I was looking at the forums on both her brand and mine and this is the greatest group!  I hope you don't mind my joining.  And who knows, there may be a fitbit in my future if this thing doesn't hold up.

At this point I am mostly trying to get healthy and get some structure.  I have had "goals" of losing weight but find that nothing happens because I just keep giving in to impulses.  I did join the one week Challenge that @Bobbinyc had for giving up sugar and that was a shocker to me.  When I had a time frame and focused on one thing, it worked.  I don't do that on my own.  When I think of all I need to change I get overwhelmed and give up fast.  My goal is to sort that out so I can start doing this well.

[BLLingg]

@_Lilac_, it's an AWESOME feeling when you drop below a long time hundred!  I can't remember when I've been below 200.  When thinking about how much I weigh now, I still start to think it's 2xx and then I realize, NO, it's 1xx!!!

We're all cheering for you!!!

[BLLingg]

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@Bobbinyc wrote:

@BLLingg I have never been plagiarized before!  I'm honored!

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Thank you for putting it so perfectly that I didn't have to come up with something that would make sense!!! 

[HeartBiller]

@terryrunningNothing in the rules that say you have to have a fitbit...lol. I just love this group and only found it when searching for a fitbit issue. So I'm glad you found it too. I think just being able to read all the post and chime in from time to time helps us have the desire to do better. I mean it doesn't matter if it is a goal to be able to be weighed on the scale at a DR. office or if you are only 10 pounds over weight.... EVERYONE here is so supportive. I mean we have a wide range of amounts to lose in this group and a wide range of goals.(some not even weight loss) I have never heard anyone say anything negative to another about not meeting one or thinking it is a crazy goal. Just SUPER supportive folks here! I LOVE THIS GROUP!

Valentine's Day!!! Show the love! I LOVE THIS GROUP!

[dgwheeler]

So coming off the Valentine's Day challenge I want to say how great it is to have a group of people working together to achieve the same goal.  I know I'm not on very often but I always read the emails I receive when others post.

I did not quite make my Valentine goal... but almost.  Almost close enough to say I did but I didn't 😕  Haha so this time around I'll just add on that little extra bit of weight into this goal also.  So 9 weeks from now I want to weigh....?

USW- 194.6 (Dec 1, 2016)

CSW- 170.2 (Feb 14th)

GW- 155 (April 18th - I have a ball to attend on the 13th so....)

UGW- 135

PW- 170.2

CW- 170.2

MFP- (I dont use MFP, but sparkpeople is dwheeler94 or fitbit is Dana)

[Ava_]

Hi all,

This will be my first Fitbit challenge!  I came in too late for the Valentine's Day challenge, so I hung around waiting for the next opportunity!

I am 44, female, 5'5'', living in the UK.  Got my fitbit just before the end of the year and have become obsessed.

USW - 154 pounds (Dec. 30th 2016)

CSW - 138 pounds (Feb. 14th 2017)

GW - 130 pounds (April 18th 2017)

UGW - 125 pounds (summer?)

Apart from logging food, I am really using the food log to keep track on my protein.  As a vegetarian, I have noticed my normal diet is very carb heavy, so I am trying to balance that out.

Also trying to increase exercise.  I have an office job, but a treadmill at home, which is where I am getting most of my steps in. I hate the gym, so that's not an option 😉

[Bobbinyc]

@Brujita  Thanks so much for your last post in the last challenge.  You helped get us to this one.

Mostly, I love what you posted about the amount of time of this challenge.  I am a great procrastinator and working hard to break that habit.  The way you listed the amounts of time, made time so real, so concrete: 

Brujita wrote:

Just wanted to throw this in so you can set a tangible goal.

This challenge (12/25-2/14) was 52 days long or 7wks 2days.

The new challenge is 9 weeks long, a total of 63 Days not counting today.

Or 2 months, 4 days

63 days can be converted to one of these units:

• 5,443,200 seconds
• 90,720 minutes
• 1512 hours
• 63 days
• 9 weeks
• 17.26% of 2017

Wow.  Makes it hard to procrastinate when you see how very finite time is.  Think of all the time we waste, especially on silly things on the computer.  Every minute is so precious, and we don't know how many we have.  This challenge is a good chunk of this  year, I want to use it very well.  ok, time to get even more serious about this!

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[nightswimming]

I'm in again. I should make my goal in a few weeks, then the real challenge will begin - maintenance!

I've never been anywhere near this slim before but whenever I have lost weight I have slowly rebounded and I am going to have to be vigilant to make sure it doesn't happen this time.

The key will be keeping my calorie burn up, so to keep myself active I have signed up for a 25 mile challenge walk at the end of May which I will have to train for. Wish me luck!

F/35/5'0"

USW: 174 (03/15/16)

SW: 114.8 (02/14)

GW/UGW: 112

Good luck everyone!

[_Lilac_]

@nightswimming Good luck with the walk!! I have an old friend who used an app to go from 'couch to 5k' or 'zombie run' or something. She said it worked really well. I'm too big to jog or I'd be trying it. When I get down to a reasonable weight I'll give it a shot and I'd love to go on charity runs. I can jog in place in my livingroom for a bit and I can go about 5 houses up the street with the dogs, but I'm just too big and can cause damage to my joints. I have to be careful. I'm so happy for you and wish you much success. You've done a lot of work!

[_Lilac_]

What a day! I shoveled snow, walked 5000 steps at the mall at a faster pace, did some shopping for very healthy food. I watched some news and got flustered, so I went out to shovel out the end of my neighbour's driveway. He used the snowblower to clear our double driveway before he left for work but the plow passed later, depositing a thick row of snow, too much for his big truck to enter. Since he takes care of my driveway after every storm, I thought I should help him out. So I shoveled it all...phew. I came in the house with 10,500 steps. Had lunch and been sitting to relax a bit. Very low calories so far today. I need to have a good/big supper. I'm looking forward to it. I might even do a 30 min treadmill workout, depending on how well I did with calorie burn and heart rate with my walking and shoveling earlier. I'll take a look at the stats. 

Successful first day of the challenge. We are walking again tomorrow and I have a consult about removing my wisdom teeth. Ick. Ok, time to make supper. Have a great night and enjoy your challenge! Have fun every day.

[RachelShrinks]

AH! Zombies Run! It's so fabulous. And I started it walking instead of running—you set your own pace. It's a story that works with whatever music you have on your phone—it plays this little bit of the radio play, then a song from your phone, then more of the play... It's a mystery, too, so it's something to concentrate on as you go. 

I only got through the first season and a half, and then I got into listening to musicals while I walk or run. It's worth checking out, though.

[SunsetRunner]

Ok. Here's my official starting weight for this challenge. 

USW: 224.5 (07/06/16)

CSW: 167.5 (02/14/17)

CGW: 155.0 (04/18/17)

UGW:  155.0

Ok. So I've set a goal of 12.5 lbs and if my math is correct that means 1.4 lbs/week. Let the challenge begin! 😀

[GettingfitinSC]

USW= 235 (Christmas 2016)

CSW= 224.3 

GW= 210

UGW= 125

38/F/5'0"

Hi Everyone! I'm ready for this new challenge! I'm upping my step goal to 12,000 steps, which is a challenge for me, but I've done it several times already (including today), so I know it's doable. My goal weight for this challenge is 210 lbs, about 1.5 lbs per week. That's what I averaged this past challenge, so I'm hoping I can keep it up. 🙂 If I make this goal weight, I'll have about 6 weeks before June. I'd really like to be out of the 200's by summer. I'm thinking that if I push myself and lose more than my April 18 goal, then I may be able to make my summer goal. Oh well, that's a little far off right now. Goals are good, but I need to focus on right here and right now. 

For the positive: My family had takeout for supper today, very unhealthy takeout I might add. Is it even allowed to say cheeseburgers, fries, and onion rings in this group? Also, I'm a 3rd grade teacher, and we had a class party today with brownies, chips, cookies, and more. That's positive, you say? Yes, because I ate one brownie instead of a plateful of unhealthy food like everyone else and like I usually have. And at supper, I cut my burger in half and only ate one half. I also only ate 5 small fries and 2 onion rings. (I didn't get my own; I stole a few of my hubby's.) I tried to overestimated my calorie count, but still fitbit tells me I have 259 calories left to eat for today. I'm not eating anything else though because the foods were high fat and just in case I didn't overestimate the calories. 🙂

It's decisions like this that make me feel good about myself, honestly. It wasn't a 'grab a snack and eat more than necessary without caring about calories' or 'stop by McDonalds between meals' type of day. Yes, it was unhealthy, but these days will happen with my lifestyle and my family. Decisions like today, cutting the burger in half and only eating a small brownie at a party, are things that I can live with. It was a planned meal and I counted the calories and walked extra steps to balance it out. 

So I'm happy with my day. Not healthy choices with food, but very reasonable portions. I also got 14,000 steps today, which is 2000 over my new goal of 12,000. 🙂 

Good luck on the new challenge everyone!

[BLLingg]

Boy, @_Lilac_, you still do better than do I!  Maybe the 20 Years (I'm 66) between us makes a difference?  Huh??  Running, I mean.  I can barely do it for 20 Steps.  And it's really awkward.  It feels as though I have forgotten how to do it. 

For now, I'm happy just to Walk.  I'm signed up for Portland's 19 March "5K Shamrock Stride" and Vancouver's Memorial Day "Honor a Hero Mile"  and will be signing up for the MS 5K Walkathon once we get the Team assembled.  (One of my Co-workers has MS.)  Maybe I'll just walk forever.  And yet I know that there ARE Seniors out there who are older than me and they're jogging and running.  So I know it's possible!  We'll see.  After all, it hasn't even been a Year since I changed my Lifestyle!!!

Like you, though, I have to be careful with my joints.  I damaged my Left Knee when I was in my 20s and I've experienced pain in it and/or in my Right Hip occasionally for years now.  (My younger Sister just had a Hip Replacement.)  Since losing weight, though, I experience only an occasional brief pain in one or the other and there are times when it's not pain yet I'm aware of my Knee or my Hip.

[Bobbinyc]

@_Lilac_ I am so excited that this will be the challenge when you break 300!  I feel honored to be in on it.  Thanks for posting and sharing the way you do.  It almost feels like we are neighbors and I'm going on all these walks with you.  But I do wish you would share some of that snow with us!  I love walking in it and doing photography in the snow and we haven't really had any yet.  

[Bobbinyc]

@IdahoSandy Look how much you have achieved!  You are almost at your 1 year goal - You've got this!

[Bobbinyc]

@Ava_  Hi and welcome to this great group.  

[GettingfitinSC]

So apparently, my body liked the 1/2 cheeseburger, fries, and onion rings. I finally dropped below 224; I was 223.7 this morning. I've been bouncing between 224.1-224.9 for two weeks. Hopefully it won't come back tomorrow. 🙂 

Hope everyone has a great day!

[_Lilac_]

As of this morning I hit my Christmas to Valentine's Day challenge goal! Wouldn't you know it, one day late. Hahahaha. Oh well, I still consider that a win. 

Off to walk the mall. Had a night of seizures and non-sleep, leaving me tired and weak and a bit shaky but I'm having breakfast and pills and out the door I go. I'll have Mom with me and I might just slow it down a bit. Have that oral surgeon appointment after walking so I suppose I should brush my teeth! haha.

Check in later.

[Bobbinyc]

@nightswimming Great job getting so close to goal.  I know maintenance can be tricky.  The people I know who do well with it have a few guidelines they use: They have a specific plan, whether it is based on calories, or activity or both, you have to figure out what your body needs.  They also give themselves a range of 3-5 pounds that they can live with, but not go over.  If they get to that 5 pound mark, it's like an alarm goes off and they bring it back down.  That way it can't just slowly increase too far.  And they continue getting support.  

I'm impressed with that challenge walk you signed up for.  I was toying with a 5k walk and you just motivated me!