Valentines Day to Easter Challenge 2016

[saraj91]

Welcome to the next challenge! 

This one will run from Valentines day to Easter, so from February 14th to March 27th. Everyone and anyone can join this challenge in which we all set our own weight loss goals, this gives us 7 weeks in total to work towards them! 

This group of lovely people provides encouraging support and words of advice as we all share our experiences, good and bad. It has proved beyond helpful to myself and many others as we become healthier and achieve amazing things.

To be part of the challenge you start by posting your initial weight stats and what you would like to achieve by the end of the challenge. You can then check in as often as you'd like with a weight update, to share a story from your week or start a conversation about a topic you'd like some advice on.

 
So excited for us to keep working towards our goals with the fantastic friends from the last challenges and a big 'Hello!' to all the challenge newbies! 

Thank you @awood08 for kicking off the last challenge! 

 
A little rundown of terminology for anyone who is new: 

USW- Ultimate Starting Weight

CSW- Current Starting Weight

GW- Goal Weight

UGW- Ultimate Goal Weight

PW- Previous Weight

CW- Current Weight

MFP- My Fitness Pal

[Sine]

So no change in my weight this week but my inches are down. My husband and I started the Extreme Transformation program (Chris & Heidi Powell) on January 3. I'm down a total of 6.2 lbs and he has lost almost 20 lbs. My biggest change is in inches lost. I've lost a total of 13.5 inches since starting in January. While it is always disappointing when the scale doesn't move, I know from the last time I successfully lost weight, that this is how my body works - I'll lose inches and then eventually the scale will catch up.

Also, my naturopath is tracking me montly. She has a scale that measures weight, lean body mass, % of body fat, hydration, visceral fat and bone density.

My challenge goal to make it to wonderland by Easter may be ambicious but hopefully I'll make it.

[hannahbebrave]

Hi.  This seems like a great active forum, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I am about to buy a fitbit and have some questions.  I watched a friend trying to track her food.  It seemed way too inaccurate, and very tedious.  She may have been doing it wrong.  How is tracking food done?  Do you really type in everything you eat?  I just looked up banana and there were so many variations with different calories - it seemed impossible.  I would love to track, wouldn't love to spend so much time and get bad info.

Any suggestions?

Thanks much

[Ballthree]

Ballthree wrote:

USW: 01/03/16 313 lbs

CSW: 02/14/16 294 lbs

CW 02/21/16 295.4

CGW: 02/14/16 280 lbs

UGW: 199.9 lbs

OK, so the plan was losing 2 lbs a week. Instead, I gain 1.4lbs. Nuts!

So, I go back to my fitbit numbers for the week. Numbers look good......meeting my 15K a day goal. I got some aerobic workouts in.....couple of jogging sessions (which for me is 13 minute miles), couple of ellyptical. 

Let's look at the MyFitnessPal reports. Calories under the limit everyday. I recorded meals everyday. 

Hmmmm...still gained weight this week.

Conclusions?  

I AM A CHEATER!!!! 

Life is getting in the way of my plan to get to a healthy weight. I keep the healthy snacks around at home and work....some of those 100 cal granola bars, raw unsalted almonds, even some poporn. The problem, I think, is that I will snack the beejusus out of those! Yeah, I'll log in 180 cal for 24 raw almonds, but at the end of the day, I probably have more than 124 of them! It just seems like I get so busy at work or at home, I'm grabbing snack food automatically and not paying attention to frequency or volume. I bought a dozen granola bars on Sunday and run out on Thursday. I'm not sticking to the plan, Amego!

I have such a long way to go, having issues at this stage when I have 90+ lbs to lose is disconcerning!

My plan this week is to make mainly a salad a lunch or dinner meal each day, and try to stick with a few of those frozen lean cuisine type meals for dinner, and really watch portion sizes for the rest. And then to try to stucture my snacking times, so I know I'm tracking all the snacks and only eating what I'm planning to eat. 

I know with a solid week I can double or triple my 2lb a week loss goal and catch right back up and be back on schedule. Come on, Dude.....get a grip!!!

[bayman099]

I track mine. I just use it as a general guide to give you am idea of
where you are at. If there is a variance of 5-10% you are still getting
good indication of calorie intake. I also have a kitchen scale for
measuring food to help. I thought it would be tedious but once u get used
to entering the food it is not a big chore.

Cheers

[Ppaatt]

She is that's wonderful sometimes you won't see ichange on the scale not
yet you keep it up OK and you can start seeing results in your
clothing size 👗👗👗👗👗

[SQUEAKY]

I hope it's not to late to join in.

Feb 14 - Mar 27. (Joined 2/21/2016 so roughly 35 days)

Current weight as of 2/21/2016   145

Goal weight 137.

My goal is a little less than 2 lbs a week.  I find 2 lbs. a week a little tough especially with social events that are not exercise and/or healthy eating driven.

Good luck everyone.

[hannahbebrave]

Thanks Bayman

So, do most people track their calories on fitbit?  Is that kind of the norm?  So, it doesn't have to be that accurate? It still seems so tedious to me.  How long does it take? My friend says she spends about an hour a day logging her food - that would make me crazy.  I guess I have no patience.  But, is that really what everyone does?  I mean, they listed 5 kinds of bananas!  all with different calories!  Hard for me to believe.  But then again, I better start doing something!

[bayman099]

I will use what I have if it is bar code or custom it. I spend no more
than 4-5 mins inputting food with fitbit app. I would say it there is
several options find something comparable online with Google to compare and
go with it. Should not take too long after you at it a week. I thought
it would be tedious. But once in a routine you will find it not so bad

[Elansc]

Week 1 went well for me!   I managed to get at least 10.000 steps each day and ate between 1750-1850 four of seven days (one day only 1432, one day 1857, and one day 2007 (opps! )   Down 2.4 pounds from last week but I was this weight a few weeks ago so could be normal flucuations.   I am pumped to keep up the plan 10,000 steps and 1750-1850 calories (and no more -- even if I get lots of steps in that day). 

Weight on Feb 15th -- 184.2

Weight on Feb 21st -- 181.8

GW- 177 (by Easter)

UGW- 165 (by June 30)

p.s. I log my food with myfitnesspal (have it synced to my fitbit) and I would say I spend 4-5 minutes total each day...  but I have been doing this since January 2013....  I agree that sometimes it takes a week or two -- then most of your regular foods are logged in at least once and it is MUCH quicker!

[fbuser2015]

Checking in!

SW: 212.5

CW: 212

Total Challenge Loss: 0.5 lbs

This weekend was rough as I knew it would be with work; I didn't get any gym time in this weekend, and although it appeared that I stayed within my calories it wasn't the best choice macros wise so I don't think that helped. With all that sodium and lack of the water, I'm definitely feeling the bloat. But I'm hopeful that it will flush away this week! If I'm gonna make goal I need to work hard in the upcoming weeks. I'm desperate to see ONEderland by the end of the challenge lol. Good luck to everyone else!

[RubyH]

Even you were doing Weight Watchers or some other tracking system, you have to eat less than you burn or you will never lose weight, besides tracking makes you more aware of what goes into your mouth, so you begin to look for the more nutritious items and cut back on the tastiest ones. Knowing you inputs as well as your outputs comes from tracking, doing a daily food log and Fitbit tells your outputs so it is easily done! Logging itself doesn't take long but examining where you have gone off track may take a little practice, but it is worth every minute. Stops mindless eating in its track !

Sent from my iPad

[Sine]

I track my food on fitbit. Takes me maybe max of 10 minutes if I enter the entire day in one go. I have some standard recipes that I've entered as custome foods and pretty much eat the same foods over the course of a week so they show up in the "Most Logged" or "Recent" lists which remembers when I eat them - for example I have frozen blueberries, raspberries and mixed berries with yogurt and Kashi Go Lean cereal Mon - Thurs for a morning snack. All of those items show up in Most Logged so I just select from their and the default "when?" is Morning Snack.

If you are ever unsure of the nutritional value of a food item, like a banana, there are a number of reputable websites for double checking. Then select the one on the list that is correct. If you select if often enough, it will go onto the sidebar as a most logged or recent.

For me, it is more about entering everything that goes in my mouth and being accountable. Hope that helps.

[Thyroid_issues]

Lol that was so funny.I sleep...different time zones I'm in NZ. Lol

[saraj91]

'Ello, 'ello, 'ello!

Hope everyone has had a good 1st week of this challenge, reading through the posts it seems that people have been making great progress & the conversations have been really fun to read! 

So my stats are the same, another week of neither plus or minus, but I am happy with that, especially after the indulgent dinner we had on Saturday. One of our favourite TV shows started again & it's kind of become a tradition that for the 1st show of the series we order Chinese takeaway... It was delicious, I ate so much. I have no regrets lol!  

I didn't parkrun on Saturday because of typical rubbish UK weather & not really wanting to have to spend an hour cleaning my trainers afterwards, we did go for a really nice walk into town though & there was a break in the clouds Sunday morning, so I went out for a run when I woke up. I think this might have helped keep my weight level.

Now to really go for it this week, would love to check in with a loss next time! Have a great week all!

USW 23/3: 186

PW 14/2: 133

CW 21/2: 133

GW 27/3: 130

UGW 23/6: 126

[awood08]

@saraj91

First what is your favorite show? It may be the same as mine because mine just started back too!!

And we also had Chinese takeout for the show lol!!!! Sooo funny 🙂

We have tornado weather heading out way so I'm really not looking forward to outdoor running either!

[DJRMel]

Week 1 check in:

USW 234lb 8/24/12
CSW- 194.00

CW - 190.6

GW- 188.00 easter
UGW- 165.00 2/12/17


I know 3.4 lbs for 1 week looks good (and I'll certainly take it!), but I suspect it's water weight. I've been doing a lot of research as well as better self-monitoring, and I discovered I wasn't drinking near as much water as I thought. Also, thanks to my Charge HR and even more research, I've discovered that I'm not hitting the intensity level I need to loose lbs at this weight. I was fine when I was above 200, but lower body weight means moving longer and harder if I want to keep losing. Hence, my plateau.

Lesson learned and onward and downward!

[saraj91]

@awood08 It was 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway' that started again this past weekend. Not sure if you are familiar with them but their show is a really great variety/comedy show. Hour & a half of fun stuff!

What show is your favourite?

Stay safe in that weather! We had a power cut at work this morning &, I kid you not, all it has been doing is drizzling for like half a day! We are useless at coping with weather this side of the pond lol!

[dancefoxtrot]

hi all

New week. Sunday weight 139.2

goal 134

bg

[Milehighkerri]

...

[awood08]

@saraj91

Never heard of it! It's probably a UK only show, over here The Walking Dead just started back last weekend, but I had to watch both this weekend because we were so busy. I'm completely addicted to it! Comedy/variety shows are awesome too! We have one call Impractical Jokers we watch with 4 friends who do crazy pranks and skits and it's hilarious.

Oh wow! The bad weather will be here Wednesday according to radar so hopefully I can squeeze in a few workouts. I'd hate to have my power go out over a little drizzling!