Everybody Wants to be a WISH Cat (or dog, or goose, etc...) - October 2016 WISH Challenge

[piglet1979]

I am going to do my introduction now since I tend not get to get on over the weekend. My name is Stephanie. I am married with 2 kids (9 & 10). My husband and I will celebrate our 12th anniversary in just a few days (October 9th). There most likely won't be any celebrating any time soon though. He has a huge project rolling out at work and will be working tons of hours. This doesn't happen often. Just bad timing this time.

I started in the group I think in March. I know it was before my kids spring break but sometime close to it. I did really good over spring and lost 10 pounds. The last month to month and a half have been really bad and i have gained some of the weight back. I have been really stressed out about a lot of things. Work, my daughter with her vision issues and all of a sudden being very clingy, my son and school issues, helping my husbands grandmother get her house up for sale (we have to explain the process over and over to her. She does not understand it) and helping my mom with my grandparents house. The stress has been really though at me in all directions. Things are starting to get better and work themselves out.

This month I am not going to use stress as my excuse to not hit my goal. There is no excuse for being lazy. I am going to go back to a weight goal and see if this helps me any. I am going to challenge myself to lose 2 pounds this month. I am going to start with a small number. I know I can hit this if I get out of my own head.

My original goal when I started my journey was to weigh 120 pounds by January 1. I am at about 140 now. I need to change this goal as I feel like I am not going to make it. I am going to change it be to lose 10 pounds by January. That will put me at about 130. I think that is more doable.

 

[piglet1979]

Congratulations on your 8lb loss last month! So sorry to hear about your aunt. DH stopped smoking last year and hasn't touched a cigarette since but he smoked for a long time before that so I'm always terrified that it will catch up with him. Enjoy every second of your cruise!

My husband was a smoker too. He quite when I was pregnant with our first child. I basically told if he ever wanted to hold our son he would have to shower and change clothes to do so. I said this to him one night after him and his friend kept going in and out of the house late at night waking me up. I was a little crazy when I was pregnant and maybe a little irrational. However it did work.

 

[JacknSally]

My husband was a smoker too. He quite when I was pregnant with our first child. I basically told if he ever wanted to hold our son he would have to shower and change clothes to do so. I said this to him one night after him and his friend kept going in and out of the house late at night waking me up. I was a little crazy when I was pregnant and maybe a little irrational. However it did work.

Haha, I laid down a similar ultimatum last year. He'd quit previously but started back up, and I'd been begging him for years to quit altogether. The smell always got to me. He did cut back a lot over the years but that was always his vice. Last year I told him that 1) smoking areas in Disney are few and far between and I would NOT be hunting them down or stopping to wait for him to smoke and 2) one day I will be pregnant and he would NOT be able to smoke while I was pregnant or anywhere near our child. Those finally did the trick and he quit the week before the wedding (which he sorely regretted all during the week of the wedding LOL) and he hasn't smoked since! He's coming up on a year now and I'm so proud of him. I'll never forget, a couple of months ago we walked by someone in a parking lot who had just finished smoking heavily and once we were out of earshot, he stopped me and said "Is THAT what I smelled like?! I'm SO sorry, I had no idea!" Haha bless his heart

 

[JacknSally]

Happy Fri-yay, friends! I hope everyone is having a great day! Someone clicked the "fall" switch on our weather earlier this week and we've been in heaven ever since. I've loved having the windows open every day. If you don't know me already, you'll quickly learn that "love" and "adore" do not adequately describe my feelings towards fall.

DH only had to work his day job yesterday, so we got to spend some time together last night. Got the front yard mowed and mostly weedeated, which it most desperately needed. The back yard still needs to be tackled but now that the days are shorter, DH gets home right before sunset, so yardwork time is limited. We also managed to throw together a few low-carb/high-protein dishes to get us through a couple of days. Yay for not eating fast food! Feels like the first time in forever. Turkey meatloaf with oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs, egg muffins with ham, onions, and bell peppers (which I have despised my entire life but recently fallen in love with? Weird!), and banana protein pudding for when my sweet tooth takes over.

We leave for Disney THREE WEEKS from today! My spirits are up today so I am determined to be excited about this trip. I desperately need to start packing. I have no idea what shirts to make for us, though, and we haven't even started on DH's costume for MNSSHP. I need to work on my wig, too. I feel so behind!

I know it's not the 1st yet, but can I go ahead and post my goals? Sorry to mess things up @Lady Marie LOL


Goal: Be in the 210's before we leave for Disney on the 20th.
- I weighed this morning at 220.6, which is the lowest number I've seen in a while (granted I have not been checking with any sort of regularity) and I'd love to be down to 214 before we go. That would put me 15lbs higher than when we went last year, which for some reason I can handle ok? I'm not sure how practical that is, though, so I'll settle for just being out of the 220's. I never want to see them again. I guess for tracking purposes, every Friday that I'm not in the 220's would be a 100%.


Method: Low-carb/High-protein, MORE WATER, More activity
- It's tried & true for me. While I don't have diabetes or PCOS, I think I must be somewhat insulin resistant, as my body just latches on to carbs and won't let go. After the trip, I want to try Whole30 and just really reprogram my body, but since we're only 20 days out and I'm not about to attempt to be Whole30 conscious in Disney during Food & Wine, I'm just going to focus on cutting down carbs as much as possible. I also need to focus on my water intake again, because it has been pretty much zero for the last year, and BOY do I feel it. And, last but not least, I need to get more active during the day. My shop is a lot of sitting at my computer designing or emailing, or standing at my heat press, without a ton of activity in between. I'm not sure how to best work that in to my day, though, but I know I need to figure out something. Any tips from fellow desk-jobbers are welcome!


Obstacles: Stress, Low energy, Poor self control
- Um, yeah, that about sums it up. Haha. I give in to cravings way too easily, and tend to take the easy way out and either not eat all day or just eat things that are easy to grab and require no preparation (usually candy and fast food). I'm also a big stress eater and I love my comfort foods.

So there we have it! My October in a nutshell.

 

[HappyGrape]

Well, how I ate on vacation definitely didn't have anything to do with the depression afterward as we stopped focusing on eating healthy a month or two before due to time and stress, and the honeymoon was not the cause of my weight gain. The 6 months of comfort food and carbs and no activity all day every day led to that. My depression was and is due to real, substantial factors and not just because we were no longer in Disney.

That's exactly why people hate discussing real mental issues they struggle with - everyone thinks they, too, have OCD or anxiety or depression so the response is always along the lines of "Oh, I totally know what you mean about depression, I always get so sad when it's time to leave and go back home to work." There's much more to it than that. For me, it stemmed from all of the issues with the wedding and the money and the people involved with it, the lack of money to pay bills, not having any direction as to an occupation that I could tolerate but not be wasting the whole paycheck just on gas to get to work, not having anything to look forward to after the wedding and honeymoon because we have no clue when or if we'll ever be able to buy our own home or start a family, not having DH around because he needed to work two jobs because I no longer had one... The vacation had very little to do with it, and now that we find ourselves in pretty much the exact same spot (minus wedding planning, thank goodness) it's hard to keep from getting back to that place.

I didn't mean to offend you. This was more my experience after last trips to WDW, I realize your situation is different. I found I suffered from planning and sugar withdraws after my previous vacations. For me it was contributing factor

I hope things get easier for you

 

[HappyGrape]

My original goal when I started my journey was to weigh 120 pounds by January 1. I am at about 140 now. I need to change this goal as I feel like I am not going to make it. I am going to change it be to lose 10 pounds by January. That will put me at about 130. I think that is more doable.

Keeping the goal and increasing the timelines can be an option too but sounds like you have great plan in place

 

[ski_mom]

I'm joining in again too. I going to really try to participate better this month - I think I say that every month. I love reading and following along with everyone, but I'm not a good sharer for some reason. Also, since June, I've basically stayed the same weight, so I feel I haven't really had anything positive to contribute.

I'm also going to go ahead and do my introductions because I probably won't be on this weekend. It's our oldest DD's family weekend at her college, so we're heading up that way as soon as we get home from work! It should be a fun fall weekend!

I'm Becky, married for 24 years with 3 kids - DD 19, DD 18 and DS 14. The two oldest are off at college this year, so it's been an adjustment with only one still being at home. When our oldest went off 2 years ago, it didn't seem like such an adjustment - I guess since there were still 4 of us at home. I'm not sure, but it seems much stranger this year, but we are adjusting.

I have a lot to lose still. Started with close to 100 to lose and have lost 30 since February. I did really well from the middle of February until middle of June - I lost the 30 pounds in those 4 months. But, since then (after our vacation), I just can't get my act back together. But, I'm starting this month off right! Tracking again and focusing on meal planning so I'm not grasping for things for everyone to eat at the end of the day.

I'm also making a commitment to post here more often because I know it's helpful!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

[JacknSally]

I didn't mean to offend you. This was more my experience after last trips to WDW, I realize your situation is different. I found I suffered from planning and sugar withdraws after my previous vacations. For me it was contributing factor

I hope things get easier for you

Not offended, I just didn't want it to seem like when I say "depressed" that it's really just that I was sad to not be in Disney and making up excuses to allow myself to regain the weight. I know Disney withdrawals are a thing, especially for people who spend a lot of time planning before a trip. The honeymoon was just a very, very small contributing factor for me and really had little to no impact on where I find myself today. The anxiety and depression aren't things I can discuss with the people in my daily life, so this is the one place I feel like I can talk about it.

 

[piglet1979]

Keeping the goal and increasing the timelines can be an option too but sounds like you have great plan in place

I am still going to have the ultimate goal to be down to 120 or less but I don't think it will happen by January. So I am just changing the number for January so I don't stress that in December I still need to lose a ton of weight. 120 was what I weighed when I got pregnant with my second. I was 116 when I got pregnant with my first. I would be happy with that too.

 

[Lady Marie]

This month I am not going to use stress as my excuse to not hit my goal. There is no excuse for being lazy. I am going to go back to a weight goal and see if this helps me any. I am going to challenge myself to lose 2 pounds this month. I am going to start with a small number. I know I can hit this if I get out of my own head.

My original goal when I started my journey was to weigh 120 pounds by January 1. I am at about 140 now. I need to change this goal as I feel like I am not going to make it. I am going to change it be to lose 10 pounds by January. That will put me at about 130. I think that is more doable.

That sounds like a great plan and very realistic. Especially with the eating holidays coming up. It's just as important to not set yourself up to fail!

I know it's not the 1st yet, but can I go ahead and post my goals? Sorry to mess things up @Lady Marie LOL

No not at all! I'm about to post the question anyway because I realized I don't have anything tomorrow morning so I am going to try to sleep in! LOL

We leave for Disney THREE WEEKS from today! My spirits are up today so I am determined to be excited about this trip. I desperately need to start packing. I have no idea what shirts to make for us, though, and we haven't even started on DH's costume for MNSSHP. I need to work on my wig, too. I feel so behind!

YAY! I'm so excited for your trip! I have seen the teasers of the costume on Insta and I can't WAIT to see the finished product!!!!

 

[Lady Marie]

Weekend Question: October 1 & 2
​

So there are two sides to today's topic. First, I know it's tradition to discuss our goals and our plans of how to get there. BUT I was listening to a TED talk the other day that got me thinking.

There has been research done on this since 1933 that shows that people who keep their goals and intentions to themselves are more likely to achieve them. Something about the way our brain processes "saying" something can misconstrue it into thinking we have already "done" it. However, if you do speak of it, it's important to be careful to phrase it in a way that doesn't give your brain the satisfaction of fooling itself into thinking it's already succeeded!

Anyway, it was pretty interesting. You can read or listen to the snippet of the TED talk here:
https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself/transcript?language=en

So that said, if you want to try this month and keep it to yourself this month, that's fine by me! Just keep tracking your percentages to report

But onto convention:

So I know I teased with Aristocats and am already taking you out of their universe, but it's still cat adjacent, right?!

In The Lion King, one of the first songs we hear is from Simba singing how he Just Can't Wait to be King. This is a huge tradition in musicals and musical theater. Often, the main character starts out by telling the audience what the show is about and what their journey will be by singing their "I Wish" song. (Think Belle- "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere," Pocahontas- "Just around the riverbend," etc, etc).

So let's hear your I Wish song-- well, statement....

What are your goals for this month? What are your plans to get there? What obstacles can you already see up ahead? How do you plan to over come those obstacles in your way?

 

[kirstie101]

I'm in again! My goal for the month is to lose 4 lbs.

 

[4Mickeys]

I think that's what we're leaning toward doing right now. Not going crazy, necessarily, but using what little room we have left on one of our credit cards just so we aren't literally counting pennies the few days we're there. It's a very short trip this time so it's not like we'd be putting $20,000 on the credit cards to stay deluxe for two weeks or anything, haha. I just want to not worry about things for a few days.

We leave for Disney THREE WEEKS from today! My spirits are up today so I am determined to be excited about this trip. I desperately need to start packing. I have no idea what shirts to make for us, though, and we haven't even started on DH's costume for MNSSHP. I need to work on my wig, too. I feel so behind!

Way to go liking the positivity starting to happen for the trip - so you drink a bit more water and share a couple of meals win/win on the budget and the portion size haha. I definitely want to see some pics of you enjoying yourself and what I am sure will be amazing costumes

Also, since June, I've basically stayed the same weight, so I feel I haven't really had anything positive to contribute.

as a wise @Flossbolna once told me - you have achieved something - you didn't GAIN!! and that is positive

That's exactly why people hate discussing real mental issues they struggle with - everyone thinks they, too, have OCD or anxiety or depression so the response is always along the lines of "Oh, I totally know what you mean about depression, I always get so sad when it's time to leave and go back home to work." There's much more to it than that. For me, it stemmed from all of the issues with the wedding and the money and the people involved with it, the lack of money to pay bills, not having any direction as to an occupation that I could tolerate but not be wasting the whole paycheck just on gas to get to work, not having anything to look forward to after the wedding and honeymoon because we have no clue when or if we'll ever be able to buy our own home or start a family, not having DH around because he needed to work two jobs because I no longer had one... The vacation had very little to do with it, and now that we find ourselves in pretty much the exact same spot (minus wedding planning, thank goodness) it's hard to keep from getting back to that place.

Not offended, I just didn't want it to seem like when I say "depressed" that it's really just that I was sad to not be in Disney and making up excuses to allow myself to regain the weight. I know Disney withdrawals are a thing, especially for people who spend a lot of time planning before a trip. The honeymoon was just a very, very small contributing factor for me and really had little to no impact on where I find myself today. The anxiety and depression aren't things I can discuss with the people in my daily life, so this is the one place I feel like I can talk about it.

I can relate as I have had several years of overcoming anxiety and depression - even though you may not feel it at the moment you will get there I am glad you feel this a safe space you can chat - sometimes those closest to us struggle with how to support us. I understand your sensitivity to how the words associated with mental health are used - I have a similar one to when married people say "Oh I am just like a single mum - DH is away this week" ah no they are not - there is so much more to being a single mum then getting through one week of a partners absence. Sure that may be a big deal for them - but as a true single mum I always hate it.

I'm about to post the question anyway because I realized I don't have anything tomorrow morning so I am going to try to sleep in! LOL

Enjoy that sleep in

 

[Oneanne]

I'm in!

(But I hate cats... LOL. Sorry! It doesn't help that I'm allergic and they make my eyes swell shut.)

It's been a minute since I've been truly active in these threads, so I'll reintroduce myself for anyone who doesn't know/remember me!


I'm Megan, I'm 27, and I'm a dogmom. I started doing these threads in May 2015 as I prepared for my October 2015 wedding. I managed to lose 30lbs and weigh in at 199 on my wedding day. We honeymooned in Disney and when I got home I was fighting some pretty heavy depression. The wedding was stressful, I had just quit my awful job (literally my last day was 3 days before my wedding), we were worried about money, and we were now back in Memphis not in Disney. I spent the winter sleeping, hibernating on the couch, and eating my anxiety. I started my own small business at the beginning of January, and while it gave me something to do, it didn't really help with the money worries or getting active again. DH picked up a second job which helps but ends still don't meet, and now I hardly see him, and now our meals consist of fast food at 11pm when he gets home and then going right to bed because he has to get up and go back to work at 6am.

In May, I started with a local bakery, and for the most part loved my job. Finally there was some additional income, there were people outside of my home, and there was some activity in my day. Light at the end of the tunnel! Finally we had a little wiggle room, we had a little "fun" money, and we were starting to make dents in credit cards and other debts that are keeping us from starting a family, buying a house, moving out of Memphis, sending DH back to school. I finally felt a little more like myself, even though I was exhausted all the time because I was juggling the 60-70hr a week home business plus the 30hr a week "part time" job (it was only supposed to be 20-25hrs but that never actually happened).... Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago I lost the bakery job, so now the same anxieties and depressions are back, and I'm struggling to fend them off. We're going to Disney for our first anniversary at the end of October, but I'm very worried that I won't be able to enjoy it because of all of the outside factors - largely the money. We've decided to still go because of the amount of money we've already put into it at this point that we can't get back, but it's really difficult to have been SO excited for this trip that now just feels like a big black cloud. Disney shouldn't feel that way! I was planning to do the Princess 5K in February and have already bought my spot, but we cancelled the hotel room and are planning to reallocate what little money we've saved toward that to use now, either toward bills or toward October Disney. I've started the job hunt - again - but

We're still spending too much money eating out and eating at 11pm because of DH's jobs, and because I'm too busy/tired to actually cook anything during the day. I'm tired of it and we just can't afford it - physically or financially. I need and I'm ready for a change. I wanted to at least be back to wedding weight before this trip, and I'm heartbroken that I won't be. DH put on even more weight than I did... While I'm only 30lbs heavier than this time a year ago, he is probably 40-50lbs heavier. Trying to pack is awful because nothing fits and we don't have the money to get things that do fit. We were so excited to go and take photos everywhere we could again and now I don't want to be in any of them. I don't want things to be like this and I never want to find us in this position again. I've missed you all terribly and I am really excited to rejoin what seems like an amazing, interactive group based on what I read from the September thread. Here's to amazing things for all of us this month!

I hope the Disney bubble envelopes you and you are able to set the worries aside and relax and regroup.

 

[Oneanne]

A lot of people say how you eat on vacations don't matter, but after few don't matter vacations and weight gains post vacation - they appear to matter very much to me. If you eat healthy for a while, go for week or two at WDW and eat cupcakes and icecream cookie sandwiches fit to be shred by 4 and sold as single serving and you don't gain weight during the vacation - Disney magic, heat & walk. You have done hours of planning before the trip and it all worked perfectly!

You come back and you need to work, clean the house, look after you family, exercise, eat healthy, in our case the weather could be rubbish too, your finances are stretch and you have the hours you spend planning as form of entertainment to wonder how to fill it with fun that you have money for and life just feels empty unless you plan another vacation.

Eating high sugar foods, leads to sugar withdraw and makes it so hard to go back to apples as snack!

It hit me bad (post Disney blues) the two previous vacations, but I plan to eat somewhat healthy the end of this month and to come up with other projects I am interested in locally. In fact I can say the cause for my weight gain was that I thought how I eat on vacation won't count. You are not the only one. It's very hard downer to manage!

And it sounds like you have been busy, busy happy and busy stressful too! I hope we can help you with your journey. I found the support very helpful

This is totally me, so focused and dedicated getting the weight down before vacation then it all flies out the window, and it is so stinking hard to get back on track. I haven't gotten back on track since my May trip and have managed to put back on 20 of the 30 pounds I had lost. So there won't be any pictures of me this trip either.

 

[Oneanne]

I'm in... still working on my goals for the month though.

 

[4Mickeys]

So there won't be any pictures of me this trip either.

Find some things/characters to hide behind and poke your head out this is what I do at the moment! But I usually have a kid I can stick in front of me! Or just angle your selfie just right hold the phone up then when you look up into it, it thins out your face/neck and you can get a shot of what is behind you. Or I was watching the US version of the Today show this week and Samuel L Jackson was on and he was talking about taking photos where he has just a bit of his face in there so that people know his social media accounts/selfies are done by him not 'his people' lol here is an example of one of his. Then we will know you were really there

 

[HappyGrape]

This is totally me, so focused and dedicated getting the weight down before vacation then it all flies out the window, and it is so stinking hard to get back on track. I haven't gotten back on track since my May trip and have managed to put back on 20 of the 30 pounds I had lost. So there won't be any pictures of me this trip either.

In some ways this month is my real challenge! We are going to WDW on 22nd of October for 2 weeks. I hope I can manage to practice moderation and don't undo all the hard work I did last 6 months, as I have done in the past

 

[JacknSally]

In some ways this month is my real challenge! We are going to WDW on 22nd of October for 2 weeks. I hope I can manage to practice moderation and don't undo all the hard work I did last 6 months, as I have done in the past

We'll be there Oct. 22-26 - maybe we'll bump into each other!

 

[HappyGrape]

What are your goals for this month? What are your plans to get there? What obstacles can you already see up ahead? How do you plan to over come those obstacles in your way?​

Goal 1 - practice some moderation and don't overeat while I am in Orlando end of this month. This is really important goal for me

Goal 2 - the one I will report in % is for the 21 days before our trip to Orlando to create 11550 calorie deficit, or 550 calories every day. Last few kg are very hard to loose and I feel behavior goal would keep me motivated better.

Goal 3 - make sure I keep it happy, eat food I love, not too little, do workouts I like, but not too much and focus on my long term goals - of living healthy life and not on and off diets

Introduction - I am Nia, age 38 and I live in Ireland, I am mum of one 9 year old boy, wife, working full time in IT, I love fashion, love travelling I am interested in living and eating healthy, yoga and keeping active

6 months ago I described myself as shattered, and I felt shattered. Quote from my April introduction "Year and half ago I was confident, fashionable, fun, outgoing, slimmer. I feel little shattered. I want to be happy and confident again.
posted picture of myself from August 2013
I want to be same weight by August 2016, which means I have 10 kg to lose."

Happy to report I have achieved that. I don't consider myself shattered person anymore. I need to push myself more on outgoing part, but I rest I feel good about.

I track calories and I went over some old weigh in records on MFP few months ago and I found out that vacations are a problem for me. That I have gone trough few up and down cycles, down pre vacation, up post vacation and during. I made changes on how I dealt with weight loss, and I made a very successful practice trip to Spain this May on how can I enjoy myself without overeating and plan to do the same this month. Little nervous about it!