Find Your Own "Directive" - the February Weight Loss / Life Style Change Challenge

[ski_mom]

Hello neighbor! I'm in Chatham, Il, not too far from you it sounds like. Welcome!

Yeah, not too far. I live in a small town near Alton if you know where that is. I saw you posted that you go to cardinals games! That's one of our favorite things to do in the summer!

 

[flvy]

@courtneybeth I know we talked about it but I'm so glad you got into Narcoossee's!!! You'll love it! And don't forget that amazing Royal room! You still have a ton of amazing and fun things to look forward too. Not to mention a half in 11 days! I'll woohoo for you haha.

As for me it's been a day pretty lacking in joy and goodness, which seems to be going around. So here's to an amazing Thursday for everyone!

 

[DisPup75]

Question of the Day - February 17

It's... WOOHOO WEDNESDAY!!
Every Wednesday we take a break from discussions to post about things that are making us "woohoo!"
No celebration is too big or too small. It can be about anything - the sky is the limit.

What are you celebrating on WooHoo Wednesday? ​

My woohoo Wednesday is that I am participating in woohoo Wednesday!!! But I'm really woohooing about.....Brussels sprouts!!! My frivolous credit card reward points purchase of 2015 was a Phillips air fryer. I was cutting up the sprouts to roast for dinner tonight and started to wonder what they would be like "fried" in the air fryer. OMG. Crazy delicious bits of Brussels sprouts heaven.

Woohoo I walked in -20 and a snow storm. Two different days but I got it done. Sticking with my goals. I also finally have my two largest pants sitting in a pile because they are too lose. Going to need to get some more pants soon. Just waiting to be down a bit more so the next two pairs are too big. The last woohoo is my mom brought different home made valentine cookies over on the weekend and one is my favourite kind she makes. I took one and savoured it and tracked it. 250 calories! It was big and delicious and I moved on. Never had just one of those out of the batch in the past.

That's awesome!!! I'll walk in the snow but I'm positive I wouldn't even stir outside if it were 20 below. Or 5 above. .

So... today is a bit of a rough day. We did our taxes last night and determined that we owe.... a lot. We had considered canceling our May trip but decided that we could just scale it back a bit and still have a great time.

A few questions for all of you:

1. Has anyone done the "Fantasia Gardens" or "Winter Summerland" mini golf courses? if so - which did you like better?
2. What is the nicest sit down restaurant you can think of at WDW that isn't Victoria and Alberts? We have Tables in Wonderland, so cost isn't an issue - we just want one nice dinner. Any theme for cuisine is great.

Oh no! That's not such good news but I know a scaled back version will still be wonderful. I love Winter Summerland. One of my favorite putt-putt courses ever. It is at its best in the morning when it first opens if you have a non-park day because there are no people. Evenings are a little rougher.

I'm not a fan of the in-park signatures -- too expensive for what you get and too rushed. I much prefer the resorts for the nice sit downs. My favorite is Artist Pointe because it is both delicious and quiet. Jiko is wonderful and unique and the service is some of the warmest I've ever experienced. I don't think I would ever go back to California Grill but Narcoosee's and Citricos are both great and you can see Wishes from at least one them (I just can't remember which one at the moment).

Hi everyone ! I'm new here and I've spent the last couple of hours reading through your great thread. It's been awhile ago, but I think at the beginning of this thread it said anyone could join and it could even be in the middle of the month... Well, if that's the case, I'd love to join in here.

An introduction to myself: I'm 45 years old and will have been married for 24 years this summer. DH and I have 3 kids - our oldest DD started college this past fall, our DD2 is a senior this year and heading off to her college this coming fall and our DS is 13 and in the 8th grade. We live in Illinois, about an hour north of St. Louis in southern/central Illinois.

I've struggled with weight my entire adult life. I need to loose around 100 pounds and just typing that out is very hard to do. How did I get here?!?

This morning I started tracking on My Fitness Pal and hope that it along with this thread will help keep me motivated and losing. My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week. - Since it's the middle of the month, I'm not sure if I should send in a percentage of goal or just wait until March to start that part. My family, along with my sister's family and my mom are going to Hawaii this summer for 2 weeks. That is also part of my motivation. I know I can't get anywhere near my goal weight be the time we leave, but if I could lose the 2 pounds each week, I could lose 34 pounds before our trip. Even that would make a big difference.

I'm excited to be joining everyone, you all seem like such a friendly group!

Welcome!!!

I just wanted to give a major shout out to everyone in this thread for being awesome. I woke up bummed this morning about the changes and shifts to our May trip schedule -- and all of your ideas are actually making me more excited for the trip. Mini Golf afternoon is much more realistic than spa day, and we scored a great reservation for Narcoossee's at around 8pm. We may work it out to watch Wishes from the restaurant -- which i still have NOT seen! (We just don't want to do 5 days of Parks... our down day was the one that changed).

So my WooHoo Wednesday is in celebration of all of YOU lovely people.

Woohoo! You will love Narcoossee's!!

 

[Lady Marie]

When we went last May for our 30th Anniversary we celebrated at Yachtsman and it was amazing! Our waiter was the best, he was so engaging and before we ordered he asked our likes and dislikes and made great suggestions. He wanted us to be really happy with our meal and we were! He also surprised us with a special dessert sampler made just for dh and I to celebrate our anniversary!

Was his name Oscar? This sounds exactly like our experience. He was just phenomenal!

 

[donac]

Just a short one today. My mil is in ICU and it doesn't look she is going to make it. Just keep my dh in your prayers. He is going to have to deal with 4 sisters. Thanks.

 

[pjlla]

Just a short one today. My mil is in ICU and it doesn't look she is going to make it. Just keep my dh in your prayers. He is going to have to deal with 4 sisters. Thanks.

Oh Dona.... I'm so sorry to hear this. Praying for your entire family today............P

 

[dsnyfn1022]

Just a short one today. My mil is in ICU and it doesn't look she is going to make it. Just keep my dh in your prayers. He is going to have to deal with 4 sisters. Thanks.

I'm so very sorry. Your family is in my prayers!

 

[dsnyfn1022]

I am so excited today because I get to leave at 4p instead of my normal 5p. And it's lovely outside today (supposed to be 70!) so I'll be able to switch it up and do my 3 mile run outside. I'm a little nervous because I haven't run outside in a month so I'm not sure how the hills will go and if I'll be able to do it all without stopping like I do on the treadmill. Guess I'll start out slow and we'll see!

 

[pjlla]

Good morning friends! Can I woo-hoo on a Thursday? I BOOKED OUR FLIGHTS!! WOOHOOO! It's official! DD and I are heading to CALIFORNIA! Prices were higher than we had budgeted for, but I booked us out of Boston into San Diego using my SWA Points and paid the cash portion with a SWA gift card I got a few years ago for my birthday, so it is costing us $0000 to get there. But there was no good return flight via SWA (we wanted to leave Anaheim as late as possible), so we are booked to flight Alaska Airlines LAX to Boston for a red-eye... and while I think we got a good deal, that return portion cost me MORE than I had budgeted for both round trips! I have NO experience with Alaska Airlines (I think it is part of American Airlines), so I am PRAYING I don't hear any bad things about them in the near future! I did buy travel insurance (a first for me) because their change rates are so high (I love the flexibility of SWA!!) and my Mom's ankle injury 10 days before we left for Bermuda made me realize that you NEVER KNOW that is going to happen.... especially 6 months from now!!

Returning our rental car at LAX (versus SAN) is going to cost us a bit more (I ran the numbers over the weekend), but the flight times and prices worked so much better for us, it will be worth the extra.

Because I booked our return flights via Travelocity, they offered a discounted hotel rate so I rebooked our Anaheim hotel for a little less (saved just $13, but hey, that's a lunch, right??).

Now..... expecting DH to pick us up in Boston at 9 am on a Wednesday is going to be a trick! I think I'll look into public transportation....otherwise the parking fees for 5.5 days is going to KILL me! How can it cost more to PARK MY CAR for a day than I MAKE working for a day?????

Off to actually work for a bit! I've pretty much been checking, rechecking, and booking airfare since I got here this morning (although I've done all of the attendance call, tardy notices, etc). I didn't expect SWA to open the schedule until later today, but lo and behold it was open when I checked at 7 am! So I had to scramble to communicate with DD and pick the best flights and then of course, SWA had a glitch when I booked and it only booked DD's flight.... so I had to rebook my flight. It was really weird. And then when I put in my gift card number I must have typed it in wrong because it showed no funds.... it freaked me out a little bit! But anyhow.... we both got emails with flight confirmation numbers.

BBL to chat...................P

 

[SarahDisney]

Just a short one today. My mil is in ICU and it doesn't look she is going to make it. Just keep my dh in your prayers. He is going to have to deal with 4 sisters. Thanks.

I'm so sorry to hear this. You guys are definitely in my thoughts and prayers today.

 

[mamattorney]

Just a short one today. My mil is in ICU and it doesn't look she is going to make it. Just keep my dh in your prayers. He is going to have to deal with 4 sisters. Thanks.

I am so sorry to hear this. Prayers for you, your husband and family.

 

[chasingthtdream08]

Sorry, I didn't get to the QOTD yesterday. It was not a woo-hoo Wednesday for me. I was in a terrible mood. I have no clue why. I think just sheer frustration from working my butt of with exercise and diet and the scale just keeps going up. I was over it. I ate TERRIBLY yesterday and to be honest don't feel much better today....hope this horrible mood wears off by the weekend. I find that I actually eat better on the weekends when I'm home vs at work. It's very hard to eat healthy at work, my only real choice is salad, and I am just NOT a salad girl. I guess if I had to think of a woo-hoo, it'd be that I feel much more secure in my financial state after paying off some BIG bills.

 

[courtneybeth]

Question of the Day - February 18

Handling... "The Negatives"
Some days you're Wall-e. And some days you're Mo.
Let's take Mo's perspective today and see how to handle those challenging "negatives" - you know, when life (aka: "Wall-e") puts its foot in our face. Yuck.
Finding your new Directive can be a challenge and support/positivity/results can make it loads easier -- but you're not always guaranteed support and positivity. Some days may
be more challenging. You may have a stressful day due to circumstances out of your control. How you handle this and rise above it shows progress.

Like it or not -- bad days with lots of "negatives" going to happen.
What do you do to manage the "bad days"?
What are things you struggle with on "bad days"?
Have you found a way to turn a negative into a positive?​

 

[knkmom]

Was his name Oscar? This sounds exactly like our experience. He was just phenomenal!

Yes!! He was awesome!

Question of the Day - February 18

Handling... "The Negatives"
Some days you're Wall-e. And some days you're Mo.
Let's take Mo's perspective today and see how to handle those challenging "negatives" - you know, when life (aka: "Wall-e") puts its foot in our face. Yuck.
Finding your new Directive can be a challenge and support/positivity/results can make it loads easier -- but you're not always guaranteed support and positivity. Some days may
be more challenging. You may have a stressful day due to circumstances out of your control. How you handle this and rise above it shows progress.

Like it or not -- bad days with lots of "negatives" going to happen.
What do you do to manage the "bad days"?
What are things you struggle with on "bad days"?
Have you found a way to turn a negative into a positive?​

I haven't always been good about dealing with bad days in a positive way, use to be I'd have a bad day and then throw myself into a tizzy and I would justify my bad choices on a bad day! Now I just remind myself every single day that I have the opportunity to do something good, something right on this particular day. I know there will still be tough times but I am more forgiving of myself because reality is life is going to happen and I can either keep moving forward or fall into bad habits. I'm at the point where I am not going to give up on myself! I know I have to take responsibility for myself! I've taken very good care of my kids and husband and now I need to do the same for myself!

 

[courtneybeth]

Question of the Day - February 18

Handling... "The Negatives"
Some days you're Wall-e. And some days you're Mo.
Let's take Mo's perspective today and see how to handle those challenging "negatives" - you know, when life (aka: "Wall-e") puts its foot in our face. Yuck.
Finding your new Directive can be a challenge and support/positivity/results can make it loads easier -- but you're not always guaranteed support and positivity. Some days may
be more challenging. You may have a stressful day due to circumstances out of your control. How you handle this and rise above it shows progress.

Like it or not -- bad days with lots of "negatives" going to happen.
What do you do to manage the "bad days"?
What are things you struggle with on "bad days"?
Have you found a way to turn a negative into a positive?​

For some reason this week has been a struggle for me, friends, and coworkers. It's like there's something in the water and we're all feeling "it" - whatever "it" is. It's made it hard to feel motivated and sometimes when that happens I just think "okay, can i just not care today" and then fall into bad habits.

I struggle mostly with motivation - I want to go to the gym and get stronger. i want to eat healthier. and I want to maintain my weightloss progress. There are so many days that I want to just dive into a bag of M&Ms and eat the whole thing. I tend to sometimes "eat my feelings" and that can be a struggle.

It's hard to turn a negative into a positive, but I have to work to find the positive in negative situations.

But today is going better than yesterday. Working through whatever "it" is that's affecting me and I feel like I'm starting to feel better. Or maybe it's just that tomorrow is Friday.

 

[4Mickeys]

Just a short one today. My mil is in ICU and it doesn't look she is going to make it. Just keep my dh in your prayers. He is going to have to deal with 4 sisters. Thanks

My thoughts and prayers are with your family at this difficult time.

Like it or not -- bad days with lots of "negatives" going to happen.
What do you do to manage the "bad days"?
What are things you struggle with on "bad days"?
Have you found a way to turn a negative into a positive?

I struggle with having the energy to do everything I need to do and then to add to that the new active things I want to do just seems all too hard.
Some days at work have been a struggle - there is one personality in our work place making thing interesting for the other 3 of us. Plus we are in a super busy period right now. We try to find a laugh where we can (sometimes you gotta or you will cry) we have been using Frozen lately "Let it Go" - I was having a particularly hard day last week which actually did end up with me in tears and about an hour later my workmate emailed me a link to a you-tube clip for "Let it go" - I watched it - it made me laugh at her.

I struggle mostly with motivation - I want to go to the gym and get stronger. i want to eat healthier. and I want to maintain my weightloss progress. There are so many days that I want to just dive into a bag of M&Ms and eat the whole thing. I tend to sometimes "eat my feelings" and that can be a struggle.

I understand this completely- I definitely want to be healther, thinner an active person - but I also struggle to do it. Another one who eats their feelings here also - that started for me after my relationship broke up and I found myself alone on the couch at night after the kids were all in bed - so I started keeping myself company eating while watching TV - its a hard habit to break and all that bad eating right before bed, just makes it that much worse.

 

[mamattorney]

Question of the Day - February 18

Handling... "The Negatives"
Some days you're Wall-e. And some days you're Mo.
Let's take Mo's perspective today and see how to handle those challenging "negatives" - you know, when life (aka: "Wall-e") puts its foot in our face. Yuck.
Finding your new Directive can be a challenge and support/positivity/results can make it loads easier -- but you're not always guaranteed support and positivity. Some days may
be more challenging. You may have a stressful day due to circumstances out of your control. How you handle this and rise above it shows progress.

Like it or not -- bad days with lots of "negatives" going to happen.
What do you do to manage the "bad days"?
What are things you struggle with on "bad days"?
Have you found a way to turn a negative into a positive?​

So hard. Bad days are the worst. I think my biggest struggle is feeling sorry for myself or selfish about my free time. I'm an introvert at heart, or at least some form of an introvert. I need periods of peace and quiet to thrive. Running a family with three busy, loud kids is completely at odds with peace and quiet. I get about 2 hours to myself each day and I know I should take at least an hour to work out, and most of the time I do, but when things are really crazy, I feel sorry for myself and think - that's the last thing I want to do. What I want to do is sit down with this book. I deserve to sit down with this book. And I talk myself into it.

I just wish I was one of those people that loved to work out. I have friends who would no more sit down with a book than run into a burning building. They look so forward to their classes, their run, their workout every day. Some people are born to move. I was born to sit.

 

[Oneanne]

WOW... just found this thread thru searching for California Grill, which I just booked for my upcoming May trip.

I'm a single lady, of a "certain age", living in the great grey Pacific Northwest. I've been to WDW 35+ times... it used to be an annual spring migration to find sun, but the past few years it's been two trips per year and last year it was three (trying to get the most out of that annual pass... the May trip is the last time I'll be able to use it). I've been over weight most of my adult life... you could say Pooh Bear and I have a lot in common (in shape, and OK love for honey as well). End of last year I finally hit the preverbal rock bottom: stressed out, a series of colds I just couldn't kick, tired all the time, tired of being tired. I was home sick and after seeing Oprah's WW commercial for the 5th or 6th time, realized "hey, she talking to me", so I picked up my phone and signed up.

I've been doing well with an average of just under -2 pounds per week, feeling better but not as good as I think I should be feeling, so this past week I started an elimination diet: no dairy, gluten, corn, sugar, eggs, soy, or peanuts. I'm still not feeling as well as I think I should, so now I'm also eliminating coconut and nuts, which I've suspected I'm also sensitive to. This elimination period is to last for 21 days, followed by a 21 day testing period where you introduce things back in to your diet... I'm headed to Texas the middle testing period so I'll have to give that some serious thought.

My February goal is to hit one-derland, which is currently just over 3 pounds away: that will also be -20 pounds. My WW weigh-in day is Friday, so that aligns well with reporting progress... how do we do that, just post?

Glad to have found you all... here's to a healthy future for us all!

 

[pjlla]

WOW... just found this thread thru searching for California Grill, which I just booked for my upcoming May trip.

I'm a single lady, of a "certain age", living in the great grey Pacific Northwest. I've been to WDW 35+ times... it used to be an annual spring migration to find sun, but the past few years it's been two trips per year and last year it was three (trying to get the most out of that annual pass... the May trip is the last time I'll be able to use it). I've been over weight most of my adult life... you could say Pooh Bear and I have a lot in common (in shape, and OK love for honey as well). End of last year I finally hit the preverbal rock bottom: stressed out, a series of colds I just couldn't kick, tired all the time, tired of being tired. I was home sick and after seeing Oprah's WW commercial for the 5th or 6th time, realized "hey, she talking to me", so I picked up my phone and signed up.

I've been doing well with an average of just under -2 pounds per week, feeling better but not as good as I think I should be feeling, so this past week I started an elimination diet: no dairy, gluten, corn, sugar, eggs, soy, or peanuts. I'm still not feeling as well as I think I should, so now I'm also eliminating coconut and nuts, which I've suspected I'm also sensitive to. This elimination period is to last for 21 days, followed by a 21 day testing period where you introduce things back in to your diet... I'm headed to Texas the middle testing period so I'll have to give that some serious thought.

My February goal is to hit one-derland, which is currently just over 3 pounds away: that will also be -20 pounds. My WW weigh-in day is Friday, so that aligns well with reporting progress... how do we do that, just post?

Glad to have found you all... here's to a healthy future for us all!

First of all.... welcome, welcome, welcome!

WOOHOO on approaching 20 pounds gone forever! That is a terrific job well done!

For our purposes here we each set ourselves a goal with a measurable "percentage" to reach (pounds off, inches gone, miles walked.... whatever you want). Goal reporting is done Fri-Sunday and results are usually posted Monday night. Since there is only a bit of February left, you don't need to feel compelled to set a goal for the month.... you could just get ready for March... it's up to you!

I've also recently decided that I may have a coconut sensitivity.... not that I consumed it a lot, but since my DH eats low carb, we do use coconut flour occasionally instead of AP flour... and I had started the habit of coconut oil coffee (AKA "bulletproof coffee"), but have curtailed that. Are you seeing an allergist regarding all of those sensitivities?

Anyhow..... WELCOME!

*************************************

Hey friends! Home alone tonight as the men are at robotics. I have leftover sweet potatoes ready for dinner.... I may caramelize some onions and scramble some egg whites to go with it.... not sure yet.

Off to be busy!...................P

 

[Oneanne]

Feb 18 - Handling the Negatives

We're going thru a stressful time at work, another restructure is in the works and this one is going to be pretty dramatic. I know some of what is coming, which is better than being totally clueless: my job is expanding in a way I'm not ready for, so this has been stressing me out. My current boss is going to become my peer, so that is going to be weird for both of us. Per my previous post I started an elimination eating plan the end of last week, and over the weekend I hit the "kill all the things" stage. I thought I was coping well (I didn't kill anything), but came to realize I was internalizing it all, fabricating victim/martyr scenarios in my head and making myself angry. I had an epiphany Tuesday when a couple of the people I had imagined to be big baddies paid some glowing compliments to me and my team.

How do I cope and turn things around? I keep telling myself 'assume the best': I try to be self-aware and recognize when it's me and my self-talk, although this time that took a while. I will say prior to starting WW, I would have eaten my stress: gallons of ice cream would have been consumed, but instead I've been using the stress to focus and stay on eating plan and get in extra steps.