January 2018 Weight Loss Challenge

[jaelless]

What is the first thing that you do when you arrive at your destination for a vacation. Is it different depending on how you get there or the time that you arrive. How do things towards your goals change when there is a change in your routine.

I will take my first vacation in 20 years at the end of the month, so I will have to let you know LOL. I moved to where I love to visit, so not really a vacation to me anymore. I love going to the parks. If it is to MK then first stop is Firehouse to check in for Sorcerers of the Kingdom. That scavenger hunt burns calories and is fun. Epcot is always a trip around the world I love pretending I am really there. Animal Kingdom is definitely for the safari, and Studios going to the Frozen show is a must. It is hilarious LOL. I love having the freedom to not worry about getting it all done, I will eventually do that. There are still areas I haven't explored, even after being here a year.

So yeah vacation time at end of the month. Small person and me are going to visit friends in Washington, DC. Never been there before, so really looking forward to it. We are hoping to go explore all the museums, so that will be lots of walking. With all that walking, and I tend to never like to eat when busy busy, I am hoping the scale will go down. It better or I will be flabbergasted LOL don't often get to use that word. My goal for that week is to lose a solid 2 lbs at least.

 

[HappyGrape]

end of week accountability
track all my food on mfp and have at least 500 calories deficit? yes
I snack after 7 pm? yes
What did I do great last week? it was great week
What can I do better this week? keep it up

End of week questions
Did I do average of 15000 steps daily? I did 100 333 steps last week. thats average 14333 a day. considering the horrible weather, this is more suitsable goal for me and I will change my goal to total of 100 000 steps
Did I do my 3 workouts? yes, 3 lifting sessions, 3 yoga classes, 1 dance class (it was horrible! something call sh#bam. Not my thing at all!
What can I do better next week

I looked at my stats last week
3 lifting sessions, 3 yoga classes, 1 dance class
Mixing lifting session with yoga is great, no bad DOMSs!
100 000 steps


MFP
Average calories daily 1700
Breakfast average 289
Lunch 510
Afternoon snack 228
Dinner 680

Macros 40/30/30

Fitbit Average daily 2460cal burn

Defict 5320

No snacking after dinner, just one snack time a day.

I don't normally look at so much details, but I felt really great last week and end up having over 5000 calorie deficit. I also liked the structures of my meal times, and didn't experience much hunger outside that.

I am really excited about trying 3 weeks like that and taking it easy, eating at maintenance week 4! Lets hope the rest of the month is as good. I am giving myself 25% towards my goal, I couldn't have asked for better week 1.

Have a great week all

 

[piglet1979]

As soon as we get to WDW we get checked in and head to our room. Then we explore the resort and go swimming. After that we always have an ADR for dinner then it is back to the room. Sometimes we head to the pool for a little bit and or watch part of the movie at night. It depends on how tired we are. Then it is bed for our early morning.

++++++++

Kids are off of school again today (other then 1 day last week they have been off since December 21 and will be off Friday and Monday as planned days off) and my office is closed until 10:30. We got freezing rain and snow that started at about 5 and it is still snowing. It is supposed to stop by noon. The temp is about 30 degrees warmer then yesterday and is at about 32. By Thursday it will almost 60. I hate when the temp does this. We all get sick. DH already is sick with a bad cold. Hopefully we can keep the sickness at this.

Yesterday DH did not get out of bed and we had my nephews birthday party. I had cleaning to do in the morning before we left so I did not get to work out. I also took some time with DD to do a puzzle with her because she asked and I wanted to spend some time with her. I was going to do some exercises on the XBox but I came home with a migraine so I just laid on the couch until I was able to take a migraine pill. I haven't had to take one of those in a long time. I could tell that it was not going to go away without it. I tried advil and it didn't even touch the pain and when I got home from the party I used peppermint oil because I heard this helps with headaches and that didn't help either. I still have a small headache this morning. I am hoping it goes away soon. I also woke up sick to my stomach but that has seemed to have gone away now.

Tonight DD has her riding lesson so i will not make it to the rec but I will workout at home tonight.

 

[Lady Marie]

Lady Marie your chili sounds so yummy. How can it be zero points. Maybe I should check out WW I am sorry your hip is acting up. Be careful with it.

With WW chicken breast, veggies, beans, and corn are all 0 points. So I browned ground chicken breast in chili powder and a little olive oil. Both of those do have point values when I put it into my recipe calculator, but so few spread over 12-16 servings, it calculates as 0 overall. I feel like the new program is trying to teach how to eat healthy and have control without counting as much which definitely works for me-- I'm too lazy to count every bite LOL!

What is everybody's favorite guilt free snack?

Raspberries, watermelon, and apples with PB2

I actually enjoy weighing daily. Most people don't recommend it, but I like to see how certain foods/behaviors affect my progress, rather than just checking once a week or once a month and not really be able to pinpoint what may have prevented me from losing when i thought i should have. Because I weigh daily, I've been able to determine that drinking plenty of water and getting a good night's sleep really aid my weight loss, because the mornings after not drinking enough water or only getting a few night's sleep don't see as much loss, if any.

I'm with you here. It's so interesting to see how different things affect your weight! I am the same about sleep and water intake. Sleepless nights show on my scale just as much a big meal out!


Happy Monday everyone! I had a mostly guilt free weekend even though I did indulge a little. It's funny-- we ended up going out to dinner, and I just picked something I was in the mood for (didn't research or pretrack) but when I got home and went to track it later, I realized it was a much better choice than I had anticipated. Maybe it was a fluke or coincidence, but I would really like to believe that slooooowly, I am changing my habits overall to make better choices in general. Not totally though--- DH and I did split a cheesecake, but I had planned for that big an indulgence!

Life is a bit nuts right now--- heading to Disney for the weekend this weekend... and now I have two weeks until our party and no weekends to get things done. I mainly just have two decoration projects and party favors to put together so I am not too too stressed.... However, we are giving mini champagne bottles for favors, so I have been having to try a few (in the name of research!) to know which one to pick. LOL! That's definitely off plan, but part of our whole thing, so I'm not beating myself up too bad. Getting to the gym, eating mostly my low point foods, and the cards will fall as they may.

 

[Oneanne]

do you listen to the minimalists podcast? I have a feeling you will like ti. Love your goals and your aims to simplify this year, reading with interest

@HappyGrape No I haven't listened to them... I'll check them out. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Oneanne]

Happy Monday!

Accountability for the weekend... fairly dismal. I ate out both days, healthfully but not with a plan in hand. I did stay away from Starbucks, but didn't get out for any meditative walking.

But the weekend does feel like it was productive, even if it didn't align well with my stated goals. The FB page for the course I'm taking has started up and the conversations are quite active and inspiring. Most of the talk is about clearing out clothing, as that's where we have all started. I'm in pretty good shape now with my clothing and have finally moved on to tackling the craft room... I put it off most of the weekend, but in one of the posts the course leader said every day she's going to ask us if we did enough during the day to feel good when our heads hit the pillow at night. I knew I wouldn't feel good if I didn't at least get started, so midway thru the Golden Globes last night, I got off the sofa and got busy. I have one bag of donate and one bag of toss filled up... doesn't sound like much but I went thru quite a bit to get to that point.

I've been thinking a lot about my shopping/collecting behaviors... I'm not a big shopper but I am a big buyer, an impulse buyer - without a plan. This is also true with my eating/food management, as I always end up going for what I want at the moment or what is easily at hand, instead of thinking ahead and planning things out. Simple eating is part of the course, so a great deal of focus is going in that direction as well. I'm not starting with calories/weight loss per se, but with fixing my own food and cooking things for multiple meals: I'm going to start with a casserole I used to make all the time that I'll get at least four meals out of. And after that will find something to (finally) make in my Instapot.

This is the first full work week after two lovely short holiday weeks - woohoo.

QOTD: What do I do first on vacation... for trips to WDW I usually take the red eye, and if I can snag a non-stop it'll get me to the resort around 6:30am. So it's off to the ladies room to change clothes and freshen up, then dropping bags at Bell Services and off I go to hit the park of the day at RD. But a power nap will be needed as soon as the room is available.

 

[mco65]

239
240
240 at least i didn't go up..

 

[knkmom]

Happy Monday!!

Accountability for the weekend....I did awesome! Of course I'm just starting week 2 of WW Freestyle so I stuck strictly to the plan!!

So I just finished week 1 on WW freestyle and I lost 6.5 lbs! I think I'm going to do really well on this new WW plan, I don't feel like I'm eating stuff that nobody at my house has to eat and I don't stress over food and what I should be doing either. Everything is easy to track and there are so many "free" options on the plan that I am never hungry! This week I need to get moving more and drink more water!!

 

[sweetpeama]

I am a bit suspicious of my scale this morning. Considering clothes are fitting looser and I am seeing a 4.1 pound gain in a week something is up. I will be digging out the extra battery and replacing it later today. Will be interesting to see what tomorrow shows. For now I will say 0 percent or even a negative towards my monthly goal.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Did well over the weekend, but probably not enough water. I weigh on Fridays (just to see where I am), but record on Monday. Friday I was down to 249, but today when I weighed for the official one, I was at 250.2 (still down a pound). Not much difference from Friday, but the 250 mark is one I'm having trouble breaking.

Going for a walk at lunch, just to celebrate the warmer weather.
-------------------
QOTD: On vacation, what I do first is unpack, even if I'm only at the place for a single night. Somehow, I feel the need to unpack completely.

 

[piglet1979]

I am doing pretty good towards my goal. I am down 1.8 pounds this month.

Goal 30% of my goal so far.

+++++++

I am feeling a little bit better but I have a massive headache/migraine. I had one yesterday too. I haven't had one this bad in a long time. My plan as of right now is just make it though the day and as soon as I get home I will take another migraine pill (I took one last night) and go to bed. Tonight is my DD riding lesson and thankfully my DH is feeling better and is planning on taking her. I know he is not thrilled by this as he is not a farm person. He is very much a city guy. But he knows that this is her thing. When I rode he would come every once in awhile too. She will love it as her Daddy will get to see her ride.

I am bummed that I have not gotten any type of work out in now in 2 days. I really hope this is gone by tomorrow so I can get back to it.

 

[JacknSally]

I am doing pretty good towards my goal. I am down 1.8 pounds this month.

Goal 30% of my goal so far.

+++++++

I am feeling a little bit better but I have a massive headache/migraine. I had one yesterday too. I haven't had one this bad in a long time. My plan as of right now is just make it though the day and as soon as I get home I will take another migraine pill (I took one last night) and go to bed. Tonight is my DD riding lesson and thankfully my DH is feeling better and is planning on taking her. I know he is not thrilled by this as he is not a farm person. He is very much a city guy. But he knows that this is her thing. When I rode he would come every once in awhile too. She will love it as her Daddy will get to see her ride.

I am bummed that I have not gotten any type of work out in now in 2 days. I really hope this is gone by tomorrow so I can get back to it.

So, one of my go-to migraine relief tricks is to stand in the bathtub with the water running as hot as you can possibly stand it, and put an ice pack on your head and/or the back of your neck. Supposedly the idea behind it is that it quickly draws the blood down into your feet and away from your head, which helps provide some relief from the pressure in your head. I don't know if that's factual or not, but the trick works for me! Depending on how bad my migraine is and how early into it I can do this, it helps dull the pain some or knock it out completely. Hopefully it helps you as well!

Weighing in down 2.4lbs today, which puts me at 48% of my 5lb goal for the month. I'm fine with that as I know I haven't been fully true to my plan so far, unfortunately. For the most part I do fine throughout the day, but the sweet cravings hit hard in the evenings and I am just too weak to shake them, haha.

I did take some "before" photos today. Looking forward to some "afters" that hopefully show some progress. I think I may do photos every quarter. Currently I weigh daily and will check measurements monthly.

 

[HappyGrape]

I wonder what to do with my workouts. Now according to my monthly, I have another 2 good weeks before having the challenging week. Should I push with my current program for few weeks more, I am due to complete it this Thursday.

If I complete it by Thursday - I will move to the new program, have 2 good weeks and 1 taking it easier. that 1 week was suppose to be good for learning new moves, and when learning new moves, I am not pushing myself much to avoid injury and learn proper form.

If I stick with the current program, I have 2 weeks to push with the moves i know, and than make most of the slow week by learning new moves and worry about form and not how much i lift...

I feel option 2 is better, but my desire to stick to the program is conflicting me. ... I will stick with option 2.

Another great day yesterday. I lost 100% of my goal weight for the month. I guess a lot of it was bloat form salty & sugary treats around Christmas and went easy as it wasn't real weight.

 

[jaelless]

OK I love all of the weight loss successes over the week, you guys rock. I just am so jealous. No matter what I do I cannot get the scale to budge. It is so frustrating.

HappyGrape I wish I had your discipline to monitor and track like you do. It is very impressive.

KnKmom that is amazing the 6.5 lbs in one week. Keep up the awesomeness

Has anybody ever used a health coach? I just read an article that went on about how much they help but not sure is worth it. Any thoughts?
here is article I read https://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/bl...oach_can_help_you_finally_achieve_your_dreams

 

[sweetpeama]

Let's talk snacks today
Are you more of a sweet or a salty type which of these tend to be the most challenging for you.

Bonus what are your top 5 snacks for a Disney Vacation (any park)

 

[summermom2]

I lost 4 pounds so I am happy. Only 8 more pounds this month.

 

[sweetpeama]

The first thing I do when I get to my destination has a lot to do with the following factors

How long has it been since I have eaten. If I am driving more in likely I have been chewing on sunflower seeds for miles especially if I am driving over mountain areas. My ears tend to get clogged a lot and I am not a gum chewer and mints I tend to just swallow so fast. I will just suck on the shells of the seeds for a while then open them and spite the shells into an empty soda or plastic water bottle. How soon is it until a meal is planned if we are going to family reunion. I might unpack, get something to eat even if it's a snack and will generally rest especially if it is a long travel day.

For Disney World it is a long travel day that once we are on the 1st flight is 1 hour and 20 minute flight 1 hour and 20 minute layover 4 hour and 38 minute flight plus the time it takes to get off the plane, go to magical express and get to the resort. Even with only being 20 minutes though better allow 30 in case of any problems or delays that require using the alternate route (we go up a really curvy road that at times has been closed so you have to go through town and up another road to the airport) to get from my house to the airport and an airport that is smaller so we can get by with only 2 hours for baggage check in and security. (Trust me a 3 gate airport is small and 2 of them even share a waiting area though they are expanding to 5 gates 2 of which will be used for a budget airline that only goes to 3 locations-2 direct and the 3rd with a layover but at least those will be daily flights when everything is done instead of weekly). I have being dressed and presentable including hair and make up plus making sure that 10 year old is presentable by tag teaming usually with almost 13 year old though DH does help at times within 30 minutes if we don't have to search for anything down to a science. Trust me if we are having to leave the house before 5 am everything is laid out the night before including making sure hair ties and brushes are accessible and immediately placed in the carry on. Might just be tempted to use an extra one and call it good.

Figure (converting times to East Coast here) we have been up since 5 am at the latest and it is going to be at least 5:00 when we get to our room and we have not eaten other than a couple bags of little cookies, or nuts, or pretzels and a couple really small glasses of soda or juice since our layover (add in that boarding typically starts 20-30 minutes before flight time) it is a real debate on sleep or get something at the resort quick service. The last trip my mom thought we could just take the bus over to Disney Springs (Downtown Disney at the time) and get something at a quick service place for our Dinner. We ended up eating at the CBR market place and then my brother, sister, mom and myself took the rental car (mom, sister, and aunt planned to go to church services the next day) in search of a grocery store. Brother tried putting in walmart in his gps he had along it said could not find. Luckily I had read enough on various boards and books I remembered the name publix so told him to look it up and we got directions right to one.

 

[HappyGrape]

HappyGrape I wish I had your discipline to monitor and track like you do. It is very impressive.

the tracking takes me less than 10 minutes a day, unless I am adding new recipe. I think it's only time consuming at the start and I have DH on board for preparing some of our regular meals so either of us can make most of our regulars.

 

[HappyGrape]

Let's talk snacks today
Are you more of a sweet or a salty type which of these tend to be the most challenging for you.

Bonus what are your top 5 snacks for a Disney Vacation (any park)

salty!

I really love Liquid Nitro Chocolate at Food and Wine but we won't be able to have it next trip. I love my starbucks so my credits go on coffee, but I always have at least one of the ice cream cookie sandwitches at sleepy hallow. My family love the cinnamon roll at Gastrons, sundaes at the ice cream parlour, mickey ears ice cream and anything from the german caramel shop at Epcot, and also my husband love the cronut.

I am trying to tackle my snacking this year, I am terrible snacker and if I snack all the time, even if it's fruit - it all ads up. This is my main goal this year - less snacking, more substantial meals.

 

[piglet1979]

So, one of my go-to migraine relief tricks is to stand in the bathtub with the water running as hot as you can possibly stand it, and put an ice pack on your head and/or the back of your neck. Supposedly the idea behind it is that it quickly draws the blood down into your feet and away from your head, which helps provide some relief from the pressure in your head. I don't know if that's factual or not, but the trick works for me! Depending on how bad my migraine is and how early into it I can do this, it helps dull the pain some or knock it out completely. Hopefully it helps you as well!

I will have to try this tonight. I took a migraine pill at about 5 and was asleep shortly after for the night. I still have a headache today but it is not as bad as yesterday. I am really hoping advil will take it away today,

QOTD -- Salty. My go to snack at home is tortilla chips. The saltier the better.

At Disney I think our go to is Icees (which are really hard to find at WDW). Really anything cold since we mostly go in the summer.