Sebastian's STRONG and SVELTE Under the Sea September W.I.S.H. Weight Loss Challenge - All Welcome!

[JacknSally]

I have never done one of these, but I am in for September. I had a crazy summer and COMPLETELY fell off the wagon in terms of diet/exercise/weight loss maintenance. I need some help getting back on track and staying focused

YAYYYYY we LOVE newbies here!!! Welcome, welcome, welcome! I'm sure @DisPup75 will be along shortly to welcome you, too!!! I have a feeling this September group is going to be AAAMAAAAZINGGGGG!

 

[lisah0711]

I'm in -- hello to all the new and returning participants!

 

[JacknSally]

I'm in -- hello to all the new and returning participants!

YAY YAY YAY YAY MORE PEOPLE! I love when these groups are big and talkative and involved! It makes it so much more fun for everyone! WELCOME ABOARD @lisah0711 !!!!

 

[DisPup75]

I have never done one of these, but I am in for September. I had a crazy summer and COMPLETELY fell off the wagon in terms of diet/exercise/weight loss maintenance. I need some help getting back on track and staying focused

Yay!! You will LOVE it here. Nicest, most friendly, supportive group of people ever!

I'm in -- hello to all the new and returning participants!

Woo hoo! Welcome!

YAY YAY YAY YAY MORE PEOPLE!

 

[PTownGirls]

Ok, Count me in for September !!! My deadline is September 30th as that is my trip date. I was hoping to lose between 40 and 50 pounds before my WDW 4 day visit on September 30th ! Going into the final stretch this month and I have lots of work to do. I have lost 37 pounds since March 30th

 

[DisPup75]

Ok, Count me in for September !!! My deadline is September 30th as that is my trip date. I was hoping to lose between 40 and 50 pounds before my WDW 4 day visit on September 30th ! Going into the final stretch this month and I have lots of work to do. I have lost 37 pounds since March 30th

Way to go!!! We are here to see you through the final stretch!!!!

 

[scdak]

I just joined in August and its been a blast, count me in for September! Speaking of which, time for me to get on the exercise bike and meet my goal for August right now I am literally just a hair away, a good ride will put me over today

 

[DisPup75]

I just joined in August and its been a blast, count me in for September! Speaking of which, time for me to get on the exercise bike and meet my goal for August right now I am literally just a hair away, a good ride will put me over today

Woo hoo! Welcome!!

 

[Dentam]

I would like to join as well! Hoping to lose 6-8 lbs in September! I've lost 10 lbs since June.

 

[DisPup75]

Welcome!

 

[JacknSally]

@DisPup75, if you, or anyone else!, would be willing to step in and cover the last week or two of October, I'd like to host again! I just thought of a really awesome theme for the month but I'm not sure I'll be able to do at least the 24th-31st, with the wedding and Disney trip. Let me know!!

 

[DisPup75]

@DisPup75, if you, or anyone else!, would be willing to step in and cover the last week or two of October, I'd like to host again! I just thought of a really awesome theme for the month but I'm not sure I'll be able to do at least the 24th-31st, with the wedding and Disney trip. Let me know!!

I can do that! I'm out of the country for a few days at the beginning of the month but should be able to help in whatever way you need the rest of October (cause you know, weddings and honeymoons are kind of time consuming ). I'll update the schedule post now.

 

[DisPup75]

Hope everyone is having an AWESOME end to Abu's AWESOME August and thinking about their goals and plans for September!

We will kick things off here on Tuesday!

 

[CruisingKate]

What a cool thread! I'd love to join in! I'm new to W.I.S.H. but not to the battle to live a healthy life. I made Lifetime at WW years ago but am about 25 lbs above my goal wt now. Just rejoined WW last month and the weight is s-l-o-w-l-y coming off. My goal this month will be to lose 5 pounds following my WW plan.

 

[DisPup75]

What a cool thread! I'd love to join in! I'm new to W.I.S.H. but not to the battle to live a healthy life. I made Lifetime at WW years ago but am about 25 lbs above my goal wt now. Just rejoined WW last month and the weight is s-l-o-w-l-y coming off. My goal this month will be to lose 5 pounds following my WW plan.

Welcome Kate!!! We look forward to losing with you!

 

[DisPup75]

Let's get this party started with our September 1 Question of the Day (QOTD)!

September is still a few hours away but I know that we are all busy formulating our goals for the month and our plans for how to get there.

To Achieve a Goal, a Dream, a Wish, You Must Plan It out for Success!
-Voltaire (Candide)
​

What goal or goals do you plan to work towards in September? Which ones are you going to track? And most important of all, what is your plan for achieving those goals?

One piece of advice.... Consulting a sea witch is probably not the best plan for realizing your dreams but anything else is fair game!

 

[JacknSally]

One piece of advice.... Consulting a sea witch is probably not the best plan for realizing your dreams but anything else is fair game!

LOL all I can think of is that part in "Poor Unfortunate Souls" that says "This one's longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl, and do I help them? Yes, indeed." Happy September eve, my fellow unfortunate souls! Here's hoping we can all get through the month successfully withOUT having to pawn off our voices! I've definitely got some leg that I wouldn't mind losing, though...

​

So excited to be kicking off another month with you wonderful creatures! I can not wait to see what our fearless leader @DisPup75 has in store for us along the way!
​

_______________________________________________

About Me -

HI!! Some of you may know me from the August thread, but for those of you who don't, here is my story!

I'm Megan , I'm 26, and I'm trying to lose weight before my October 24th wedding and DISNEYMOON! I've always struggled with being overweight. Even in middle school/high school, I was a lot bigger than all the other girls in my class, wearing size 11-13 pants/dresses and size M-L shirts. I thought i was HUGE at the time, but I'd sure give anything to be there again now, LOL.

After I graduated college in 2011, I was REALLY depressed for the first couple of months after I moved back home. I slept all day and barely ate, and i ended up losing a lot of weight that summer, going from a size 16/18 in May 2011 to a size 12 in August 2011. I was thrilled! I kept it off until March 2012, and over the last 3 years, I've slowly put all of that weight back on. In January 2015, my scale hit the highest number it's ever hit - 227lbs. Since then, I've been desperately and unsuccessfully trying to make that number go down. Since the only time I've ever really lost weight was the summer after college, and the only reason I lost it was because I was sleeping 12-16 hours a day and barely eating, I had NO idea how to try to shed all the new pounds. To be honest, I'm still trying to figure that out.

After a rough January-April, full of poor choices, excuses, "tomorrows", and busy schedules, I finally hit 222lbs in May, and then I found the WONDERFUL June challenge thread from @pjlla , and that thread was the #1 reason I was able to start out July at 212lbs. As of June 30, I was 116 days away from my wedding, and 22lbs away from my wedding-goal (but 52lbs away from my overall-life-goal... but baby steps!)...

I am now proud to say that as of September 1, I am 53 days away from the wedding and 10lbs away from my wedding-goal! I'd really love to be around 190 (so another 15lbs) by the wedding, but if I can lose these 10lbs between now and then, I will be ECSTATIC. August was a really awful month for me, so I've got really high hopes for an amazing September full of progress!

​

QOTD (9/1/15) -
I've really been struggling with what to make my goal for September. I really want something tangible and quantifiable, that I can work TOWARD, rather than something abstract that I'm working to maintain. I feel like, if I'm working to maintain the 100% all month long, then if I miss just once I'm more likely to give up because I can never get the 100% back. For that reason, I'm going to stick with my August goal of getting below 200lbs, that way I'm starting at 0% and fighting for 100% all month long! So with that being said...

GOAL: To weigh-in under 200lbs on September 30, 2015. I will consider my starting weight for the month to be the number my scale said this morning - 205.5. I will be fighting toward a reading of 199.9 or less. I will be tracking my percentages each week based on needing to lose a total 5.6lbs in order to hit the 199.9 mark.

PLAN: My plan to achieve my goal for the month is going to be three-fold.

1. Diet. I'm going to start back on my low-carb/high-protein diet, as it worked well for me earlier in the summer. I felt better overall and managed to take off a few pounds.
2. Exercise. I'm going to restart my HIIT program. I completed the first week, but my schedule got in the way (I know, excuses, excuses) and I let one day go by, then another, then another... I've since learned that I was doing a few things incorrectly, so I'm going to start fresh and see how it works. I'm also going to be adding in walks on my lunch break. I was doing this regularly in May, but had to stop with the heat index got out of control. Disney is next month, so I know I need to re-acclimate myself to the amount of walking we'll be doing. I'm also hoping that supplementing my HIIT program with what comes out to be a 2-mile walk anywhere from 2-5 times a week will help push me toward my goal.
3. Better Stress Management. The specifics of this step I have yet to figure out. I know I am going to be incredibly stressed out this month. There is just no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and any other expectation would just be lying to myself. My current go-to to combat stress is food. ESPECIALLY CARBS. I need chocolate, I need a cupcake, I need mashed potatoes, I need pasta. I need to find a new way to cope, even if it means I go force myself to take a nap when I feel the anxiety-attack brewing. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any! I just know that stress is one of the main causes of me falling off the wagon constantly, and I need to find a way to fix that. Unfortunately I will not be eliminating stress altogether this month, no matter how much I wish I could, so I've got to work on fixing how I deal with it. It doesn't help any that DH2B just wants to help me not stress, so if I say we absolutely have to stick to our diet, and then an hour later say I need a cupcake, he's out the door to get one before I can talk myself off the cupcake ledge. Bless him.
​

Bonus insight: What are the biggest threats to me achieving my goal for September?
1) Sigh. It's me. My August plan was fine. There were no problems with what I set out to do. It wasn't an overly ambitious amount of weight I wanted to lose. I had a decent plan in place to do it. But I just didn't do it. I allowed myself many, many cheat meals every week. I let myself take a night off from exercising, which became 2 nights off, which became a week off. I KNOW that I don't have time to slack off. The wedding is 54 days away and I do NOT have time to keep "starting over tomorrow". There are no more tomorrows! I KNOW this. But despite how much I know it, and how badly I want to stick to the plan and lose weight, it's still all too easy for me to give up. Sigh.

2) I have one last wedding shower on the 12th, with my mom's side of the family. There will be LOTS of food for sure, because it's a room FULL of Southern women, and I'm pretty uncomfortable in social settings like this (small parties where there is a LOT of attention on me... Never would've guessed I was a theatre major!), so I will really, really be tempted to anxiety eat.

3) Lack of time and surplus of things to do. We have a giant subdivision yard sale on the 19th that we're getting ready for, and I have a BILLION wedding projects to get done this month, which basically means every single second outside of work is accounted for. I literally have no free weekends between now and November 7th. Ugh.​

 

[courtneybeth]

What goal or goals do you plan to work towards in September? Which ones are you going to track? And most important of all, what is your plan for achieving those goals?

I'm going to follow @JacknSally 's format because it makes it easier to organize


Goal: Reach 165 pounds (lose 9 pounds)

Plan:

• Continue WeightWatchers and stick to my point system. Now is not the time to get lazy!
• Begin Couch to 10K training on Friday September 4th with the Disneyland 5K race as a baseline and continue through the month
• Stay consistent with the 7,500 daily step goal - weekly trip to Disneyland is a must!

Threats to be mindful of:

• I'm celebrating my birthday mid-September so it is key that i do not over indulge. I get one meal at Blue Bayou to cheat, but that's it!
• Final semester of the MBA program is in full swing, so now is not the time to stress eat

I managed to lose 8.5 pounds last month. Let's see if I can get to 165 - which would be 35 pounds lost since May and putting me into the "overweight" bracket of BMI (yay!)

 

[DisPup75]

What goal or goals do you plan to work towards in September? Which ones are you going to track? And most important of all, what is your plan for achieving those goals?

I'm also going to follow @JacknSally 's format!

Goals:

• It's a bit of stretch for me but given my weigh-in at 207.6 pounds (woohoo!) this morning, I have a clear target. I want to see 199.8 on that scale more than almost anything! September 30 is my birthday as well as the last day of this challenge and I can't imagine a better birthday present than a return to Onederland. 199.8 would also put me a pound or so into the just-plain-overweight category, which would make me jump for joy. So my primary goal is to lose 7.8 pounds.
• I'm also still trying to figure out this fitness thing. I spent much of August slacking off my steps and I want that trend to reverse. Instead of setting a 10,000/day step goal, I want to calculate it over the course of the month. So goal number 2? 300,000 steps.
• Finally, also fitness related, my posture has gone from bad to truly atrocious lately. I've also failed miserably at my planned workout weights for both July and August so I'm going to switch things up a bit and try Pilates. I'm also keeping to goal achievable and so am committing to a mere 5 sessions.

Plan:

• I'm still toying with the idea of giving Weight Watchers another shot but for now I'm going to stick with MFP since it is the meetings. I really want and those aren't going to fit into my schedule this fall. I do well enough when I actually budget my calories and follow my plan - I just need to DO IT. I adjusted my baseline calories downward to reflect my 199.8 pound goal (1300 net) and plan to get enough steps and other activity in to allow me to eat an average of 1700-1800 calories/day.
• I seem to function best on a 50/30/20 carb/fat/protein breakdown and so will continue to aim for that and will concentrate on making vegetables, fruits, and lean protein the primary focus of my meals and snacks.
• I will eat breakfast at home every morning unless I have plans to eat at a restaurant with table service. NO delis, bakeries, Starbucks pastries, muffin trays, bagels shops, etc. allowed.
• I will pack my lunch at least 3 work days a week. Furthermore, I resolve to actually eat the lunch I packed.
• I asked DH to limit baked goods that enter the house to those containing tree nuts. I'm deathly allergic and that will keep my grubby little hands off the cookies while still giving him open access to his treats.
• Since the weather will hopefully continue to cool down a bit, I plan to add a lunchtime walk to my workday routine. I'm also increasing the pup's evening walk from 2 1/2 to 3 1/4 miles. The combination of the two should push me over 300,000 steps.
• I added appointments to do Pilates to every calendar and device I own. The constant reminders and buzzers should motivate me to get it done!

Obstacles:

• Me
• Myself
• I

Seriously, my not really trackable for the month is some heavy duty searching into my tendency for self-sabotage. I had far too many conversations with myself in August about all of the reasons why I shouldn't eat something or why I should go to the gym. Then I poured myself a bowl of potato chips (which I weighed and enters in my tracker), curled up on the couch, and watched a movie. I'm something of an emotional eater and I've had a rough summer. But honestly I would be less irritated with myself if I mindlessly munched my way through an entire bag of potato chips. So this month I'm declaring that tracking isn't enough. I actually have to not write calorie checks that my body can't cash (sorry for the mangled Top Gun reference. I couldn't help myself).

 

[DisPup75]

GOAL: To weigh-in under 200lbs on September 30, 2015. I will consider my starting weight for the month to be the number my scale said this morning - 205.5. I will be fighting toward a reading of 199.9 or less. I will be tracking my percentages each week based on needing to lose a total 5.6lbs in order to hit the 199.9 mark.

A goal that you and I are sharing, my friend. So, so close...!

3. Better Stress Management.

We are going to be talking about just this subject a few times this month. I've got some fun light questions planned but I also want to delve into some coping strategies.

There are no more tomorrows! I KNOW this. But despite how much I know it, and how badly I want to stick to the plan and lose weight, it's still all too easy for me to give up. Sigh

I really, truly, firmly believe that just showing up every day is 95% of this battle. OK. Maybe 50% since what you eat and how much you move are really important....

But in all seriousness, you haven't given up until you are so far gone that you don't even have a plan to succeed. And that isn't going to happen on my watch or on anyone else's!

I'm going to follow @JacknSally 's format because it makes it easier to organize


Goal: Reach 165 pounds (lose 9 pounds)

Plan:

• Continue WeightWatchers and stick to my point system. Now is not the time to get lazy!
• Begin Couch to 10K training on Friday September 4th with the Disneyland 5K race as a baseline and continue through the month
• Stay consistent with the 7,500 daily step goal - weekly trip to Disneyland is a must!

Threats to be mindful of:

• I'm celebrating my birthday mid-September so it is key that i do not over indulge. I get one meal at Blue Bayou to cheat, but that's it!
• Final semester of the MBA program is in full swing, so now is not the time to stress eat

I managed to lose 8.5 pounds last month. Let's see if I can get to 165 - which would be 35 pounds lost since May and putting me into the "overweight" bracket of BMI (yay!)

You are a force of nature right now! I'm so impressed by your progress and I know you are going to have a great month!