Wish Away the Pounds - August Challenge - with two new twists!

[Flossbolna]

Welcome to WISH Away the Pounds August Challenge

A special welcome to all newcomers!

And for all the regulars: There will be slight changes. Not to the challenge as such, but to the thread! I hope it will make discussions more interesting!

Please read the complete instructions in post 2, and then let me know if you have any questions.

The philosophy behind our challenge: small achievable goals. One month at a time, one week at a time, one day at a time, one bite at a time. Results will be posted as a % lost (pounds) towards monthly goal.

Thanks to Rose&Mike for creating our new challenge format which was a great success in 2013 and to all the previous hosts who have kept it going!

Weigh in Days--Weight Loss
PM Weight to Flossbolna
August 1 (starting weight AND pounds lost goal for month in the subject line of your PM, i.e. Weigh In 8/1 145 start goal 5)
August 8 (present weight in the subject line of your PM, i.e. W/I 8/8 144)
August 15
August 22
August 29
August 31 (last chance)

Weight Loss Goals:
10%, orange
25% bright pink
50% purple
75% turquoise
90% red--FINISH STRONG!
100%WISH green

Weigh in Days--Maintainers:
August 1 (pm starting weight, maintain range, and goal for the month; i.e. in the subject line 145, range 141-149, goal 4 weeks)
August 8
August 15
August 22
August 29
August 31 (last chance)

Maintainer Goals
25% bright pink
50% purple
75% turquoise
100%WISH green

Please see list of participants and results in Post #4 here.

 

[Flossbolna]

Welcome to the WISH Away the Pounds August Challenge - Losers and Maintainers welcome!

Quick overview:
Weigh in days


PM weights to Flossbolna. Please note the only way to sign up and update your numbers to send them by PM -- I don't want to miss a post.

How the challenge works:
This is the new and improved challenge that replaces the BL challenges. Like the show has evolved, so have our challenges and this format takes the best of that long standing tradition and makes it even better!

The goal of the new challenge is to meet your weight loss/maintain goals on a monthly basis. Results will be posted as percentages toward goal and your color will change as you approach your goal, similar to the exercise thread on the WISH boards. We hope that this new format will encourage some great discussions about weight loss, maintaining, diet, exercise and healthy living!

It is up to the hostess each month as to whether she wants to have coaches/Question of the day, mini-challenges, etc. It is her month, so she can choose to handle it how she wants.

Heres how the new challenge will work. It is going to be a monthly individual challenge. Each month is a new start. You are competing against yourself to meet your goals for the month. No one will know your actual weight (unless you share it) except the hostess for the month. NO GOAL IS TOO SMALL.

Let me repeat: NO GOAL IS TOO SMALL. A loss is a loss is a loss. Your color will change based on your % lost toward goal.

On August 1st you will pm Flossbolna (hostess for August) your starting weight AND your goal for the month. On all Fridays of the month you can pm Flossbolna an updated weight. Final weigh in is August 31. On Monday nights the thread will be updated with percentage toward goal.

Here is an example of what the stats will look like.

Updated August 8, 2014
Minnie Mouse 25.00%
Daisy Duck 12.00%
Goofy 0.00 %
Donald Duck 33.33%
Mickey Mouse 40.00%

Weight Loss Goals:
10%, orange
25% bright pink
50% purple
75% turquoise
90% red--ALMOST THERE!
100%WISH green

In this case Goofy, put on a few pounds, but that will be reported as 0%. We are not going to call people out, but just report positive moves towards your goal!

Minnie Mouse had a starting weight of 110 with a goal of 4 pounds. At her weigh in she reported a weight of 109 with a percentage loss of 25%.

Your color will change based on your % loss. If you gain, your percentage will decrease, and your color will change, but no one will know your weight except the hostess. Only your % loss toward goal will be reported. Negative percentages will not be reported.

Participants (other than the hostess) will not know your pound lost goal or actual weight unless you choose to share it with them.

Maintainers will set a goal for the month of number of weeks they would like to stay in maintain range (+/- 4 pounds).
They will weigh in on the first day of the month and then on each of the weekends. Their results will be reported as percentages along with their goal.

For example:
Pluto 1/4 25%.

Pluto has a goal of maintaining all four weeks. He put on 1 pound at the first weigh in, but is in his maintain range.

Maintainer Goals
25% bright pink
50% purple
75% turquoise
100%WISH green

It really is pretty simple. Remember, no one will see your weight or pound loss goal except the hostess unless you choose to share it.

Percentage loss will be updated once a week. If you miss sending in your weight over the weekend, no big deal, just send an update the following weekend. Please understand that this is a volunteer job and the hostess will only be updating once a week.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing everyone meet their healthy living goals!

 

[Flossbolna]

The NEW TWIST!!

Instead of having Questions of the Day and regular coaches I have decided to mix up things this months and we are going to have

WATP Musings

instead. How do these work? We will still have questions for everyone to debate on the thread - but they will no longer be daily. We will have a set schedule:

Tasty Tuesday
Training Thursday
Wellbeing Weekend (posted on Saturday)

As you can guess, these questions will cover different topics that are important for weight loss: food, exercise and emotional well-being (which can also include something fun like a Disney question ).

However, I will still need volunteers!

Please think about it whether you can submit a question or just a topic that you would like to discuss! I can't come up with all the questions for the whole thread! Please keep the discussion going by submitting some questions by PM to me!!

Also, if anyone wants to take over the role of being a "Musing host/hostess", I would be more than happy to have a co-host for the chatty part of the challenge!!


Future challenges

We've had a great year in 2013 with our new WATP challenge format. We launched a new challenge format and had lots of lovely hostesses helping us along the way.

But these challenges don't run themselves -- it takes a lot of effort from everyone especially our hostesses. One of the reasons we switched to the monthly format was to avoid hostess burnout. We need hostesses for future challenges. Any volunteers?

Future challenge hosts:
September 2014 lisah0711 (Lisa)
October 2014 lisah0711 (Lisa)
November 2014
December 2014
January 2015
Februar 2015

These challenges are "run" by volunteers and it takes everyone participating to make a successful challenge.

Thanks to all who have volunteered to coach and host!

 

[Flossbolna]

And even more NEW TWIST!!

This is going to be an exercise challenge! A very simple one: push-ups!

I challenge you to set your own goal of how many push-ups you want to do this month. If you just are going to do three a day, it is already 90 in total. And every variation of push-up counts! If you can't do them on your knees (we aren't even talking about the real stuff - at least I am not!! ), just do them against a wall!

You tell me what your monthly goal is and every Friday you can report how many you are already up to. I will keep track of percentages with this as well. The great thing about this is that - you can alway catch up if you didn't get around to do some for a few days, it is just going to be a bit harder. And this is one goal that should be much easier to control whether you get to it!

So, what is going to be your monthly push-up number????

 

[Flossbolna]

List of Participants:

Flossbolna (Magdalene) 32%
lisa0711 (Lisa) 20 %
JennStars9
aberama76 50 %
desiree71081
SarahDisney 43 %
ohMom
mainemooncat (Elizabeth)
Ellie Badge 54 %
happysummer
GrandAdmiralStrife 106 %
myweegirls (Liz) 48%
glss1/2fll (Linda) 25%
Zoesmamam03 (Melissa) 23 %
jillbur (Jill)
DisFam95
bigsis1970 (Michelle) 17 %

 

[jillbur]

I'm here

I'm just going to be popping in here & there to chat when I can. Love the new twist, though so I'll try to keep up. I'll be on vacation August 17-23 then back to a new school & new teaching position August 25! This is a busy month for me, but I'll try my best to be around for all the awesomeness

Jill

ETA: Thanks for hosting

 

[desiree71081]

I'm in!!!!

 

[JennStars9]

Count me in for this month. It will be better than last month.

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm trying this for the first time. Looking forward to having a good month!

 

[ohMom]

I'm back and ready!!

 

[mainemooncat]

In again for August! Doing well on exercising but not seeing number on scale go down very quickly. Hoping to see some serious movement in August.

Thanks for hosting! Looking forward to new twists!

 

[Ellie Badge]

I'm a first-timer in too! Need some extra support as I push towards my vacation goal!

 

[myweegirls]

I'm in! I'll be late in sending a starting weight - today was my bday (woohoo!), and I ate and drank with very little regard to what was healthy. Tomorrow, we leave early to catch up to DDs at MIL's house and then take them to camp on Sunday...so it may really be Monday morning before I get myself weighed in for the August start. We'll be away August 16-23, but I'll try to stay strong!

Love the new format ideas - I'll ponder some questions and will also figure out what I'm going to do about pushups. I have shiny new pushup bars, so this seems timely.

XO
Liz

 

[happysummer]

I am in for this month. I am hoping it is better than last month.

 

[GrandAdmiralStrife]

I'm in.

 

[Flossbolna]

WATP Musings - Wellbeing Weekend!

It's the start of a new month and it seems like we have quite a few new faces! Very happy to see so many people signing up!

To me the most important aspect of these WATP (Wish Away the Pounds) threads is the community aspect here. Having a place where people motivate me by telling about their successes and help me through tough times by sharing their challenges, has been very important to me! So for me - and I think the same is true for most of the regulars - these threads are not only about eating less and exercising more and a certain number as a goal. They do give me daily support in the every day struggle to a healthier lifestyle.

So, I encourage everyone to not just lurk, but take an active part! You will see that the more you become part of the community, the more you are getting out of it!

And with this I think now is a great point to have a round of introductions!

Let us know who you are, why you are here, what you are losing weight for and how you are trying to achieve your goal. It is totally up to you how much or how little personal information you want to share! But it would be lovely to know a little bit more about the people we chat with during the coming month!

 

[ohMom]

Hello to all! after two months of being away from home and generally just off the wagon I am back! not surprisingly my weight loss stalled these past two months and I have a little vaca fluff to burn off.

Hi, I'm Molli, I'm almost 42 SAHM with a per-diem job at a local doc office as an x-ray tech. After 3 years of serious health problems and weight gain of 55 lbs due to high levels of cortisol (natural steroid)...I am free of Cushing's disease but left steroid-dependent for life. That's my challenge. After 3 years of serious health problems...I'm just thankful to be functional and able to exercise and move again. I've lost almost 30 lbs and still have 25 lb to lose. My ultimate goal would be to have off by the holidays. We are cruising in one year and I really keep telling myself I want to be at my goal weight for several months before we cruise so it feels like my normal weight again.

looking forward to reading your intro and losing with you this month!!

 

[glss1/2fll]

I'm in! Usually a lurker, but trying to be better this summer! Next year I'll turn the big 5-0 then DS2 graduates high school. When DS1 graduated I did this and lost a bunch, which was nice for all the sports/grad photos taken. But I've gained it back (but no friends!). Time for it to go again and for good this time! My parents are also taking the entire family for a cruise Christmas 2015 so it'd be nice to not look quite so bumpy in a swimsuit. Plus I just want to be healthier--I exercise very religiously (can't let my various groups down!) now I need to focus on eating. Logging everything in myfitnesspal and trying not to get frustrated when I can't find a food and have to create it or substitute. Close enough I figure! Enough babbling on! Good luck WISHers!

 

[Zoesmama03]

I'm in for losing 8 lbs this month. I lost last month which is better than gaining.

Getting ready to go out to do some grocery shopping in a bit but will try to check back in and read the whole thread.

 

[mainemooncat]

Hello! I'm Elizabeth, wife to my best friend of 12 years and mother to our one-and-only DD8. My weight loss journey started last year when we planned our family's first trip to Disney, coming up now in only 2 months! This is a complete surprise for our daughter. I really wanted to be able to remember this trip through photos and refused to be heavy for them, so I have been working on getting slimmer and more fit and so far have been fairly successful. I have a way to go, but have lost 6 sizes and more than 30 pounds so far.

I started running in January and now run 4 times a week totalling about 16-20 miles. I cross train 2 other days as well. This week my whole routine is about to be thrown for a loop because I start a new job. In May I graduated from the university in our town in middle Tennessee, and I have been trying to get a job with them all year long. They hired me as the night police dispatcher starting Tuesday, but I will also be working my other job as a medical transcriptionist from home in addition to training with the police force. I will need these threads more than ever to stay on track for 2 weeks! It has been a long time since I have worked outside the house and I am nervous!

So nice to read everyone's stories and posts. I may not post a lot, but I read every day and feel inspired and motivated to continue with my progress through this thread. Welcome to all newbies and good luck to all this month!