Welcome to Delicious for Christmas & New Year 2014!
Guess what, everyone? Next week it will be 9 weeks until New Years Eve! Which means it’s almost 8 weeks until Christmas! Say whuuut?
This challenge…is the hardest challenge of the year. To get to New Years Eve you have to face Halloween candy, Thanksgiving madness and Christmas treats galore. I know in my family the entire month of December is a treat yo’ self extravaganza, so please only join if you are going to be dedicated to staying accountable towards New Years Eve.
For this challenge, BE REALISTIC! Are you aiming to maintain or lose? Set your standards a little lower for this one, because it’s good to enjoy the holidays with family. But it’s also good to not go overboard and remember you have an overall goal in life to achieve! One helping of food is enough!
So let’s support each other in these trying months and make sure we feel proud by the time 2014 is over and we can say hello to 2015 feeling confident and ready to face the new year!
Please read the rules!
Slap your name on the spreadsheet, enter the forum name where you’re joining from (20-somethings, 100 lb club etc), add your starting weight for this challenge (not your overall), put your goal weight over on the right hand side AND THAT’S IT! The spreadsheet monkeys do the rest... so don’t you be touching anything else! Don’t worry, they get plenty of bananas.
Each week you weigh in. "What day?" ANY DAY! Monday – Sunday. Weighed in a little bit lighter but it’s not your official weigh in day? Official weigh in day can go SUCK IT because you weighed a little bit lighter and you can change your weight as long as it’s before Sunday. Hells yeah!
Planning on going away during the time between now and New Years? No problemo munchkin, Right click the cell and add a NOTE not a comment. I repeat a NOTE, NOT A COMMENT. Comments get all moved around when people drop out of the competition. If you add a comment and I delete it then it's your own fault for not reading the rules.
If you fail to weigh in for more than 2 weeks you will be moved to standby. "But wait, I wasn’t ready to leave!" I hear you cry. Don’t worry my sexy candy panda, just come back into the thread and say WHADDUP BRO PUT ME BACK IN THIS GAME. Or something similar.
"But wait I just saw this and you guys are already being epic and losing weight, can I join?" Of course you can! Add in your weights if you have 'em and come on in!
8 weeks. I don't know if I should be happy or worried. My plan is to reach final goal by christmas. I'll be happy if I make it and can start maintenance but I'll also be bummed if I don't. Need your support ladies.
You're almost there, hiddenstar. Keep up the good work. You can definitely reach your goal. I'm just starting out with 92 pounds to go. Any advice for me?
hidden - Good luck! You're so close, which is always the hardest time to lose weight, but you can do it!
Cary - I would advise you to start reading into nutrition, not for weight loss, but rather what food is good for you and what's not. When I first started with 70 lbs to go I cut down to 3 meals a day (was snacking enough to feel like I was eating more), I cut out snack foods like crisps, chocolate, extra portions of food I'd just had and I also began to exercise 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Start slow, don't jump into a crazy 6 day a week workout routine and eat just vegetables if you know what I mean! It's a lifestyle change, so take one bad habit and work on that week by week. It would help to know what you've been eating previously/what habits have gotten you to the point where you're wanting to lose weight.
Cary Cullen - start out with small changes first. My first step was quitting soda which took at least 2 weeks due to headaches.
Plan your meals that fit your calories. For me, I budget 400 calories each for breakfast and for lunch. Using that goal, I found 3 different options I like for breakfast and about 5 different ones for lunch. (Dinner is more open with options) this worked for me cuz now I don't have to think about breakfast and lunch. I just eat one of these meals. This may not work for you but you need to find out what works best for you.
Last, don't give up. It is so worth the effort. It will take a while and you will have bad days. The scale plays mind games with water weight and hormones. One bad meal may show up on the scale as 5 or more pounds due to sodium. When in actuality, you gain 1 pound or less. Give it 2 or 3 days and you will be back on track. Again, don't give up. If things get too hard, take a maintenance break for a few weeks. Then start back up.
Hi Riestrella and hiddenstar. Thanks for all your help. I gained 80 pounds with my first pregnancy and lost some, then gained another 80 pounds with my second pregnancy. My youngest is 13 years old, and I have been yo-yo dieting the whole time (sigh!)
I really want to reach my goal but when it's so far away it's easy to lose sight and go back to my old ways. I can definitely put some food away, and it's hard for me to stick with portions. When I do, I feel so much better and in control though.
I weigh 241 now, so 91 pounds to go. I'm trying to take it one day at a time. I really appreciate your help, ladies.
Hi Riestrella and hiddenstar. Thanks for all your help. I gained 80 pounds with my first pregnancy and lost some, then gained another 80 pounds with my second pregnancy. My youngest is 13 years old, and I have been yo-yo dieting the whole time (sigh!)
I really want to reach my goal but when it's so far away it's easy to lose sight and go back to my old ways. I can definitely put some food away, and it's hard for me to stick with portions. When I do, I feel so much better and in control though.
I weigh 241 now, so 91 pounds to go. I'm trying to take it one day at a time. I really appreciate your help, ladies.
I think it really helps to have mini goals. Sorry to toot my own horn, but I wrote a blog post about it, you can read it here if you want!. It helps to have smaller goals rather than have this huge looming goal.
Perhaps try and buy the exact ingredients for the right portion size? That way there won't be leftovers to go back to. But sometimes it just takes inner strength, you just have to think "is this food I really need?" Learning to eat slowly helps too. Putting down your utensils and chewing, taking a sip of water, stuff like gives your body time to realise it's full.
The holiday count down has begun. Not ready for all the Christmas decorations in the stores. Guess that I will try to use these as reminders of my Christmas goal.
Stay strong ladies. Don't worry about yesterday. Focus on today and tomorrow.
Hey everyone! How are we doing? What are you doing to reach your end of the year goal? For me I'm exercising one day on and having one day off, I'm not going to pressure myself to stick to it or stack up exercise days if I get behind. I'm also trying to stick to my calories and eat more veg!
hiddenstar - Great advice . I agree, my Mum has started watching really awful Christmas movies already! I'm not ready to hear Christmas carols despite loving Christmas.
Riestrella- BEST POST EVER! I am dying from laughter! Thanks for always starting these for us. I appreciate you!
Let's go shed those pounds, team!
Haha, why thank you! I'm glad you appreciate the challenges, it's why I run them!
How is everyone doing this week? I had a bad lazy day for no reason yesterday, but I'm determined to go out on a run today since there's absolutely no reason not to!
Well I am due with my 2nd child on december the 2nd so that should knock off at least a stone before Christmas
I would love to match what I was last Christmas = 12 stone 4.5 and I am currently 13 stone 9.5 with four weeks of pregnancy left so keeping my fingers crossed!