Trust me Melissa its probably a question we have all asked at some time or another...that and how do you multi-quote...LOL....so don't worry...if you have any questions at all just ask! We want you to feel comfortable here so you will keep coming and stick with it!

Now to answer your question.....the easiest way to do it is find a post from JazzyPeggy.....to the left of her post you will see her kitty cat avitar and just above that will be her name in blue....click her name and a menu will appear....choose the option to send this person a PM (personal message)...then your message screen will pop up...you fill in the info and click send..


Let us know if you have any trouble! And welcome to 3FC

JazzyPeggy: I can't PM yet. I'm too new! So can I email you off board with my start pictures? I'm not ready for those to be public yet!

My mini goals for this challenge are:
Lose 10-15 lbs by Valentine's Day.
Begin the 100 push up program on January 1, 2010.
Begin exercise program (haven't decided which one) on or about Jan 1 and no later than Jan 4.
Go to the gym 3 times a week.
Meet with personal trainer next week, for a workout and consultation.
Drink my water every day!
Eat healthier (my husband and I have decided to eat more veggie based meals and only have meat 3 times a week!)
Plan meals and snacks out.
Cut refined sugar out of my diet.

I've already planned out and done most of the shopping for the next two weeks of meals and snacks for our family so I'm on my way.
Zumba at my gym starts up again on Jan 5th, so I'm gonna start next week. Zumba has always been an awesome workout for me.
I'm still nursing my 6 month old daughter, and another goal is for me to get her to take a bottle. I'm still gonna pump, but I can't really leave her with anyone until she'll take a bottle! So wish me luck.
The gym where I work out has a bod-pod (that water bath thing that measures your body composition) and they offer cholesterol and glucose testing. I'll set up an appointment on Monday.

I think that's everything...I'm so glad I found you! I really need this support and think it's really gonna help reach my goals.

miatutu: we can't pm until we've been members for 20 days and have made 20 posts. Until then we're kind of stuck...

I'm so excited about these challenges starting up again!

I'm going to post my start weight on Sunday.. I've got two more "Christmases" left, a dinner out with my dad on Friday, and a party with my mom's family on Saturday... and I don't want to feel guilty if I gain a little.

I joined another challenge that involves losing 10 pounds by Valentine's day, so I'll just use the same goal here. It's really ambitious for me... but I'm not going to use that as an excuse not to try.

Since my year-long goal is to exercise 250 hours, that means I need to get 30.2 hours done by Valentine's Day to be on track.

Sunday is also the start of my new cleaning schedule... you can see it here if you want.

I'm pretty sure my student health insurance doesn't cover getting those sorts of tests done, and I'm not really interested in the numbers enough to pay out of pocket. BUT I've been putting off going for my yearly gynecologist appointment (making appointments at the student health center is a pain!) so my goal will be to finally get that done before the end of this challenge.

JazzyPeggy ~ can I still participate if I don't weigh in until Feb 21. The program I'm doing strongly suggests no weighjing for 8 weeks and once a month after that. If it's not ok~ that ia a ok.

thinnerbyjuly, if that's what you want to do, and you think this thread will still help you, by all means. Our goal is to lose weight and support each other. I'm not a real strict person, I know we said if you miss 2 weigh ins I won't track you on this challenge any more, but you are doing yours differently, so that's ok. The reason for that rule is to hold us accountable and keep us involved. Believe me sometimes I'm the worst. Since I'm leading this challenge this time, I probably will do fine, I don't like letting people down if I'm the leader.

Normally I only lose about a pound a week so that would make a realistic goal 226 in 6 weeks. But I'm hoping that this extra weight is not really real (ha ha) and will fly off with some real re-commitment. Actually I think it will (fly off that is!) I think there is a lot of water and salty stuff in there that will shed as soon as I get rid of my company (as much as I love him!) and eating out every 5 minutes. So.....I'm going for 16 lbs.

SW 232
GW 216

My exercise goal is to exercise at least 4x per week for this challenge.
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Below, I'm just adding my post from the previous challenge regarding New Year's plans so I can keep it all in one place!
For me, I've discovered the ACTIVITIES are really more important than the goals. My thought is that the goals will come if I'm doing the right things (the correct activities). For example, I'm pretty happy with my eating right now and have been doing well for some months so I don't want to change course now. I do have some milestone weights I'm aiming at, like reaching 179 by August when my nephew gets married in Europe. But I don't like to stress about the timing. My thought is "There are no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic timetables."

That said, there ARE many areas of my life I would like to improve upon. But I don't want to set a bunch of artificial goals and then fail at them. So, I was thinking to myself, "what can I do to address these issues without adding more stress to my life?" I decided if I assigned TIME to the issues, I would slowly-but-surely make my life better. And, knowing me, once I start on something I usually do it longer than originally planned.

So my thought is to assign 30-minutes to life improvements in several areas. My goal is to devote 30 minutes in each area most days of the week. I will make a chart and check them off each day. If I do each of these things every day, it will take 2 hours a day. So I'm calling my plan:

30 minutes to my best life

• Exercise goal: do it
• Creative goal: work on NEW art
• Calmness goal: organize and put away (NOT normal cleaning but getting the junk and paperwork out of my life)
• Reaching out goal: socializing, making phone call to friends, writing friends and family, etc.

Cheers heres to a new year new me.........new all of us

Jan 1~ 166.2
Jan 8
Jan 15
Jan 22
Jan 29
Feb 5
Feb 12

Hi everyone. So... I guess 2009 was a pretty hard year for some of you. Me too. I was unemployed for nearly 5 months from March through Aug. and then my DH got laid off the week before Thanksgiving. Sent me into a holiday tailspin --whooeee. I gained 10 lbs just over the holidays. Reviewing my 2009 goals/events. I lost 18 lbs last year, and a clothing size. That's at least a positive change for a pretty crappy year. (stress is a pretty huge trigger for me). I'm choosing now to be healthy no matter the situation. I'm going to try hard to push though.

My goal to Valentines is 10 lbs.
To go back to my pre holiday wt (SW 218/ GW 208)

I'm hoping this is a better year for all of us (or at least me )

Thank you Peggy! I definitely want to participate but I do want to follow the rules of the plan I'm doing too. I can't wait to check in with a good weight loss!

I definitely want the accountability!

BACK TO EDIT~ Reading Peggys 1st post very clearly I am wondering if I should just throw in the towel and weigh in weekly with the rest of you to participate more fully. Let me ponder this a bit.

I hope 2010 is a much better year for you!

I love all your reply to Peggy! Peggy and all of us~ we can do it! Lets make 2010 the year there are no more excuses~ only solutions!

Thinner- If you want, just start back in on your weigh ins on the next mini challenge. Stick it out posting here with us, and then on the next set of challenges that will start on Valentines day, start then with your weigh-ins. We had a hard time last January with not weighing in because many of us are daily weighers. If you're just starting there could be 2 reasons your new diet wants you to wait 8 weeks: 1) they want you to be pleased with a big loss or 2) sometimes your body shocks the first week or two of a diet and your weight might jump around and they don't want you to get frustrated and quit. If neither of those reasons apply to you then you can weigh in now. I find if I don't weigh in at least weekly I somehow manage to cheat and talk myself into getting off plan. However if you are truly on plan you'll loose weight whether or not you step on a scale (and you'll know it).

Thanks for the reply. I was downstairs a bit ago ( before reading this) and had my way taller than me son fetch the scale from where he hid it up high. I really had planned not to weigh for 8 weeks but I really do want to fully participate here with all of you. So anyways he fetched the scale and I got today's weight. All the holiday bloat plus some is gone I'll try the weekly weigh ins but to be honest if I find it really discouraging I'll go back to not weighing except for every 4-6 weeks.

I know I seem indecisive on this weighing thing ( like a seesaw!) but I really do want to participate fully and succeed. The only other time I lost lots (80+) and kept it off a few years I was scale free. Not saying the scale is eveil but I kept it about health. I guess I need to find a way to weigh and still keep it about health and not focus on the number


Todays weight 192.4

Ok on to my mini challenge goals :

~to get 30 min of exercise 5 x a week (hopefully I quit coughing my head off and can do this soon!)

~ drink 64oz non caff fluid daily

~ check in 5 x a week here~

Weight loss goal for 6 weeks is 4 lbs.
I want to be realistic because looking at the calendar that should be right before TOM and I'm a bloater!

Ds is charging up the camera for a pic! Ugh!!!!