Hi Everyone!

We were formerly under the heading, "The Merry Christmas Challenge," and we all did very well during the holidays. Now it's time to start a new thread called "The Valentinies," with the emphasis on tiny. Anyone can join. Here are the rules: Have a food plan, exercise, drink water and have a goal (inches or weight.) I plan to count cals, do 30 or more minutes per day, drink 8 glasses of water and my goal is to lose 8 inches.

We will start Jan. 2, 2005 and end on Valentine's Day. Who's up for the challenge?

(Hugs),
Dena

Hello. I would love to join "The Valentine's"! Although my holiday was very unsucessful for weight loss, I plan on a re-start on January 2nd. So, I would love to be challenged. My goals are to stick to the weight watchers points, excercise 30 or more minutes a day, drink 8 glasses of water, and lose 8 pounds (155) by February 14th (what a wonderful present for me and my bf) . Congrats to the both of you for your commitment over the holidays and your losses, I know that must feel like a huge achievment. I look forward to getting to know both of you and anyone else who joins in. Good luck to everyone. Dena, I too will be celebrating the New Year, but you definetly deserve a day off! Talk to you soon.........

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Well, since I dropped the ball on Dena's Christmas challenge, I hope I don't get voted off! I would like to lose between 5-10 pounds by Valentines Day. I'm on the WW point system and concentrate on cardio and strength building for my exercise. Plus, my family and I are joining a walking club this year as well. My motivation here is that I got a beautiful emerald ring (my birthstone) for Christmas and it's a little snug-but that's not stopping my from wearing it! Hee, hee. However, I would like a better fit for my ring. Here's my plan:
30 minutes exercise everyday
stay within my WW points
8-10 glasses of water a day
daily check ins here and w/others

Dena-thanks for the challenge. I assure you I will stay on track this time!
Bonnie-at 200! Congrats! You go, girl! That's my next goal!
Well, gotta run. Going shopping w/oldest DD. Some one on one time. Good luck, ladies!

Good Morning, Ladies!

Glad to see you back, Bonnie and Skinny! And welcome, Cole! Our little group did a great job motivating and inspiring each other last challenge, and I know we will do the same this time around.

I love all of your plans and goals.

Bonnie, congratulations on losing 34 pounds so far!! We are all so proud of you. You worked hard and now it is showing!!

Cole, so happy to meet you and welcome! I know you'll reach your goal with flying colors. Like you said, what a great valentine present for you and your boyfrined! So what are you and your boyfriend doing for New Year"s?

Skinny, welcome back, girl! What a great plan! Plus, I love the idea of your whole family joining a walking club. (Hubby and I like to walk, too,) Wow, your ring sounds fabulous! So glad you could join us!

As for me, my original goal was to lose 10 lbs., but I lost 4 lbs. I am now 146, starting from 177. It seems each pound is a lot harder to lose these days. So now I'm going to concentrate on inches. I know I lost inches from all the exercising I do, because my clothes fit better, and I'm proud of that considering the holidays.

Anyone else interested in joining us, please do!

(Hugs),
Dena

hAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!

Here's wishing you all a prosperous and healthy year. We shall attain our goals this year!

P.S. Bonnie, thanks for your kind words. I will say a prayer that you hav a wonderful time and will get right back on track.

Hugs,
Dena

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m ready to join the Valentines. I’m going to start on Monday. My goal is to lose two pounds per week, which will work out to twelve pounds over six weeks. I plan to increase my minutes on the stationary bike, walk more, eat healthy foods, and stay within my daily calorie limit.

During the Christmas Challenge I set an over-ambitious goal of 20 lbs. I don’t know exactly what I was thinking when I picked that figure. It would have worked out to 4 pounds or more a week. But, it’s not the goal-weight that matters, it’s the results, and the great news is that I lost a total of 13 pounds during the Challenge! I am thrilled.

I know I’ve probably gained back a pound or two during my hiatus from Christmas to New Year, but I’m just so pleased to have lost weight during the Holidays.

Dena, I want to thank you for choosing Valentine’s Day as our next challenge. What I learned from the Merry Christmas Challenge is that it’s much easier for me to lose weight when I set a short-term goal. I have a long way to go, and it can be really discouraging when I start thinking about how much I need to lose overall to reach my healthy weight. Setting mini-goals, however, is not only do-able, but it keeps me motivated.

I’m looking forward to the next six-weeks.

Florafae

Florafae,
I'm so glad you found us! I was worried some of our buddies from our little group couldn't find us because there are so many other threads happening right now. (It's good to know we are all trying to do well for the new year.)

Congratulations on your successful weightloss so far! I think you've lost the most! That's so awesome! What an accomplishment during the holidays!

Hugs,
Dena

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy new year. Now it is time to get back on track, for me. Today is a new day and I am commited to my goals for the next 6 weeks! I am so proud of all of you who lost over the holiday season, unfortunately I did not, but I also did not gain so I guess that is a good thing. The fact that all of you had so much will power gives me hope!

Dena-my bf and I spent New Year's at one of his friends house. It was pretty low key, a lot of fun, and too much to drink! Why is it that the older you get the harder a hang over is to recover from? What did you do for New Year's?

tobaccygirl- 34 pounds? What an accomplishment. You should be so proud of yourself. We need to all plan to buy something sexy for Valentine's day to show off our new, skinnier figures! How did you do over the New Year weekend? I was not very good, but I am starting anew this week, I promise!!!

Gotta get back to work. Have a great and healthy day

Dena! Great to see you again! Thanks for setting this up. Congrats to you for the christmas challenge. time to post some pictures!

Bonnie- 200?! come on! just 1 lb more! Congrats!

Flora- nice to see you back too!

me- I went to Maine last week and so I restart this AM but to my suprise this morning I was only 1 lb heavier on my bathroom scale than when I left on the 26th. My goal is 175. Trying to achieve the wedding goal before the wedding- so 9 lbs. I am wearing a size 14 pant today- which is comfy not tight by any means, and a size M sweater! wow! did ya'll see my post about 44 inches lost since I started in June? I wonder where that came from? kinda hard to believe I was that big- that's nearly 4 feet!

Looking forward to starting up with all of you again- and meeting some new people too!
Happy new year!

oh- forgot how I'm going to do it... Still sticking to my low carb, 8 glasses of water, and 30 minutes of exercise per day. I'll probably drop back down on phase 1- 20 carbs for a while since my weight loss is slowing down too. Hello Body, I'm not done yet!

and the curves scale at noon showed 182 today...

we still going to weigh in on Mondays?

Dena, Kandice, Bonnie, and Skinny-Butt, I’m so glad to be back with you again on our latest challenge. Cole, welcome to the fold. This is a wonderful group. You’ll find lots of support, motivation and encouragement here.

This is day-one for me, so I stepped on the scale this morning and logged my starting weight. As expected, I was up 2.5 pounds since our last weigh-in, but I hope to lose most of that this coming week.

I’m feeling so positive. I woke up thinking that 2005 is the year that I will finally reach a healthy weight and maintain it!

Good luck to us all,
Florafae

Hi Everyone!

Well, here's to a great start! I'm pretty excited and very happy to see our little group come together. If anyone else is interested in joining us, please do.

Kandice, so good to see you again! Wow, you lost a whole person in those inches!!

Cole, you asked what we did on New Year's... Well, I live in fabulous Las Vegas, where New Year's is BIG, so first we went out to dinner, then partied at Green Valley Casino (a plush hot spot for locals), then saw the fireworks along the strip and stayed out until 2:30 am. Hubby and I had a great time!

Now it's back to business. I'm counting my cals on fitday.com, have gotten my Slim in 6 exercise dvd to play today and am going to drink my 8-10 glasses of water.

Kandice, yes, we will weigh and/or measure ourselves on Monday and report our progress.

Good luck, everyone!
Hugs,
Dena

I completely forgot to weigh myself so I will post weight tomorrow. Sorry! Anyway, here's the past three days:
Saturday-On point (OP), 35 minute walk, 8 glasses of water
Sunday-OP, 60 minute walk, 8 water
Monday-under point, 60 minute walk, 8 water.

I feel like I'm truly back on track now. I have another thread in which we weigh in on the 15th and 30th so I'll have to remind myself to weigh in weekly for this one!

Dena-congrats on your Christmas challenge weight loss! Way to go!

Bonnie-congrats to you as well! You two ladies are inspirational for me!

Kandice-When is the wedding? Hang in there. I'll bet you meet your wedding goals w/no problems. 44 inches? WOW! You're doing great! Kudos to you!

Cole-forgot to say welcome last time I was here. How are you doing? Hope things are going well for you.

Florafee-welcome back! Like you, I have a feeling that this is the year that I will finally meet my weight loss/healthy lifestyle goals. We will thrive in 2005! How does that sound?

Well, ladies, gotta get to work. Hope everyone is having a good health day. Remember the words of Winston Churchill-Never give in. Never, never, never give in! We can do it!

Susan

skinny- congrats on staying OP or UP for the weekend.

I'm planning on exercising at lunch in 10 minutes- my gym bag in in the car so no excuse! will be my second time this year. I'm made a personal goal for myself to exercise at least 200 times this year. (at Curves) they track your visits so I should have 300 or more by the end of the year. 5x a week for 52 weeks= 260 So I'm allowing myself some "fudge" factor when we go on vacations and things like that.

wedding's in 8 weeks= March 5th, 2005. 2 months from tomorrow. It's coming so fast! I sent out the invites yesterday and finishing them today and tomorrow (the ones that we were planning on hand delivering for one reason or another) My dress is already altered but I'm seeing the most change in my thighs so those don't affect the dress. I bought a bikini for the first time ever for our Honeymoon March 13th to the Bahamas. Chris already saw it when I was trying it on and he liked it very much.

that's it for now I guess. Talk to everyone later!

Kandice, only 8 weeks until the big day--Wow! Congratulations on your bikini. A Bahamas honeymoon sounds heavenly.

Skinny-B, you’re off to a great start. I agree that it feels good to be back on course and working toward healthy goals. Yes, we will thrive in 2005!

The last of our holiday company leaves tomorrow. I enjoyed having everyone here, but now I am quite ready for things to get back to normal. A week ago, when the second wave of guests arrived, I moved my exercise bike to the garage. I intended to use it out there, but it remained out-of-sight and out-of-mind. Tomorrow morning after I return from dropping people off at the airport, the bike comes inside and I’ll start pedaling up a storm.

Have a good day, everyone.
Florafae