[Scotsgal]

So I am looking for some buddies who are often online and active within the forum (I am sure I posted this earlier today but It seems to of gone).

After having a possible hairline fracture in my ankle just over 3 weeks ago, it has luckily been healing very quickly and I have been crutches and moonboot free for about 2 weeks.

Due to the recent injury on my ankle, I had to quit my summer job, this has left me jobless and with a lot of time on my hands until September when my uni classes start back up again. THATS 10 WEEKS AWAY!!

Why not use this time to get extra healthy and lose weight? Well thats exactly my plan....

So who is able to check in every day or every other day to just chat about diet and exercise and general feelings as well as the obvious weight in. Maybe we could set some mini challenges of our own and just stay connected

[BeEffective]

Hi Scotsgal!

If you'll have me, I'd like to join your new group.

Stats:

43 Years Old
Female
Divorced
St. Louis, Missouri
Profession: Currently Unemployed Administrative Assistant/Looking for Work
Current Weight: 181.6 lbs
Goal Weight: 135 lbs
Goal Loss Target: 46.6 lbs (like want it yesterday)

Up until my divorce five years ago, I never had a weight problem. I fluctuated between 125 -135. Stress and anxiety got the best of me as I plummeted out of my socio/economic class. Though I knew I was putting on some pounds, didn't fully appreciate how much until one day walking in the mall I did a double take as I past a mirror - "My God, who is that fat chick? Oh it's me. REALLY??????? Oh, this is not good. This is SO not good." I didn't recognize myself. And it explained why I couldn't find a darn thing that fit that didn't have some tacky Hawaiian print all over it. I'm not wearing that. My highest weight was 193. I'm miserable being fat. Nothing but ugly clothes and the world generally isn't so kind to us chunky monkeys. The truth is I eat too much crap and don't really exercise. The health consequences are real and my physician has been a bit in my face about it - which is exactly how he should be.

I'd like to check in with you every couple of days for support and report my weight progress each week on Monday's. This way I can get excited about real weight loss versus the normal daily fluctuations. I'm going to use FitBit as I think it will be helpful to me in tracking my progress and keeping me accountable.

What do you say - up for a go? Maybe you'd like to set the first challenge.

[Scotsgal]

BeEffective thats awesome!!!!!

Now bare with me on the time zone difference here, I am currently 6 hours ahead of you so I will check in as much as I can to keep you posted and reply to your messages.

My Stats:

26 years old
Female
Single YAY!
Ayr, Scotland
Student (one year left until I graduate with Honors)
Current Weight: 308lbs
Goal Weight: 170lbs
Goal Loss Target: 138lbs Its going to be a long and bumpy road.

Sadly due to my parents being quite young and with little money, I was brought up on chicken nuggets/fries/pasta/burgers/ and anything else frozen. My older sister could eat anything and stay skinny (until she hit about 22 ). Me on the other hand, I was a very active kid, I played most sports until I was around 10. This was when I noticed that my weight was really slowing me down. I became a vegetarian thinking that it would be better for me but it just meant that I ate more pasta. 15 years ago, normal everyday people didnt really have much knowledge in nutrition. So my teenage years I went on nearly every diet, I was told I didnt need to lose weight by my mates, but it was just to be nice and it didnt really help.

The biggest I have been is 319, I cried a lot that day. I went to Orlando last September and I didnt fit in the Harry Potter rollercoaster in Universal. It was the most embarrasing moment of my life.

But now I need to get it gone. Having this time off until classes start again in September should really help me get a good start at it this time. So far I have lost 11 lbs since that top number that terrified me.

So I believe that we can do it!!!

First of all lets find out what our mini goals are?

- My neice and nephew get christened on the 19th. Thats 9 days away.... I want to of lost that 8lbs and get to the 300 mark. Its the start of my new weightloss so I am hoping that the 8lbs should be doable if I work really really hard.

- In 5 weeks there is this music festival in Scotland, Its full of Pipe band Music and a certain guy that I know will be there I want to look fabulous! But after loosing hopefully 8lbs in the first week (I weigh in tomorrow so hopefully half of that is already gone), I would like to of lost another 6lbs which would take me down to 294 by the 15th of August.

I will re-avauate at that point for my next mini goal.

Now what have you got going on?

[BeEffective]

Fantastic, Scotsgal! I'm so glad you are willing to give this a go with me.

"chicken nuggets/fries/pasta/burgers/ and anything else frozen" - I think this is a common diet today irrelevant of one's economic class. Have you thought about introducing a piece of fruit into your diet every day at dinner time, even if it is a half of piece to start for the first couple of weeks? You know, mix it up and eat a different kind each day so it doesn't get boring. Buy one weeks worth at a time so you don't end up throwing anything out because it starts to go bad.

Not fitting in a seat. I'm so sorry this reality hit you so hard and in such a public place. The emotions connected to such things are hard to understand until you experience it personally. I took a flight a couple of weeks ago and was shocked at how little of the seat belt was left to loosen. The lady to my right had to get an extender and the skinny little gal to my left - oh bless her! Then I noticed that all of our knees were banged up against the seats in front of us. Those airline *******s shrinking the space like that - how much did I pay for this? True my weight was the problem but the space reduction compliments of the airline definitely added to my embarrassment.

9lbs in 8 days - what is your workable plan to accomplish this?

I used Fitbit last Fall and lost 15 lbs before I got hospitalized for a different medical issue. With the slow recovery, back came the weight. It took about 3 months to achieve that 15 lbs loss. For the first 6 weeks I suffered from severe headaches and felt like I wanted to eat cardboard all the time. The sugar withdrawal was very noticeable and I just had to suffer through it as it wasn't going to kill me. So, my initial goal this first week is to slap that tracker back on, measure my calorie intake/burn, introduce one simple sustainable change in my diet, and hit the track everyday to work on getting my step count up. I guess what I'm saying is I'm going to lay the framework to start to form a new habit. Small steady changes will be more effective for me to handle than one giant sweep. In terms of diet, besides measuring the calories, my goal is to not snack between meals and to eat a piece of fruit with one meal each day. I don't have any issues with calorie intake in my liquids as I actually don't drink anything but 64 ounces of water a day (yes I keep a measured pitcher on my kitchen counter) and 16 ounces of milk each week. Cooking all my meals at home is pretty much standard too.

I don't expect any weight change between now and Monday. But it all starts now.

Thanks for agreeing to let me share your journey!

[Scotsgal]

GREAT!! Well to update you, I jumped on the scales today and I have lost 4 lbs since Monday. Which means I am way on track for my 300lbs goal next Saturday.

Luckily I do not eat like I used to, the frozen food life has left me forever.
I have been on a soup diet this week, I know its summer and its not exactly the best type of weather, but I live in Scotland. The average summer temp is high 60's to low 70's, which means its pretty ok to eat soup lol.

I would either eat hot oatmeal for breakfast with a little honey and cinemon or hard boiled egg on toast, soup for lunch, fruit for snack fresh meat and veggies for dinner and possibly another cup of soup later on when I feel like snacking again. The soup is only around 60 calories so it means I can have a little slice of bread or a little salad along with it. It really worked for me this week.

I hear you about the airlines..... I fly a lot. This year so far I have already flown down to london and back, over to Poland and back, then over to Germany and back. I like to think the low cost airlines are just making things tighter but Im sure its just me getting bigger. When I flew back from Germany I really really struggled to close the belt. It was cutting me in half and I even decided not to have it open for landing. So one of my goals for when I fly the next time in November is to not have to really struggle to fasten the belt.

I take it a fitbit is also like one of these health watches that counts steps and calories and stuff like that?

I use an app called Myfitnesspal, It has a huge directory of foods and has the scanner that allowd you to count store bought packaged foods. It also has a great list of fresh food. Its pretty useful but it is mostly used to make sure I dont go over my limit.

Why dont we make a challange to do 20 minutes work out every day next week. We will check in and write down what we did. how long we worked for and how we felt about it? It can be 4 bouts of 5 min workouts or a full 20 min. As long as we have the full 20 minutes??

That sound doable to you?

[BeEffective]

Yes, Scotsgal I can commit to this!

[Scotsgal]

Awesome! Start off small right? nothing too huge but enought to get us going and make sure we get off our butts

[BeEffective]

Okay, I did my 20 minutes walking at the track yesterday. It's going to take some time to get my strength built back up. I need to go this week and buy some new headphones as I do think listening to music keeps me ticking at a steady pace and helps with endurance. It's in the 90's here so it's easy to break a sweat really fast!

I also pulled out the old food scale. I think it's really important to measure my portions out. Last Fall when I was doing this, I was shocked by the recommended portion size versus the actual size "I thought" was recommended. It will take time to recondition and it will help to keep me honest. Do you have a food scale? If not, I really recommend that you buy one. A cheap electronic one like the one I have is good so long as you actually use it.

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Are you planning out your meals a week in advance? Since you are eating so much soup this week, I checked out the soup section at the grocery store yesterday. Most of the soups I saw were much higher than 60 calories. I suspect this is in large part due to the difference in our respective markets.

I will weigh myself tomorrow for the official start weight!

If anyone else would like to join us, please don't hesitate!

How did yesterday go for you, Scotsgal?

[Scotsgal]

Yesterday I walked into town and around town and then back again which took about an hour. It wasnt fast paced but after doing that and the food shopping I decided to count that as my workout lol It was quite humid all day so it was pretty easy to sweat it out.

I weighed in yesterday at 304lbs which means I lost 4lbs since monday
Thats half my mini goal so It would be ace if I could get another 4lbs off by next Saturday to reach my target of 300lbs

I do actually have Digital kitchen scales, they are my saving grace. I think while I did before over estimate things like cereal and pasta and rice, I always under calculated meat, I must think its heavier than it actually is.

I usually plan my meals out about a week or so in advance, but this next week is poor week in the house. No one has any money so it will be interesting to find out what will be available to eat. I have a couple of pounds so I might pop down to the fresh food stall in town and buy some more soup foods. I think its time for some brocolli soup.

I think the canned soup is high in calories because its full of sugar and whatever else gets processed into it. My chicken noodle soup took 10 miniutes to make and only had 3 ingredients. So the calories are not difficult to add up there. I am sure chicken and rice could be pretty low as well due to the litttle amount of rice in it.

People will eventually find us lol.......

[BeEffective]

Start: 181.2 lbs

I did 20 minutes walking with purpose at the track again yesterday. And will continue to do this all week. In addition, I'm going to focus hard on introducing food changes this week and slowly reducing the caloric intake. I think I also need to get busy mixing up my routine so I don't think all the time about the changes I'm making. If I think about it too much, it becomes a struggle.

And you?

[Scotsgal]

I have a cold

Should of known it was coming, my little brother had one last week and my immune system is low so I guess I saw it Coming. Does 40 minutes of exhausting house work count?

[BeEffective]

I hope you are feeling better soon. Try your best to stay focused while taking care of yourself!

I had some mushroom soup for lunch and I have to be honest in saying that it was not very satisfying. I think once I adjust to a reasonable calorie intake, it won't be a problem but that's going to take time. Being consistent is what I need to focus on in order to develop new habits.

It's 99 degrees out right now. My app says that around 7:00 it should drop to 93, so I will head to the track then. Breaking a sweat should be no problem!

[Terra1984]

My Stats:

30 Years Old
Female
Long Term Relationship
Wichita, Kansas
Profession: Currently Unemployed/Looking for Work
Current Weight: 296
Goal Weight: 150 lbs
Goal Loss Target: 20 pounds per month

Background Story:

I didnt start gaining weight until after high school, During high school I was able to stay at 120 pounds because P.E kept me in shape. I wish you could have P.E. all through life. Although some would say the gym would be considered a type of P.E. Anyway yesterday I started my weight loss journey again for a 3rd time.

I'm on this forum every day. Sometimes twice a day. So I would be able to check in with you pretty often.

[BeEffective]

Terra1984, thanks for joining us! A Kansas sunflower or is it Jayhawk!! I'm so glad you are now part of our tiny group. Please don't look at it as starting over. Just look at it as starting.

We are posting our weight every Monday. Setting mini goals, checking in every day or two with our progress/struggles, questions, etc. However you want to lay it out that it will be most effective for you in your journey!

Alright so I did my 20 minutes again today at the track - 97 degrees at 7:00 pm - good grief! But I pushed with purpose (no strolling allowed). It felt good. I know 20 minutes is only going to accomplish the foundation of a new habit and not actual weight loss. Time and distance will have to be increased as I adjust.

What is your mini goal(s) for the week, Terra1984?

[Scotsgal]

Hay guys!

And welcome!!! It's nice to see a new face!

Well while I may have a bit of a cold going on, today I powered through it. I have spent around an hour and a half walking over a space of 4 hours. Some of that was a rediculous hill. I would hardly breathe. Good news is it was to see my new apartment in the city (Glasgow, Scotland). Which means that big Gil a month nth from now will be my challenge everyday if I plan to ever leave the house lol.

I have had to have a sandwich day, on the go and unprepared. But I am sure considering they had tuna in them, healthy right?

I think we should post stats too....