Sure thing! All I need is your starting weight. You can choose the weight you were last week if you keep a record, otherwise I can use 240 lbs :) Let me know which! You're on the spreadsheet now so you can go ahead and enter your workout goal for the week. Make sure to weigh in before Monday 20th.

And yes, I'll be hosting another one leading up to Halloween :D. I'm not sure if I'll make it purely a weight loss spreadsheet or do another exercise one, I'll probably ask people closer to the time :)

240 sounds good! Thank you Riestrella!

You're all set up!

Thank you again!

I know I won't be making my fitness goal this week. I'm feeling pretty under the weather and I need to take advantage of my days off this week to just recoup my energy. I hoping in a couple weeks when my insurance is back up and running I can finally start getting B12 shots. Hopefully then my body will let me be as active as I want to.

So I lifted weights on Wednesday for the first time in probably a couple months. I was fine yesterday, slightly sore, but then I had a 2 hour dance class and the teacher WORKED us. Now not only is my lower body sore but my upper body just caught on from Wednesday (plus we did core yesterday). I'm waddling around my office building. :) Fortunately living in fitness land people probably just assume it is soreness and not some other oddity.

Thats my biggest paranoia at the office atmos! How to walk in a straight line (which I already have trouble with) and not seem like I'm a strange creature out of sorts... Thank goodness I spend most of my day hiding away in my cubicle.

I fit into a size 18W jeans today! Granted its slightly tight at the top but... SO THRILLED. I have been able to fit into 18 in dress pants but man... jeans are a completely different beast! Not to mention, every brand fits differently!

Hi everyone,

I'm back after taking a little bit of time off my weight loss efforts. Due to some RL career stress, I let myself eat whatever I wanted in the last six weeks and of course now I'm disappointed because it seems I gained about 8 pounds :/ But thankfully the stress is gone and I'm in a much more stable and happy place so I'm excited to start losing weight again! I've been watching American Ninja Warrior and getting more inspired to start working out more and make 2015 the year I finally, FINALLY lose the rest of this weight so I can focus on muscle gain next year.

I'm taking a temporary leave of Los Angeles so I'll be in upstate NY until the end of the year staying with my dad. At least there's a great running trail and place to swim by my house so my plan is to do a lot of running, hiking and swimming as well as bodyweight exercises to continue to train for ANW. I also plan to incorporate as much walking as I can as it's an easy way to burn more calories. I think I have a sustainable eating plan to try to keep my calories around ~1300 calories with foods that are veggie centric, nutrient dense and that I find delicious. The last two days have been very successful with staying on track foodwise and doing gymnastics and then hiking yesterday. I'm starting to really believe I can finally do this!

Riestrella Can you add me to the speadsheet? My starting weight is 150. Thank you for always setting these up and I hope you continue to stay on track!

I'm not sure if I did it right but I added a comment that I won't be weighing this week. I've gotta pack the scale away! Will be back for Week 4, and hopefully back to being active again during Week 5 :)

Hey guys!

So for this week I've been practicing mindful eating, drinking water all day and exercising when I say I'll exercise. So far I'm 2 lbs down from my weight on Monday, woohoo! 2 lbs in 4 days is pretty awesome for me, so I'm so glad to shed some of this bloat. I'm back to 165 lbs, which is back to my starting weight for the challenge, so hopefully either this week or next week I'll start seeing myself drop below that weight.

Had a bit of a bad day today in terms of food, I had a pretty big breakfast since my boyfriends Mum made eggs and bacon so I kinda felt obligated to eat it. We went out shopping so I was on my feet for most of the day, but I ended up getting a 6 inch at Subway + chips and a Coke. Not so good. Trying to drink loads of water now and will do my best to be mindful of what we eat tonight.

I did an Insanity video on Tuesday, which went SO MUCH better than the last time I tried it! The last time I felt really sick, but this time I nailed it. Yesterday I did some weight lifting, which went well too, today is a rest day but tomorrow I'm hoping to do some Yoga then another Insanity on Sunday. Then I'll make my goal! So far I've been fitting in 3 x a week instead of my pledge 4 x a week, so it'll be epic if I can make this week the week I meet my goal!

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LovelyLeah - So sorry you feel sick! Feel better soon.

atmos - Good job on all the exercise! I'm positive people are used to seeing the hobbling!! I feel like if you're not sore after a workout then you didn't push yourself hard enough ;)

MrsC - Woohoo! Congrats! I love that feeling of reaching a new smaller size!!

Zucena - You're all set up! Just enter your goal for the week (you can put in workouts you've already done this week, it'll count) and be sure to weigh in before Monday 20th :). Welcome back to the forum though! Glad to see you. Sorry you've experienced so much stress, I know how that feels since I pretty much did the same when life got stressful last year. But you're back and that's what counts. Sounds like you'll be in the right environment to focus on your health. Wow, American Ninja Warrior! That'd be so epic! Looks like a lot of fun, but challenging.

NNS - I got your comment, I "Resolved" it since comments get all moved around in the spreadsheet if new people are added and I alphabetize the sheet. I just entered your weight for last week as this weeks weight so you'll get moved over to Week 4's sheet. Feel free to do this if you're too busy to weigh in. Good luck with packing!

LovelyLeah I've been wondering for ages now if B12 deficiencies come with being overweight. I have a severe B12 deficiency and so does my mother and grandmother. We are all over what we should be (though I'm the biggest). How much are the shots after insurance? I've only ever taken supplements that dissolve.

Riestrella I can't even imagine doing Insanity! I always thought "Oh that looks so bad**s!" But then thought about myself doing it and felt pretty queasy just thinking about it. You go girl! Nice to swap out some high intensity with something a bit more mellow like yoga. I've been having trouble coming up with things I think I can actually do at my current weight that are different enough... The tredmill and elliptical are the best I think I can do without hurting myself. Same muscle groups.. slightly different muscles being used. Meh... I have a mini rebounder in the basement that could be different.

Anyone ever tried the DailyBurn stuff? I had a membership for a while and the first 5 videos in the beginners segment made me hurt (literally - not just muscle pain) for days so I opted out until I get more fit in other fashions.

This whole week I have been pushing my workouts back. At first it was because of me being sore and now, for the past couple of days I have been sneezing non-stop. Today, I woke up with a sore neck. I don't feel sick, but I may be getting sick. I'm going to schedule an appointment to see my doctor.

I rarely get sick but when I do, it never feels like this and I don't have bad allergies. I am also hovering around 271-272, atm. I'm definitely not upset because I suspect it is related to something other than food and less workouts.

LovelyLeah I hope you feel better soon!
Riestrella Grats on being down 2 lbs! I think we all have those days where we have a bad meal, but you're not down about it which is awesome.
Zucena Welcome! I believe you can do it, too :)
MrsClayton Grats on the NSV! It's a good feeling being able to fit into a smaller size.

Whew, it's been a while since I've posted (or so it feels!). I feel like I have transcended to the next plane of weight loss...I managed to eat pretty well and not overeat in a restaurant. I gave myself a pat on the back for being able to manage that. :)

This week has felt really weird, I should be on target but I started my period this week which always wreaks havoc with my energy for a few days. Pretty much back to normal, but Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday were rough.

Ries- As far as tracking calories via FitBit, I think it depends on which one you get. I got the Charge HR which has a fairly accurate heart rate monitor and tracks calories burned throughout the day. I've found the food database to be more or less on par with MFP (which can be synced with FitBit if that's preferable); it's worked quite well for me so far. I've found it to be really useful and I love it, but I can't quite say that for the other models. It seems to be a hit/miss product with the fitness industry and more of a trend for the everyday person (not to say that it's bad trend!) Congrats on the 2lb drop!!! Hoping to join the Insanity party with you soon.

Zucena- Welcome! I hope you find this challenge to be useful and fun, and that life becomes a bit less stressful for you. :-/

wundertales- Sorry to hear you're not feeling great! Hope you start feeling better soon and your doc can shed some light on whatever is going on.

On another note, just got bloodwork back from the lab. Still waiting to hear from my Doctor, but my Ferritin and Iron levels are low. Any suggestions on iron-rich foods to incorporate into my diet? Or any type of supplementing? Any advice is welcome!

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I've always wanted to try Barry's Bootcamp workout class and since I'm leaving LA, I decided to finally buy one. It was INTENSE with lots of hardcore weight lifting and fast treadmill running with loud, pumping music but it was a lot of fun to push myself and I'm definitely feeling sore today. I also did an hour and a half or so of walking and was up to 16k steps for the day. Eating out is always tough for me but I ordered a quiche with a side salad after the workout and didn't eat all the crusts so that was progress at least.

Today it rained which ruined my walking outdoors plan :/ I did do a little walking and am planning to go on a run later when it stops raining. I only ate 3/4 of the quesadilla I bought so once again, baby steps with the food.

Riestrella Thanks for the welcome back! Yeah, I'm letting go of the past and focusing on the future and I know the first half of the year won't matter so much if I can reach my goal. And ANW is definitely challenging but a lot of fun and will be much easier once I lose more weight so it's great extra incentive. Congrats on your weight loss and your exercise going well!

wundertales Thanks for the welcome and belief :) I hope you feel better!

charbreaker Congrats on your restaurant victories! Thanks for the welcome, life is much less stressful right now so I should be fine. As for iron, on the worlds healthiest foods page they recommend foods like greens (spinach, chard, etc), asparagus, soybeans, lentils, sesame seeds and beans. That's a great site for finding out more about nutrient rich foods (high on nutrients, low on calories). Hope that helps!

MrsClayton With my insurance (once it's fixed) my shots will be free. I've been taking the supplements but they aren't increasing my numbers so whatever my cause is I'm not able to absorb B12 from diet. I haven't taken the shot yet so I'm not sure how they'll affect me, I'm just hoping it fixes all my symptoms pretty quickly. Some are just annoying to live with (blurry vision, tingly hands/feet, balance problems) and others really make things tough (exhaustion and brain fog).