Blue Team Members,

To those of you who are returning welcome back! To those brand new to the challenge welcome! This is going to be a great summer adventure for all of us as we continue/begin our weight loss journeys together. As team leader, I am simply the “number cruncher” each week. I am the same as you. I struggle with my weight loss. I have good days and bad days. We all live busy lives and have many things going on. My hope for this summer challenge is that as a team we can come to this thread weekly seeking encouragement, support, and understanding from people who are experiencing similar things. We do not all lose weight the same way. What works for one, might not work for another. But this thread is a great tool to see what other people are doing and what’s working for them.

These first few days between May 25th-May 29th is so that we can get to know our team members. On May 29th I will post the official threads for the first week.

Sincerely,
Shannon

Important Challenge Information:
Please read this thread for important information: Biggest Loser Challenges FAQ


Each week on Sunday evenings, I will post the weekly chat thread, nutrition journal, and last chance workout journal. It is up to you which you would like to participate in. However, please note, in order to be eligible for weekly biggest loser and overall biggest loser you do have to participate at least once in the weekly chat threads.


Please copy and paste to the weigh in thread your weigh journal. You will come back to it each week to post your weekly weigh in. You DO NOT have to post your weigh in on Sundays, simply by Sundays at 10pm AST time (google it ). Example: If Sarah weighs in on Wednesdays at her Weight Watcher meetings, then she can post her weekly weigh in on Wednesdays each week. Then when the team leader calculates on Sunday she will have already entered in her weekly weigh in. You only get 2 freebies for the whole challenge so use them wisely if you must. If you don’t weigh in by 10pm AST, then as team leader I will allocate a freebie to you. If you use two of your freebies and then miss another weigh in you will be changed to an unofficial member and you can continue tracking your progress but your totals won’t count towards the official team numbers.

Thanks Shannon, I borrowed your write up hope you don't mind. Only the names (team) were changed

Hello Blue Team,

Well here it is again the start of a new challange. I always love the start of a new beginning. This is my 6th or 7th now I think and 3rd or 4th as leader.

I will mess up now and then as leader, I may (most likley) have some gains along the way but this is my journey and I am only human.

I will say what I always do at the beginning of a new challange, we are all just people we will have ups and downs and I never want you to feel bad about the ups. They happen. I always post my gains as it keeps me accountable, we may lose the week to the Red Team but at least we are being honest to ourselves.
About the only time I take a freebie is if I have been on holidays (holiday weight) as I know it will come off quickly and why it came on in the first place. You can use them or not it's up to you.

Well I look forward to getting to know all of you more.

Hello Blue team!

I'm Beck, mother to six kiddos ages 13-5, mainly a stay-at-home mama, but I also teach Hebrew and Judaism part-time at our local synagogue and JCC. I enjoy sewing, reading, DIY home renovations, the beach!, and spending time with my family and friends.

I always gained a lot of weight with my pregnancies. I was able to get it off after my first 3 children, then had some issues with the pregnancy with my 4th child, which led to lots of emotional over-eating. I did get a good amount off after he was born, but I became pregnant with my twins when I still had about 35lbs to lose. I ended up on 9 weeks of bedrest with my twins, had a hard time getting back my strength, lost a lot while nursing both (to 15 months), then packed on the pounds after I stopped nursing and due to emotional eating (I was diagnosed with PPD and anxiety after their birth).

I finally feel like I'm getting back to myself. I've read the Dr. Beck books (not why my user name is Beck, that's my nickname) and her methods have helped me greatly. I'm not using any specific plan; I'm counting calories, exercising, eating clean, and keeping a lazer focus on my goals to a healthy life. I also read The End of Over-eating by Kessler and it has helped me break my addiction to sugar and fat.

I'm looking forward to this challenge and to getting to know all of you better.

Hello Blue team

This time around I am going to try to participate as much as possible. I would like to get back on plan with my eating working isnt a issue. I hope to stay on plan and make the best of this challenge!

Hi Blue Teamers!!!!

I'm Selina.. happily married mom to 3 and hope for one more... I work on our business paperwork and am at home with our kids, rushing to sports, etc. So stay super busy but this is a great place to come to lose weight! Congrats on joining the challenge! I've been around a long time, since 2005. Love this place, love the challenges. I am hoping to end this challenge at about 145 then begin lifelong maintenance. Hope you all have a great summer and I know we will all enjoy the summer challenge!!!! Go blue!!!!

I'm Tori. I don't really have much to say about me, but I look forward to being on this team with you all.

Hi Blue team! I participated in the 3FC BL Challenge a few years ago and even made a real life friend out of it. (Who turned out to be my 4th cousin!) Crazy! Anyway, it was really fun, so I'm super excited about doing it again.

I only have about 13 lbs. to go, but I suspect it will take me THE ENTIRE summer to wave goodbye to them.

I really struggle with eating the right foods. I always start the day out perfectly, but sometime after 6pm things go haywire for me. Hopefully this challenge will be the extra incentive to keep me on track.

My exercising has been picture perfect. I'm on day 27 of P90X. I haven't missed a single workout! I'm definitely seeing physical results from it even if it's not really showing in the scale.

I work as a legal assistant at a major law firm, so I don't move from my desk at all during the day. No kids and I'm not married, so not much else to talk about. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Hello Blue team!

I am a 34 yr old mom to 1 girl age 2. I am a type 2 diabetic and I have PCOS. I also have the dubious honour of being the "heavy-weight" on our team. I live in a town in Saskatchewan, Canada. I've been married for almost 5 years. My mom lives with us. I work as an admin assistant, so I am also chained to my desk for most of the day.
I love to swim, read and downhill ski. I have started gardening - this is my 2nd year at it.
I am pumped about being in the challenge this time around, and I am looking forward to all the challenges out there. My official wi days are Fridays, and I am rarely on the computer on weekends.
That's me in a nutshell, now let's go kick some butt!

Hi everyone. I am Vanessa, a single mum to a 7 year old boy. I work full time and sometime find it hard to fit ME in. I participated and started my weight loss journey in the last challenge. I was really focussed at the beginning and I am struggling at the moment. I have been unwell for 5 weeks and havent exercised in those 5 weeks. I havent tracked as much as I need to. I have still lost but I know if I was more focussed I would see bigger numbers. I feel last challenge was like the honeymoon phase... the weightloss stuff was brand new, I was keen and more motivated. This challenge will help me make it more a lifestyle change for life. Cause that is what it has to be to see success continue. I know that the support I need is gonna be here, so thank you for participating. I have been doing weightwatchers. It works for me. I was part of a personal training group that met on Tues and Thurs for an hour... I hope they will still have me back next week. I am going to be the unfit one amongst them again. I was getting so fit prior to getting the flu.

Welcome back the old blue team members, welcome to the newbies!
Cant wait to get to know you all better!

Hi Blue Team!

Glad this is finally starting, I've been a bit off plan, but I want to get back to the straight and narrow once again. Looking forward to getting to know the newbies and reacquainting with the former members. Here's to a melted summer.

Dora

Hi everybody,
This is my first BL challenge. I officially started my diet/exercise in March this year and I've been slowing down a little bit, so I'm excited to have some new motivation to keep me going. I work at a hopsital 4 10 hrs shifts per week and my husband recently lost his job, so I've been working another 8-10 hrs on my day off. I have really struggled to find time for exercise with that schedule, but diet alone has never worked for me. I'm really looking forward to getting to know and losing alongside all of you.

Hello Blue! This is my 6th or 7th challenge. My name is Bridgette, I'm married with two children; DD 8 and a DS 2. I work full time as an administrative assistant in a local trucking company. I used to be a calorie counter, now I'm trying to eliminate processed foods and focus on eating healthier. I'm looking forward to getting to know everybody.

Hi everyone!
I'm Kelsey. This is my second challenge. I'm an army wife and stay home with my 8 month old daughter everyday. I work out as much as I can with DVDs and walks with my daughter on nice days.
Im looking forward to this summer challenge!

Hi Blues! I'm Caitlin and I just started my weight loss journey at the beginning of May. I'm doing a Medifast/low carb/calorie counting sort of thing and it's worked really well so far, so I am feeling very motivated. I'm really looking forward to this challenge because I think it will keep me accountable.

Hello Blue team!!
I have participated in the 3fc BL challenges twice before a couple years ago and I found it really motivating to do. I don't know why, but having to post your numbers in front of other people really does help to make ya feel accountable and like you want to stay on track.

I had a lot of fun with this before, so I'm really glad this new challenge is finally starting and I can participate again.

A little bit about me - I am an American living in Sweden, I own my own creative writing/editing company, and that means I do most of my work from home.

I have been married to a wonderful man who treats me like the goddess I am for 9 years in June. We don't have any children yet, though we haven't closed the door on that possibility entirely yet.

I am currently in the middle of writing two different novels which means I spend a lot of my time sitting in front of my computer, but I have recently joined the gym in my town again, after almost 2 years away from it. I have just started a new routine of working out at the gym 3 times a week and doing other active stuff including dvd workouts, riding my bike, going for long walks with the dog, etc at home on the days that I'm not at the gym.

I'm realllllly not good at tracking my food, but I am trying to get into it using the sparkpeople.com food tracker. Even if I don't record everything, I've started being very careful about what I eat again. Trying to avoid processed foods, trying to eat organic and cut out all white sugar from my diet.

I'm not a big eater in general, I tend to eat pretty small portions of food most of the time, I'm not all that fond of cooking because I'm not all that fond of food in general. If I didn't have to eat, I probably wouldn't. However, that has never seemed to affect my weight much. I usually get in about 1500-1800 calories a day before my weight loss efforts really started, and now I'm going down to 1200 - 1500. But, for me, I think the key to weight loss is going to be about the exercise more than anything else. So, I hope to be joining in on all the challenges and exercise threads

I'm really looking forward to getting to know everybody on the blue team. It's great to have a team to work with on this journey!

GO BLUE!