Good day!!!
Well now that Thanksgiving dinner is over and the Black Friday Madness has taken it's toll in preparation for Christmas, it time for another Challenge. Time to make this giving season a time to give to ourselves in a way that keeps on giving...LIFE!! Time to set some goals and get some results. I want everyone to know this Challenge will be a little bit different. On top of what you have for your goals, I would like each of us to make this a GUILT FREE challenge. As Northern stated in the Thanksgiving Challenge we will have a short break from "CHALLENGES" the 26-31 of December but on the First of January we are going ALL IN!!

Set your goal to loose, maintain, workout, or be an avid food logger consistently logging calories make not feeling guilty and being moderate in all things. Most of the time there is something going on that includes rich foods, decadent desserts and food galore. So indulge but not in excess, don't feel guilty if you do more than you planned to do but for sure don't get out of control!!!

I would like to welcome the regulars and returns back. Welcome to those joining us for the first time. We are working hard to get where we would like to be. The best thing is we're doing it together.

My goals are short.
Be down another 5 pounds and do my P90X everyday except on my rest day.
Not feel guilty.
Allow for indulgences.
ENJOY the rest of the year.

can i join? I want to make it to january 1st having lost another 12lbs. so thats 12lbs in 5 weeks and 2 days lol I also want to work out 45 minutes a day starting the 30th of this month. Aiming to stay at 1400 calories or less a day. 24-25 and january 1st I'm allowing myself an extra 300 calories. Did I do this right? lol

I weighed in at 192 this morning. Alot of water weight. My goal for Christmas is to weigh 185 and to have a new plan for working out established so that after two years of calorie counting I can switch my focus to building muscle.

My Christmas Challenge:
Lost 1 lb a week (just goin' w/what my body is doing)
Keeping up the 150 minutes minimum of exercise a day
(90 minutes of walking dogs + 60 minutes of *me* exercise)
I had been regularly swimming at the local Boys club. This summer they had problems with the pool, then closed until they hired a outfit to manage & run the pool, then more problems with the heater, etc. They only open 4 mornings a week for 1 hour of public swimming so I really want to start up again on Tues & Thurs. I can go for the next 2 weeks for sure, then, when school is out, there's a possibility that I won't be able to get a lane because of the high school & local college kids taking laps. *sigh* I will swim at least 4 times though. That's the goal.

Yay Jigglefree for posting a new challenge.

Welcome all returns and new folks.

So here I am starting afresh, at the very beginning of the challenge. I don't want to challenge myself so much as keep myself accountable. I vow to stay accountable and, hopefully, focused.

I'm "all in" for calorie counting now. It really seems to be the way to go. In the spring, I was just willy nilly cutting down here and there and trying to make better choices. Then switched to WWPP, then calorie counting. I've had the greatest success with calorie counting. What I like about it is that there is room enough to accommodate special occasions, holidays, and plain old "hungry as a bear" days and the occasional "not so hungry" days.

I don't feel obligated to eat a certain amount of food when I'm not hungry, and if I go over a little bit when I am, then my calorie TARGET can keep me somewhat in check. I like the flexibility and the normalcy of calorie counting...even when I'm choosing balanced foods (which I tend to do).

So that being written, I look forward to ending the year being accountable, and being supportive. I'm still on a learning curve but I'm super optimistic.

I vow to stick with it to the best of my ability and not torture myself one way or other--and that is really all I expect of myself through the end of the year. I challenge myself to track my food daily. If I get in some exercise, great. I will, again, try to stay off the scale for at least 2 weeks at a time. Weekly weigh ins are hard on me. To keep me honest, I weighed in before Thanksgiving dinner at 170--down 2 lbs in 2 weeks. Even if I weigh the same come Dec. 31, I will consider that a win.

I'm in again! I want to make it to Onederland by Christmas. (It would be the first time in at least 5 years.) Thanksgiving challenge went well...not weighing for the next couple of days though! Let's do it guys and gals.

I’m excited and ready for the new challenge! I love the challenge break idea between Christmas and New Year’s, since I’m planning on enjoying Christmas day with my family and enjoying the traditional holiday food that comes along with it. Hopefully by New Year’s I’ll be back to my pre-Christmas weight
Welcome to all the new faces and welcome back to the regulars!

My Goals:
Lose 5 pounds (160 to 155)
Exercise at least 30 mins a days 6 days a week
Not obsess over how many calories I’ll be consuming on Christmas day (and not feel guilty about it)

I'm in, though I'm skipping this week's weigh-in as I know I'll be up and it will just make me obsess. So my goal is to be 151 pounds, down from 153.6 (on wednesday). This season is always tough on me so I am going for what I can handle. Other goals are to type on 3fc what I eat everyday and track my official weekly weigh-in (mondays). I'd also like to stop obsessively weighing in 2-5 times a day, I am so much more sane as a weekly weigh-in type.

I'm in for this challenge!

I didnt' make my 13.8 lb loss goal last time but I still lost 7.6 lbs, so I would like to lose the last 6.2 lbs. That will be my goal is to get to 135 by Christmas. I would like to be able to work out more and get a good routine so that's on the list and keep watching my sugars. Thats how I lost my last weight and keeping drinking down to a min. Alright ladies good luck and we can do this!

Hi Everyone!

After being a lurker for years this is my first post as a member. I like the idea of this challenge and would like to join you.

I was unable to do my regular workouts the past couple months because of a foot injury, so my challenge will be to get back to my 5 workouts a week. I would also like to begin calorie counting so I am hoping to develop a list of foods I eat regularly so I can have a quick reference. I do have one problem though. I have some recipes that I don't have the calorie counts for and would like to figure that out. Any suggestions?

This site has been such a supportive place for me as a lurker. I look forward to becoming an active part of the community now.

Hi, ThinkinThin. Nice to meet you.

I cook a lot of recipes, and the only way to get a completely accurate calorie count is to go through it ingredient by ingredient with your trusty food scale (or postal scale in my case) and a calorie guide (I use CalorieKing.com). It's easiest to do it while you're actually cooking the recipe through the first time so that you catch any unconscious modifications. Just calculate as you go, write the total calorie count for the whole dish down on the recipe so you won't have to do it again, and then go ahead and divide it into equal serving sizes so that you'll know how many calories per serving.

It doesn't take as long as it sounds, and once you've done it once you're good to go next time.

Welcome to the challenge and good luck!

ThinkinThin--as nibbles wrote, you can break a recipe down by ingredients with a calorie guide then divide by servings and get your calories for the recipe. Also, CalorieCount.com has a recipe analyzer you could try. I'm sure there are others available online. Welcome to calorie counting--I do believe you will like it!!!

I'm in.

1) Log faithfully
2) 1800-2300 calories/day
3) get back to ticker weight(was 191) by Christmas or down 3 lbs by Christmas.
4)get 10,000 steps daily.