Hello everyone! I briefly read through this thread, its awesome to see so much activity and so many new faces! I am officially back from my vacation and eager to undo the damage. I gained 14 lbs. back while away going from 155 to 169, so my official goal is going to be 3 lbs. which will put me into new territory. I am hoping this isn't too ambitious, but I think that I can get off 10 of the new lbs. in the next 2 weeks.
Hello and Congrats to all the England fans! Its encouraging to see everyone’s progress. SnowMama, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned apple pie on a diet challenge thread. It was only a store bought pie but he was happy with it. I selfishly did not make a scratch pie so that I wouldn’t be tempted.
I haven’t had the best week but I am not quitting! I’m sure next week will be better for me. Wow, that was a whole lot of dieting for no progress. But I’m happy it’s not worse and I feel like I am going to stay on track.
Start Date. ~ July 1, 2018 Goal for July ~ 179 (9 lbs)
Ok, this is going to be long, as I am catching up on a whole week of personals:
boatingmommy: Welcome back and good luck to you. Not sure why copy and paste isn't working for you, that is how I post mine each day. But you could also quote your prior post and then just remove the quote tags and any extra stuff. I'm sure cutting the liquid calories from alcohol will help with the weight loss. Congrats on making it into the 180s.
gardenerjoy: Thank you for making the new thread, and good luck crushing your reach goal. You are off to a great start.
Riestrella: Welcome back and great motivators you have there for upcoming events. I don't actually diet, I've tried to actually change my entire lifestyle, eating little to no junk (I still eat a small bit of chocolate each day to quench my sweet tooth), eating more nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies. I've also cut back on my milk intake, as it was a lot, and my breads, which were already wheat. I was only drinking 2-3 sodas a week, but I've cut that back to 1-2 a month. But if I have a craving, I eat a little bit of that thing, rather than trying to eat something healthier instead, which doesn't get rid of the craving. A small amount of something bad can be ok, as long as it stays a small amount. I don't have cheat days, as they make me feel ill. By not having any forbidden foods, I don't seem to need the cheat days.
Also, I hope you are able to get help with the mental health issues. I've been there as well. I spent about a year seeing a psychiatrist and went on meds to stabilize. It helped a ton. My husband is going through it right now, and just picked up a new med to try today. He went through several therapists before finding one he connected with, so don't be afraid to switch if you aren't feeling it. One of my cousins has been successfully medicated for years, and is an infinitely better and happier person on the meds than off of them. They aren't for everyone, but they can be very successful for some.
I struggle every day to get enough protein in my diet. I do have a foam roller, but have only used it for working out knots and for the stretches my physical therapist recommended for specific uses. I haven't ever tried it for reducing DOMS. I'll have to look into that for my next workout after my ankle heals. Thanks for the tip.
Chunka: You are stuck at 140.0, I'm stuck at 240.0. I'm jealous. Huge congrats on out-losing the shorts, even if you have separation anxiety from them. Glad to hear that your DOMS didn't last more than a day. Mine took 4 to go away.
Snowmama: Congrats on making goal for June. I'm sure you'll lose the water weight over the next few days. I've also heard a sprain can be more painful than a break. I don't think this one was on that level, though. I've had a worse sprain once, years ago, and it hurt for months afterward, surprisingly, even once it didn't hurt to walk, it still hurt to swim.
Rainbow123: By participating in this thread, you'll have enough posts in no time and get to add a signature. I really like the Power Crunch protein bars myself. Glad your new scale is consistent with the old one. That is always my fear if I have to change batteries or scales, that the number will be drastically different.
yangtzer: Welcome back from traveling
Kim: Ugh, so sorry to hear that. When I fell, I also sat there for several minutes, unable to get back up. I was swollen the first day and the bruise showed up the second day. I wanted to do my strength workout yesterday, but couldn't, and won't be able to do that or my walking for a week or so. Here's hoping we both heal quickly. You've been having a really good month so far, though.
nicoley: I'm sending hugs and motivation your way. We all have an off week where we just don't want to do anything, and nothing sounds good. The trick is not getting off track long term. Don't let one bad week derail you.
ange: Good job so far maintaining.
ophelia: Sometimes the body just wants to hang on to that old decade. You, me and Chunka all seem to be at that point right now. Good luck on being back into the 160s today. I too will have to brave the cake/ice cream gauntlet this weekend. My twin niece/nephew are turning 3 today.
Stefania: Welcome back and good luck to you
Jeanex: Welcome to 3FC and good luck. Glad to hear your injury is almost healed. I've been really enjoying my daily walks and missing them this week. Can't wait to get back to them.
PERUNNING: Welcome and congrats on the new decade
JenyReddy: Welcome to the challenges. I love that you've joined me in having an alternate challenge to fit into clothes. Last month, I lost inches the first half the month and no weight, and then weight the second half the month, but no inches. Measuring both can really help with motivation.
momtopands: 3 steps forward, and 1 step back is a totally normal and healthy way to lose the weight. Life happens. Good job getting back on track. You've already made a good dent for the month. Good job on the grilling. I've never had a grill, so never grilled anything myself, but do love eating grilled food. Sorry to hear that your rental is being sold. I manage rentals at my job, and I hate it when I have to ask good tenants to move because an owner decides to sell. So even though I'm not your landlord, I'm sorry on behalf of them for putting you through stress.
Cattails: You are getting very close to being back to goal. Way to go
kfunk: Welcome back, and congrats on getting back on track. I'm sure that a lot of that is water weight and will come off quickly. No way you gained anywhere close to that in actual weight in such a short time.
SW: 240.0
July GW: 233.0
Week One
01: 239.8
02: 240.2
03: 240.4
04: 239.8
05: 240.8
06: 239.2
07: 240.2
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Total Loss for Week One: +0.2
Definitely been in a plateau this week. I've just hovered all around 240. I'm sure part of that is not being able to go on my walks since Tuesday. But I've also had to work a lot, so my stress level has been higher. That will continue through Tuesday, including going in tomorrow for part of the day. If I was going to be up for the week, at least I was up the minimum possible amount. Could have been worse.
My ankle is definitely improved today. The bruising is impressive, but the swelling is down. I'm going to let it heal through the weekend and then start some light strengthening exercises again. Got a brace today so that it has some extra support when I start walking again. My knees are feeling better, they weren't terrible to start with.
Kim: Very nice whoosh today!! I am so sorry to hear about your ankle, though...hope it feels better ASAP!
kfunk: I imagine most of that is just pure bloat and agree that it will come back down a lot faster than it would if it was real weight. Glad to see you back, by the way! We're about to head out of town for a week to go back home (MY hometown this time, for the first time in almost SIX years!) for a family reunion/vacation...I'll probably come back with a gain myself, but hoping to mitigate the damage as much as possible. I think "vacation padding" is truly par for the course just to the general nature of vacations, so here's hoping yours comes off with ease and anything I add on while away next week will come off just as easily...lol.
Lacerta: Good luck with the gauntlet of sweets this weekend! And, hopefully, we will all be free of these super stubborn lbs soon!
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Finally back down into the green today! : Weigh-in was 168.8. However, I weighed in about an hour and a half late today and was super low on water yesterday - like, barely even 40 oz kind of low - so, it may very well be a lower reading than what I'd actually be at for the day. Nonetheless, I'm still happy to see a lower number again for once, even if it bumps back up tomorrow...lol.
Week One
01: 171.0
02: 170.8
03: NWI.
04: 171.4 - (tom)
05: 171.6 - (tom)
06: 170.0 - (tom)
07: 168.8 - (tom)
---------------------------- Total Loss for Week One:1.8 lbs.
Ang – that is a very good idea and I never thought of it like that. That’s why I love forums: people with experience share ideas that never occurred to me. Thank you.
Too Many Dimples – ugh! I really hope your ankle heals up fast.
Lacerta – you are the 2nd person to mention Power Crunch Protein Bars to me. I’ll check them out at the market tomorrow!
Planning my food in advance is going well.
Start: July 1, 2018 ~ 143.40
Goal for the month for challenge ~ (4 lbs)
Goal for the month ~ stretch goal ~ ( 10 lbs)
7/1 ~ 143.40
7/2 ~ 144.00
7/3 ~ 142.90
7/4 ~ 142.50
7/9 ~
7/12 ~
7/15 ~
7/18 ~
7/21~
7/24 ~
7/27 ~
7/30 ~
7/31 ~
Also a calorie goal for July 8th through July 14th
Morning all. Enjoying the downward trend I've been having the last few days. Hopefully if I find the sweet spot with my macros the scale loses will start staying consistent more often. Ankle is still sore this morning and it's bruised up a little. I don't bruise easy so that means I did do a decent amount of damage. After the pool yesterday I was at my mom's and we kept it iced and elevated all evening and that helped a lot. Going to try to stay off it most of the day today too. I'm extra thankful I work from home and wont have to hobble around working on this thing, should help it heal quicker so I can get back to my scheduled leg workouts.
Casey ~ Yay for being back in the 160's. Hope it sticks.
Lacerta ~ I cycle through 3 different strength workouts and I should be able to do my Monday and Tuesday workouts fine since they are upper body. It's just the legs I'm going to have to hold off on. And I've also been trying to work myself up to starting the treadmill for some added cardio so bummed that got derailed before I could even start. Hopefully we can both get back on track soon. And hope you get past that 240 sticking point soon. That was my 250 so I'm hoping I don't have the same problem when I'm about to get to the 230's as well.
kfunk~ Welcome back. Seems like you enjoyed that vacation! I wouldn't sweat it as you know a lot of that is water and it will drop off quick.
ophelia: You have a good attitude. Life happens, including vacations. I know you'll get right back on track when you get back. Hope you have a good time.
kim: Yeah, I'm going to try to do some upper body exercises today.
Week Two
08: 239.6
09:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
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Total Loss for Week Two:
Back down a little today, which was a pleasant surprise. I did ok last night. We had grilled chicken, french bread, corn on the cob, fruit salad and steamed asparagus. The french bread was bad for me, but the rest was good. I only had 2nds on the asparagus (my favorite vegetable). I did have a piece of ice cream cake, but it was small. But I felt stuffed driving home, so I figured I would be up in weight today. Glad to be wrong. Hopefully this week I can break the cycle and stay in the 230s.
Sorry I dropped off for a while there! Independence day was good for the soul, bad for the ol' health. Remember when I said that I had no soda to drink so that should prevent weight gain? Yeah...I ended up buying some Mountain Dew as a joke since we were playing D&D and had about 3 glasses of it (tall glass, with lots of ice - not that it makes it better but it wasn't quite as bad as having 3 pints of it!). THEN we had burgers, beans and salad...only because my friends said "we made enough so everyone can have 2 burgers!" that immediately set off my annoying brain into "there's enough for two...I can have two...right?!" I've noticed that if I know there's X food available then my brain WILL NOT SHUT UP until I've just eaten it. Something to work on.
Is anyone else like that? I didn't NEED another burger, yet, because I knew it was available I told myself I had to have it? So annoying. This is why I'm fat What do you guys do to shut up the noggin'?
Anyway, the day after Independence Day I came down hard with a cold. Whenever I get sick I turn into an eating machine, only not the healthy eating kind, the "give me all the bread" kind. Funny story, we had made veggie burgers beforehand but in my stupor I actually ate a raw veggie burger because I thought we had already baked them...oops! I was fine though, it was only veggies after all
The following Thursday/Friday I was back up to my starting weight of 187 as a result of I.D. Thankfully after a day of normalcy yesterday and also the end of my period, I have dropped back down to 186 lbs to end the week. I'm happy that I've seen SOME progress this week!
I managed to finish up one project that was on my mind for a long time, so I'm hoping tomorrow I can get back into a regular work schedule with more breaks and less stress . I also need to get back into a workout routine too, which I hope to do starting next week. Fingers crossed I can put my words into action!
Spoiler
Week One
01: 187 lbs
02: 186.2 lbs
03: 185.4 lbs
04: 185.8 lbs
05: 187 lbs
06: 187 lbs
07: 187 lbs
08: 186 lbs
---------------------------- Total Loss for Week One: 1 lbs
Week Two
09:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
---------------------------- End of Week One:
Total Loss for Week Two:
Week Three
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
---------------------------- End of Week Two:
Total Loss for Week Three:
Week Four
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
---------------------------- End of Week Three:
Total Loss for Week Four:
Final Days
30:
31:
---------------------------- End of Week Four:
Total Loss for Final Days:
Last edited by Riestrella; 07-08-2018 at 12:32 PM.
Chunk - No no, please don't think you're talking too much about mental health, I think it's good! It lessens the stigma the more we discuss it. I appreciate your support and input! I know what you mean about that one weight that torments us. For me, for the longest time it was 160 lbs! Now I'm thinking "what I would give to be there again!!" haha! Definitely keep on going with your workouts even if you don't see a loss, because as you've experienced, you will see that loss eventually! Just not as fast we we'd like
momtopands - Well done on your first time grilling experience! Bleh, hot dogs, I hate em Grilled salmon is amazing isn't it?! My MIL would get the fancy pants salmon from Whole Foods and grill it and it was delicious. Also good job on exercising after a day of events!! That's amazing! I'm so sorry you have to leave your place, that's happened to a close friend of mine but she ended up in a wonderful new home because of it that ultimately led her to buy her own place in that area. Hopefully you find somewhere soon *fingers crossed*.
Rainbow - Foam rollers, from my poor scientific understanding, really stretch out your muscles. If we're just posing ourselves in different positions to stretch, it can only do so much, whereas foam rollers really contact the muscles and work them out. It hurts, I'm not gonna lie, foam rolling sucks when you're in the moment. However the benefits are totally worth it. I'd rather suffer a little for 15 minutes and be able to walk the next day! I'm pretty religious about planning my meals, it really does help and I shop for the week too so the ingredients are ready to go. I need to plan for more lunches and snacks though, since that always is my downfall of having too many carby things in a day.
Cattails - I, too, need to cut way down on sugar. I've noticed I've developed a sweet tooth again and find myself craving sugar after every meal. That'll be a hurdle to jump over, what sort of foods helped with your sugar cravings? Thanks for sharing your experiences with therapy/medication too, I appreciate it.
gardenerjoy - Thanks for running the challenge! Put me down for a 2 lb loss to start myself off nice and easy.
Ophelia - That's great you're adding jogging to your routine! I think if anything, towards the end of your time, spend 30 seconds runningas fast as you can. It's amazing what bursts of speed will do to your stamina, but we only really improve if we push ourselves a little bit at a time. The reason I recommend doing it at the end is because your body should be nice and warmed up so gradually increase your speed until you think "ok this is my limit" then go for 30 seconds so you don't injure yourself. Weight lifting is great! Honestly, don't give a crap what people think at the gym, you're there for YOU. Watch some YouTube videos beforehand so you know what you want to do and then take notes on what you want to do when you're there so you're not stood there like "uhhh...what now?!" I always need a plan with strength training!
D&D is a lot of fun, but I'm realizing just how much a good Dungeon Master counts. The guy who's running ours is frankly too nice! He wants us to have fun and not be stressed out, but I think he's holding our hand a little too much since we're just there for the ride. Two of us in the group, myself included, are pretty good at the role playing. I'm not a great actress, but I know who my character is so I perform certain things in the story that are a bit random because that's what my character does! I think too many of us are used to board games/video games where there is a "correct" way to do something, so we spent a long time discussing what we should do out of character instead of just winging it. We're all learning though as a group, I think because our DM isn't the best (he's not very good at on the fly decisions) we're going to focus more on the RPing aspect and have fun with that. I love my character though - she's a dwarf who's half wendigo so she eats people in secret. I collect bits and pieces of the people we kill and hide it from everyone!
Honestly it sounds to me your body is ready for a shift in routine! I remember I got around to where you are in your weight loss and someone said "eat more food because you're exercising more now than you used to" so I did and low and behold I started to lose weight again. People always come at me with pitchforks when I suggest eating back calories burned, but I highly recommend adding more calories into your day on days that you workout - especially weight lifting days if you start that. Up your protein too, which is difficult and is why people resort to those shakes, but it makes a huge difference.
Eeee, congrats on getting into the 160's!
SnowMama - Aww, it'll be a great experience for both of you even if it is new and difficult to be apart! I hope you see a drop soon.
ange82 - Did you have fun watching the England game? Can't believe they've made it this far!
TooManyDimples - Make sure to ice your ankle to help with inflammation and take anti-inflammatory too to help with the pain! Sorry that happened, injuries like that are so annoying. *waves at fellow work from home friend* How do you stay motivated?! I'm still figuring that out
Lacerta - Thank you for your response regarding therapy/meds. It's really encouraging to hear success stories and great advice about switching around if I don't find a connection straight away. I always try and foam roll even if I don't have knots, more of a preventative measure and it really does work wonders. Annoyingly so, since I hate doing it! There are some good full body foam roller routines on YouTube for ideas on what to do post workout.
Kim: Thank you...and, wow! Another nice loss for you today...I'm hoping it keeps up for you! I also hope that - by the time I come back - your ankle is back to normal and you're feeling 100% again.
Lacerta: Thank you! I will do my best while away, but I know there's going to be at least a little gain...so, I will do my best to get back on track ASAP when we get back, too. Glad you were able to get a drop today, and I hope you stay down and start moving through the 230s!
Riestrella: I will definitely try that when I get back home and start hitting the gym again! Thanks for the tips, as always. And, that is so hilarious about your Dwarf/Wendigo keeping bits and pieces of slain enemies to snack on later...mythological meal-prepping at its finest!
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Weigh-in was 168.0 today, which is only a pound away from where I wanted to be before we headed to California...so, I will gladly take it after the rough couple weeks I've had on the scale. We're leaving tonight instead of tomorrow, so this will be my last check-in until the 19th or 20th. Wish me luck not doing TOO much damage, and I hope everyone has a great next 10 days or so while I'm gone, lol -- see you all when we get back!
Week Two
08: 168.0
09:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
---------------------------- End of Week One: 168.8 Total Loss for Week Two:
Ugh, drifting off track. Food plans that include "this" or "that" don't seem to work as well as "I'm having this for dinner." Onward ho and I will weigh in Tuesday. Clearly I'm drifting as I don't want to get on the scale : ( Perhaps I need to go back to the daily weighing.....
Riestretta – I’ll have to try the foam roller. I’m joining a new gym next month and they have them – so I’ll get a chance!
Start: July 1, 2018 ~ 143.40
Goal for the month for challenge ~ (4 lbs)
Its encouraging to see everyone’s progress. SnowMama, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned apple pie on a diet challenge thread. It was only a store bought pie but he was happy with it. I selfishly did not make a scratch pie so that I wouldn’t be tempted. 
I am so sorry to hear about your ankle, though...hope it feels better ASAP!
Glad to see you back, by the way! We're about to head out of town for a week to go back home (MY hometown this time, for the first time in almost SIX years!) for a family reunion/vacation...I'll probably come back with a gain myself, but hoping to mitigate the damage as much as possible. I think "vacation padding" is truly par for the course just to the general nature of vacations, so here's hoping yours comes off with ease and anything I add on while away next week will come off just as easily...lol. 
: Weigh-in was 168.8. However, I weighed in about an hour and a half late today and was super low on water yesterday - like, barely even 40 oz kind of low - so, it may very well be a lower reading than what I'd actually be at for the day. Nonetheless, I'm still happy to see a lower number again for once, even if it bumps back up tomorrow...lol.
What do you guys do to shut up the noggin'?
Just a quick drop in today. 