Autumn to Winter Challenge
 

Inspired by boopchick's Spring to Summer Challenge and following up on the Summer to Autumn Challenge, I now bring you the Autumn to Winter Challenge, which runs from tomorrow, September 22nd to December 21st.

Whether you are looking to lose weight or maintain, all are welcome.

Post your starting and goal weights and your weekly progress on your day of choice.

This time of year can be the most difficult to lose weight or even maintain, so this seemed like an especially good time to have accountability for a long term challenge. Hope at least a few people agree and join me.

This is my first try at making a google doc spreadsheet, so let's see if this will even open: Autumn to Winter Challenge

Sending out lots of Autumn willpower dust to everyone: :dust: :dust:
for the :sklol: :turkey: :stardav: :tree: season

SW: 220.2
GW: 199.8 ONEDERLAND, BABY!

Funny enough, this actually ended up being the exact same 20.4 pound goal as the Summer to Autumn challenge. Weird coincidence. I made that goal during the final few days. Hope I do as well this time around.

I originally was shooting for Onderland by New Year's, but I think I can make it by the first day of winter, so that is what I am going to try for.

Good luck to all participants.

Start: 220.2
9/29: 222.8
10/6: 222.6
10/13: 218.4
10/20: 218.8
10/27: 216.4
11/3: 215.0
11/10: 215.4
11/17: 213.6
11/24: 212.6
12/1: 210.0
12/8: 210.2
12/15:
End:

lacerta ~ Yea! The spreadsheet opened like magic! I am so happy to join you in this seasonal thread. I think the shorter days, longer nights tend to dampen my spirit. I absolutely love summer, so this challenge is definitely needed to get me to goal!
Thank you for starting it!

Hey, thanks for joining me MorningGlory. I saw in Riestrella's Halloween Challenge that you had a great week, so you appear to have lots of motivation right now. Is 125 your ultimate goal? If so, you are so close, I bet you make it during this challenge.

I'm joining in again! I will probably weigh in on Fridays before I go to work and am up all night. Though if I weigh on Saturdays that might be my motivation to stay on track at work and do my workout in the afternoon. Hmmm, i'll have to think about that! This time i'm going to try and be more active and keep moving towards my next goal! Good luck everyone!

SW: 241.3
GW: 221

Yay, thanks for joining us momtopands. Here's to a great Fall and good luck!

Hi, I followed the end of the Summer to Autumn Challenge and it seemed to work well as a medium-term goal so I'd like to join in with this challenge. I'll be weighing in on Saturdays. Quite an optimistic GW, but it'll give me something to work towards. Thanks for starting the thread Lacerta!

SW: 276
GW: 256

9/29: 276

Lacerta - thanks for the challenge. I added my name to the chart.

Good luck everyone.

Welcome flower1 and Newlyn. Good luck to you.

So I was wrong about breaking my plateau. I bounced back up and have been stuck all week. I actually ended the month only 0.4 pounds down. So definitely a plateau. I stayed on track for everything all month, but no matter what I did or didn't eat, I just have been hanging out in this range.

However, I'm actually in a really good place mentally. I'm still just doing my thing, not really frustrated, just accepting that my body is adjusting to the 220s being the new normal instead of the 260s. Eventually, it will finish adjusting and I will be able to head downward again. Might not be on the timetable I was hoping for, but still totally ok.

Just added myself to the spreadsheet! I'm not good at picking a realistic goal so I just went with my next mini goal. I'm basically at my first mini goal today! I wanted to get to 299 and this morning I weighed 300 exactly so my next mini goal is 270. I lost about 10 pounds in September so if I can maintain that I could make it to my goal by Christmas, but we shall see! lol

My first week was a wash, not down but not up. Hopefully I can truly get back on track and get the scale moving downward!

SW: 241.3
CW: 241.3

I elected not to weigh in this past week...unacceptable junk eating behavior . I made up my mind to keep trusting and trying to reign in this addictive eating behavior.

I am so happy that we have more "contestants!" in our challenge!!!

ok, I have put my name on the chart! Of course I want to continue maintaining through til Christmas, but i'm not posting quite so often these days. I wonder if by christmas i'll be able to have confidence that this is the new me, or if concentrating on maintenance is a longer game - it's been 4 months so far.

I actually unexpectedly lost a couple of lbs in the last month which makes my perfect exponential curve of old look a bit wonky. I've been eating more, but exercising more, and I've been overseas for 2 weeks although i'd hardly expect 2-weeks-worth of Indian curries to be a weight loss strategy that would work (unless the tummy bug hit, but luckily I was fine).

Happy, but will aim to put a couple of ib's back on next.

Would be great if I could do that through more muscle as well as more eating.... but i'm in China working next week, and on holiday in Sri Lanka for 10 days in a month, so there's always some challenge. On the shorter timescale I have dinners out with friends booked for Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week! I'm enjoying the gym at the moment though and have signed up for classes every day that i'm home, so it was yoga yesterday, spin class today, core class tomorrow, strength class on Friday etc. I don't have any lofty goals but am really enjoying just doing that slot of exercise each day (and of course classes are easy - not much self discipline required when someone is there to tell you what to do all the time!) All super-good from my end :)

Good to see a few participants joining up! Thanks Lacerta for starting the challenge, and good luck with shifting off that plateau very soon - you definitely deserve a scale move.

SW: 276
GW: 256

9/29: 276
10/6: 271 Crazy loss this week, which I've talked about ad nauseum in the October Weight Loss Challenge thread

Newlyn: wow, nice drop!

SW: 134
GW: 127

09/29: 133.2
10/06: 131.2

I'm super happy to see a downward trend as I had been stalled for about 3 or 4 months in a maintaining mode.

Still plateaued firmly between 220 and 223.

lacerta ~ I am sorry this plateau is lingering. Maybe if you shake things up a bit - higher caloric day within reason, then lower. Sometimes this helps me.

getting through my work trip in China at the moment, but eating and snacking too much and feel stodgy. Hotel scales have me at 110 lb this morning though, so that's below what I feel like!! Would be nice to get back to some routine, except i'm only home for the weekend then off on another work trip next week....
Anyway just checking in to say i'm doing moderately but there's definitely some room for improvement.

Hope everyone else is happy with their efforts and seeing the right results in the weighing department. That's 1/3 of October done already - eek!!

SW: 276
GW: 256

9/29: 276
10/6: 271 Crazy loss this week, which I've talked about ad nauseum in the October Weight Loss Challenge thread
10/13 273 Rebound after last week

Down 2.2 pounds this week :D
I bought a new scale that measures body fat and muscle etc, it is weighing me more than the scale I have been using. I'm in the haunting for halloween challenge and it ends at the end of the month, so once that is up I'm probably going to skip a week of weigh in so my new scale matches what the old one weighed me at, and then just use my new one from there on out. I don't like using 2 scales lol

Lacerta: I saw your post on the Haunting for Halloween thread that you broke your plateau. Great job on your loss this week:)

SW: 134
GW: 127

09/29: 133.2
10/06: 131.2
10/13: 130.4

I'm really happy to see that I'm losing a bit each week and I'm down .8 this week.

So this turned out to be my best week ever, if you look purely at the end number. Interestingly, two of my best weeks bookend my plateau. So if you look at the last 7 weeks, I've lost 7.6 pounds, or more than a pound a week, even though I was totally stuck for 5 of those weeks. Interesting (to me at least). Still not sure if I've broken the plateau, but at least I hung on to the 218s today. I'm finally showing a loss instead of a gain for this challenge, yay!

MorningGlory: Thanks for the tip. I tried that. Pretty much you name it, I tried it over the last 5 weeks. My body was just going to do what it was going to do.

somedaysunny: No need to skip a week unless you want to. I'd just make yourself a note that you changed scales at that point and what the difference is.

Can I please join. I am following WW. I've lost a stone in last 13 week-so slow going.

SW 292
GW 275

17 lbs go go.

well done on your weight loss already guys. Xxx

Lacerta I'm a number person, I hate seeing the number go up, even though I know in reality it didn't. I only record my lows, if I go up a few pounds I don't record it on my app I track everything wit; so I won't personally record my weight with the new scale until I get below what the old one says. If I do go up I record it on the challenges, just not for my own record. So it's just a me thing really lol if I miraculously loose enough that week that I switch scales ill put that down but I don't see it happening. Hope for the best though!

topsy welcome! Is that your kitty in your picture? Looks just like the cat I had, he passed away back in July but he was a tuxedo kitty too!

111 lb for me at the moment, so I've put on 2lb since the start of the month which is good, except now I want to stay here for a while and not let any more creep back on! This will be a bit of a challenge possibly with a 10 day holiday in Sri Lanka coming up in two weeks.
Off back to the airport for my next work trip away this lunchtime, so the travel thing is going a bit nuts at the moment and looks like it'll continue til end of Jan at least. Enjoying it really, but the food thing is hard....

With the way my weight loss has been going I have changed by target weight to 280. I originally picked 270 because thats my next mini goal but I don't think that will be realistic unless i lose more than 2 pounds a week. Im still going at it though and lost 2.2 pounds this week. I'm also keeping up at the gym, I would like to go 3x a week. Right now I'm working toward walking my first 5k. I was actually supposed to be doing my first one today but I'm no where near ready for it. So, my first one IS going to be December 8th! It's 3.1 miles I believe and I'm currently walking 1.5 miles on the treadmill. Next time I go back, which will probably be monday, I plan on walking 2 miles. I think once I get to being able to walk 3.1 miles is when I will start trying to increase my speed. Has anyone here done 5Ks in the past? Does this sound like a good idea?

SW: 276
GW: 256

9/29: 276
10/6: 271 Crazy loss this week, which I've talked about ad nauseum in the October Weight Loss Challenge thread
10/13 273 Rebound after last week
10/20 271.5 Almost back to where I was a couple of weeks ago but I'm not sure if it'll stick

somesunnyday and newlyn: congrats on your losses this week

SW: 134
GW: 127

09/29: 133.2
10/06: 131.2
10/13: 130.4
10/20: 128.8

Not as good of a week this week for me. I had a really good first few days and then spent the last 3 days snacking way too much, thus resulting in a gain this week.

Keep up the good work everyone.

Haven't been posting and have been off track for a while but i'm back in the game! Thankfully I didn't gain so I hope to stay on track and make my goal this time!

SW: 241.3
CW: 240.5(-.8)
GW: 221

momtopands: Welcome back. Any movement down is a win in my book, so way to go.

flower1: I just saw your post up above. Apparently you posted at the same time as I did, and then I didn't look back above. Thank you. You're doing amazing. At this rate, you are going to make your December goal by Halloween. You should be able to make your ultimate goal of 125 (going by your ticker) by December at this rate, no problem. Good luck.

Newlyn: Postive thinking. Not only will it stick, you will cruise on past it.

somedaysunny: I've never run a 5k, but I've walked in several official ones, and found it to be fun, especially if you go with a group you know. However, I also find it nice to just go out and walk those 3 miles with just my husband on a given trail and random day. I walk 2-4 miles almost every day with my husband and we've found lots of nice routes around town and along our local river that are between 2 and 4 miles long. We have a TON of foothills trails here, but I haven't been brave enough to venture up to those yet. When I started this spring, I couldn't walk more than about a mile without stopping to catch my breath, plus it gave me blisters and my knees were killing me, but I've worked up to doing 4 miles without issue and got better shoes and learned to STRETCH, as the knee pain was being caused by tight quads. Our most frequent route is 2 miles, so I started increasing my speed once I could go that whole 2 miles. Started out taking me about 45 minutes, but now I can do it in about 32. Takes about an hour ten to go 4 miles. Unfortunately, our favorite 4 mile loop is under construction until spring. So I think your plan sounds like a good one, just don't forget to stretch. I didn't think it was necessary for walking. I mean, I've walked pretty much all of my life, who needs to stretch for walking?!? I did, that's who. When you're adding distance or adding speed, it is a strain on your body and your knees will thank you if you stretch after your walks.

ange: I'm really inspired by how well you are doing, despite being not only out of town, but out of the country so often. Very impressive.

topsy: Of course you can join, but don't forget to check in occasionally with updates. A stone in 13 weeks is good progress. More than a pound a week is good.

I've not weighed in for a bit either. I had a conscious weekend 'off' watching my diet and ate all the stuff I used to eat - bread, sausages, chocolate, and enjoyed it heaps. Now i'm buckling down to 10 days of reasonably strict discipline before going on holiday and slacking off again. Basically the plan is to keep my discipline muscle happening and ensuring I can click back in if I need to....
I'll weigh tomorrow and update the chart.
The other factor is I've been gyming it every day that I've not been travelling, so not sure how that's going to affect my weight, so my mission for this challenge is to make sure my clothes are fitting alright rather than paying too much attention to what the scale says.

Lacerta thanks for the tips! I haven't been stretching before so I'm definitely going to try that now. My knees don't really bother me, but later in the evening after going to the gym my hips will hurt, a nice hot bath usually makes them feel better. I know I won't be able to run the 5K by December but I'm aiming for a half walk half run, but we will see! lol

Good job everyone!

SW: 276
GW: 256

9/29: 276
10/6: 271 Crazy loss this week, which I've talked about ad nauseum in the October Weight Loss Challenge thread
10/13 273 Rebound after last week
10/20 271.5 Almost back to where I was a couple of weeks ago but I'm not sure if it'll stick
10/27 271 Back to where I was three weeks ago. Hopefully I'll start to lose again from here.

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

I was down 1.2 lbs this week and I'm getting close to my ticker goal. I might adjust my goal when I get there but I will see how I feel.

SW: 134
GW: 127

09/29: 133.2
10/06: 131.2
10/13: 130.4
10/20: 128.8
10/27: 127.6

Is it too late?
 

Just returning after a long absence ... looking for a challenge ... is it too late to join in?
I did get weighed at the doctors 2 weeks ago on a friday so would do fridays as a weigh in.
2 weeks ago I weighed 279.1lb (19 oct)
Today (cpl days later than planned) its
274.9lb (28 Oct)
Oh n goal weight will b 259..

I got down to the 215s this week, but my official weigh in for the week ended up at 216.4. Still, definitely moved off my plateau and heading downward again, so YAY.

Nightkatt: Never too late to join in. :welcome: Feel free to add yourself to the spreadsheet in the first post, if you'd like

I've been knuckling down this week and now back in to my dream zone :)
It's good to know i'm still able to get back to the diet mindset at the moment (despite hosting a party for hubsters b'day and kicking off football (watching) season this weekend, all of which would normally involve far too much food/drink but both of which I was super disciplined for)

Three more days of being careful, then it's off on holiday for me, where I plan to be mindful of what I eat/drink but not strict. The theoretical plan is to consume calories that I really want, but don't have anything just for the sake of it or just because others are eating/drinking, so hoping to question myself thoughtfully before putting hand to mouth! Lets see.

Big congrats Lacerta! Really pleased to hear that you're on your way again. Very well done for sticking through your recent stuck-patch. If you always do that then you've got this thing cracked for ever, so just remember what you've just done for future self-belief if you ever need it :)

Hi Nightkatt!

You're going gangbusters Flower. Job going very well and you're making fast progress. Keep it up, you'll be done in no time!

Newlyn - sounds like your scales are teasing you and having their little joke. Just get them beaten in to submission with no choice but to follow your lead! Good luck :)

Thank you for letting me join. Unable to add to spreadsheet sorry ... not sure why i cant get it to work ... but will keep trying

Whoot ... got it ... oops ... better get back to work!