December can be challenging -- let's work together build winning strategies that will lead to success.

Join the December Weight Loss Challenge to set your goal, track it, and meet it -- with the help of a supportive and encouraging group. All the goals will be compiled into a list. As each goal is met during the month, it gets turned RED in celebration.

For your exercise goals, don't miss the December Exercise Challenge.

Starting Weight: 194.8 lbs

Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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20: Colorado
21: Colorado
22: Colorado
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Week 4
23: Colorado
24: Colorado
25: Colorado
26: Colorado
27: Colorado
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Week 5
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Total December Loss:

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Oh boy, November kinda sucked for the whole weight loss thing I got a cold the Thursday before Thanksgiving, felt better by Saturday but hung out with some friends (one of who was very sick), felt even worse on Sunday and felt terrible up until yesterday. My Thanksgiving involved me, alone, on the couch, watching films with my cats! I insisted my boyfriend go to our family friends for Thanksgiving, because I'm not sentimental about the holiday having grown up in the UK, and he ran a plate of food by the apartment for me (they live like 5 minutes away) so I got a Thanksgiving dinner at least. Friday I had Friendsgiving, which was surprisingly great and not stressful, which is what I was worried about! Yesterday was the first day I started to feel much better after getting sick for almost a full week, and today I'm much better.

Plans for December:

• Start Intermittent Fasting - a friend of mine posted a picture of himself having lost a lot of weight over the past year and said it was all thanks to IF. He ate between 12-8pm and other than introducing some salads into his life he said he mostly continued to eat normally. Since he's someone I know, honestly, I felt the urge to trust the concept after being on the fence about it for a while. I think I'm going to make my window 11am - 7pm, since I tend to eat dinner between 5pm - 6pm.
• Exercise 3 times a week - I had a week lapse in my dance classes after my introductory pass expired, but I decided to bite the bullet and sign up. I want to go to at least 2 dance classes a week and do 1 at home workout/1 extra class. There's a stretch and align class on Monday that I'm intrigued by, all about bettering the spine and posture which I'm in need of. I want to try and find 1 more class that I'd like to attend regularly with my 10 class a month membership, so that'll be my mission this month!
• Lose 2 lbs - I would say 4 lbs like I usually do, but honestly it's freaking Christmas I'm going to Colorado for a week and it'll be a nice time to eat some of the foods I miss and enjoy myself.
• Start a daily positive tracker - In therapy I discussed that I see exercise/health stuff as a means to correct a failure of gaining weight. I want to re-frame this concept and look at exercise and attempts at weight loss more about loving myself and treating myself rather than punishing myself because I'm fat. For example, instead of seeing exercise as a way to lose weight, I want to start thinking about it more in terms of exercising to make myself stronger, help with sleep, help ease my anxiety and treating myself to something fun.

The one thing that I'm kind of worried about for the month ahead is the trip to Colorado. A) I am a nervous flyer and this will be the first time since I realized that I have experienced panic attacks in the past (vs. thinking I've been unlucky with getting sick which is what I thought was happening) that I'll be getting on a plane knowing this and B) I'm almost 200 lbs and I'll be going to see my boyfriends family who have been super judgmental of overweight people in the past. What I have to keep reminding myself is: they love me, they care about me, even if they do notice I've gained weight it won't change our relationship. I won't be overweight forever, this is temporary and I need to remember that!

Good luck everyone!

Thanks for the December thread gardenerjoy

So I had a pretty meh November, ending in a 3 pound gain, my first net positive month since starting this journey. But it was Thanksgiving and I worked overtime all the other weeks of the month, which always results in maintenance at best for me. So I'm ok with my November. However, I have an end of year goal to meet, which is 167.4, or 3.2 pound down from where I was yesterday. Christmas isn't as much about food for me, and hopefully, I can work less hours this month.

SW: 170.6
December GW: 167.4

Upcoming minigoals:
167.4 - 100 pounds down OMG
166.0 - BMI of 26

Week One
01: 170.2
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07:
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Total Loss for Week One:

Week Two
08:
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Total Loss for Week Two:

Week Three
15:
16: 171.0
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Total Loss for Week Three:

Week Four
22:
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Total Loss for Week Four:

Bonus Days
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31:
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Total Loss for Bonus Days:
Total loss for Entire Month:

I'm going to try to check in more often going forward again.

Good luck this month, everyone

December SW 169.4
December GW 165.4

Nov 30 169.4
Dec 2 170.2 (+0.8)
Dec 9
Dec 16
Dec 23
Dec 30
Dec 31

ARGHHHHH! I do not like the bouncing around that I've been doing lately! I know this plan works. It's gotten me here so far. Guess I'll just have to keep the faith and stay on track.
Happy Monday everybody. Great work VickieLou! So far it looks like you're the only one to post a loss. Have a great week!

Well, November was a rough weight loss month!
I weighed in at 151.0 this morning after 4 days of feasting! To be fair, this was what my gain looked like on restaurant week, so I'm hoping the drop soon follows. This is honeymoon month and a little less than 3 weeks until our trip.

Anywayyy, onto my goal! By the last day before our trip, my weight goal is 145 (-6lbs). I also bought a couple pairs of jeans on black friday...that are a little tight. BUT THEY FIT! One is a size 8 and the other is a 10. I'd love to comfortably fit both pairs by the end of this month. Happy December!

Week 1
02: 194 lbs
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Average Weight for Week 1:
Total Loss for Week 1:

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A nice small drop on the scale this morning, though honestly I haven't weighed in for a few weeks so I'm just going off of my last weight! I'm quite happy with 194 lbs though since I was expecting 196 lbs about Thanksgiving. Yesterday was a fun yet indulgent day. Had an egg sandwich for breakfast, then a slice of Costco pizza, then a stuffing/turkey bagel late at night for dinner. We hung out with friends most of the day which was fun, I had a couple of glasses of wine but stopped myself since I didn't want today to be rough + I've been sick. Thankfully I feel ok today!

I started Intermittent Fasting today (gonna shorten it to IF in the future!) and it was a slight struggle getting to 11am without eating. I woke up late, 9am, and by 10am I was starting to feel the hunger pangs which is pretty typical for me about an hour after I wake up. Tomorrow I'm back at work so I'll be waking up at 8am, which means I'll have to go 3 hours without eating. It'll be a challenge but I'm ready for it! Just need to be careful to eat before 7pm in the evening, since when living off of leftovers it's easy to let time slip by.

Hope you all had a good Monday after the holidays!

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Atari - Good luck with your goals! I recently bought a pair of jeans and I went with the comfortable size, but I kinda wish I went with the "just fit" route.

ether - Hang in there, remember that sometimes what might work for us at the beginning might need to be tweaked the more weight we lose. When I got to about 160 lbs I had to change things up some more because I kept noticing a stall. Something to consider but be patient and keep your achievements in mind

Lacerta - Gains will happen, it's just part of the journey, so I'm glad you're ok with the gain. I'm sure you'll end up losing it soon enough! Can't believe you're almost 100 lbs down, amazing!

Week 1
02: 194 lbs
03: 193.4 lbs
04:
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Average Weight for Week 1: 193.7 lbs
Total Loss for Week 1:

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Quick check in! A nice little drop to 193.4 lbs this morning. I've managed to stick with IF for a second day. It was quite a challenge to not eat breakfast this morning, especially since I went to work which usually builds up an appetite! I started to really fade at about 10:30am, 30 minutes before I could eat. Needless to say, I demolished my granola bar when 11am hit!

Starting Weight: 194.8 lbs

Week 1
02: 194 lbs
03: 193.4 lbs
04: 193 lbs
05:
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07:
08:
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Average Weight for Week 1: 193.4 lbs
Total Loss for Week 1:

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Another nice little drop this morning! I'm probably losing Thanksgiving weight and period weight (thanks body for always bleeding on national holidays) but maybe it's the IF? I definitely had to keep myself in check last night when my boyfriend said "oh you should eat the last cinnamon roll!" but it was 8pm. It feels nice to be in control of something that's relatively easy to handle, it's just a case of resisting the urge to eat. My boyfriend has been very supportive and has even said that someone at his muay thai gym who he respects praises IF and loves it. I think for special occasions, I'll have a cheat day, since I don't want to restrict myself too much because then I won't enjoy myself. So far so good though! Tonight I'm going to a ballet barre class, my first exercise since getting sick, I hope I survive!

Good luck with IF, Rie! Definitely not something I can discipline myself to...since I do enjoy my coffee w/ heavy cream in the morning. A few people at my workplace do IF though and are noticing results! Though I think his eating window is a lot smaller...I recall him saying something about passing on our snacks because he can't eat until 4.

Eee, well 147.5 this morning. The 147-ish stuff is sticking, so I think it's safe to say maybe about 1lb from Thanksgiving was true gain? Either way, tomorrow I have a dinner with a few previous coworkers...and I know I won't make the greatest choices. Ah well, 1 day can't be too bad I suppose...especially since the weekend involves no family dinners. When it's just hubby and me, I can usually stay on track.

Starting Weight: 194.8 lbs

Week 1
02: 194 lbs
03: 193.4 lbs
04: 193 lbs
05: 192.2 lbs
06:
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Average Weight for Week 1: 193.1 lbs
Total Loss for Week 1:

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I'm pretty impressed so far with IF! 192.2 lbs is the lowest weight I've seen in a while. It was tough coming home from my workout last night and not having a snack, but I'm sure I wouldn't have seen 192.2 lbs this morning if I hadn't. I think I'll probably have a gain tomorrow, my Mum sent me a care package from the UK with some bags of chips that I LOVE. They're small packets, but still I ate 3 of them one after the other. Oops!

Atari - Haha, I'm lucky because I don't drink coffee, mainly because I know I'd be hooked! Yeah...no...definitely not making my window any shorter than it is now because then I'd be miserable! I want to do something I feel I can sustain for a long time, maybe forever, so 11am is my absolute max before I eat and 7pm is a reasonable cut off. Sure it'd be nice to eat past 7pm, but I don't think I NEED to. Glad to hear you know of people who have been successful with it! Hopefully I'm another . I'm with you, one meal a week isn't gonna be bad, enjoy yourself!

December goal: -0.5 kg (reach 93.9 kgs)

6: 94.4 kgs

Welcome, everyone!

Atarimae: 6 lbs
etherbunny: 4 lbs
gardenerjoy: 0.5 kgs
Lacerta: 3.2 lbs
Riestrella: 2 lbs
VickieLou: 10 lbs