So, what's the scoop on your goals and plans for September? It's a beautiful month to exercise. Gotta work on that!

I'm moving my calories up to 1200 this week. I think I'm gonna cycle on and off a week at a time from 900 to 1200 and back. When I'm not exercising my caloric needs are only around 1500-1700, so I'm gonna see what happens if I do a week of 1200 and a week of 900. At least it'll break up the monotony a bit! I also want a practice step to see what happens at different ranges. Eventually I plan to hang around 1500 calories to see if that keeps me steady or continues to make me lose- but that's what I'm thinking for October.

Good goals, kristip! Mine feel a bit similar when it comes to eating! I want to get back in the habit of using the MyFitnessPal app to keep track of my calories and cut out sugary snacks again. I fell off the wagon for the summer but recently my husband and my best friend both started using it and I felt motivated to reapply myself to it, especially with the semester starting. It's easier to follow good patterns and habits during the school year then during the summer for me.

Another goal is to start waking up earlier and running- even if I only do 1 mile, even 1 mile every day adds up.

My final goal is to find easy, healthy lunches. I found something about "homemade lunchables" which I think would work because I could measure out the meat, cheese and snack- carrots, blueberries, apples- and have lunches for a week.

Thanks for starting the thread, Kristi, and good to see you, CrunchyMama!

We just got back from a vacation, where I did about eleven days of "freeform" eating. I seem to have gained about ten pounds, but some of that may be food weight. We'll see!

Doing my 1050 calorie average this week- seems to be going well! I am on a week of 1200 calories a day, followed by next week at 900 calories. It seems to be going well so far (knock on wood). 112 on the nose today!

Hi guys, thinking I might join in since it might help to lose weight with other people.
Crunchymama – I’ve started using MyFitnessPal as well. I was trying other things but keeping track of my calories has always worked for me too. Hope you are able to get back on track. I find that it’s hard to get back on track when I fall off the wagon for a while. I’m the complete opposite, I find the holidays easiest, probably because I eat when I’m stressed. Your running goal seems sensible. It’s kinda tempting me to get back into running.
HungerWerks – Sure it’s mostly water weight. I find that it’s good to have a break sometimes.

Kristip – Glad it’s going well. Sounds like a good plan.

At the moment I’ve been eating around 1450 calories a day. I’ve made it to 4 days of mostly sticking to it (I did slip a bit on day 2 but managed to get back on track the next day). I’m also doing grey level rollerderby and walking my dog an hour a day most days. The weight seems to be coming off fairly fast. Was around 76 kilos this morning.

Amy- what is a grey level for the roller derby? And what are the different levels? Just out of curiosity. I like to learn new things.

kristip- congrats on your calorie goals! I know that I've been in range of my 1250 most days- except yesterday. But it's pumpkin season! I need to cut up my debit card and hide my cash...

Hunger- I'm worried this might sound creepy and I know that I'm the one that stopped visiting the site, but I missed you. It seemed like logging on the 3FC and seeing your encouragements in the posts really helped with my journey before the summer. So, I hope that your weight loss after your vacation works out too.

Welcome, Amy - glad you're here! Thanks for the encouragement. I love skating, though I haven't in a while. But we did go see the roller derby here a while back, and it was amazing!

CrunchyMama, that is so nice of you! I really do love your posts, too. You are such a friendly person, and, hope this doesn't sound weird, have a really engaging way of sharing your life's adventures. How's the job going, if you don't mind my asking? You must have settled in quite nicely.

I sympathize on the fall pumpkin cravings. I found this recipe for pumpkin pudding I plan to try http://sheisred.com/category/dukan-diet-recipes/page/2/

I'm new and I'm glad this group exists because I definitely belong in here.
My weight today is 117 lbs and I would like to get to 114 lbs this month and work out more again. At the moment, I don't really count calories, but try to cut out sugary snacks and have a few more vegetables and a few less carbs which usually works. Working out has been tough because I usually do that at home and the situation at home is quite difficult for me at the moment. Hopefully, we'll get our windows back tomorrow and there will be a little less stress.

Crunchymama – Grey level is learning how to skate. Then there’s pink level, which is learning how to play the game and involves contact. I think the last level is black, which is actually playing the game. I still have a long way to go, but I’m much better than I was when I started.
HungerWerks – Thanks for the welcome  I’m enjoying the skating too. I went to see rollerderby with a few friends and we all ended up joining haha. I ended up moving away and then moving back, so they’re a lot more advanced than me.
CallyMay – cutting back on sugary snacks and eating more vegies sounds sensible. I’m trying to do the same thing on top of counting calories. What’s happening with your windows?
Yesterday was father’s day in Australia, but I didn’t see my dad until very late so we celebrated it today with chocolates and I made cake. As a result I ended up eating too much. Planning on getting back on track tomorrow. My new derby pads had arrived today in the mail, so I’m keen to try them out tomorrow.

Our landlord is having a lot of things done on the house we live in. It started with the electric wiring in some flats last May, including ours, and to this day ours has not been comleted. Now the roof is being doen and the windows in our study (wich I mainly use) have been taken out. They were replaced by roofing fabric which makes the room very dark and dusty. I was told we would get the wondows today, but then again I was also told last week that we would get them on Thursday and nothign happened. It is causing me to feel stressed and I find it hard to stay in my usual routine.

How's everyone been lately? This week has been a 900 calorie week, but I think those weeks are almost done! I'll cycle to 1200 next week again, and depending on my losses at the end of that week will either do 1 more 900 calorie week or stay at 1200 that week as well. Just before goal I plan to cycle between 1200 and 1500 for a couple weeks before landing at the 1500-1600 mark.

110.8 this morning! I can't believe I'm this close! Ahhhh!!! September 16th will be my 6 month diet-iversary!

I'm actually coming off of a mad crazy week at work- but it helped me stay on my new eating plan with is a two larger meals and lots of water, especially since I was eating out at work.

Hunger- I love my job- what I do, working with the kids. However, after six months I am finding that maybe this place isn't the best place for me. I'm not going to up and quit because we've already had two people leave and we are still trying to replace them, but I know that I'm not going to be here in another two years. Part of it is that I currently work with the 12-24 months group and what I really want to do is the 24-36 age range and that teacher has been here at least 10 years and isn't leaving anytime soon.
The other part is that I would like to eventually be thought of as a teacher and not just an assistant. The office administrator said something to me that other day about "Not really being the children's teacher" and so I should let the morning person handle any issues and talking with the parents about the children. I left work that day feeling very upset and the next morning I got a text asking me to come in early because the cook had called out and they needed someone to fill in the kitchen.
Sorry if that feels a bit heavy, but it has been a very long week and in fact, a very long summer. I'm hoping that I stumble over another opportunity in the next few months.

That is fantastic!! You really have worked hard

I feel like my calories crept up a bit this week, in part because I tried a new sugar free/low carb molten lava cake recipe and loved it. I got that Walden farms chocolate syrup and it tastes soooo good. But because the recipe has protein powder I think it is a bit much for a "dessert" and I should either make that an entire meal, or find another dessert with less calories.