3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community - "Every-Day" 21-Day Challenge -- Simple addition spells success!!

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All I can say about my first experience with the couch 2 5k is... ha! hahaha!!
I started out with the first run feeling confident and excited. About 16.5 seconds into it, I realized that this is not for 28 years of couch to 5k. It is more like 'already in pretty good shape to 5k.' Not to discourage anyone from trying it! I plan on sticking with it through the end, but sheesh! You are also supposed to be able to carry on a conversation while running. Well that didn't happen either. Man am I in bad shape! I've been walking about 3.6 miles for the last couple of weeks, but running hasn't been a part of that. Anywho! I've got to start somewhere, and it helps to have structure.

Arabella, I'm about one weigh in away from breaking my scales over the sink. I understand completely. I NEED to see those numbers go down as hard as I'm working.

Shy & Mod - Your doggies sound so sweet! I'm glad they bring you so much joy! Can't wait to have one of my own!

I was reflecting last night on the last couple of weeks, and I feel like my new healthy lifestyle has consumed me. My schedule consists of:
Wake up;get ready for work; finish getting my lunch together; go to work;go to gym;go home and cook my healthy dinner;start preparing my healthy lunch for tomorrow;clean up;update all of my exercise/weight trackers, 3fc stuff. Go to bed.
I don't understand how people with husbands and children do it. Is this just because I'm starting out? Will it soon become second nature and I won't give it a second thought?

Personal Challenges: As of Thursday
22 Days Complete-Stay within my daily WW Points - 0 Pause
12 Days Complete-Stop Smoking - 0 Pauses
20 Days Complete-Gym 7 Days a week - 0 Pauses

beach--I've often thought the same thing--what in the world would I do if I had young children? And what if hub wasn't around all the time to help with them? On top of a job, or school, or taking care of an elderly parent, some people's lives here are so crazy busy--it really makes me feel lazy! I guess one just rises to the occasion if need be.

I know I'd need to be much more organized and planned out than I am now. I have a hard enough time keeping on my exercise schedule, and my new resolve to stop eating out so much and fix healthy dinners at home more. I haven't made that a "challenge" yet, but I should. But that takes planning, and shopping, not to mention preparation! :dizzy:

But I'm trying. I swear the stores near me are getting very used to me coming in in my work-out clothes all sweaty with my raggedy hat on my hair after the gym! I don't even care anymore--I probably am not that recognizable anyway! (At least I hope not!) :crossed:

Anyway, finished my training session for today.

Now to pay attention to my hub--he's feeling neglected......

mod - your dogs are so cute!!
I know what you mean about the grocery store. I always go after the gym cause I don't feel hungry at all and I don't buy junk. I actually made a promise to myself that I wouldn't eat out lunch at ALL during the week, and only 1 dinner out during the week. For health reasons and financial. I have to start paying off student loans very shortly and I'm doing away with all the luxuries. It really wasn't as hard as I thought. I compared this months statement with last months and I've saved about $100. Even with the little extra I spent on groceries. And I wondered where all I money went!!!

Well, I'm posting my daily challenges cause I'm about to go to bed. I've completed 2 out of 3!! Well, I haven't 'completed' them, I'll never be done. But I guess now it's a habit? And it's almost been two weeks since a smoke!!

Goodnight ladies, hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Personal Challenges: As of Friday
23 Days Complete-Stay within my daily WW Points - 0 Pause
13 Days Complete-Stop Smoking - 0 Pauses
21 Days Complete-Gym 7 Days a week - 0 Pauses

Day 1, here we go

209.6. I had a few rice noodles last night as well as a sliver of cake and a few gumdrop spearmint leaves -- dipped in buttercream frosting. These last two items were taken in while I was cleaning up the kitchen after coming home from the party. :rolleyes: Yup, Day 1.

On the bright side, though, I ended up .2 away from ticker yesterday morning. AND... drumroll, please: I was at 40 pounds off on the nose when I went to my official WI. 1.5 off in the week by their scales. Huzzah!

Here's my plan. I'm going to give myself 3 pauses. I'm actually pretty pleased by my pauses and even the end of the last challenge at Day 10 because none of them were catastrophic. Just off-plan.

I'm adding more steps and removing meditation from the mix. I'm still going to try to do it but not going to consider my day a failure if I don't.

At least 12,500 steps a day

CORE

3L water a day

Either yoga or tai chi daily (ideally, both)

Daily weigh-in

Daily report

8-10 servings fruit/veggies

Beach & modcat, it's funny -- I feel kind-of the opposite, like I've got more usable time and mental energy when I get going on my weight-loss efforts. Less time thinking about food gives me more time to think about other things. Plus I feel less "stuck" and have more energy and will to tackle problem areas in my life.

:lol: I enjoyed reading about your running experiences, Beach. I've got a Turbo Jam DVD my son gave me that I'm afraid to put on and find out how pathetic I am.

K, I'm on :cof2: #3. Seems to be bringing me back to life. Then I'd better get out the door and :running:

Have a fabulous, succesful Saturday, all. :cb:

Arabella, Sounds like you had a good day! :bravo:

I didn't get my work out in today. I got up at 3:00 am to go stand in line for some concert tix. I came home and crashed for a couple of hours. I think my legs needed the rest anyway. There was a young couple behind me (high school or college) who basically made out the entire time. I'm not a morning person to begin with, and on top of that I just got out of a relationship. It wasn't a pleasant morning to say the least.

:wave: Red, Apple, mod, shy! Hope ya'll are doing well!

My Challenges - Beginning Sunday
0 Days Complete-Stay within my daily WW Points - 3 Pauses
14 Days Complete-Stop Smoking - 0 Pauses
0 Days Complete-Gym 7 Days a week - 3 Pauses

Hey all. Real quick message from here. After more than a week, an ulcer or two, and much gray hair, it appears my computer is finally up and running again. Hurrah!!!

Hope everyone is well. I need to refine and restart some challenges, as i have been a putz. Will write more later. TAke care :wave:

Challenges:
1) 3 meals - day 3
2) eat before 10 - day 3
3) serenity prayer - day 5

Just a flyby - I'm at work! Have a great weekend

208.4. I did have a good day yesterday, complete with 14,259 steps. Officially categorized as "very active." :cp:

I had breakfast late and missed lunch so my fruits and veggies were a little on the low side. I was making a big green salad for dinner with brown rice pasta & pesto and figured I could count a good six servings out of that but that still left me two shy. But I had a handful of baby carrots and a small glass of grapefruit juice before dinner, so I made it. Huzzah. (I can just barely imagine how fascinating this must be to read :yawn: )

Beach, what a perfectly horrid thing to have to face so early in the morning! Lining up at that hour would be my idea of **** anyway. Ugh. Hope the concert makes it up to you in spades!

Jolly girl: "I need to refine and restart some challenges, as i have been a putz." :lol: I'll have to remember that one for my next fall from grace.

Miriam, evabody: :wave:

Hope everyone has a fabulous Sunday!

Arabella:" I had breakfast late and missed lunch so my fruits and veggies were a little on the low side. I was making a big green salad for dinner with brown rice pasta & pesto and figured I could count a good six servings out of that but that still left me two shy. But I had a handful of baby carrots and a small glass of grapefruit juice before dinner, so I made it. Huzzah. (I can just barely imagine how fascinating this must be to read )"
:lol3: :rofl:

Beach--WTG on the no smoking thing! :cp::cp: That is a TRUE accomplishment!!

Jolly: Been there, done that. I can't quite keep up with my tally with my pauses and all, but suffice to say I am still working on the the spirit of this thing. I have exercised every day but one since Monday, junk-food/processed food challenge is going well, and the alcohol? Well, I think I will have to quit that one. :yikes: There are too many days when I want a glass of wine or out with another couple for a dinner and want a drink. I don't have a problem with it--was just trying to cut out something with empty calories. Generally never have more than one, anyway. But it is stressing me out to constantly "fail" at this challenge, so my new challenge will be:

To actually "make" from "scratch" dinner 5 days/week. This leaves me with two eves. to go out with hub or friends, and also requires me to think and plan ahead, not just come home and pull something out of the freezer or stop by the take-out deli and pick up some sandwiches. It really doesn't take much time if you have the ingredients and inspiration for a quick 30-45 minute meal. I have been watching a lot of Food Network shows for the quick/easy meal ideas.

I will check back in with everyone later!

Hi Arabella, Mod, Beach, Jolly, Rennie, Apple & of course, Red!

How y'all doing?

Mod- if you catch any good (veg) recipies - let me know!

Arabeela - WTG on the steps! I sit down almost all day. My mom got me a pedometer - but it was a crummy $1 from ebay, so it would count steps while I was sitting and doing nothing. Hmmm. Didn't put much faith in it! LOL

Beach - I see yaon the couch to 5k - haha, made me laugh. I also get all gung ho suddenly about exercising and after a few secs am ready to pass out....

Jolly - how's school? hw's your computer? How's your look on life doing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by redballoon (Post 2330087)

Okay, everyone, as is the tradition, I start a new thread when I personally start a new challenge.

Below is a short explanation of how this challenge works so all you newcomers can take a look and decide if you're game or not! I hope you are! Hop aboard and enjoy the ride. We've got a great bunch of supportive people, so I hope you'll give us a try. A lot of people try for a while and then disappear.. I hope some of you will keep trying. There is NO shame in starting over. Remember, it's not over till you give up. And our motto around here is:

NEVER GIVE UP!!...Just start OVER!!

EXPLANATION AND RULES:

It works like this: you decide you'll do something for 21 days straight, every single day, so keep it doable. Then you count ....one through 21.....and if you flub it, you MUST go back to zero and start over again. Everyone will be on different days. You can start anytime. At the beginning of the challenge you declare what level it is -- Level 1, 2, or 3. Level 1 means you feel it's a relatively easy challenge for you and means you only give yourself ONE pause day (see explanation of pause days below). Level 2 would give you two pause days and so on...
And taking NO pause days is what I'm going to call "aceing a challenge," as in "I'm aiming on aceing this one!" Yowzah!! :cb:

With a pause day you pause in your counting and continue the next day with the number you left off with. Pause days are NOT substitutes for days, i.e. Day 12 -- Day 13 -- Pause Day -- Day 14..... I suggest taking a pause day late in the game (better to go back to Day 1 early on) if you need a break or screw up when you're well into the challenge, meaning, when you're on Day 15 or something like that.

In any case, the trick is to keep going. The momentum builds and it's great incentive to stick to your guns, cause if you don't.........back to START you go. :( And the really great thing about this challenge is that you are forming new habits that will wipe out the old! AND, you get to do it with a great bunch of really supportive people to whom you are accountable! :grouphug:

THREAD GUIDELINES:

In the interest of maintaining structure, a sense of solidarity and facilitating support I ask anyone who wishes to join this thread to please strive to follow the following guidelines while participating in this challenge and in posting.

1. Although this is a fabulous support group, the focus is to be on your CHALLENGE/S and/or other people's challenge/s AND weight loss, whether your challenge is about it or not. Please keep the challenge a priority, although we welcome chattiness! :lol: This means tell us what day you're on when you post and it's a good idea to make regular mention of just what your challenge is. This an action-based thread. Our members are ON a challenge, RESTARTING a challenge, or just in between and looking to start up again REAL SOON. ;) We also welcome posts from admirers, encouragers, and old friends!

2. Please refrain from posting food logs or recipes, except where you are really looking for help and advice on your eating. If journaling is your challenge, please keep the journaling off the thread and in a notebook or blog and just tell us if you've done what you set out to do. We have ALL types of dieters here, low-carb, high-carb, low-fat, high-fat, vegetarians, meat-lovers...please use simple mentions if you have something you want to share and then links and/or private messages to do so.

3. Please do NOT go into glowing accounts of any slipups, food indulgences or binges, what we here call "food porn." Simple mentions are fine, but use of smilies :censored: :tape: etc. as substitutes where possible is encouraged.

4. Please keep this a secular thread. Of course, passing references to your beliefs, a bit of introduction about your beliefs, brief faith-related words of encouragement are fine. :angel:

5. Please show support, support, support! This is key. :grouphug: You can waffle on about yourself but please, at least occasionally,come up and look around at others and what they are doing and MENTION it with words of encouragement and/or praise or sympathy. We understand "busy," poor computer connections, and bouts of self-pity and life problems where the focus turns to "me" and dealing with those problems, but these should be temporary, not a habit! ('cept in the computer case.)

In conclusion, let me say, the above are just that, GUIDELINES. Please realize that these guidelines have been added in an attempt to keep this a supportive and beneficial thread, at the LEAST, to those who need it MOST, those for whom weight loss is the hardest and, more often than not, the most crucial as well as for those who still, perhaps despite great success, know all too well that the road they walk will always be a slippery one. :^:

The guidelines are also meant to cultivate an atmosphere of consideration and concern for ALL, not individually, but AS A GROUP.

Well, all's said. Please join us!! :wave:

I am so grateful for the opportunity to join a group of like-minded individuals embarking on a 21-day challenge. I'm a 45 year old mom of two (14 and 12) confronting for the first time in a very very long time the unmistakeable fact that I am now 30 pounds overweight. For this 21 day challenge I am committing to walk two miles a day or more, and to stay true to my morning pranayama (breath technique) practice. Also, I pledge to continue tracking all my calories and activities in the fitday log. Nice to meet you all, best luck, love and much compassion.

:welcome2: DMO!! Best of luck on your 21 day challenge. Hope you'll stop in often!

Hi Miriam, :wave: how are YOU doing? I seem to do better jogging on the treadmill than I do on pavement. I guess because i know if I stop the treadmill will fling me across the room, knocking out the people behind me. :tread: And I'm not sure what genius thought to put the treadmills in the FRONT, but I'm sure that everyone behind me loves seeing my big butt jiggling. Must have been a man. A butt man at that.

Thanks Mod! I'm so excited I've finally quit. I haven't had a very active social life lately. I've had to stay away from the parties and bars, those seem to be my big triggers. I'm sure it will be so worth it in the long run.
Good luck on your new challenge. I'm not sure if freezing meals counts as cooking, but It saves me a lot of time.

Today was just about as bad as yesterday. Last night I found that my bedroom carpet was soaked. I thought it was my hot water heater. My maintenance guy came over this morning (and was here most of the day) and found out it wasn't the water heater, but the sewer line had backed up!! I was walking around in toilet water!!! :barf:

:woohoo: Way to go, very active Arabella!!! That has a nice ring to it. ;)

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Let's go MONDAY!!

208 flat, lowest recorded weight since July which was lowest in probably just about six years. I'm SO excited to be approaching Onederland. :woohoo: (again, but we needn't speak of that).

Day 3 today, 3 pauses left.

I got over 14000 steps again yesterday. I think that's my unofficial goal. Yeah, I do like the sound of that "very active" -- sure sounds like something that would lead one to "not overweight," doesn't it. :chin: Unless, of course, one compensated :cbg:

Modcat, your :cheers: goal is like my meditation one -- worthy, but if it's not happening -- well, as long as we're successful in our other challenges we'll lose weight. Gotta think of the bottom line.

Miriam, yeah, the sitting all day will getcha. I'm trying to make a point of getting up every hour or so and at least doing something around the house -- ya never know, i could even accomplish something!

DMO :welcome: And namaste! :yoga:

Beach, ewwwwwwwww! Hope all is fixed soon.

Wow, I admire you so much for tackling the weight at the same time as quitting smoking. I could always quit smoking pretty easily. Mind you, I'd gain 30 pounds. And then I'd start smoking again, lose some of it, quit smoking, gain back... you get the pic, I'm sure. Last time I quit was about 19 years ago and I've been struggling to get back to goal weight ever since.

Wow. I don't think I fully realized that. Not coincidentally, same amount of time I've been with DH.

On that note, I must be off. Let's make this a good one!

Wowee Arabella - looks like you're very close to reaching onederland by october!! good for you!!

1) 3 meals - day 4
2) eat b4 10 - day 4
3) read serenity - day 6

Day 2 of challenge

Hi, all. DM here (That's what they call me, like BJ), a 45 year old mom of two. I thought I posted here yesterday responding to the 21 day challenge but don't see my missive so here goes again. I'm committing to 21 days of walking at least 2 miles a day and of doing my regular pranayama (yogic breathing technique) practice. That and to sticking with my food tracking on the fitday website. Good luck to you all. Hats off especially to those abstaining from alcohol. I know that can be a tough grind, but you go. You're inspiration for all of us. Blessings, DMO