Determined in December
brisingr86
Posts: 1,789 Member
Not that we aren't determined every month, but I thought we could all use a little extra push this month to get through those holidays to reach our goals at the end of the month. Extra support for Jill in the last month before the wedding, but the holidays is tough for all of us with lots of temptations. Let's try to bolster our willpower and help support each other as we close out the year. I would encourage people to post more frequently even if it's just a quick NSV or to talk through a particular challenge (i.e., I only had one cookie from the holiday tray co-worker brought in; I have a holiday lunch at work and the food is always so good, going to try to keep it healthy, etc). Hopefully this will help support and encourage each other.
I'll post baseline and objective goals tomorrow after I do my first weigh-in in a month. I got a new scale that is also supposed to measure body fat so will probably set a goal to reduce that as well. Being honest with myself, my goal is to maintain and not have gained when I weigh in on January 4th after two weeks at my parents (I'll still post, but want to wait until I'm home to have official weigh in rather than change scales). I will target losing an inch off my waist.
Let's do this!
I'll post baseline and objective goals tomorrow after I do my first weigh-in in a month. I got a new scale that is also supposed to measure body fat so will probably set a goal to reduce that as well. Being honest with myself, my goal is to maintain and not have gained when I weigh in on January 4th after two weeks at my parents (I'll still post, but want to wait until I'm home to have official weigh in rather than change scales). I will target losing an inch off my waist.
Let's do this!
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I am SO in AND Determined to DECIMATE December!
My goals for the month:
1. 1800 minutes in workouts
2. Get back to drinking 64+ ounces of water per day
3. Pre-Plan Plan PLAN my menus at least 3 days in advance
4. Try and Eat clean (for me this means eating non processed foods) and increase my protein
5. Get back into the 150s
@brisingr86 how exciting to check the scale after your break--Way TO GO!!
GOOD LUCK to everyone! We Got this!0 -
So, possibly a bit inflated, but back up to ~156 this morning. Up about 3 lbs from end of October. :-( I'm also really bummed because I spent about 15 minutes trying to set up the scale and it would not give me the special measurements (body fat/bone mass/water mass). Going to try again tomorrow, or might look at returning. I didn't pay a ton, but was really excited to have those extra features.
Goals for month:
- 1000 cardio minutes
- At least 12 strength workouts (mostly Jillian, but also count Stronglifts or fitness mag workout, a least 20 minutes)
- Be under 155 after New Years/2 weeks at parents' (stretch goal, under 150).
Need to suck it up and be good for more than a week this month. Let's do this ladies!0 -
SW: 132.6
GW: 125
Ok, this is it for me ladies! I can't believe that I'm only a month away from my wedding. I've been eating like crap since Friday evening. Like, 3 slices of cheesecake bad. I know it's a result of being stressed, and restricting my diet, resulting in these binges, so I'm trying not to freak out. I'm going to start the month off strong with a smoothie/juice fast. I know it'll help me quickly shed the bloat and a couple pounds so I can at least go into the holidays in a better position. I'm terrified that after all of this, my dress won't fit, so obviously I can't let that happen! I felt really good at my last fitting on Friday, where I was about 127. So if I'm at least there on the day of, that'd be great. Aiming for 125 though.
I'm aiming for 7 days for my smoothie/juice fast. I'm also going to be having coconut oil in my coffee for delicious healthy fat (def not giving coffee up!) and I'll also be including hemp and whey protein powders in some of my smoothies. I'll also be making soups (warm smoothies, basically), so it shouldn't be too bad. I prepared my smoothies for today last night, and will do some more prep tonight.
I've done two previous fasts like this before and once I went 10 days and lost 9 lbs and the other time I think I went for maybe 5 days, and don't remember what I lost. I know a lot if just water weight and not having the food in my body, but I feel like it's my best option now. Another benefit I found previously was tons of energy and amazing skin. Both things I can use going into the wedding.
Good luck to you ladies! xo0 -
SW: 153
GW: 148
So my goals are to lose 5 lbs and to not drink any alcohol until Christmas Eve. I also want to work out at least 4x's in the month of December. I got really sidetracked in November because I got a bad cold and bronchitis. The coughing and sore throat is still around after two weeks.
Also, there was Thanksgiving. I gained back 3 lbs I had lost. I dropped off MFP for too long!
Brisinger-- I understand your frustration with regaining a little bit. Holidays are hard. But early December should be easier. Don't give up on the scale. Mine was complicated to set up. It required a lot of scrolling and tapping buttons in the right order. But once it was set up, it was easy to use. I still use it, and it's really encouraging when your weight does not change, but you see your muscle % increase or fat % decrease. Maybe a similar scale from another company might be easier than the one you got.
MrsMarlaJean--Sounds like great goals! I'm with you on the protein.
Good luck, CostaRica! You're so close!0 -
Survived day 1 of my smoothie fast
It was no problem, so hopefully day 2 continues to go well, too. I did about 3 hours of walking yesterday (1 hour to work, 1 hour at lunch, and 1 hour on the treadmill). I've done 1 hour so far (to work) and will be walking home, too. Won't get a big lunch walk in today since I need to get some things done, but that's ok. 2 hours is plenty! Even with my wedding coming up, I really can't motivate myself to do more intense workouts. Oh well, probably wouldn't be a good idea once I'm a few days into this fast anyway.
Definitely feeling the stress now. I pretty much hate my bridesmaids dresses. I ordered them online and I thought they're be really cute, but something about them just doesn't work. For one thing, they're short because that's what the girls preferred even though I was leaning towards long, and of course I doubted my own judgment and went with short...but now I feel like they're totally inappropriate for winter and the girls will freeze their butts off during our outdoor photos. But it's too late and too expensive to do anything about it. I'm getting them shawls which I hope makes the look more winter appropriate and kinda hides their dresses. Sucks that I feel like I spent so much time and money (I paid some and the girls paid some) and I got them custom made and still didn't get what I want. BLEH. Live and learn.
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Gorgeous dress! I'm going to a proper dress shop on Friday, although it seems a bit pricey so might just be getting shape ideas, I really have no idea where to go with dresses right now, just know i want to feel lovely and relaxed
I'm finding my plateau hard now I binged sunday, monday tuesday a bit, got back on track today. I'm determined to stay at 1300 cals and under until xmas now to see if that breaks it. I think I have to be stricter on the weekends also, might allow myself 1500.
sw 159
gw 154
Def need the ongoing support this month! I've been pretty good at avoiding advent chocs at work, cream scones etc yay.
Jill on the juice fast keep at it! only as a kickstarter though. I did the Beyonce lemon water diet for 10 days at a time about 4 or 5 times over the years,always lost about 10lbs, but i'm guessing a lot is water weight. One of this biggest realisations for me has been water weight really, I used to get disheartened if i ate badly for a day and seemed to gain 5lbs, i now realise that's not physically possibly so most of it is water weight, that's about the best ting I've learnt from MFP!0 -
Oh WOW! @CostaRica120 You look absolutely stunning!0
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@fitfor30th
Thanks! Definitely give yourself time when it comes to the dress. I never gave dresses much thought until I had to start looking and I found it takes a while to figure out what your bridal style is. To be honest, there are other styles of dresses that I now wish I'd tried. I'm happy enough with my dress, though. There are so many pretty ones out there, even if you're on a tight budget! Have fun! let us know how it goes tomorrow
Sorry to hear about your binges. Seems like we all had a bit of a rough time recently. But you're back on track and I know you can break that plateau.0 -
My second day of smoothie/juice fasting went fine. No problem so far and already feeling less puffy. Back under 130 so I feel better.
I've been feeling so stressed out, and I don't even have time to think about food really, so it helps to just drink my smoothies and be done with it. I've also been drinking lots of coffee, tea, broth and, of course, water.
Because of the wedding stress, my fiance and I have been getting into arguments or just being snippy with each other constantly. We manage to patch things up quickly enough because we do recognize what's going on but I spend so much time resenting him! Usually it's not really about him and is just about me feeling like I am planning a wedding on my own. My mom passed away and my dad lives in Europe and the future in-laws are across the country, so we really have very little help or support. My sister helps a bit, but she's in grad school and busy, and just not very helpful, and my other two bridesmaids aren't any help either (one is my half sister who also is in Europe and the other is chronically depressed). So that leaves me relying on my fiance a lot, and he's not a planner, not at all detail oriented, and although he wants to be helpful sometimes, he's basically incapable and I end up having to micromanage, which is so annoying. Like, he hasn't been able to actually complete a single task on his own It's horrible that a day that is supposed to be about loving each other brings out the worst in us and pretty much makes us hate each other. Just venting 0 -
Woo-hoo! I'm starting out Decimate December Dynamically!
I'm already 101/1800 minutes down and have Cardio Boxing tonight which will add an additional 45 minutes minimum. Water intake is going GREAT! I've pre-planned my menus for the work week and will work on the weekend menu plans today. I'm keeping my protein fairly high as I've opted to increase my protein intake to equal my carb intake. Eating clean, or eating less processed foods, is harder than it sounds because I have stuff at home I need to use up, like canned Green Beans and etc. LOL! That is gonna be an ongoing process I can tell! Weighed in today after a month of not doing so hot at 162 which is only about a half pound gain from the beginning of November Which surprised me because this means that technically I only need to lose 3 pounds to get into the 150s by the end of the month, but I'm gonna shoot for 5 pounds!
@fitfor30th Yikes on the binges sounds like you have a good plan and YAY for passing on the advent chocs and scones! Any way I can help to be more supportive, just let me know, otherwise just know we're here being supportive from our corners of the planet! I'm so excited to hear about your dress shopping tomorrow!
@CostaRica120 glad to hear your smoothies are going well, but sorry about the stress and strife with your fiancé...no worries and/or judgments here-VENT away! it is to be expected and totally understandable!
@Alioth I'm joining you with the 5 lbs and perhaps even the no alcohol until Christmas eve...sure why not! How's it going for you so far?
@brisingr86 sorry to hear about your new scale...were you able to get it going properly?
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Caved to some meatballs last night. I couldn't resist when I walked in the door and my fiance had them simmering and they smelled sooo good. Oh well! Was still down on the scale today and back to the juice Today I was 127.4 which is back down to my (recent) lowest weight, so that feels good. Only a couple pounds away from my 125 goal, which I know I can get to with the juice/smoothie fast. The tough part will be maintaining there, of course, but always feels better to be in this place rather than always having to re-lose the same lbs.
@MsMarlaJean Great work so far on the exercise and meal prep! Upping protein and fats and trying to keep carbs lower has definitely helped me in the past. You're so close to reaching that goal
Have a great day, ladies!0 -
so close Jill!
SO i'm here at the weekend again, let's see if I can make it through on calorie target. Really want to get below my 158 plateau this month and i think its these weekend ruining it! Wish me luck, I'm 10lbs from goal so close yet so far! Need to be there by end of january really so I can gve some accurate measurements for my dress.0 -
Yay! My smoothie/juice (mostly smoothies!) fast did the trick and I made it to 125 as of Saturday and stuck there so far since then. I've been having smoothie bowls with chopped fruit and yogurt, so not quite sticking to the fast, but since my goal is weight loss...not "cleansing", I don't mind. I'm going to stick with this till Thursday when I'm going for a work lunch to celebrate the holidays and my upcoming wedding. I chose a Thai restaurant where I know they have some healthier soups and raw spring rolls that I think are decent enough for coming off the fast. Since I have been eating some solid fruit and veg and have been having smoothies more that juice, I don't think the transition off will be a big deal.
Going to try to be super careful with my food choices so I don't undo this progress. I'd like to drop a few extra lbs so that I have tiny bit of room to account for Christmas dinner and other events once our families are in town for the wedding. It's so close though and so real that I'm having an easier time resisting temptation...it's, like, not even an option so I don't enter into that "should I? shouldn't I? Just a little won't hurt, right?" which easily sabotages weight loss progress.
I feel so proud of myself for actually achieving this goal. It took me all year, but I lost 25 pounds! I'm actually down 40 lbs from my highest weight (165) and this is my lowest weight ever as an adult, so I feel great!0 -
OK. Time to own up. I've been battling a cold and craving lots of sugar/carbs. I've eaten horribly and no exercise, so back up over 156 this week :-( I'm feeling better today and work looks like it should be a little lighter (kiss of death) so hoping to really get back on track with adding the workouts back in. Scale still won't give me more than weight, I think the conductivity isn't there; had the fiance try it to and didn't work for him either so will probably try to return (Amazon lightening deal).
Great job on those minutes MarlaJean! Hopefully you were able to get some nice work in this weekend too.
Jools, good luck breaking that plateau. I know how frustrating that can be. You can do this!
Jill, glad the juice/smoothie fast is going well (a little blip for meatballs [protein] seems ok when it's a 1 time; it wasn't for a candy bar). Good luck hitting that 125.
Lizz, great goals! How are the workouts going?
Happy Monday! Hope this starts off an awesome Week 2 for everyone.
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291/1800 on the minutes! a bit behind, but hopefully I can catch up by this coming weekend.
doing decent on the menu planning and eating except for this past weekend, but while I did splurge I still managed to stay within range...so I guess I'll find out on Wednesday when I weigh in again...
gonna have a tuff couple days as M'Luv and I are sending our Big 'ol Dog off towards the rainbow bridge tomorrow afternoon...he's a Gentle Giant who has managed to live 17 years which is unheard of for a dog his size as far as I know...my heart is breaking, but while his head is willing his body is not cooperating.
Hope you all continue to do well and have a good week!
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Get back on track Sarah! What is it that knocks you off course? I did ok this weekend, good all Saturday and then cheese and crackers at a party. Yesterday had a few more sugary things than I should, but i wanted 3 mini magnums but only ate 1, so there's a NSV!
No sign of breaking the plateau though, might have to learn how to do measurements, as feeling slimmer today. I start Mondays with a killer boot camp class which is great as once i've done that at 7am I dont want to undo the hard work!
Excellent work Jill! I think I look at people your weight and assume they have always been thin, I cant imagine you 40lbs heavier. My total goal is 44lbs, I've done 34 of them, but cant seem to break the last 10lbs. Also I looked at a group for not so heavy girls, and ppl my height all seemed to have goals of 120 which scared me a bit! im 5 foot 7 and my goal is 147, I've never actually been below 150 i think.0 -
MsMarlaJean wrote: »291/1800 on the minutes! a bit behind, but hopefully I can catch up by this coming weekend.
doing decent on the menu planning and eating except for this past weekend, but while I did splurge I still managed to stay within range...so I guess I'll find out on Wednesday when I weigh in again...
gonna have a tuff couple days as M'Luv and I are sending our Big 'ol Dog off towards the rainbow bridge tomorrow afternoon...he's a Gentle Giant who has managed to live 17 years which is unheard of for a dog his size as far as I know...my heart is breaking, but while his head is willing his body is not cooperating.
Hope you all continue to do well and have a good week!
So sorry about your pup Sounds like he had a good, long time, though. What type of dog? 0 -
fitfor30th wrote: »Excellent work Jill! I think I look at people your weight and assume they have always been thin, I cant imagine you 40lbs heavier. My total goal is 44lbs, I've done 34 of them, but cant seem to break the last 10lbs. Also I looked at a group for not so heavy girls, and ppl my height all seemed to have goals of 120 which scared me a bit! im 5 foot 7 and my goal is 147, I've never actually been below 150 i think.
I actually once saw the scale hit 180, eeek. But I think of 165 as my heighest weight because that's what I maintained for most of my undergrad. But I know what you mean, I always assume thinner people have always been thin, and bigger people always big, but now I realize that almost everyone has some sort of weight/body image struggle.
I think your goal for 147 is great. You can always see when you get there how you feel. There are a whole range of different body types that look great at the same height, so I would just wait to see. I thought I'd be skinnier at this weight that I am, so it's hard to judge!
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SW: 132.6
GW: 125
W1: 124.8
Yay! Goal achieved on week 1 I'm pretty happy with how I look and I know I'll feel good in my dress. My next/last fitting is on Friday, and I should be taking my dress home then. I don't have much time, but I'm going to try to tighten up my arms over the next few weeks. My fiance says they look thin, but I still feel like they're not quite where I'd like. But I'm not too worried about it. Goal for the next week is to maintain, maintain, maintain. More than a couple lbs either way and I might be in trouble with my dress!
I think I'm going to keep going with smoothies for two meals and then one regular (healthy) meal per day. I think that's something I could keep up for the rest of the month...including the days of holiday dinners.0 -
thanks @CostaRica120 He was a rescue dog from the pound, so we aren't entirely sure but we're thinking some Black Lab and some Great Dane...
got in another 25 minutes yesterday...
316/18000 -
@CostaRica120 I bet that feels good! Well done 0
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Did not stick to the nice light raw spring rolls at the Thai restaurant... Went for the buffet and second helpings of dessert. Oops! It was so yum though. Smoothie for dinner tonight and final dress fitting tomorrow.0
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I'm sure it will be fine! I broke the plateaux today! Yay for 1570
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fitfor30th wrote: »Get back on track Sarah! What is it that knocks you off course?
Thanks. I think last weekend was a bit of a perfect storm: high stress and long hours at work, a cold, and PMS (which tends to make me depressed and more apathetic about my own well being). I think the big one is work. I stress eat, mostly wanting chocolate and sugar to make me feel better and then when I don't get home until 8 or 9, my priority becomes cooking dinner for myself and my fiance (my own priority, he would understand if I told him I couldn't do it) or if it's 9, I know it will be 9:30 by the time I get to the gym and I'll be lucky to get in 30 minutes (when I want 45-60) so I do nothing. Last night I didn't leave work until after the gym had closed.
I need to get to bed earlier and start working out in the mornings (keep trying), but I've had more 8 and 9AM meetings, which make it more difficult to get the workouts in and get to work on time.
I finally got in 50 minutes on Wednesday (with warm-up and cool down I probably had 65, but 50 is what I logged. I was actually pretty pleased; I was able to stay at or above 4.5mph for the full 50 minutes (which is good for me, especially given I haven't run for weeks and coming off a cold). Definitely way behind what I wanted, but I want to push myself to pick it up the 2nd half of the month, especially when I'm at my parents and will be doing more snacking (and probably some drinking with the bros and bridesmaids).
Jools, CONGRATS on breaking the plateau!
Jill, Awesomeness on meeting goal first week! Hopefully the dress fitting goes/went well. How exciting!
Marla Jean, late condolences on the loss of your furry family member. It's always tough. Great job on getting the minutes in though.
Lizz, hope you're feeling better (saw wall post) soon and can get back into the workouts.0 -
fitfor30th wrote: »I'm sure it will be fine! I broke the plateaux today! Yay for 157
Woohoo! Keep it going
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Think I might be experiencing the mythical woosh?!
sw 159
w1 159
w2 155.6
@brisings86 I totally here you on the long hours and stress, and sweet stuff! The way I break that is early morning workouts. If i've left my bed, and my kids at 5.30am to workout, I'm much less likely to ruin that effort in the evening. That said, I always save 150 calories for and ice cream or chocolate snack after everyone has gone to bed.
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Way to go Jools! That's awesome progress. Thanks for the tip on the early morning workouts, I just have to get myself back into the habit (not staying up until midnight would probably help).0
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fitfor30th wrote: »Think I might be experiencing the mythical woosh?!
sw 159
w1 159
w2 155.6
Love that woosh!0 -
Did A LOT of eating over the last few days, so am up a few lbs on the scale Lots of social things going on and I couldn't resist. Came of my smoothie fast and fell face first into take out and cookies. haha.
I picked up my dress on Friday, so now I have a big poofy reminder hanging in my closet. My wedding is coming up SO quick. Super excited but totally freaked out. My entire weight journey has been so full of ups and downs, but every time I go up on the scale I feel like I won't be able to go back down! I know a lot is water weight, but it still makes me feel guilty/nervous. I ate well yesterday and have been running/walking on the treadmill every day. Up to 128 this morning but def want to get back down to 125 asap! I know it's not worth stressing because no one else can notice those few lbs, but I can FEEL them. It's so funny how I go up a couple lbs and feel like my thighs are touching more..my pants are too tight, etc. Mostly in my head! But overall doing good. Not too much more wedding stuff to get ready, and our families get into town next week...and I'm off work after this week through to the new year, so that will be awesome!
Back for my official weigh in tomorrow Let's have a great week, ladies! 0
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