Living the Lifestyle (LTL) Friday 30 Sep 2016

Jimb376

Everyone says it, but just how do you do it? How do you take the guidelines of the WW program and turn them into a lifestyle you can live every day...from now on? That is what we are here to explore. Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Newbie? Join in! Veteran? Join in! Your thoughts may be just what someone else needs to hear.

Monday -- crewahl / Charlie
Tuesday --60in2017 / Millie
Wednesday -- minimyzeme / Kim
Thursday -- MICHGOLFER2 / Jane
Friday --Jimb376mfp / Jim

Today’s topic: Numbers Game

We all say we want to get healthy (healthier) by getting our blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar numbers down; or get into a smaller jeans size or have a smaller waist, get bigger biceps (as in guns). Many goals revolve around numbers. There are other WL numbers involved in LTL; number of SPs allowed per day, per week and the number of earned FitPoints. There may be the number of steps on your Fitbit, how many miles you ride your bike or laps you swim. BUT the one number we all KNOW is the one on the scale.

What numbers, besides your Current Weight, are most important to you for Living the Lifestyle?

What number(s) were especially important to you when you joined WW? Was it a certain number of pounds you wanted to lose? A specific number of pounds you wanted to weigh? A size? A number connected to a date? (June wedding for example) Was it your age or an upcoming significant birthday. I’m sure we all have numbers in our story. What’s your numbers story?

What numbers do you use to LTL on a daily basis.

Lifetimers Bonus question: Did you change your Goal Weight “magic number” when you got near to what you thought would be your initial Lifetime goal weight? I’m just curious.

Jimb376

Yesterday at my WI the WW staff member told me I had lost a “Sara”. She said I have lost exactly what she weighs! (139#) Now in 2012, before I joined WW, if someone with a crystal ball told me “Jim, you are going to lose 139 pounds!” I would have been thrilled. I had always wondered if I could ever be able to lose 100 pounds. (It seemed impossible.) Now that I have exceeded that milestone I realize I am still obese on the BMI chart, I wear XL shirts, I want to be under 200 pounds, and I now know I can exist on 38 SPs a day AND NOT DIE! But the most important number still seems to be what number shows up at my weekly WI.

Numbers wise, I try to tell myself, “You are a newbie with 50 pounds to lose.” Now losing that 50 pounds seems just as difficult as that 100 pounds seemed four years ago. But all things are relative. I have learned that it is just as hard for a smaller person to lose 10# as it is for me as a larger person to lose my 50#. BUT I KNOW I CAN.

So here are my “important” numbers:
SW: 376
CW: 236.6

Milestones Numbers:
226 Earn my next WW Charm for losing 150#
224 To be 24# from 200, as opposed to 24# from 400 when I began.
201 Earn WW Charm for losing 175#
199 ONEDERLAND!
188 My “Dream Weight”
THAT would be to weigh HALF my original SW of 376! Get back to same weight I was in HS, 50 years ago! I know with excess skin I might not get there but I can dream can't I?

imastar2

My number was and still is 215 lbs. When I started at 400.8 I knew that was enough but little did I know that I had a medical condition contributing to my weight gain. Not all exclusively medical because it was also tied into the mental area. Once that medical condition was under control I began to lose. Most recently however just in this month I have gained 23 lbs. I know why so more on that later. It isn't all about numbers but the numbers @ the end of the day is wjat it's all about. Weight gain or weight loss. I learned pretty early on in GoaD that when you put a time goal on a weight loss that expectations can be effected. I know that it is a dali and even one meal at a time to change those numbers.

DavidKuhnsSr

32. That's the waist size I got to when I lost weight seven years ago (started at 39). Under maintenance I strive to stay near that 32, as measured by how tight/loose my trousers fit.

When I was losing at WW, I set my goal -184 - at the high point allowed for my height. I never changed it, with WW. However, my personal goal was a lot lower. I dropped to 164 at a couple points and strive to keep it below 170.

countcurt

My most 'important' numbers were the daily points allotment and my weight. I had a goal that was actually a few pounds above my BMI high. Doc, WW leader and I all agreed that was a good number for me.

When I got to goal, I did continue to lose. Then I had the idea that I would like to get to just under my lowest adult weight. Through a confluence of factors, I actually did lose that additional 16 pounds. Which put me well within the 'normal' BMI range. It was actually a shattering moment because at that weight I did look terrible; I didn't have the 'body of my dreams' even though I was at the thinnest point in my entire life. Plus, I just couldn't sustain it, so I looked terrible and was miserable. So I allowed my weight to drift up about 6 pounds and found my true happy point. That's my true ideal weight.


Pant size is important, as well. I just love the 29-30 number on my jeans and the 30-31 number on my dress pants. As I have pointed out multiple times, I'm pretty shallow.

Rachel0778

Daily numbers wise, I try to "average" around 2000 calories a day and do some sort of workout 6 days a week. I know if I stick to this plan long term my body will reflect my efforts. I do still check in on the scale once a month or so to make sure I'm not wildly off base, but it no longer drives my effort like it used to.

Food wise, I also like to make sure I'm getting 5 servings minimum of fruits and vegetables a day and that each meal has at least 20 grams of protein. When my nutritional needs are being met, I find it a lot easier to continue making healthy choices.

beachwoman2006

Obviously I would be lying if I didn't say that the most important number to me was my weight.

But the other number that I wanted to come down was my blood pressure. And it did when I had lost about 25 pounds even though I was still a long way from my goal weight. I was able to come off of two BP meds at that time.

Unfortunately, even though I stayed at or below my goal weight, genes finally kicked in and I had to go back to meds after about 5 years; but at a lower dose. I've resigned myself to the fact that I will need to be on these meds for the rest of my life.

60in2017

I don't have a goal weight at this time. I've put an emphasis on strength training the last 15 months and don't want to just lose fat, but gain some muscle. I think that will serve me better in the long run. I do a strength training program called Slim Series six days a week. When I started, I was using 3 pound hand weights and no ankle weights. I'm now using 8 pound hand weights and 2 pound ankle weights. Those are some numbers I care about! I also have a size I'd like to get into. A clothing company I loved went out of business about 5 years ago and had a mega sale. I bought a wardrobe of clothes - many of which have never come out of the wrappers. I've now started to fit into some of them and am shopping in my closet. I want to fit into ALL of them.

OH - and 28 grams. Seems like a lot of the serving sizes on packages are 28 grams. My food scale and what servings weigh is very important to me since I'm carp at eyeballing.

Calvin2008Brian

172#.

4 hours.

Jimb376mfp

imastar2 wrote: »

My number was and still is 215 lbs. When I started at 400.8 I knew that was enough but little did I know that I had a medical condition contributing to my weight gain. Not all exclusively medical because it was also tied into the mental area. Once that medical condition was under control I began to lose. Most recently however just in this month I have gained 23 lbs. I know why so more on that later.

Hope yr OK. We all know medical issues at a certain age creep up on us.

I just gained 12# in Sep but half of that was due to fluids associated with anesthetic for arthroscopic knee surgery. But a six pound gain at ONE WI was from going rogue for a bit. Man! one bad WI can undo weeks of hard work. Then it takes several more weeks to get back to where I was!

Onward and downward!

goldenfrisbee

I dream of being under 225 lbs. I have no idea what that would be like since I can't really remember what it was like to be there when I was young. I've been over 200 since I was 22, so that's 35 years now and most of that time has been over 275.
I lost some weight in 2001 and remember that I was starting to feel more like a normal person when I got under 250.

So I would really like to see a number under 250, but I'm trying to keep the mindset that I don't have to race to get to that weight. I wrestled at 167 in high school, but I don't think that is a realistic goal weight. I would like to end up around 190 and then see how that feels. And to help me get there, I'm going for 2000-2200 cal. per day.

podkey

Numbers. OK will post some then read above posts.
I have been posting my bicycle mileage since the early 70s riding as an adult (I am 71 in Nov).
I passed riding 100,000 (July of 2014)watching my odometer roll over from 99,999 back to zero ( bike odometers don't typically go beyond 99,999 miles). No it wasn't all on this bike I just set the odometer a few years prior to the correct total mileage etc.

Now I record distance walked daily (typically a 3 mile loop) as well as my daily bike rides. I don't have a "goal" per se for annual bicycle mileage but with my steady riding I have achieved a standard of 3000+ miles for many recent years. 2011 and 2012 5000+ per year just a bonus. More bonus with 6000" in 2013 and 2014. Now back down to 3000-maybe 4000 max range. It's all good

My pants waist are probably closer to 34 than 32 but I am fine with that.

I had no goal weight or amount to lose when joining W.W I just wanted to do a reasonable approach and see what would happen.

Oh in addition to looking at bike miles walk miles, Waist size, I do look at my resting pulse rate and am happiest when it is about 60 even. I do wear an HRM when cycling the hills for feed-back.

jbrack381us

In my world, I deal with numbers all day long, so I will not go into all the important ones. Just the most important.

400.0 - I never, ever want to see that number on a scale that I am standing on ever again. Or any number that starts with a 4.
318.6 - This is the weight I got to in 2012 before it all started going back the other direction.
299.9 - I am pretty sure that it has been over 20 years since my weight was this low. This is my first really huge goal.
211.8 - That would put me at 200# lost total. At whatever point I get there, I will see what is next.

1,700-2,000 calories/day is my guideposts with the macro split of 50% carb/30% fat/20% protein as targets to aim toward.

3-6 days/wk - Some sort of exercise.

I have size 46 pants and 2XL shirts that I am about 2 months or so right now from fitting into so that I can also shrink out of them as well.

88olds

Only # I ever considered other than weight was BP. Lately I'm about 110/74. Pretty good. At one point I tried to get life insurance and my BP put me in the high risk group.

minimyzeme

Two numbers for me: 5 and 32

5 was the number of pounds my doctor suggest I lose before I started WW.I love him for that! If he had told me 80, it would have filled me with despair and hopelessness. He intentionally gave me a place to start and a target that I could accomplish. I really didn't know how many pounds I needed to lose in total at that point in time. I was a couple weeks into WW when I dug a bit and found out. It was the last time I looked or cared about 80. I set my mind on 5, accomplished that, then did it a few more times.

32 is my current waist measurement. I remember being this size decades ago, but managed to get up to 38 at my heaviest. I also remember the agony of inching up one size to the next on my way to 38. I regretted it each time but sadly, it didn't stop me from eating and drinking on up to the next size. When I worked my way down and arrived back at 32, I knew I needed to stay here. For the foreseeable future, my pants will be my reality check. I cannot bump up to 33 or it will be the start of my undoing of everything I've invested in getting to this point.

Al_Howard

It was the diabetic Blood Level number, at first, along with the weight. Now working on the Blood Pressure number, and the weight.

gadgetgirlIL

In 2011 I found myself at 213 pounds which put me back into an obese BMI. I was turning 50 but felt like 80 due to a painful right knee and persistent fatigue. Joined WW at work in June 2011. First number was to get out of obese BMI as well as get back below 200.

I didn't set a goal weight until I was approaching a normal BMI. Decided that 170 was attainable as I had previously got there on previous WLJ.

I've now been below 170 since February 2012.

Besides paying attention to the Happy Scale weight average, other numbers that matter are my body fat%, frequency of weight training and more recently, frequency of swimming.

Being an endurance exerciser, I also track my biking, hiking, and running miles.