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RangerRickL
Posts: 8,469 Member
Welcome to the first Ultimate Accountability Challenge of 2021!
Some of you have been with this challenge for months and some are brand new. This is one of the hardest challenges to stay with throughout the entire month.
FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!! Log every BLT (Bite, Lick, Taste). Stay strong and true to yourself....YOU WILL SUCCEED!!
Please feel free to share as much information as you feel comfortable sharing about yourself with the rest of the group. I look forward to getting to know all of you a little better.
GOOD LUCK!
Some of you have been with this challenge for months and some are brand new. This is one of the hardest challenges to stay with throughout the entire month.
FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!! Log every BLT (Bite, Lick, Taste). Stay strong and true to yourself....YOU WILL SUCCEED!!
Please feel free to share as much information as you feel comfortable sharing about yourself with the rest of the group. I look forward to getting to know all of you a little better.
GOOD LUCK!
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Replies
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Early bird clocking in (this is partly because I’m located in South Africa but I’m always but early anyway, especially now it’s summer for us.) I’m back to my January 2018 weight which was pre injury and transplant and complications, but with only one kidney I need to drop another 3 kgs so there is no need for competition weight cuts. I’ll get there, just doing it at a reasonable pace so it sticks. I’m also still building back some of my strength, but again that will come with the consistency this challenge encourages. It’s been a crazy journey these last two years and I’m hoping to get back to competitions this year and possibly even get the overseas adventure I’ve been saving for, but I’m happy to wait for the world to find some form of peace before I commit to jetting across the globe. I train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and get to work with some incredible animals in my career. Looking forward to sharing this healthy journey with old and new friends.12
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Hello! I'm a returning member. I took part for a few months in the summer and loved it -but disaster struck in terms of a knee injury at the beginning of September and I have been on crutches ever since. I found it too hard to manage this challenge while being stranded on the sofa, especially with all the restrictions with what we have been able to do this year. But...I had surgery three weeks ago and it went really well so I’m moving around a bit more and should hopefully be back to full function by the end of January. Yippee! Looking forward to starting this challenge!8
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Hello! I am a new to this challenge! Maybe this will be the year I lose this 20 lbs! No excuses, but I do like to blame my husband who keeps baking delicious treats. He is a triathlete so he burns them all off. Thanks for hosting the group Ranger Rick. Nice to meet you all.6
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Hello! I am new to the challenge and relatively new to MFP. Would be grateful for friendship & support. Nice to meet everyone and am looking forward to cheerleading. Peace!7
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To all the newcomers, you all sound like wonderful people 🤗 To returning UACers, so glad you're back!
I'm a bilingual Canadian living in Quebec who started using MFP back in JAN2020. I started joining this challenge group in OCT2020.
My goal? Maintain my body fat in the low 20% range (or, gulp, high teens) since I've never been able to do that before. Along the way, getting stronger, more flexible, and working on mobility improvements are fun bonuses.
I'm in a body recomp phase right now and will likely be in this phase until spring/summer 2021.
Ultimately, I'm here to stay with UAC because this part - the body fat and weight loss - is easier for me. Once the recomp is done, the maintaining may be a heavier mental struggle/commitment to self.
JAN Exercise: Bret Contreras' Strong Curves program (Month 2 of 3), 💃🏿, and random combo training when I'm bored (calisthenics, kettlebells, hill sprints etc).
JAN Nutrition: Continue hitting my protein macro (40%) a minimum of 4x weekly
As always, I'm eager for the month's challenge to start. LET'S GO!8 -
Hi everyone, new to the challenge, but looking forward to it... I have been away from MFP for a few years and my waistline shows it. Time to get back on track with good ol’ accountability! Thanks for hosting, @RangerRickL !8
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Hey! I'm a newbie to the challenge! I'm looking forward to reaching my goals come 2021!8
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Hi folks. Back in for January. Welcome to our returnees and newcomers,
and a thousand thanks to our leader, @RangerRickL for helping us stay accountable.
I’m Terri from Northern Ireland. Back for my 27th month. Still working on improving my fitness and health. Made the Winners Circle 25 times so far.
UAC is a good place for anyone to start the practicing of new habits, in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere. Through being a member, I have achieved my lowest weight in 4 decades, and have maintained it since late 2019.
Just a few details on my personal journey to health and fitness.
Aim for 2020 ~ maintain at around 150 (I may even manage to drop a little more! 😂 ✅WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED
I am FOCUSED on heathy food choices and
DETERMINED to achieve my goals!
Age: 74; Height 5’2”; Female
SW: 227lbs (Mar 2014)
LW: 146.0: (Oct 2020)
UGW: 145 (this may change when I get there 😂 )
CW: 146.2- Initially, dropped down to around 165, and stayed about there until late 2018.
- Set new goal in 2019 to drop to 155.
- Reset it to 150 in March 2020
- reset it to 145 in September 2020
- My ideal situation is to maintain < 150
- I use CI/CO and a variety exercise for extra calories.
- Logic would suggest that I have found a natural comfortable weight, and, according to Smart BMI calculation, I am in the upper range of normal for my age and height. However, logic doesn't always dictate our desires and feelings. 😂
THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES OR SHORTCUTS to achieving permanent change.- Getting and staying healthy and fit requires the development of a permanent lifestyle reset.
- Replacing unhelpful habits with more useful ones is key to to the process.
- Losing weight is only one of the elements.
- Eating healthy and staying actively is not OPTIONAL, but an ABSOLUTE ESSENTIAL.
REMINDERS One or two thoughts on weight which might give heart to some of you.Stick with the process. It DOES work! But it does take time, effort, and most of all, patience!- Daily weight fluctuations are normal, and can be several lbs a day for no apparent reason.
- A general downward trend is what we are looking for.
- Eating out can cause apparent weight gain because of high sodium levels, but usually goes quickly. Drinking extra water helps with this.
- The human body does not react instantly to what we do to it. Sometimes it can take several days to see results.
- Plateaus are a normal part of the process. The body is consolidating and adapting to your new way of eating/exercising.
- The closer you get to your goal weight, the more difficult it becomes to lose weight, as your body becomes more efficient at using what you feed it.
- When you exercise you build muscle, which takes up less space than fat, so use measurements as well as weight to assess your progress.
- Getting/Staying fit and healthy requires a permanent lifestyle change for most people.
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Hi, I am new to this challenge but have heard positive comments about it on the boards. I had a double transplant(kidney/pancreas) in 2009. After that, I lost 93 pounds (75 gained over 3 years of dialysis plus some extra) and maintained for 5 years until my fiance cancelled our wedding. On March of 2020, I woke up sick of being fat again and decided to do something about it. Since March, I have lost over 62 pounds by walking and following AWORKOUT program beginning weightlifting program. I have 30 pounds left to lose. Would appreciate some creative exercise ideas since gyms are restricting the number of people and length of time that you can be in them. How many calories does snow shoveling burn? We are expecting a few inches here.7
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Hey I am back! Been here since March I think, not always in the winners circle, but always trying. This is a great challenge and has been a big help to me. Looking forward to a good January, and a great 2021! Can't be worse than 2020 can it?6
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Hi everyone! Back for month #25 in a row. Looking forward to it!:)7
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@Beautyofdreams Awesome! We have another kidney recipient in the group as well and I’m a donor (gave mine away in July 2019 to a friend of a friend who obviously became my friend too during the process).
Not sure my lifestyle will give you many option for exercise because I’m always out and about plus work is active for me and we don’t get snow here. Between martial arts training, hiking, beach days (as soon as they let us back after COVID restrictions), swimming with seals, cleaning animal enclosures and unloading a tonne of fish, I don’t really need to look for extra activity options. My friend isn’t as into exercise as me so she set out to find mini adventures to help her find the activity her doctor recommended. We have been zip lining, camping, hiking, snorkelling, swimming at sunrise and sunset and exploring various different lighthouses etc around our city.3 -
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the newcomers!
I lost 34 pounds over a year ago using MFP and have been maintaining since November 2019. January will be my 14th month with the UAC, which is for me is about establishing healthy lifestyle habits.6 -
I have done this once before back in June I think it was. It was very helpful. I have gained about 20 pounds back to the original 220 I was already fighting. So I'm back to try again.6
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Hi everyone I’m new and excited to be apart of this group. I need the focus to keep going I lost 25lbs since March 2020(mostly because of not going out to eat 4x a week and not having home baked goods offered every other day with a I made this for you or try it and tell me what you think... I think I’m getting fatter by the minute🤪lol) at work. But since I now work from home and cook everything fresh the weight just came off.
Then I decided to try and I joined the wonderful Hogwarts community for 2 semesters and will probably go back next round.
I found when I’m checking in with others and encouraging others I do my best!
So I commit to this challenge to do my very best because when I log everything I eat and stay in my calories and do 20 minutes minimum of exercise...... I LOSE WEIGHT! Simple as that🥰
Nice to meet you all and may this year 2021be filled with Health and Happiness for us All🙏♥️5 -
I'm back for a second month.
I found checking in every day very helpful especially with the 20min exercise requirement. While I've been pretty good about the treadmill in the last couple of months there were times this summer where I skipped too many days. For January I'm going to add crunches TTS and upper body weights MWF. I was having some back problems since last month and quit everything except the treadmill. The back is better so I will start with low weights and only increase after 3-4 weeks of no pain. Same with crunches ...start low and add 5 each week.
@artsmart422 Restaurant food is a real killer. We tried to support the three restaurants in our regular rotation all spring and summer by getting takeout but this fall we had to cut it down to only one meal out (or takeout) per week. Even when ordering carefully the calories are always much higher than what we make at home.
Since the beginning of October I cut drinking alcohol to only on Saturday since that is when we get takeout or eat at a restaurant outside (weather permitting). My only exceptions are food related holidays and vacations. I plan to continue with that. It sure saves a lot of calories.
Let's hope the vaccine works and they can speed up the implementation so we ALL can have a better year in 2021!6 -
Gosh, I love reading all of these introductions. I have been on here for 2 months and January will be my third. It is starting to feel like family and I am learning more about everyone as we go.
I am from Austin Tx US and a runner. In maintenance since Oct 2017 and really this is a nice daily place to keep myself accountable. I am not looking to lose weight but just continue to gain fitness and energy and be as healthy as a lady in her 60's (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!!!!) can be.
For 2021 I hope to actually at some point get back in to the office without masks as I have been remote since mid March 2020 and altho it's got a lot of benefits I really do miss seeing my co workers face to face and walking the halls with my best bud on breaks. I also joined the Run the Edge challenge for 2021 for the first time and I think that is also going to be a lot of fun with the teams and other challenges. I am not really able to run that many miles but I do think I can run/walk them. And I am SURE my team(s) will hit the goals.
The best thing about this group is it accepts that NO ONE is perfect and the path to success does NOT require it. Over my many yo yo years I did actually learn that trying to be perfect and strict always led to failure. (hard to believe this hard headed Texan learned something!)
If you read my posts you will see that I have a horse who has been my best friend for almost 27 years. He turns 29 next year and is truly an amazing Grand Prix dressage partner. But now we both are a little bit less competitive and altho he still can be a kite, he is really the sweetest and most talented and athletic partner I have ever been blessed with.
Hope to see everyone on the Jan thread.
SummerinTx10 -
This is a wonderful group and so I'm planning to join again in January, month 3 for me! I love everyone's pictures and find the daily motivational messages super inspiring.
About me, I am a female in my mid-50s living in Mesa, Arizona with my wonderful husband who shares similar fitness goals and eating habits. My favorite activities involve trail running, hiking, and fitness videos on Youtube. There are an endless amount. I bought a solid gym-quality barbell set that I use at least 2x a week for BodyPump class online. And it works great. I just find I lose inches faster if I keep up the weights. I also signed up for a 20k trail run in the Spring to keep me motivated to "train" through the winter.
I only ate out 4x in all of 2020! Take-out maybe 6x! And my weight stayed the same!
After losing my job, I just got really damn good at cooking at home. I cook super healthy and nutritious meals, often lower-carb but my problem is the quantity. I often go back for seconds....hope to get this bad habit addressed once and for all!5 -
globalhiker wrote: »I only ate out 4x in all of 2020! Take-out maybe 6x! And my weight stayed the same!
After losing my job, I just got really damn good at cooking at home. I cook super healthy and nutritious meals, often lower-carb but my problem is the quantity. I often go back for seconds....hope to get this bad habit addressed once and for all!
@globalhiker One change my husband and I have embraced is no more family style cooking and serving for our regular meals. I do the cooking in the home and now I predetermine both of our dinners, and even track it in my husbands MFP account for him (got him to join MFP in November!!!!). Consequently, there are no "seconds" to go back to.6 -
Welcome to the new members, and love seeing fellow returning members!
For me, January will be my 4th UAC. How this group helps we the most are 1) daily reporting - both good and bad days 2) daily activity - previously, that would have certainly been less often than that, even in my "athletic" times. 3) a community that is active, and both big and small enough to be good - small enough you actually connect with people and care about them, but big enough that there is always activity and varied life experiences to learn from.
December was my least "perfect" month of my three UAC's, but I am still very proud of the month and the changes I am embracing.
Bring on 2021! I think we are all very ready for a New Year!5
