Official week 1 thread
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soccerella
Posts: 623 Member
Welcome to week 1! I hope everyone is as excited as I am to get things started and shed some pounds!
Each week I will post a thread like this that will be the place to get all your information for the week about the challenges. Your coach will also copy and post the challenge in your personal team thread as well.
A few important things before I go any farther
1) DO NOT message me with your weights and challenge completions. These are now to be reported to your coach directly. Each team is going to have different ways of doing this and different times it has to be done, so refer to your team thread to see how your coach would like you to do it. Remember everything is done in EST your coach asks you to message them by 8 pm Monday night, don’t go by your local time. If you need to look up what that time would be for you, try using http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/
2) PLEASE READ the challenges all the way through and make sure you understand them. You can comment on the weekly thread if you need something clarified that doesn’t make sense. Otherwise ask your coach if you have an issue with it or need to make substitutions. Most things you guys should be able to work out on your own, but I can help if your coach doesn’t know. I ask that you read the challenges carefully because there may be multiple steps or even certain threads to post in. We may ask you to let us all know a weakness you have, share a new workout technique, or your favorite healthy recipe and you wont get credit for completing the challenge unless you follow the directions and post things in the correct place.
3) You will be deleted if you miss two consecutive weigh ins. Going out of town? No problem, just let your coach know so they can report it as that. Internet go out in the storm and you missed checking in. It happens, just report it to your coach ASAP. This is VERY important. Why? Well it messes up your stats of course. When you miss a weigh in, your weight is automatically recorded as a 1% increase from the previous week. So if you weighed 150 to start and miss the next weigh in, your weight will show as 151.5. Now if you actually lost .5 pounds that week and your weight should actually be 149.5 it really messes things up for the following week. So week 2 you lost another .5 pounds bringing you to 149 and a weekly change of 0.33%. But if we go by that +1% increase then it makes your week two loss look much bigger (2.5 pounds instead of .5) and then your weekly loss percentage is 1.65%. Make sense? So PLEASE report your weights even if you miss the official weigh in time.
4) You get points for weighing in and completing challenges. 1 point for weighing in on time, with 2 bonus points if your entire team does. Challenges are on a scale as some may not be able to complete exactly as described. The possible challenge reporting codes are C (complete, 2 points), A (attempted, 1 point), E (Exempt, 0 points) and NA (Not attempted, -1). Complete means you did the challenge exactly as described and were able to actually complete all parts of it. Attempt means you tried to do the challenge but weren’t able to finish it or had to do some modifications. Exempt is only for people with severe injuries or out of town. Last year we had a girl with a broken foot who was still able to at least attempt every single challenge, so there should be a way for most people to do each one. The one I really hate to see but always do its Not Attempted. This is that you literally didn’t even try to do the challenge at all, and didn’t let your coach know of a legitimate reason you cant do it. Guess what? People that have this tend to be the ones who drop out/ don’t see an improvement
5) Each week I will report an overall biggest loser, a team with the highest avg percentage lost, and the biggest losers for each team. You get points if you are any of those. 5 points for overall BL, 3 for team percentage and team BL. Points are mainly for fun, but also at the end we try to give out prizes and the more points you have, the more entries you get into the raffles
Ok now that that’s out of the way, time for some fun. Use this thread to get to know each other, share issues that you are having as you get started and encourage the other members of this challenge. We are here to support each other and help each other out so that by the end of this challenge (in 3-4 months, whenever the show ends) we will have all lost some weight and gained some new friends!
Don’t try to dive head first into this or you’ll likely get discouraged and burned out quickly. That means don’t suddenly drop to 1200 cals and start working out for an hour every day if you’ve been eating 2000 and working out has meant going from your car to the office. Start slowly and make changes you can stick with. Dropping one bad food at a time. Trying to incorporate small bits of exercise into your normal day. And if you don’t do it on your own, don’t worry, they’ll likely show up in challenges too
Some things you should do though are start upping your water intake. 64 oz a day minimum, but aim for more if you can. Carry a water bottle around with you all the time. I have three sitting on my desk and often forget to drink them, so sometimes I set an online timer to go off every 10 minutes and drink an ounce of water each time.
If you don’t have weights or a pedometer they are recommended for this challenge. Not necessary, but recommended. We will have weekly challenges that require walking/jogging for a distance which is where the pedometer comes in handy if you don’t have a treadmill or a route mapped out (walkjogrun.net can help you out with that though). But a pedometer is nice to track your steps throughout the day in general as well, and you can use it to try to hit a goal each day or week. You don’t need a fancy one, the dollar store sells some and they work just fine. Weights are also needed for some challenges. If you don’t have any, im obviously not going to make you buy any, but I will warn you now that you will have to have something with weight at times. Paint cans, sacks of flour, your toddler, whatever. Get creative if you have to, but just be aware that you will be asked to incorporate weight into some challenges. Hand weights aren’t that expensive though. In fact, Wal-Mart has a pretty awesome 40 lb set for less than $20. Its what I use and has the bars, 4 2.5 lb weights and 4 7.5 lb weights so you can mix and match to get whatever you need. They carry it in the store, but here is the link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Gold-s-Gym-40-lb-Vinyl-Dumbbell-Set/21672513 I highly recommend it if you are looking to add a little weight training for a cheap price
Now onto the show and the weekly challenge! This season’s theme is “Second Chances”. Everyone that they chose to participate this season has had a really bright future that somehow was lost and they are looking to get back. I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot of emotional talks this season and a lot of exploring past demons and why they are struggling and how to overcome it. Contestants eager for a second chance to reclaim their health and re-write their futures include “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard, this season’s heaviest contestant at 462 pounds, David Brown, who lost his first wife to an almost decade-long battle with cancer and is now fighting for his life so he can be there for his daughters, and Tanya Winfield, a single mom addicted to food who grew up with a teenage mom addicted to drugs, who is eager to break the cycle of addiction in her family. Also competing this season will be Olympic weight lifter Holley Mangold, hoping to get in the best shape possible for a second chance at gold in the 2016 Olympics, and Matt Hooper, who postponed his wedding to be on the show so he could give his fiancé the best physical version of himself.
There wasn’t really a physical challenge last night and since this is our first week and I don’t want to overwhelm everyone, we’re going to do something easy. While they were on the treadmill last night, Jillian tells her team that they have to find their why? Why they are here and are losing weight. That’s what I would like everyone to do for the challenge this week. The good news is that some of you have already done this in your team threads as part of your introductions, so it should be easy! It’s an important step though. If you don’t have a reason that is important to you, its not likely you will succeed. So really sit and think about it for a moment and then share it with everyone. You need to post your “why” in this thread (not your team one) by 8pm EST on Tuesday Oct 22. This is an easy challenge but I know people will forget about it so do it sooner rather than later you procrastinators! There is no “attempt” or “exempt” this week for challenges, you either do it or you don’t.
For those of you who like a physical challenge, there is an optional one this week. This whole challenge is based on a show, albeit a workout show. How many of you actually workout while you watch Biggest Loser? Or workout at all while you watch tv? The average American watches something crazy like 5 hours of TV a day, 90 minutes or so of which are commercials. This optional challenge this week is to workout during the commercials. You can do whatever you want, but I found this fun challenge based on the type of commercial you are watching. Give it a try while you are watching tv this week.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/assets/uploads/commercial_infographic.jpg
So that’s it. I promise that future posts will not be as long as this, but since it’s the first week I had to give some extra details. What did you guys think of the show last night? Did you have a favorite already? Find someone annoying? Have a story that touched you? Lets hear it and of course your why.
Lets do this!
*********Recap********
1) Determine your team’s weigh in day and how you are supposed to report (ie PM, in the team thread, directly to the spreadsheet)
2) Report your weight and challenge completion by your teams established date (may be earlier than official weigh in time). Make sure you are aware of what that time is for you locally as it may be different.
3) Post your “why” in the “Week 1 official thread”. This is a statement about why you are here and why you want to lose weight. Challenge this week is only reported as C (completed) or NA (not attempted.
4) Optional physical challenge : http://www.sparkpeople.com/assets/uploads/commercial_infographic.jpg
Each week I will post a thread like this that will be the place to get all your information for the week about the challenges. Your coach will also copy and post the challenge in your personal team thread as well.
A few important things before I go any farther
1) DO NOT message me with your weights and challenge completions. These are now to be reported to your coach directly. Each team is going to have different ways of doing this and different times it has to be done, so refer to your team thread to see how your coach would like you to do it. Remember everything is done in EST your coach asks you to message them by 8 pm Monday night, don’t go by your local time. If you need to look up what that time would be for you, try using http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/
2) PLEASE READ the challenges all the way through and make sure you understand them. You can comment on the weekly thread if you need something clarified that doesn’t make sense. Otherwise ask your coach if you have an issue with it or need to make substitutions. Most things you guys should be able to work out on your own, but I can help if your coach doesn’t know. I ask that you read the challenges carefully because there may be multiple steps or even certain threads to post in. We may ask you to let us all know a weakness you have, share a new workout technique, or your favorite healthy recipe and you wont get credit for completing the challenge unless you follow the directions and post things in the correct place.
3) You will be deleted if you miss two consecutive weigh ins. Going out of town? No problem, just let your coach know so they can report it as that. Internet go out in the storm and you missed checking in. It happens, just report it to your coach ASAP. This is VERY important. Why? Well it messes up your stats of course. When you miss a weigh in, your weight is automatically recorded as a 1% increase from the previous week. So if you weighed 150 to start and miss the next weigh in, your weight will show as 151.5. Now if you actually lost .5 pounds that week and your weight should actually be 149.5 it really messes things up for the following week. So week 2 you lost another .5 pounds bringing you to 149 and a weekly change of 0.33%. But if we go by that +1% increase then it makes your week two loss look much bigger (2.5 pounds instead of .5) and then your weekly loss percentage is 1.65%. Make sense? So PLEASE report your weights even if you miss the official weigh in time.
4) You get points for weighing in and completing challenges. 1 point for weighing in on time, with 2 bonus points if your entire team does. Challenges are on a scale as some may not be able to complete exactly as described. The possible challenge reporting codes are C (complete, 2 points), A (attempted, 1 point), E (Exempt, 0 points) and NA (Not attempted, -1). Complete means you did the challenge exactly as described and were able to actually complete all parts of it. Attempt means you tried to do the challenge but weren’t able to finish it or had to do some modifications. Exempt is only for people with severe injuries or out of town. Last year we had a girl with a broken foot who was still able to at least attempt every single challenge, so there should be a way for most people to do each one. The one I really hate to see but always do its Not Attempted. This is that you literally didn’t even try to do the challenge at all, and didn’t let your coach know of a legitimate reason you cant do it. Guess what? People that have this tend to be the ones who drop out/ don’t see an improvement
5) Each week I will report an overall biggest loser, a team with the highest avg percentage lost, and the biggest losers for each team. You get points if you are any of those. 5 points for overall BL, 3 for team percentage and team BL. Points are mainly for fun, but also at the end we try to give out prizes and the more points you have, the more entries you get into the raffles
Ok now that that’s out of the way, time for some fun. Use this thread to get to know each other, share issues that you are having as you get started and encourage the other members of this challenge. We are here to support each other and help each other out so that by the end of this challenge (in 3-4 months, whenever the show ends) we will have all lost some weight and gained some new friends!
Don’t try to dive head first into this or you’ll likely get discouraged and burned out quickly. That means don’t suddenly drop to 1200 cals and start working out for an hour every day if you’ve been eating 2000 and working out has meant going from your car to the office. Start slowly and make changes you can stick with. Dropping one bad food at a time. Trying to incorporate small bits of exercise into your normal day. And if you don’t do it on your own, don’t worry, they’ll likely show up in challenges too
Some things you should do though are start upping your water intake. 64 oz a day minimum, but aim for more if you can. Carry a water bottle around with you all the time. I have three sitting on my desk and often forget to drink them, so sometimes I set an online timer to go off every 10 minutes and drink an ounce of water each time.
If you don’t have weights or a pedometer they are recommended for this challenge. Not necessary, but recommended. We will have weekly challenges that require walking/jogging for a distance which is where the pedometer comes in handy if you don’t have a treadmill or a route mapped out (walkjogrun.net can help you out with that though). But a pedometer is nice to track your steps throughout the day in general as well, and you can use it to try to hit a goal each day or week. You don’t need a fancy one, the dollar store sells some and they work just fine. Weights are also needed for some challenges. If you don’t have any, im obviously not going to make you buy any, but I will warn you now that you will have to have something with weight at times. Paint cans, sacks of flour, your toddler, whatever. Get creative if you have to, but just be aware that you will be asked to incorporate weight into some challenges. Hand weights aren’t that expensive though. In fact, Wal-Mart has a pretty awesome 40 lb set for less than $20. Its what I use and has the bars, 4 2.5 lb weights and 4 7.5 lb weights so you can mix and match to get whatever you need. They carry it in the store, but here is the link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Gold-s-Gym-40-lb-Vinyl-Dumbbell-Set/21672513 I highly recommend it if you are looking to add a little weight training for a cheap price
Now onto the show and the weekly challenge! This season’s theme is “Second Chances”. Everyone that they chose to participate this season has had a really bright future that somehow was lost and they are looking to get back. I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot of emotional talks this season and a lot of exploring past demons and why they are struggling and how to overcome it. Contestants eager for a second chance to reclaim their health and re-write their futures include “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard, this season’s heaviest contestant at 462 pounds, David Brown, who lost his first wife to an almost decade-long battle with cancer and is now fighting for his life so he can be there for his daughters, and Tanya Winfield, a single mom addicted to food who grew up with a teenage mom addicted to drugs, who is eager to break the cycle of addiction in her family. Also competing this season will be Olympic weight lifter Holley Mangold, hoping to get in the best shape possible for a second chance at gold in the 2016 Olympics, and Matt Hooper, who postponed his wedding to be on the show so he could give his fiancé the best physical version of himself.
There wasn’t really a physical challenge last night and since this is our first week and I don’t want to overwhelm everyone, we’re going to do something easy. While they were on the treadmill last night, Jillian tells her team that they have to find their why? Why they are here and are losing weight. That’s what I would like everyone to do for the challenge this week. The good news is that some of you have already done this in your team threads as part of your introductions, so it should be easy! It’s an important step though. If you don’t have a reason that is important to you, its not likely you will succeed. So really sit and think about it for a moment and then share it with everyone. You need to post your “why” in this thread (not your team one) by 8pm EST on Tuesday Oct 22. This is an easy challenge but I know people will forget about it so do it sooner rather than later you procrastinators! There is no “attempt” or “exempt” this week for challenges, you either do it or you don’t.
For those of you who like a physical challenge, there is an optional one this week. This whole challenge is based on a show, albeit a workout show. How many of you actually workout while you watch Biggest Loser? Or workout at all while you watch tv? The average American watches something crazy like 5 hours of TV a day, 90 minutes or so of which are commercials. This optional challenge this week is to workout during the commercials. You can do whatever you want, but I found this fun challenge based on the type of commercial you are watching. Give it a try while you are watching tv this week.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/assets/uploads/commercial_infographic.jpg
So that’s it. I promise that future posts will not be as long as this, but since it’s the first week I had to give some extra details. What did you guys think of the show last night? Did you have a favorite already? Find someone annoying? Have a story that touched you? Lets hear it and of course your why.
Lets do this!
*********Recap********
1) Determine your team’s weigh in day and how you are supposed to report (ie PM, in the team thread, directly to the spreadsheet)
2) Report your weight and challenge completion by your teams established date (may be earlier than official weigh in time). Make sure you are aware of what that time is for you locally as it may be different.
3) Post your “why” in the “Week 1 official thread”. This is a statement about why you are here and why you want to lose weight. Challenge this week is only reported as C (completed) or NA (not attempted.
4) Optional physical challenge : http://www.sparkpeople.com/assets/uploads/commercial_infographic.jpg
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Replies
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Great challenge this week!0
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I am here to make a lifestyle change. I am tired of the same old excuses, yes I have a busy schedule, yes I have 3 children, yes, I work odd hours that make it difficult to get to the gym. I am here for accountability that I am choosing what goes into my body. I was an athlete for most of my life and am looking to get that feeling back. I often find myself doing everything for everyone but myself. I want to take sometime for "me". Not only will it help me feel better but it will help me be a better co-worker, boss, and parent.
I hope to gain back my confidence and be the me I know I can be.0 -
a here to make changes that will last, I have been a yoyo dieter my whole life. I have 2 children and do not want them to have to struggle. My health isn't the best, high blood pressure and depression. I keep saying to myself I need to change but never do, I am hoping this time I will.
I am that person who exercises while watching tv, not just the commercials, but while I am watching, joggig on the spot and jumping jacks don't interrupt any of the show0 -
My "why" is just to become a healthier version of me. My grandma has every disesase under the sun and I just don't want to follow in her footsteps bc most of them are bc of her weight. Hen I was five she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and that is when she gained her first 50 lbs bc we could no longer go on walks bc it was just to painful for her. After that diagnosis everything just spiraled out of control and she became weaker and weaker everyday and became even more sick than she already was. I want to be able to live a long healthy life and it starts today.0
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My "why" is to become healthy for my family and myself. There are many health issues that have come over my family throughtout the years and I am determined not to fall in the same patterns they have fallen into. My family means the world to me and I want to be here to continue the joy and happines they have given me for a very long time!0
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~Why~
Why am I here? I’m here because I want to challenge myself so that I can get to my healthy weight range of 155- 158. I’m currently overweight at 186lbs.
Why do I want to loose this weight? I want to loose this weight so I can live a long and healthy life. Diabetes is rampant in my family. My mom passed away at an early age due this disease. I hope to surpass her life span by practicing healthy life style and break the cycle.
Good Luck to you all:flowerforyou:0 -
All of my life I have not only struggled with my weight, but also my self-image, self-confidence, self-respect. All of my life I have spiraled through that horrible cycle of wanting to be healthy, trying and failing, feeling defeated, then eating to fill the emptiness inside of me. I have cycled through this hundreds of times. About a month ago, I realized that the reason I continued to fail was because I was relying on my own strength to reach my goal, and I'm not a very strong person. It occurred to me that my journey was actually a spiritual one. I had been using food for comfort from stress and anxiety, healing when I was hurt, celebration when I was happy, etc. My emotions controlled my food intake. A month ago, I began my journey to make God the one I go to for my comfort in stress and anxiety, for healing when I am hurt, and for celebration when I am happy. I decided to make God the center of my life instead of food. And I have finally been successful!! I am on the journey of becoming healthy, and I am able to praise God for every victory He gives me! I now have a positive self-image, and I have so much more confidence in myself, and in God. I joined the Biggest Loser 15 so that I can continue my journey to becoming the best physically healthy me that I can be--with friends to encourage me, challenge me, and keep me accountable.0
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My why is to become stronger and healthier in order to live this awesome life of mine as long as possible. My mother died when she was 56 (through absolutely no fault of her own) but if I were even a little responsible for putting myself in the grave early I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. The health impacts of excess weight are extraordinary. I've moved from "obese" to "overweight" and my journey will continue.0
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My why...
I actually was thinking about this during the show. I tend to skate over (hahaha derbydestiny/"skate" over...pun intended?) more important issues by covering them up with humor or less important things. I thought my major why was derby. And I love derby. I do. I REEEEALLY do. But I was watching the show and thinking and sobbing quietly (of course) and I got to thinking about myself and what's actually important.
My paternal grandmother (who I was the closest to - seriously, closer than my own mother) died of complications from a stroke when I was 12. My dad has diabetes and nerve damage, and my mother has Graves disease. I live at home with my paternal grandfather and my aunt. My grandfather has dementia and Parkinson's syndrome (and he's previously had a stroke and heart attack), so I spend most of my time taking care of him. Diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and obesity runs in my family on both sides. And I look around at my family, my very, very ill family, and I...make all the same (wrong) choices.
What's the definition of insanity, everyone?! All together now...
So to make a long story short (too late), I guess my why is to not be my family. I mean, to be honest, I don't expect to have kids or anything. It would be nice and I'd love to, but I don't see it happening. If I did though, I want to be at my healthiest in every way, because I don't want to leave them any earlier than I have to. Besides, I still have to be here for my younger cousins who need something to look forward to besides a life of finger pricking.
As for myself...well, I've spent my whole life living it for others and while I don't think losing weight will make my life everything it should be - it won't make me richer or my grandfather healthier or help me meet Anne Hathaway - I think I at least owe myself a healthier life to live out all these crazy dreams I have!
Good luck everybody! 0 -
OH! and I wanted to add some stuff about the show...
I love that for every time I was crying, I was laughing. I've never watched Biggest Loser before (le GASP!)...I know, I know. There's a lot of shows I've wanted to see and just never got around to watching because I don't watch TV all that often. But this is good TV! :bigsmile:
Two words: TACO MEAT. I think Jillian and I had about the same reaction. :laugh:0 -
My why, is to look and feel better about myself. I have a husband whos health is not the greatest either and I am hoping that for once I can finish something I start, get healthy and get him healthy.
I have such problems as I to suffer from moderate anxiety and depression.
Due to the fact that my mother is in a long term care home and wheelchair, I am the only child that is there. I am always putting myself last and as we all know that also cause stress.
I am so stressed that in the middle of the night I get up and eat, so the pounds are just adding up.
I used to be so fit, I love to exercise believe it or not, and I prefer eating healthy.
So basically my why is: TO DO THIS FOR ME .0 -
I don't really watch T.V. at night, with making dinner, homework, and sports for the kids it is not possible. I do like to catch up on my shows during the daytime by watching them online. Last year during the biggest loser I would always watch it while I was working out at home either on the treadmill or doing free weights in my garage.
MY WHY-- My health, both of my parents have health issues and diabetes runs on both sides of my family . I had some health issues last year that are still unresolved, I know that by eating clean it will help me feel better. When I was younger I could eat what ever I wanted and I would work out and maintain my weight. Now I have to eat right and exercise or I slowly start gaining pounds.(annoying because I like to eat good food and have seconds) I am not over weight but I do have smaller bones so when I gain weight it doesn't look right or flow.(IF that makes sense). My husband is very athletic and 5 percent body fat, so that doesn't help. My clothes are also fitting very tight and I can't wear some of them. ( I don't want to go buy a bigger size). So by the end of this contest I hope to be right back on track with my weight. I want to eat and prepare healthy meals for my family, Good Luck and everyday is a new day.0 -
My why, has changed, it started because I was sick of not being able to do things outside of work. It was driven because my health frankly sucks and no one but me put me here but now its because I have lost 83 lbs and I am on fire, because I know that I have 100 lbs to go and I know am I going to work twice as hard from here on out to loose the rest of the weight. I really really want to have kids too and am approaching my 6th wedding anniversary the reality is we are not going to be able to have kids if I can't get to the end of this journey and start the next one. So why, is why not? why not now!! why not because for the first time ever I feel like I am worth it and I see a vision of whats coming next
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Both of my parents have chronic health problems (including Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Heart Disease, Type II Diabetes, etc.) and over the last couple of years I have seen both of them get worse and worse. As an only child, I am the main one taking care of them, which isn't easy because they both refuse to alter their nutrition or unhealthy habits in any way! :explode: This has made me realize that I can' t change anyone else's attitude about being healthy, but I can change my own!! I realized I was following in their footsteps and I made the decision to change my diet and start exercising so that I have a life filled with fun activities like mountain climbing, hiking, traveling, etc. instead of hospitals, doctors, and medications.0
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I mean, my why is superficial. But I'm totally okay with that. I realize there are a lot of reasons I should lose the weight, but none of that drives me to become better. What fuels me is seeing the life other people have. Looking at my friends and realize, I'm the fat one. Knowing that i feel inadequate because of my weight- and feeling as if I'm looked at differently because of it. I see myself differently and because of that I feel that other people look at me differently. Because of the way i feel, i'm not living, and I'm tired of denying myself life simply because I'm too lazy to chance. Nows the time.0
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I love watching tv but I don't have much time so the times that I do watching I do: squats, run in place, jumping jacks, and walk in place during the commercials...
WHY? Epilepsy, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, arthritis, Mitral Valve Prolapse, High Precancerous cells in the uterus, and knees and ankle injuries :huh: ...
The above statement is the reasons WHY :frown: my WHYs... Well I've been thin ( super thin/sick ) most of my life due to the above mentioned illnesses... Two years ago I was diagnosed with high precancerous cells in the uterus and having a history of both my grand and great-grandmothers dying of uterine, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer I couldn't and most importantly wouldn't take a chance and had a hysterectomy... Having surgery was pretty hard because with all the health problems I have it was a lot riskier... The surgery was suppose to be done in 45 minutes but it took about 2 hours because once they went in I had lots of small tumors and they had to make sure there wasn't more tumors any where else...Once I came home and two years later, I've been a couch potato and gained back the 18lbs I lost plus 20lbs more putting me at 131.5lbs... I'm only 4'11" and that's a whole lot of weight to carry around and my feet, ankles, knees and hips were hurting just like they did when I was pregnant 21-years ago where I was weighing 134lbs...
I needed to do something, not only exercise but I think the most important part which is the food I ate... I am the daughter of a Sicilian man and a Cuban woman and they both can cook some awesome and delicious food pack with lots of fat, carbs, calories, etc, etc, etc... I found MFP just surfing the web for a calorie count website and I have not looked back... It's been 41 days for me and it helps a great deal when it comes to entering what I have eaten and what exercise I've done... I love challenges and love, love, love did I mention love The Biggest Loser!!! Thanks a bunch for this opportunity and I won't let myself nor you guys down...
I have lost 7lbs and I ride my bike about 8 to 10 miles a day, weight training twice a week, run/walk three times a week, and dance Cuban salsa twice a week (2 hours each day)... My diet has been pretty good and once a week I have some awesome pasta at my parents, just keeping it real with you all...
Best of luck to all of you...
Taking a step at a time to reach my goal always :flowerforyou: ...0 -
My why....
Is to feel better about myself and find myself beautiful. I am lucky to be healthy even though I carry extra weight. I am lucky to have a wonderful fiance, a job that I love, a house to sleep in....
But I don't always feel good about myself, and I'd like it to change.0 -
Why? Ever since I injured my knees 20 years ago, I have gradually gained weight to my heaviestat 220. Last year I lost 19 lbs, but gained several back again. During this group last year, I stayed motivated and lost. I want to keep work stress from taking over and committing to getting the exercise I need. Knee pain no excuse! I learned I could do a lot more than I believed I could in the last year. My main goal is to get below 200 during this challenge.:bigsmile:0
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My 'why" is because I refuse to give up. This is my second chance on the Biggest Loser. Last year I was on a team, but had such a damaged knee I had to bow out of the challenge because it just was not fair to the other players, what I did not realize at that time was that I was not being fair to myself. Yes I had a severely broken knee, but the rest of me wasn't. I lost 20 lbs in the first month of this challenge last season, only to gain some of it back when I left because I was depressed and hurting. They placed me on strong narcotics for the pain that left me feeling empty, so I ate to feel full or to feel anything. The scale kept going up , the knee kept hurting, and I kept going to every doctor under the sun to get answers. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, I finally said enough is enough. I can't do this anymore and I broke down and cried for what seemed like hours. In that dark moment, a voice somewhere said to me don't you dare to give up, so I decided not to. I started logging everything into MFP again, I started lifting weights with my arms, and did hand biking. Soon the scale started moving downward again, I got hopeful and determined. I kept asking people and doctors who would be the best to fix my knee and 14 months (and 3 doctors later) of my first botched knee surgery, I had a second. Skeptical that it would not work like the first, I cried thinking of all the pain and hard work I would have to go through again. Funny thing was the second surgery was a tremendous success, I was walking without crutches after 3 days and I haven't stopped since. I climb mountains, Zumba, circuit training, walking, anything that causes you to move..why because I learned along the way that no matter what you do a calorie burned is a calorie burned and they all add up.
I also have a 6 year old daughter who suffers from Type 1 diabetes, so the last thing she needs is an unhealthy mom. It is time to get my butt into shape and set the example. I want her to know that the sky is the limit and you can achieve anything you want in life as long as you stay focused and have passion I want her to know that it is ok to sometimes stumble and fall, but you have to wipe yourself on and continue on the journey. I have suffered all my life with my weight; I want to stop that cycle for her.
There are a million other reasons too, but most importantly, for once in my life I want to be healthy and fit. I want to be able to put on clothes and look in the mirror and like what I see. One thing I have learned though is to appreciate what my body does for me every day. I may not always like what I see in the mirror, but I am grateful that I have the strength to do what I do every day.
Good luck to everyone in the challenge, hopefully we will all reach our "whys"!!!0 -
Why: I want to be healthy, be a good example, live long, succeed and keep up with my little boys. I do not want to die young or have a million health problems that take away from my quality of life. I want to prove to myself that I am worth it. I want to teach my kids that eating, exercising and being healthy is a way of life. I want them to not have the battles I have.0
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