The OFFICIAL University/College Challenge

andforpoise

Hey all! If you'd like to be part of this, just write a little blurb about yourself and follow the rest of the instructions in this post. The team thing didn't really work out as ones that were really interested seem to not be so interested anymore? Or just got busy, which, with school starting that's completely understandable! We're going to go ahead and start things anyway, so for now there are no teams. If things get busier, we'll split into teams like the original plan.

So, for starters, post your current weight (if you want to) and and set an individual goal for yourself for the month. The ultimate challenge will be to reach that goal you've set for yourself (whether it's to lose 1 lb, 5 lbs, or 10 etc or even to just maintain without going over/under 2 lbs)

I also thought it would be fun to include a "bonus" challenge. And for the first one, I'm going to incorporate the idea of the recipe swap from the first thread. Since it's the beginning of a new school year, this usually means we're out there trying new things (at least I know I will be!) So, for this mini bonus challenge, I thought it would be fun for each one of us (if you feel so inclined) to search up a new, healthy and low cal but filling recipe and try it out! Make it something you haven't tried before - post the recipe on here and tell us what you like/didn't like about it.

Also, I don't always want to be the one coming up with challenges - I think it might be more creatively diverse if we can get the brain power of others in on this. So if you have any ideas for a challenge and mini challenge, message me and let me know that you want to post the new challenge for the week! And then have at her!

Sound good?

bhelmreich

Just the motivation I was looking for!
I am 20yrs old and a 3rd year at a Junior College (counselor messed up my classes/changed majors). I'm always gaining and losing. Usually its only a 15lb difference but recently I gained 30lbs! Now I am trying to lose the healthy way and hope that this will be a lifestyle change!

CW: 173.6lbs
Month Goal: To be in the 160s!

swinginchandra

I wasn't part of the original challenge, but I'd love to have some support during the school year!

So here goes:

Hi, my name is Amy, and I go to school at UCSD in San Diego, CA. I'm a junior studying computer engineering and computational physics. I started back in January of last year at 207 lbs, and I'm now down to about 150, and finally well into a healthy body fat percentage!! I lost most of the weight during my spring semester and over the summer - spring was super easy, so I haven't really dieted during a tough semester yet! I'm super nervous about it, but I know I can stay on track.
I'm looking to lose another 20 - 30 lbs long term, but for this next month, I'd be happy with another 2lbs, to put me at 148 by the beginning of october. I'd like to be 145 by the end of the fall quarter.
I'm a P90X graduate and a 30 day shred graduate. The workout program I'll be following in the fall will be some sort of P90X / running / swimming / biking hybrid, plus I'm planning on joining the snowski team, which will make my weekends full of snowboarding!! Yippee!!

Please feel free to friend me!!!

meganld

Hi, my name is Megan and I'm a junior studying marine biology at Western Washington University! I've never been part of a challenge before and I'm hoping that the regular check-ins will help keep me motivated to exercise and eat well even with all the pressures of school!

SW -180 lbs
CW - 152 lbs
GW - 130 lbs
First goal: 145 lbs by October 1st, exercise 4 days/week
Second goal: 135 lbs by Thanksgiving
Final Goal: 130 lbs by New Years

mcva929

Hey guys! I'm new to MFP and would love to join your challenge. I'm in my 3rd year at East Tennessee State University and I'm a nursing major. I come from an Italian family (and my grandmother lives with us), so food is a pretty big deal to me. I'm not overweight, but I'm over the weight I feel comfortable at. I was about 110-115 in high school, and now that I've been in college, I'm up to about 130. I'm 5'2", and would love to be back in the 110s. My boyfriend and his roommate have humored me by doing the regular P90 videos with me this semester (I'm a very out of shape asthmatic), and we're going to work on P90M next semester. I really want to be able to complete P90X by next summer! I'd love to participate in a recipe swap, and see what kind of tips I can get from anyone who eats on campus. I know the generic pick vegetables, no sodas, eat grilled, etc. but sometimes, there isn't anything good except for a bowl of cereal! For my weight goals, I'd like to stick to losing about 5 pounds every 30 days (as I follow the P90 program). I want to be down to around 115 by the end of my 90 days (November 26). Along with losing some weight, I'd love to build up some muscle and look a bit more toned. I'm glad to find some other college girls dealing with the same thing!

SW: 131 (Aug. 29)
Goal 1: 125 (Sept. 27)
Goal 2: 120 (Oct. 27)
Goal 3: 115 (Nov. 26)
CW: 127.8

andforpoise

Beautiful responses! Welcome aboard everyone! And feel free to add me as a friend, just let me know who you are!

As for myself. My name is Amber. I am a first year transfer student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. So this means that I am no stranger to the university lifestyle, just starting anew at a new campus! I have a three year BA in Psychology from Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, ON) and will be continuing on to attempt to obtain an Honours Bachelor of Science with a major in Neuroscience at Dal. Thankfully half of my required credits transferred over from Lakehead so I should be doing the HBsc in a little over 2 years!

I did very well my first year of Uni with weight control (didn't gain the freshman 15 - actually lost 30 lbs instead!) My mother and I joined weight watchers. However, I started dating and eating and not paying attention to anything except how much fun it was to have a boyfriend! Except almost everything we ended up doing involved food and drinking! Those 30 lbs crept back and I probably gained another 15 lbs when I moved out to Nova Scotia (cafeteria food at the college I was at the first year was really yummy - AND Halifax has the most bars and restaurants per capita in North America!). So at the end of April I was thinking of joining weight watchers online but a friend of mine told me to check out MFP. It was a godsend! I've lost 25 lbs since and am aiming for another 15-20 before I get home for Christmas. And then eventually get down between 130 or 140. I currently weigh in at 168.

SW (for the challenge) - 168
Personal goal weight/challenge for the month - 158 (I figure if I lost 10 in August, I can do another 10 in September!) Also, fitness wise, I'd like to be able to hit the mark of running 20 minutes straight (last week I made it 15 and the only reason I stopped was because of extreme leg pain...ugh)

So I hope we get more turning out for this challenge! We can do it! We can kick each other in the butt and reach our goals! Here's to a new semester!!!

-Amber

meliturtlee

Hi, I'm Melissa and I'm a junior @ San Diego State U. I am a math major with an emphasis in finance. Weight has always been an issue as long as I could remember. I think my senior year in hs was when I really started packing on the pounds it didn't help that my first 2 years of college I was in a serious depressive state. Now I'm trying to finally wake up and get the ball rolling. I feel like I missed out on golden opportunities on life and at the rate I'm going my whole 20s will slip away.

My cw is 179.8 and I'm hoping to lose possibly 20-25 by the end of the semester! Monthly goal 8-10lbs. Very optimistic but hard work always pays off or should I say good!!

I began a bootcamp in mid aug, it's amazing and really kicking my butt but with some family health conditions, and full time school load my journey is slowly coming to halt. But I refuse to quit.

swinginchandra

yay! Great to meet everyone.
So are we gonna have an official weigh in day, or anything?

LittleMissAlx

Ooh, only just found this.

I'm Alexa, 23, and a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh (in my 3rd year of 4). This is actually my 6th year of uni - did 3 years at the Royal Veterinary College in London. Hoping to graduate as a vet in 2013.

I never really had a problem with my weight (despite eating mindlessly and not exercising at all) until meeting my boyfriend last year, then it went a little bit wrong. Luckily, through working hard over the summer I've lost what I gained, and am now trying to maintain a goal weight of 124lb (range of 123-125).

So, my challenges?

I'm running my first 5K race on October 2nd, and my goal at the moment is to do it in 23:30 - currently can do in 25:30 if I feel like nearly killing myself in the process. Why? It's my boyfriend's best time and I'm insanely competitive. Close would do.
Maintaining my weight, obviously.
Sticking to my training plan of 6 days exercise per week even when I start back at uni on the 19th Sept.

Good to meet you all! x

pandabear_

This is a great idea for a challenge! It's so difficult to eat well and exercise at university, all I want to do is nap after uni!


Ok, anyway:


Hello, my name is Pandabear and I'm a second year history undergraduate at University College London. My current weight is about 140 lbs and my goal weight is 120-125 lbs.

In my first year I put on maybe 5 lbs and I felt so depressed and huge this summer! So I decided to lose that weight and I have lost 11lbs. Although, now I'm back at uni it's difficult to get exercise in and I am worried I'll put weight back on or give up the diet and never reach my goal weight!


My challenges for the month are: to complete most of C25K, keep running, to lose 5 lbs this month.

andforpoise

weigh in day is whatever day you usually weigh yourself. Check in day is Friday. Starting a week from tomorrow sound good?

yay! Great to meet everyone.
So are we gonna have an official weigh in day, or anything?

bhelmreich

when are we posting the weekly challenge? will that be the same day as the check in?

andforpoise

when are we posting the weekly challenge? will that be the same day as the check in?

weekly challenge ....yes Friday! Sorry, things have been insane! Anyone have any good ideas?

LittleMissAlx

Think for the first week, just getting there and sticking to a plan could be challenge enough! Apart from that... a certain number of reps of a strength move? Trying a new class or machine out? (I'm thinking about a bodypump sort of class, but new things make me nervous lol). Managing to do something non uni related?

ABetterBalance

I'm new to MFP and hoping that this is a challenge that continues on next month!

I'm 27 and have finally decided to go back to school. I currently work full time and attend community college part time( working on an AA in Business). I work in a hospital (currently as an Adminsitrative Assistant, hoping to make a switch to Human Resources soon!)

My current weight is 150 lbs (as of Monday) and my goal for the remainer of the month is to lose 2-3 lbs (realistically) or 5 lbs (reaching a bit on this one!) So, my weight loss goal for September 15th-30th will be to end the month in the 145-148 range.

LittleMissAlx

Oh, we're only just starting. Hopefully it'll continue throughout the year to keep us all on track

andforpoise

Check in tomorrow! I agree with the getting things on track being a challenge in itself! We can make that our challenge maybe? How about getting everyone to post one thing they may have found challenging about getting back on track and then stating what they did to overcome it? Because maybe others are having the same problem and are looking for a solution!

I also know how it feels about trying something new! I'm nervous about it too, but my university offers all sorts of fitness classes for free and I want to try them out! I was thinking of trying this one called body trim (I think its with a resistance band) this weekend, but I have society training day on Saturday and an ultimate frisbee tourney (which will be a burn in itself! 3 games at approx 600 cals...gonna be dead tired!) So next weekend it is! Also want to do aquafit...

LittleMissAlx

I've booked myself into the bodypump class for next Thurs (the only time it's on next week I can go) so am feeling quite pleased with myself. Because knowing it's prearranged will totally motivate me to go - because new things make me nervous and I need someone behind me kicking me through the door lol. Tempted to book several classes (yoga, maybe like a karate actiony class) and try them all next week - figure trying them nearer the start of term is better than joining in the middle when every one else will be further ahead and I'd look like a clueless idiot!

This week hasn't been going so well for me. Not feeling very motivated with calorie counting (I'm on maintenance and my weight is relatively stable, so not massively concerned) or with exercise - long run last weekend resulted in painful shin splints, boyfriend has been skiving off work which has made me feel more like snuggling on sofa than sticking to my plan... just generally not feeling with it.

Am hoping going back to my own flat in Edinburgh on Sunday will get me back on track - won't be any distractions or bad food in the flat.

andforpoise

I weighed in yesterday, so here's my check in!

Down 4 lbs from 169 at the start of the month, to 165... another 6 to go for my monthly goal, so we'll see! I'll be happy if it's another 4! My biggest challenge so far with back to school is exercise. Aside from my obligations to my ultimate frisbee team and walking back and forth to school several times a day (I live 5-10 minutes away depending on where each class is, so I come home between classes), I've been fairly inactive. Was supposed to go for a run today but I don't think I'll be able to squeeze it in! I slept in way later than I was supposed to because I've been so crazy tired from getting into the swing of all things university again!

What has everyone else had issues with starting back to school?

Next week, let's challenge ourselves to try something new, whether it be exercise or something completed unrelated (like joining a student society, or an activity native to your university/college town that you haven't participated in, etc) Because I absolutely love the idea that you gave us LittleMissAlx! It's always good to try something new

swinginchandra

check in today... I've been down to 149 a few days this week, at 150 this morning... hoping I can hit 149 tomorrow solidly so I can call it.

School starts thursday for me, so I don't have a solid idea of how my work-out regime is going to work. I did just commit to doing paleo for a month starting monday though, so that should help keep me on track.


I'm also going to do an adult gymnastics class through my college. I'm very very excited about that!!!!

LittleMissAlx

I've kinda updated already... but, weight stable at 124.5lb, pretty happy. My timetable this year looks like it'll allow me to work out before uni which is much better than expected, I'm totally a morning person, so I'm quite hopeful about being able to stick to my training plan. Now to get rid of my shin splints before my first race... sighs