VERTICAL CHALLENGERS! Home to all shorties out there. (OPEN)

TrufflePig

My name is Kim and I started my weight loss journey about a month and a half ago. I've lost about 11 lb. since then. My SW was 173 and my goal weight is 120 (I'm 5'2). I'm definitely in for the 3 lb. challenge! CW is 161.7.

MrsBlobs

Hey Liz, Glad to know your mom is doing better. I also put on weight myself due to being home with my kids for a couple years. I'm just ready to have my pre baby but BETTER body back! and i know we can ALL definately relate to the struggles of a shortie. and I love ur honetsly with the vanity being a reason for u wanting to lose weight. I'll admit, I think about looking good ina bikini every time I need to distract myself from temptation. But, I also just want to be healthy. Be able to run 20 minutes without feeling like I'm going to die. lol. Hopefully , all us challengers can encourage and motivate eachother to reach our goals! We can all do this!!

VERTICAL CHALLENGERS! LET'S GO!

If you haven't already, please give us a lil intro about urself, whatever u choose to share, and perhaps how u came to find urself on this journey.

Thanks MissD :flowerforyou: ..and I totally agree, pre-baby but better would be awesome!! And...hmmm I guess yes, being able to move without feeling like having a heart attack would be a bonus.
Actually there are an awful lot of bonuses to losing the weight and getting down into a comfortable size...but for me personally, it was a photo that did it (it's hidden on my profile) firstly the many rolls, secondly the sheer size of the mass and then thirdly...I LOOKED LIKE MY DAD! Not 'I've got features of my father' I mean I looked exactly like him!. All the fat was smooshing my face and I didn't even look feminine.
It's vanity all the way :embarassed: lol

Ittee

[/quote]

Hello! Here is the "img" code for the first badge..


except when YOU add it to your signature, LOWERCASE the "img" and the beginning and end.

and here is the second one..


again, make the "img" LOWERCASE.

Feel free to add whichever one u guys choose! Happy losing!
[/quote]

thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it!

Ittee

trufflepig: I started about the same time, almost 2 months now. Love this site.

About me: I'm recently remarried to an incredibly fit, tall (6'2") marine. I want to be able to keep up with him physically (or at least come close). I have three children, from 16 to 3 years old. I am used to yo-yo-ing between 115 and 125 lbs, but I went up to 130 due to stress this last year. My goal is to get down to 115 and possibly a little lower, and stay there. I'm 4'11", and I've learned if I want to look/get healthy it has to come from exercise. I shouldn't go lower than 1200 calories because I need the nutrition, but I really can't go higher despite exercise. So from the aide of this site and inspirational people like you guys, I've dropped 13 lbs and am very close to my goal weight now.

Shellitz

OOoh I love our new home

Ok - mini bio:

I'm 29 and living in Melbourne, Australia. I am 5 ft even and don't have a lot of room to store excess weight (like every single one of us!). I'm currently at 61.5 kilos and it's the pits. I would love to start a family soon and I don't want to add baby weight ON TOP of my largest weight of all time. So my plan is to get in shape before even trying.

I had started the C25K program, and was loving it - until I hurt my hip just over a week ago. But I will not be discouraged, I did some aqua aerobics last night and coped ok so hopefully will be back to the gym next week.

Here's to all of us giving it a red hot go!!! xo

laroja1110

Hello Everyone! I'm a 5'0" vertical challenger Now can someone help me figure out how to get the little picture in my signature??? LOL

Iheartsushi

Woot woot! Team VERTICAL CHALLENGERS! :drinker: (tea lol)

4'11 here and I am 139 lbs. Since the challenge I've already lost 2 pounds...yeaaahh! Goal weight is 110. My body hasn't seen below 120 since I was a kid lol. But this time I want to push myself further than ever. I'm doing the Turbo Fire program. Anybody else doing TF?

Iheartsushi

Hello Everyone! I'm a 5'0" vertical challenger Now can someone help me figure out how to get the little picture in my signature??? LOL

Scroll up mama. A few posts above yours lists the directions!

TooFatToFit

I stole this off my own intro post...I guess it was too long because no one replied, but maybe if you have a minute you will. lol I always seem to type too much:

Hello everyone....I've read a bit and it seems like a really friendly place, so I'm just going to push my shy habits to the side and jump in.

I'm a 35 year old mother of 2, and very unhappy with the way I've been living my life. I'm going to change it. I was raised in a very sedentary family and no one ever worried about eating healthy (except when my mother was yo-yo dieting, which I refuse to do). For my children, I want to break that cycle and show them a better way. I find it a pretty tough struggle because not only was I raised sedentary, but my own nature is just very sedentary...my favourite hobbies are reading, cross-stitching, the internet...so I'm constantly at battle with myself to get up and get moving. I've also never been that great around the kitchen so convenience food and fast food has been way too big a part of our diet for too long. Even if cooking isn't second nature to me, I am pretty good at following a recipe so I have no excuse for wimping out all the time.

I started really getting serious about this in my earlier 30's but I was so stuck in a rut...stay-at-home-mom with young kids who felt like there wasn't really much I could do at toddler pace to change things. My marriage wasn't going very well and my husband wanted me to be a supermodel, but the quick way through a juice diet or something instead of the slow, healthy way I wanted to. I felt very held back because I was trying to work active, healthy living into our family and he wasn't on board. When he decided to leave us in December '09 I was devastated...but also set free! Now the kids and I do all those things I wanted to do as a family and we still fall into old habits, but I'm proud of our accomplishments...as a family we now geocache (AWESOME family activity) and have started cross country skiing. Fat or not, I get on my suit and go swimming with them. We've had a great summer but now that they're back to school I'm on a mission of self improvement.

Obviously, being a single stay-at-home mom doesn't support your family, and as I've learned in the last 21 months, neither does minimum wage. So I'm also starting school (October 10th) and that's part of my self makeover. The schedule is such that I can also get to the gym without needing a sitter and making weekly meal plans are keeping us out of McDonalds. I'm trying to plan for my success and I think MFP will help a lot, especially the iPhone app because then I have no excuse for not logging my calories. I've been logging for almost a week and I've already learned I was wrong about a LOT of things and I'm learning the right choices to make about food.

Sorry for that being so long, but I'm rather excited about what the future can hold for me. I think I'll need the support (and peer pressure) to keep my enthusiasm going. I have such a strong hibernation instinct during the winter. lol

L2M1D52

Hello lovely people!!!!
I've created a fantastic way to help us remain accountable and to also see how many wonderful shorties we have in our family. I would like everyone to fill out the roster as you feel comfortable. I have asked for people to include their profile name, real name, location, starting weight, current weight, goal weight, and lbs lost for the challenge (for those participating). As I said, feel free to provide whichever info you feel comfortable with, I just thought those tidbits would be good to know. :happy: On the top of the roster we have four names in red, which are the lovely co-leaders in no particular order.

As we stated earlier not everyone has to participate in the challenges. However, I would love for everyone to still provide at least their profile name. In addition, to separate those who are participating and those who are not, I would like for people participating to highlight their name in blue, while people not participating highlight their name in purple. It doesn’t matter which hue of blue or purple you pick. I just want to be able to distinguish the two so we don’t “harass” people to provide a check in (only joking on the harassment of course):bigsmile: . Don’t worry about keeping the two in any order such as all participating stay together in blue because I will get that all squared away. All you have to do is fill out the information.

Below I have provided the link to the spreadsheet, which I have enabled everyone to edit. If you have any questions let us know! Thanks and GO VERTICAL CHALLENGERS!!! :drinker:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlcJqG9B3Q27dFRGRTRYMHNoQ3U2R2FRbnpoeDItcHc&hl=en_US

lablovr108

Hello ladies,

I joined earlier today, but I was at work so I didn't have time for a proper introduction.

My name is Christi, and I'm from Mentor, OH (east of Cleveland, right on Lake Erie). I am 5'1" and have lost 30 pounds since the beginning of May. I would like to lose another 20-30 pounds. I was always thin in high school and college. My wedding dress was a size 6, and I was happy with that. Then life really began. I was working six days a week for a public accounting firm, traveling a lot, eating out all of the time, and not exercising. During that time I was also diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Between all of that, and my marriage falling apart, I gained a lot of weight. I wasn't happy about it (who is?) but I wasn't motivated enough to do anything about it.

My family booked a cruise the first week of May for next March. I said enough was enough and started MFP that week. I've logged in every day since. I've gotten active (currently on week 4 of c25k) and learned how to eat HEALTHY (veggies don't taste that bad after all!) I feel great, I am happier with how I look and I realize that I can do this!

I look forward to getting to know all of you fabulous petite ladies!

Christi

TooFatToFit

Lisa, that is SOOOO cool! I didn't know you could do that with Google Docs!

renee474

I love this group! Count me in for the challenges!
I am 4'11.75" but round up to 5'0".

Shellitz

I stole this off my own intro post...I guess it was too long because no one replied, but maybe if you have a minute you will. lol I always seem to type too much:

Hello everyone....I've read a bit and it seems like a really friendly place, so I'm just going to push my shy habits to the side and jump in.

I'm a 35 year old mother of 2, and very unhappy with the way I've been living my life. I'm going to change it. I was raised in a very sedentary family and no one ever worried about eating healthy (except when my mother was yo-yo dieting, which I refuse to do). For my children, I want to break that cycle and show them a better way. I find it a pretty tough struggle because not only was I raised sedentary, but my own nature is just very sedentary...my favourite hobbies are reading, cross-stitching, the internet...so I'm constantly at battle with myself to get up and get moving. I've also never been that great around the kitchen so convenience food and fast food has been way too big a part of our diet for too long. Even if cooking isn't second nature to me, I am pretty good at following a recipe so I have no excuse for wimping out all the time.

I started really getting serious about this in my earlier 30's but I was so stuck in a rut...stay-at-home-mom with young kids who felt like there wasn't really much I could do at toddler pace to change things. My marriage wasn't going very well and my husband wanted me to be a supermodel, but the quick way through a juice diet or something instead of the slow, healthy way I wanted to. I felt very held back because I was trying to work active, healthy living into our family and he wasn't on board. When he decided to leave us in December '09 I was devastated...but also set free! Now the kids and I do all those things I wanted to do as a family and we still fall into old habits, but I'm proud of our accomplishments...as a family we now geocache (AWESOME family activity) and have started cross country skiing. Fat or not, I get on my suit and go swimming with them. We've had a great summer but now that they're back to school I'm on a mission of self improvement.

Obviously, being a single stay-at-home mom doesn't support your family, and as I've learned in the last 21 months, neither does minimum wage. So I'm also starting school (October 10th) and that's part of my self makeover. The schedule is such that I can also get to the gym without needing a sitter and making weekly meal plans are keeping us out of McDonalds. I'm trying to plan for my success and I think MFP will help a lot, especially the iPhone app because then I have no excuse for not logging my calories. I've been logging for almost a week and I've already learned I was wrong about a LOT of things and I'm learning the right choices to make about food.

Sorry for that being so long, but I'm rather excited about what the future can hold for me. I think I'll need the support (and peer pressure) to keep my enthusiasm going. I have such a strong hibernation instinct during the winter. lol

Your kids will love watching their mum transform into the happy butterfly she deserves to be

I used to fall to convenience food because I convinced myself that I din't have time to cook a fresh meal every night. It was easier to pull something out of the freezer and slap it in the oven. I am slowly getting better at planning meals. Small things to prepare ahead go a LONG way. I like to take a couple of hours on a sunday to do what prep I can to make it easier on myself during the week. Cut up your veggies and store them pre-cut in the fridge (potato, pumpkin & carrot keep well in some water). Prepare some meat a couple of days ahead. Marinate it, make your own hamburgers, thread some chicken fillet strips on skewers and pop them in the fridge or freezer... whatever you can to take away that temptaion to order out

How old are your kiddies? They might like to help in the kitchen too - simple things like helping make a salad or rolling some hamburgers. If it's treated more like spending time together rather than a chore it makes it a lot more fun for everybody, and they get to eat their own creations!

Good luck - you can do it!

MissD89

I stole this off my own intro post...I guess it was too long because no one replied, but maybe if you have a minute you will. lol I always seem to type too much:

Hello everyone....I've read a bit and it seems like a really friendly place, so I'm just going to push my shy habits to the side and jump in.

I'm a 35 year old mother of 2, and very unhappy with the way I've been living my life. I'm going to change it. I was raised in a very sedentary family and no one ever worried about eating healthy (except when my mother was yo-yo dieting, which I refuse to do). For my children, I want to break that cycle and show them a better way. I find it a pretty tough struggle because not only was I raised sedentary, but my own nature is just very sedentary...my favourite hobbies are reading, cross-stitching, the internet...so I'm constantly at battle with myself to get up and get moving. I've also never been that great around the kitchen so convenience food and fast food has been way too big a part of our diet for too long. Even if cooking isn't second nature to me, I am pretty good at following a recipe so I have no excuse for wimping out all the time.

I started really getting serious about this in my earlier 30's but I was so stuck in a rut...stay-at-home-mom with young kids who felt like there wasn't really much I could do at toddler pace to change things. My marriage wasn't going very well and my husband wanted me to be a supermodel, but the quick way through a juice diet or something instead of the slow, healthy way I wanted to. I felt very held back because I was trying to work active, healthy living into our family and he wasn't on board. When he decided to leave us in December '09 I was devastated...but also set free! Now the kids and I do all those things I wanted to do as a family and we still fall into old habits, but I'm proud of our accomplishments...as a family we now geocache (AWESOME family activity) and have started cross country skiing. Fat or not, I get on my suit and go swimming with them. We've had a great summer but now that they're back to school I'm on a mission of self improvement.

Obviously, being a single stay-at-home mom doesn't support your family, and as I've learned in the last 21 months, neither does minimum wage. So I'm also starting school (October 10th) and that's part of my self makeover. The schedule is such that I can also get to the gym without needing a sitter and making weekly meal plans are keeping us out of McDonalds. I'm trying to plan for my success and I think MFP will help a lot, especially the iPhone app because then I have no excuse for not logging my calories. I've been logging for almost a week and I've already learned I was wrong about a LOT of things and I'm learning the right choices to make about food.

Sorry for that being so long, but I'm rather excited about what the future can hold for me. I think I'll need the support (and peer pressure) to keep my enthusiasm going. I have such a strong hibernation instinct during the winter. lol

Wow, I'm sure your kids are very proud of you. You seem like an awesome mom especially with going back o school plans, thats always "fun" when you have to also work a job, and take care of children. But either way.. this is for YOU. You know what you want and what you can achieve, and that is the veryfirst step. And planning meals really is a great way to sta under budget (of calories) and avoid any temptation to get something quick. Do you have any favorite recipes you could share?

Maybe we can all share some.. I know I always love to try new recipes.

Good luck on your journey.. You can do this!.. and so i can

MissD89

Lisa, that is SOOOO cool! I didn't know you could do that with Google Docs!

Me neither! Really cool.

suzi67

Hi again,
My name is Suzi and I live in Kamloops, BC, Canada. I am the wife of a wonderful, supportive and loyal man. (Helps that he looks like Prince Eric from Little Mermaid...) I have 4 kids, ages 25(s) 24(d) 18(d) & 17(d). When I started dating my husband, I was 93lbs and dealing with anorexia. Once we married and I was away from the environment that triggered my ED, and after having 2 kids together, (the first 2 are from my first marriage) my weight went up and up and up. Because I didn't own a scale, I only saw my weight at the doctors or at other people's homes with scales. That was always a shock, and made me down on myself, but never enough to do anything about it. About a year and a half ago, I watched a weightloss program and decided I should see what my caloric intake was to find out where I was going wrong. I figured I wasn't eating very much, so why was I bigger than I wanted to be? I found this site, and started logging my foods and that was a wake up call, for sure. Then I stepped on the scale at my church and it showed I was 165lb. Another wake up. Since then I started walking, going to my local community center/gym/pool and eating much better. Part way through this time, I started a job as a server at a Japanese restaurant, which also kept me moving. My current weight is somewhere between 112-115lb, with one weigh-in at just above 110. I have just started week 7 of the C25K program and I'm hoping between that and alternating with 30 day shred, that I can lose the final wiggly bits still hanging on. I comfortably wear a size 2 jean and XS top, so I'm really just working on toning and tightening. If more weight comes off, bonus.
Well, that's me. Add me if you wish, I can always use the support and love to support others.

MissD89

Hello ladies,

I joined earlier today, but I was at work so I didn't have time for a proper introduction.

My name is Christi, and I'm from Mentor, OH (east of Cleveland, right on Lake Erie). I am 5'1" and have lost 30 pounds since the beginning of May. I would like to lose another 20-30 pounds. I was always thin in high school and college. My wedding dress was a size 6, and I was happy with that. Then life really began. I was working six days a week for a public accounting firm, traveling a lot, eating out all of the time, and not exercising. During that time I was also diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Between all of that, and my marriage falling apart, I gained a lot of weight. I wasn't happy about it (who is?) but I wasn't motivated enough to do anything about it.

My family booked a cruise the first week of May for next March. I said enough was enough and started MFP that week. I've logged in every day since. I've gotten active (currently on week 4 of c25k) and learned how to eat HEALTHY (veggies don't taste that bad after all!) I feel great, I am happier with how I look and I realize that I can do this!

I look forward to getting to know all of you fabulous petite ladies!

Christi

Hello Christi,
Congatulatons on ur 30 lbs loss. I can't wait to hit my 20 mark. =D Have you done any other exercise programs/routines since May? Or is the C25k prgram ur first? I askbecause I've been logging for almost 2 months now with very little excersise. STILL trying t force a routine upon myself. but, it just.. SUCKS.. lol

anyway, look forward to getting to know you and all the other vertical challengers. it's about my bed time, nighty night Challengers. Loveya all.

crhaws

Very cool! I'm 5'0" and I'm in too!! Looking for friends too if anyone is interested...
:happy:

momof2_0710

I'm 5'0 even and at the moment weigh 149lbs. My goal is to get down to 130lbs, and after I'll see how I feel but most likely go down to 120-125.

My name is Jennifer and I'm a sahm/student. I have a 5yr old girl and a almost 2 yr old boy, and married to an amazing man. We live just west of Houston, TX. I started my journey in July of this year and I have lost 14lbs so far. The reason I decided to do this is because I refused to buy a bigger size pants. My size 11 pants were starting to fit really tight and I told myself there is no way I'm going up a size. My weight is due to me just being lazy and not eating right. When I had my daughter I lost almost all of my weight but then it started creeping back up. Then I had my son and I didn't lose much of pregnancy weight. I started working and ppl would always bring cookies doughnuts, and I was always going out to eat so from there my weight started creeping up agian. Now I'm a sahm/student trying to keep on going and staying motivated. I have recently finished Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and now I'm doing insanity and just completed my first week. I'm really loving it so far.