How much would you like to lose by the end of the Spring into Summer 2013 challenge??

Lets get to know each other -- Where are you from? What is your favorite color, season, food, television series, books, and hobby? Where would you visit if you could visit any place in the world!!?? -- and why? What are your favorite workout routines? RAMBLE ON MY FRIENDS!! lol Feel free to add your own questions to the mix! Feel free to add me as a friend!

Hi everyone! The name is Shelley and I call the great state of Alabama home!! That's right, I'm a Bama girl through and through!! I'll start with the things mentioned in the intro then add a few of my own. My favorite color is green, it's bright and happy and always reminds me of spring and summer. My favorite season is Spring because in Alabama, Spring is the prettiest to me My favorite food is my husband's grilled chicken breast! I have several favorite television series but a few of those in order are: "True Blood", "The Walking Dead", "Dallas", "Smallville", "Supernatural", and "Double Divas" (my son watches all but "True Blood" with me). My favorite books are anything that can catch my attention in the description on the back. I love to read! My hobby is anything that lets me spend time with my family, We will play soccer, tennis, walk the bike trail, play the PS3 or XBox together.

Now to my own additions....lol. Like I said, my name is Shelley, and have been with my husband for 17 years. We are the type of couple who does everything fast. We met one day, moved in together two days later, married a month later, had our first boy a year later, and our second boy three years later. He had 3 children (boy, girl, and boy) from previous relationships that completed our family. So now we have a 14 yr old, 16 yr old, 19 yr old, 20 yr old, and 21 yr old. Has it always been easy? Heck no!! Have there been times where I thought prison would probably have been easier? Definitely But would I have it any other way? No. Every struggle, every obstacle, every mistake has made us appreciate each other more.

We had to have a horrific tragedy occur in the family to open our eyes and realize that all the hours at work will never replace what we are missing out on. And even though I have always been a stay-at-home mom, he worked 70-80 hours a week so I was basically mom and dad to 4 of the 5 kids. We opened our eyes and decided to change things. Now we go to the beach every year no matter what is going on, we never miss a soccer game, we go to the movies at least once a month, and we have all the kids in the house at the same time at least once a year. That's hard because the oldest lives 4 states away! But it happens and the kids understand why it's so important.

My health journey began January 13th because I am tired of looking in the mirror and being disgusted with what I see. I'm tired of being winded everytime I climbed the stairs in the house. I want to be healthy and I want to enjoy watching my children live life and one day enjoy my grandchildren.

Feel free to add me and look forward to all of us meeting our goals together!!

RRROOOLLLLLL TTTIIIDDDEEE RRROOOLLLLLL!!!!!!

Hi guys,

I'm Angela, 23 years old and from The Netherlands . I'm working during the week (desk job) and play badminton and games in my free time. Also doing some work outs in the weekend.

I lost about 5 lbs (2.3 kg) now and want to lose about 25 lbs in total.

I'm very curious how all the results of everyone will be in 16 weeks'!!

Hi! I have a vacation in July, lots of beaches and shorts and tank tops since it's in Orlando... so I started weight training yesterday! I want to lose pounds, but I'm mainly focused on inches. I want to be able to comfortably wear shorts and tank tops this summer. My starting weight is 209.8, I'd love to be 179 but I made my goal 185 to be more realistic. I wear a size 16 and my goal is size 12.

My current routine is stronglifts 5x5 3x a week, plus a little cardio and walking here and there. I currently follow the keto diet and may switch to CKD or paleo for my lifting.

Location: Illinois
Fav. color: Purple
Season: Spring
Food: unhealthy - pizza healthy - spinach and eggs
TV: Rupaul's drag race :P
Books: naughty books?
Hobby: writing/rping, cooking, reading
Favorite workouts: Zumba and Kickboxing



I'm pretty excited about this challenge, good luck everyone!

hey, Im Hira...I have about 35 lbs to go but if i get to 150 it will be like a dream come true. I was 150 bfr my kids, it has been impossible for me to stay on track. Just sick of this really want to get rid of my weight. Current :188 (183 as of today) , oh also I am jucing but i do take like a mango or something when that chocolate fever strikes

Hi all!

I have quite a bit of weight to lose, about 85 lbs. I don't know what its like to be at a healthy weight, so I'm trying to get there. I haven't lost as much weight as I would like to (yet), but I have gotten rid of a lot of my bad habits that caused me to struggle with my weight. With this challenge I hope to see some real progress.

Good luck everyone

Hi Everyone! Hope its not to late for me to join on to this group!

My name is Cara and I'm from Texas. I started losing weight again this January and have lost about 20lbs so far. A couple years ago I lost about 55 lbs doing WW but had gained most of it back. I am much more motivated this time! I started really trying to work out hard this january. I am currently on Week 4 of C25k and I also do a lot of spinning at my gym. My ultimate goal is to be about 170 lbs, which will be almost 90 lbs from my starting weight. For this challenge I"m starting at 238 lbs and would like to be down to 208 lbs by July. I see this as an attainable goal.

Where are you from? I was born in Texas and currently live here but I grew up all over the south.
What is your favorite color: green
season: Fall-the leaves, the sports, the weather I love all of it!
food: probably Mexican food!
television series: I love Downtown Abbey!
hobby: I quilt a lot...its a weird hobby I guess but I love it!
Where would you visit if you could visit any place in the world!!?? -- and why? I'd like to go to Europe...I've never been out of the US.
What are your favorite workout routines? I started doing the C25k and I've really started to enjoy running!

Hi everyone! I am so excited about this challenge. It's lovely to meet you all!

My name is Dree. I'm 22 years old and I'm currently a Masters candidate. I also work part-time at a health and beauty shop, so I seem to be always talking about hairspray and mascara. I am Irish-American, having spent half of my life in the USA and the latter half in Ireland. Red is my favorite colour - my nails are always red, it's probably mildly OCD. I blog and tweet, all that social media stuff, I love celebrity gossip, and I knit and read in my spare time. I am a TV person: Veronica Mars and Everwood are my favourite shows, alongside Friday Night Lights, which I am bawling my way through at the moment.

For the weight-related portion, I've been overweight since I was eight years old. I reached 215-225 lbs at my highest weight when I was eighteen. I'm 5'3, if that helps you picture things. I lost about 30 lbs on my own when I left home for college and joined Weight Watchers with a friend later in my freshman year. I lost 25 lbs with Weight Watchers and another 5 lbs after I quit {college student problems}. In the four years since I have yo-yoed from 155 to 180 lbs and re-joined and quit Weight Watchers two more times. I am currently sitting at 170 lbs and I am hoping to reach a goal of 135 lbs, which I haven't seen in my adult life, and take it from there. I am attempting to loosely follow WW principles but really watch my calories and exercise by walking in and out of Dublin city each day and using Jillian Michaels DVDs. I love the community behind MFP - I need that guilt factor!

My name is Amanda. I'm 43 pounds down from my top ever weight of 230 (5'10"). I'm trying to lose weight for my wedding in September and our honeymoon in Hawaii. I love golfing and am trying to love biking... I'm hoping it will finally warm up in Michigan so I can get to it. I'm currently doing a 10k steps challenge at work.

I'm 24 and I work in the environmental department of a major transportation company. I live with my fiance who is an electrical engineer and we both have 40 minute commutes which makes exercising harder. Lately we've been watching the new Vikings show on showtime. We have a 30 gallon aquarium.... Also he cooks most of the time so I don't have as much control over what i eat for dinner all the time. I really need to learn to cook. If anybody has any easy recipes for dinner I'm all ears!

Hi Gang!

I am glad to be a part of this challenge! I came from the New Year New You challenge and it was AWESOME! God has truly blessed me with the groups and with my new lifestyle change!

I'm 45 and working on getting my health in order. I have a 16 yo son who tells me when my form is wrong and teaches me how to do things correctly - I LOVE it!!! and he LOVES showing me how to workout correctly! It's awesome!

I started out at 284 pounds a little over year ago (December 2011). I'm now at 177.5. My goal for this challenge is 155. My ultimate goal is from 135 - 140, we'll see when I get there. The point is to be HEALTHY!!!!

Best of luck to you in your goals!!! :flowerforyou:

I'm new to MFP since Feb. I have hypothyroidism, stage II hypertension and since 2005, have gained over 60 lbs. Since joining MPS, my wife and I have made some of the necessary lifestyle changes, improving the quality of food we eat, reducing the quantity, and exercising with more regularity...doing this right and for the long haul is our goal. Since 1/31, I am down 13 lbs...with another 40+ to go.

Hi Luna,

I wanted to let you know, that I also have hypothyroidism. I actually have no thyroid. They had to remove it because of cancer. I did gain weight in part because of it. But you CAN lose weight even with this disease! I've lost OVER 100 pounds so far and I am NOT done yet! Congratulations on your lifestyle changes and on losing the weight you've already lost!!! :flowerforyou: Feel free to add me as a friend if you'd like...

~ Bethany