Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

Also hello to all newcomers! Please keep posting!

Hi ladies,
Happy new year to you all! I hope you had a great Christmas.

So I haven't logged on here in a while (last time I posted to the group was in June...so bad!!!) in the last 6 months I totally fell off the wagon gaining over a stone

Rachel - well done on the volunteering. Did you conclude that it was your exercise for the day - I think I might have done in your position! Hope your first day back at work goes ok.

@tazzy2911 - welcome back! Let's do this for 2017

@Dalceridae - well done for losing the christmas weight so quickly. I think lunchtime walk breaks are an excellent idea - exercise and time out of the office is such a good thing overall, I need to do more of that and less eating lunch at my desk whilst checking e-mails!

Shy - hope your father in law is doing better? You are getting organised for the new year with goal charts - I'm impressed! Love the pic of your pup in her hat - she does not look impressed

@wishfuljune - sure it is just water weight, that would be a huge amount of 'real' weight which I'm sure you've not done! The reunion does sound fun - it is so hard when good friends/family are a long way away.

Jen - well done on the loss - and for not letting the lying friend get you down. At least you were able to talk to them and (hopefully) resolve it so that they won't do so again. So hurtful and i find as i get older that I have less patience for such things - life is so short and I find I'm slimming down my friends list to those who really matter and care.

Joy - I know what you mean about the goodies, I'm desperately trying to get stuff out of the house so that I won't eat it!

Nicole - hope you are doing ok and that 2017 has got off to an ok start for you.

And welcome to all the newbies!

Well, I'm back - it's been an awesome couple of weeks. Christmas was lovely and I've enjoyed the time at home with Alistair so much but I guess it's back to reality today (this is my last day off, back at work tomorrow). Dropped Alistair off at nursery this morning - now that he is 2 years old, he has progressed to the next room up in the chain. He has been so ready for it developmentally but they wouldn't move him till he was 2 (something to do with child to carer ratios) and he was getting so bored in his old room with a load of kids 6-9 months younger than him. When we got to nursery today and he realised he was going upstairs he cheered

My word for the year is self care (ok, that's two words but who's counting!). I spend so much time looking after and out for everyone else that I don't always stop and take the time for me - so this year is it. I'm back and determined. Christmas was a motivator for me in an unexpected way - my lovely husband decided to be creative with presents for me and bought me a lovely summer dress and a top and skirt combination for smart occasions (he has a good eye for clothes). So he asks me to try stuff on - top is fine, skirt is a little tight but will work. But we couldn't get the dress done up over my top half - talk about being horrified (I will not exchange it for a larger size!!!). So my target is to be in this dress for the summer (around my birthday in June would do).

So my plan for the day is a workout (once I've finished here!) then wrestle the house back into a bit of shape - and maybe some work on Alistair's blanket later in the day. Husband is back at work (and very cross that he didn't take today off with me!!). Hope the week is treating you all well so far and speak soon.

Happy New Year to everyone!

So glad to see many of you stuck to your goals right up to the end of the year. I love everyone's words so far! Strong (Strength), Perseverance, Self-Care (so important!), and Balance! All of these are amazing words to focus on in the upcoming year. I've thought long about it this weekend, and I think my word for 2017 will be "Stride". I have taken great strides to lose weight in the past year, and I need to continue to do so this year. Each stride could be a pound lost, a new PR for weight-lifting, or just making it to the gym five times a week. It also rhymes with pride, and I am very proud of what I've been able to accomplish in a year on MFP.

@wishfuljune Fantastic word! I'm looking forward to taking many strides with you this year!

@janetay01 Glad Alistair was finally able to move up! Sorry to hear about the dress That is really frustrating, but I bet you'll be rocking it by this summer

@jdelaroy Congrats on winning the competition! Did you get anything for the prize?

I was lazy and didn't do a supplemental workout to my volunteering. Mentally it was the best thing for me because I woke up completely refreshed and ready to tackle the day today.

On a less cheerful note, I received a snapchat from a good friend that sent me into a serious jealousy spiral. She looked so great and I am still feeling so bloated and gross from the holidays. I hate that I couldn't just feel happiness for her and that my mind took that awful turn. I'm really hoping that being back in my routine this week helps to get me back in the right mindset

Aghhh it happened again! It keeps cutting my posts off

@wishfuljune That's a great word and very appropriate. We need to keep making strides in life to avoid getting stuck in a rut

@Rachel0778 Sometimes if we're feeling bad about ourselves, it's hard to feel good about others. It's good to recognise those feelings though - many people will just react to those jealous feelings without thinking about where they are coming from or whether that person deserves to be treated like that. Mindset is everything. The same event can be interpreted different ways depending on your perspective and emotions.

I haven't posted in so long...and I've bunches to share...

CariT: Grief and all the stuff that goes with loss of a loved one is so hard. I lost my grandmother and my sister within one month in 2015 and I put on nearly 30 pounds in the next year. I'm back to where I was then...It just takes time. Don't be too hard on yourself. Hang in there!

ShyCush: I love that! Everyone has been talking about a word for the year and I hadn't found one I like or that fit...but you gave it to me! Transformation!

Rachel: It sounds pretty normal to me, especially since you've worked so hard. But I bet you didn't say anything like that to her. You probably replied with something complimentary...I'd pay more attention to what you do than to what your first reaction was. You're feeling disappointed in your progress the past couple weeks and she looks like you want to feel. Perfectly natural to feel envious...but you also want to feel happy for her...and that counts!

I'm so glad everyone had a nice holiday...island vacations, parties, and so busy! I'm not much of a Christmas person myself. My in-laws mostly have indoor animals, which I'm allergic to, and I can't visit them, so my husband goes alone and I have very little family. We spent a bunch of time working on Christmas presents--this year we decided to make a family calendar with fun photos and everyone's birthday. It doesn't sound like much but choosing and editing photos and layouts take a lot of time! When we do family calendars we like to use photos of teddy bears (we have nearly 3 dozen, they're our kids) doing fun things...we had a bunch of unused photos from last time but we dragged the bears around the city and did some more photography for it. I used Snapfish this year. Had a good coupon and they turned out really well.

Five days before Christmas I slipped on some ice and fell, breaking three bones in my foot...as a result, I'm down for the count for a while. I'd been doing so well, walking several days a week and now I do good to get around the house for basic stuff. Depressing is what that is...and for four or five more weeks! Argh!

I'm pleased the new year has begun and hope that it is better than the last two...I'm hoping that I can lose another 50 pounds or so in the next twelve months and am worried the next few weeks will result in setbacks. I'm going to keep logging and trying to find some decent exercises that don't require two feet!

@melaniedscott - So sorry to hear about you breaking your foot, that is such a downer for the holiday season and the New Year. Hopefully you can find some appropriate workouts and be back on both feet as soon as possible. I love your calendar idea - we have a small group of cuddly toys (bears and the like) that travelled everywhere with us for a while - we have a range of photographs of them from when we were on honeymoon in New Zealand - what a lovely idea to make a calendar out of them.

Cari - welcome back! You are right - you've done it before so you can do it again. Grief is so hard to deal with, it's no wonder you lost sight of other things. Be gentle on yourself and hopefully 2017 will be kind to you.

Shy - glad that your FIL is doing better and that the dog can visit, people should take more note of the good that pets can do people. Sounds like you had an amazing holiday period and well done for being more aware. I too found that this year - in past years, if my husband was offering mince pies in the evening I would have said yes - regardless of whether I was hungry. In the last few days, I've found myself actually questionning whether I want one and on two occasions turning it down. It feels good to realise that you are just that bit more conscious of what you are doing.

@tazzy2911 - well done for rejoining WW. And I'm glad it's not just me that gets my posts cut off when I try to use my phone - drives me nutty!

Rachel - I sympathise with that emotion, it's hard sometimes to feel the positive for someone else. However, as @Dalceridae said, it's good that you recognise it and push on from it. Sounds like you made the right decision not to do the additional workout - hope the first day back at work was ok.

Jen - you have done so great with your goals, whichever way you look at it. I like your word for the year - I think I need a bit of that as well!

So I'm back at work today (working from home). Logged on to find 192 new emails - so much going on over a supposedly quiet time of year and so much chaos caused. I wish I didn't have to work! Alistair had a great first day in his new nursery room and barely gave me a backward glance as I dropped him off this morning! I'm hoping he will have a lot of fun and learn lots with them this year. Anyway, back to work - have a good day all.