TEAM: Gutbusters (August)
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bootssowhite wrote: »That leads me to my next question. What type of lifestyle change or diet is everyone doing? Counting calories or carbs, Beachbody, Atkins, Keto, etc.........? What works best for you?
Counting calories. I've lost weight before, only to gain it all back (plus some), so I know for me, whatever I do has to be something I'm content to do forever. I'm trying to really focus on the behaviors that cause me to be overweight as well as the foods that cause me to be overweight and I'm trying to correct some of the more problematic ones, which has mostly meant trying to break the habit of snacking constantly.
Cait
I love how you are focusing on behavior! It took me a long time to acknowledge my need to modify behaviors. I'm getting better, I think.
Today at Trader Joe's I was staring at some cupcakes. I hadn't had this kind since college (3 years ago). Omg cupcakes. 340 calories each. I could eat one a day if I went to the gym, right?
No. Not right. Bc there is no way I'd stop at one. I have terrible impulse control with sweets but worse with baked goods. I've learned ways to set myself up for success, and it's all about minimizing tests to my willpower.
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biblebabe588 wrote: »Today has been one of my harder days to really stay the course on food. I really want to eat the junk food so bad. I just want to eat pizza, cheese, pancakes.. etc.... anything that is high in calories. My body has retained water the last couple of day do to high weather. I will stick the course today i will be going 30 min workout and eating a healthy meal. I am trying to loose five pound in two weeks time.
Hang in there! You're doing great.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to keep working towards your goal--pace is less important than making sure you are always headed in the right direction. You've got this!
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That leads me to my next question. What type of lifestyle change or diet is everyone doing? Counting calories or carbs, Beachbody, Atkins, Keto, etc.........? What works best for you?
I've eaten Mediterranean all my life because I'm from Turkey😊 On 6/11, i adjusted my macros to 65% fat, 20% protein, 15% carbs. So it was keto-ish. This week, I'll try to bump fat to 70%, and decrease carbs to 10% and fully try keto. But i love veggies and I'm not a big fan of pork products or red meat. Soooo... to get enough fat, i rely on avocados, nuts, seeds, olives, and fried eggs😋
I try to eat 1,200 cals. 7 hrs of sleep, 12 cups of water, and no snacking definitely makes weight loss super easy.2 -
Have to say I'm not mad. But I'm not happy either. Still at 382. I'm logging everything. I'm under maintenance and I'm active. It's not like I'm small and this is the norm. The pounds should be flying off. Ugh4
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Yesterday was a horrible day. Woke up to a headache due to my allergies. Then i ate all the wrong foods. My family brought pizza home for dinner and they hate it if I don’t eat the same stuff as them. I ate less pizza than I normally would so it’s a plus. But I’m picking myself back up today and moving past yesterday 👌🏻2
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@grebber1 u might want to just change ur routine with maybe the exercise or maybe the type of food. My body hit a plateo last week then i tried something else and finally it went back. Except i decided to eat the pancakes ov weekend and gain some of it back. But that might help u get ur system back up and running.2
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July 30
Exercised?: No. Walked 3km in hills in 24 mins.
Calories?: Yes
Tracked?: Yes
This makes pass day #3 for the month. (but still in circle). All pass days this month are activity related. My no-activity day still includes 2x40 push ups, 10 chin ups and 90s plank, so not completely sedentary, just not 20 mins worth.
Working in own city, but 90 mins drive from home (120 mins by public transport). Interstate almost has less commute time. Was only just past dawn when leaving for work and past dusk when returning home.
Really dislike driving long distances, cross town, at night in peak hour (stop start traffic most of the way).
July 31
Exercised?: Yes. Walked 6km in hills in 42 mins at lunch.
Calories?: Yes
Tracked?: Yes
At same client again today, but managed to go for a decent walk (in the wind) at lunch.
Interstate tomorrow (so early flight).
Daughter home from music camp. She had a good time.
Daily Strength challenge
Challenge for July 31 is door frame rows ()
3 sets- First set till the point where you can do no more, wait 2 mins
- Second set of 50% of the number you did in the first set (half)
- Third set
The reason for this exercise is push ups and dips work primarily the triceps (pushing). This exercise balances the others by working the biceps (pulling).
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Hello team Gutbusters.
I will be your coach again for this month (when I can). My role here is to help motivate, encourage.
I am also moderator for the TBL challenge (but Ashley ( @AB0215. ) has been doing most of the heavy lifting recently with my work commitments being insane). I rely heavily on the support of the team captains to make this successful as it is too much for one person to do alone.
At this stage team Gutbusters does not have a captain. Please PM me (@craigo3145.) if you feel you could fulfil this role. A team captain's primary role is to also help motivate and encourage the team. A team captain's secondary role is to enter weekly weigh-in data into the competition spreadsheet. Should be about 15mins per day.
As coach, I am running an optional mini-challenge within the Gutbusters team again this month.
Now an introduction:
I am a happily married 50yo father of one. I live in Melbourne Australia. I am passionate about helping people. Late August last year I passed my minimum goal weight (70kg - down from 91.5kg) and am now trying to maintain without bouncing back too far. I achieved the reduction in 4 months (so 40+ lbs in 4 months).
As I am now actively trying to NOT lose weight. At BMI 20.4 and less than 8% body fat, it would be crazy (if not dangerous) for me to try lose more weight.
(Why would someone not losing weight want to help run a weight loss challenge? Because it helps so many people and I feel I have so much to share. I learned so much losing weight that I seems a shame to not have it benefit others.).
About the mini-challenge.
First and foremost is that participation in this challenge is optional. It's up to you as to whether you want to try this. (If you take the attitude that "this is not what I signed up for", that is up to you).
I used the principles of this challenge to win July (6.29% - down 10.8 lbs) and August (6.44% - down 10.4 lbs). Following this challenge does work.
The challenge is based on another challenge on MFP called UAC (ultimate accountability challenge). The way UAC works is that the aim is to follow 5 basic rules.- Track EVERYTHING you eat that has calories on MFP.
- Stay inside your allocated daily budget.
- Do at least 20 minutes of activity a day (anything: walk, run, cycle, swim, gardening, housework, yoga, gym, etc.. As long as it gets you active and off the couch)
- 1 pass day permitted per week (went over calories, could not track, not enough exercise, intentional pass)
- Check in daily (tracking yes/no, calories yes/no, exercise yes/no).
Using this strategy of consistent tracking and minimal exercise I have set a lifestyle plan that should keep me in my target weight range. (has for the last month )
I liked this strategy as:- No dietary restrictions. (fine for vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, carnivore, etc...)
- Works with whatever strategy you may want to follow. (keto, 5:2, 16:8, atkins, etc..).
- You set your own daily budget (MFP helps with this).
- You choose you own exercise and intensity (no step limit, no exercises you cannot or should not do, 20 mins of gardening counts as much as a 10mile run).
- Is not weight based (as weight fluctuates day by day).
- Can continue beyond weight loss.
Daily check in keeps you in touch with those doing similar. Longer term weight management is hard to do on your own.
It also has frequent resets (as in a circle each week).
It works on an honor system. Being honest with yourself and others is a key to making things work.
Consistency and new habits have been shown the only long term successful way to change weight. We all want the progress made here to last a lifetime.
You will find out more from me as the weeks go on. I have done A LOT of research into weight loss, diets, health and strength. I will happily share what I have learned with the group.
My commitment to this group is to post my daily results for this accountability tracking (and help out where I can).
I also post a daily strength challenge.
The daily strength challenge is additional to the 20 mins exercise in the mini-challenge. It is designed to:- build lean muscle (not bulk).
- be quick (5 mins).
- use no equipment (bodyweight only) and minimal space.
- no impact so gentle on joints.
- cycle through arms, legs and core with enough recovery time to get best results.
).
So a belated welcome August Gutbusters.
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Like I said before I was doing some research on keto and how it works. Then I started looking at my diet. I'm completely going in the wrong direction. When I started trying to change my life style a few weeks ago I thought I was doing a good thing by eating Lean Cuisine and other brands like that for lunch. The calories was great and to be honest most of the food is pretty good. Problem is at the end of the day carbs are like 2 thirds of my diet. Sodium is higher than I like as well but still not bad.
Don't get me wrong, I'm eating better then I usually would but I think it may be time to stop buying the frozen foods that's "healthy" and start making my own. I'm not having any problem with calories now but I seem to have forgotten about everything else that's in the food.
I dunno. What do you guys think?1 -
July 30
Exercise: Yes
Calories: No
Tracked: Yes
I don't eat back exercise calories, and I try to be generous and overestimate calories when I'm not home and can't measure or don't know the measurement of something. If you're new, it helps to spend some time at home playing with your measuring cups and a food scale if you have one, just so you can get used to estimating quantities when you need to.
My calories were over my daily allowance yesterday. I keep a spreadsheet with my daily calories, daily weight, and some columns to calculate 3-week and 2-week average TDEE. Since I planned to go over calories yesterday, I've been keeping an eye that my calories were lower the previous couple of days, and I'll keep watching the remainder of the week as well.
I pay attention to what I eat at each meal, each day, but I'm playing the long game here.
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rawrxamberx wrote: »Yesterday was a horrible day. Woke up to a headache due to my allergies. Then i ate all the wrong foods. My family brought pizza home for dinner and they hate it if I don’t eat the same stuff as them. I ate less pizza than I normally would so it’s a plus. But I’m picking myself back up today and moving past yesterday 👌🏻
@rawxamberx I've been through some days like you describe here, especially with the family bringing home pizza. I've been able to convince my husband to just take our boys out with him and go to the restaurant without me rather than bring home pizza. I like hanging out with my family, so it's kind of a bummer not to go with them, but on the other hand, this mama doesn't mind a bonus hour to watch some netflix by herself while eating her chicken breasts and veggies.
Do you think you can convince your family that it would be a treat for you to get some solo time at home alone if they feel the need to go get pizza?0 -
Like I said before I was doing some research on keto and how it works. Then I started looking at my diet. I'm completely going in the wrong direction. When I started trying to change my life style a few weeks ago I thought I was doing a good thing by eating Lean Cuisine and other brands like that for lunch. The calories was great and to be honest most of the food is pretty good. Problem is at the end of the day carbs are like 2 thirds of my diet. Sodium is higher than I like as well but still not bad.
Don't get me wrong, I'm eating better then I usually would but I think it may be time to stop buying the frozen foods that's "healthy" and start making my own. I'm not having any problem with calories now but I seem to have forgotten about everything else that's in the food.
I dunno. What do you guys think?
@grebber1 I think you've absolutely made the right realization, and this could be a big turning point for you. Whether you actually follow the keto diet or not, learning how to cook lean proteins and vegetables for yourself will go a tremendous distance to allowing you to lose weight and develop a sustainable healthy lifestyle.
Hurray for you! I really think this is great news that you've had this insight!2 -
@grebber1 I personally find homemade food much more satisfying than the frozen meals. They usually over sauce things, or the sauce is too sweet for my tastes. I'm also typically really lazy with cooking and meal prep, so I try to cook something in the crock pot on Sunday's, and then make enough portions to last for lunches for the week. My favorite thing to do is a chicken/vegetable soup or turkey chili.2
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Westray16
Weigh in Monday
Weigh in week 1
Previous weight 196lbs
Weight now 195lbs3 -
Thank you all for the encouragement this week. I have officially am back on the game again. i ate a cheese stick last night and it seem that is what my body need. I research when i was craving things what my body was telling me and it said calcium. So i had some cheese, lol. I also barley accomplished 30 min workout but I did it!3
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@LesIckaBod I buy it as a blend at my local grocery store from the frozen aisle. I'm certain it's probably easy to make at home, but I'm all about super fast, convenient cooking (haha so I'm a lazy cook).
I like regular Riced cauliflower too (when dressed or combined with something--alone is meh to me) but the texture isn't quite as pleasing to me for some reason.
I also cook it way longer than the package usually says to in order to get it closer to the consistency I want.
Also...preserving muscle isn't my area of expertise but maybe your calories are a bit too low to be preserving lean mass? I vote don't worry at all until the real report comes in and then do research if necessary
@eevang You're the voice of reason for my worrywart frustrations. I did run a bit under my target calories based on tracked 3-week TDEE recently (not enough to lose 11 lbs of lean mass, I would think, though!). You know I'll keep you all posted when I get the new Inbody results!
Also, I'm going to take a closer look at the freezer section of my grocery store next time to check for riced cauliflower.
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Like I said before I was doing some research on keto and how it works. Then I started looking at my diet. I'm completely going in the wrong direction. When I started trying to change my life style a few weeks ago I thought I was doing a good thing by eating Lean Cuisine and other brands like that for lunch. The calories was great and to be honest most of the food is pretty good. Problem is at the end of the day carbs are like 2 thirds of my diet. Sodium is higher than I like as well but still not bad.
Don't get me wrong, I'm eating better then I usually would but I think it may be time to stop buying the frozen foods that's "healthy" and start making my own. I'm not having any problem with calories now but I seem to have forgotten about everything else that's in the food.
I dunno. What do you guys think?
I think fresh is always better. I tried the frozen dinners once last year and couldn’t drop anything hardly. I heard a good rule of thumb is to stay on the outside isles of the grocery store. Which usually includes the fresh stuff. Good luck!3 -
Don't get me wrong, I'm eating better then I usually would but I think it may be time to stop buying the frozen foods that's "healthy" and start making my own. I'm not having any problem with calories now but I seem to have forgotten about everything else that's in the food.
I dunno. What do you guys think?
I try to stick with fresh, homemade meals, but I also always keep a couple of frozen meals on hand. I don't always have the time or energy to actually cook something, and a Lean Cuisine pizza is a far cry better than ordering an actual pizza or picking up fast food.
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Thanks for all the tips. Leaving the frozen meal at home tomorrow. I usually have a salad with it at lunch but tomorow I'll just have the salad with a hard boiled egg and sliced grilled chicken.0
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@grebber1 Awesome insight--that kind of insight is what will give you switches and tricks that make long-term loss and maintenance a success.
I had the same insight but it took me a while. I ate lean cuisine all the time at my highest weight and very rarely now. I used to get hungry an hour after eating one and then cave to snacking. I do like to have a couple of the frozen meals on hand if I ever have a zero energy day after work. My rule of thumb is this: less than 400 calories, over (or very close to) 20g of protein. The higher protein content keeps me full.2 -
Username: eevang
Weigh-in week: Week 1
Weigh-in day: Monday
Previous week's weight: 168
Current weight: 167.6
I'm pretty happy with the weight loss. I lifted weights earlier this week and haven't pushed too hard recently (had a few stresses this past week, so I focused on finding a balance for a healthy mind & body), so a loss of any kind is all I was looking for.
I lost two pounds last week and my goal is to lose 1.3 per week, so the average is pretty good.
I am getting excited to get to 60 pounds lost! I've got another 6.6 pounds to go but I'm hoping to get to 161 this month or next.2 -
@eevang You got this!!! I'm so excited for you to be so close to the next mini goal.
I've had a very stressful week. I work full time and then also have (had) a part time job. Both of my jobs are very stressful in themselves. However on Sunday I was at my part time job, two hours until time to go home. Since I'm part time there has been a lot of changes on how things are done. I'm a quick learner and I only recently dropped down to part time after 10 full years on the job. I know what I need to do. I just wanted clarification on one thing and went to speak to the supervisor. In his true fashion when he doesn't know the answer, his response was "well did you read the policy" and I responded "yes". This is where he ALWAYS starts screaming at people so they sit down and drop the question/subject. After said supervisor literally screamed at the top of his lungs as me as the 17 other people watched in horror (and then later sent me texts about how that was NOT appropriate as well as others having a few choice about how they describe him), I decided I was going to quit. I sat there and cried at my desk, wanting to just walk out right then and there. Instead I made it through the rest of the shift and I turned in my notice and will be reporting him to HR. The big bosses are very sad to see me go and even said they weren't going to make it official until Wednesday after I had a few days to think if it's really what I want. And it is. Thankfully I have my full time job that is great and I don't have to put up with him. It'll be rough and I don't know how I'm going to swing bills, but at this point I just don't care if that means I have to donate plasma to make up some money difference. And it made food shopping easier because I was not hungry due to being upset that the chocolate bar in the check out wasn't even a temptation. I don't know if I cried because I'm so embarrassed, or if because I'm so happy I don't have to deal with the stress, or because it's been my job for the last 10 years and I'm leaving behind people who really supported that tonight when I didn't think they really cared that much. Hopefully now the stress is gone, it'll be easier to lose weight. I've been wanting to stress eat but so far I'm handling it well.. sticking to plan. I ate two small fun sized butterfingers... but resisted cake at work for someones retirement party!
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@WishfulThinning18 wow it seems like you had a quite a day. Good on you for not slipping foodwise- I totally would have. Having a bad boss has been the difference between loving and hating my job in the past, and your boss sounds toxic! Sometimes you just have to get out of there. I do hope they follow up on that hr complaint, so that your co-workers have an easier time.
Sending hugs your way
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hi all, new here, hoping to lose weight soon! lol. thank you2 -
Been reading all your posts. Wishfullthinning18... that supervisor is a real piece of work.
And thanks to everyone who responded to my posts.
Tomorrow is my weigh in but this morning I finally hit under 380 by a hair. Ate good yesterday and had a good workout unloading 40 75 lb retaining wall blocks off of a trailer. Then went for a few mile walk. All in all it was a good day except I can't find any of my Beachbody exercise CDs and I don't know who has them
Was really looking forward to diving into one of them this month.3 -
Jaygirl3
Weigh in Sunday
Weigh in at start was 209.6lbs0 -
Username: caitlynns727
Weigh-in Day: Wednesday
Weigh-in Week: 1
Previous Weight: 184.2
Current Weight: 182.3
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@WishfulThinning18 Way to go for taking care of yourself by getting out of that abusive-sounding work situation. I hope the relief from stress opens up your life to allowing you to better achieve your health and other goals.
@grebber1 Congrats on breaking under 380! I hope your salad, egg and chicken lunch helps you keep making progress! One tip: since you're a big guy and have a physically strenuous job, really make sure you're getting enough protein and fat in that lunch. Pre-tracking your food for the day on MFP could help, and if you find you need a little more protein or fat, think about adding some nuts into your lunch or packing a protein smoothie in a cooler.
@eevang Way to go on your weight loss! Since I've been in the group, you've been a role model for steady, reasonable weight loss -- and reasonable attitudes toward the ups and downs of weight loss, too. I'm rooting for you to reach your 60 lb milestone!2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NzhNe9Res
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