Hello Team Run Track Minds and Welcome to December!!

My name is Tracy @tlgale I will be your captain for this month.

A little about myself...I started my weight loss journey a year ago this month and am now 58.4lbs lighter! I still have a long way to go yet though, about 80lbs. I had a few months where I was falling back into old habits, but I managed to turn it around in November. I'm typically an emotional eater (all emotions, good or bad) but I've been reminding myself (multiple times a day) that I control what I put in my mouth...not my emotions. My goal for December is just to keep a downward trend, no set amounts.
I have a 4 year old son with spastic quad CP and his different abilities and needs are my main motivation for wanting to get the weight off. As he grows and gets heavier, I need to shrink and get stronger!!

Please feel free to introduce yourselves and share your goals for the month as well.

We are going to be running a (Optional) Mini-Challenge this month: Daily Posts/Ultimate Accountability

First and foremost is that participation in the challenge is optional. It's up to you as to whether you want to try this. If you don't want to participate in these challenges, you don't have to, the choice is yours, but I would like to encourage you to participate as it seems to help keep us on track and thinking about our goals on a daily basis and it's encouraging to see other's successes and struggles so that we realize that we are not alone!!

The Daily Posts 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.

#1. Track EVERYTHING you eat that has calories.
#2. Stay inside your allocated daily budget.
#3. Try to 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)
#4. 1 pass day permitted per week (went over calories, could not track, not enough exercise, intentional pass)
#5. Check in daily (tracking yes/no, calories yes/no, exercise yes/no).

**REMEMBER**
You set your own daily budget.
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.
It is not weight based (as weight fluctuates day by day).

Daily check in keeps you in touch with those doing similar. Longer term weight management is hard to do on your own.

It works on an honor system. Being honest with yourself and others is a key to making things work. Remember, this is a judgement free zone, everyone has good days and bad days, but the way to get to the finish line is by being honest and when we have a bad day, picking ourselves up and carrying on.

Your posts should look like this:
Daily Post (Sunday)

Track: Yes/no
Calories: Yes/no (were you under)
Exercise: Yes/no (what type and how long)
Goals or Day: (Tell us a brief description about your how your day went or goals for the day)

Please post your weight on your scheduled weigh in day, as if you miss weigh-ins, you may be eliminated from the challenge and we don't want to see that happen!!

Your weekly weigh in posts should look like this:
Username:
Week: February Week 1
PW =(previous weight)
CW=(current weight)
Just type PW & CW if you'd like (or if it's easier, you could keep a note on your PC desktop to make it easier to copy and paste from week to week.)

Please setup your posts in that format as it really makes it much easier to track.

Welcome to December! It's going to be a tough one with the holidays, but we've all got this!!

@redrob1966 good to be here with you buddy. Fellow Brit here. Whilst I may not do a lot of driving, I spend all day sat in the chair in my home office. Weather ain’t ideal for getting out walking etc at the moment but you be safe out there on those roads.

@HaCee75 get rid of the feelings of shame - they’re counterproductive. Just focus on on one day at a time and be proud of the little changes you make.

Have a fab day, folks.