Introductions
Replies
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w8goal4life wrote: »Just an alert to those who are new to this challenge. Posting weight is not a criteria for success with UAC. Some do post weight as progress is made. Others never post weight. I am in the latter group who never posts weight. You need share only as much as you are comfortable with in the daily thread. There is no shame on the UAC forum. Every team member's intent should be to encourage others to develop healthy habits including exercise, calorie consumption and tracking or logging everything consumed. Any weight loss is a by-product of those healthy habits. Weight loss is not a matter of luck. Diligence and perseverance always wins!
Well said!!3 -
This will be my second try at this challenge. I enrolled in January but my disordered eating got the best of me. I continued to get my exercise almost daily through all January, only missing 4 days. I feel great about that. So I'm back to try again 🤗 I really need to get my eating under control.5
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The starting gun is about to fire .... almost midnight ..... ready, set, LOG!!5
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Hi I’m holly. I was in the UAC last year for a few months and am back as of January. It’s a great motivation to keep those daily healthy habits going.
I am 38, married, mom of four kids 8 years old and under. I teach a few yoga classes a week but primarily stay home with my kids. Yoga is my exercise of choice, but I try to fit in some strength training and cardio a few days a week. I have never been in the winners circle but love the challenge anyway. Happy to be back.3 -
Getting dressed for my first trip to the gym in years! Had great first eeek weigh-in loss of 2.1lbs adhering to my diet, waiting until today to begin exercise.
Started 237.8lbs.
Today 235.7lbs.
Goal 137.8lbs
Good luck everyone!!6 -
This is my second attempt at this. I signed up in January, but I let illness and travel knocked me off kilter a bit.
I am trying again in February, with the hopes that my habits are more ingrained and more likely to stick even if life throws some other stuff at me.5 -
Looking forward to February! This month will be my 12th with UAC. In the past year, I only made the winner's circle once, but the habits and accountability has lead me to continue to lose weight and become a fitter person.
I've lost 40 lbs slowly over the past few years, have about 25 more to go. My goal is to loose it and end the year in maintenance mode!
I remember when I first signed up thinking that this was a pretty extreme challenge, that it would be too intense to log in everyday and stay accountable. One year later, it feels like second nature to log in, and I can't say enough about how positive the group is. I love learning from people who have maintained their weight loss. Maintenance is a whole other ball game that I didn't understand until UAC. So grateful to have good role models so that I'm better prepared when I get there.
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@molly3210 I don't have a handle on maintenance. Which is why I gain back everything I lose on my roller coaster diets. I been researching it and its starting to make sense. But I just don't understand why I shouldn't just start with maintenance? I was ONE pound away from my healthy goal weight last time and then slowly over time gained it all back due to going back to my old ways. Which is the problem...my old ways gotta go and I need the healthy lifestyle ways as my "new normal". I will definitely make sure I get a solid understanding about maintenance when I get closer to my healthy weight goal, but that will be a while. Good luck to you on your goal of maintenance!3
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@KCJen, maintenance is what I have always struggled with as well. I've never gained back all the weight I lost, but I've gained back more than I should have and then needed to lose a considerable chunk again, despite the fact that while I'm losing and getting down to my goal, it feels like I'm building sustainable habits. I guess part of it for me is the fact that it is literally easier to not exercise and not plan meals than it is to exercise and plan. So if I lose motivation, get busy at work, get tired after months of being healthy, it takes no effort at all to slip into those bad habits. Plus, the damage from those bad habits doesn't happen instantly; it's not like I wake up one day later and weigh 30 more pounds. Since it creeps on, it's easy to delude myself into thinking I'm not doing so bad after all....
I'm determined to get to maintenance and stick to maintenance this year, and I'm doing my best to incorporate even more sustainable habits. I'm trying to be extra good about having rest days, about still eating foods that I love that maybe aren't the healthiest but can be incorporated in smaller portions with more nutritionally dense foods for other meals, etc. I'm reminding myself about how much I enjoy being fitter and healthier--and I have a trip to Hollywood for a conference and a good friend's wedding this summer to give me a concrete goal to work towards. We'll see what happens!
As far as starting with maintenance, in theory, you can indeed eat/exercise at maintenance calories for your goal weight. Since you weigh more than your goal weight, that would create a deficit, and you would lose until you were eventually maintaining at that goal weight. Depending on how far away you are from goal weight, however, it might not be a large deficit, and for a lot of us, we want more demonstrable results more quickly. (We all know this is meant to be long-term rather than short-term, but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't prefer it to take six months to two years, for example.) Plus, it often takes some experimentation to find what maintenance calories actually are, since all of this is estimation. How much are you actually burning while exercising, how many calories are actually in that food, and how does your body react, etc. But you could certainly experiment with losing weight a little slower and upping your calories to something closer to your maintenance goals if you think that will help you come up with habits that stick better. Good luck! (Just realised this got really long--sorry!)1 -
@fitphoenix@molly3210 I don't have a handle on maintenance. Which is why I gain back everything I lose on my roller coaster diets. I been researching it and its starting to make sense. But I just don't understand why I shouldn't just start with maintenance? I was ONE pound away from my healthy goal weight last time and then slowly over time gained it all back due to going back to my old ways. Which is the problem...my old ways gotta go and I need the healthy lifestyle ways as my "new normal". I will definitely make sure I get a solid understanding about maintenance when I get closer to my healthy weight goal, but that will be a while. Good luck to you on your goal of maintenance!
"Starting inaintenance" really struck me. This is not my first rodeo, either! In the past, I have dieted, lost weight, thenconsidered my diet "done". Then, over time, I would gain the weight back, more quickly in times of extreme stress.
This time, I did not start a "diet", I started a lifestyle change. As I think about it, in many ways, I did start in "maintenance", from the perspective that I committed to only doing things that I felt like I could sustain forever.
Now that I am actually "in" maintenance, there are really no big changes. I am trying to gradually start eating more (of the same kinds of good food I have been eating) to stop from losing more. I am continuing to exercise because it fits my other life goals besides weight loss. I continue to prelog and track because it assures that I am focusing on healthy choices and it simplifies my life. The only real changes I foresee is a nice glass of wine, a dessert, or a special not-so-healthy meal as a planned exception.
While I am really "new" in maintenance, the fact that I have no really big changes does make me feel like I have, in important ways, been in maintenance since the beginning and that I will be able to continue successfully.0 -
@jan110144, thanks for the tips!0
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I'm joining the UAC again after being a member a couple times in others months. I'm 41 and I live in Christchurch, New Zealand It's currently summer here - so no excuse not to get out and enjoy it. I have at least 38kg to lose. I'm planning on slow and steady! This challenge is really great and such a supportive environment. 4
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Welcome @PaisleyFlower. I was so hoping to visit Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the earthquake destroyed it in 2011 two years before our 2013 visit. It was devastating to see pictures of the Cathedral after the catastrophic event. I understand the cathedral is to be rebuilt and strengthened over the coming years. Unfortunately, the likelihood of a return visit is minimal. Right about now, though, I would appreciate the New Zealand summer. It has been very cold in western New York State with subzero temps...but today, for the first time in a couple of weeks our temps actually soared above freezing. Heat wave!
Looking forward to your participation in the challenge.0 -
Good morning, I made a step of progress, I exercised on a weekend!!! TWICE
Well ok, second time was only a one-trip, 10 minute walk around the track, but my mindset IS improving. 6 -
teriseaton wrote: »Good morning, I made a step of progress, I exercised on a weekend!!! TWICE Well ok, second time was only a one-trip, 10 minute walk around the track, but my mindset IS improving.
Alright, Teri. Let’s do this thing. How are you tracking your food and exrcise? Do you have apps?
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@fitphoenix @jan110144 Thank you both for your insight! I have been thinking about starting in maintenance, however, the ideal healthy weight range for me is 130 to 144, so I need to figure out what my targeted number is in that range. The closer I get to my weight goal is when I figure that part out.
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teriseaton wrote: »Good morning, I made a step of progress, I exercised on a weekend!!! TWICE Well ok, second time was only a one-trip, 10 minute walk around the track, but my mindset IS improving.
Hey, @teriseaton I send you a Friend Invitation. Please let me know if you received it.0 -
I've been needing this group! I've used MFP solidly since 2015, and my highest weight loss was 80lbs. After a pregnancy and a year of breastfeeding I have been fighting the same 10lbs over and over. My problem is the food - my brain and body just do not want to get back into deficit mode after being able to eat an extra 500 calories a day just to maintain.
This morning I was 201.2, in a perfect world I'd hit 174 this year, which is "overweight" instead of obese. I know it's a long shot, but just to get out of the 190-200 range I've been in for 2 years would be a huge win for me!6 -
Hello Everyone! This is my first time joining a group here. I've just started back with MFP and need to lose around 15 lbs. that have creeped up over the last couple of years after my husband passed away. Lots of emotional eating. I'm 66 years young and only 5'1" so every pound shows. I just want to feel comfortable in my clothes again and feel more energetic. I really like the accountability of this group.4
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Shout-out to newbies!
If you have yet to figure out WHERE to do your Daily Accountability reports (NOT here!) take a read inside this spoiler for details. I already pointed one of you in the right direction ... it occurs to me there might be others of you as well.
If you have already figured it out, you can ignore.Click on the big "Ultimate Accountability Challenge February 2019" at the top of this page. This will bring you to the list of all sub-threads. Introduction is only one of them.
Scroll down and you will see a list of individual dates (Feb 1; Feb 2; etc. One for each day of the month)
Click on today's date. You will see The Three Questions at the top, and something special from RangerRick in the first entry. (often a thought or discussion starter - something different every day)
Reply (at the bottom) in the format that you choose. As you scroll through, you will see several variants from copying the questions from the top of the Daily Thread with the answer following each, to "3 X Yes"
For today, just backdate as follows (with the appropriate answer for how things have been going):
Feb 1: Pass 1 2 x Yes; Exercise - No
Feb 2: 3 X Yes
Feb 3: Pass 2 Over on calories; Didn't track everything (SuperBowl munchies) ; DID do exercise
For today and going forward, as much or little detail as you wish. eg. How long / what KIND of exercise; if over on calories and/or didn't track everything, by how much and/or why (special event? stressed? bored? someone brought doughnuts to the staff meeting?)
DO ask for strategies on how to handle similar situations in the future, or ask in advance for known upcoming events (like travel or a family dinner or whatever)
Repeat daily.
As the month rolls along .... fi you happen to get up to 5 or more passes in the month (it can happen with people only just starting to figure out MPF as a whole!) you don't have to keep telling us the count - just say "Pass - (which parts were Yes vs No)" and maybe as self-encouragement add something like "missing it much closer than at the start of the month"
DO ask for strategies on how to handle any recurring adjustment difficulties either in your daily post or in the "What's On Your Mind?" thread.
This is a Just For Today kind of challenge. Just focus on getting through or as close as you can to 3 X Yes TODAY. Don't obsess about yesterday or fret about tomorrow.
When you have time, read the Days already past. They will encourage you.
See you in the Daily's!
I am copying this into the What's On Your Mind thread as well, just to make sure that none of our new members miss it.
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