Women 200lb+, Let's Double Down This December!!!

My Nov/Dec challenge log:
Challenge Starting Weight: 310.0 (11-1-2019)
Current Weight: 293.2
Challenge End Goal Weight: 300.0 290.0 - this week may have buggered my chances at my revised goal, but will keep trying!

Week 0 - 11/01/2019 - 310.0 lbs (SW)
Week 1 - 11/08/2019 - 306.0 lbs (-4.0)
Week 2 - 11/15/2019 - 301.4 lbs (-8.6)
Week 3 - 11/22/2019 - 299.8 lbs (-10.2)
Week 4 - 11/29/2019 - 298.5 lbs (-11.5) Happy Thanksgiving and Birthday
Week 5 - 12/06/2019 - 296.5 lbs (-13.5)
Week 6 - 12/13/2019 - 295.2 lbs (-14.8)
Week 7 - 12/20/2019 - 293.2 lbs (-16.8)
Week 8 - 12/27/2019 - Merry Christmas

Had a great workout this morning, my best one yet in regards to getting that heart rate up and dripping sweat all over the place. I feel stronger each week. Has been a struggle with weight this week, but overall coming down gradually. Unless the scale gods shine very favorably upon me, not going to make revised target 2 month goal of 290 by the end of the month, but I'll be close!

Had my work holiday party tonight, today's calories are up and I am not feeling guilty about it. I worked hard this am. It's just one day. I still logged it to the best of my ability (painful, but accounted for). I have promptly scraped the leftover food I brought home into a bowl to feed to the chickens, minus things they shouldn't eat like chocolate and onions. They'll be feasting tomorrow. I'll eat the eggs, will be better for me, anyway.

Speaking of, the girls are laying like fiends right now. I've got a huge basket of the most lovely variably colored eggs you ever saw. Going to need to take more in to work / to the boys' teachers as the girls are overproducing our consumption right now. Happy chooks. They are a teensy bit spoiled.

I won't get my one-on-one with the trainer this next week as my days off are the trainer's days of (Xmas eve and Xmas), but I will be in the gym on Tuesday getting a workout in to keep up my promise to myself of a minimum of 3 gym workouts weekly. Don't wish to break my streak.

Currently working on:
1) Continuing to log accurately
2) Increasing my water consumption - Drinking two cups first thing after waking up, to start, trying to remember to get that water in on my work days, which is a struggle.
3) Continue my 3 scheduled weekly workouts at the gym minimum, trying to get up to 4 weekly.



I'm not good at the individual responding, but welcome new comers and congrats on everyone's progress. I wish you more joy than stress this holiday season! Hug your loved ones and know each and every one of you are beautiful.

@HurleyHurley – I also keep my information in Excel, tracking my weight and 3-day and 5-day moving averages and charts! I haven’t made my charts as pretty as yours! I did it because I find the charts available in MFP to be lacking. I even added linear regression to my chart, and I know they say that weight loss is not linear but for the short-term analysis it has been helpful in setting realistic goals. We’ll see if it continues to hold, I think as long as I’ve got a fair amount to lose weight loss will be more or less linear but as I approach goal not so much. Also, don’t give up hope that you’ll meet your goal. When I was in the high 200s I could drop some extra weight easily for no reason at all except I stuck with my plan.

Congratulations to all who are persevering through the challenges of this month! @sharpdust , so happy to see you getting through those hikes, you can do it! @lindaporter2018 – great job getting to the gym even when feeling down, and how lucky are you to have such a supportive partner. I am now only disappointed that your MFP handle is not in fact “brownsugar” (although it is probably already taken)! @aliciap0116 , so happy you’ve been able to make progress despite your gym being closed. It’s hard work figuring out how to achieve goals when your plan needs to change, and I am inspired by how you made that work!

@bluffgirl67 – I’m sorry you might be heading for a flare…I hope you are wrong or it is short-lived! In any case, you’ve already gotten a wonderful gift with the good news about your Momma!

For those who posted their side-by-side photos, I offer my appreciation. Some of the most inspiring threads I’ve followed on MFP are the ones where people post their progress photos. I was thinking of posting the same at the end of the month. I just need to find photos from when I was larger. And to take some photos now. I am very camera-shy – still!

To all who are new, welcome to our group!

Height: 5'6"
SW (09/08/2019): 239.2 lbs
December SW (12/1): 210.0 lbs
12/8/19: 206.8
12/15/19: 205.2
12/22/19: 202.2
December GW: 202.0 lbs
GW: 150 lbs (then reconsider)

My goals for December are:
- Cardio for 45-60 min, 5-6 times a week, 3 of the sessions Couch-to-5K workouts – 7 days!
- Advance in the Couch-to-5K plan to week 2 workouts – Done! There’s not much excitement in upping the run time on the treadmill, and I’m not sure why. I hope that at least one of my C25K workouts can be outside each week, because the proof is in the workout somewhere, usually in how much further I can get in one workout!
- Core exercises at least 3 times a week – Check. Side planks continue to be the bane of my existence. One side is definitely weaker than the other. So I’m keeping the count/reps where they are for those until I can do them more easily. I’m advancing the counts/reps on all other core exercises.
- The Pants – I’m wearing the less-stretched-out pants and they’re hanging in there. I’m hoping that I get a bunch of gift cards for Christmas so I can buy more pants. Or I can start wearing dresses again – in January! I accidentally wore one of the old ones on Friday, and there were a few close calls. (@speyerj, I’m glad I gave you a laugh! No one would laugh harder or longer than me if I did lose my pants in the middle of the street in downtown Philly! Well, I’d at least make sure I made it across the street first!)
- Take better care of my skin in hopes it will start to regain its shape – for this week I was getting ready at the gym before work. I wasn’t able to do everything I like to do but made a reasonable effort.

Wow, you could knock me over with a feather! I know it may sound wild, but earlier this week my weight went way up and I thought there was no way I’d register a loss for the week, much less this large of a loss. On Thursday, my weight was 207.8 lbs! I knew it was at least partially water weight fluctuation, but I was really looking for an explanation. And it’s not as if it was all gone the next day. Was it related to TOM, when I’ve never really had an appreciable weight fluctuations like others have? Was it because I ate a large cookie AND a mini cannoli at a surprise (to me) holiday luncheon – even though I stuck with the plan and ate the lunch I brought that day? Was it related to changing my “running” routine to increase the amount of running – maybe I was retaining due to increased muscle activity? Too much going on to determine, and as dejected as I truly got I’m happy I stayed the course and talked myself through the rough patch. Really, I’ve been through rougher patches before. I’ll stick with the daily weighing for now because what I really look forward to is measuring, which I only do once a month. I can’t wait until next week to measure!

Will be continuing with the AM workouts until at least the third week in January, my last week covering for the person who is out on leave. As long as the cold weather is in effect, if I’m mostly doing gym workouts I might try to stick with the AM workouts throughout the winter. It’s difficult with my job. As long as I’m at this alternate work site or working independently at my regular work location, it’s doable. However, there are days when I absolutely must be in by 7:30 AM at the latest, and due to many factors I wouldn’t get to work on time those days even if I met the person opening the gym at 5:00 AM. In some ways, I can’t wait to be running my entire workout, because I get enough out of a 45 minute run and getting the 15 minutes back makes a difference! (If I miss the train to work by 30 seconds or 5 minutes, I still miss the train!)

I think today will be my 23rd consecutive day of cardio. Once again it is a beautiful day for December and since my workouts, especially the outdoor ones, are also my meditation I will be going to walk on the trail I’ve been walking the past few Sundays. This area trail is particularly challenging with the hills so I get a great walk in, and since it’s a 5-mile loop I’m guaranteed to get a nice workout!

I’ve got a lot of cookie baking to accomplish in the next few days. I made cookies last night and I did not sample a one even though some dough sampling may have been inevitable! So I’m glad I’m ahead of schedule with the weight goal. I've planned as best I could for the coming week, including taking control of the Christmas dinner.

Whether you’ve decided to keep trucking through the holidays or you’re strategically standing down in maintenance mode, both are work – so I wish everyone the strength to continue your journey through the end of the month and the end of the year !

@mmdeveau Thank you so much for the idea! I have now changed my username from lindaporter2018 to BrownSugar174🥰

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory." - Dr. Seuss

My weight loss journey is and will continue to be a valuable memory!

I had a little NSV at my seasonal job today! I work in a women’s plus size department store and a coworker of mine had brought some dresses to give away and a coworker came out and was like “you probably wouldn’t fit these, you’re more like a size 14 or 16, right?” And I beamed haha. I’m a size 18, but I have always felt waaay bigger than I looked, so for her to assume I was a few dress sizes smaller was really flattering and a confident boost.

December goals
99.9kg - again! currently 100.2, surely I can do this!!currently 98.6kg, looking good!
average cals under 1950 a day (before exercise) - last month was 1965 can't do the maths at the moment but looking on track for this one
average snacks under 23% - last month was 23.5% also on track for this one
meditate 3 times a week - been doing this on and off for a while on track for this one too!! woohoo!

I'm going to London in 10 days time for six months, will be socialising a lot but also will have lots of time for walks in the park so I usually lose weight when I'm there. But means I want to get under 100kg before I get on the plane friday week. i made it under 100kg for the plane, now to keep it going until the end of the month

Late posting my progress. It was a busy weekend with family. We had an early Christmas with one of my sisters because she won’t be able to join the family Christmas.

Height: 5’4”
SW: 307
CW: 12/2 - 223.8
12/9 - 220.6
12/14 - 217.6 (Birthday Week-end 🥳)
12/21 - 217
GW: 165
December GW: 219 (actually exceeded it!)

I’m trying to enjoy my holiday and not lose focus on my goals. I was able to raid my sister’s closet for clothing to support on my weight loss journey. Really helps not having to buy new clothes. She also gave me three fantastic outfits to choose from for New Year’s Eve! I told I may have to do a costume change 😂

Hope everyone has a very Happy Holiday🎄🎅🏽‼️