Relapsers getting Real Healthy Accountability group- 2020-2021

Oh and @dukare congrats on the amazing nights’ sleep! I only dreamed of those for months with #2 child, so looks like you have it cracked!

@roxinronni - how's the caffeine withdrawal going? Great job on hitting 10k steps for a few days - how's that goal going for you?
@ClearNotCloudyMind - would you find any satisfaction in finding some healthy-ish (or healthier) recipes that you could make & enjoy that would fit in with how you're trying to eat? I know it's not everyone's thing, but I like doing that sometimes. (For example, I occasionally will make brownies that have a base of black beans instead of flour - they taste a little different, but I enjoy them.)
@Dukare - congrats on getting more sleep! So exciting! And getting close to 220! Did you get some Jazzercize in?
@melichalup - that's great that you've got that free yoga benefit - hope you're able to find an instructor or two that you really like.

So I had a good day today - ate light calorie wise due to yesterday's debacle. I'm a bit tired and trying to work up the energy to walk for an hour on the treadmill. I think I'll go do that & put on the episode of Grey's Anatomy from yesterday that I need to watch. Planning on a high activity day tomorrow to try and make the most of my weekend. My steps haven't been as high this week, but still averaging about 11k/day (not counting today so far).

Checking in. I've struggled the past few days with clean eating (mostly due to stress), but since yesterday I'm back on track. I still avoid sugar (but not carbs in general) which helps immensly with my craving.

@melichalupa I love roasted chickpeas! Beans in general are amazing and keep me very satisfied.
I don't think it's bad to eat too few calories every once in a while. The whole thing with "it slows down your metabolism" seems very unscientific to me and it doesn't really make any sense.
The worst part is if it makes you super hungry and triggers a binge.

I have to work now, but I will go for a walk later and try to get in some steps.

@HealthyTrent Change really is hard. I also struggle with a bedtime routine, even though I usually have to get up at 6.30 in the morning.

Been good about my workouts all week but still struggling with my diet. Trying to remind myself that I may not lose every week but may have some other type of improvement (muscle build, or stamina).
@HealthyTrent I would try to use the same scale at the same time whenever you weigh in. Even if it's not perfectly accurate it'll be consistent and don't worry about being up a bit if you're weighing daily thats to be expected
@NikaIris I'm impressed with your sugar avoiding thats my biggest struggle I am a sugar addict
@ClearNotCloudyMind I'm behind on Grey's. I recently started watching Shameless it's my newest binge
Have a great weekend everyone!

Good morning everyone! It’s a glorious day and we’re about to head out to get the Christmas tree. We decorate the cake later and it really feels like the holidays are starting! Thank goodness where I am is staying in Tier 2... I feel so sorry for folks in the southeast who are now fully locked down 🙁

Looking up at all the posts recently it sounds like we’re all struggling with either the food or the activity part of being healthy. For me, this time of year makes me want to hibernate so curling up with tea and a blanket is the way forwards. I’m another fan of white tea and it does suppress the appetite like magic, so been mixing that up with blue lady (my favourite) and orange blossom oolong (festive). Will try to fit in something active every day but frankly, if the weather is rubbish I’ll just stick to managing my intake!

Hoping you all are enjoying your Sundays, and may your Xmas prep be jolly!

I was so thrilled to see a big drop on the scale this morning - I've been bouncing around the last week up and down, and today it was down another 3.2 pounds. I'm super close to 15 pounds lost! My stretch goal for the end of December is to hit 230, with a more realistic goal being 232 - but I'm going to keep trying! It would be amazing to end the year at 230 or less. I walked 5 miles on the treadmill yesterday in 1 hour and 40 minutes (I'd put a movie on) - I may do the same today.

@MyEvolvingJourney - welcome! we're similar heights, I'm between 5'3" and 5'4". I originally started weight back when (like 10 years ago) at around 226 and got down to the mid to upper 160s, and then by this year I'd regained it all and more up to 250 by this November. I'm looking forward to making some permanent lifestyle changes - I'm on my way, already down to the mid 230s!

@Gold6767 - yeah, I normally weight every day when I wake up 1st thing on the same scale, but I got frustrated yesterday and pulled the other scale out. I've gone back to sticking with the scale I've been using. That's great to focus on some of your non-scale related improvements.

@Gefiun - I've got 2 dogs, and they're both doing well. The beagle (Elvis) was the one who wasn't feeling great last week, but he's back to eating normally. The other dog, a Shar-Pei (Shifu) gets to go to the vet tomorrow for a dental visit that's way overdue. That's fantastic that you're focused on making sure you track everything. It's so tempting to skip things sometimes, but tracking consistently is such an important starting point for permanent change! Hope you can get your walk in today.

@ClearNotCloudyMind - It's funny your talking about different types of tea; I've been really trying to drink a lot more lately. We amassed a big collection between my wife and my combined households, then we got more as a wedding gift and then more as other presents over the years, and just didn't drink enough to make a dent in our collection. I'm working on having a few cups of herbal tea a day (no caffeine usually) to get more liquid in and start chipping away at our tea.

@HealthyTrent congratulations on your successes... they had to come given how hard you were working but it’s great to really see it in numbers!

@MyEvolvingJourney welcome! I’m just a bit taller than you, 5’5 and have bounced up and down the scales over the years. It’s different when you’ve seen success before... I’m finding myself a mix of distrustful of the loss and worried because I know how hard the next kg are going to be to shift! On the other hand I already know what works and at least I have a stash of old clothes to get out so it’s saving me ££!

Tea glorious tea! It’s been my big discovery over the past 10 years just how much I love the stuff. As a kid I could take it (preferably with biscuits) or leave it but as I tried out different types and started skipping the milk it’s been a glory of lovely flavours and warmth (dropping weight makes me chilly). It’s nice to have treats that are healthy (ish)!

Today for the first time I saw 73kg (my mini-goal) on the scale. It’s a cheap one so that shows lower when I lean left so it was back up to 73.5 when I pulled it into the middle of the floor and stood square but still... that would have been unthinkable even a few weeks ago. It’s so unbelievably motivating to think I might hit 73 and do my reward clothing dive this weekend, it might even get me through Xmas without stuffing my face. Thank goodness for lockdown and fewer nights out eh?!

Wishing you all a lovely winter solstice, will raise a mug to you all later!

Hey all! I wrote this big long response to everything and then I ended up getting a fussy choking baby and it went poof before I could submit...so then I was pooped and didn't rewrite haha.

I'm still busy and pooped so I'll just say: I'm loving seeing you guys persevere!! It is inspirational and I have full faith that y'all will make magic happen this Christmas!!!

I haven't gotten workouts in, but I have managed to get the house semi ready for the holiday week, and I have managed to remember all my multivitamins etc. - I'm anemic so that Iron really makes or breaks my day I'm finding....

Got some bathrooms to clean and floors to mop, maybe do the cookie makings (if not in January), so that's all I'm going to focus on for now.

Jan/Feb the baby will be that much older and we can really get into the groove of things! I'm happy to see my weight staying down- I'm sort of controlling... ...ish.

Holidays help because leftovers and good food planned ha, but also not, because junk deliciousness... *shrug* I'll take and enjoy, 2020 was one heck of a year!!

Oh @Dukare I feel you on the lost post... ive done that more than once! Sounds like you’ve a good plan for the holidays -and the baby will get easier every day!

@laurenebargar welcome! I’m not sure about the others but I think most of us are pretty new. Sounds like your story is familiar... I know the feeling of trying really hard to lose weight but barely keeping maintenance. Sounds like your goals are realistic and we’ll be cheering you on!

@HealthyTrent I only wish the 73kg was real! It was down to a cheap scale on a wonky floor, but I’m optimistic I will really be there by the weekend. For one thing... I’m not sure I want to lose weight that fast 😏. Hope you thoroughly enjoyed your fancy coffee and that your dog is fully recovered from the vets. That solstice festival sounds amazing. We visited Boulder back in 1989 and I vividly remember how stunning the rockies were. Wonder if my great aunt and uncle (who lived there) ever went to your festival...

Today has been pretty good exercise-wise for me. Not on the level some of you manage... 8.5k steps walking into town, a sensible lunch has and a light supper to come. I’m pretty sure I’ve shrunk my stomach, as I’m simply not that hungry at the mo on rather restricted calories. Makes it so much easier not to graze (normally my Achilles heel). Christmas cake marzipan layer done now and the scraps were turned into fruits rather than “tasted” thank goodness. Will finish the decorating tomorrow once the marzipan has dried out a bit. It’s my first Xmas cake... can you tell I’m excited?!

Hello All— Happy Monday and Holiday week! Hope you are having a lovely day Snack food season is pulling up, and it's time for us to motivate each other to keep going and remember that there is only few 'junk' food days, and a small handful of days will not make or break our long term goals!

I kind of fell off of checking in on the weekend, but I did manage to track my calories and get in some exercise. I am pretty happy that I have been sticking to my plan for the most part. I'm still at a deficit other than Friday. Why— oh why— are Fridays so hard! 😩 I had some food I couldn't track, but I did end up doing a bit of elliptical before heading to work Friday morning. Small changes, but I have noticed I am way less bloated already. I am worried for tomorrow though, it's my partners Birthday and DINNER and CAKE are going to be all around. I just need to eat in moderation, wish me luck! 😬

Thanks @melichalupa and @Dukare I love the suggestions! Chai tea is one of my faves, such a cozy tea and love the natural sweetness it has. I have never tried Ito En tea, but I LOVE Japanese green teas like Matcha and Genmaicha, so you have piqued my interest @Dukare . I finally received a mass tea order I placed a few weeks back with lots of fun new flavours so I'm excited!
I'm glad you made it to your Yoga class @melichalupa , enjoy your virtual classes, it's a great way to stay motivated! I am slightly giggling thinking about the awkward angles though. Oh boy! Haha.

@ClearNotCloudyMind Sorry to hear you are feeling a bit down in regards to Christmas Baking . I'm not sure if this helps, but have you thought of giving out your baking as Christmas gifts to family or do you have anyone you can pawn it off on haha? That way you can have a small taste of it and the fun from baking. This is such a hard time of year to stay on track, so just remember a day or two won’t totally derail you. Maybe you could also freeze the leftovers for a special occasion too! I know easier said than done, but it may help with moderation.

@HealthyTrent Hello! The Caffeine withdrawal is going surprisingly well. I was lucky enough to avoid any headaches. I never was a huge coffee drinker, but I was feeling pretty light headed and funky for a week there. I went down from two tea bags to one so that's great! Finally getting 7hrs of sleep on week nights as opposed to about 3 to 4, so I am happy! Nice work getting closer to your goal, 3.2lbs is amazing, all those steps are really pulling through!

@Gefiun My goal is going great so far, thanks for asking! I have really been pushing for 10k a day most days, but still being realistic that I might not get that every day. I really wish I could tell you I wasn't feeling SUPER HUNGRY lately lmao, but that would be a lie! I seriously eat breakfast or lunch, get full and then find myself starving in an hour. A little embarrassing, but I need to find some easy/portable/healthy snacks to take to work. I just bought these miniature cute baby avocados which I can just throw in my bag and take to work for a quick snack, but of course I forgot it today. That does seem to do the trick though! Funny thing for me is I notice I am so much hungrier weekdays, maybe it's a stress thing… I forget to eat as much on the weekend unless its Friday night. Your diet soda sounds delicious though and glad you had a productive Saturday! Totally hear you on binge watching YouTube, glad you were able to avoid it this weekend and get done what you wanted to, such a great feeling! All good sleeping in, we all need to take a break from the daily grind, this had been a rough year.

And welcome @MyEvolvingJourney and @laurenebargar ! Feel free to lean on us for support It sounds like you both have some super clear goals that are attainable. I get the feeling of wanting to get back in control, this thread has been super motivating and helpful in being accountable. I joined about a week ago, so I'm fairly new as well. We got this!

I was just scrolling through some of the other community chats and someone asked a question about updating for info as you lose weight and I had not thought of that but it makes sense. Soooo I adjusted my goals with where I am now and it lowered my daily calorie goal by 60. Not that much of a difference but hopefully I can adjust to that. I know, my timing is brilliant lol. Does anyone else update that info or had a change in goals? Has anyone else had MFP adjust it automatically for you?

Hi all! I'm in a great mood today because I passed the 15# lost threshold this morning. I've walked 5 miles per day over the last 3 days (Sat/Sun/Mon) - I won't be hitting that today as I'm working all day (took yesterday afternoon off) and have a blister on my heel from a loose shoe. My stepcount those days was 17.5k, 19k, 16.2k. This is the most consistent I've been with tracking my food and with getting in regular activity, so I'm very pleased with myself.

@Dukare - happy to see you pop in! So sorry about the lost post... that's so annoying.

@laurenebargar - welcome! Sounds like you've got some great goals to work towards. I struggle with portion control on things like pizza too - I live alone though, which makes things a lot less complicated. I haven't had pizza since I started this about a month ago, but am planning on doing a homemade pizza in my next grocery order.

@ClearNotCloudyMind - hope your cake turned out well!

@Gold6767 - I'm trying to make early mornings a thing, but I really struggle. I didn't make it today... yesterday was a bit of an anomaly, but one I'll be trying hard to make happen more often. I'm a bit of a nerd, so I'm actually tracking my calories in/out as sourced from MFP and FitBit on a spreadsheet to calculate what I theoretically should be losing if not for the impact of water weight, etc. I update my weight daily on FitBit, so it automatically adjusts the formula for how many calories I burn based on my new weight. That's similar to updating the MFP goals with your new info - I just do it daily! LOL. I do know that you can definitely expect adjustments to your goals as your weight changes. I think MFP will prompt you every once in awhile as a reminder to adjust.

@roxinronni - good job tracking what you could & getting some exercise, even if you weren't checking in. That's great to notice the small changes.

Checking in... in the evening for once! It was a really active day, with a lovely hack out with my daughter and then a walk with my son. Horrid mud but it’s December so 🤷‍♀️. Food was good too. My son chose a Gordon Ramsay steak fajita recipe which turned out delicious and I managed to keep to just one tortilla wrap, which kept it all within budget, so woo!!!

@HealthyTrent those are fantastic step counts, no wonder you have a blister! Hope it heals soon. And do send that lovely weather our way... we need something to cheer us up in England.

@laurenebargar oh pizza, how I love it! We have a super local pizzeria who have delivered through the lockdowns. I tell myself that it can’t be that bad as they’re really lighthanded with the cheese. A sneaky help: my husband really doesn’t count pizza as “real food” so we don’t have it anywhere near often enough. Not that Indian or Thai is any better.

@Gold6767 I manually updated my goals after losing a bit and it knocked 100 cals off my budget for the same 0.5kg/W rate. Nearly down at the dreaded 1200 cal minimum now. I remember not updating last time years ago (I didn’t know) and so inadvertently overate (and wondered why my weight loss slowed down). I guess as we get lighter we ARE finding it easier to move about so it makes sense that we need fewer calories for normal life.

@roxinronni great stuff and keep it going... all the small victories and good choices have to add up in the end!

The cake is half-iced... marzipan layer should have dried out by now so off to do the fondant now. Been too busy all day to tackle it. Scale still lying to me from its corner spot but now I’m wise to it’s tricks and super-excited about seeing 73 for real by the weekend.

ClearNotCloudyMind wrote: »

Checking in... in the evening for once! It was a really active day, with a lovely hack out with my daughter and then a walk with my son. Horrid mud but it’s December so 🤷‍♀️. Food was good too. My son chose a Gordon Ramsay steak fajita recipe which turned out delicious and I managed to keep to just one tortilla wrap, which kept it all within budget, so woo!!!

@HealthyTrent those are fantastic step counts, no wonder you have a blister! Hope it heals soon. And do send that lovely weather our way... we need something to cheer us up in England.

@laurenebargar oh pizza, how I love it! We have a super local pizzeria who have delivered through the lockdowns. I tell myself that it can’t be that bad as they’re really lighthanded with the cheese. A sneaky help: my husband really doesn’t count pizza as “real food” so we don’t have it anywhere near often enough. Not that Indian or Thai is any better.

@Gold6767 I manually updated my goals after losing a bit and it knocked 100 cals off my budget for the same 0.5kg/W rate. Nearly down at the dreaded 1200 cal minimum now. I remember not updating last time years ago (I didn’t know) and so inadvertently overate (and wondered why my weight loss slowed down). I guess as we get lighter we ARE finding it easier to move about so it makes sense that we need fewer calories for normal life.

@roxinronni great stuff and keep it going... all the small victories and good choices have to add up in the end!

The cake is half-iced... marzipan layer should have dried out by now so off to do the fondant now. Been too busy all day to tackle it. Scale still lying to me from its corner spot but now I’m wise to it’s tricks and super-excited about seeing 73 for real by the weekend.

Haha we never really order pizza or anything either, my husband really prefers home cooked meals (not that those are always low calorie) so when he does want to order out I dont object, but I do my fair share at my office job, something that I plan on stopping starting now! You should post a picture ofthe cake when you are done! I plan on decorating and making a cake Christmas eve for fun!

Ahh... went off track a bit yesterday with some late night snacking (I have this big bag of sour candy from pre-trying-to-lose-weight) and I made a good dent in it last night. But - I did log everything. I think last night I was just tired and stressed because of my pup who had 11 teeth pulled, but he's doing better today and I'll stay the course. I'm in a stepbet challenge, so I have to be active the rest of the week or I'll be disqualified (don't want to lose my $$!). I took yesterday as my do-nothing day this week.

An NSV - so far this month I've spent less than $250 on food, which is waaaaaaay better than previous months and less than I have budgeted for it! It's amazing how quickly fast food / delivery adds up. I should be good with what I have through the end of the month, and some of what I spent $ on will last beyond Dec. I might pick up something to make myself a holiday treat, as I've not had any holiday cookies/cakes/etc. this season, but that won't add up to too much. I'll schedule my next grocery pickup for the weekend of the 2nd/3rd - I'm finding every 2 weeks is working well.

@ClearNotCloudyMind - the steak fajita wraps sound really tasty!
@Gefiun - sometimes just staying the course with tracking is all we can do, but it's a really great foundation to have!
@Gold6767 - the strike situation does sound stressful! Good job sticking with your plan despite the stress and the potluck requests... saying no can be difficult!