Hi. I’m Rachel. I’ve been on the F2F challenge since January. Being part of the community helped me to lose 50 pounds. I have another 15 to 20 pounds that I would like to see fall off by spring of 2022. If I like how I look and feel at that weight I’ll stick to it. I look fit at the weight I’m at now. For me, eating healthy and exercising makes me feel great. When I eat junk food, I feel awful and my body confidence plummets.
My goal will be to avoid unhealthy eating habits for at least the next two weeks. I have a vacation planned in two weeks and I may eat out on it and splurge a bit. I enjoy eating unhealthy food in the moment, but it’s how I feel afterwards that I need to remember is the reason I should avoid it. More about me, I’m a school teacher, married with two teenagers and dogs. My hobby is biking and functional fitness training.
@minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott I can be a team motivator if you still need one. But I may be absent for at least one week in July when I go on my vacation.
For me, weight loss started with my decision to lose the weight and regain control of my unhealthy lifestyle. I need to remember that if I am to keep to the healthy lifestyle path.

Good morning WNM! Welcome to July (4 days early) everyone!

I'm Melanie and I'm from Kansas. I’m the other team Co-captain. Truly, Ashley does most of the heavy lifting.

I was always was skinny (no, not thin, skinny, all knees and elbows). At 18, I weighed between 110 and 120 at 5"6'. Maybe. When I got married at 24…I weighed maybe 160. But I was a happier person. I've got none of the reasonable reasons for gaining...no kiddos, just the husband. I got out of school (no more climbing those KU hills all the time), started working more sedentary jobs, started eating more, snacking, until about 5 years ago August, when I found myself weighing in about 230 and my six sixteens were too small. I bought a couple pairs of 18 pants from the thrift store and joined MFP.

I lost 70 pounds in about a year and was pretty pleased. But I wanted another 20 off...and it didn't move. And things got a bit crazy with my husband's family (we won’t talk about that—it always leads to crazy-pants ranting)...so I decided to maintain for a bit and then come back. What came back was most of the weight. So...now I'm here and working on losing 70 pounds (the 50 I 'found' and the 20 I never lost). I joined WNM last summer. Had some success in the weight loss area and then vertigo hit and it's been rough.

My special snowflake challenges
I'm fairly significantly asthmatic (on meds all the time), have terrible allergies and connective tissue issues (not enough collagen, too stretchy, lots of joint slippage...sublaxations are BAD). In August, I acquired some vertigo problems (or, maybe they just got worse)... I switched ENT’s and he thinks I have labrynthitis. No severe vertigo since March but lots of less severe dizzy spells. I can handle those. I try not to be too optimistic—optimism just makes what happens next that much worse. The point behind saying this is not woe-is-me, it is that a lot of exercise people promote is bad, and sometimes dangerous, for me.

So...mostly, I walk. I do a bit of yoga now and then (though it isn't recommended with the connective tissue thing...but feels good. Love up and down dog...) and have pilates vids I do sometimes. I should do these more and strength training (can be good for connective tissue issues) but I'm still not there yet. A few times a year, I go all out at gardening (it is that time of the year, if only it would stop raining...I keep thinking I will do some YouTube LesMills BodyFlow videos…I like those a lot. But haven’t done it. Still thinking about it…

My 2021 Goal
My 2020 goal was Wonderland…but that was before the asthma insanity of the end of November and three rounds of Prednisone. Did NOT Happen. I’m there ish now. So…WOOT!

I have a closet full of size 10's that I want to wear.
Back to Wedding Weight before the end of the year. Maybe lower...

Daily goals:
Walk at least 30 minutes a day or do an exercise video. (Weekends are either really good for exercise or really bad...)
Get back to doing core exercises every day. (MUST START THIS MONTH! I know...I said this last month...this time I mean it!)
80 oz of water or non-alcoholic liquid a day, mostly water. (I don't drink much in the way of alcohol generally, but just clarifying...long, ugly family history of substance abuse makes me very cautious)
Cut down on sugar and junk food (reducing sugar is generally helping, I turn into the munch monster when I eat candy...see: cookie monster's blond sister...)

Twyla77
Week 1
Weigh In Day: Sunday June 27
Previous Weight: 144
Today’s Weight: 145

Happy New Month, Everybody! So happy to see all the new faces in the chat (and the old ones too, not that I'm calling anyone old, I swear)!

I am minstrelofsarcasm, also known as Minstrel, also known as Ashley, also known as "that sweaty girl in the corner"... I am one of the co-captains along with the ever-marvelous @melaniedscott. My role here is to provide some real talk, some good motivation, and a few too many jokes about stress eating for anyone's comfort levels.

The Basics:

I am 25 and currently living in Ohio. I work as a combustion engineer for an industrial manufacturing company (I set things on fire for money). I am fascinated by all facets of science, whether that be nuclear physics, nutrition, geology (I hear it rocks), chemistry, etc. Feel free to ask any of your questions when it comes to the science of things. I can't guarantee I'll know the answer, but I can definitely figure it out and provide an answer in a way that's (hopefully) understandable.

Why I am Here:

I love numbers, and when I discovered that I could get healthier (as my doctor told me I absolutely had to do) by keeping track of numbers, I signed up for MFP. My original weight was 8lbs 2oz, and while I don't think I'll ever make it quite that low ever again, my goal is to never be above my highest weight of 234 (September 2014).

Despite having joined this wonderful community, I didn't take my weight loss or my health seriously until after I graduated college in May 2017 and was told by a different doctor that my eating and (lack of) exercise habits put me on the road to diabetes. I'll admit, I was terrified. I grew up with a diabetic parent who took no actions towards improving their health to reduce their dependence on insulin and is now facing some very serious health complications. I didn't want that to happen to me - I wouldn't want to put anyone through having to worry about me in the same way I worried about them.

So I searched "gym" on Google Maps, and signed up for a free class with the first place that popped up in the results, a spin studio. Since July 1st, 2017, I have completed over 910 spin classes. I guess you can say they hooked me.

In other news, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in December 2019 after an arduous journey from doctor to doctor, through several misdiagnoses (why is it that the first thing a doctor will suggest is anxiety if you're female and show emotion in the doctor's office?), 14 vials of blood drawn for blood tests, 3 weeks of being unable to consistently feel the left side of my body, 2 MRIs, 1 spinal tap, and a partridge in a pear tree. I could go into a long rant about everything, and I have, but there's no need to fill my introduction with things I've written time and time again (I'll post a link to my blog, for those of you interested in my madness).

In Summary:

Since joining MFP, I have lost over 70 lbs, regained about 15 while on a three-month business trip in France (wine and cheese is my weakness), lost 5 of them, gained 5 of them, maintained throughout 2020, yo-yo'ed for the first few months of 2021, and here I stand (sit) at 168 lbs, a good 66 net lbs lost. I don't have a goal weight anymore, since BMI was developed by a mathematician and not a doctor, and as long as I feel healthy, I can weigh whatever I want (somewhere in the 150's sounds pretty good right now, but I guess we'll see).

As for exercising, I still have a membership to the spin studio, but I also do regular functional training HIIT classes to build up some resistance training on top of my strong cardio regimen. I'm aiming to hit my 1000th spin class by the end of September.

If you want to know more about me, or my journey, feel free to ask questions, or you can find my blog here: LINK

Blog posts I’m especially proud of:

• Creating a Sense of Accountability - This is my first blog post ever, and I’ve grown a lot since then, but so many of the same factors are still present in my life
• Timeline of a Post Vacation Bloat - Follow how my weight fluctuates throughout the week after my return from a short vacation, and the factors that I believe played a role in each shift
• BMI is BS - I essentially wrote a history lesson on BMI and why you shouldn’t base your self worth on it. Most likely, your BMI is misrepresenting you.

I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you even more as we work our way through the month.

My name is Patsy. I have been here for a few years (not really counting) and have learned a lot from all the members. I joined with the intention of losing about 20 pounds and succeeded with the first 5 or so, then in March 2020 - yes just before Covid shut everything down - was diagnosed with liver cancer and advised to maintain for the duration of treatments. The first four months I was on chemo and I was hungry all the time. I ate more than ever before and my energy increased so I was always moving. I have managed to stay within 5 pounds of my starting weight and the doctors are happy with that. Yes, I am different than most people! Anyway, the chemo stabilized the cancer but no progress toward shrinking it. I started on Keytruda (you've probably seen the commercials on TV) at the end of July and the tumor has shrunk by ~90%~. I am so happy with that and hoping the today's scan is clear! The end is in sight and I can get back to losing those 15 - 20 pounds.
I am 68, married 51 years (this August) and we have two grown children and two teenage grandchildren. I was skinny as a child and could eat anything and did. I weighed 99 pounds when I got pregnant the first time and again the second time. I only kept 5 of those pounds after that. I slowly gained weight through my 20s and 30s while being very active taking care of my kids. Then I got an office job and sitting at a desk eating nuts and drinking Coke everyday was the trigger for weight gain though it was very slow and the doctors told me not to worry. My highest weight was 179 about four years ago. I was at 167 when I found this group in November 2018 and my lowest was 156 sometime last year.
We can do this if we put our minds to it!

I'd like to change my weigh-in day to Monday. Is that alright?

User name: Pizzafruit
Weigh-in day: Monday
PW: 274.4
CW: 275.0

I need to shed the idea that I have until mid-week to weigh-in after the weekend. I need to face the truth and remind myself that on Mondays I am accountable.

pizzafruit wrote: »

I'd like to change my weigh-in day to Monday. Is that alright?

@pizzafruit - Not a problem!

Antiopelle wrote: »

Username: Antiopelle
Weigh In Day: Monday
PW (Previous Weight): 159.8
CW (Current Weight): 161.6

Last week, hubby and I were on holiday. Still at home of course as we were still not allowed to go to another European country without quarantine, which is impossible if you only have a week off. But we were able to do some diving despite the weather being rather nasty. I also rode my bike around in between showers. And that was a passport to "intuitive eating". I was moving so much that I thought I could get away with it. Well, not apparently (and I knew that, of course I knew). Slathering chocolate on breakfast rolls is never a good idea if you want to loose weight. Neither is drinking way more wine than one should. Neither ... ow well, never mind, you get the gist.
We had a wonderful week, and now it's back to business.

I kinda forgot to introduce myself, sorry guys

I'm Karine, 52 years old and living in tiny Belgium (yes, indeed where chocolate, waffles and Brussels sprouts come from) with hubby and two cats. I've been gaining and losing all my life as from age 14-ish. My highest weight was around 203 lbs in my mid thirties, lowest was 147 after a month of severe nervous breakdown in 2015. I felt miserable then and felt way too skinny, so I don't wanna go there again.

When Covid started last year, I simultaneously developed a frozen shoulder. This meant I couldn't go diving anymore, and I didn't ride my bike to work. For some time I kept on eating as usual and I gained slowly but surely. Since October last year, I'm trying to get back between 152 and 156 by eating less as I'm still very much restricted by my shoulder and still working from home (until August is the latest news).
The difference this time is that I'm aiming at getting there slowly slowly, almost in maintenance mode. I've also decided on a weight range instead of a fixed target. I hope this will be the final and last time to have to shed the last ones. My goal for this month is to reach 157.

Don't hesitate to ask me anything related to Europe, diving, biking, travelling or reading (love a good mystery), broken bones and running injuries (every runner becomes a biker at some point), frozen shoulders (sigh).

jugar wrote: »

Here is our July Week 1 Challenge. Take the time to reflect on each day, and plan for the next.


Join in daily at:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10836944/july-week-1-challenge-reflection-and-commitment/p1?new=1

I recommend this weeks challenge. I am struggling with my sugar addiction. I have huge cravings after I eat dinner and supper. I am going to use this reflection board to try and stave off the cravings. If I can say no for two weeks, I know they will go away. Anyone else going through this?

Welcome new team mates. I'm Tracy. I'm 49, live in New Hampshire. I have 2 boys and 2 granddaughters. I have been married for 26 years. I always gain and lose the same 5 pounds no matter what I do. I have been seeing a gi specialist, I do have ibs but they are seeing if anything else is going on. I have a virtual appointment next week with a weight loss clinic that I am looking forward to. They make you log in as a group and listen and decide if its the place you want to be before they sign you up for an actual appointment. I'm looking forward to a few days off this weekend. Maybe I can get something done.

@rachelrjh :
Thanks for the support !!

The northern part of Belgium where I live is as flat as a pancake; the southern part is hills, it's the Ardennes which in America is mostly known for the battles during WWII. But at the moment I cannot lift my bike in my car because of my shoulder, so it is all flats for me for a few months still.

pacsnc6
Week 1 Thursday weigh in
PW 161.8
cw 161.3

dbrinkmeyer
CW 187.0
Steps 62,154

I had bone grafting done in my mouth in a few places on my upper jaw. I knew it would be something serious, but I was surprised at how it really caused a major disruption to everything I was doing. Eating was most affected. I'm still not healed, but I am not in as much pain. I've been very reflective during this time looking at the lack of progress I have made compared to my younger years.

I have been asking myself which lifestyle and food choices am I prepared to live with for the remainder of my life. You can see by my steps that I am walking a lot. It is very hot here so we try to get out in the mornings before work. Yesterday there was a thunderstorm so we couldn't. I ended up walking 4 miles in the direct sun at lunchtime, and even though I had a hat, I became sick from the heat. But, a cold shower and two water bottles later I determined that I won't give up.

My food and total calories for the day is where I am making the biggest adjustment. I am quite capable of doing what I want to meet my goals, but balancing it with what my husband wants to eat and thinks about my small portions is the hardest. I am not blaming him, but I am understanding it's a big part of how I got where I am at now. I was thin when we met.