Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery @WhatMeRunning.

So interesting to hear everyone's story. I joined MFP May 17/20 when my daughter told me about it. I basically logged on, crossed my fingers and jumped in. I've learned a lot -- but still have to lose a lot. I have no intention of quitting, neither MFP nor UAC. I found the UAC in June, 2020. Although I joined each subsequent month's UAC, I've only been actively participating for the 2 summers, 2020 & 2021. Fall/winter last year brought gallstones and emergency surgery to have my gallbladder removed. I went back to work after a week thinking it would be okay since I was working from home. It wasn't; I was too tired at the end of the work day and did a lot of laying around until the end of April. I asked my husband to open the pool early so I could get back to exercising. I started swimming again April 27, 2021 and got back to being active on MFP May 15/21, two days before my one year MFP anniversary. I'm not sure if I've shared that I have plantar fasciitis, but it's pretty bad and it limits me. And yes, I am in treatment for it.

Today I exercised, logged everything, but went over in calories. The win however is that I logged it all; it can be a point of reference for the future. Pass day #3.

October 12

Hello! I've had MFP for a few years now; I wasn't consistently using it in the past. But since a few months back I've been more serious about it. But I can say that when I do use it, I can see changes happening. This time around I decided to join this group and that has helped a lot.

✅ Exercise - dance workout video
✅ Calories
✅ Tracked

2 Pass Days Used

Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? 66 min walk, 20 min Peloton
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

Pass days used- 3

Officially started here again Jan 28, 2021. I had another account before I'm sure but wasn't very active. I also used to use Sparkpeople in 2006/7 timeframe.

I use MFP community a ton now which makes all the difference. The social aspect is key to me and checking in makes me feel accountable.

10/12
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? 👍🏻
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? 👍🏻
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? 👍🏻
Used 2 passes
Left 1 pass
~~~~~~~~
October goals
- Miracle Morning daily.
- yoga and strength training at least 3x weekly.
- average 30g or fewer net carbs per day
- No LNS daily, ONLY fruits

October 12

Tracking - yes

Calories - yes

Exercise - did a 75 minute walk with the pup. We have many jackrabbits here and our 65 pound puppy would pull off my arm trying to race off to catch one. This is the final frontier of walk training for us and my arm is killing me! He wears a head harness system that clearly isn’t sending deterrent signals as strong as his desire for rabbits.

Track: yes
Calories: yes
Exercise: yes

• Treadmill: 24 mins / 1.46 mi (not my best effort)

Passes used: 0/3

I am amazed people can be so detailed about their MFP dates. I was going to say I most recently joined last year but when I checked my profile it turned out to be Jan 2019. I had another account several years back but forgot the password and what email I had used. Tried to retrieve via several emails with no success. In the past I've only tracked for a month or two and then quit because it became tedious. Now I try to streamline entries, create recipes for things I frequently make (copying/tweaking as needed) so it isn't so time consuming. I even create recipes for the dishes I most frequently eat at restaurants in the regular rotation so I can more easily modify the full meal.

Last October I started the weight reduction. At first I just weighed food to ensure proper portion sizes but then in November I started logging my food. I was actively looking for challenges and saw this group which I started in December. It has been extremely beneficial for creating the daily habit of exercise more than anything else for me. As long as this group (and myself of course) exists I'll be here.

I stay because I need the logging. I'm hoping to resume my busy travel schedule again next year and to stay in shape I'm going to have to be a little more strict even when away.

The only thing about MFP that I can't figure out is why most groups that are created don't seem to get any traction. I would prefer the groups over the main boards but the few times I've joined them in the past they had no activity. This one is an exception.

Oct 12
Exercise - 15 minute MommaStrong video, 20 minutes walking while on the phone with a friend - didn't have time for the usual 30 minute walk, so walked the same route but faster. It was such a beautiful fall day!
Tracking - Planned and followed the plan
Calories - Under
Pass Days - 1 so far
I have to say when I succeed in all the UAC things on my low calorie days (ideally M-Th in my new plan), the scale is cooperating so beautifully with a slow and steady loss. I am considering skipping my high calorie day on Friday - nothing in particular to celebrate this week - and then maybe I will actually see a net loss for the week.

I am really enjoying reading everyone's journey with this website and other programs. I haven't read all the posts - I will have to circle back to that later.

My story is:
In 2004ish, when I was 24ish, I decided to try to lose weight. A friend recommended Weight Watchers, and I joined online. I didn't feel like I had time for in-person meetings and I didn't really want to. As @slimtastesbetter said, back then points were based on calories and I learned a lot about nutrition and it was very helpful. They had forums and I engaged with them and that helped too. I lost the weight within about a year. I think online only members didn't qualify for the free "lifetime" membership, and I kept paying for online membership until around 2010. I entered my weight weekly, but never used it for tracking points/calories because they kept changing the rules for how that worked and I didn't understand it anymore. My maintenance rules were to track when my weight crept up above a certain number. I would track calories in a notebook.

Sometime in the late 2000s I found mydailyplate.com, which is now MyPlate. I started using that instead of the notebook for tracking calories when I needed to track, and switched my weight tracking over to there. After a while of that I stopped paying for weight watchers online.

After getting pregnant in 2011, I stopped trying to track calories ever. I still used mydailyplate to track my weight weekly. In 2017, they switched form being a website to being an app only, and I didn't yet have a smartphone and didn't want to do everything on a smartphone. So I stopped using it and moved my weight tracking over to my own spreadsheet.

Around that time, I still wasn't ready to track calories but I started occasionally wanting to figure out calories in a recipe, and I found that myfitnesspal did a really good job of that. So I joined and used it only for that.

In 2019, I started trying to lose "the baby weight" for real, but didn't start with calorie tracking. I found a group on Facebook associated with eatingwell magazine that had weekly check-ins and support and I was posting there and found that very helpful. Then it disappeared last summer I think.

In February of 2021, I had plateaued in my efforts to lose weight without counting calories and decided I was ready to begin counting. I looked around for the best website and app to do that, and found that it was MFP, which I was already a a member of. I paid for Premium and started using it for tracking. Last month when I was feeling like I really needed more regular check-ins and support I found this group and it has been fantastic!

I had some time this morning and went back through all the posts so many of us have followed the same paths trough life and we all ended up here. The common theme seems to be we all started and left for a reason but when we became serious about our health and wellness we returned.

This group keeps me focused and accountable along with the Hogwarts challenge I am a GRYFINDOR and the Game of Thrones challenge, I have been able to increase in so many areas I struggled with due to past injuries but I now have a I can and I will attitude which keeps me moving forward.

As far as maintenance goes I think and I could be wrong but once one adapts to your new way of eating and if you fluctuate by a few lbs one way or the other you are there. I have a goal and am almost there but I am not so worried about the scale number anymore it’s just about where I want it but…it would be nice to have it stay there maybe that’s the piece I am missing regarding maintenance.