FAT 2 FIT WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE AND SUPPORT GROUP

Join

Waistaways Team Chat - February 2022

jugar
jugar Posts: 10,262 Member
edited February 2022 in Social Groups
jsd2tdoy1v7w.png

Here is your Team chat room for February 2022. This is where you weigh in every week, post your goals and progress, discuss any issues or topics of interest, share ideas, support your teammates, receive help when you need it, and dream big. Try to post often, and help each other succeed!

We have five great teams. The group and team leaders are as follows:

Our Moderators:
Liselyn - @jugar
Megan - @Megan_smartiepants1970
Ashley - @minstrelofsarcasm
Jessica - @jessicakrall8

Our Team Captains:
Downsizers - @lindamtuck2018 and @Megan_smartiepants1970
Mission Slimpossibles - @broncobuddee and @TeresaW1020
Weight No More - @minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott
WaistAways - @jugar and @ashleycarole86
Shape Shifters - @jessicakrall8 and @TheMrWobbly

Our Team Motivators:
Downsizers - @peng123 & @MeowScout
Mission Slimpossibles - @katmary71 & @trooworld
Weight No More - @rachelrjh
WaistAways - @conleywoods
Shape Shifters - @angmarie28

HOW IT ALL WORKS:
Every challenger weighs in on their chosen day, every week without fail! At the end of each week, the tallies are done to determine the team and individuals with the most weight lost. The best losers are announced with full fanfare every Sunday. The team competition is all in good spirits - may the most losing win!

We also celebrate those small, steady losses. If you lose, however small an amount, you are in the green! At the end of the month, we celebrate everyone who lost at least a bit every week. You are heading steadily towards your goal even if you aren't at the top of the weight loss leaderboard!

To make your weigh-in easy to find for your team Captains, please put it right at the top of a message, and use this format:
Username:
Weigh In Day:
PW (Previous Weight):
CW (Current Weight):

If you miss two weigh-ins in a row without asking for a break, you will be dropped from the team, so be sure to inform your team captain if you are traveling, sick, or just need some time off. If you take a break, you can be excused for a week or two, or are moved to the Support Team for longer. You can remain on the Support Team for as long as you need to. You still participate in the discussions, you can weigh in if you want to, but it will not count in the weekly tally.

Once you reach your goal weight, you join the Goal Zone! You continue to weigh in every week. If you have 2 weeks above your self-defined goal zone, you go back to the regular team to lose that amount before it builds up. You will have a chance to hone those maintenance skills and stick with your team!

In addition to your own team, there are weekly F2F Full Group CHALLENGES. You can do all or none - it's up to you. Participating adds a lot to your success, so we hope to see you there often! These can involve anything fitness, health, or nutrition - and they’ll get you moving, thinking, and learning about this journey. Check the Announcements section for full group challenges.

Let’s show our fellow challengers some F2F love! Introduce yourselves right away, and let the new month and year begin!!
«134567…14

Replies

  • jugar
    jugar Posts: 10,262 Member
    Welcome to February!

    This is our home for the month, where all of our triumphs and challenges take place. Please (re)introduce yourselves and set some goals and daily actions for the month. Focus on the small every day choices, and you will get where you want to go!

    I am Liselyn, co-captain along with @ashleycarole86 . I live in rural Québec, and I'm a retired university professor of music. My weight loss story? After being somewhat overweight for most of my life, I really packed it on while in an admin job that involved a lot of sitting, meetings, travel, and meals. I tried many times to lose, but it was not until I was 58 that I got really serious with both food and exercise. In October 2022, I'll hit 10 years on maintenance, always refining and making sure I don't have to do it all over again. Yes, it is possible to lose weight and get in shape during and after menopause!

    I know there are people on this team who have a lot to lose, others who have lost a lot and are closing in on their goals, and some who might be working on losses that are stubbornly resisting. There is much wisdom here, and the most important lesson we learn from each other time and time again is that it is not a straight shot, there will be trials and errors, and sticking with it when it feels like you have fallen off yet again is the best thing you can do for yourself. Plateaus can be good, but going back the way you came is not!

    Some helpful information/tools:
    Posting your daily updates
    We know from experience that posting daily (or as often as you can!) makes a huge difference to your success. Use any format you like to let everyone know how you are doing on your daily goals and habits. You can report on food, exercise, water, sleep, or whatever you are tracking and trying to stick with. While you're there, talk about how you are, ask questions, and if you can answer someone else, please do! Congratulate others, commiserate, enjoy someone's rant, or go ahead and rant yourself. It all helps make the kind of community where we are in each others' heads when the hand is reaching for that off-plan snack, or the couch is feeling way too inviting...

    Weighing in
    Please try to weigh in on time! When you post, put your weigh in at the TOP of a message, so it is clear and easy to find. If you cannot post your weight for whatever reason, please request a week off, or if you need a longer break, you can request to move to the "Support Team" where you can still participate but your weigh-ins will not be part of the weekly tally. This is where members who are ill, on vacation, or just needing a break can hang out for as long as needed.

    The F2F Habit Tracker
    If you want a simple place to track your most important habits, give this a try. You can see how your teammates are doing too :wink: The link is under "Announcements" on the main F2F page. Or go directly to
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14YUufrDMTT9400MRy9Q2YmuIqKS7HmyUQT1ZCqtvoW8/edit?usp=sharing

    So everyone, tell us a bit about you, your goals for the month, what steps you are going to work on. It's fun to know your name and where you live (if you're willing to share that), what brought you here, how your weight loss journey has been, and where you are headed now. Let the introductions roll!
  • ashleycarole86
    ashleycarole86 Posts: 6,305 Member
    Hi fellow teammates!

    My name is Ashley, and I am your co-captain responsible for our step challenge. Those of you currently active on the step team in January will automatically roll over to the February team with the same step goals, so if you want to make any changes to your status, just let me know. Same goes for anyone not currently logging that wants to!

    I am 35 years old, living in Airdrie, Alberta, and I'm married to fellow teammate @bowens1973. We have two cats, a dog, no kids, and we both by chance work for the same oil & gas company (although I was there first, so we didn't meet there). We work in different departments and don't interact day to day.

    I am at the one year mark in my journey on MyFitnessPal. I had a very clear-cut start date because I awoke from a bad dream and just knew it was time to turn things around. I logged in, started tracking my food, and I haven't looked back. This was probably my 1284721742th attempt to lose weight, but it's the first time I've had the confidence from the start that I was just going to do it. The only thing that really feels different this time is the sense of community. Being on here and being accountable helps me a lot! I also stopped hiding that I was trying to lose weight to my friends and family and just embraced it. I know that continuing to stay accountable will be key to my success.

    When I started a year ago, I was definitely at my highest weight ever. I am now at my lower weight early university days, and just over 10 pounds towards my quest to hit my normal BMI range. This feels VERY exciting for me. Once I get there, I'm not sure what will be next, but I imagine I'll just continue to lose and go from there. I look forward to being able to say years down the road that I've successfully maintained for a long period of time. That will feel like a very important milestone to me. But for now, it's one day at a time.

    I am also finding my inner athlete again and have really embraced the joy of movement through my journey.

    Upcoming things I'm working on / items on the horizon:
    -Knowing we'll be transitioning eventually back to partially working from the office again. My entire weight loss journey has happened at home. There have been many things about this that have made it easier on me (exercising during time I'd normally be commuting, easier access to my food, ability to walk my dog during my lunch break, etc.) Brad and I are already talking about how we'll adapt when we get back, but it will require good time management.
    -Continuing to improve my cycling fitness on the Peloton, doing my FTP re-testing every 4-6 weeks and continuing my power zone training which leads to demonstrable improvement on the bike
    -Brad and I are going to start a Peloton strength training program together
    -Continuing to work on healthy mindset, positive thinking, minimizing defeating thoughts.

    Looking forward to another month together!

  • jessicakrall8
    jessicakrall8 Posts: 5,473 Member
    The Week 1 Group Challenge for February begins Sunday, January 30th. It is now open and ready for lively discussion, information and great tips this week. Join us as we explore planning your meals each day with The Balanced Plate!

    Here's your link:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10855106/february-week-1-group-challenge-the-balanced-plate#latest

    Hope to see you there!
    Jessica :smile:
  • ashleycarole86
    ashleycarole86 Posts: 6,305 Member
    @veronica1359 Absolutely will take your name off the step challenge for February. Great weigh-in yourself yesterday. Was nice to read your intro, glad to have you here!
  • minstrelofsarcasm
    minstrelofsarcasm Posts: 2,577 Member
    giphy.gif

    We have completed another month, folks! We really knocked it out of the park in January - let's try to keep up the momentum for February! Click the links below to see our results from the last week of January and the month overall.
    January Week Four Results
    January Monthly Results

    Here's a sneak peak of how your team did...

    kwnh174slrt7.png
    cic78ixtovx0.png
  • PlaneMonkey
    PlaneMonkey Posts: 568 Member
    Welcome back Amber @Terytha! Sorry to hear life has been a bit rough for you recently too. Several individuals on the team have been dealing with quite a bit of that the past few months so this is definitely the place to share and commiserate as we all work towards better.
    Glad to see you back
  • jugar
    jugar Posts: 10,262 Member
    So yeah. We are awesome. And I think we can hit #1 this week. You with me?

    My sister @EvMakesChanges gave me a fabulous new pair of snowshoes today. I am so thrilled! I won't have to wait until I receive the stuff to repair my old ones. This week I am visiting our old happy pappy in Massachusetts, so I am not sure what chance I'll have to snowshoe, but I'll be home Thursday night. Ready to slog around like a boss.

    We are the dream team. (OK - full disclosure. This is me after watching completely incomprehensible American football for a couple of hours while trying to converse with my step mom and dad, getting nowhere on understanding either thing)

    G'Night!!

    Sunday folks, you are amazing so far. Who's up for weigh-ins Sunday-Monday??
    @graceojo999
    @Gidgitgoescrazy
    @Waifer003
    @DD265
    @kdblpn

    GO!
  • Kali225
    Kali225 Posts: 701 Member
    hello Waistaways! I went completely dark on you all in the last 2-ish weeks of December and then felt terrible about deserting you. I had a wildly unhealthy January and the shame avalanche kept gathering steam.

    I hope you'll welcome me back! The holidays were very rough for me and January has been one of the worst months at my job that I can remember (been here about 3 years). In fact, I am officially looking for a brand new job and plan to quit the current in mid-March whether I have something lined up or not!!

    @jugar thank you for your private message, I just got it. I don't think I'm ready to re-join the weekly weigh-ins yet but can you put me on support for February? And log a new starting weight somewhere of 237.4? (Oh the pain it takes to type that number.. ouch!) Sounds like @Terytha and @ells_bellz and I are in similar boats. Time for me to pick up the paddle and get rowing.

    I hope you've all been good. I caught a quick glance at the end of January's chat thread and saw some of @micki48 's sweet granddaughter. I'm sure we have some new faces, so quick about me: Kay, 27, living near Boston (or what was Boston, but is now a mess of snow mounds after the blizzard yesterday!!), working in finance, dealing with binge-eating. Been on the team since Aug 2020 I think, but some breaks in there. I decided to try Noom in the new year and still getting used to it, so I'm not logging as much on MFP itself. But I very much missed this chat and the support and hearing everyone's stories (successes, NSVs, the worst Tuesday of your life, etc).
  • gak71
    gak71 Posts: 192 Member
    I struggle with weekends and now I’ll spend the next few days trying to get back down.
  • jugar
    jugar Posts: 10,262 Member
    Kali225 wrote: »
    hello Waistaways! I went completely dark on you all in the last 2-ish weeks of December and then felt terrible about deserting you. I had a wildly unhealthy January and the shame avalanche kept gathering steam.

    I hope you'll welcome me back! The holidays were very rough for me and January has been one of the worst months at my job that I can remember (been here about 3 years). In fact, I am officially looking for a brand new job and plan to quit the current in mid-March whether I have something lined up or not!!

    @jugar thank you for your private message, I just got it. I don't think I'm ready to re-join the weekly weigh-ins yet but can you put me on support for February? And log a new starting weight somewhere of 237.4? (Oh the pain it takes to type that number.. ouch!) Sounds like @Terytha and @ells_bellz and I are in similar boats. Time for me to pick up the paddle and get rowing.

    I hope you've all been good. I caught a quick glance at the end of January's chat thread and saw some of @micki48 's sweet granddaughter. I'm sure we have some new faces, so quick about me: Kay, 27, living near Boston (or what was Boston, but is now a mess of snow mounds after the blizzard yesterday!!), working in finance, dealing with binge-eating. Been on the team since Aug 2020 I think, but some breaks in there. I decided to try Noom in the new year and still getting used to it, so I'm not logging as much on MFP itself. But I very much missed this chat and the support and hearing everyone's stories (successes, NSVs, the worst Tuesday of your life, etc).

    I am so glad you are back, Kate! I am near you this week - out in Lunenburg, but at least less far away than usual. I think it might be good for you to be on the regular team, but I'll put you on support for now. Let me know if you want to clip the binges and take the good with the bad on the regular team. It does not have to be all roses and sunshine.

    Worst Tuesday of my life? Or at least my fitness life? Creeping through the gym as if I did not belong there after getting barely started trying to lose weight and get in shape at home. Best part about it? I found a friend who had been in the same place a few weeks before and had started up with a trainer and was finally breaking through and feeling great. I signed up for weekly coaching with that trainer and it was amazing! I had frequent "muscular revelations" and have not looked back since. This trainer was a fantastic young woman who was the smallest (toughest) person on the university rugby team and totally got how you can feel all wrong and still get to somewhere all right.

    Welcome back, Kate.
  • ashleycarole86
    ashleycarole86 Posts: 6,305 Member
    Welcome back @Terytha and @Kali225

    Really sorry things have been rough.

    As others have echoed, lovely to have you both back. Missed and thought of you both and hoped you were doing okay. Sorry to hear things have been rough, but glad to have your experience back on the team.

    Early morning here tomorrow as I have an appointment right after work so I'll have to start early. My leg has been giving me a tiny bit of trouble (eek!) so I've laid off the bike the last couple days. We did however go to Banff National Park for a two hour snowshoe trek today... such gorgeous weather and amazing views.

    It's funny because my weight loss plan never REQUIRED exercise (still doesn't....) but man do I ever enjoy the benefits it brings. So I find those parts of my days are so habitual now that it's a bit jarring to feel like there's any disruption to my plans, but my overall wellness comes first. We'll see how things feel here tomorrow!
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 651 Member
    edited January 2022
    @jugar

    PW: 80.5
    CW: 80.7

    Had a gorgeous meal out on Saturday (must find a recipe for Cuban lamb meatballs) and ended up eating out yesterday too so we could go to the cinema. I'm so close to where I wanted to be by the end of the month (under 80kg) but we'd been so busy, I used up my energy reserves and got into survival mode which meant eating more and not finding time to track or drink enough water. The two meals out probably came at just the wrong time, but I should ace it in February. :smile:

    @ashleycarole86

    Sunday 23rd - 21654
    Monday 24th - 5972
    Tuesday 25th - 2894
    Wednesday 26th - 12957
    Thursday 27th - 10693
    Friday 28th - 8888
    Saturday 29th - 17296
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 651 Member
    I'm Katie, 34, living in the UK with my husband and our two cats. I've got a WFH desk based job, and husband has recently joined law enforcement - about 6 weeks left of classroom based training before he's out on shifts - so there's been quite a bit of adjustment already and lots more to get used to. I've been overweight since I was 21 and had a good 6 months last year before starting to struggle. I am an emotional eater (good, bad, ugly = food) and a chocoholic.

    In January I have come very close to what I wanted to achieve, which was to get below 80kg - I am 80.7kg today. We just did a big home renovation job (we actually paid professionals, but did a lot of helping out) which basically took all month so things have been hectic, unsettled and stressful. I didn't always make time for tracking, or drinking water, and I was really scraping the energy barrel so I reached for carbs to get me through.

    My plan for February is to live at a steadier pace. There are still bits to do in the house but they're smaller and not time sensitive, so I aim to chip away at that, a little at a time. If I can track everything I eat, every day, even if I go over my calorie goal, then that's a win, and the act of tracking will dissuade me from going over my goal. I also feel dehydrated so will push for 2L of water a day.

    It's a short week for me - I have Thursday and Friday off work - but will be eating out twice on Thursday. It is Mom's birthday and I'm going home for the day. Friday, and the weekend, should be chilled out. Ideally we need to do some batch cooking, as we've used up pretty much all of our bulk-cooked meals. I'm going to do a chilli today :smile:
  • ashleycarole86
    ashleycarole86 Posts: 6,305 Member
    edited January 2022
    1/30 exercise:
    18846 steps + 124 minutes snowshoeing

    (missed posting 1/28 - was 6350 steps + 32 minutes Peloton)

    Few more steps for the last week of January left to trickle in and then I can get out our month end reports!
  • kellie_erin
    kellie_erin Posts: 212 Member
    1/29 steps: 6922
    1/30 steps: 16143 including 104 minutes on the treadmill
This discussion has been closed.

Categories