My challenge for March
I’m Nan 67, single sharing my home with my mum 91.
We share the household tasks as we are each best fit to do.
Mum dusts, cooks, does the food shopping, minds the washing machine and dryer, feeds the birds.
I hoover, change beds, clean windows, drive, push the trolley round the supermarket.
I like walking and plan to walk 11000 intentional steps every day in March, I did it as a sponsored challenge for Prostate Cancer UK last year but don’t like to continually ask for sponsorship. Excuse for possible failure this year is that I’m chauffeuse for my friend for her chemo visits to hospital. BAD EXCUSE, NOT A GOOD REASON.
Foodwise I plan to stay within my 1200 mfp calorie allowance plus up to 10% of those earned from Fitbit. I find that entering my activity and using these gives too big an allowance.

Hello,

I'm 59 years old, at 5'4" I'm stuck at 168ish (I go up or down a pound).

I am active. I dance by following Body FX - Figure 8 (Jaana Kunitzi is amazing) 5 days a week, as well as doing (Diamond Dallas Page) DDP Yoga, 2 days a week. I feel strong, with all of the dancing and yoga - I know I've got some really nice abs going on beyond my jiggly belly. Ha, ha.

I am having a very difficult time being accountable for my calories by being consistent with logging in my food. This challenge (along with all of the folks on this forum) will hopefully be the push I need to get into gear. I've got to lose the weight so that I can get into my summer clothes... Although we're not March 1st, just having found this group is motivating me to start logging my food today... Wish me luck!


Linda

Hi my name is Jan and I struggle with staying accountable to myself and I hope this helps as a reminder to stay true to my goals.

Which are: Eat clean. Drink water. Walk daily: 30-60 minutes and record my intake.

It is inspirational to see how many of us are on the same journey. I am looking forward to participating.

I'm BeeJ from South-Eastern Ontario, Canada. 63 yr old female happily married going on 34 yrs now, and empty-nester of one son (who lives in another part of town) I will be hitting maintenance (for the THIRD time) this spring .... and want it to be well consolidated into "this is how I do things" well in advance of my retirement in less than 2 years (not like I'm counting 📅.... yet .... )

I rejoined this group (yet again) in Nov 2021 after not managing to maintain at maintenance over the summer (yet aGAIN!)

THIS time .... I've finally internalized the message that the accountability offered by this group supports maintaining just as much at this point as it did for the multi-year journey of regular UAC attendance that got me to what many mistakenly view as "the Ultimate Goal / End-Point" of my Target Weight the first time .... or the second time .... and am now closing in on the third time (which I trust will be The Charm 🍀🍀🍀)

So I won't be leaving again any time soon. The transition to a Maintenance Lifestyle is gonna take time .... and help-and-advice from those who have already managed it here.

The Daily Topics are always very interesting to follow - many prompt some segment of the group to re-examine assumptions of "has to be" ... because more often than not some other segment is willing to expand-or-offer-counter-perspectives.

The K.e.y. to Unlocking Success (no matter what one is working to succeed at)?

🗝 Keep 🗝 Educating 🗝 Yourself 🗝

Hello!

I’m Sharon, age 45 -This is my first challenge and I’m looking forward to the accountability part of this! I’ve lost weight in the past (60 pounds) and kept almost all of it off. I’m having a hard time right now with motivation but I have a new gym membership so I can get back to Zumba classes.

Hi there every one, great to be back again. I am 38 married with a toddler. I hve been a part of this group for 15months and it has been my saving grace! I had 5 pass days on Feb which is the highest I hve ever had I think my goal to not take any pass days made me rebel. Ha ha! Hoping to get back on track in March. Welcome to the newbies and good luck to u all. Xo

recommended on Youtube ... zumba session "funeral for my fat" GOTTA love / be inspired by the name!

Hello everyone! My name is Chris. I first started UAC last March, joined MFP in 2014, and started working on my health and diet back in 2007.

I grew up hating gym, exercise, all that stuff. Although I was extremely active as a child, always out doing things (loved baseball and swimming) with most of my friends involved in some form of sport, curiously enough. I guess I simply couldn't be coached or stick to any routine. I did what I wanted.

Fast forward to 35 years old, desk job, family stress, blah, blah, and I was freaking huge. Literally. And terribly out of shape. On a whim I decided to have a physical (thankfully) and learned I had high cholesterol, pre-diabetes, and was of course considered morbidly obese (the primary cause of most of that). I knew due to family history where this led. As well as data from the AHA and ADA. I entered all of this at 35 with a data driven mindset (as a database admin and software engineer) focused primarily on weight and diet.

I wish I could say it was as simple as waking up to the error of my ways and changing them to healthy ways, and everything was happily ever after. But the truth is it has been cycles of ups and downs. Some were big ups, some were big downs. What I can say is that as long as you don't literally give up and take on an attitude of "I do not care one bit for my health because I will die anyway" that even those down periods can be a net gain.

The only time I reached a higher weight than when I started was after my first big weight loss in 2007-2008 via radical diet changes where I went from a self processed "Bacon-tarian" to a raw vegan. I started in the 290's, and after burning out on all that "radical diet crap" I eventually reached my highest weight of 316 in January 2014.

Ok, that is wordy, I apologize, I do like to share, and share too much all too often. But since 2014 all has been "net positive".

Does that mean I never gave back up again?

No.

But I did take a "somewhat" more sensible approach starting in 2014, and have been refining that ever since. I say somewhat because I started running in 2014, which eventually included running 3 full marathons within a 30 day span (apologies for saying that more than once, I think I'm still in disbelief that I did that).

For me, and I realize everyone is very unique and may not see parallels, I have periods of time where I am 100% "on" in terms of improving health and fitness. And then there are periods where that is not so much in focus. BUT...every healthy thing I can engrain into my regular normal daily life that I "truly" enjoy will stick with me even in those "down periods". So what happens is a cycle of ups and downs that net in a downward trend. And that works for me because.. well ..I don't seem to have much choice in that matter. No matter how much I may "want" to just keep following some routine forever, the nature of the universe ensures that I must change with it, and sometimes that means periods where I'm not 100% on my game.

I'll take that.

So here I am, in March 2022, fifteen years after starting, at a net lower weight, and with a 50 year old physique that puts my 35 year old physique to shame, and just itching to launch out of the gate into this Spring.

I like to be inspired, and try to pay that forward. I'm an active MFP member, and lurker of many things in the MFP forums. I contribute here because I feel UAC epitomizes the essence of MFP and provides the best route to success for those either starting off or trying to figure out their path on their health journey.

I accept friend requests from people I recognize, so if you are posting here and looking for support, feel free. If I turn it down just say something here so I realize you're a real person and not some MFP bot account.

Looking forward to a stellar 2022!