Shape Shifters Team Chat - AUGUST 2022
Replies
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leni1us
8/3 - 8,4970 -
jessicakrall8 wrote: »Thank you @jessicakrall8! It does feel a bit like coming home. I'm excited to be back and I'm ready to make some changes.
I'm retired and love good food and good wine. The problem is.... I love it too much. I've been retired two years and my weight has steadily increased over that time. I'm focusing now on what and how much I eat. My goal this week is to exercise no less than 30 minutes every day and walk a minimum of 6,000 steps per day (right now, I'm lucky if I get in 2,000 steps).
Retirement, wow, what does THAT feel like?!! I can't even imagine...I'm about 6-9 years away, but man looking forward to THAT day! Now you can go walk whenever you feel like it and don't have to punch the proverbial clock!! I am SO jealous!!
Watch for comments from @izzyred9400 as I think she's a wine drinker--Izzy, we need your expertise...how do you handle your calories set aside for wine? ...I do know from reading others' advice that you basically have to cut your wine calories from your food, so it's just best if you know you're going to want that wine with dinner, remove the calories from the top of your day and go on what's left...that way your wine won't knock you off your allotted amount for the day. Then it won't feel like a guilty pleasure, it will just be part of your normal day. ALSO, if you're walking daily as your plan states, it will keep you from consuming those all-important exercise points...
Too bad they don't make diet wine like they have diet soda...but I bet it would taste gross...I love my occasional diet mountain dew...it's my favorite, but I drink more water (with enhancers) than anything...crystal light lemonade or Kroger black cherry are my favorites.
Take care,
Jessica
Spoiler, there is diet wine. 😂
https://www.makerwine.com/products/bodkin-sparkling-rose
https://www.purewow.com/wine/keto-diet-wines
https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2021/11/08/cosmopolitan-magazine-names-myx-light-best-celebrity-wine/amp
FANTASTIC!!
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Hello Shape Shifters! Welcome to all our new members. I hope you will enjoy this group and find the support you need. I am a little bit late to the party this month, but figured I would post a short intro anyway.
My name is Laura, I am 34 years old and I live in a small town in the Netherlands with my persian rescue cat Tinus. I got him in 2015 and he is the best thing in my life. I love reading fantasy books, singing, jigsaw puzzles, (nature)photography, gaming and going for walks. I am unable to work due to chronic fatigue, chronic headaches and some mental health problems. Every day is a struggle, but I am doing my best. I finally managed to lose weight after countless attempts and I made it to onederland in December 2021 I think. Ever since the new year, my weight has just gone up and up. I have been too afraid to weigh myself, but I think I am very close to back where I started. I am currently on the support team while I try to move in the right direction again.
I managed to go to the gym for a year, but I couldn't keep up because I was too tired. This might also be a bit weather related; I tend to feel 10 times worse in sun/heat. While my daily stepcount is pretty high, I don't really get a proper workout in, which means my heartrate doesn't go up and that in turn keeps my resting heartrate on the high side. I plan to start up the Dance with Deepti workouts on youtube again. I find those really fun. They are around 25/30 minutes long and I want to do at least one a day. If I feel good, I will start a second video and see how far I get.
Other things to focus on this month will be food obviously, since I still tend to eat too much, and sleep. I am going to buy a smart scale with body analysis at the end of the month and start weighing again. I really liked all the info I got from the gym scale, so I think having something similar at home will be motivating.
Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is doing well.
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Steps
31 July: 15.369
1 Aug: 15.613
2 Aug: 18.044
3 Aug: 16.411
Good morning Shape Shifters. I have not been feeling great, so I haven't managed to write in the group until now. Nothing much has happened in my life. I had to buy a new phone because my old one kept acting weirder. Keyboard would vanish mid typing and didn't come back, phonecalls would cut out randomly, sometimes I wouldn't be able to pick up at all because the screen showed nothing despite the ringtone going, sometimes phonecalls didn't get through at all, apps were lagging and stuck all the time. So yeah, it was getting really annoying. This has all been going on for a few months, but I absolutely hate spending money on something I hate so I kept putting it off until my phone almost drove me to violence, lol. I also hate how having a smartphone isn't optional anymore, because banking stuff requires you to scan a QR code, logging in on several important websites also ask for extra codes or special ID apps. You just can't go without one. I went for one of the cheapest phones, but they are still quite a chunk of money. Setting it all up was also annoying, but it works well now so I guess it was worth it.
Tinus is thankfully doing better. I don't really see him limping much anymore, and recently he started to play again so I think he is feeling better. His weight is still on the lower side, but he isn't losing and it seems the hairball issue is now resolved. It did take a few different foods to figure out what worked best though.
I am going to put a huge wall of text under the spoiler about my neighbours stray cat. Feel free to skip this.Sadly I now have a bit of second hand cat stress. My neighbour decided to keep the cat that came walking up to his house. When she first showed up around 2 months ago, I tried to help him out. I gave him some toys, a spare litterbox and a lot of advise. I had a flea treatment left over as well, so I showed him how to apply it and told him this would need to be done every 4 weeks. I mentioned things like vaccinating, worms, sterilising, chipping etc. He said at the time he was really not sure, he never had cats before and he thought it was a lot of work. I told him that if he had doubts, he shouldn't keep her. You can't only commit 50% when it comes to animals. I also told him about the shelter where I volunteered. It is the only one in our province and a kitty as sweet as her would have found a home in no time. I suggested he could call them to ask some questions. Anyway, turned out he basically did nothing with any of my advice. He didn't treat her for anything after I gave her the flea treatment. On Sunday I spoke to him again and he said they were going to the vet on Tuesday because she wasn't eating well and she was very slow. He borrowed my carrier and we talked again when he got back from the visit. She has fleas and worms as well. It doesn't look like she has gained any weight in the 2 months he has been feeding her, probably due to the worms. She really is just a pile of bones. I feel really bad because he could have sorted all those things out way sooner if he had listened to me. He only went to the vet once when she showed up to check if she had a chip, but after that he basically did nothing except feed her. It would have been much better if he had brought her to the shelter, then they would have done all those things and he could still have adopted her later.Alright, that is all my ranting done for the day, sorry! Happy Thursday everyone
He also seems to 'worry' about the dumbest things. Right now, it is very important for her to gain weight. Instead he is complaining about how all the wet food contains stuff like flavour enhancers. He should focus on finding things she loves to eat first, you can worry about additives you don't like later. I tried to hammer home again how important things like sterilising and vaccinating was, but it seems he is anti-vax as well. Great if you want to take that risk with your own life, but if people with a lot of experience with cats are telling you it is better to vaccinate, and if your vet is telling you to vaccinate, then you vaccinate your cat! If she were to get sick in her current condition, it is not going to end well. They estimated her to be around 9 months old, which means she can get pregnant already. It would be horrible if that happened. He doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get anything done though. The only thing he sorted out at the vet is the flea/worm situation; nothing else is planned.
He asked me if I could look after her if he was away from home, which is fine. So he actually left for the night on Tuesday. When I went over his place in the evening, I thought she looked awful. Her breathing was really laboured and loud. She ended up puking twice and it looked like nothing I had ever seen. Really dark, almost like she ate dirt. I did not enjoy cleaning that up. I felt very uncomfortable in his house as well. It was super cluttered and messy, the floor was dirty, there was dust everywhere and the house is very badly maintained. Everything looks old and gross. He had dried plants and seeds just laying around in the open, which could be dangerous for cats. He claimed she never touches those things. Right, until she does... Anyway, there wasn't much I could do. I went back several times that evening/night to see how she was doing and she seemed stable. In the morning when I let her outside she looked a bit better thankfully.
I had another talk with him when he came back home Wednesday afternoon. He is going to order some different food and foodbowls. He just had her food and water in small plastic containers which was also gross. Not sure why it took him two months to sort that out. The package will actually be delivered at my house later today, since he is leaving again until Saturday. I really hope she will do better once the worm issue is resolved. I am having a hard time dealing with this, since in my eyes, he is doing a lot of things wrong. That makes it hard to be involved, but I have to keep reminding myself it is for the cat. What would have happened if I wasn't around to advice him, and nudge him in the right direction?
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Here’s my weekly weigh in report. My goal is to continue within my maintenance target of 120-130 pounds, but I’d like to move closer to 125.
Name: PatriceFitnessPal
PW: 128.8
CW: 128.6
SW: 168
LTD: 39.4
I’m just under 5’4” tall and focusing on building muscle, increasing my flexibility, and improving my balance as I age. I hope everyone is doing well this week. Enjoy!3 -
@Pupowl - awwww you are such a good person taking care of that poor kitty - my ❤ was just breaking reading it 😞
Today is my wedding anniversary- 32 years and I am ever so grateful that my husband's pancreatic cancer was found at Stage 1 - he has 3 more mos of chemo - so thankful coming up to the end - dr has him receiving chemo every other week instead of 3 weeks in a row
Monday was the restart and as soon as he received the anti nausea meds he threw up - so frustrating- after I picked him up he went right to bed - he's been tired this week, but at least keeping food down
We are going out to a BBQ place for dinner tonight locally to celebrate and have a couple of beers1 -
@Pupowl - Your neighbor is really putting you in a difficult position, asking you to care for his cat while he’s away but neglecting her health needs otherwise. It sounds as though you have done everything you can to stress the importance of preventative health care but he doesn’t listen until it’s too late. I hope the fleas and worms are treated successfully so she can feel better.
I’m not sure how involved you want to get. If he uses the same vet as you do for Tinus, maybe you can talk to the vets informally about your concerns. We have animal protection agencies here, and I’m sure the Netherlands has a similar group for reporting maltreatment of animals, but that might feel like too much involvement. Maybe you can just report a stray cat that your neighbor is feeding since that really describes the minimal standard your neighbor seems to be providing.
I’m sure you understand the relationship with your neighbor best so I’m probably inserting myself more than I should. You’re handling the tough balance well — A good neighbor and a good model as a pet owner!1 -
@PatriceFitnessPal
Yeah, I am not really sure what more I can/should do. I feel like involving other people goes a bit too far. There is only one vet office in my town, so we do use the same one. I have no idea how the vet visit went in reality since I only hear his side. I would have expected them to suggest food or something for her to gain weight, run a blood test and insist on vaccinating. It is possible that they did but he refused, I have no idea. He isn't exactly abusing her, just not doing enough. If I was in his shoes, I would keep her indoors for a while so I could keep a better eye on her. Since her appetite is so low and she is basically left outside all day, you have no idea what she is up to.
He annoyed me some more today. A few hours after I posted here I got a voice message on whatsapp from him. It was 3 minutes long and in it he said that he didn't order anything after all. Claimed he had no time. Despite the fact that he contacted me last night because he couldn't find the food I suggested so I sent him a direct link to it. He was physically behind his computer, yet now suddenly says he had no time? It takes like 5 minutes to order something from the internet. He also said he wanted to look into it more, whatever that means. I just really don't understand. So what did I do? I ordered two things out of my own pocket. One of them is a paste that contains a lot of vitamins, minerals and energy which should also help increase her appetite. If she really isn't eating, she also runs the risk of a liver disease so this paste should at least prevent that. The other thing I ordered is some wetfood for kittens. I hope she will start eating more with the help of the paste. I have a lot of treats at home for Tinus, so I am trying out some of those as well. I put 4 things in front of her earlier today and she wasn't interested in any of them. Anyway, I will keep you all updated. 3 -
kcpond
Weigh In Day: Wednesday
PW (Previous Weight): 246.1
CW (Current Weight):246.32 -
jessicakrall8 wrote: »leni1us
Step Goal: 6,000
I enjoy walking around a local neighborhood park. It has a walking/running path around the perimeter of the park. It's a nice walk under the trees. The path goes by the tennis courts, baseball field, skate park, and duck pond. There's always something going on or something to see.
@leni1us What's your first name for the chart please? Thanks! I adjusted the 179.2 to 159.2. Was your starting weight still 176.0?
Jessica
First name Lennie and my original starting weight when I first joined the challenge (over a year ago) was 172. Here's my original post to the "New Members" chat.
leni1us
Weigh in Day - Friday
Current Weight - 159.2
Original starting weight - 172
No worries though, the future is more important than the past, right?
Thanks for the information. I wanted to make sure the table we have for recording the original weight is correct because that's what tracks your OVERALL loss from now on in the weigh in chart. I've corrected the table and added Lennie to the step chart as well. Thanks...hope you're having a fabulous week!
Jessica1 -
Hi Jess,
I did not do "intended" steps on Sunday, July 31st, other than "puttering around" the apartment. (I would assume it was way below my 10,000 daily goal.) You mentioned you have the 13,745 steps for Monday, AUG 1st.
Here are Tuesday and Wednesday:
08/02: 12,382
08/03: 12,530
I've walked to and from work (2 miles each way) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, plus walking around the office, etc. I will probably walk to work tomorrow but may take the bus home because Boston is expecting around 100 degrees. I will try to post daily from now on, as requested.
Have a nice night! (Carole)
@Walela617 For the step challenge, your walking can be intentional or unintentional...as long as you're up and moving, it should count on your tracker and you should report in. When you see discussions from me about "intentional" walking, it feeds another walking goal I do because I'm tracking my "intentional" walking month to month to see how many miles I can rack up. In addition to that I also track my daily steps goal with our team in the step challenge. So if you have steps for the 31st, please report them. Never minimize your puttering dear!
Jessica1 -
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Steppers...from July chart:
Please take a look walkers and post any steps for the days in yellow. Thanks! I'd like to close out July by the weekend.
Jessica0 -
KatSpring
Weigh in Day - Thursday
Original starting weight - 163.2
CURRENT Weight - 161.75 -
Nataliewr0403
Steps
7/30. 6404
7/31. 10418
8/1. 12470
8/2. 6180
8/3. 8084
8/4. 98883 -
jessicakrall8 wrote: »Thank you @jessicakrall8! It does feel a bit like coming home. I'm excited to be back and I'm ready to make some changes.
I'm retired and love good food and good wine. The problem is.... I love it too much. I've been retired two years and my weight has steadily increased over that time. I'm focusing now on what and how much I eat. My goal this week is to exercise no less than 30 minutes every day and walk a minimum of 6,000 steps per day (right now, I'm lucky if I get in 2,000 steps).
Retirement, wow, what does THAT feel like?!! I can't even imagine...I'm about 6-9 years away, but man looking forward to THAT day! Now you can go walk whenever you feel like it and don't have to punch the proverbial clock!! I am SO jealous!!
Watch for comments from @izzyred9400 as I think she's a wine drinker--Izzy, we need your expertise...how do you handle your calories set aside for wine? ...I do know from reading others' advice that you basically have to cut your wine calories from your food, so it's just best if you know you're going to want that wine with dinner, remove the calories from the top of your day and go on what's left...that way your wine won't knock you off your allotted amount for the day. Then it won't feel like a guilty pleasure, it will just be part of your normal day. ALSO, if you're walking daily as your plan states, it will keep you from consuming those all-important exercise points...
Too bad they don't make diet wine like they have diet soda...but I bet it would taste gross...I love my occasional diet mountain dew...it's my favorite, but I drink more water (with enhancers) than anything...crystal light lemonade or Kroger black cherry are my favorites.
Take care,
Jessica
Spoiler, there is diet wine. 😂
https://www.makerwine.com/products/bodkin-sparkling-rose
https://www.purewow.com/wine/keto-diet-wines
https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2021/11/08/cosmopolitan-magazine-names-myx-light-best-celebrity-wine/amp
FANTASTIC!!jessicakrall8 wrote: »
Thanks @jessicakrall8
7/31 6,385
8/1 7,153
8/2 5,997
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PatriceFitnessPal wrote: »@laceyf53 — Congratulations for both literally figuratively “getting back on the horse”!
Keep up the good work! It’s great to have you here as part of the Shape Shifters team.
Thank you! Got to ride again today and maybe Saturday too, looking forward to staying on the horse this time. 😂1 -
leni1us
8/4 7,0411 -
Step goal: 6,000/day
8/2 - 5,520
8/3 - 6,822
8/4 - 7,287
I walked in circle around my living trying to get my steps up on 8/2. I wasn’t that far off, so I’m not beating myself up too much, but I’m keeping a closer eye on my steps throughout the day.
I’ve also noticed I’ve been drinking sooo much water this week! I’m wondering if I’ll see a slight drop in weight soon? I’m not entirely sure how water weight works though.
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Good morning Shape Shifters!
I've been on staycation this week and managed to knock a couple things off my ever long to-do list, which is really satisfying. Yesterday my youngest and I purged their bedroom, which I noticed on my fitbit was equivalent in effort to one of my typical walks and made me feel just as good!
Have also been for some nice bike rides along my favorite spot along the river in the morning before it gets too hot. Being off has meant that it's been easier for me to focus on healthy eating and staying away from unnecessary snacking, which I typically struggle with.
I'm back to work on Monday at my desk job (from home) and am going to try to continue with these improvements, though my desk is right next to the kitchen....I might need to barricade myself out of it between meals
Hope you all have a good day!1 -
pedal__power
Fri-yays!
PW: 203.8
CW: 200.43 -
For fun, here are a few photos of my cycling adventures from our trip to Mont Tremblant in Quebec last week. There is an old rail trail that has been converted to a cycling path. It's over 200km long and there are so many beautiful places to see along the trail.
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KHill875
Friday weigh in
PW: 143.9
CW: IDK
Thank you for the kind words about our beloved dog, Addy. I wish I had better news. Our son had surgery on Tuesday. His recovery has been a hot mess and unfortunately put us back in the hospital on Wednesday night. I don't have access to a scale currently, but I know it is not going to be a good number.3 -
Bearchested
Friday
PW: 194.4
CW: 196.4
LTD: 10.6
It's been another difficult week. Our cat, Jake, had surgery on Friday to remove a swollen tooth, which apparently had a cyst behind it. I also learned that cat's can reabsorb their teeth? He had a couple other tooth issues they took care of, along with removing a mass and getting biopsies of the mouth cyst and removed mass. Apparently there's a test they can run with the blood lab panels that predicts whether the cat will have chronic kidney disease within the next 24 months, with 95% accuracy. We've already noticed signs of kidney issues, so while his panel looks good for an old cat, we're starting a prescription kidney diet.
On Tuesday our son (3) had surgery to remove his tonsils, adenoids, and to put tubes in his ears, hopefully helping his speech delay and respiratory issues. He's usually pretty easy going, but has been refusing to drink any fluids, barely touching popsicles or other soft foods, and refusing his oral pain medicine. He'd rather drool than swallow his own saliva. After a day of forcing the medicine and some fluids per the doctors orders (leading to lots of crying, which couldn't have helped his throat), my wife had to take him to the hospital on Wednesday night to get IV fluids (and IV medicine after the nurses couldn't get him to take his medicine either). Our daughter was very jealous of the attention he was getting, but after visiting him yesterday I think she understands the situation.
It doesn't look like they'll discharge him today so I'll be swapping hospital duties with my wife today. Weight gain due to overconsumption at wedding and road trip, and stress eating. I go through times of no appetite, and then am starving and eat junk instead of a protein shake and my normal foods.4 -
Good morning everyone, and happy friday. I've done good with my workouts and have worked out 3 days in a row. My body hurts so bad lol. My diet hasn't been the best but it's a work in progress. Hopefully I can keep up with my workouts the next few days and then on Wednesday I'm going out of town with a couple friends so they will be lacking then but I should be able to keep up with my diet.3
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8/3-11,966
8/4-5,7931 -
Mulecanter
Friday
PW: 221.5
CW: 221.5
I'm such a zero.2 -
Funny how things have a chain reaction, especially bad things. My son's car went to the shop last week, had a cracked radiator, got that fixed but they discovered it had a bad wheel baring, took a week to get the part, got it fixed, he drove off and it started smoking, so back to the shop, they're thinking that he blew a head gasket, so they're going to run a test on that and that's a really expensive fix, then today I noticed that my van is leaking and a freeze, took it into the shop and it needs a new heater core 🤦 so it's a 12 hour fix to fix my son's car in an 8 Hour fixed fix my van. Thank goodness my mom works for the car shopping and get a family discount and with that it'll still cost me about $1500 to fix both our vehicles. 🤦 and my husband's working out of town and wants to bring his rig with him which makes us have no vehicles at home LOL2
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leni1us
Friday
PW: 159.2
CW: 160.4
I'm trying not to get too upset about the uptick. I started an exercise class Monday using cardio, resistance bands and weights. My muscles are still a bit sore. I read an article that when you begin an exercise program, your weight can go up slightly. Exercise stresses the muscle fibers causing small micro tears and inflammation. This can induce water retention as the body tries to heal itself. It should be short- lived so I hope to see a smaller number next Friday.2 -
frankwbrown
Friday Weigh-in
August week 1
PW: 228.0
CW: 227.3 ( lost 0.7 lbs; 0.31%)
2
This discussion has been closed.