🌷🌷For the 2023 Spring 5% Challenge, I want to get down to my weight at thanksgiving of 170ish. Been fighting the 175-177 all winter. Trying to really increase my water, have less snacks and as close to dash diet as I can

😊Your FIRST Countdown Activity for this Challenge will be for YOU to decide where YOU would like to go on YOUR Seasonal 5% Journey. Everyone's reason for joining this Challenge is different. We would like you to dig down deep to share what your motivation is for coming here. We would like you to share what brings you here, and even more importantly - what keeps you coming back! Perhaps there are things that you would like to get out of your personal 5% Journey that we haven't discussed and/or researched. Why don't you write down some of YOUR ideas ~ we might even be able to incorporate some of those things in this or future Challenges!😊

My motivation for coming here was, in the beginning, to find friends with like goals and to lose the extra weight I have been carrying around for too many years. After I got here, added to that motivation was the fun of participating in the Challenges. I think I have sabotaged my weight loss efforts for years, first rocking between 190 and 170 two or three times, then from 170 to 150 and back a couple of times. I think when I lost that 20 pounds and people started noticing, I remembered several close calls I had had that involved strangers when I was younger. Then I had a health scare that made me dead serious about getting the fat off and really pursuing good health, It is a shame that it had to become a matter of life and death to wake me up. I really don't need a motivator now to continue my journey....I will never go back willingly....if, God forbid, I lost my ability to cook for myself or to remain active, then there would be no choice. But, barring that, I plan to finish the journey to my best weight and maintain it for life.

😊Your FIRST Countdown Activity for this Challenge will be for YOU to decide where YOU would like to go on YOUR Seasonal 5% Journey. Everyone's reason for joining this Challenge is different. We would like you to dig down deep to share what your motivation is for coming here. We would like you to share what brings you here, and even more importantly - what keeps you coming back! Perhaps there are things that you would like to get out of your personal 5% Journey that we haven't discussed and/or researched. Why don't you write down some of YOUR ideas ~ we might even be able to incorporate some of those things in this or future Challenges!😊

✍️Feel free to add your comments to this thread outlining your exercise plan for a successful 2023 Spring 5% Challenge (if you blog, you may add the link to your blog here or you may simply wish to copy/paste your writing here - or do both!), but please consider sharing!!

I hope I'm putting this info in the right place!! This group has a lot of discussions and announcements going on and it's difficult for me to determine where I'm supposed to be entering information! Lol.

I was very active on MFP up until a year ago, but life crowded in too much and I just couldn't keep up with all of it. We bought a new house and moved about 35 miles away from where we were living. I was also in the process of retiring from my 20 year bank job, so I was training my replacement person at work. I had also started my new part time job teaching massage at a local technical college 3 evenings per week, so I was literally working 3 jobs (1 full time and 2 part time) for about a month! I was still trying to get my new house together, and in the midst of all of that, hubby had a hip replacement! so then I (ALSO) had to mow the grass, find time to cook meals (he's retired so he usually cooks!), and TRY to keep my house clean!! I was still unpacking boxes (as I could find the time), oh, and did I say that one of my 3 jobs is my own business? I'm a LMT (licensed massage therapist) and have had my own (part time) business 2019. Whew!

Now that life has settled down, my 2 part time jobs are my "dream jobs" and I couldn't be happier! But over the last 12 months, I've literally gained almost all of my weight back. MFP has always worked for me in the past - so here I am again! My exercise of choice is walking. Last year I would do an "ice cream walk" - where I would walk 4 miles into town on the bike path to the local grocery store, buy a pint of ice cream, eat it with the spoon that I had brought with me, and then walk the 4 miles back home!!!! At one point about 4 years ago, I was up to walking 12-18 miles, starting very early on a Saturday morning! My knees are bad, so I cannot jog, bicycle, or do stairs, but I can walk!!

In this community, I'd like to try to observe and learn what others do to KEEP THEIR WEIGHT OFF! I've been able to successfully lose weight several times in my life, but for the life of me, I just cannot KEEP IT OFF! Ugh.

(Edited to add that my plan is to get back to my walking!)