Shape Shifters Team Chat - OCTOBER 2023
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jugar
Posts: 10,139 Member
Fat2Fit has 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 Slimpossible - @broncobuddee and @trooworld
Weight No More - @minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott
WaistAways - @jugar and @ashleycarole86
Shape Shifters - @jessicakrall8 and @Pupowl
Our Team Motivators:
Downsizers - @Slimmersixties & @JaysFan82
Mission Slimpossibles - @katmary71
Weight No More - @rachelrjh
WaistAways - @conleywoods & @cleaneater80
Shape Shifters - @Sbus12 and @Cyncia85
HOW IT ALL WORKS: The October challenge runs for 4 weeks, from October 1 - 28. F2F months always start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday, so adjust your calendars!
Everyone weighs in weekly on their chosen day right here in the team chat. 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:
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 want a break, you can be excused for a week or two, or are moved to 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. Don't worry! You can always come back even if you get dropped.
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 begin!!
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Hello Shape Shifters and welcome to our new members! I hope you are all doing well.
I became a co-captain of the team in order to try to help out Jessica a bit. I joined this team in August 2021 and I have found it a very valuable tool on my weight loss journey.
There are a lot of things being offered here; there is the step challenge, the habit tracker, the weekly challenges, your personal weigh in and of course the Shape Shifter group chat itself. The more you engage with the group, the more you will get out of it!
Don't hesistate to reach out when you are having a hard time, chances are you aren't the only one and everyone here is kind and supportive. I often see people feel bad about posting a gain, please don't! We are all aware that weight loss isn't linear. Sometimes the scale just does what it wants, even when you do everything right. So post it, shrug it off and keep going. As long as you put in the work, the results will come, promise.
I wish everyone a great October with lots of victories, big and small!
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Mulecanter
Friday
PW: 225.5
CW: 2272 -
Our October Week 1 Group Challenge is open and ready to begin on Sun, Oct 1st. Please join us and the wonderful @Katmary71 birthday girl herself, for the Eat the Rainbow Challenge! Expand your nutritional goals with us! Here's your link:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10900540/october-week-1-group-challenge-eat-the-rainbow/p1?new=1
Look forward to seeing you in the chat thread!
Jessica
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FAQ for New Shape Shifters Members
How do I post my weigh in?
Userid
(Day of Week) Weigh-in
PW: 204 lbs (previous weight)
CW: 202 lbs (current weight)
LTD: 12 lbs (optional loss to date)
Where is the Weigh in stats spreadsheet?
Start at the Fat2Fit Main Page and under the header information, you’ll see a section at the bottom that says “TO ACCESS THE SPREADSHEETS FOR JANUARY CLICK HERE” followed by the link in blue. Once you click on that link, it will take you to the Summary page. Find Shape Shifters on the tabs at the bottom and click on that and that brings you to the stats page. Also on this page (scrolling down), you’ll find the Step Challenge chart as well. This is where we record your daily steps if you sign up to be part of the monthly step challenge. More info on how to sign up is below! Join us!
How often should I post in the chatroom?
Whenever you have a question, suggestion, story, news announcement or just want to brighten someone's day!! There's never too much...and please share recipes, tips, laughs, challenges, cartoons, pictures of your pets, pictures from walks you've taken, etc...we love it all!!
What if I have to be out of town during my weigh in?
Send a message to one of the Captains (JessicaKrall8 or Pupowl) in the chatroom or in a private message on MFP's mail and let her know your circumstance...if it's just for a week or two, you can be excused from the weigh-in. If you must leave for longer than a month, you may be moved to our support team until you return. When you're ready to come back, send another message and the MODS will move you back to active status.
What happens if I miss a weigh in?
If you're late, you'll be marked as LWI (late weigh in). If you fail to report in at all, you'll be labeled as NWI (no weigh in). After two NWIs, you're put on the drop list if no explanation has been provided. It's always best to let your Captain know what's going on and she'll make sure you're covered.
How do I sign up for the Step Challenge?
Send the Captains a message that you'd like to join, provide your daily step goal and tell her your favorite place to walk. It's that simple! Please be aware though, you're making a commitment to post your steps every 2-3 days, which helps the Captains keep the stats caught up. If you're not willing to do this, please do not sign up. (THANKS!!)
Do I have to re-register each month to remain part of Team Shape Shifters?
No, your membership will carry over month to month. The only place where this is NOT true is for the Step Challenge. You have to sign up each month to participate in it and this gives you the opportunity to adjust your daily step goal.
If I've missed anything or questions arise, just post them! We'll find the information you need as much as possible! Hope this helps!
Welcome!
Jessica
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Hello, everybody. It's the last day of September, and I'm taking it easy, before jumping into what I hope will be a productive October (or should I say "reductive", as in "reducing body weight"?).
Apologies for the lengthy post, but I've been reflecting on my journey, and want to share, in order to get amped up for October.
I'd like to toot my own horn for a minute, if you don't mind. I'm down 90 pounds from my max weight and although I'm still overweight, I exercise a lot. I shudder to think what I'd weigh with little or no exercise. One reason I'm having trouble losing the last 20 pounds (I'm guessing) to reach my goal weight, is that I feel so good about my current level of fitness. I'm 74 years old, and my Garmin watch rates my fitness age as 65.
anti-BMI rant:My watch says I could achieve a fitness age of 60.5 by reducing my BMI to 22.6, but that'll never happen. I have a lean body mass of ~160 pounds currently (according to a DEXA scan), and given my height of 6'1", I'd need to weigh no more than 171 pounds for a BMI of 22.6. (That's probably about what I weighed in the 7th or 8th grade!) With only 11 pounds of fat, my body fat percentage would be 11/171 = less than 7% body fat. BMI is a useful metric for looking at large populations, but it often fails at the individual level. And so, I hate it! 😠😤😆
Anyway, as I was saying, I'm in pretty good shape for someone my age, and I'm proud of having made such an improvement in three years time. I only wish I had had the wisdom, discipline and commitment when I was younger to have kept in good shape. It has been an ordeal trying to get back closer to where I was forty years ago.
What has been a tremendous motivator for me is my Garmin watch. Like several others (Apple, Fitbit, etc.), Garmin offers badges you earn by completing certain challenges. I have become addicted, in a good way, to joining and completing monthly challenges for several years now. Here are the results of my September challenges:
Challenge Name (challenge goal): my actual results
✅ September Warrior ( 4 hours of yoga ): 8.1 hours of yoga
✅ September Gains ( 4 hours of strength training ): 4.6 hours of strength training
✅ September Swim ( swim 4,000 meters ): swam 7,150 yards (6,538 meters)
✅ September Time to Swim ( 4 hours of swimming ): 4.2 hours of swimming
✅ September Time to Walk ( 15 hours ): 16.6 hours walking 43.5 miles
✅ September Step Month ( 300,000 steps ): 320,000+ steps
✅ Active September ( Record 20 activities of at least 20 minutes each ): about 100 activities!
❌ 30 for 30 ( Record a 30-minute activity for 30 consecutive days ): Only 28 out of 30 days
Other exercises:
✅ 25.6 hours of Aquafit (water aerobics)
✅ 7.8 hours of tai chi
✅ 2.9 hours of general cardio
✅ 2.5 hours of cycling
Month total: ~100 activities totaling 72 hours
I have essentially 9 months in which to reach my goal weight of 220 or under.
July 10th, 2024 will be my four year anniversary of my fitness journey.
I wish everyone luck on their own personal journey, as I'm hoping for luck on mine.10 -
@frankwbrown I love your post, you deserve to be celebrated. Toot your horn as much as you want.
Thank you for all the advise and wisdom you’ve passed along. I especially appreciated your words of encouragement when I was stuck.3 -
Good morning Shape Shifters! It is Sunday here, which means it is time for an introduction to kick off our new month. I love reading introductions, so I hope more people will start doing this when we begin a new month!
My name is Laura, I am 35 and I live with my cat Tinus in a lovely small village in the Netherlands. I am very close to a national park where I like to go for walks. I also love reading fantasy books, photography, jigsaw puzzles, singing and gaming.
I had a pretty good September and I am happy to be weighing again for the regular team because it helps a lot. My food has been solid and besides the (planned) wraps I made, I haven't been off my food plan or over calories a single time. I honestly don't think I have ever gone over a month without ordering pizza or binging on cookies/crisps/whathaveyou so I am very happy about that. My goals for the habit tracker will stay the same: 12.00 daily steps, 8+ hours of sleep, weigh the same or less than yesterday, vitamins and 22 zone minutes (I won't get that on my rest days of course). I had 11 days in September where I didn't hit my daily zone minutes, and 5 of those were due to a heatwave. My weight was up only 3 times but besides that my whole habit tracker was green. I hope October will go just as well.
My mom is visiting Wednesday which is going to make things a bit harder. Though this time I am going to stick to my own food and my own schedule. We will be going out for dinner on Thursday, but that is the only time I plan to deviate from my normal. In the past her visits have really thrown me off plan and I really do not want that to happen anymore. Good luck everyone
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@frankwbrown Seconding Cassandra, go toot your own horn!!! I think your movement is incredibily impressive and I wish, at 35 years old, that I had your energy to be so active. My scale says I am 42, lol! I totally agree about BMI as well, it is so outdated to use. I think most people are able to tell at what weight they feel best. My fitbit is probably the best thing I have bought in many many years. While I am not really into challenges, I find all the numbers and information very useful and it has helped me so much with my activity levels.3
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Yesterday morning was very pretty. I think this was one the foggiest mornings I have experienced on the moors. It was also a lot colder suddenly which I really appreciated (except on the bike, I was cooold). I did a bunch of laundry later and then I spent 30 whole minutes tearing apart cardboard boxes. My hands were not happy about that, but it is my own fault for piling them up for several months. I also cleaned the shed. The floor was really bad and the wasp nest that had been dealt with last summer decided to fall apart so I had to clean that up as well. I read another book, but this one was meh. Happy Sunday everyone
September 30 numbers- Sleep: 9h 27m ~ 87 score
- Steps: 21.951
- Zone Minutes: 109
- Calories: 1310
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Hi all,
I cannot access the October spread sheets on my android mobile or my lap top.Or the habit tracker.
Would welcome any ideas explained simply to me please as I'm a technology phobe2 -
Good morning all,
It's a new month, so I guess it's time for new goals.
Last month, my goal was to run 100 miles, and I was able to accomplish that (just barely, but yay!!!). But I need a little bit of a break from that much running. I'm planning on running just 3 days a week, and doing a home workout 3 days a week. I'm thinking about doing Beachbody's Insanity program for the home workout, but it's expensive and I'm not sure I want to make that kind of investment opposed to finding something for free online.
I've gotten a lot better at tracking my food, but could still be a bit more consistent. So my goal is to log everything for the whole month.
Not directly weight related, but definitely health related goal, is to quit vaping. I've tried and failed many times, but I need to accomplish it this time. I'm going to use the nicotine patch to help and use them consistently- I've used them before but not very consistent or following the schedule and it has never worked. They should be coming in the mail today and I will start immediately.
I'm feeling pretty determined today to make October a good month with me focused on my goals. I'm going to try to carry it through the month! We got this!!3 -
I would also like to join the step challenge please!
My goal is 10,000 steps.
Unfortunately I don't have any exciting walking trails near me, I'm pretty much in the middle of a city. So my walks usually consist of walking my boys around the park that's down the street or to the store. I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's what's available to me at the moment.
I love seeing/hearing about all the places everyone else likes to walk though, they sound so much more exciting!!3 -
izzyred9400 wrote: »
Hi all,
I cannot access the October spread sheets on my android mobile or my lap top.Or the habit tracker.
Would welcome any ideas explained simply to me please as I'm a technology phobe
Same problem in both places for me as well since yesterday2 -
@izzyred9400 I deleted and resent the invitation...still waiting to hear from @lauriewrobo as well...join us!
Jessica1 -
I will try posting the direct links again, maybe it will work. If I click a hyperlink it doesn't work for me either, I think it's a MFP problem. If it doesn't work, try copy pasting it yourself in a new tab.
September: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xrCR2j7K4DXJleV_flO8l4Ac_8ppr4Qdb1gcFHXImjE/edit#gid=2066272077
October: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1egY2KdVXZzEYUXdu2Ho3plnSAh65D3WAw8GOd2HZKQ4/edit#gid=2066272077
Habit Tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fdJ6htI2YK_ItxoqDy0VTI7hmuFDeQHajPkzSVWp0BM/edit#gid=8832454091 -
Daily step goal: 10,000
Fri 9/29: 11,033
Sat 9/30: 12,6252 -
jessicakrall8 wrote: »@izzyred9400 I deleted and resent the invitation...still waiting to hear from @lauriewrobo as well...join us!
Jessica
Hi,
Thanks,but now my Garmin app not working either! It's from them as a pop up came up saying they're experiencing an outage ! I uninstalled the app & tried again but still a problem.I'm done with technology today it's caused me so much frustration.
Luckily I can relax this evening as I'm going with a friend to the theatre to watch a Stevie Wonder tribute act.2 -
izzyred9400 wrote: »jessicakrall8 wrote: »@izzyred9400 I deleted and resent the invitation...still waiting to hear from @lauriewrobo as well...join us!
Jessica
Hi,
Thanks,but now my Garmin app not working either! It's from them as a pop up came up saying they're experiencing an outage ! I uninstalled the app & tried again but still a problem.I'm done with technology today it's caused me so much frustration.
Luckily I can relax this evening as I'm going with a friend to the theatre to watch a Stevie Wonder tribute act.
Yep same here It says there's a server outage for Garmin2 -
Hi @Pupowl & @jessicakrall8 please put me down for step challenge
1. 5,000 steps
2. Like to walk around my neighborhood through a little forest
3. Working my part time job 1 night a week & half days Saturday3 -
Steps
9/30 5,2823
https://youtu.be/QV1hdYjOAE8?si=kWujzMDqilEf6RGQ
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