WeightNoMore Team Chat - APRIL 2024
jugar
Posts: 10,234 Member
Fat2Fit has five great teams. The group and team leaders are as follows - contact them any time!
Our Moderators:
Liselyn - @jugar
Megan - @Megan_smartiepants1970
Ashley - @minstrelofsarcasm
Jessica - @jessicakrall8
Our Team Captains:
Downsizers - @Megan_smartiepants1970 and open
Mission Slimpossible - @Katmary71 and @trooworld
Weight No More - @minstrelofsarcasm and @melaniedscott
WaistAways - @jugar and @ashleycarole86
Shape Shifters - @jessicakrall8 and @Pupowl
Our Team Motivators:
Downsizers - @Slimmersixties & @NachDeezy
Mission Slimpossibles - open
Weight No More - @rachelrjh and @BodyTalking
WaistAways - @MaddawgMadsen
Shape Shifters - @LaurieWrobo and @Cyncia85
HOW IT ALL WORKS: The April challenge runs for four weeks, from March 31 - April 27.
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, and may everyone else get to work on next week!
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 single week. You are heading steadily towards your goal even if you aren't at the top of the weight loss leaderboard. In March we are aiming for every team to hit 50% green every week - let's do this!
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 can be moved to the Support Team for as long as you need. 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 or re-introduce yourselves right away, and let's get April rolling!1
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The April Week 1 Group Challenge is open and ready to begin on Sunday, Mar 31st, so please join us for the Spring into Focus Challenge for a week of changing focuses which surround your health journey! Here's your link:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10912670/april-week-1-group-challenge-spring-into-focus-challenge#latest
Hope to see you in the chat thread!
Jessica1 -
Good morning from Devon UK!
Here I am with my first weigh in!
Weigh In Day: Sunday
PW (Previous Weight): 154
CW (Current Weight):149
I’ve had a great first week, been really motivated at the thought of an accountable weigh in, which is what motivates me!
My previous weight may not have been totally accurate as I’m not convinced the scales I was using were calibrated. I’m more certain of my weight this week! Hopefully with this being the first week, you’ll not need to take into account my previous week reading? Otherwise I feel like I’m cheating 😵💫.
Anyway, great to be here doing this.
Diet and exercise always go hand in hand for me and I’m back to the gym this week for about a month - first time yesterday and really enjoyed that too!
Hopefully see some more weigh ins on here soon - good luck everyone! 👍😊2 -
Weigh In Day: Sunday
PW (Previous Weight): 230.6
CW (Current Weight): 234.0
Ugh! Idk if this is accurate or how it could be...I know I didn't use the diary at all, so that is a big no no, I need to get back to using it!! And this makes me want to give up! I was really hoping I would see another 2, not a higher 3! 😭 Happy Easter guys.
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Team Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Individual Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Team Winners
Percentage of Members in the Green!
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(100 lbs, holy cow!)
Team Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Individual Results
By Percentage
By Pounds
Team Winners
Percentage of Members in the Green!
- Congrats to Downsizers for having the highest percentage of members in the green this month!
- Congrats to Downsizers and Weight No More for having at least half of their members in the green on average throughout the month!
- Congrats to Downsizers and WaistAways for having over 60% of their members in the green for at least one week!
- Congrats to Shape Shifters for being the only team to finish the month stronger than they started!
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Hey WeightNoMores! Welcome to ... April! I'm excited to see where the month will take us!
Anyway, I'm Ashley, I'll be one of your two co-captains here to guide you through the month (and even longer, if you'll stick around with us).
While most of this information has been copied and pasted, I have updated some of my information to be more current and accurate. And if there are any questions, any at all, please do not hesitate to ask. I'm more than willing to talk about my struggles, my digestive tract, my sleep schedule, how there are very few healthy date foods and I don't want to look like that person around my boyfriend, how lifting heavy saves me from potentially beating up my coworkers, stress baking, stress eating... you get the idea.
There's a lot of content here, and it's spoilered, so it doesn't make a long post even longer. You get to pick and choose what you read.~ THE BASICS ~Name: Ashley
Age: 28
Pronouns: she/her
Location: Ohio, USA
Occupation: Chemical Engineer and Certified Personal Trainer (since November 2023!)
Height: 5'7"
Highest Weight: 234lbs
Current Weight: 183lbs
Lowest Weight: 6lb 10oz (August 28th, 1995)
Lowest Non-Infant Weight: 155lbs (although there were some heavy ED vibes, so I wouldn't romanticize that time of my life too much)
Medical Diagnosis: Multiple Sclerosis~ MY HEALTH STORY ~I grew up in a Clean Plates Club™ household, with the idea that food could stuff down any emotion and mask any discomfort. This led to being bullied as a child, expecting people to be mean to me in middle and high school (and then being mean to people first so they didn't have the chance), having an identity crisis in college, and being scared (ahem) poopless after a doctor told me I was on the edge of being pre-diabetic.
I used this fear to catapult me into fitness, starting with indoor cycling classes. I expanded into trying out OrangeTheory, Barry's Bootcamp, F45, and numerous smaller boutique fitness studios. Eventually, I landed on a nice gym that offers group fitness but also allows you to use their equipment for your own personal use. That, combined with having a personal training session once a week, and dropping into group fitness studios from time to time, has led me to have a balanced fitness routine.
In the middle of me getting my (ahem) stuff together, November 2019, I had my first major Multiple Sclerosis relapse and could not feel half of my body. At the time, I had no diagnosis and did not know what was going on outside of the sensation of pins and needles on my left side. After playing a rousing game of Musical Neurologists™, I found a doctor who did not believe my condition to be severe anxiety. He ordered an MRI and a spinal tap, and I was on my way. 14 vials of blood, 2 MRIs, and one spinal tap later, I had a diagnosis. My symptoms are mostly manageable, and my active lifestyle along with reasonably healthy eating has allowed me to continue on with my life without much interruption. My next MRI is in a week, and I hope it shows no further deterioration, as there is currently no cure for MS.
And now? Now I'm focused on building muscle, maintaining my cardiovascular health, and holding back the icky side effects of the autoimmune disorder. Losing weight would be fantastic, but it's not my focus anymore. I've also become a certified personal trainer, with the intent to make fitness more accessible for those with chronic illness. Oh boy, do I have some new fun facts bouncing around in my brain.
The plan for this month is to find somewhere to take my personal training certification. My original lead did not pan out, for a myriad of reasons, so I am back to the drawing board.~ FUN NUMBERS ~Number of Spin Classes Attended: 1180
Deadlift Personal Best: 180 lbs
Squat Personal Best: 160 lbs
Fastest Mile Run: 6m 11s
Percent Body Fat: 27%
Times "Started Over": Too High to Count~ THINGS TO KNOW ~- I am a moderator for F2F, so if something doesn't look right, you can let me know and I'll take care of it.
- As a chemical engineer and certified personal trainer, I am VERY familiar with a lot of the chemicals we put into our bodies, and numbers are my friends. I also do research for a living. You want facts? I'm your girl. I am always (ALWAYS) happy to explain the science behind something.
- I used to have a blog on MFP before they removed the blog feature. I didn't save everything I ever wrote, but you can find some of it here: LINK
- I am an open book. You want to know about life with MS? Just ask. You want to know when my last bowel movement was? Just ask. You want my maple donut cookie recipe? Just ask. There is not a single topic I am unwilling to chat about - all it takes is asking the right questions.
~ CURRENT STRUGGLES ~My weight has been slowly increasing over the past year. And even though I know there's been quite a bit of muscle growth, and plenty of sources of water retention, it's getting to me.
In an attempt to quell my anxieties, I ordered a new scale.
I know what you're thinking. Obsessing over my weight even more will not help.
But that's not why I ordered a new scale. This new scale has a couple built in features I'm excited to try out, tracking a dozen more metrics than a standard scale, including BMI, body fat percentages, muscle mass, etc. I am hoping (HOPING) that these new numbers will help me re-center myself and trust that this slow process is working for me, that my plan to build muscle to increase my basal metabolic rate (BMR) while losing fat from a slight caloric deficit has been benefitting me.
Because sure, my BMI claims I'm overweight. It's been decades since I haven't been overweight. But I know I'm more muscular than I've ever been at 180lbs, and I've been here several times before. And I know I can do far more than I ever could previously.
So, it's going to be okay. But my brain needs a few more numbers, just a little more data, before it believes that.
UPDATE - OCTOBER: The new scale was incredibly helpful. Here's what I posted soon after testing it out:minstrelofsarcasm wrote: »~ New NSV!!! ~
I mentioned in my long rambling post about myself that I ordered a new scale to better track the numbers in a way that matters, and oh boy was that a smart idea. I have the results of the InBody scan I did way back in May last year, when I was actively participating in a challenge at my gym at the time, F45. And while there are some things to be wary of when comparing two different methods of obtaining these numbers, I am still ridiculously proud of how far I've come.Let's take a look...
May 9th, 2022
Weight - 177.1 lbs
BMI - 27.7 kg/m2
Skeletal Muscle Mass - 74.3 lbs
September 8th, 2023
Weight - 179.4 lbs
BMI - 28.2 kg/m2
Skeletal Muscle Mass - 88.2 lbsBut what does this mean?
So here's the thing. My weight went up. For a lot of people, this is a huge no-no. And because my weight went up, so did my BMI, because BMI is based solely on weight and height, not levels of health. I wrote a blog post back in the days when MFP still had the blog feature (I was smart and made a copy of this blog, so if you want to read it, you can click here).
But let me draw your attention to what I'm actually proud of: Skeletal Muscle Mass. According to what my special scale told me this morning, I've gained almost 14 whole pounds of muscle over the past 16 months. And if I gained 14 pounds of muscle, but only 2 pounds of weight, that also means I've lost approximately 12 pounds of fat, give or take a pound or two to account for hydration levels and how much heavier my hair may have gotten.
All of this is to say that the number on the scale isn't the whole picture. I can already see a couple issues I have with the measurements my new scale has taken, because there's way too many variables that could affect the values they're giving me, but it's a lovely way to compare my values one day to my values on another, and that's a better picture than a standard weight-only scale could ever provide.
UPDATE - November: I still have a couple issues with the numbers I've been seeing, but the slight shifts from day to day have aligned reasonably well with my eating/exercise habits, so I can't complain too much.
UPDATE - December: I've been out of control with my eating recently, but I think I've discovered several of my triggers to overeat, and I have a plan to regain control. It's just a matter of doing the damn thing.
UPDATE - February: My weight has mostly stabilized, so now I'm focusing on the little details and paying attention to their impact on my weight, essentially treating my body like a science experiment. Stay tuned.3 -
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Congrats to the March group!
Is it cool if I change my weigh in day to a Sunday from a Friday?
Weigh In Day: Sunday
PW (Previous Weight): 195.9
CW (Current Weight):193.5
Currently at the parent in laws for Easter but will be straight back on it come Tuesday. I’m not telling this side of the family I’m trying to lose weight so saying no to all the food offerings is hard without all the questions!1 -
Littlefrenchplum wrote: »Is it cool if I change my weigh in day to a Sunday from a Friday?
@Littlefrenchplum - Not a problem, I'll change that for you!0 -
chocohollic wrote: »My previous weight may not have been totally accurate as I’m not convinced the scales I was using were calibrated. I’m more certain of my weight this week! Hopefully with this being the first week, you’ll not need to take into account my previous week reading? Otherwise I feel like I’m cheating 😵💫.
@chocoholic - The previous week reading is your starting weight for the month, so it does still count. Do you want me to adjust the number to something else, since you don't trust the scale? Or would you rather just stick with this as it is? Weight fluctuates, so a large whoosh isn't entirely unreasonable.CassieGetsFit2013 wrote: »Ugh! Idk if this is accurate or how it could be...I know I didn't use the diary at all, so that is a big no no, I need to get back to using it!! And this makes me want to give up! I was really hoping I would see another 2, not a higher 3! 😭 Happy Easter guys.
@CassieGetsFit2013 - It's likely that a lot of the weight you gained is water, either from stress or salt or sugar or a bunch of other possibilities. Don't let the slight gain push you into giving up! You've lost this weight before, and you can do it again, just need to take it one decision at a time. What is something you're going to change to make this week a better one?
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@minstrelofsarcasm could you adjust my previous weight to say 152. - that way my loss this week would be 3. I think that’s far more reasonable with knowing what happens when I normally start. Thank you!0
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Welcome @chocoholic 👋🙂0
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I've been a bit quite over the past couple of weeks - time flies and, whoosh, it's April!!
I'm Mairi, aka Body talking. I live in Prague, Czech Republic, but come from Glasgow, Scotland. I'm married without children. I teach ESL (English as a second language), have a working background in design, craft and retail. When I can, I like to go to a coastal destination in winter and, beach permitting, collect sea glass.
Weight wise, I seem to be stuck around the 80 kilo mark but believe I can head downwards again 🤞
I'm working on increasing my daily steps, adding more exercise routines to tone the flab and build strength, improving my eating habits and increasing nutrition while doing so, drinking plenty of water and calming my mind and body for an overall better me.▫️🦉▫️🦥▫️🐖▫️
I'm a night owl and a bit of a sloth, with piggish tendencies, but imagine I can become more of morning lark and an elegant flamingo, with peacockish tendencies.
▫️🐦▫️🦩▫️🦚▫️1 -
Weigh In Day: Monday 1 April
PW: 160.6
CW: 160.1
WEIGHT LOST: 0.5 lb
Starting to stall a bit. Using the bank holiday to meal plan and prep to hopefully start the new month strong.2 -
Since it's April, I thought I'd see how many steps I had done so far.
Jan-Mar total: 622,286
(last year 705,912)
I have 83,626 fewer steps than last year. In order to 'Do Better in 2024', I'll need to step-it-up!
That cough in January really set me back.
My average step count for April 2023 was 7302 per day, so I aim to do more than that. 10,090 per day would see me level up with last year....but I know that will be a big ask....let's see.1 -
chocohollic wrote: »@minstrelofsarcasm could you adjust my previous weight to say 152. - that way my loss this week would be 3. I think that’s far more reasonable with knowing what happens when I normally start. Thank you!
@chocoholic - You got it, that sounds more reasonable to me too. And it'll still be good momentum for you, just more realistic.
Official Weight No More Business:
Melanie needed a bit more time off than originally thought, so I'm going to be posting the Step Results from two weeks ago later today, and will be covering the Step Results post for last week on Thursday (probably).
I am still weighting (ha) for weigh-ins this week from the following:
Also! I'd love to get a status report on the folks from our support team, if you've got the bandwidth to provide one:
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Am I able to skip this week? My scale broke and I'm hoping to get a new one this week.0
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Am I able to skip this week? My scale broke and I'm hoping to get a new one this week.
@Marcy2890 - Not a problem, what happened to your scale??? You didn't take a baseball bat to it, right?1 -
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Hey team! Welcome to all the new members, happy you’re here!
I’m Angie. 36 years old. I’ve been a member of this team starting in October 2023. I’m a wife and mother of a 2 yr old. I work in a factory setting that can be moderately physical with a lot of steps.
A LOT about my history with MFP and how I got here:I joined MFP back in 2012?ish when I was my highest weight (205lbs or so) for that time. Didn’t use it much and it fell to the wayside.
Fast forward to June 2020, I was again at my new highest weight (261lbs). I didn’t feel great, and knew I needed a change, and turned to MFP again and steadily got down to 213lbs by the end of 2020. Took some time off for the holidays and fell off the wagon. By March 2021, I was pregnant and had my son on Halloween that year.
Within 1 year of being PP both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer at different times. It was stressful, scary and hectic. Navigating first time motherhood, working a 3rd shift schedule and taking each of my parents to their respective appointments was a lot and I didn’t give 2 sh*ts about the food I was shoving in my face lol
By August of 2023, my parents were healthy and doing well for which I am so thankful but my weight had suffered and I reached 275lbs. I needed to do something about it. MFP had worked for me before and so I thought I would take a chance. I signed up for this challenge in late September 2023 because I knew I needed something to hold me accountable and give me the push to achieve the things I know are possible.
Since the beginning of 2024, I’ve joined a boot camp style gym and work out there 3-4 times a week, sometimes more if I can manage an at home on demand workout through the gyms app. I’ve also within the last couple months started training for a 5k (using a couch to 5k style program) that I’ll hopefully run more than walk April 6th this month! I’ve never run on purpose, so this is huge for me 😂
Something my trainer asked at my gym, was “What is my Why?”
It’s first and foremost my son. But it’s also me, I’m worth it to feel my best for myself and for him. After losing over 60lbs now, the little things of being able to run around and dance around with him for longer and not feel as tired or as winded has meant more to me than the smaller clothes I get to wear.
If you’ve stuck around and read all of this, hi and thanks lol I’m happy to be apart of this team!3 -
@minstrelofsarcasm I wanted to reply to your question about how I'm doing on the new chat and figured I would make it part of my intro.
Hi All, 40 year old female living in the Northeast US. Lost a net of 15lbs in 2023. Holidays set me back and I slipped into my old habits. In February, my boss unexpectedly went out on medical leave and I had to step into her role and do some travel. In March, I had to play catch up on the things I had to put aside in February, plus there was a large event at the end of the month for work. We have one more large event in mid-April, then work should settle. I am trying to get back on the wagon with my meal prepping, water and snacking.
I have also pretty much decided I am going to try a Kayak Triathlon (Kayak, Run, Bike) in September to celebrate my 40th, so I need to start training. Hoping this is an extra motivator.
Welcome to all the new team members!2 -
minstrelofsarcasm wrote: »Am I able to skip this week? My scale broke and I'm hoping to get a new one this week.
@Marcy2890 - Not a problem, what happened to your scale??? You didn't take a baseball bat to it, right?
@minstrelofsarcasm and @Marcy2890 I bet there are times we all want to take a baseball bat to our scales!! 🤣🤣🤣
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Welcome to all the new ladies & gents!
I'm Melanie, 47 (oof, hard to say it) and I'm from Kansas. I’m the other team Co-captain. Truly, Ashley does most of the heavy lifting (and the past month, all of it. I generally do the steps post and will be back to it for April.
I've had some personal stuff going on and have not been engaged at all. I may talk about it later in the month, I may not. We'll see where I'm at. My lack of engagement has not meant I have gained...my recent stress has resulted in my stomach hurting lot and not eating much (I'm not starving myself, I promise), so I've actually dropped some weight. Starting the month lower than...well, in a long time. I will probably drop more drastically this week as I am prepping for a colinoscopy on Friday and that means two days of very little eating and a lot of laxatives. 😳
The rest is my standard stuff, read it or don't; don't if you've been around a while and already did, up to you.
My (really short version) storyOnce upon a time, I was very skinny and could eat anything I wanted and not gain weight. I was pretty active and took meds that probably ramped up my metabolism (and put me at risk of severe medical problems). But that was a long time ago and things are different. Now I an the opposite of skinny and I look at anything yummy and gain five pounds. I need to lose 80 lbs.My special snowflake challengesI'm fairly significantly asthmatic (on meds all the time).What I do about it
I have terrible allergies, mostly mold. Which is literally everywhere. And cats. Anything that doesn't have square pupils (but not things with square pupils!?! I have no problem with squid, apparently!), including people sometimes.
I have migraines.
And I have connective tissue issues (not enough collagen, too stretchy, lots of joint slippage).
August 2020, I acquired some vertigo problems and persistent deafness on one side. Yay. Fall of '23 the ENT decided to call it Meniere's and recommend hearing aids, which are good.I take glucosamine and collagen supplements for the connective tissue problem. When I have bad days, I also drink collagen peptides (but I really dislike them). I've been supplementing with Vitamin C for decades, not really knowing why. In the past few years, I learned Vit C helps the body produce and process collagen. Suddenly, my lifelong obsession with the C makes sense.What is the point behind all this?
My neurologist recommended I take 500 mg of ginger and 400 mg of Vitamin B2 every day to reduce migraines, it has helped a lot. The migraines are so much better (almost non-existent) and manageable when they happen. The ginger also helps with the vertigo. I have no excuses for not doing exercise when the vertigo is managed, except for being lazy.
After adding some nasal sprays and sinus irrigation, adjusting my diet a bit, adfing copious amounts of ginger, and stopping coffee (EXTREMELY, TERRIBLY sad), I’ve got the vertigo mostly under control.The special snowflake stuff is not woe-is-me drama llama. It is that everyone has to do what works for them now. The stuff a lot of people go on about are not good, for me, and are sometimes dangerous, for me. Sometimes people get down on themselves because they don't do the stuff everyone talks about HIIT, Insanity, stair steppers, etc. I not only don't do those things, I shouldn't. But I should exercise.My GoalsMy daily goal to get about 30 minutes of walking a day at least during the week isn't doing much for me. I try to get a walk in otherwise but frequently fail. Had a gym membership but wasn't using it and canceled it recently. Weather in good ish, no excuse to not walk.
Anyway, I've been with WNM for a long while now. Early days, I lost a lot but blah blah blah, it came back and brought friends. I canceled my membership at Planet Fitness but need to get back to moving.
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@chocoholic - You got it, that sounds more reasonable to me too. And it'll still be good momentum for you, just more realistic.
Thank you! 👍😊
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My steps from last week:
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~~ Step Challenge Results - March Week 3 ~~
Team Statistics -
Total Steppers: 6
Total Steps: 410,463
Average Steps Per Stepper: 68,411 (+6.7% over last week!)
Individual Statistics -
@andja87 - 97,769 total | 13,967 average - Most Steps in One Day!!!
@Emilienewme - 74,140 total | 10,591 average - Most Consistent!!!
@daria0919 - 66,298 total | 9,471 average
@BodyTalking - 59,637 total | 8,520 average
@BlueSkyNomad - 59,382 total | 8,483 average
@Ljdanny - 53,237 total | 7,605 average
Our bolded members set a step goal for the week and met it! If you want to... be bold (heehee), let us know how many steps you want to hit every day on average and we'll keep track of it for you!
I set a goal for all of you after March Week 2 (to hit 5% more steps than the week before), and you absolutely smashed it! You only needed to hit 403,914 steps, and you crushed it with over 410,000!
Obviously, I am posting this after March Week 4 has already ended, so I can't push all of you to do even more steps this week, but I am looking at our monthly total. It looks like we're going to break 1.5 million steps for March, do you think we can break 1.75 million for April? It sounds like a lot, but something as simple as parking a little further than normal, getting up from your desk to go to a different bathroom than you usually do, inviting a friend to go for a walk and catch up... there's a ton of ways to get in a couple hundred more steps and more. A little bit goes a long way. We can do this.3 -
New member heading your way! Give a warm welcome to @grouchersaurus
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Hey y'all. It's been a while since I've participated. Can I hop back on for April, or shall I wait until next month? If I can join, my info is below:
Emery
Weigh In Day: Saturday
SW (3/30): 183.6
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Hi all! I've just joined (I signed up for MFP ages ago but didn't really commit 😅).
I'm Ella, 37 from Aus. I'm hoping to knuckle down and improve my fitness/lose weight- for both a trip to Europe later this year, and to improve my stamina for playing percussion and sax in a few bands.
My weigh-in day will be Mondays.
SW (last week)- approx 98kg/216lb
CW (2 April) - 97.8kg/215.6lb2
This discussion has been closed.