New Year, New Me!

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Mandalicious
Mandalicious Posts: 126
in Motivation and Support
Hello, fellow fitness-seekers! If you are highly motivated, positive, actively supportive of your mfp friends AND want a new and better you for the New Year... then this might be the perfect challenge for you.

The details --
*Limited to about the first dozen people who are highly motivated about getting down to business and supporting the group to join our regular members of Dave, Mimi, Wimberley, Maria, Joy, Joe, Kelly, and Sam.
*Weigh-in every Friday morning and post result on the thread. A spreadsheet will be posted on Saturdays showing everyone's results.
*First weigh-in is today, Nov. 25th with the last weigh-in of the challenge Friday, Jan. 6th.

What do you need to do to join?
To this thread, post a message with a starting weight and a goal weight for the six week challenge, officially ending the first Friday of the new year. Also, include a little background about yourself. And be prepared to support your fellow challenge members!

I'll start. I am Mandy, mom of two little boys, 34-years-old, former high school teacher, living in Portland, OR, previous couch potato. I have been overweight my entire life until the last few months. Through calorie-counting with mfp, support of my mfp friends, and lots of exercise, I am finally a normal weight. And it feels GREAT! I have taken up running and find it to be an awesome part of my new life. My starting weight today is 128.5 (hopefully lots of extra water from Thanksgiving!) and my goal is 123.5 for the New Year! Let it roll!
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Replies

  • henney16
    henney16 Posts: 288
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    bump - will post my info later!

    Dave
  • mobskee
    mobskee Posts: 200
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    Hi Mandy,

    I would love to join another one of your challenges.

    My current weight is 205.5
    Goal weight is 199

    My name is Maria. I live in Oregon with 2 kids, my boyfriend, and two cats :laugh: I work for a marketing company as a project coordinator and go to college (part time). I've always been overweight and am trying to end that by changing my eating habits and lifestyle. I feel that I'm doing really good with changing the eating habits but really need to exersize more. The biggest challenge with that lately has been my very busy work schedule. It's our busiest time of the year and because work comes home with me I'm working non-stop.

    I just finished my first challenge (organized by Mandy) and found it to be very helpfull. The support and seeing other member's sucess was very encouraging. Thank you Mandy for organizing another challenge! I'm looking forward to this challenge and hoping to meet the goal I didn't meet during the last challenge. Besides meeting my weight goal...my goal is also to log everyday and exersize for at least 20 minutes a day. No matter how busy I get I have to take this time for myself! I'm planning on starting a fat flush cleanse so it will be very important to log for the first two weeks to ensure that I eat enough calories or it will slow down my metabolist instead of giving it a little push.

    I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone on this challenge.
  • ratsyroo
    ratsyroo Posts: 103 Member
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    So excited to join another challenge! =) I'm starting at 148.8 and would like to be at 144.0 by the new year. I'm a busy mom of 4 (one girl, 3 boys) and Air Force wifenwho is trying to not only lose weight but get healthy! I want to be able to have fun & adventures with my family for a long time--and look good doing it! lol:wink:
  • ssbarfarkle
    ssbarfarkle Posts: 150 Member
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    I would like to join please. My name is Sandy, I am married w/2 puppies & 2 cats. I am an accountant & am scared that January 1st thru April 15th will be tough to get my exercise in. I figure I better try to jump start it now.
    I have been over weight all my life & would like to see how the other half lives. My BFF has lost 39 pounds on MFP & I am so proud of her!!! I'll see her in May & would like her to be proud of me as well.
    Thanks!

    SW 11/25/11 is 192.2
    GW 1/6/12 is 185.0
  • henney16
    henney16 Posts: 288
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    Welcome Sandy!!

    Hello everyone! My name is Dave, I am 29 years old and currently reside in Plainfield, IL. I'm am married to my high school sweetheart and we just celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on Thanksgiving. We have a 2 1/2 year old daughter and my son is due to be born in the next week or two. A lot going on in my household right now, just trying to finish up last minute things before my little Zachary is born.

    I started my weight loss journey back on May 1st, 2011 and weighed in at 308 pounds (my heaviest). After a phone call from my sister a week prior to that and a lot of soul searching, I decided it was time to make a change. Since then I have lost 80 pounds through a lot of hard work, discipline, exercise, and just an outright stubborn attitude to succeed. I started out slow by walking, tracking my food, and cutting out all fastfood and soda. From there I purchased a mountain bike and began riding about 75-100 miles per week over the summer. About 3 months ago I joined a gym and continued riding on the stationary bike, but quickly became bored of riding indoors. At that point I turned to the treadmill and have been jogging/running ever since.

    The one area I'm lacking throughout this process is strength training. I need to incorporate this into my routine and get my crap together. I was 226 before thanksgiving and I'm weighing in at 228.8 this morning. Need to get my stuff in gear and get back on track to make it to my goal of 198 pounds or 110 pounds lost. Look forward to working with you all, please add me if we aren't friends already!

    Starting weight = 228.8

    Goal weight = 221
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
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    bump - will post my info later. Sorry I'm late!

    Sandy -- welcome to the group!
  • mobskee
    mobskee Posts: 200
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    Hi Sandy. Welcome to the challenge! Hope you'll love MFP as much as I do.
  • sm423
    sm423 Posts: 210 Member
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    Hi, my name is Stephanie. I would love to join the group. My current weight is 186, I'm hoping that's due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was at 180 prior to the four day weekend. *yikes, six pounds* My goal for the end of the six weeks would be a ten pound weight loss. I don't know if I should go off of 186 or 180, but since the scale says 186 I will go with that. So at the end of this challenge I would like to be 176.

    I am the mother of three, two boys and a girl. I have two mastiffs. My husband is in the navy and we currently live in Hawaii. I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. I am just ready to be healthy and enjoy this journey that I am on, even if it does cause a few tears. ;)
  • kyodi
    kyodi Posts: 376 Member
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    I'm back for this round as well. I'll post my info later; currently at work :-)
  • henney16
    henney16 Posts: 288
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    Hi Stephanie! Welcome to the group. Good bunch of folks here. We will help and encourage you along the way!

    Dave
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
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    My name is Mimi. I'm 46 and an engineering manager at a semiconductor company. I'm pretty good about exercising -- I do 45 min (~6.6 miles) on the Stairmaster every day, and if I have time I try to get in 2 full body weight training sessions each week as well as some calisthenics. But work gets in the way a lot of the time, and a lot of the time I end up having to cut back on the weight training and calisthenics. But my Stairmaster workout is sacred! :smile:

    My big problem is stress related binge eating, and earlier this year I gained back ~20 of the 24 lbs that I had lost last year because of all the stress. I was doing really well on getting the binge eating under control after I joined the Thanksgiving Challenge (which Mandy also organized) because Mandy did a great job of keeping everyone motivated, and because it was really motivating to work on the challenge with such a great group of people. I started the challenge at 136.8 lbs, and my goal was to lose 7 lbs and be 129.8 lbs by the end of the 7 week challenge. I did much better than I had expected, and by the end of week 6 I had lost 8.8 lbs and was 128 lbs!

    But the day after the week 6 weigh-in (which was ~2 weeks ago), my boyfriend and I decided to break up. We've been together for 9+ years (we've been living together for the past ~8 years). We've tried for a long time to work out various problems, so it wasn't a surprise, but making this final decision was emotionally devastating and my eating went completely out of control. Since then I've been struggling with stress related binge eating, and have had bad binges on many days during the past 2 weeks. The only good thing is that I managed to keep up with my exercise routine on most days.

    Earlier last week I had started to get the binging under control, but a few days ago some stressful things came up and I ended up having bad binges every day for the past few days. As of this morning I was 136.8 lbs -- which was my exact weight at the beginning of the Thanksgiving Challenge! :( Though my weight is probably 4 - 5 lbs higher than actual due to water retention from the binges during the past few days, I suspect that I did regain ~4 lbs from all of the binging during the past ~2 weeks.

    So my starting weight is 136.8 lbs, and my goal is to be at 129.8 lbs by the end of the challenge (this is the same goal weight that I had for the Thanksgiving Challenge). Right now I'm struggling with getting my eating stabilized, and I'm hoping that focusing on this challenge will help me do that.
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
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    Hi, my name is Stephanie. I would love to join the group. My current weight is 186, I'm hoping that's due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was at 180 prior to the four day weekend. *yikes, six pounds* My goal for the end of the six weeks would be a ten pound weight loss. I don't know if I should go off of 186 or 180, but since the scale says 186 I will go with that. So at the end of this challenge I would like to be 176.

    I am the mother of three, two boys and a girl. I have two mastiffs. My husband is in the navy and we currently live in Hawaii. I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. I am just ready to be healthy and enjoy this journey that I am on, even if it does cause a few tears. ;)
    Welcome! I'm glad you joined us!
  • mobskee
    mobskee Posts: 200
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    Hi Mimi,

    Glad to see you in this challenge again. I'm sorry that you're going through hard times...stay strong! Let us know if there is anything we can do to help!
  • Balanced_Life
    Balanced_Life Posts: 229 Member
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    Hi Mimi,

    Glad to see you in this challenge again. I'm sorry that you're going through hard times...stay strong! Let us know if there is anything we can do to help!
    Thanks Maria! I really appreciate your support. :flowerforyou: Doing this challenge with you and the others is actually the thing that's helping me the most right now, and seeing everyone's progress inspires me and helps me to hang on. :smile: I've still been struggling with the eating all week, and only managed to exercise 1 day this week because work has been so busy, but I'm going to try to get back on track with both eating and exercise tomorrow.
  • henney16
    henney16 Posts: 288
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    Hi Mimi,

    Glad to see you in this challenge again. I'm sorry that you're going through hard times...stay strong! Let us know if there is anything we can do to help!
    Thanks Maria! I really appreciate your support. :flowerforyou: Doing this challenge with you and the others is actually the thing that's helping me the most right now, and seeing everyone's progress inspires me and helps me to hang on. :smile: I've still been struggling with the eating all week, and only managed to exercise 1 day this week because work has been so busy, but I'm going to try to get back on track with both eating and exercise tomorrow.

    Mimi - we are here for you, hope you keep pushing along and doing what you can to stay strong. I've been struggling with my eating since the weekend before Thanksgiving, but have been busting my hump to try and break even. My biggest thing is I eat a little more on the days I work out, and usually I workout at night. Lately I've been pushing myself at the gym and come home super hungry and eat (usually a few bowls of cereal). My buddy who just hit his 100 pounds lost mark suggested a protein shake at night after I workout. Not a ton of calories, and it seemed to fill me up tonight. Here's hoping I get out of my eating funk!
  • mobskee
    mobskee Posts: 200
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    Hi Mimi,

    Glad to see you in this challenge again. I'm sorry that you're going through hard times...stay strong! Let us know if there is anything we can do to help!
    Thanks Maria! I really appreciate your support. :flowerforyou: Doing this challenge with you and the others is actually the thing that's helping me the most right now, and seeing everyone's progress inspires me and helps me to hang on. :smile: I've still been struggling with the eating all week, and only managed to exercise 1 day this week because work has been so busy, but I'm going to try to get back on track with both eating and exercise tomorrow.

    I've been strugling as well this week! Work is settling down a little bit so I've had more time but now I got a yukky cold...excuses, excuses...right? There is always tomorrow...

    A quote I saw recently that really stuck..."I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday" :happy:
  • mobskee
    mobskee Posts: 200
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    Dave,

    Have you ever tried desert gum? When I want to eat late, I drink a full glass of water and chew on some apple pie desert gum...yum!
  • kyodi
    kyodi Posts: 376 Member
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    My biggest thing is I eat a little more on the days I work out, and usually I workout at night. Lately I've been pushing myself at the gym and come home super hungry and eat (usually a few bowls of cereal). My buddy who just hit his 100 pounds lost mark suggested a protein shake at night after I workout. Not a ton of calories, and it seemed to fill me up tonight. Here's hoping I get out of my eating funk!

    High protein after a workout is a good idea. Burns long (feel full) and is needed for muscle repair. I sure you knew both things, but I'm a science guy so I like to point out the science whenever possible!

    I had a thing typed out here for after workout consumption, but the BodyBuilding.com site had a much better scientific explanation. Maybe others will find this helpful too.
    During the workout hard working muscles use glucose (usable energy) and glycogen (stored energy) for energy. As such, there is a point at which blood glucose levels (available energy) and glycogen levels (stored energy) get so low that intense exercise can't continue. There just isn't enough available energy for your muscles to use.

    So what happens is that the hormone cortisol is secreted, this is your body's "stress" hormone and it has very catabolic effects. What cortisol does is eat up muscle tissue for protein and convert it into glucose. A process called gluconeogenesis ensues, producing glucose from these amino acids in the liver. The net result is a loss of muscle tissue.


    The post-workout shake prevents this. It also allows insulin to be released, this is, as most of you know, one of several anabolic hormones in the body (if you are a natural trainer especially, you want to maximize the release of all your body's anabolic hormones through all available methods).

    So, whey protein is your best protein source at this time because it is absorbed quickly, what is the best carbohydrate source? Well, we want a high glycemic carbohydrate source. This term refers to carbs that are high on the glycemic index (70 and above rates as high).

    The Glycemic Index is a measure of how quickly a food raises blood sugar and hence insulin levels. Normally, it is best to eat lower glycemic foods so as not to initiate an insulin spike (55 and under rates as low). But post-workout, the exact opposite is true.
  • kyodi
    kyodi Posts: 376 Member
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    The mint chocolate chip ice cream gum is AWESOME!!!
  • henney16
    henney16 Posts: 288
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    Thanks Joe! I didn't have this issue until recently. Normally I would eat dinner at like 6, have a snack at like 8 then workout from like 930 to 11pm. Then I would go home and go to sleep. The last few weeks I've been pushing hard at the gym because of all the eating form Thanksgiving and what not and I get so hungry when I get home. I did the protein shake last night, and it seemed to work really well. I have 1 serving of powder with me to throw in my water after my run tonight (or elliptical or whatever I decide to do tonight) to prevent me from eating 3 bowls of cherrios when I get home! I've checked my weight everyday this week and am just look to break even from last weeks weigh in. Hopefully better than that, but I don't want to weigh more!! We will see tomorrow morning!

    Dave

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