Sixers Slimmer Summer - Week 1

Woohoo! Ladies, I just had to pop in and tell you that I went out for a group run this morning through the running store and I ran 12km!!!!!! Not only that, it felt GREAT. No strain, no difficulty (mind you, the pace was about 1 minute per km slower than my 10k race pace) and I even ran home after. I'm feeling SO capable of doing the half in October since I still have my 18 weeks of coached training between now and then :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

What is this challenge and is it too late for me to get in? I am needing some motivation and support to lose weight (more than the 3 pounds I lose and regain nearly every week). If I could join your group I believe it would help me tremendously.

We are a group that has been together in some incarnation since August 2008 though I think only a couple of us who are here now have been here the whole time. We do 6 week long challenges and at the outset you decide how much you're hoping to lose or outline the goals you'd like to achieve within those 6 weeks. We start a new weekly thread on Tuesdays which is when we do our weigh-ins (if applicable) and are otherwise just here for motivation, questions and answers, support and the like :happy: We're close to starting week two and we have about as many new faces as veterans for this challenge so jump in! Tell us a little something about yourself :bigsmile:

TIFF!! I 3rd what L said. Make sure you are careful while symptoms surface... Thank goodness you're okay!!!!!!!!!!

Cathy, thanks for sharing your thoughts this morning. What you said is very important.
And I agree; this is about lifestyle, however that is defined for each of YOU. The standard for your own pace and program are yours and the important thing is that exercise is happening and that you eat foods that will nourish and satisfy your body. We are all coming from our own perspectives in this group and that diversity is one of the MANY things that makes it special.

I also wanted to comment on my new approach because it has really made a big difference to my mindset. It has only been a week (and there was that one day that I did jump on the scale), but taking a different approach to my journey and removing the scale from the equation has actually made it a LOT easier to make good choices. Before, if I ate something less than ideal or missed a workout I would get bummed about it and feel resigned to seeing the effects (even if it's just retained water from sodium) on the scale. It was like a game about the numbers and wanting to do what I could to keep them going down. But now that I've taken measurements and photos, and because I've allowed my goal to be a fitness-oriented goal rather than a number-oriented goal (the goal being my progression in distance running), I have really felt like I'm facing either cheating myself or not cheating myself, rather than losing a numbers game with the scale. We were at a parade this morning and I was SO HUNGRY when we got home. I thought about dipping in to something quick and sweet but my instant thought was, 'then you'll throw off your system with too much sugar and fat and you won't run as well tomorrow or recover as well after' and it was easy to wait 10 minutes while our protein pancakes finished cooking because I knew I would reward my body with the nutrition it needs to keep me moving forward. I'm not worrying about whether I'll get beaten by the scale because I won't know about any weird little fluctuations. I AM worrying about how my choices are going to affect my health and my performance and THAT is what a healthy lifestyle should be about.
I know that is all kind of a mind-spew of a rant but this shift in perspective feels huge to me and I felt it was important to share it :flowerforyou: If I've learned anything in the last (almost) year on MFP it's that this journey from a fat lifestyle to a fit lifestyle has many stages and many epiphanies about ones self happen along the way. Just like a person won't succeed at this until they are truly ready in that magical way, the stages just come as they come. But food for thought can never hurt

How about some specific goals for week 2?? Do you want to do a certain number of workouts? Try something new? Try to cook at home a certain number of nights this week? Drink enough water, get enough sleep or try adding some relaxational stretching to your week? Set some goals that you can achieve this week. It will do wonders! :drinker: