Balanced_Life Member

Sorry everyone -- I need to take a break from the challenge for the time being. :( I've been constantly struggling with work being hectic since the beginning of the challenge, and right now I'm really overwhelmed between work and personal stuff that's come up. I haven't had time to get on MFP lately, and it looks like its…

Sorry I wasn't around much the last couple of weeks because of work. Work is still really busy and I haven't had a chance to catch up on posts yet -- will comment once I have some time. Here are my goals for March: Weight loss goal: 3.4 lbs (.85 lb/week) Weight loss total: Calorie deficit total: Week 0: 138.8 () --…

Weight loss goal: 4.0 lbs (1 lb/week) Weight loss total: 1.0 lbs Week 0: 138.6 () -- starting weight Week 1: 137.2 (-1.4 lbs) Week 2: 137.6 (+ .4 lbs) Feb - Week 2: Goals / ResultsCalorie Deficit: 3500 cal (~500 cal/day) -- MISSED (1593 cal; binged on 1 day and went over by ~1486 cal) Exercise: Total time: 540 min (~75…

@ clydethecat - it not easy for me to make new friends either. Feel free to add me!

@ jbescherer - good advice! Thanks for a thoughtful post. It sounds like we're similar in a lot of ways (I'm also an engineer!), but I'm working on making more friends and will try to follow your advice. :smile:

I'm really rushed today (work again!) but will try to post my results/goals tomorrow!

@ ThePinkPachyderm - this is so true! You summed it up very well. :smile:

@ Sammie - you look great in that photo! And I bet you'd look even better with some more muscle. :smile: But you definitely wouldn't want to be thinner than that, so 120 lbs would definitely be too low for you. You know what's interesting? Your BMI at 128 lbs is 19.5, which is exactly the same as what my BMI would be at…

@ Sammie - looks like you did well last week! :drinker: I bet you'll see a big loss next week once you get rid of the water weight. Good job on exceeding your cardio goal! You know what's interesting? Our weights are almost exactly the same right now -- mine is 137.2 lbs! :smile: How tall are you? I'm 5' 3.5"

@ Jess - don't worry about the gain, its probably just water weight! I'm also focusing on getting the strength training in -- let's both do well on that this week! It looks like we've both been pretty stressed the last few weeks, though for me it was mostly from work. Hang in there! Sure, its a good idea if you and others…

Weight loss goal: 4.0 lbs (1 lb/week) Weight loss total: 1.4 lbs Week 0: 138.6 () -- starting weight Week 1: 137.2 (-1.4 lbs) Feb - Week 1: Goals / ResultsCalorie Deficit: 3500 cal (~500 cal/day) - EXCEEDED (3736 cal) Exercise: Total time: 440 min -- EXCEEDED (480 min) Cardio: Stairmaster (315 min; 45 min x 7) -- DONE…

Glad to see that most of our group is participating in the Feb. challenge! People who confirmed for Feb. are: Wimberly, Jess, Joy, Maria, Sammie, Mimi, (MarineWifey09, jwerman, ratsyroo, mobskee, SparksFly460, Balanced_Life) Mandy (Mandalicious) won't be participating in Feb. since she's really busy right now. I checked…

@ Maria - thanks! I'm really glad to see you back too! :flowerforyou: And yes, I sure wish that thinking burned calories because then I would've lost ~5 lbs! :laugh: By the way, Mandy said that she's going to skip the challenge for Feb. because she's really busy right now. I hope she can re-join us in March!

@ Wimberly - sounds like your friend's visit will be a lot of fun! Its great that you're going to work on your weight loss goals together while doing lot of fun activities. Adding strength training is definitely the way to go! I also haven't been keeping up with that in the past but have ramped up on that during the past…

@ Maria - I'm glad your ankle is better now. Fantastic weight loss for Jan! Its especially impressive considering all of the stressful things that you had going on. :drinker: Keep up the good work!

@ Sammie – losing 5.3 lbs is pretty good! Its great that you have a plan for continuous improvement and am already planning your exercise while you’re on vacation! @ Jess – that’s a fantastic loss for Jan.! In Feb. I’m also going to focus more on strength training. Next week I’m going to try to do some strength training…

Sammie -- thanks for kicking things off! We're now in in Week 1 of the Feb. challenge -- let's make Feb. a great month! I've written below my weight loss goal for Feb. and my goals for Week 1, and my results for Week 4 of Jan. Weight loss goal: 4.0 lbs Weight loss total: Week 0: 138.6 lbs. () -- starting weight Week 1: Feb…

@ Sammie - thanks, I also really missed you and the others! Now that work has calmed down (so I hope!) I'm going to be back on here regularly. I agree, it looks like everyone (except me!) did great on the challenge! Like I mentioned in my earlier post, this next Mon. is the first week of the Feb. challenge, and I hope…

@ Joy – if you've been eating under 1200 cal/day, that definitely could be a cause for the plateau, and eating more sounds like a good plan. By the way, you might be able to get some more ideas from this article, which has good into on "unexplainable" weight loss plateaus:…

@ Sammie - great job on Week 3, and on the challenge so far! You've been making execllent progress on the weight loss! I have the same problem with doing well on the eating and the exercise, and then slipping up on the eating because of stress, etc. (stress induced late night binges are my problem). Getting that under…

@ Wimberly – this is just a minor blip, nothing to worry about. You've been doing a fantastic job overall throughout this challenge! I'm really impressed with how well you've done on both the exercise and the eating.

@ Jess - wow, you've been doing a great job! Excellent progress on weight loss as well as your other goals. By the way, I haven't been able to meet my strength training goals either. I also need to focus on doing better on that going forward!

@ Mandy – congratulations! Its fantastic that you gained 6 lbs of muscle mass while losing all that weight! If you decide to keep losing, I think you should definitely aim for losing only .5 lb/week since you’re at a lower body fat level now. Some thoughts on why you don’t look as toned as you’d like -- how long ago was it…

@ Maria - it sounds like you're doing really well, especially considering all of the stress that you've been under because of your job situation! I really know how you feel, because my job is also very stressful and I end up working long hours a lot of the time. It sounds like losing that job really will be better for you…

Sorry I ended up being MIA for the past 3 weeks! It looks like the madness at work is finally over for the time being ( * crosses fingers * ), and I finally have time to get on MFP. First of all, I've decided to keep this challenge going through the rest of 2012. So at the end of each month, please post whether you'd like…

*bump*

Sorry everyone -- it looks like I'm going to be MIA a while longer. Last week was a complete madhouse. I only had time to sleep ~5 hrs on most nights, and on one night was only able to sleep 3 hrs. :grumble: I had hoped that work would be back to normal by now, but things are still very hectic. I'm going to be working late…

Sorry I've been MIA. Like I mentioned in the newsfeed, work has been crazy the past couple of days and it looks like its going to continue to be very hectic for the rest of the week. I'll post my week 1 results and week 2 goals once I have some time. I'm looking forward to catching up on everyone's posts!

@ Sammie - congrats! It looked you had an excellent Week 1 overall! I love how you've set higher goals for yourself for Week 2. :smile: By the way, did you miss including your weight loss goal/summary, or did you decide to do your weigh-in later on?

@ Wimberly & Jess -- congrats on doing great so far! Keep up the good work today! I've also had a good Week 1 so far! I'm really happy that I made it through the week without bingeing, even though work was very stressful and I wasn't able to exercise at all because I was sick. Usually those two factors are a deadly…