10% by Halloween Challenge (CLOSED)
(Note: This challenge is no longer accepting new participants.)
This is a 12-week challenge (starting on August 11, 2008) where participants will work toward losing 10% of their current body weight by Halloween.
Here's how it works:
- Weigh-ins: Weekly weigh-ins will occur on Mondays. That's right ... no more slacking off on the weekends.
- 1-3 rule: Participants are encouraged to comment on three other posts when they do their weekly weigh in post. This will ensure that each participant will get an adequate amount of support as they journey toward better health.
- Journals: Participants are encouraged to add other participants to their friends list and leave plenty of comments about their journal entries. Of course, it's also encouraged that each participant write their own journal entries.
Your weekly weigh in posts should appear in this format:
This week: XXX lbs.
Last week: XXX lbs.
Loss/Gain (week): XXX lbs.
To JohnnyAppleseed ... Crazy how much weight you can lose by just eating apples! Good job!
To PaulaDeanFan ... That butter will kill you. I sympathize with you as a fellow butter lover.
To CookieMonster ... I wish I had your willpower! Truly inspiring!
The results of the challenge will be tracked on this online spreadsheet.
Good luck to everyone in this challenge! I can't wait to see the transformations!
No, that's great oakmommy - Thanks!
Original Post by leanne21071:
I'm buying a book! Have any of you read "The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess- Lou Schuler; Hardcover
?? I would like soft cover but it won't be out till after Christmas.
I've seen it mentioned and recommended by a few people in the fittness forum. I have the weights, I think I'll have the drive but I need the knowledge. I'm a book nut. If it's good I'll let you know. I'm looking for another so I can get the free shipping. Any excuse to shop!
I just checked that book out from the library, and after getting through most of it, I'm blown away by it. I just finished printing off about 180 different NRoL workout logs to take with me to the gym. It was quite a chore since about 3/4 of them are completely unique so that you never get used to a routine. If you end up doing the routine, go to http://werkit.com to download the logs I'm talking about.
Like you, I'm a book nut, and I always get the knowledge before jumping into something, whether it's car repair, workout routines, or punishing the kids for giving me no respect!!!!!
Hope week one is going well for everyone. I think this challenge has succeeded in getting me back on the wagon :)
I've done two great workouts this week already, I've eaten well enough, and last night when I told myself 'only two pieces of bread' I stuck to it. The scale rewarded me this morning and says 140.5, hurray!
Anyone like to share some mini success they've had this week? Here's mine:
I think I've found a way to help me cut back on the alcohol, using alcohol. At the end of the day if I eat well and don't go out for cheap drinks after work or whatever, I reward myself with a delicious glass of good wine. Yesterday evening a friend was pressuring me into going for a pitcher of beer with him, and I told myself "you either get the crappy moosehead light draft or the glass of sparkling apple wine set aside for dinner, not both. Choose." and immediately politely declined him.
A trick I have found is this:
If I am eating a sandwich for lunch, as I did yesterday, I bring the elements and put it together at work.
This forces me to get up and do it, also when I do this I only make half. So yesterday instead of a traditional sandwich I made an open-faced toasted tuna sandwich. Before I was allowed to make the other half I had to wait and finish my water. By that time I was not hungry and did not need the rest.
This makes me be more aware of what I am eating and how much I really need. So I consider this to be a mini success.
Weird thing is yesterday I weighed the exact same and had the same BMI as I did the previous week. The same thing happened on weigh day. The day in between I was down slightly from the previous week but those two days I was exactly the same as the week before.
Well as far as exercising goes, wii fit is the best thing nintendo could have came out with. But yea mario brothers was cool back in the day, never was a zelda fan though...
Hello everyone! My popcorn and beer were so wonderful I was up a full pound this morning. So worth it! (as long as it's gone by Monday)
Alex thank you for the link that's great. I'm also getting "Starting strength the 2nd addition." It was also recommended. I think my husband will enjoy it also.
Good job on cutting out that alcohol Sarah! I think that sounds like a good idea for me as well. Or maybe a spritzer just so I feel like I'm having an adult drink too!Hmmm...
I can't wait to have our speadsheet start filling in. We have a great group of people. I 'm looking foward to tracking our successes!
Kelly I like the sandwich idea. Yes that is a success.
My success is that I have stayed with in my calorie goals. Here's to hoping they are the right calorie goals for my body!
denalou18: I hate this problem! I always just record my exercise from the previous day on the current day, record the number from my burn meter, and then delete the entries (and move them to yesterday so I have the record of what I did that day still). I haven't found a way around this... I don't think its the same as adding the exercise totals to your sedentary total (I'm pretty sure what it does is first subtracts the calories you would burn being alive for that time and then adds the calories you burnt being active in that same time period).
jamminatorr: definitely agree! mario bros. kicked butt.. i have the original NES and an N64 (never really got into all those new machines my brother has) but am thinking I'll carry on with nintendo only for the fact that the Wii, especially the Wii Fit look amazing.
sarah 11235: congrats on the self-restraint! I totally agree that this challenge is positively motivating :)
My hoorahs for the week so far are:
- putting in 2 cardio-rific workouts
- trying a new machine for the first time (stairclimber)... and hurting!
- keeping within my calorie limits
My fears about the looming weekend:
- a Friday-night party (but I'm going to the gym just before!)
- a weekend house guest (who knows all my weaknesses *tear*)
I just keep thinking about that Monday morning weigh-in and how much I don't want to post a bunch of excuses. Anyone else have upcoming weekend fears?
Magarooni ... congratulations on the successes. I'm nervous about the upcoming weekend too, but I think the Monday weigh-in will keep me in check. I think about this challenge constantly, and that's helping me to stick with the program. Oh, and there are no excuses allowed on Mondays ... only repentence, self-forgiveness, and a plan to do better next week!!!
One of my successes was going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and managing to still have a calorie deficit. Another was planning out 11 more weekly mini-challenges to keep me (us) motivated along the way.
I don't want to let the cat out of the bag too much, but the upcoming mini-challenges will allow us to take a closer look at:
- our temptations
- new dinner ideas
- the reasons why we want to lose weight
- the excuses we make
- people who sabotage us
- how to celebrate our successes
- our Halloween plans
- research/analysis
- inspiration/motivation
- support systems
- our post-challenge plans/goals
I am worried about the weekend...I know I will treat myself a bit but hopefully I can keep it within reason!
For doing the burn meter after the fact -
This might not be spot-on perfect, but it's close and a conservative estimate (meaning if there's error, it's that you're burning slightly MORE than you calculate, not less).
The reason that your daily burn + your exercise calories does not = your burn meter is because you are essentially double dipping for the time you were exercising. If you add them, you are pretending that for 90 minutes or whatever, you were BOTH walking on the treadmill burning exercise calories AND sitting on the couch burning bmr calories. So if you add, your burn meter will be too high.
To get around this, if you didn't log your exercise before midnight so the burn meter would do it for you, here's what I do.
1. divide your daily burn meter by 24 to get an hourly rate. (i.e. 1800/24 = 75) bump this number up a little, since right now it's an average of sleeping and waking BMR, and your exercise was presumably not taking the place of sleeping. So, 80.
2. multiply this by how long you were exercising (i.e. i ran for 45 minutes, or 3/4 of an hour.) 80*3/4 = 60
3. subtract that number from your exercise calories plus your bmr calories (1800+450 for running - 60 for living = 2190)
It's not a huge difference anyway, so you probably won't be hurting yourself too much if you don't make this adjustment.
So everyone seems to really like the Wii fit, i need to go get it, I heard they are kinda hard to get though. My girls got a Wii for x-mas I think I have played it more than them, one of them things theyhad to have (hopefully they will play it more this winter) It has been such a busy week I'm trying to catch up on everything on here!!
Let's see. Things I am proud of this week. I am happy that so far I have 1 weight workout and 2 cardio sessions in. And I have had a calorie deficit every day.
My worries for the weekend include a family dinner out at an all u can eat Brazilian steakhouse - low carb anyone?? And, Sunday a family bbq at my mom's...sigh...
So, my plans are to do gym and cardio Saturday morning, and cardio and a horseback ride on Sunday. Hope it's enough to show a loss for our first week!
Sheeesh...
Hey everyone - you all sound like your doing awesome! Very inspiring indeed!!
My successes for this week so far are:
- Not going off my planned diet and no bingeing at all.
- Going to the gym everyday this week so far (2 resistance and 2 cardio)
- Cooking my own meals especially during mid-day.
My fears for the weekend is that its my 2nd year anniversary and we are going out to a resort and an amusement park. The resort should be easy enough - just gotta be smart on the menu and in the Philippines I can get a lot of grilled Fish and local vegetables so its OK.
The amusement park is what I fear most...
It's time to wake up! It's Friday, the weather's nice (in Ohio), and everyone needs encouragement for the weekend!
Yes, encouragement! Personally, I really enjoy reading the mini-successes everyone has had... it makes me feel more optimistic about my own "journey" and helps to re-enforce that while the weight loss is the how we're measuring our achievements, the real goal is health and wellness.
The first week is almost over... how exciting!
I'm trying to gather my Monday morning weigh-in excuses together. Have you ever seen the t-shirts at the amusement parks or the ones in the department stores that usually say something like this...10 reasons I couldn't get on the roller coaster or 10 reasons my family forgot my birthday? Or David Letterman's top 10 list...this is sort of like that.
Top 10 Reasons I Gained Weight Over the Weekend (Feel free to steal one for Monday or add your own)
10. The hole in the O-zone layer got bigger and that depressed me into eating.
9. The olympics messed up my sleeping habits thereby causing the extra gain.
8. My scale broke.
7. Because Paula Dean uses too much butter in her recipes and I didn't realize butter caused weight gain.
6. I forgot what day it was.
5. It's stress weight caused by the presidential elections.
4. I bought new shoes over the weekend and they're heavier.
3. I took several showers and "absorbed" quite a bit of the water.
2. There was a full moon this weekend.
.....And the number 1 reason I gained weight over the weekend...drum roll please...
1. I read an article containing a new scientific study on the laws of gravity and how they're changing due to el nino which is causing the human body to become heavier when weighed.
I promise...no excuses on Monday but I do like to sit around and think them up. Good luck!!
The weather is not so bad here today as well. (CT) I had to go out this morning so on the way home I stopped at a farm stand to get some more squash. I can't grow it fast enough to keep up with my stomach. I have tomatoes coming out my ears. I love this time of year. We haven't had too many hot days and everything is nice and fresh.
So for the weekend I "plan" to keep the beer in check and try to just have a nice "BIG" glass of wine with dinner Saturday night. I'm going out with friends and have no idea where we'll go, but knowing who we're going with it will be an upscale restaurant which is good cause they'll be more healthy choices. I'll just have a light breakfast and lunch.
Sunday my husband has to go to Florida very early so it'll just be me and Hallie till Thursday. In a way it's easier to "diet" when he's gone cause I don't have to worry about making sure he has enough calories. But it is also a lot harder cause I don't have to cook good meals. It's easier to eat junk when no one is looking. Hallie is 2 so she doesn't help me stay in check. I do have my fridge stocked with quick healthy stuff. I'LL BE FINE! Maybe I drop another pound while he's gone.
Then Monday is weigh in. Everyone has been working hard so unless we have a lot of bloat from the weekend or PMS or whatever we should see some good numbers. It sometimes takes a few weeks to start seeing a "true" trend, but at least the support is here.
denalou Lean meat and lot's of veggies. I'm only familiar with Mongolian and Argentinian and of course American. Just get any sauces on the side and if you can start the meal with a clear soup or salad you'll be fine. As far as a BBQ can you bring a dish? then your sure to know what's in at least one thing. Again stick with your meat portions and keep track of the snacks stuff and drinks. Have a good time! This something you're going to have to live with. It's better to do it a little slow then to say no to everything.
uberman
Happy anniversary!!! You and your wife sound like fun. between amusement parks, Star Wars and video games. It's nice to see couple who like to play together.
nbkelly what kind of horses do you have? We have a mini horse and donkey, a small buckskin quater horse and a large mule who's in one of my pic's. At this point there mostly just pets. Hopefully we'll get into the riding more next year.
Lisa yor too funny!
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