"The Thanksgiving Ten" - losing those last annoying pounds challenge & support group

I have realized that as we get within about 10lbs of our goal weight, the challenges and struggles that we have to deal with are a bit different than for those earlier pounds.  I want this thread to serve as a sort of "kick in the pants" to get those last pounds off.  I also want this to serve as a "support group" where we can share struggles and successes or just to vent frustrations.  I chose Thanksgiving as the goal date because many people will be seeing their families and want to look their best!  I also think Thanksgiving in 8.5 weeks is a long enough time to get those last roughly 10lbs off.  Someone had mentioned having the goal be the Monday after Thanksgiving and everyone is free to chose their own goal date, but for me personally, I want to do it before the holiday.  We can then help each other develop strategies as to how to avoid the Thanksgiving overeating while still being able to enjoy our favorite seasonal foods and the decreased motivation to keep exercising and eating well between Thanksgiving and Christmas that seems to always happen.  We will also share tips and ideas about starting a maintenance plan and keeping those pounds off!  

Please post your stats: age, sex, height, current weight and goal weight for Thanksgiving (November 22nd, 2007).

We will start on Monday October 1st.  Feel free to weigh in and post at any time.  I won't impose and official weigh in day, but I was thinking that Saturdays might work well as a motivation not to over do it during the weekend.  I will keep a running tally of where everyone is.

For weigh-ins, please send me a private message, I think it will be easier this way.  I will then update this post.  You can weigh in at any time, but I suggested Saturday as a good day.

WEEK 7 UPDATES: 

PLEASE CHECK YOUR NUMBERS!!!

I have only included those that have sent me their stats.  Feel free to keep sending.  Good job everyone!!!

142by42 SW 169 CW 163 GW 155 PL 6.0

daniellew79 SW 150 CW 142.5 GW 140 PL 7.5

hbbroadbent SW 140.8 CW 130 GW 130 PL 10.8

iridescent_identity SW 135 CW 124.4 GW 125 PL 10.6

mamamunoz SW 172 CW 166 GW 162 PL 6.0

mctami SW 143.2 CW 135.8 GW 135 PL 7.4

smader SW 147 CW 139.5 GW 137 PL 7.5

southcarolinaguy SW 190 CW 182.3 GW 180 PL 7.7

caniche SW 147 CW 143.5 GW 137 PL 3.5

roc07 SW 117.6 CW 116.6 GW 110 PL 1.0

tabathar SW 133 CW 122 GW 120 PL 11.0

x17star17x SW 152 CW 139 GW 142 PL 13.0


Good job everyone!!! 

Kate: In response to your earlier question on increasing calories to the point of maintaining your weight after you reach your goal - I can give you my experience and what worked for me after losing almost 90 pounds and keeping it off for 5 years.  Of course I'm quite a bit older than you but it will give you something to think about.

When I was about 4 pounds from goal I upped my daily calories by 200 for a week, the next week I added 100 for a week, the next I added 200, and cycled that way until I reached my maintenance calories, 6 weeks later.  If I didn't see even a fractional loss in any one week I added exercise.  I did not take away calories.  It was very much a balancing act between weight and exercise.  I had to train my body to accept a certain amount of calories to live a "normal" lifestyle so exercise was the trade-off.  

You should have a general idea of how many calories you burn through regular daily activities.  The calculator here is pretty accurate on your home page.  I didn't have this luxury back when I lost the weight but through dieting and experimenting and lots of manual calculations over a length of time I got a pretty consistent number.  This is where things get tricky.  I quit the daily calorie quota and started averaging for the week.  Maintenance calories for me is around 2200/day.  That amount X 7 days gave me 15,400 calories a week.  I still kept track of how many calories I ate but if I wanted to eat out one night and ended up eating 2500 calories that day it was ok because I would "lose" those extra 300 calories by cutting back 100 - 200 calories for a couple of days the rest of the week.  When you're used to eating healthy and wise for any period of time a couple hundred calories a day is hardly noticeable.  I was always mindful of what I was eating, but I never deprived myself.  If I wanted pizza or chocolate cake I'd have it - just like any other human being - but unlike most I would modify for a few days to compensate.  I made this a habit, even after I stopped logging calories.

I am a creature of habit.  As long as life went along as expected everything worked out fine.  Throw me a curve ball and I topple.  That was my downfall this time and I gained back 25 pounds over 1 1/2 years.  I learned a lot and even though I've lost that 25 and then some I'll have to add this experience of losing control and how I won to my arsenal should I ever fall prey to circumstances again. 

Hope this helps or at least gives you another perspective. 

 

First off, I am so happy that I found this group.  I am struggling with the last 10lbs and this will be a great support system and motivation for me to get rid of those stubborn things!

My Stats:

wt: 150  goal: 140

ht 5'7

age: 27

Gender: F

I weighed myself today, I'm 123lbs! That is 1lb down, 9lbs more to go by 22nd Nov and 11lbs more till I reach my goal weight! This is the first time in my adult life that I have been under 9 stone!!

I think I have been pretty good this week, only had a chocolate bar once, which is good because I had recently developed a bar a day habit.

Next week is going to be hard as I'm at my parent's house from Thurs-Sun. They have so much food around and my Mum's cooking is wonderful (mouth watering just thinking about it) so I always end up over indulging!

Just have to keep my mind focussed on my goal.

I would love to join this challenge! I have 15 lbs. to lose to reach my goal weight, but I think it's doable by Thanksgiving!

Here are my stats:

Sex: Female
Height: 5'7"
Current Weight: 165
Goal Weight: 150

I started this journey weighing 238 lbs. in January, so the fact that I am SO CLOSE to this goal is unbelievable!

Katie

3 pounds down!

7 more to go. Aw I'm all excited :)

How's everyone going to spend their thanks giving? visiting family?

I'm flying out to CA to see friends and family, and going sky diving again, and going to Theme parks, the beach. GAH I miss the beach <3

Hope everyone is doing well! Lets get these pounds OFF.

Then we can all take a picture next to a 10 pound turkey just knowing that we took just a few weeks to kick that off. 

Slow going for me so far, but I'll make it. I'm pacing myself. :-)

Just checking in ladies.

SW: 207

CW: 205

woohoo!!!!!!!!!! down 2 lbs.

For Thanksgiving I will be with my parents, and thern with his parents. We spend it with both. I will also be cooking a special meal at home the day b 4! LOL.

But b 4 we push Thanksgiving lets talk about Halloween! What are you guys gonna do for Halloween?

Probably dressing up and getting wasted! :)

Prior (oct 27th) I'm going to meet up with a bunch of girls and we're going to eat pizza and run around playing laser tag. I cant wait! Thats down in Mesa AZ.  

Yay for me. Now hopefully I can keep those pizza pounds away. It'll only be a slice and i'll call it lunch, but still. Things like that make me nervous.

No kids so no candy temptations. However the darn stores are already flooding the area with candy! Oh man recees and candy corns are a weakness. I'll live.

What is this special thanks giving meal? 

Caniche here,

Weighing in at 149....Which means I actually gained 2lbs...I was 146.5 on wed so...oh well, stress, water, whatever..I do overeat on wed-fri...

 I care for my father on wed-fridays and everything gets out of whack..

Sad tired angry.

edit*just saw to PM my weigh in-sorry

I'm in England so we don't have Thanksgiving but i'm sure I'll find a way to celebrate especially if I do lose 10lbs!!

Wow it's 18:49pm on a Saturday and I've only eaten 950Kcals, which is a vast improvement on my usually Saturday where by now I would have consumed 2500Kcals. I still have to eat dinner, so aiming for 1500kcals total today!

Okay, so is it officially check-in day then?  Well, I started at 135, but that was actually a couple days before. I'm a bit anal when it comes to weighing in daily, so I actually have a digital scale and do it by the decimal(every little!). Yes, this is strange, but it gives me the hint if I'm doing the right things throughout the previous day. So, 10-1-07 I was 134.4; this morning I was 131.8! Which means I've lost 2.6 pounds! I guess that's pretty good, the lowest I've ever been since I can remember (and dieting) is 130, so let's see if I can break that and get into the 120's!!

Unfortunately I'm still at 129 despite watching my calorie intake and uping my excersise - go figure :(

Okay, here goes 170.5 today. That means 1.5 lbs lost! This is good. C'mon 160's!

Start Weight  146

Current Weight  143.4

2.6 lost

Yeaaahhh!

Hi Kate,

Not sure how to make a private post, here are my stats

starting weight: 122

today's weigh in: 120

I wasnt very good this week.. worked out only once (500 cals), not sure how the scale showed 120.. anyhow, I am not complaning!!

Just an update...

Start weight: 118

Current weight: 114 :)

Yay! 

koolroxy85,

You lost 4 pounds; that's great!  How did you do it? I'm in need of some motivation. I started at 117.6 and now I'm 118.2.  My goal weight is 110.  I've been trying to get below 117 for a couple months now with no success.  Would you mind sharing your regimine?

roc07

Just checking in - Congrats to everyone thats lost some! I went down from 122 to 121 this week too, so hooray! However...

That was when I weighed myself on friday morning, and I have since flown to England (visiting my little Sister for a week), and we just had the most amazing Thanksgiving dinner (we're Canadian) at her boss' place. I didn't go too overboard on the eating, I just had small portions of whatever I felt like, but then people started offering me some fancy wine, and I couldn't say no. It kinda went downhill from there, lol. She doesn't have a scale either, so I won't be able to assess the damage tomorrow. Eep.

yay the fluctuations went away and now i'm at 131...so 2 pound loss this week...120s let me in!!!!

i stopped drinking alcohol on the 1st as well, so if there's a huge difference and a lot more loss, i've been stalled for so long, then I know it's the alcohol that does it...i'll let you all know though, because that might be an easy way to get down...

Hey roc07,

I have been doing pretty basic stuff, eating healthy and exercising. Although I am really busy usually and don't tend to exercise as much as I should. But I am 5'0 and I keep a food journal and try my best to stay at 1200 calories for the day. I make sure I eat breakfast and space my meals out through the day to eat around every 3 hours or so. I find that if I eat small amounts throughout the day that I am never really too hungry. The food journal really helps a lot. You just have to be strict and stay away from junk food (my weakness). lol Don't worry, you'll get past your rut. I would recommend going up and down with your calories throughout the week to kinda trick your body. I'm not sure how many calories you consumer per day, but here is an example. Someone eats 1500 a day, then 1300, then 1400, then 1300...etc. I have heard that that works for some people. Hope this helps. :)

koolroxy85