Wagon Jumpers - August 31 - September 6th, 2008 (Closed, Waiting List Available)
Welcome
(Sorry we're closed to new members until the group is less than 30 members)
Welcome to the Wagon Jumpers weekly thread. We are a group of CC members who have identified that one of our main challenges with achieving our weight loss, maintenance or general health goals is consistency.
This thread is designed to encourage long term commitment to our goals by publicly declaring them and asking the other members of this thread to hold us accountable.
Each member on this thread (listed below) has agreed to check into the thread at least once per week. If any member does not check in by the end of the week, we ask all members to politely and positively PM that member and encourage them to make a post and stay on track (or get back on track).
If you would like to be a member of this thread please see the guidelines below and send me a PM if you are still interested (there may be a waiting list).
Why is the participation capped?
The original idea of Wagon Jumpers was to create a close community where participants could get to know each other and hopefully form virtual-life and perhaps even physical-life bonds to create a support network as they attempted long term weight loss.
Over the first few weeks we experimented with an "open to all" concept and found that the thread became too long and confusing and as a result no one got to know each other and it became too much work for many members.
With a mid sized group (30) I am hoping to maintain the community and supportive goals of the original thread, and have enough people that if we are not all daily posters (as the only requirement is a weekly post) that the thread is still motivational and has new content day to day.
Interested in Joining?
General Guidelines for Joining
1. Are you a wagon jumper?
Do you know how to loose weight, you often have success but then you find yourself loosing interest in your plan, or sabotaging your plan. It's not the "how" to loose weight that is the problem, it's the "how" to stay motivated.
2. Do you have a long way to go?
This group is designed so that members can get to know each other and support each other. Ideally you are planning to be a CC member and part of this forum for at least 6 months or more to achieve your goals and hopefully stay in motivation for a further 6 months or more.
Yes. This is, a long term plan.
Still interested? Send Supersized a PM.
Wagon Jumpers Participants
Week 17 Riders:
Supersized (myself)
Karenie - Traveling to September 16th, 2008
Week 16 Riders - Congratulations on 4 months!:
Week 14 Riders:
Week 13 Riders:
Week 11 Riders:
Week 10 Riders:
Week 8 Riders - Congratulations on 2 Months!:
Week 7 Riders:
Week 2 Riders:
Week 1 Riders:
New:
Missing In Action
Missing In Action - 1 Week:
Missing In Action - 2 Weeks:
Current Membership: 29
Current Waiting List: 1
Outstanding Wait List Invites: 2
12 WEEK CONSISTENCY GOALS
(as set w/o July 27th, 2008)
By October 19th, I will be...
2/3 of the way through phase II of my plan. That is have 4 weeks left until I can say that I have been eating at 1500 cal & exercising 4x/week at 2hrs/day for 12 consecutive weeks.
Drinking 100oz fluid daily, at least 3 trips a week to the gym and 2 trips will include strength training!
Running 3 times a week consistently. I will also be drinking 4 500ml bottles of water every day in 12 weeks.
Doing 30+ minutes of cardio 3-4x a week and weights 2-3x and not hating it or ending up sore every single day. I'm also going to try to be drinking 64-100oz of water or crystal light daily. Last but not least, I'm going to save up for a new pair of workout shoes and some new comfy exercise socks, which I will hopefully be using by then.
20 weeks pregnant, so hopefully I'll be feeling a lot better. My goals by then are to be eating the whole 2300 I need per day, and taking a 30 minute walk at least 3 times a week.
Or be on course to meet each of my monthly biking goals (August 240 miles, September 350 miles, and October 280 miles), and I will have done the 60 mile course of the NYC MS Bike Tour on 10/5/08, despite the nasty 2 mile hill that's right in the middle of the course!
Sure I make time to take my walk.
Going to the gym for 1 1/2 hours 5x per week. Cardio for 45 min and strength training for 45 min.
I plan to have made going to the gym 3 times a week a habit.
Sticking with this thread, maintain a regular 3-4 times/week workout schedule, and eat at least one serving of raw veggies with my dinner every night.
I will be working out 3 evenings a week.
Working out 5 days a week.
Journaling my food intake daily and drinking a quart of water a day.
I will update my logs accurately and consistently, and exercise regularly; cardio 3x/week and strength training 3x/week
Working out 5x week. These exercise will include biking, running, dance lessons, weights, etc. I will be eating 24 grams of fiber consistent 1500-2000.
Previous Threads:
Wagon Jumpers August 24 - 30th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 17 - 23rd, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 10 - 16th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 2 - 9th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers July 27 - August 2nd, 2008
Wagon Jumpers July 20 - 26th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers July 6 - July 21st, 2008 (another, two week special!)
Wagon Jumpers June 22 - July 5th, 2008 (two week special!)
Wagon Jumpers June 15-21, 2008
Wagon Jumpers May 25 - 31, 2008
Wagon Jumpers May 18 - 24, 2008
Wagon Jumpers Week 1 (May 4 - 10)
Wagon Jumpers - Anyone Need a Lift? (initial thread)
As always all members are encouraged to tag this thread so that it is easy to find.
THIS WEEK's TOPIC: Back To Life, Back To Reality
This week's topic is more of an exercise. For most of us the beginning of September is the end of summer and the beginning of a regular work or school routine.
1. Find some graph paper, chart paper, excel..... anything where you can create a basic Sunday - Saturday schedule.
2. Create one column for each day, and one row for each hour.
3. Now shade in the areas that are your regular schedule, so work, school, sleep, child care, dog walking, commuting, making dinner, family time... the day-to-day responsibilities.
4. Whatever is left is your "free time" to achieve your goals.
5. Write your goals on a separate piece of paper and estimate how many hours a day and how many days a week you realistically need to achieve them.
6. Can they realistically be fit into your schedule. If so, great. If not...
7. Prioritize your goals to get the most important into your schedule, what changes will you need to make?
Do you have enough time to achieve your goals, if not, how can you prioritize your goals to be able to meet them, or, shift current things in your life to fit in time for your goals?
New Members: You do not need to answer the weekly topic, it is here as a discussion starter for the week, not mandatory.
Weekly Check In
Okay, it's official: last week was my worst week ever in the 28 weeks I've been doing this. I got absolutely none of my goals accomplished. Did really nothing.
There are a couple of learning experiences from the week. The first is that although I didn't manage to eat on calorie, or on maintenance a binge day for me is now 2,500 cal, whereas before, a regular day for me was 3,000 cal. So there's a silver lining there.
I'm also just amazed at how my body has reacted. For the last 28 weeks I've been slowly working myself off a diet that while not fast food, was a lot of take-away, grocery pre-made (not like frozen tv-dinners, but those pre-made just pop-in microwave dinners the grocery makes), high carb (lots'n'lots o pasta) diet. For the last 12 weeks would say I've been successful at eating a predominantly vegan diet, mainly local, fresh, organic foods.
One week back to my old ways and I am physically a mess. I'm very tired, I have little aches and pains in my hips, I just want to sleep all of the time. My skin is oily, I've never really had oily skin, but I feel almost as if I could take a squeegee to it for the past few days. I'm bloated and gassy and crampy, I'm constantly thirsty. I'm getting odd headaches. I got sick. I haven't been sick in a long time, and I got fully sick to my stomach.
Mentally I'm not too much better. My mind is lazy. I don't want to read, I just want to sit in front of the TV and veg. I'm not really happy, it's a chore to get up and go out and see friends and do stuff. Everything is kind of "blah", I'm not excited about anything, I just sort of exist in this state of platication where nothing is really wrong, but nothing feels right either.
I've felt like this in the past, after a few months of really letting things slide out of control, eventually I end up a bump on the couch eating awful tasting popcorn. I do usually manage to kick myself in the butt and get out of it. I'm just really very surprised how fast the onset was this time. It's really sending me a clear message how much exercise and eating right do regulate my mood and my energy levels.
In a semi-voyeristic way I'm really fascinated by this change. Like I want to study it.
I really don't want to get out of my comfy robe and go to the gym this morning, but I need to turn this around. And, I accept the only way to do that is to get outside, get moving and go to the farmers market and re-stock on good healthy food.
I keep thinking this is the reason people don't get started, when I am eating right and exercising I feel great, absolutely on top of the world, like I can achieve anything. Right now I feel as though brushing my teeth will take too much out of me. This is pathetic. Gym, here I come.
Sara, I was really interested to see the exercise for this week, that was what I was planning to spend the afternoon doing today. Making a plan, trying to make it realistic and then really working at sticking to it.
Since I last posted I have really been thinking alot about why I am finding it so difficult to lose weight, I lose 5 pounds, eat back 5 pounds, lose 5 pounds eat back five pounds, and then I realised that so much about of it is how I self describe myself. When I think of myself I think only about the negatives "my name is Jane, I am fat, I bite my fingernails, I procrastinate alot, I don't speak German" I really have to change these ideas into more positive mesages eg, "my name is Jane, I am a healthy weight, I go swimming 4 times a week, I work hard at finishing my thesis, my German is getting better"
I know this won't be easy, it took 18 months to really quit diet coke, and to stop identifying as a "diet coke" drinker as an integral part of my self identity, (okay I drank alot), but I have now managed this, so I know I can manage the other things as well. I need to convince myself that it really is okay for me to lose weight, that there is nothing embarrassing about doing so, and that it is actually okay to be attractive.
so I look forward to being more involved with the thread from now on, and also to having some successes to report soon.
Hope you are all doing well
Jane
PS, As an aside just noticed the tree out my window is already turning brown... the summer is really almost over.
EDIT: Sara I am sorry this week hasn't been so great for you. One bad week isn't the end of the world, and it seems you have really learnt alot of interesting lessons from it. I just know you will be back on track this week!
Sorry for my MIA last week. I'm pushing myself to get back on a plan and become the woman I want to see in the mirror. I absolutely love this week's discussion topic and plan to do this later today. I'm alittle scared to see just how busy I really am. Its hard to prioritize myself when I have 2 girls I'm trying to get to their classes as well as working fulltime myself. Its easier when I have a work out partner thats as dedicated as me....this I have not been able to find. Thought it would be my husband but it seems he doesn't have a problem throwing the monthly membership dues for the gym down the drain!!!!
I'm off to go walk the city wide garage sales!
Seems like last week was a learning time for more than just one of us.
As i posted on friday, i got my scale back and weighed myself and showed a 4.4lb drop for the month, which is really amazing as i had quite a few days where i ate a lot. However i always talked myself into going to the gym to counter the bad days.
I burned 6,821 calories at the gym this month (not counting today - getting ready to go there!). I also made it to the gym (or ran outside) 19 times this month, that means i made it to the gym at least 4 times a week!
Yay! I'm starting to work with the free weights so i can begin working with my muscle instead of just burning it all away with cardio. I don't want to be "Skinny Fat" as they call it, and i've decided that i'd rather fit into a smaller size pant than be able to say i weigh 135 lbs. So thats a big step for me that i don't think i would have necessarily understood if it weren't for all the support here and by going 1 month without my scale.
Jane I love the negative vs. positive perspective comparison. I have to admit I laughed when you said "I don't speak German".... I mean it's great that you are attempting to learn another language, but I would never think of not knowing a particular language as a negative. This exercise is actually a really hard one for me, I'm great at beating myself up about not doing my goals, but then I'm the worst for not setting realistic goals given the time that I actually have to achieve them. Swimming 4 times a week is fantastic, and yes, it IS okay for you to do stuff to make yourself feel attractive, including loose weight. I think a lot of us need to give ourselves this permission.
SkinnybyJune9th Welcome Back! I know I have trouble with this time-planning exercise without the kids, I think it's an important exercise I can't imagine how the mum's in this group do find the time. Of course that's just motivation for me, I figure if people chasing a couple of kids around can still make their beds, cook dinner, go to work and find time to eat right and exercise I've no right to give up myself. I'm looking forward to hearing how the mum's can teach the rest of us some time management.
MsMeg That is the biggest revelation that I have gained from the "no scale'" as well, I have sizes and stuff I want to fit into instead of a target number that I am aiming to hit regardless of what kind of health I am in.
Good News Folks
I got off my butt and went to the gym. I was fully prepared for it to be an awful experience. You know that first day back to the gym after you haven't been in a LONG time. The legs creaking on the cardio, the aching of the muscles, and the sweat feeling all sticky and gross.
Well I owe this group a BIG THANK YOU I know that if I had had a fall like this one before I started here I probably would have let it drag on for a month or more. But, after starting the new weekly thread I dragged my butt to the gym this morning. As I said I was ready for it to hurt.... and.... it didn't! Not one little bit.
In fact, the worst part was finding the gym clothes. Once I was on the eliptical my body was all ready to run, it was like my body was thanking my mind for getting it up and out. The endorphins (or whatever makes you happy when you exercise) came rushing back, and I was lip-singing along to my ipod, just happy as all to be back to moving.
Getting on and off and then on again the wagon quicker has taught me that my body really does react drastically to good food and regular exercise. Going back to the gym is not a chore if I can get there sooner rather than later. My mood has completely turned around in one morning.
I hit the farmers market after the gym and have loaded up on local peaches, our first MacIntosh apples of the year, and my staples of potatoes, heirloom tomatoes and greens. I'm ready for a good week this week.
the reason not speaking German is a negative, is because I have been living here the past 3 years. Actually my German isn't as bad as I let my German friends think, (too afraid to speak it with them), but it isn't as good as it should be after such a long period.
Skinny, I agree it can be hard to get motivated when you don't have a person to meet there. This has kind of been my problem with swimming all year, but this week I am going to get back on track (I have 100 bucks credit on my swimming card, which I hope is still valid, and only 3-4 months to use it so I better get a move on)
meg, that is excellent news about the weight loss, and on making it to the gym 4 times a week! way to go! Maybe I should think about going without the scale too, since it is always when I hit the same weight each time that I start over eating again. I'll have to think about this once i get it moving in the right direction again first.
Anyway I am currently in the middle of making up my plan, and also my budget. Maybe one positive side effect of being "poor" for awhile is that you can't afford to eat as much. Better get back to it, have a good day!
Going without the scale was a great way for me to get myself back on target, and i feel more accomplished seeing a larger change in the numbers rather than a gradual change each week. I was thinking about just going 2 weeks without it this time, but with the new weight routine and love of free weights i have gained, i might toss it for another month. I really want to see the body fat % on my scale go down - i know its not 100% accurate, but it at least shows the changes.
When i started this whole program in january of this year i was 174 lbs and over 35% body fat. Now im hovering areound 30% body fat and 147 lbs. I think the BF% could have gone down a lot more if i had made strength training a bigger priority in my workouts. So i need to work on that!
Sara, I'm super proud of you for getting to the gym - i didn't want to go either, but i did and when i got there I felt sooo great! Keep up the good work!
Hi! Just checking in. I like this week's topic - I could definitely do with being more organized. It was interesting to read the discussion about forgetting the scale for a while. I remember I did that a couple of years ago and lost quite a few pounds. I would like to do that again, but I cannot at the moment because I am in some challenges that require me to weigh in each week. As soon as they are over, I shall give it another try!
I have been looking back today over my pattern of losing/maintaining. I have been "maintaining" since last April/May! I have been losing the same 2-3 lbs over and over again - it is very frustrating, and it seems that when I lose the motivation to work out - which for me (a fifty something) is walking - I stop losing. I have what used to be called a "healthy" appetite and if I cut my calories too much I end up overeating! I haven't been to a gym yet, maybe I'll pluck up enough courage to venture in one day. I keep telling myself - move more - walk at least 10,000 - 12,000 steps a day. I love my pedometer, I wear it all the time, I find it really motivates me - it's great to see the steps adding up! I also have my Wii Fit which I use more for fun than anything else, but it certainly helps to encourage me to move more - it makes me feel younger too - which is definitely a bonus.
Jane I'm not on as tight of a budget as I was during my student days, however I did pick up a tip from my brother. I know that eating healthy is generally more expensive if you buy a lot of pre-made, pre-packaged, but I actually found that if I could cook from scratch I saved a lot of money, and as long as I portioned it out then I actually could eat quite a lot and not go over cal.
MsMeg I love it when people post the whole picture, I mean it's always great to loose one, two, five, ten pounds, but seeing the whole drop really says "we can do this, it is possible". Congratulation, and keep working on that body fat.
Letsgetitstarted I think one of the biggest hurdles we have as wagon jumpers is often the number focus. Some people can get by it by weighing everyday or several times a day to get used to the cycles. I'm not one of those people, I found that whenever I'd get close to 185 lbs I would sabotage myself. We often reward our success with sabotage, and because success in our minds is closely linked with numbers and data (for many) we loose the same 2-3, 5, 10 or 20 lbs over and over. If you're not a big gym fan there are lots of other activities you may want to think if you can fit in.... swimming, yoga, tai-chi....
We are off to the EX (Canadian National Exhibition) today. I ate too much yesterday (BBQ) and will likely have a lot of trouble keeping the calories down today. I'm figuring my goal is to get all the exercise in this week, get my calories down for the remainder of the week and do both for next week and be fully back on track.
Have a good Labour Day.
Sara.
I went for a run this morning...
It wasn't planned...
I wasn't prepared...
Some things I learned:
1. Flip-Flops are hard to run in.
2. 8 block is a LONG way.
3. I need to tighten the collar for my beagle.
4. Decayed chicken bones are tastier than a whole bag of cookies.
5. When a few thousand people are watching a Labour Day parade, most of them will find it more entertaining to watch the crazy lady chase her dog, and none of them will try to catch said dog.
If anyone would like a beagle, I have one to trade... any offer will be accepted.
Sara.
Amusing story Sara! I have this great cartoon playing in my head now of you and your dog in the middle of the parade...
! I am glad you didn't sprain your ankle running in those flip flops. I don't think you would want to swap your beagle for my ancient westie, poor old thing is in his dotage now (he's 15 1/2 years old), but he was very naughty about running off when he was in his youth.
Have a good evening!
Christine
Letsgetitstarted I was just so lucky it was a parade, I live in Toronto, and downtown, so very busy, busy, high traffic area. He ran across streets and just kept going. We know with our Shepherd we have to do the trick of turning around and going the other way and then he will panic and come back, but the beagle is totally sent driven and just thought he'd died and gone to heaven (a relatively appropriate analogy).
Sigh.... first day of the regular year.... I'm not ready.
I've been up before 7:30 both of the last two mornings walking, which has been good. Just need to keep it up the rest of the week! Anyway hope you are all doing well, and look forward to hearing how everybody is doing.
Sara glad you managed to get your dog back safely! and I loved your description of the whole incident.
Well I throughly enjoyed reading through all the posts this week. Very motivational and I can see myself in many of the comments (including Sara's comment about her beagle) I didn't have to chase my dog this weekend but I did have to go searching for him at 1am the other night. We always let him out on his own and just watch from the window if he needs to pee etc. Well this particular night there was another dog (or possibly a raccoon, remember I live in a very small town, very rural) and he decided to run off with it! So here I am, searching around the neighbours backyard at 1am with a flashlight and hollering Dexter! Dexter! (I'm sure the neighbours were impressed). Thankfully within about 5-10 minutes (which of course felt like hours) he reappeared in the front yard and we got him into the house.
So much like everyone else I wasn't all that good during my time off. I have decided to re-commit to a 30 day plan and count my calories (no more than 1400) and exercise everyday using my new video. It's a 20 minute workout so in reference to this weeks topic I can't see how I can possibly miss fitting this into my day.
So here's to a new month and staying on track!
I'm here everyone! And you all sound like your ready to eat well and lose weight! :)
I didn't eat so well the last couple days. No counting and eating everything. The loss of my pap has hit me hard. Yesterday was the funeral and I really let myself forget I was losing weight. But it was much needed for comfort.
So today I cut back on my calories and I didn't miss them either. I was still full from yesterday! lol Tomorrow I will walk and count my calories and stick to 1300-1400 calories. I've been ddrinking lots of water today. I know I'm holding onto water now! Rings are tight! oops!
My son started back to school today and didn't want to get up! He was use to staying up late and sleeping in. So he had a hard time getting to sleep monday night. It took me 3 times to wake him this morning! GRRRRR
Maybe now I can go for my first walk early in the morning. If I can stop myself from going back to bed! lol
Well......good luck to everyone and happy counting! :D
Jane Good job on the salad, and great job on the getting up early.
Raven Mr. Brown is our beagle, and I've discovered he's a very typical beagle in that he's entirely scent driven. I know our Shepherd would come back if I even turned around and walked the other way, or at least he would come back home, the beagle just thought he'd hit a great buffet of trash. Grrrrr
Momof2funykds I think one back to school morning my mum restored to a bucket of cold water. Take all the comfort you need to grieve for your pap, amazing job not going to binge eating though.
Great Morning fellow Wagon-jumpers!
Sarah - I love your idea for this week. I have done this for a while now because I'm a "list-maker". I find that not only does it sastisfy my need for order, but it holds me accountable also. If I can't mark off for two weeks that I can/have followed the schedule, it usually causes me to rethink the schedule. Anyone that would like, I've attached a shell of an excel spreadsheet that can get you started.
I'm continuing with my Couch to 5K training program. Last night was Week 5 Day 2.... again. I had attempted it Saturday morning....no success. I tried it early (and I'm not an early person) without eating---hit a wall about 1/2-3/4 of the way in. With school starting - I have twin 8 yr olds - last night was the first time I could try again....and I DID it! Now, I will run it again tonite, and tomorrow night I'm scheduled to do a full 20 MINUTES. That's scary for me. I think part of my problem is I set myself up to fail in my mind..... I just can't see myself being able to jog for 20 minutes. BUT, I keep in mind, 5 weeks ago, I would have not believed I could do it for 8! And if its another thing I am ---its hard-headed! So I'll try until I do it!
The week is speeding by with the holiday and school starting. I'm probably not getting in my exercise (at gym) at all but I'm okay with that. I'm sticking to the jogging and will be back to the gym schedule next week. And I'm watching my eating..... Trying to retrain this brain of mine to realize its not just black and white...all or none..... its more a shade of gray or shade of healthiness.
Sarah: Thank you for your email invite...I have been on the edge of doing something really stupid..like chucking it all. I can't believe that I have moods like this. I have lost 20 lbs so far (been a member since July ) and it seems my motivation has headed for the hills. I hate to exercise and that is the only thing that is speeding the loss along.
I have tried to start jogging, but my knees, ankles are not in the best of conditions even though my choc. lab would love to drag me around with him!
I am eating between 976-1250 calories a day..and weigh 220lbs with 70lbs to go to my goal weight. I know it will take a while.
I exercise at least a half an hour either walking/ stationary bike 6 times a week..with an occasional torture session on the minitramp...too much goes jiggling all over the place on that thing..
Sjenn That is a great spreadsheet. I am still working on mine, but I like the format that you have taken. Good job on the couch to 5k!
Rpete Welcome to the group. We've all be there, have success and for one reason or another we want to throw it all in. We are close to the same weight, I don't know about age, but I know for my age that 1200 calories is the absolute lowest that I should go. Have you check to make sure you are not eating too few calories especially when you are dipping below 1200?
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