Wagon Jumpers - August 10 - 16th, 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 14 Riders:
Supersized (myself)
Karenie - Bad weather may not be able to post
FantasyFlight - Away until September 1st, 2008
Week 13 Riders:
Week 12 Riders - Congratulations on 3 Months!:
Week 11 Riders:
Rwbsmom - traveling to August 16, 2008
Week 10 Riders:
Week 9 Riders
Week 8 Riders - Congratulations on Two Months!:
Week 7 Riders:
Week 5 Riders:
Unlimitedana - Traveling to August 16, 2008
momof2funykds - Away until August 22nd, 2008
Week 4 Riders - Congratulations on 1 Month!
Missing In Action
Missing In Action - 1 Week:
Missing In Action - 2 Weeks:
Current Membership: 31
Current Waiting List: 8
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!
Getting my 64 ounces of water/non-caloric drink in everyday, will do my cardio exercise 2x/wk (M, W) and my pilates 2x/wk (F, Sun).
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.
Have eating at McD's in the mornings for breakfast down to a maximum of 1 time a week. I also will have kept my eating out at lunches down to 1 time per week.
Posting on wagon jumpers at least 10/12 weeks. In 12 weeks I will be eating 1400-1500 cal/day and I will have successfully done this for at least 9 weeks of the 12.
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 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
For the last two weeks we've focused on goals and motivation, this week we're going to ask the "tough" questions. We all want to reach our goals, we all want to loose weight, gain fitness, develop healthy habits. Wanting however is not enough. To achieve our goals, to loose weight, to improve fitness and develop new habits we need to effect change in our lives. Change means choosing to act differently than we do now.
When "Wanting" Isn't Enough: What Choices Do You Need To Make To Meet Your Goals?
Weekly Check-In
This week has been my weakest week since I started measuring my life balance goals. I did poorly in every category with a weekly overall average of only 11%. I still find it an interesting phenomena that when I feel in control of my eating and my fitness being in control of the other aspects of my life seems to fall into place. About midway though this week I surrendered to a maintenance level week after completing phase I of my plan. I also ended up letting many other aspects of my life slide. My bookkeeping and career search suffered the most, my kitchen is a mess and I haven't even gotten the next two books for my bookclubs.
The good news is that with the olympics stared and a week of being idle I am really ready to get back to this. I delayed going back into it by a day for two reasons. One to round out one week of being idle and two to give myself that heightened sense of anticipation of going back into trying to achieve a goal and shoot for that success again.
One very positive thing that came out of the week off is that I had some of the foods that I normally cannot fit into my calories without sacrificing entire meals, and they tasted nowhere near as good as I remember. In fact they were pretty bad. Overly greasy, too sweet.... and I didn't even eat fat food, these were just a few high-cal stir-fry's that I made at home! I am desperately craving fresh tomatoes, corn, berries and greens.
Here we go, time for phase II to really begin!
This Week's Topic
I have wanted to get fit and loose the weight for a long time now, almost 7 years in fact. I have had some success with calorie count before, but then I got bored, or busy or life happened. I have gotten desperate and tried stupid fixes like an all liquid diet, the grapefruit diet (I like grapefruit), and just straight up starving myself.
It's taken 7 years for me to realize what commitment to changing my life means. That no program, pill or anything else is going to help me do this fast, and while people can hold my hand the cannot do the work and loose the weight for me.
To succeed in phase I I had to choose to adopt a long term vision, which was choosing a mind shift. I had to choose to watch people who were seeing results faster than I was because they were in diet range already, choose to not look at the scale meaning my precious measurements were gone, and choose every day to slowly look for healthier and more low calorie options as my intake was slowly reduced.
To succeed in phase II I need to implement the following choices:
1. Spend less time with online communities, specifically blogging so that I do not get as invested in them. Instead I will spend more time achieving my life balance goals and having more time to work fitness into my schedule.
2. Use my calendar even more. I have chosen to be responsible with my calendar for work and social events, I need to use that same calendar to make sure I am budgeting time responsibly for work outs rather than assuming I will find the time.
3. Say "no" to some social events, especially weekend events. I am overbudgeting my social time and I need to say no, or start weekend events later so that I have some time to go to the gym on weekends if I need an early start on my 4 days in the week or need to make it on a saturday. This means slightly less time with friends and family, but only really a couple of hours.
This week's topic is a tough one. But its something i think we all need to think about if we are really serious about making permanent changes.
I finally got back on the wagon this past week after 4 weeks of little exercise and terrible eating. My scale went MIA on August 1st and i told myself that i am going to get back to the basics and find that enthusiasm i had when i first started and then i could weigh in on Aug 31 to check progress.
I felt like my life had become entirely dependent on a mere number. Why is it that we women do this to ourselves? I need to focus on getting into better shape and eating healthy, not eating just to see the number go down. Depending on my scale was starting to foster terrible feelings for me. I am not bulemic though there was a few times i ate a terrible meal and for some reason decided to step on the scale afterwards and had this terrible feeling like i needed to purge. I never did luckily, and thats when i said "bye bye" to my scale for a while.
This week i ate well everyday - between 1350-1500 calories a day and i exercised Mon, Tues, Wed, Friday, Sat and today! That also included two of my strength sessions. It was overall a great week for me.
I have found my willpower is coming back - i've turned down ice cream (when everyone else was having it), fast food cravings, the urge to skip the gym and snack until i blow my diet for the day.
To meet my goals, i need to make the gym a way of life for me. When i first started this plan in january i was at the point where i didn't feel like my day was complete unless i exercised for at least 20 minutes. I want to get back there and hopefully that will help me tone up and lose the last 13 lbs.
I also need to pay more attention to not just how many calories i eat, but where they come from. Once i have a couple weeks of eating at the right level under my belt, i need to try getting back to 40-30-30 and lowering my sodium.
I feel like without these two important things, i will never be able to make my goal. At some point, just counting calories is not enough.
Sorry for the novel!
Sorry I was AWOL last week, but it happens. This weeks question is a very difficult one. I find myself making excuses not to exercise and rationalizing skipping meals when I am busy. Choices that I am going to have to make is to get myself motivated to work out and to eat regular, balanced, nutritious meals. My oh my...if it were only as easy to do as it is to type. It seems I am running with the rat race the last few months and the rats are winning. I must gain control of my life..they way I eat, think and move for this to be a lasting life change.
Answer to last weeks question....my best success is that I dropped 6% body fat and my cholesteral levels are in the normal range for the first time in the past 12-13 years!!
Hello everyone! Been gone a little while to sort out some "stuff" here. But all is ok and I'm back. I've put on a couple pounds and I'm glad it wasn't more. So time to get back into the swing of things again. It's nice to be back! :D
When "Wanting" Isn't Enough: What Choices Do You Need To Make To Meet Your Goals?
I have to choose to want this enough to keep on going. To stick to eating healthy and remembering WHY I started this to begin with. I have to choose NOT to eat those cookies I bought for my kids, to choose to accept the new me that I see in the mirror now. To choose not to sabotage myself!!! Right now, that last one is a biggy for me.
When "Wanting" Isn't Enough: What Choices Do You Need To Make To Meet Your Goals?
momof2 - I can totally relate to sabatoging yourself. That's exactly what I did this weekend. I can't believe I TOTALLY fell off the wagon again. I am so mad at myself. The other thing I didn't do that I said I would was run on Sat and Sun. I do did a hell of a lot of housework on Saturday but it's not the same thing.
So to answer the question for this week: I am going to choose not to sabatoge myself! This is the main one. I am going to make exercise part of my daily routine (this does not include my 5K walk with the dog in the morning). I need to make my health and well being my choice over some sweet treat. These are the choices I need to make and I need to keep them top of mind. I NEED TO PREPARE! Lack of preparation is effectively sabatoge.
MsMeg Glad you seem to be enjoying loosing the scale. I found the same thing when I was weighing. At first it was my motivator, then I turned to the dark side and started flogging myself and thinking of doing very unhealthy things if the scale did not reflect the results I wanted. I've found that in loosing the scale it's a different kind of motivation. At first it was driving me to succeed because I knew it would come back at some point, and then once I started loosing sizes I noticed how good that felt and now I'm wondering how many sizes I can loose before the scale comes back. Good job on the returning motivation and the "just say no" to junk.
On the question of choice, what choices do you have to make to get the gym to be "a way of life" for you? In other words what choices are you making now instead of the gym, and what choices do you need to make differently? If you need to get to the gym you need to stop, or give up _______.
Wenchie58 Welcome Back! Congratulations on the 6% body fat and the great cholesterol results. On the choice front, same question as MsMeg, choosing to get motivated is a good philosophical choice, and it is important. It sounds like you are feeling a lot of competing pressures right now in the "rat race", so while you may want to be motivated, changing how you eat and how active you are takes time from your life, it is often a choice between leisure time, time with friends & family, time from "home work". What is stopping you from getting motivated? Considering that long lasting change is only feasible in the context of life balance what choices do you need to make, can you make to make time?
Momof2funykds Welcome Back! Choosing not to sabotage is a hard one. When I want to sabotage it is either because life change has become "too complicated" or I want some instant gratification. Negative choices are the most difficult because there is no motivator, if you can recognize why you don't want to sabotage yourself can you turn it into a positive choice. Instead of "I need to choose not to each the cookies and not to sabotage myself" flip it to "I need to choose to stock healthy snacks that I will be satisfied by instead of cookies, and make a plan to avert sabotage by discovering what motivates me to turn to healthy snacks instead of junk - this will mean, shopping differently, pre-packaging snacks...." You may want to shorten that a bit into a more refined statement, just a fist stab.
Raven21 Sorry about the weekend, I think they are the hardest for most of us. Same question as Momof2funykds. You know what you don't want to choose, the question is what will you choose. If you are not exercising or not eating right what is the reason, where can you find time in your schedule. "Instead of _____ I am going to exercise for _____", on the sabotaging how can you turn it into a positive "in order to not sabotage myself I am going to prepare by _______"
I did well yesterday, it's been a long time since I could say that about a Sunday. For some reason Sunday's tend to go worse for me than Saturday's. I was slightly over my daily calorie limit, but not substantially, so I will easily be able to make it up across the week. I also got a lot done on Sunday. I tend to slack off on most of my life balance goals on the weekend. My partner works a swing shift, so the only time we see each other awake is on the weekends. But, I got some housework done, got my invoicing done for work, and still spent some quality time with the boy.
My plan for today is to head to the gym straight after my meeting at work today and take a long lunch. Doing this on Monday seems to put me into a good position to wake up early on Tuesday.
Hello All --
I am back. I fell hard from the wagon and am still bruised and bloodied and the scale is way up. 
I haven't had time to read and catch up on this thread yet, but wanted to post and "stop the bleeding" first.
Thanks for checking up on me.
Jilly Bean Welcome Back! I really thought you were gone for sure, coming back after a hard fall is a big achievement and a big step towards getting back on track. As you do read through this thread, it is about choices, so choosing to get back on track and stop the bleeding is a good first step.
Thanks, Hon.
Happy Monday everyone! I had a really great weekend with my family, and I ate pretty well and got some exercise. Last night, I watched a You: on a Diet documentary type show where Dr. Oz introduced his plan to 3 different people in need of some lifestyle changes and weight loss. It was really inspiring, and it has motivated me to get back to basics. I plan to go to the grocery store today and stock up on healthy snacks and meal options. I am committing to cooking healthy meals at least 3 nights this week. I think it's a manageable goal, and I hope that it will get me back in the habit of cooking most nights of the week.
This week's topic is probably the most important and most difficult question of all. I'm not sure I have an answer yet. I think that for me, the most important thing is to make healthy eating and exercise a way of life...to get to the point where it's almost automatic. One way to help me get there is to go to the grocery store at the start of each week and make a plan for my meals as well as a plan for when I will work out. When I have a plan, I tend to stick to it, so I know this will help, especially on those days when my motivation is lacking.
I'm very interested in hearing all of y'all's ideas and responses. I hope you each have a great start to the week!
As far as the weight plan goes, I completely derailed during this time away from home. No excuses. I just didn't put any effort into eating carefully. As a result, my waistbands are tight and I know the scale would send me into a serious depression! So, I'm not weighing until I've had a couple weeks to get this thing turned around again. And I'm really looking forward to doing just that.
Today is my first day back on plan. It feels good to be in control again. I will be able to start back at the gym tomorrow and that will help. Thanks to you all for keeping this thread going. Hopefully I'll be able to be more an encouragement soon.
Thanks supersized :) It really is enjoyable without my scale. I think its removed a lot of the stress that was related to my diet in the first place. I am a little excited to get it back for one weigh in, just to see how much my hard work has paid off, however I am also afraid that I won't see any results either... I am taking measurements, so I do have those to compare...
The thing that gets me off track the most is just wanting to go home instead of the gym. Not that there is anything important to do there, but many times I just feel like going home instead of going to the gym after work. So when I do let the devil on my shoulder win and talk me out of the gym, I just end up going home, and overeating. So I need to recognize when I have something legit at home to do and when I'm just being lazy. Many times my sig. other won't be home until later in the evening, so its better to head to the gym to keep me from being bored and eating the whole pantry.
Yesterday at the store I stocked up on healthy fruits among other things- which I am excited to snack on!
I've had 6 good days in a row, so I think its safe to say that I am officially back on the wagon :)
I'm having one of those "I can do anything days", these days don't come along often enough, especially as compared to the simply "one of those" days. I went back to the gym today and I wanted to run run run, I held myself to my usual workout pace, both not to over do it and, to keep a steady momentum going. I'm promising myself that if it still feels this easy in 2 weeks then I will up the difficulty.
Healthfirst Sounds like you've got the beginning of some good choices there. Like goal setting I think there are a couple of sets to identifying how you are making choices, first is identifying the behaviour you are currently choosing. This is often hard because since we are in routines we don't often think of our daily routine as a choice, but that is exactly what we need to do to change it. The second step is to identify what we can realistically do to make a difference in my goals. So I could say I'm going to choose to run 10K in 3 weeks, but that is not a realistic choice since I have done no outdoors running to date. What are you currently choosing to do with your grocery shopping? How is that negatively impacting your eating choices? How will shopping at the beginning of the week and planning improve that?
JCR Welcome Back! I hope you had fun on your vacation, most importantly. Good move keeping off the scale until you do feel fully in control again.
MsMeg You sound like you have the same problem I do. I choose leisure time a lot, because I'm tired, because I'm bored, because it's routine. I know that choosing to do the gym instead of leisure is an "easier" choice than many of our mum's will have to make. However it's still a choice. I know after a really busy day I think I deserver nothing more than a few hours of just vegging. It's really hard to make myself motivated to go. That's one of the reasons I've been working on the morning gym routine because despite my world class crankiness in the morning I'm more likely to choose to go to the gym at the beginning of my day than the end.
Hi, all,
Back from Nantucket and am very pleased b/c I am up only 1 pound, despite my eating cheeseburgers, fries, and drinking waay too many cranberry vodka & tonics. My husband and I biked all over the island, every day at least 15 miles on our mountain bikes, which are heavier and harder to ride than our road bikes, especially on the rolling hills. Plus, the shorts I complained about last week actually fit on Friday, so I wore them over my swimsuit for the ride to the beach.
I'm very happy w/the way I look in the pictures, too--at least, comparatively! I hate the way I look in pictures from December 2007 and April 2008, so its great to see a positive progression at long last!
I have an interview tomorrow, so I'll write more later in the week. Just thought I should check in now, though!
Mostly decent week for me, though I'm a bit slower readjusting to the calorie counting than I should be. My main problem right now is that the only food options near work are the sort that don't come with calorie tags -- back in my old job, I came to depend on the nearness of Subway and other relatively healthy chains where at least I could always know how many calories I was consuming, but that's not the case anymore. I've mostly been cruising the nearby Whole Foods, which is not a bad choice, but the hot food there doesn't exactly come with a nutrition label, so I've been guesstimating a lot. What I really need to do is stop being lazy and just make my own lunch at home ahead of time, where I can control my portions/calories easily, so that's the big goal this week -- no eating out at lunch. Saves money, too. :) Also getting back into the gym habit, which is good.
So, on this week's topic: I need to choose to make my own lunches. I need to choose not to stop by the vending machine for something sweet in the afternoons (which, really, is getting ridiculous, as I don't even much like the options in ours!). I need to choose to go to the gym after work even when I'm tired and cranky. So let's try this.
Hi guys!
I actually really like this question! Mainly cuz reading through everyone's answers so far, it's really making people think....maybe bringing ourselves to a higher accountability?
When "Wanting" Isn't Enough: What Choices Do You Need To Make To Meet Your Goals?
I'm really good at wanting stuff! LOL So much of this for me is mental....I need to keep the vision of what my goal is in the forefront of my mind. As well as the feelings of accomplishment when I meet my little goals. Its sooo easy for me to focus and beat myself up for the bad eating days or not working out....not so easy to remember how it feels to actually be doing well (like I hit a mini weight goal for my bday Friday).
On another note: I'm happy to report that last week I did not get McD's ONCE that whole week...not 1 time!
DeFrog3 Welcome back! I hope you had lots of fun on your vacation, and congratulations on the shorts!
Kaydeefalls Getting back into it is always hard, I figure that's why we all identify as wagon jumpers, it's getting back on the wagon that's the hardest. Making your own lunches and avoiding the vending machine are important choices. What choices do you need to make to give yourself time to make your lunches?
Vicki8seekers I'm guessing the choice you are working on is real food vs. fast food. What choices are you making to have success in avoiding McD's?
Made it to the gym this morning, although later than I would have liked. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night, which I think was mainly my dog's fault, and then a lot of trouble getting up this morning, which I'm blaming on my cat waking me up hours early and then me wanting to sleep in. I really need to reconsider this animals allowed in the bedroom thing.
I've got a busy day in front of me, and I just saw Canada loose to Sweeden while at the gym (women's football). Canada has made it through to the quarter finals, but I don't think they will go further as they're playing the United States in the next game and the US is ranked #1 which makes it really unlikely that Canada will eliminate them in the next round. Still making it to the quarter finals is a great win for Canada as we didn't make it through to the olympics last year.
So you can log your weight -- which allows you to do the following:
- Plot your weight curve
- Analyze the trend of your weight (see under Recent in the figure above)
- Determine the projected target date (see under Overall in the figure above)