Wagon Jumpers - Jun 1 - 7, 2008
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, either leave a note here and I will add you, or send me a PM.
Wagon Jumpers Participants
Week 4 Riders - Congratulations on 1 Month!
Supersized (myself)
Week 3 Riders
Week 2 Riders
Week 1 Riders
New:
Missing In Action:
Missing In Action - 1 week
Previous Threads:
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.
Congratulations to everyone who has made it another week, and a special congratulations to all our founding members who have now completed one month! Folks in Week 3 your turn to jump the one month hurdle next!
Part of the nature of this group will be that some people will find the motivation to continue for the long haul, while others will fall off the wagon. We have all admitted to this tendency. My hope with this group is to find a way for us to motivate each other to stay on the wagon. So this weeks question is about how to bring us close as a group, finding out what we all need and generating some new ideas.
This Week's Topic:
Keeping in mind that if you suggest a "great idea" you may be asked to execute it, what could this virtual community (Wagon Jumpers - not CC at large) do, to keep you motivated to stay on the wagon?
Happy June all!
Thank you for the welcome to the group! I think that we could all reach our comfort zones with each other more if we knew more about each other. Perhaps this was done in one of the first 4 weeks and I'm just not caught up reading all the threads yet.
Perhaps a questionaire type thing...age, kids, hobbies? Knowledge of each other will only help us to help each other.
I have confidence in all of us...I'm also the type who won't let others down, so stay on me! :)
I'm going to refrain from answering this week's topic as I figure I started the group and I'm looking forward to hearing other people's ideas.
This is my official weekly check in. I did better this week, making it to the gym all 4 times for 2 hours and eating in my target an average of 2,200 cal/day. On a balance scale I achieved 51% of my goals this week. I'm very happy at being back on the plus side of the 50% mark having hit a low of 10% five weeks ago and have slowly been crawling back since. I didn't do as well as I have the last few weeks with stuff around the house, but I finally got some bookkeeping done and some career planning done so now I'm doing a bit of everything and just need to ramp it up.
My health goals for this week are to make it to the gym 4 days this week for 2 hours each day and to eat an average of 2,100 cal / day. I figure I'm already in a maintenance range with the exercise, but I'm extra motivated to get through this week because next week's goal of 2,000 cal/day will put me fully into maintenance, and then progress down into weight loss range. If I stay on track I have 7 more weeks (including this one) until I complete phase I of my plan.
I figure I haven't bored you (or reminded me) of the plan of late, so here it is for the newbies.
My plan:
Phase I
- Establish how many cal/day on average I am eating (3,000 OMG!)
- Reduce average cal/day eat week by 100 until I reach an average cal/day of 1,500 (currently aiming for 2,100 this week)
- begin going to gym again, start by going for 30 min one time / week, add a day until I reach 4 days per week then add 30 min each week until I reach 4 days per week, 2 hours per day (completed)
- reward: undecided
Phase II
- Maintain 1,500 cal/day weekly average and 4 days per week, 2 hours per day gym habit. If I miss a week, I deduct half the weeks I have completed. I must complete 12 consecutive weeks.
- Reward: Get to look at the scale.
Phase III
- Maintain 1,500 cal/day weekly average and 4 days per week, 2 hours per day gym habit. If I miss a week, I deduct half the weeks I have completed. I must complete 12 consecutive weeks, weighing myself only 1 x per week without freaking out, crash dieting or bingeing as I track the results to see if and how I do or do not want to adjust my plan based on how it is working.
- Reward: undecided.
Wenchie58 Welcome to the Group! We did do a bit of a "get to know each other" in the firs week but did not carry it thorough to the next few weeks. I think getting to know each other is key because it can help people feel more comfortable about asking for help and more comfortable to keep in touch with someone when they are incommunicado online.
I think my question would be is there a more personable way to do it than a questionnaire. I see so many threads with a list of the questions (age, kids, weight, pets, fav food....) that I find after I've read 5 or 6 my eyes glaze over and they all seem to blend together.
- baby greens
- tomatoes
- cucumbers
- chopped red onions
- home made honey mustard dressing
- honey
- dijon mustard
- lite sour cream
- lite mayonnaise
If you are creative in what you eat, you will be looking forward to eating varied, unusual foods and wont become bored with the menu and jump wagon looking for alternative grub!!!
MMM, karenie, that looks delish! Sorry I haven't been around much. There really is no excuse this time haha. However, been doing much better staying on the wagon! I've made some changes that I think are helping, and I'm also going to post my goals/challenges to make me accountable. (saw this on another thread and realized I missed it - sry!)
So, first off - keeping me on the wagon better, I've allowed myself to up my cals. I realized that I just kept feeling hungry and when I tried to avoid eating, it turned into an all-out binge. So this week, I started allowing myself to eat if I felt that desire to binge, and then it became allowed and I could sanction the size of the snack, rather than a bingefest that never ends. Definitely worked! Might be setting me back, but I'm much happier with myself and can sustain this much better, plus, I'm saving on binge calories :)
Strategy: Develop a healthy relationship with food and exercise that is sustainable for life.
Tactics: Log my meals in advance - three days works for me. If I do it one day at a time, something will happen and I will get busy adn end up with no plan for a day = BAD! Cook all my meals in the morning and bring with me for the day with plenty of extra snacks such as fruit and nuts in case I get hungry (or a gameplan for healthy food buying if I get stuck)
Exercise - working out no more than 2 hours a day, including strength training every other day, and trying to take one day off (or at least take it easy). On that day off, I will clean my room, do laundry, and other household-type chores. Also, I will be allowed to go for a walk or dance around my room if need be. Previous gym-resctriciton resulted in awful binges, so no more! And if I absolutely feel the need, I am completely allowed to go to the gym for 30 min of cardio if I need it. But ONLY if the walk/dancing doesn't do the trick.
I must exercise at least 5 days a week for at least 30 min (bare minimum) in addition to walking/biking to school and errands.
NO SCALE! No matter what the scale does, it discourages me. Goes up, discouraged adn new resolve to "do better" = too much expectations. Goes down, oh good! Go binge, apparently it doesn't hurt you. ARGH! So no more.
And, okay, I need a reward = if I can keep up a healthy eating plan and reasonable exercise for this week - on Sunday I get a massage! YES!
Sara - thanks so much for that advice. It works! I remember when I first started losing weight (4 years ago now, time flies!) and I did the tea trick - so rewarding, relaxing, and, you said it - filling! I've been using that this week and it helps! Even if you need to eat a little something, pairing it with tea makes it that much more satisfying and filling.
GOod job everyone on achieving mini goals! We can do this because we are strong and know that it is healthy and loving for our bodies :)
Good Monday Morning Everyone!
Okay that's me trying to be positive on Monday Morning.....
I agree with Karen, I need to mix up my food, I've been using my Green Cuisine Cookbook a lot, it was a present from my brother and it's all veggie / vegan. I need to enter the recipes before I make them, just a compulsive thing, but trying new recipes keeps me from getting bored and reminds me how much I actually do like healthy foods.
Massage sounds like a great idea! Although I have to admit while at a party on Saturday there was a long (funny) discussion amongst all of the girls about mistakes they'd made going into "massage" parlor that were umm.... not.... the kind of massage they were looking for. Must avoid that.
OOO hey guys
I like the reward idea...that is a good idea! I have to figure out rewards taht DONT involve binging on bad stuff! haha My rewards are always cheat days that last weeks....but since I can't afford a massage, I'll have to think of something else!
My plans for this week are to get as much exercise as possible. It's going to be a busy week, but I want to stay active! I am thinking of doing a bike ride for kids over the weekend, so I'll need to prepare for that!
On another note, I had a great weekend staying on task! I had one of the best runs of my life on Sat, and then on Sunday I played volleyball and golf! haah
I'm actually up 2 lbs from last week to 142 lbs, but I'm feeling more motivated than I have for almost a year. I ate a ton Thursday and Friday -- like over 10k calories in the two days, and refused to feel guilty. Saturday, having rid myself of the feeling of deprivation I've felt for the last couple years, I had a renewed sense of motivation to lose my last 20 lbs.
This week:
- Start running again: 3 runs this week right after work so I don't have any excuses like its too late, I'm busy, whatever.
- Stay on track counting calories
- think of non-food cheap rewards (any ideas?) for when I stay on track
Checking in!
This weekend was a disaster. Well, not in some ways.
I just celebrated my two year anniversary with my girlfriend. I had the bright idea of visiting her in San Diego (she moved back home for the summer until graduate school begins in the fall), followed by taking her to Disneyland. Her mom cooked a very crazy, heavy curry dinner for us the first night we were there. Then Disneyland was full of typical Disneyland nonsense food. I feel like I have to start all over again, and am having the crazy heartburn and concrete stomach feeling that I had afew weeks ago before starting to eat clean.
It is discouraging, but I will try to get back on track. I just woke up and I am so stuffed that I don't even think I can eat breakfast.
How can such a nice trip be so counter productive!? Oh well. At least we had an amazing time and walked from 9 am to midnight.
As for the topic, I agree with the addition of a questionaire or something. I don't think everybody here should know my shoe size or anything like that, but afew details would be interesting to know.
Hello everyone.
Here's my idea for what it's worth. Most of us have a goal weight in mind and many of us may have a primary fitness goal, like being able to run 6 miles or something like that. And many of us have some primary motivation for losing weight and getting more in shape. We want to go to the beach or look better in certain clothes, or show off for our friends.
Staying focused on the positive results of our behavior change is a good motivating force. Besides our primary motivating goals, eating better and becoming more active will have a lot of positive consequences in our lives. Maybe some positive aspect of leading a healthier life has occurred to you during the week that you hadn't thought of before.
Here's one for me. If I can exercise more self control regarding my eating habits, maybe I can also exercise more self control in other aspects of my life, like keeping positive and focused at work or restraining my language or my temper.
Sorry I missed you all last week. No excuse - nothing keeping me busier than usual but I just never seemed to get around to logging my food and checking in. I supposed that is why I'm up 1.5lbs, the whole food logging thing really works.
I'm going to try something different this week regarding my eating.
Goal: 6 out of 7 days this week be hungry before eating (I know - seems obvious, but I didn't do so hot with this last week!).
Reward: 1/2 hour massage.
Today is starting off good - I did 50 min. of cardio and had my oatmeal.
Overall the last week - I didn't eat unhealthy food just too much of it. I even made a home made wheat crust pizza, and turkey sloppy joes (from the Fit for Life cookbook) w/whole wheat bun, we did fresh strawberries w/splenda. Everything was sooooo goood I had a really tough time only eating appropriate portions and when I was hungry.
Looks like we're off to a quicker start than last week. I've planned the recipes that I'm making this week. I say this week because I find with the serving sizes and the inevitable night out a few times a week, really 2-3 recipes do me for the whole week. Thought I would share here. Most of the things I eat are 100% vegan, I often post recipes with cheese in them and sub in soy cheese. I'm currently working my way through the Green Cuisine Cookbook.
Vicki8seeker I found I had to get away from the "cheat day" idea and the "food reward" idea it took me a long time because I wanted an excuse to eat lots - o - crap and I figured that I ended up just feeling deprived all the time which just meant I was on and off the wagon constantly. Right now I am averaging my calories across a week. I typically have quite a few days in a week where I have no problems saying at or below calories, so then on the one or two days I may go over, or I really want that beer/nachos/soy delicious mint marble fudge ice cream.... well it all evens out.
Sarah_11235 I'm not that far away from student life so I've still got a few cheap rewards up my sleeve... are you a reader? I used to delay reading a book that I really wanted to read until I had met a goal, this made me focus on work / school and work on my goals to get a reward. I think the same may work if you sub in video rental, or cheap shoe shopping.
ld1984 Congratulations on your anniversary! Everyone needs a vacation and mummy food (even partner's mummy food) is irrestiable (and rude to turn down). Enjoy your great time and pick up this week.
I think my challenge on the questionnaire is where to locate it. I could post it on the first thread, or start a new thread, I'm concerned about posting it on any given weekly thread as it would be lost to new members. However posting it on a separate thread may mean people will not visit it.
lumcti On the first few weeks we went with some similar themes, like what (besides your weight / fitness goal) will motivate you to stay on the wagon until you reach those goals and why do you want to stay on track.
I also relate to the getting more control over other aspects of my life. I usually post at the beginning of the week how much of my "life goals" I met during the week. I noticed that I have a habit of going 120% on one area of my life while neglecting the others. This showed in my dieting as I would go 120% for 3-6 months and then drop it because it was "too much work". That's the main reason for me taking it slow this time. The big challenge for me is integrating this weight loss into my daily routine while not loosing other areas of my life (household, finance, career, entertainment).
KreitterWelcome back to the group! I've added your name back to the list (minus one week) - keep going towards your 1 month! I've had a bit of success not overeating on the portions by putting everything in tupperware and in the fridge right after I dish up my portion (before I eat it) that way if I want a second helping I generally need to take it out of the tupperware and heat it up, this often stops me.
Is it too late for me to join? I really need some help keeping on track. I have 15lbs left to go.
msmeg1984 Never too late to join! Welcome to the Group!
Lately I have had lots of trouble controlling my sweet tooth!
Maybe its TTOM but man... I really am getting into a rut where I miss my old habits of eating whatever and not analyzing every single thing i put into my mouth.
I've also seemed to hit a rut when it comes to workouts... I think my solution is to join a gym. The videos i do at home just aren't cutting it anymore and its getting super hot outside.
Has anyone bought the Hungry Girl cookbook or used the hungry-girl.com website? I just discovered it a month or two ago and its amazing!
I'm finding that I do the most damage after dinner at night. I get the munchies and once I start munching, I don't stop. So this is the second night of "closing the kitchen" after 7 PM. The only thing I'm allowed is a cup of tea if I want one. I'll let you know how well I do. It'll be hard, but I think it will help.
Massage sounds like a great idea! Although I have to admit while at a party on Saturday there was a long (funny) discussion amongst all of the girls about mistakes they'd made going into "massage" parlor that were umm.... not.... the kind of massage they were looking for. Must avoid that.
HAHAHA that cracked me up! you are right, though, I've been warned by some friends (currently in Thailand where massages are cheap! yay!) of a couple places to avoid.
So, during my morning workout, I was thinking of ways to keep each other motivated and on track, etc. I decided - for me, anyway - one of the biggest motivating factors is the improvement in my body. If I go by the scale/measurements/numbers, I get all discouraged or too focussed on the "diet" aspect ofi t. What works better at motivating me during the day to day grind is focussing on the instant rewards. So I thuoght maybe we can all post the positive thingsd we are noticing with our lifestyle change? Dunno if this will help others, but it's great for me - even just to acknowledge my own better health! So I will go:
More energy
Fewer cravings
Focusing on life rather than on food (eating to live!)
No more guilt/beating myself up over stupid choices
The "high"/endorphins from working out (managing depression woo hoo!)
Sleeping better at night
Feeling more confident about myself (even when my body/weight hasn't actually changed)
More positive outlook, happier moods
The knowledge that the physical rewards are sure to follow!
And, of course, the little rewards I'm giving myself for mini goals.
So, it's kind of silly ad maybe not what was in mind when the suggestion for ideas was made, however, I decided to go ahead anyway.
Cheers! and good luck with this weeks' goals!
Today is going to be a really difficult day for me, I've figured out that I need to leave the house in about 20 min if I have any chance at all of being able to make it to the gym. I have things to eat at home, but no time to eat them and I will be at a function with beer & h'ordeuvres tonight. My brain is too slow in the morning to think of a good plan to manage this. And, yes I should have planned this yesterday, but I didn't.
msmeg1984 Never tried hungry-girl, what is it?
JCR The tea thing worked really well for me. I've got a fantastic selection of loose leaf tea, and the coolest tea infuser ever. So at night I just have pot after pot (one pot is about 2.5 cups) of tea which is tasty, and fills me up with water so I'm not hungry.
gettinghealthy123 Those are great things to focus on, and entirely what I myself am focusing on since I do find the scale demotivating - it's either moving in the wrong direction or not fast enough in the direction I want. You're right though it's not exactly what I meant, so I'll go into that a bit below.
This Week's Topic Continued...
I re-read the question this week and realized it's a bit unclear. I think there is a lot we can do to keep each other motivated by getting to know each other and becoming invested in the community, teaching each other good goal and reward practices, being positive etc... etc...
Generally I think this group has done a spectacular job of doing all of the above in the four weeks we've been at it.
Now, unfortunately I do expect that not everyone who signs on will stay the distance, however I looked at the numbers this week and figured that 1/4 (25%) of the people who have signed on to date are MIA, if you take the MIA as a percentage of the active people it's closer to 35%.
This is what brings up the question for me. Currently our action (thing that we are doing) is to commit to posting one time per week, and e-mailing anyone who does not post that week (I hope everyone is e-mailing).
I'm wondering if there is another motivational tactic we can use. For example reward or award for the best _________, I'm not sure where I'm going with this, just putting it out there.
If you were falling off the wagon, eating badly, not exercising, perhaps feeling like you don't want to tell the group this, what thing would motivate you to get back on track and try again?
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