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Winter Feasts Are Coming
@Zaila and I have been talking about reviving the weight loss/fitness thread that many of us enjoyed (CAKE) before. So, given that it's that time of year where all holiday events involve getting together to eat tons of deliciously unhealthy food, we bring you this.
Join us in our journey of Food Fighting. This thread is here for those of you who want to participate in a support group of those that are trying to either lose weight (or gain weight), put on some muscle, or just generally live a healthier life. Feel free to post here for accountability's sake or to rant about temptations/give shouts of victory, whether small or big, and any questions or resources you might need help with.
For a general guideline, before we'd usually post where we're currently at, and what goals we want to reach, and how we plan on reaching them, and then we'd do weekly updates with one another to keep on track. Sharing success breeds success!
Join us in our journey of Food Fighting. This thread is here for those of you who want to participate in a support group of those that are trying to either lose weight (or gain weight), put on some muscle, or just generally live a healthier life. Feel free to post here for accountability's sake or to rant about temptations/give shouts of victory, whether small or big, and any questions or resources you might need help with.
For a general guideline, before we'd usually post where we're currently at, and what goals we want to reach, and how we plan on reaching them, and then we'd do weekly updates with one another to keep on track. Sharing success breeds success!
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The basic idea of these guys is to post once-a-week (preferably the same day each week) with whatever you've got to share!
This spoiler has the original Cake!? thread's run down of each category if you want to join in!
Weekly Wrap-up:
Weight lost/gained: x pounds
Downside of the week: What you believe was the hardest struggle during the week that just recently came to end. Had a hard time getting up to go for a run? Couldn't resist some pizza? It happens to the best of us, but here's the place to admit it. You won't make any progress without acknowledging your mistakes!
Upside of the week: What was the best part of the week? Make an especially delicious meal that was good for you? Your favorite shirt doesn't feel as tight? Get a compliment from somebody? Here's the place to tell us all about it.
Mental/psychological check in: Weight loss/Weight gain and mental health go hand-in-hand for a lot of people. How are you doing mentally this week? Maybe your psychological health is a bigger(or equal) battle than your body composition. Maybe you just want this as a way to look back and see if/how you have improved later! This can be brief, in-depth or left out entirely depending on your personal comfort with sharing.
Status of last week's goal: Did you accomplish the goal that you set for yourself last week? Pretty self-explanatory.
Goal for next week: This is where you'll place your goal for the upcoming week. Have a specific number of pounds you'd like to lose? Aspire to exercise 3 days out of the week instead of your current 2? A calorie count to stick with? Some mental/psychological self-care goals? You want these goals to be specific, measurable, and attainable.
Remember here that honesty is the most important thing. You don't have to say anything you're not comfortable with either, there'll be no pressure.
I'll be doing mine a smidgen differently, but not a ton - just overall weight/goals because that's easier for me than 'weight loss'
Weekly Start-Up!
Weight: 188
Downside of the week: Getting back on the horse after being a massively lazy bum for a month - UGH!
Upside of the week: Despite it being that time of the month and wanting to do no more than huddle in a pile of uselessness, I got off my keister and walked and I even got a random catcall! (I know I'm supposed to be offended by that, but I don't care, it was great for my self-esteem when it was feeling low)
Mental/psychological check in: Feeling pretty crappy about myself when I look in the mirror and see subtle rolls coming back and double-chin more prominent again. Also the angriest acne my face has seen in awhile, which doesn't help. Overall, though, I am feeling pretty good.
Status of last week's goal: My goal for last week had been to eat out less, and I did accomplish this!
Goal for next week: Walk at least 1 hour at least 3 days and do not eat out for lunch all week. Sing more.
Weekly Start-Up!
Inches: I stopped weighing myself months ago. I judge everything by inches now since I'm trying to replace fat with muscle.
Waist:
Tummy:
I don't really worry about the other locations. Everything else tends to stay the same, though I'd like it if my upper arms would tone. IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE.
Downside of the week: I've fallen down and can't get up halp. I was doing really great with my 6week fitness challenge, and then after the 3rd week I started fudging things up. It got worse and worse. I still exercise 3xs a week at least, but now my meal plans are all fumbled. I'm also really sick of the food I'm eating. I open the fridge, stare at it, feel my stomach turn, and close it.
It's just baked chicken, but I hate it. I also despite baking muffins every two days, even though I love eating them. I'm probably going to be switching back to the original meal plan I was using because I had a lot more success with it than this alternative one. I'm disappointed in myself, I've already started getting weaker where I was hitting new goals not that long ago, and I can feel the weight adding back on.
Upside of the week: Uh. Well. I don't really know of an upset presently. Upside is I'm not as far-fallen as I probably assume. I always assume the worst. But, my collarbone is still pretty prominent and I always count that as a good sign haha.
Mental/psychological check in: I've been feeling bad in general every day for two weeks now. When I was actively accomplishing my goals, even when I had a crummy day, I could always tell myself, "but I'm still on track with my fitness goals, so that's something", without that I'm just demoralized and down.
Status of last week's goal: I did a few exercises (but I didn't finish all of them but maybe one. They're done in 4 intervals. Lately I get wore out and can't finish the last one.
Goal for next week: I'm going to be re-prepping my meals to get ready for weeks in advance so I won't have the problems I'm facing with my current meal plan. I need to start drinking a gallon of water a day again. Those are my big goals - my eating habits really affect more than my exercise, so if I'm going to fix things back, I have to prioritize.
Shocker: I'm back at it, but with more motivation than ever. I'll join in here, but probably not quite as in depth as before.
Started October 9th at 315 pounds (don't remind me) and am as of today 287.
What I'm doing: Keto! This has helped me immensely. I'm losing weight quick, lost a mental fog I didn't even know was there, and pretty much reversed my usual seasonal depression with it. There are tons and tons of articles and references about the good health benefits, but I suggest /r/keto for info if you're looking to fall down the rabbit hole.
Pros: I've been cooking every single meal (with maybe 1 or 2 slips where I was lazy) since October 9th. I'm becoming a wizard in the kitchen, and learning new awesome ways to cook food that I didn't like previously. Hi veggies, how you doin'. Also got some cauliflower mash, brussels sprouts, and deviled eggs queued up to bring to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow so that between those and the turkey I won't have to struggle.
Cons: It's a little restrictive in the way that you can't really trust hidden carbs and sugar in anything you buy that's prepared. Cooking is necessary here. Cheat days too, once adapted, can wreck you. Mental slump, stomach problems, ugh. Just easier to avoid cheating.
This picture has been good motivation for me:
That was at 240, and gasp, I had a jawline! Current (as of yesterday) is looking more like this:
Goal is to get down to 220!
You've got this friends. I believe in you and will be here to cheer you on along the way.
Also protip: /r/progresspics on reddit is amazing for motivation. Almost guarantee you'll be able to find people with your similar stats to see how they look after losing. Just don't get too deep down the comparison rabbit hole, because, well, that's not great.
I would second @Koda in saying that /r/keto was one of the first places I went for general information when I was making the decision to try it out. For women who are into that kind of thing, I've also found /r/xxketo to be a particularly helpful one as well since the diet does have some different effects for men and women.
Weekly Wrap-up: Starting post, none here yet.
Weight lost/gained: Base line weight: 298 lbs. I am ashamed.
Downside of the week: Downside of this week and the past month is that I've had this hell virus that won't leave. Can't hear out of my left ear very well. Can't breathe, sinuses hurt. Sinuses are bleeding when I'm not snotting. I'm a gross ball of ew. Plus my heart is angry af right now and my blood pressure is too damn high.
Upside of the week: Turkey is good.
Mental/psychological check in: I am a sad potato very near explosion. It's going to suck to get back to health but I'm not healthy NOW and wallowing certainly isn't helping.
Status of last week's goal: Nothing here yet.
Goal for next week: I aspire to down one 24 oz tumbler of water a day, all week. If I drink anything else it has to be diet. It's not much but it's all I got in me this week.
But I also love beans, mmmmmmm beans.
In the first month I lost 23 pounds, and in this second (still looking at just about another week and a half in it left, according to when I started) I'm down a whopping 6. It feels a bit better knowing a chunk of that first weight was water weight, and that I just bought jeans a size smaller than I usually wear in anticipation and actually fit in them now, but alas.
I made it through Thanksgiving with 0 cheats. Well.. I had one spoonful (a tiny one) of stuffing to reassure my mom that it was in fact, as per usual, delicious, but besides that nada.
Weight is moving in the right direction, but sllooooowly. I bought an exercise bike to put in my living room to pedal on while I'm doing end-of-the-day games/TV watching and whatnot in the hopes that that will help a tiny bit.
But ultimately exercise needs to be ramped up, so, that's what we'll try to do!
The meal plan I'm on is really simple as far as prep goes which makes it easy for me keep up with.
So that goal at least is met!
@Koda definitely don't feel too discouraged! Progress is progress. My actual weight hasn't shifted at all, but I remember checking the scale and being stuck on this lengthy plateau for what seemed like forever.
Success can never come too soon.
Officially puts me at 30 pounds down in a little over a month and a half. I like losses in 10s like that, so feeling pretty dang good today.
Weight: 188
Downside of the week: I injured the arch on my left foot in some fashion and and could barely walk for a couple days, it's mostly better now, but that put a serious crimp in my exercise capabilities (and it was just generally painful)
Upside of the week: Despite being Feast Day One over the weekend, I didn't massively overindulge and I didn't gain any weight, woo!
Mental/psychological check in: Kinda about where I was. The mirror brings me down, but I'm mostly fine because I know, rationally, that I look average to the casual, local viewer; getting that rationale past that gut reaction takes effort still. Otherwise: psychologically well! A 5 day weekend was great.
Status of last week's goal: Achieved! Despite the injury, I had already gotten my 3 walks in! And I resisted my eat-out urges and kept the meals inside, woo!
Goal for next week: Don't eat breakfast OR lunch out during my work week! (this is as much a money saving scheme as it is a weight loss strategy) Walk for at least an hour at least 4 days (harder with working more)
Starting weight: 221, or rather 100 kilos, which is what I'll be using.
Goal is to get down to 85 at least. I have no set time frame. I just think it will make me feel better.
Current downsides: I love snacks, so this is something I'll have to cut down on first. Birthday is coming up, so I already know I'll be cheating.
Current upsides: I ride a bike to work every day. I also have a membership card to the local pool not far from work. I am hoping to get at least one day of swimming in every week.
I'm finishing up month 2 tomorrow with a total of 11 pounds lost. Nowhere near the 23 I lost the first month, but I'm quite aware this stuff is always fastest in the beginning.
Good things: I've stepped up working out immensely. 7 days a week, switching every-other day between running and lifting. Bought a new treadmill that I'm in love with. Gotta love running away from my fat. I'm seeing muscles appear in places, feeling sore in places I didn't know there were muscles, and doing a little better each time. Also decided to only eat between noon and 8 PM - haven't broken that one single time, and it's helping a lot with cravings and giving me a sense of self control.
Bad thing: I've been cooking from scratch damn near every single night, but sometimes there's just not time/I'm inching super close to 8 PM and need something quick. A place near me does these bowls that I love: tuna salad, olive oil/vinegar, spinach, and some cheese on top. Super simple, 100% compliant with keto.
...Until I gained two pounds the day after I had one.
Not sure what was up, I looked up the nutrition facts on the bowl, and there's 30 grams of carbs in a single bowl. I'm trying to stay below 20 a day. They stash things like high fructose corn syrup and starch and other grossness into the tuna salad, when really that's supposed to be a tuna + mayo pretty much type deal.
So basically, I kicked myself out of what I've been doing by reintroducing high levels of carbs and sucked up water like a sponge. 2 pounds were gone after about two days of clean eating, but it was a serious womp womp moment considering if I'd made it at home it would be effectively 0 carbs, and that I've had that maybe 3 times over the course of month 2 as my only meals I didn't cook.
Lesson: If it's fast, it's probably because it's awful. Dig deeper into nutrition facts on anything not coming out of the house, or just cook up larger portions so that on days where there's a time crunch it's just a matter of heating something up.
How are you guys doing? December's bringing with it a bunch of temptation here shortly. Do you have a game plan? I made it through Thanksgiving and a pizza party without a single cave, so I'm feeling good.
So as soon as I recommitted I didn't realize I was going to spend three days with my aunts. Aunts who all love to cook, and cook well, but the food definitely wasn't low carb or low fat.
But mmmm cabbage rolls.
Anyway. I've been kinda slacking since then but I'm not doing terribly. I just need to get into that buckle down mindset again because unless I'm really strict with my eating I won't get very far. I still have all of my food cooked in advance. I have to make another batch of my protein muffins tonight and I need to focus on drinking more water.
All things in time. I can't find my measuring tape, I think I accidentally packed it up when I was cleaning. Eventually I'll find it again.
Go @Koda!
Weight: 186
Downside of the week: the weather was predictably wintery and I just had zero motivation to walk like I should have. No excuse, just... Didn't.
Upside of the week: finding an upside has been the hardest part here. I guess I will go with that we set an "eat out" budget and have stuck with it, so we aren't splurging on food as much as we had been. And hey, I am two pounds down, so I clearly didn't biff it too badly!
Mental/psychological check in: motivational dip comes along with feeling kinda crappy for failing at my goals and seeing progress of months past slip away
Status of last week's goal: I didn't eat out for lunch, but I didn't walk, either, so half and half
Goal for next week: in light of shit weather, I should focus more fully on the food portion of my healthfulness, and so I am going to try to eat breakfast with vegetables and continue my "no lunch out" on weekdays.
I'm a terrible procrastinator. I find more and more I don't have the tunnel vision I did several years ago to just go and do xyz, especially in terms of exercise. I like exercising, but I hate it and I hate anticipating it at the end of a long work day and I find when I get home I want nothing more than to do nothing. Least of all exercise. It works fine if I can get up early, but, I haven't been able to.
So I've devised an alternative, which may not be as effective, but should still provide results - and at the very least, help me maintain my gains. What I'm planning on doing is breaking up my exercises (they're basic body weight exercises/ones with hand weights and a stability ball. That's all.) throughout my entire day, even while at work. You're going to have some gain no matter if you do strength training all at once or set it all apart. It's not like there is some magic code that tells us we have to exercise all in one slot in order to get anywhere - granted, it is more efficient to do it this way because of metabolism spikes and that sweet fat burn zone, but hey.. I don't have time for that, apparently.
The exercises I do are 2 sets of 'circuit 1' and then 2 sets of a 'circuit 2', with short, intense cardio sessions at the end of each set. I'm going to break those up and spread them out over every half hour and do exercise 1 of circuit 1 and exercise 1 of circuit 2 and gradually move through all the exercises this way, with short bits of cardio of hour to two hours. I'll probably end up doing multiple sets of the two exercises each time. My thoughts on this is to give myself less of the excuse 'it takes too long' and 'I'm already tired from working all day'. I'll just ELIMINATE that.
Where everyone else's motivation comes in is that, I know a lot of us use discord. I was thinking of making a group for anyone who wanted to join me, where I would announce every time it was time for bouts of exercise throughout the day and you could participate with me, links/explanations of the exercises included with various substitutions you could try if something was a bit challenging or, if you're going to at work like me, not necessarily 'workable'. The idea is to get us active throughout the day instead of depending on one WOOSH session. PM if you're interested. You can jump in anytime. I currently don't have a stability ball, but for the majority of the exercises I do, you will need hand weights. If you plan on getting handweights for the first time, always test them with reps because I have 8lbs and they're perfect for me right now but I started with 2lbs-5lbs and you might not think they're heavy at first but they get to be!
Weight lost/gained: Base line weight: 293 lbs. Still ashamed, but maybe see some hope.
Downside of the week: If I don't consciously think about drinking water, I just don't. I am not a big drinker of many things, and probably am more dehydrated than I should be, always.
Upside of the week: I think I've come onto a reasonable middle ground of calories counting vs. mindful eating that I can handle without sliding into disordered eating land.
Mental/psychological check in: I am running on a high level of anxiety that I've not been able to comfortably control yet. It makes the heart physically angry.
Status of last week's goal: successish. I drank all diet lastweek if I didn't drink water.
Goal for next week: Continue water consumption. Continue mindful eating habits. Mantra *twenty in two months. Twenty in two months* is helpful, continue doing that. (That's lose twenty in two months). Maybe incorporate 3 workouts (this is dependent on back feels)
I tend to sweeten it with my bcaas but any water flavoring works the same for gallons as it does for bottles imo. You don't have to drink the whole gallon, even half is good.
Down to 276 from original starting weight of 315. 39 down since October 9th with 56 pounds to go, but I haven't seen 260s in years, and they're creeping up. Once I hit that I'm going to be unstoppable
Weight: 183 (but, I'm pretty sure I'm just dehydrated and it'll be back up to 186 tomorrow)
Downside of the week: I didn't go out walking even once and I totally succumed to the call of the work junk food twice -_-; one day we had cookies with our quarterly meeting and I think I ate four or five and another day (yesterday) a company we work with dropped off chocolate covered brittle and I totally ate several pieces.
Upside of the week: I found other ways to keep myself on my feet and less curled up on the couch! This is good for both my neck (doctors have told me my neck problems are exacerbated by poor ergonomics while using a computer) and obviously my weight by keeping me moving. Also! If I am moving around doing stuff, I'm not bored-snacking!
Mental/psychological check in: Considering how much I pigged out just yesterday at the work bowling party (tons of super sweet hard cider and pizza) and I didn't balloon ten pounds overnight, I'm actually feeling pretty good!
Status of last week's goal: I didn't buy any lunch out, but I had it bought for me once, so sooorta success? And breakfast has become a handful of bacon. And. I'm okay with that.
Goal for next week: Continue to find ways to stay on my feet inside with the crappy weather - continue eating as I've been planning to! So far, I'm at a "Keep on keeping on" goal!
Weight: 99.8 kilos
Late downside: Difficult to claim this as a downside, but I've had a birthday and, well... cake happened. Lots of it. Not to mention other kinds of pastry, and snacks, and chocolate.
Upsides: I've had a blast! Also, I haven't -gained- any weight, despite all this stuff. Yay!
Goal for next week: Try to not eat more cake (there's leftovers in the fridge <.<). Possibly start up another Ab-challenge of 30 days with increasing numbers of situps.
I still haven't found my tape measure I'm really good at hiding stuff from myself then finding it when in looking for a different thing I lost. So I have no idea what my inches are but my pants are fitting snugger so that's pretty much where I'm at.
I've been sick since Thursday so as you can imagine I haven't been up to much anyway, but I've definitely gained back, yet again, most of my hard work so. Ahhh.
Re: tape measure, I'm the exact same way. God knows I'll find something I'm looking for like a year later and then say "Oh, well it makes total sense that it'd be there actually." Gotta love self-sabotage.
Weekly Wrap-Up!
Weight: 185
Downside of the week: I am a weakling. So during that time of the month, my weakling status is even greater and I spluuurrrrged.
Upside of the week: Someone on the discord channel said something at some point about cooking something in a pressure cooker, and it lead me to both remember I have one and realize that I could make mashed cauliflower in TEN MINUTES with ZERO mashing. OMG! I love it, it's delicious and excellently low calorie and super filling. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!
Mental/psychological check in: everything but looking in the mirror and seeing my doublechins is perfectly fine?
Status of last week's goal: One big fat failure! I ate out for lunch twice and breakfast twice. I did okay at keeping on my feet, though, so that's good.
Goal for next week: Oh boy. This coming week includes Christmas. My goal for this week is mostly to be extremely low-calorie for the rest of the working week, at least.
And uh. Chocolate.
I am thankful today that while I am super hungry at work and almost caving to go buy some lunch, the "christmas treats" sitting in the breakroomish area are a box of candy I flat out don't like and a basket of fruit.
Mmm Lunch apple, thank you for keeping me good!
Repeat after me: Saving myself is not a race; it's a journey.
Food is a form of self care in that it sustains our body. We need to feed our body with good things so we do not feel bad. The cheaper the fuel, the worse the performance.
One good choice at a time! It's all it takes. One good choice at a time.
These are all I have for you right now. I'm talking myself up as much as anything. I want to make good choices this year. 2018 shouldn't be spent in bed, feeling like shit. There's too much to do and experience!