Of course you are free to set whatever goal you want and we are happy to have everyone. I just wanted to let you know that there is a "pure" exercise challenge for October in this thread: October Colorful & Fantastic Fall Exercise Challenge!!! I don't mean to tell you to go over there, both monthly challenges exist next to each other. And quite a few people actually take part in both. This thread is usually more chatty and updates on progress are usually only once a week. On the exercise thread people post daily where they are standing, but it usually has less conversation. Just join in whereever you feel comfortable! I personally love this type of thread as I get a lot of motivation from the conversations that are going on here. And the more people take part, the more interesting it gets!
Just make sure that you have a way to calculate your percentage so when we do our weekly check-in, we can keep track of your progress! Blake! We're SO excited to have you join us! How cool that you're doing the Star Wars half - that's the inaugural race, isn't it? So cool! Can't wait to see the medal you get! What day is your birthday? 
Your October sounds BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! But I know that you'll do great - you've already made it this far! We've got LOTS of WW participants on this thread, so you'll definitely fit right in! You guys are making me want to sign up!Hi everyone! I'm Courtney and I'm so happy to be a part of this month's challenge. Over the last four years I experienced a significant weight gain in a period of bad luck, including: losing my house, being unhappy in a job, and the stress of starting a graduate program (MBA). In March of this year I reached my breaking point and decided to make a change: I changed my perspective and embraced the opportunities that lay before me. I got a new job, I stopped blaming myself for being a victim of poor lending practices, and I started to focus on things that made me happy. I wasn't going to eat my feelings anymore!
I started my current job on May 4th of this year and since then I have lost over 32 pounds to date. I am just 18 pounds from my desired goal of 150 - huzzah! I finish my grad program in December and walk at graduation in May - and my ultimate goal is to look amazing in my cap and gown... and to wear a Kate Spade dress to my graduation and party.
My husband and I are Premier Disney passholders, which means that we go to Disney World 1-2 times per year and Disneyland about once per week. We're fortunate to live near Disneyland and we use that weekly trip to not only boost our step count for the week but to also reward ourselves for great progress made during the week.
I look forward to cheering all of you on during the next month and learning from your progress about how I can improve my weight loss plan. Good luck everyone and I hope we all meet our goals this month!
I'm excited to have you around for at least another month and can't wait to see what October has in store for you!
Blake! We're SO excited to have you join us! How cool that you're doing the Star Wars half - that's the inaugural race, isn't it? So cool! Can't wait to see the medal you get! What day is your birthday? "
)
When you wake up tomorrow, it will be the beginning of a WHOLE NEW MONTH and a WHOLE NEW YOU! 
YES, YES! Please feel free! I'd love to see what you do. I've got TONS of "make ahead meal tips" pinned on Pinterest, but most of the food they're prepping is stuff I don't eat, ESPECIALLY when I'm trying to stick to my low-carb/high-protein diet, so I'm at a loss. I've also got several crock-pot recipes pinned, but run into the same problem there... Plus they're all usually done cooking in about 8 hours, and DH2B and I are away from the house for at least 10 hours every day.
and he's one of those lucky and frustrating people who can eat a package of Oreos and maintain their weight at 130. So I ate with him. And everything he ate. And gained it all back and then some yet again.
I'm in!
My name is Paige. I'm 22 (will be 23 on the 22nd of this month).
As others have said weight is something I have always struggled with. In elementary school I was always the chubby girl and it always really bothered me. Then the end of my 8th grade year into my freshman year of high school I decided I didn't want to be the "fat" girl anymore. So my mom was doing WW at the time and I joined her by sharing her account. I lost a lot of weight (probably around 40 pounds) and was at about 155.
Then I let things slide. I think I never hit my "goal" weight and felt like I'd be stuck eating so little forever so I just gave up. Gained it all back and then some. Then same situation in my senior year. I decided I was done being "fat". Joined WW. Got down to about 167. I maintained that through my senior year and even my first year of college. I felt good but at that point was working out like 2-3 hours every day and got burned out. We went on a vacation and I didn't work out and ate like crap and it just snowballed from there.
Plus I met my now DH
So last year I found myself engaged and at my highest weight ever at 215. I told myself that I would lose weight for my wedding...I gained 21 pounds in 10 months!. I looked back at the pictures from my disneymoon and my wedding and just feel so sad that I let myself do that far. And I was starting to suffer medically because of my poor choices.
To date I've lost 23 pounds and am hoping to make it to ONEderland by the end of this year!
I’m Amandaand this is my very first WISH Challenge! Yippee!!!
So, a bit about myself….let’s see….I’m 38 years old. I can’t remember a time in my life where I wasn’t overweight. Sometimes that thought depresses me. Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to be a normal size. I guess I’m lucky in the sense that my weight never seemed to make me any different from anyone else in high school and even in college. BUT THEN….I got married. It wasn’t a good marriage. Not in any sense of the word. And I think I used food to cope with it, which made this already big girl an even bigger one!
I was still wearing blinders then….UNTIL….one day I was walking down the street and some guys yell “Earthquake” at me.While extremely hurtful, that was the moment that FINALLY opened my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I had become. I was 310 pounds and miserable.
The next few years brought several changes. A divorce. An exercise regiment. Better eating habits. An establishment of self worth! It was, and still is, a roller coaster process.
By 2011, I was at 220 pounds. That’s huge to many but was awesome to me. I was sooooo looking forward to finally seeing a 1 at the beginning of my weight. BUT THEN….I got pregnant. TOTAL SURPRISE.
I didn’t really gain much weight during my pregnancy but started slowly packing the pounds back on after my little princess was born. By January of this year, I was up to 270 pounds and was miserable AGAIN. I started back to exercising, back to eating better but also found that rollercoaster again. Did I mention that I HATE rollercoasters!
So now, I’m around 240 pounds (will weigh in exactly to start this challenge). Better than I was. Not nearly where I want to be. I’m not getting any younger and have a small child. I want to be there for her as she grows older. And by “there,” I don’t just mean being with her, I mean doing things with her. I don’t want my weight to hold me back in any way. And as an added bonus, I’d also LOVE to be able to ride on an airplane without a seatbelt extender.
Well, I'm in for another fantastic month!
I don't think I've actually fully introduced myself to the group yet.
Hellomy name is Nathan. I am the N in ANforever1030. I do talk about my DW2B on here occasionally. We are getting married on October 30 and leaving November 3 for our Disneymoon! Similarly to @JacknSally I am using my upcoming nuptials as a goal for weight loss, but it is not the end goal.
I was athletically nerdy growing up. I was usually a little taller and athletics came naturally, but I was never truly muscular or faster than those my age. I stopped getting taller my senior year of high school/freshman year of college and that first semester of college put on the traditional freshman 15 (or in my case it was probably closer to freshman 25) as I was mostly eating pizza or whatever I could get from the on-campus store as I regularly missed meals. My second semester I enrolled in a racquetball course and began lifting weights. I dropped most of the weight and actually put on some muscle. This continued to repeat itself for the next couple years until I started working out with some friends who did amateur bodybuilding. I actually got interested when I was about five months away from visiting a cousin for her wedding in California and wanted to look good on the beach. I dropped about 30-40 lbs and looked good doing it. I even continued after the wedding and began training for my own first competition. Unfortunately, before I could get there I caught pneumonia, then tore a shoulder muscle within the same month. I kept eating the same way I did while I had been training though and put on about 30 lbs.
Over the years I kept getting into the pattern of gaining some, hitting a new high in weight, then dropping about half of what I'd gained, then falling back into the old habits. Late last year, I realized something needed to change. I was tired all the time. I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. I had a chronic cough which I found out was due to my chronic acid reflux. I stepped on the scale and I was at 317 lbs. I may have a big build at 6' and enough muscle that I shouldn't drop below 205-215 lbs, but even so I couldn't believe I had gotten that big. I knew something needed to change and I needed to drive that change. So, my DW2B and I began exploring different options. We tried the GM cleanse -- that did not work AT ALL. We then began a nutrition program she got from Dr. Oz's website. It helped get the weight loss started. Following that I got into the gym. We planned a vacation to Mexico in April and I wanted to lose 50 lbs before then. I worked extremely hard, busted my tail and achieved the 50 lb. mark the day before we left.
Of course, while in Mexico I drank...A LOT. It was all-inclusive and I definitely took advantage of that. I also ate...A LOT. We were on Isla Mujeres and there were numerous local establishments with fantastic food. When I got home I found that I had gained about 15 lbs in six days. I should have gotten back to the gym and eating properly right away, but I didn't. As a result, in late July, after a summer of not working out and eating out way too frequently I found myself at 307 lbs. So, I began using StrongLifts 5x5 as a workout program and watching what I eat. I haven't gotten to the point where I track every calorie, although I have definitely considered it, but I do make sure I am in the gym three days a week and usually spend about 1.5 hours lifting, then stretching. I have dropped my weight down to 282, but more importantly I have seen my muscle mass increase and my fat percentage decrease. I have exponentially more energy today than I did ten months ago and I am excited about walking around Walt Disney World and no longer apprehensive about it.
I am only seven pounds away from my wedding goal of 275, although I will likely set 270 as my final wedding goal now that it seems within reach.
I can't wait to spend more time talking with everyone this month
For freezer meals, I make all sorts of things. Currently, I have a big batch of tomato sauce, a couple double-serving sized lasagnas (and going to make a few more this weekend with the frozen tomato sauce), baked beans, burritos, wraps, black bean meatballs and pancakes in there. Casseroles, soups, chilis and individual sized pizzas freeze well too. The hardest part is figuring out what I want to eat the night before so I can pull it out to defrost.
Hello everyone! I am signing up for October! I think I am going to try for a goal of losing 5 pounds this month.
My name is Magdalene, I live in Germany (and am from here) and am 43. I have been struggling with my weight already as a child. In the 70s I was a heavy child. Looking at today's kids, I would be one of the normal kids in class (unfortunately). But those few extra pounds always stuck with me all the way through puberty. For me college had a different effect than for most: I actually lost a lot of weight. Mainly because I ended up with three wonderful friends who were all naturally slim, but also very health conscious. They inspired me to work hard to lose the weight, eat healthier and have fun at exercising. I was so proud that when I finished university, I was at my lowest weight ever with a BMI of 21. The years after I slowly moved up until I ended up at a job which was very stressful (long hours) and in a city that I did not feel at home in. I put on a lot of weight. I changed job and city and then was able to finally get working on my weight again. I did not manage to get down to that BMI of 21 again, but I managed to get from nearly obese (interestingly my heighest weight ever has always been the same, I reached it 3 times, but never went over it and it puts me just below a BMI which would have counted as obese) to a healthy BMI. I continued to hover around a BMI of 25 for some time and then another change made things bad again and the whole process started new. Now, I am again in that area of around a BMI of 25, somtimes a little higher, sometimes a little lower. My goal is it to finally get well below my current weight range and close to where I was in college.
I have been taking part in these challenges for quite a while now. And while it seems that they are not working for me as I am still not at my goal, I do know that they prevented me from getting any worse! I also found out in the summer that I have a thyroid problem and this has been taken care of now, so things are starting to move again! Just like my friends in college who inspired me, I always get a lot of inspiration from these threads and am so happy that we have such an active group here again!
I would love to see pictures!! I already have a question: Your lasagnas, do you freeze them cooked or uncooked? I have frozen vegetable lasagna in the past, but in the already cooked version and was wondering if they would not be better if I freeze them before they are cooked (or better: baked)??
I want to hear more about the meal prepping! I'm so impressed by this! And I need it, particularly since discovering you can order pizza via emoji last month.
I used to always include it in my introduction, but I guess in the recent months I stopped introducing myself...
If you ever plan a trip to Europe, I will be happy to give advice! I have helped a number of DISers already and it is always nice to help people experience Europe (and Germany in special).
Great job @JacknSally and @DisPup75 on a fabulous theme and fun introduction post. October is going to be a great month -- sign me up to participate!
Hi everyone! I'm Courtney and I'm so happy to be a part of this month's challenge. Over the last four years I experienced a significant weight gain in a period of bad luck, including: losing my house, being unhappy in a job, and the stress of starting a graduate program (MBA). In March of this year I reached my breaking point and decided to make a change: I changed my perspective and embraced the opportunities that lay before me. I got a new job, I stopped blaming myself for being a victim of poor lending practices, and I started to focus on things that made me happy. I wasn't going to eat my feelings anymore!
I started my current job on May 4th of this year and since then I have lost over 32 pounds to date. I am just 18 pounds from my desired goal of 150 - huzzah! I finish my grad program in December and walk at graduation in May - and my ultimate goal is to look amazing in my cap and gown... and to wear a Kate Spade dress to my graduation and party.
My husband and I are Premier Disney passholders, which means that we go to Disney World 1-2 times per year and Disneyland about once per week. We're fortunate to live near Disneyland and we use that weekly trip to not only boost our step count for the week but to also reward ourselves for great progress made during the week.
I look forward to cheering all of you on during the next month and learning from your progress about how I can improve my weight loss plan. Good luck everyone and I hope we all meet our goals this month!
This month is going to be SO EXCITING! I seriously can not wait. I can already tell we've got some great participants and I'm really, really looking forward to all the conversation and motivation. You guys ROCK!
(Did I completely date myself with that reference? Any Green Day fans/familiars in the thread? "Wake Me Up When September Ends"? *crosses fingers and hopes that someone thinks she's funny*
Be thinking about your October goals and your plan of action to reach those goals - we are now just HALF A DAY AWAY from OCTOBER 1ST and our very first OCTOBER QUESTION OF THE DAY!! Here's a little sneak-preview-hint for our QOTD: I'll be asking for your goals and plans. No turning back!
I'm in!
My name is Paige. I'm 22 (will be 23 on the 22nd of this month).
As others have said weight is something I have always struggled with. In elementary school I was always the chubby girl and it always really bothered me. Then the end of my 8th grade year into my freshman year of high school I decided I didn't want to be the "fat" girl anymore. So my mom was doing WW at the time and I joined her by sharing her account. I love a lot of weight (probably around 40 pounds) and was at about 155.
Then I let things slide. I think I never hit my "goal" weight and felt like I'd be stuck eating so little forever so I just gave up. Gained it all back and then some. Then same situation in my senior year. I decided I was done being "fat". Joined WW. Got down to about 167. I maintained that through my senior year and even my first year of college. I felt good but at that point was working out like 2-3 hours every day and got burned out. We went on a vacation and I didn't work out and ate like crap and it just snowballed from there.
Plus I met my now DH
So last year I found myself engaged and at my highest weight ever at 215. I told myself that I would lose weight for my wedding...I gained 21 pounds in 10 months!. I looked back at the pictures from my disneymoon and my wedding and just feel so sad that I let myself do that far. And I was starting to suffer medically because of my poor choices.
To date I've lost 23 pounds and am hoping to make it to ONEderland by the end of this year!
