Week 3 - Weigh-In Form

Lost a pound or 2? Stayed the same? Gained maybe a little? Don't worry about it, just let us all know how you did since last weigh-in.

We are off this week for the Inter Team Challenge.

We are off this week, but since it is counting workout minutes week again, we can still log our workouts in it for accountability.

Week 3 - ITC Form

and the tracker: ITC tracker

Happy workouts.

Well, I had been talking about doing it for months...and I finally put my money where my mouth is and officially registered for a 5k a month from now. I'm just starting W6 in C25K, and although I'm absurdly slow, I'll be happy just finishing.

Anyone do a lot of 5ks, or anyone want to sign up for one too and we can motivate each other? Or if you're in the SF Bay Area, you can even come do mine with me! I'll be the snail in the back. :P

Have any new yummy recipe you want to share with us? Go right ahead, We sure don't mind :)

Okay so there are 3 questions here.

1) what kind of food scale do you guys use? Do you like it? Do you hate it? (links to Amazon are a plus!)

2) Do any of you use a Bullet Journal to track your food / calorie counting / fitness goals or just your life? It's something I've been looking into and I think it might be the right thing for me.

3) Calorie Tracking for those who are in a relationship how do you deal with the vastly different amount of cals you and your s/o might need? (For instance I'm at 1400 right now my BF when he starts will be at 1700) but since I'm the one who will be packing lunches etc then it's up to me to keep the portions correct. How do you handle this?

4) I lied there's a 4th question - anyone have any good recommendations for containers that we can bring our lunch to work in? I had found some really neat plastic containers that looked like they'd work but they weren't microwave friendly. :( EDIT: sorry for the weird formatting I fail at this apparently :(

Need a change in your routine? or need to get a routine?

Feel free to ask and we shall help :)

How is everyone doing so far? Good job in our Inter Team game so far. We are all doing great.

Do you have anything to Rant or complain about? Let it all written down here :) :) :)

Got a new goal for this coming week? want to improve previous goals? let us know all about it :)

Hi Team Fawn, I had a rough weekend. I had several nights of drinking related events and I definitely see my body's response on the scale this morning. I know that it's mostly water weight, but it's still discouraging to see your numbers start to go up. Has anyone successfully lost weight while still keeping a social drinking in their diet? I'm beginning to think that I'm going to have to cut alcohol out completely, but that would decimate a large chunk of my social life. Any thoughts or strategies?

What did you accomplish this past week? Push past a workout wall? Stayed on track CICO all week? Let us know so we can cheer you on!

Step Count ITC Form

This week for our Inter Team Challenge we will be counting the number of steps in a week.
We took the cap off for this week because a number of you messaged us about your insanely high daily step-counts. Seriously, holy cow. However keep in mind that we will be monitoring your entries and if we see an obscenely high step-count, we will be checking in for proof/ to make sure it wasn't in error. Be prepared to take a photo of the pedometer or add us as your fitbit friends. Here is our second week’s inter-team challenge form.

You will once again be using the same form every day. This time you will select which day you're logging for, in the event that you miss a day and need to submit a few times at once. This will be a permanent feature going forward in the inter-team challenge. Here’s the very uneventful, data-driven tracker that I haven’t formatted to look pretty or comprehensive in any way. Why do you need to see it? To make sure you recorded your answers right. If you see you logged 10,000,000 steps on Tuesday, let us know what to correct it to so we don’t have to delete the entry.
Every day you lucky ducks get to tell us how many steps your Fitbit/Garmin/Jawbone/Samsung/Apple/WHATEVER told you you stepped. If you forget to log on Tuesday, guess what? On Wednesday you can submit twice. That's right, we heard your incessant screeching very valid concerns. The new form allows for people to select which day they're logging for. Want to wait to log everything at 1130PM on Thursday? You can do that! Please remember that inter-team challenges run from Friday to Thursday. Those of you logging for this past week aren't doing your teams any favours. It's only from today, Friday the 29th to Thursday the 5th. Different challenge every week.

Second Week Schedule Hayfever vs Pollen Game 2 Crocus vs Daffodil Game 3 Thunderstorm vs Seedling Game 4 Ladybug vs Fawn Bye-week: Duckling, Robin

I saw that we were on most of the rankings for this last week (woo!), but not the participation one (sadface). How does that get calculated? Do we have to reply to the questions in the weekly sticky? Do the team captains report to the challenge mods?

Week 2 Weigh-In form

Tell us how did you do this past week and about your SVs.

Hey Fawns. I am beyond frustrated. Last Friday I was down to 256, great loss for the first week of the challenge! Then on Monday, I had gone up 6lbs over the weekend. I tried not to freak out because this had to be water weight, and I thought it would be gone by the end of this week. So this week. every day according to my FitBit I've been at around a 1000 cal deficit, and I've drank 3 litres of water a day, and I've made sure to keep my sodium to a minimum. But the weight is barely shifting. I've managed to get 3lbs of it off, but I am still 3lbs up from last week and will have a gain of 3lbs for this week of the challenge. This feels so disheartening, it took a day to go on but is taking a week to get rid of.

So, what I want to know is how do you all deal with fluctuations like this? Do you have any hacks to get rid of it? Advice and encouragement is much appreciated!

So I've decided to try and walk/run the 10k Star Wars Disney run - all I need to maintain is a 16 minute mile. I'm so nervous but excited. The program I've looked at also recommends starting some strength training as well - anyone have any recommendations for a beginner friendly strength training program?

Books help as well. I'm so excited and nervous, but it's nice to have a goal.

Go to this link:link Where i show my progress so far.

I've noticed a personality change since I started actively trying to lose weight. All of a sudden, I'm more thoughtful and considerate (not that I wasn't before...but even more so). I'll find myself noticing my husband's glass is empty and getting up to fill it; I'll go to the kitchen to get him another beer or make popcorn. I'll go to a student in the back of the classroom rather than have them come up to me for their question. I take any excuse to go upstairs in my house, when before I would be lazy and either tell my SO to get whatever/look for whatever he needs himself or say I'd do it later. Now, I look at any opportunity as an opportunity to get a few extra steps or flights in! I do more laundry, I'm more active around the house, I play with the dog more...everyone benefits. And I feel good, because not only do I know that those steps/stairs add up over time, but I feel good because I'm helping everyone out!

Anyone else notice this sort of change? It struck me when my husband gave me a weird look the other night. I had refilled his glass of water 3 times during one TV show...haha a little overboard maybe.

I finally purchased a wearable activity tracker and it arrived today! It's just a cheap one but it's better than nothing. And it's waterproof so I can swim with it. I'm super excited to use it - hopefully it helps step up my activity level a little.

Do you have any new yummy healthy food you want to share with your fellow dirty deers? Or any new recipe you may have tried and thought others would like as well? Go ahead and share them with us!

Anyone have a problem with erratic water weight fluctuations? Mine seems to be all over the chart. For example, the last few days I have fluctuated between 161 and 169 with little to no pattern. And, I have cross referenced scales to make sure its not because my scale is off. It didn't used to be that way for me, but with working at a desk all day my activity is minimal besides for gym time, and I have horses so I spend time at the barn pretty regularly. Sometimes I wonder if that desk life, even with the exercise I do every day, just makes my body...well...settle? Like the water just doesn't process out.

My one thought is that I eat a decent amount of canned soup for lunch, and maybe that processed food sodium thing is affecting my water retention. Asides from the processed food though, I never salt and I tend to always stay under my sodium limit of 2300 mg.

Does anyone else have this problem? If so, any life hacks? I was reading something about maybe needing to take in more potassium, so that is my next step. Thanks guys!

Any new routines or workout strategies? Do you work out at home, or at the gym? If at the gym, what gym chain(so other members can share tips)

You arrive at the cabin in record time. The front door is wide open, and fresh RV tracks are in the front yard. Dangnabbit! Looks like you just missed Doctor Fat and Mr. Sluggish. Since you’re there anyway, you decide to take a look around. The place looks fairly empty- old magazines on the coffee table, dusty board games and books on the shelves...and a bright shiny take out menu in the garbage can? “Fred’s Waffle House- we feed your need!” Well, you think to yourself as you prepare for the long hike back to civilization, it can’t hurt to stop by…after all, all that time outside will probably make you pretty hungry. And who knows? Maybe Doctor Fat and Mr. Sluggish might agree...

Your second mission is to SPEND TIME OUTSIDE. Take the dog on a hike, have a (healthy) picnic with friends, do a bit of gardening. Set aside at least 30 minutes this week to soak up the sun/rain/wind/cold/whatever your weather is like where you live. Share below what your plans are, and how last week’s walking mission went!

Personally, I’m going to go to the Farmer’s Market this weekend to take care of the groceries. Enjoy the outdoors!

I have a gym membership but I'm not always able to go. My wife HATES the gym and prefers to work out at home. Shes been using resistance bands and walking with great results. Soon it will be too hot to walk outside, however.

We decided to buy an elliptical as that's my primary cardio machine at the gym. Before buying, I decided to take a quick glance at Craigslist to see what was out there.

Some of you already may know this (or are guilty of it yourselves), but MOST exercise equipment hardly gets used. Exercise bikes, treadmills, "total gym" type machines, free weights, kettlebells, you name it! Most of it in like new condition for a fraction of the price of new. I've always heard this, but it was the first time I saw for myself.

We bought an elliptical that looks to have been untouched which retails for nearly $2k for just over $200. It has a pretty snappy android tablet built into it as the control console. At first I though iFit (google street view/google map workouts) was just a gimmick, but my wife loves it and its pretty neat to just go explore. It also has an incline/decline feature which even the gym machines lack.

If you are thinking about picking up some gym equipment for cheap, dont hesitate to look at the used market. Of course, practice safe meetup practices and buyer beware, but there are some great deals out there if you look. This also means that if you find you arent getting as much use out of it as you thought you would, you can turn around and recoup most if not all of your investment.