This week…sigh…this week has been rough. I am finding, though, that inspiration/motivation lies everywhere…and sometimes in the least expected places. I will even be passing along some inspiration/motivation for all of you, so read it through, pretty please.
After yesterday’s melt down over being 5+ pounds over my lowest weigh in, Denise and I sat down to create a new plan. That starts tomorrow, and I cannot wait. This morning gave me a little relief (if I am being honest) because the scale reflected a loss. A pretty substantial loss (for one day), too. I am still up for the week, but not over 5 pounds – like I feared.
201.2
That is one pound up from last week, and two pounds up from my lowest weigh in. I would be lying if I said I was okay with that. I am not anywhere *near* okay with weight gain. I know it could be muscle. I know it could be water. I know it could be a million things *other* than fat. It still bothers me…terribly. It keeps me up at night (and, yes, I am aware that lack of sleep can also be a contributing factor here).
Hopefully with my new plan in action, I will shed that 2 pounds (again) by the end of this week. That would help me feel better…and sleep better…going forward.
As for inspiration/motivation…
I joined Grumpy’s challenge (as I mentioned yesterday), and I hope some of you will take it on as well. I was also approached by SlimKicker. Honestly, I had never heard of them, but I was excited to check them out. They take weight loss and add some fun twists to it (because we all know, it is not always fun). They offer weight loss/diet challenges (some created by other users, and some sponsored by SlimKicker) to keep your life interesting.
Signing up with them is free. You enter some initial (general) information, and they provide you with some recommended nutrition goals. They based the recommendations on what I currently weigh, what I want to weigh, how active I am, etc.
These were my recommendations:
Once you have joined, you can log food, exercise, find groups to join (for extra support), and join challenges to earn points. You can even create your own challenges! Additionally, they have other helpful tools to use, such as their Calorie Calculator.
Here is a screen shot of my main page:
The navigation is pretty straight forward, and it has a clean layout to keep everything organized. I think I would enjoy tracking with SlimKicker more than LoseIt! (which I rarely ever use, honestly). I know you can earn badges and such with them, but challenging other people…that I can dig! There is nothing quite like competition to keep you motivated, right?
Right now SlimKicker is on the hunt for new, fun, creative ideas for sponsored challenges. They want your help. So, if you have a fun or creative idea for a weight loss or diet challenge, please feel free to post it in the comments below. Each comment will be entered into a drawing to win this:
SlimKicker will choose the winner one week from today. Exciting, right?! So, get those wheels turning and share some of your best ideas for weight loss or diet challenges!
-Erica
A Food Addict - by Rooks Fitness 
My idea for a challenge is to do an information diet. What does this have to do with being healthy? Well, too much information makes us stressed which can affect other health.
I’m going to do some straight talk here.
Whenever I gain, I know exactly why. It’s because I ate too much. I either had a couple of “good nights” (LOL) where I had junk food or we had friends over and I drank a lot. Or I had pretty much a whole week where I wasn’t diligent, and let things slide, and I just wasn’t as careful as I should have been.
So – which of those (or a variant thereof) was it with you?
There’s *always* an answer. Weight doesn’t magically pop onto us out of thin air! I’d love to use that excuse, but I’d be lying to myself and not doing myself any justice if I said that. What’s more, I’d be doing myself no credit for all the hard work and effort I’ve put in, and all the changes and good choices I *have* made.
Same for you. You’ve come so far, and made some amazing changes, and you can see it in the results you’ve achieved. So to now say “it *could* be XXX or YYY” when I’m quite sure, if you take the time to think back, you know EXACTLY what caused the gain, means you’re not giving yourself the credit you deserve.
Weight loss – especially permanent weight loss – requires honestly. Most of all, it requires honesty with yourself. If you’re going to do this, and not just yoyo back to where you were, you MUST be aware of a) what you eat b) where you go wrong when you do and c) how to get back on track, by admitting and accepting that we all make mistakes, and recognising those mistakes when they happen.
Sorry to be so blunt (actually I’m not sorry at all – I’m on your side in this, really I am!), but sometimes saying like we think it is is the best thing we can do for someone we have a lot of respect for.
The Lethal Astronaut – now you know why I’m lethal 😉
I appreciate blunt-ness, so no worries about that! 🙂 The problem was…I really had no idea where the weight came from. I logged my food every day last week (everything that went into my mouth was written down) and I worked out every day last week (six days total).
Of course, as of this morning, I have lost all of those “extra” pounds and then some…just since Saturday morning. I am lower this morning than I have ever been, which means I’ve “lost” 5.8 pounds in 3 days. That must have been mostly water because I highly doubt I lost nearly six pounds of *fat* in that amount of time.
Who knows, though, my ex keeps telling me I need a new scale (or some new batteries in it), so maybe that has something to do with it?
-Erica
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Sounds like water weight, if you’re down (congrats!) this morning. But yeah, if you’ve any doubt about your scale, either way yourself at the gym, or get a new one. The good ones are expensive but sooooooo worth it 🙂
Hey, don’t forget to post your weight tomorrow. The contest is about to get rolling along.
Just headed over to your blog and posted my official starting weigh in (as of this morning). 🙂
This is my first weight loss challenge/competition, so I am pretty stoked!
Thanks!
-Erica
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