Are you looking for support on your health and fitness journey? If you are, then this thread is for you.

There are no expectations in this forum. Post as often as you like. Post anything that you feel is relevant to your own personal health and fitness goal. Here are some ideas:

• Monthly health and fitness goal
• Daily health and fitness goal
• Progress (or setbacks) in reaching your goal
• Personal stories about why you are joining this topic
• Healthy recipes that you feel others will enjoy
• Links to articles or books that you feel others would find helpful
• Food Choices (healthy or unhealthy)

Remember, your health and fitness journey is your own. There is no one program, method, or philosophy that is right for everyone. This thread is for support only.

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I'm ending out November at 234.4, so lost just under 5 lbs. ( 4.8 lbs.) for the month. I'll post in the morning my Dec.1st starting weight. My goal for December is to lose 5lbs., to start 2025 in the 220's.

Today starts a new month and new or renewing goals. What are your December goals?

I'm starting December at 234.4, so down 4.8 lbs for November and 18.8 lbs down for the year from my highest weight back in June.

My goals for December are:

To be below 230 lbs. by Jan. 1st.

To eat in as healthy a manner as I can.

To get in more movement daily. To de-clutter more and get rid of things I never use anymore or just don't need.

Happy December, friends

Teri, I am praying for your peace and strength. Stay strong.

Vicki, great progress this month! I hope you are able to meet your year-end goal.

Margaret, I hope you are feeling better from the headaches...and that your chili was good :)

Today I am down 1.1 lbs from November 1. My goal was to maintain throughout this holiday season, and so far so good. I am still right at 140.0 today. I have been hovering in the range of 139.5-141.5 for the past weeks, and that is a good maintenance zone for me. It gives me some daily fluctuation wiggle room but still in my comfort zone where all my clothes fit well.

Yesterday I added running back into my life. I was reading the book Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring not too long ago, and there is is a line in it that motivated me to get to moving again: "The heart is a muscle that needs to be trained. If he keeps lying in bed watching TV all day, he risks permanent damage. Without movement, the heart grows thick and the blood festers, pooling to form clots that could travel to his lungs of brain." Well, that line resonated with me and convinced me I need to be moving more again.

I have not had a good run in the last month. I had done a few yoga sessions in November to keep my body from tightening up, but no running. I was nervous to get back into it, but I am happy to say yesterday's run was a good one. I did 3 miles, jogging/running mix with a one minute walk after each mile.

I also need to incorporate strength training back in. My semester ends this week (that flew right by!), so after this week I want to establish a good exercise routine for the winter break. The week after (December 9-13) I have the employee holiday party, a few wrap-up meetings and final grading, but no classes, so I will be able to fit in my exercise. 

I have about six weeks of break before classes start again on January 21st. My goal for each of these weeks is to meet the CDC guidelines for weekly exercise for adults. For me, this would be 75 minutes of jogging (not including any walking time), and 2 days a week of strength training. Plus my yoga to keep my balance strong and to help with my flexibility. I'll have to start thinking about what a good weekly routine will be for all of this. Once I figure out a good routine, I should be able to just stick to it and be good.

Also, I decided to start tracking in the Healthi app again. I have not been doing this during my maintenance phase. I mostly eat the same breakfast and lunch everyday with variety at dinner - but the snacking pretzels were definitely getting to be a little more here, and little more there. Yesterday I was curious, so I decided to start tracking. Things had definitely gotten very loosey-goosey with my favorite pretzels in the past few weeks, so now with the tracking I will get the pretzels back under control and maybe start losing again in the new year.

Good luck with your goals this month Heather. I'm sure you'll do great.

Todays weight: 232.6

Well, I was going to do so well in December, but you know what happens to plans.

I don't remember whether I said in last month's forum, but on Friday, 11/29, my elderly cat was straining but no poop, and wasn't eating but was guzzling water, way more than she usually drinks, so we took her to the vet. $400 and lots of lab tests later, she has an infection in her liver, and is now on antibiotics and steroids. I got her to take the pills for two days, but now she refuses. Strenuously. She is clearly feeling much better, as eating habits and litter box habits are back to normal.

Saturday, 11/30, I went to work and the plan was to go to Mom's after that and see my sister and her family who were here from Indy. They were here with the big group but I focused on the ones who were leaving earlier and though Saturday would be my time with them. While at work I got a text from them that their elderly dog had fallen and couldn't get up and was headed to urgent care. So they went home to possibly say goodbye. The dog is still with them, no sure about prognosis. But I went and ate way too much by myself in self pity.

Sunday, 12/1. Scale said 239.6! WAY too close to going over 240 and I've sworn not to do that again! I decided that December should be a month of working on habits that I do most days and make a table to really be sure I'm not skipping too many days. I headed to church, thinking of what to put in my chart... but after church I stayed to work in the church library. About 5:30 I left to go get food at Panda Express, carefully choosing to stay under my sodium limit, but I did have a sweet treat. Back to church to work on remaining piles. Welp, I left at 10, and I still have quite a few items in progress. So no good habit table.

i decided to tackle adding one item to table each day and start easy. So yesterday I took my BP meds. I hardly ever miss but I need easy wins. Today I took my thyroid meds. I missed yesterday which is rare and I'll make up on Wednesday and Saturday when I usually take half doses, but I'll do full doses to make up for missing dose yesterday.

Oh, one more thing... I did weigh this morning, 238, so the high yesterday was a temporary thing, probably too much salt the day before.