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.

Happy new Year everyone!!!

**As you refect on 2024, what did you manage to complete successfully, and what needs more time? What goals do you have for 2025, both short and long term?**

In 2024 I managed to drop a little over 15 lbs, which I'm happy with, but it took a lot of yo-yo-ing month to month, which as you know is frustrating, and many times I was ready to say to H**L with it. But I'm not a quitter so I'd end up trying to get back on track. Would I have liked to lose more in the year's time? A big fat YES but it wasn't to be. Maybe I could have been more determined, but I just can't be as strict as I used to be. My main focus has to be on better health, whether I manage to lose more weight or not. Keeping my lab work in the normal/good range.

In 2025 I do want to lose more weight; that's a given. I'm starting out the year at 238.8.

I'm not making any New Year's Resolutions but I will make some simple goals for this year.

1) To lose at least 3 lbs. per month.

2) To exercise in some form for at least 30 minutes a day, every day.

3) To moisturize daily ( I have extremely dry skin but hate the feel of lotion). I've found a moisturizer that is good that has aloe vero in it and it doesn't leave the sticky feel on your skin like some lotions do.

4) To eat single serve portions, whenever possible. I tend to eat large portions so cutting back to single serve portions will take some getting use to.

5) To get out more and see other people instead of being in the apt. 99% of the time. Usually I'm only out to go to the store, library, doctor's office, or to see my friend Phyllis. I do walk to the mailbox & back 3-4 times a week but I rarely see anyone to even say good morning to. So I want to make the effort to get out more, where there are other people around that I can talk to. This will take extra effort on my part and will be a slow process, but I will try.

6) To save more money for emergencies. This is a tough one since I just have my social security but I'll try to save what I can. If my car messes up, it would but me in a real bind. So I really need to put aside as much as I can each month.

So, this is my plan for the 2025 year. What's yours?

Hi, everyone! Happy 2025. A new year is upon us :)

I ended December up .9 lbs, which is acceptable given the holidays. It is within my two-pound maintenance zone.

Overall, I ended 2024 down 24.1 lbs. It was a big year for me.

Vicki, your goals sound manageable, and like they will be very helpful to you. I will think about my goals list and post again soon :)

I don't even want to admit how much I gained in 2024.

But at least I can put it in perspective... I don't have great records but I can find a few past dates

1/7/2019: 250

6/22/2020: 220

1/1/2022: 250.6

10/14/2022: 225.6

1/1/2023: 240.6

7/13/2023: 250

1/1/2024: 216.6

1/1/2025: 239.6

so, I can lose weight but I haven't proved I can keep it off! I lost so much weight from July 2023 to January 2024, but gained so much back in 2024. However, I did vow to not go above 240 again, and though I'm dancing around it, I haven't gone over 241.

Goals: 

1. Get more exercise
2. Build muscle
3. Cook for myself
4. get Blood Pressure down
5. sleep better

Yesterday was a day off, and today I've been on PBS for hours, updating all the stuff for a new year, and reading posts and setting up challenges, but I need to get started on healthy stuff. I have everything I need to make some ham and bean soup, so I'll be working on that soon.

For January I need to be more specific about goals but I need to think a little about that first.

STREAK 1: BP meds BEFORE bed. Done: 1/1, 1/2, XXX, 1/4, 1/5, XXX, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/10, 1/11

STREAK 2: Thyroid meds first thing. Done 1/2, 1/3, XXX, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/10, 1/11, 1/12

STREAK 3: walk at least 10 minutes. Done 1/3, 1/4, bball, CC, XXX, ,ugh, just start over...

STREAK 4: walk down at least one flight of stairs. Done 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 (way more), 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/10, 1/11, 

STREAK 5: walk down at least one flight of stairs. Done 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 (way more), 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/10, 1/11,

STREAK 6: use light box. Done 1/11, 1/12

I started back on Healthi yesterday  :) I did a 2-3 day test run with it a few weeks ago to get re-acclimated, and now I'm officially back on. Yesterday reminded me that even if I'm hungry at 3:00pm, I either need to eat fruit or wait until dinner. No grabbing mid-day pretzels. 

I also drank a lot of tea yesterday. Today I'm back down from yesterday. The goal is to lose approx. 5 more lbs. Once my semester starts back up on January 21, I'll be doing more during the days and out and about more too. Although I do have some busy days next week with a dr. appt, a dentist appt, and some personal care appts. I tend to bunch them all together pre-semester so I don't have to fit them in once classes start. So next week will start getting busy again.

Yesterday was more of a look back day for health. I was on PBS forever, updating things, and I hadn't really set goals. I even broke long-running streaks! I got up to find I hadn't taken the BP meds, so I took them first thing, but then had to wait on thyroid pill due to drug interactions and then forgot to take it till it was late enough I thought it might interfere with sleeping, so it will wait till Saturday. (I take six pills a week, usually half a pill on Wednesday and Saturday and whole pills the other days. If I miss a pill, I go up to a full pill on Wed /Sat till I'm caught up. Since yesterday should have been a half pill, I'll just have a full pill on Saturday)

then I kept thinking I should eat but not wanting to prepare food, so by the time I went to mail my books (in the grocery store!) I was too hungry and got one of their meals, which contained some healthy food but too much sodium.

Then I thought I would park in the big Costco parking garage and get my walk in out of the wind, but it was closed for New Year's Day.

And I figured out that a health app did an auto renewal thing and so I'm stuck with it for another six months, and I find it overwhelming. It's ReverseHealth, and there is just too much and I need baby steps so I thought I canceled it but not. So I blew budget too. 

Anyhow, my vague plan this year was to do streaks but I need to get serious about them!

I thought I had the pills down, but maybe not!

STREAK  1: BP meds BEFORE bed. Done: 1/1

STREAK 2: Thyroid meds first thing. Done 1/2

Heather, you & Margaret are starting off the new year right. Your goals are doable too.

I'm still thinking about what streaks to do. Probably have to do one that deals with riding my exercise bike on a daily basis. That would get me back into the routine.

Now that the new year is underway, I'm back on track. Between the stress of Dad's passing in November then the holidays in December, I gained about 8 pounds. Today I weighed 205. Thw cookies and pizza are gone. I'm back on a normal eating regimen (low carb). I expect to see progress.  Plus now that my new insurance has kicked in I'll ask my doctor to prescribe Zepbound for weight loss help.

2025 is focus on my health.  I would like to lose some weight (25 to 30 pounds) this year.   I have a hybid work schedule.  I eat less when I'm in the office two days at week.  I mindless eating snacks when I'm working at home.   During the winter time, I can not go out to do my daily walks as often so I need to do some exercise at home.  

Goals for this year:

Less snacks (chips and cookies) - More fruits and nuts 

Increase more veggies in my meals

Do exercises at home all year long 

Lowering cholesterol

Teri, you'll get the weight back off, I'm sure.

Welcome Towana. I hope you enjoy being a part of the group and we can support you in your healthy journey. Your goals are doable. You may not manage to lose as much as you're hoping to but we'll be cheering you on. It seems the older we get, the slower the weight loss gets.

Welcome, Towana! I have the opposite problem! If I'm home I have healthy things to eat, but if I'm out and about, especially if I go to work, I tend to stop and fast food because I want to save time and energy.

Today was pretty bad as far as food choices! I went to Stretch Zone(good), then to Walgreens to get a prescription (good) but did not resist the 70%off Christmas candy (bad) so I'll need to put most of that in my daughter's stocking, went to the library where I perused the resolutions display, and chose one book on losing weight (ok, but sometimes I read about what I should do instead of doing it), went to Wendy's (bad) because at this point I was too hungry to make good decisions, went to Costco and walked in the parking garage (good).

streaks:

STREAK 1: BP meds BEFORE bed. Done: 1/1, 1/2, too soon yet for 1/3, also now have the correct dose so I won't need to cut pills

STREAK 2: Thyroid meds first thing. Done 1/2, 1/3

STREAK 3: walk at least 10 minutes. Done 1/3

STREAK 4: walk down at least one flight of stairs. Done 1/3 (I may have done this before 1/3, but I can't remember. I usually do it to get to my car, instead of using the elevator, but I might not have done this yesterday because I didn't drive anywhere. We had 4 inches of snow and our road gets plowed last.)

STREAK 5: walk up at least one flight of stairs. Done 1/3 (I decided to keep this as a separate streak, since sometimes I come home with too much stuff and use the elevator to go up, and on those days I want to make a separate trip down and back up to keep this streak.)

I would not normally start 3 streaks in one day, but these are things I was already doing most days,and I wanted to get the tracking started to encourage me not to skip.

Welcome, Towana. I love this little group of ours. It's nice to know folks are to cheer you on.

My Healthi app is still good going. My "weeks" are Saturday - Friday, so tomorrow kicks off and official first week. I like how the app keeps me more mindful of what I'm eating. I have to pay attention, and that's a good thing.

Margaret, every time I go to the library or go online at the library I check to see what new diet books have come in. I love reading weight loss biographies. I may not follow what the person did to lose their weight but it does help keep me motivated. I usually will get any new diet book that comes out to read. Some I don't get too far into. Either they're using so much medical jargon, I get bored with it, or it reads too much like a text book. I want to read the ones that grab my attention and hang on. Know what I mean?

I'm going to start using my 5lb weights to do arm exercise for 10 minutes a few days a week.

That's good exercise Towana.

How has the 1st 5 days of the year been for all of you? Are you sticking with your plan or do you find yourself slacking off a little?

I'm pretty much sticking to my plan of eating smaller portions and I'm moving more but haven't started the 30 minutes of exercise yet.

Hope everyone has a good week.

First five days are going well, Vicki. Thanks for asking! I'm glad you're feeling good about your 2025 progress, too.

---

Being back on the Healthi app is legit. It's actually hard to readjust. I find myself tempted to "just not track" a little thing here and there, but I know that even if it increases my daily "Bites" numbers, I still need to record it....I ate it afterall! Yes, my "day's results" would look great if I skipped tracking something, or downplayed the amount that I ate, but that would be misleading. So, right now I am readjusting to being honest in my tracking. It shows me how the "reality" of my eating is not aligning with my "perceived" eating = meaning that I might *think* I'm eating just fine and healthy and not that much, but in reality, it's more than I think. It's good to be back in touch with reality!

I am already being so much more mindful with my eating than I was during my maintenance stage.

I never totally lost perspective during my maintenance stage (October - December), but being back on Healthi is reminding me how losing weight is very different from maintaining weight. Like I've mentioned before, me just being "normally" careful is good enough to not gain weight, but to lose weight, I need to be more than just my normal careful - and I can't do it alone. I definitely need the app to help guide me and to keep me paying attention.

Mostly I see this as a challenge to see if I can do it - can I lose 5 more lbs. Can I? I am eager to see if I can pull it off. 

I was bad this weekend with my some of my food choices.  Cutting down on some processed food need to work on.  I will be in the office today so I have  a salad with grilled chicken.   Dinner will be leftover cabbage & some sweet potatoes.   Snack will be apples w/peanut butter.   

With me, I'm working more on being mindful of what I'm eating and portion sizes. I decided no foods are off limit, but certain foods I do have to watch more closely or I'll over eat them.

I have gotten in a 15 minute walk this morning and I'll do 15 minutes on the exercise bike this afternoon.

Heather, you can do it.

Towana, sounds like your meals will be healthier today. Don't expect perfection every day. If we could manage that, no one would be over weight. But making the best choices you can on a daily basis, and like for me, being mindful of what I'm eating, will have a big impact over time.

I love the accountability and encouragement.

Healthi just sounds time-consuming to me, but I'm glad it works for you, Heather!

I know, Vicki, some of those diet books are fun to read with humor and good stories,and some are deadly dull. This one I'm reading now is good in that he believes being overweight is actually a condition like heart disease and an overweight person should not be blamed or shamed, but on the other hand I'm not sure I believe all of his conclusions. Chapter 3 was his eating plan and it is too different from what I currently eat to jump right into it, but fortunately chapters 4-9 are for people who need a more step-by-step intro and not too much change at once. So I will be starting step one later this week. Maybe tomorrow! Step 1 is to eat a high protein, low carb, fairly low fat breakfast, so I can do something with eggs, IF I have some prep time! 
 

Towana, I plan to start arm exercises, too, but later, since I fail if I start too many things at once.

My streaks are, well, faltering some, but I'm staying positive and trying to be in learn mode so if I break a streak I can learn from it and use that to make the next streak longer.

STREAK 1: BP meds BEFORE bed. Done: 1/1, 1/2, XXX, 1/4, 1/5, too soon yet for 1/6.

As you can see, I broke the streak on 1/3. Don't worry, it's not that I didn't take my meds, I just didn't take them before going to bed, so took them in the wee hours when I got up to pee. But I really am trying to get them more at the same time every day.

STREAK 2: Thyroid meds first thing. Done 1/2, 1/3, XXX, 1/5, 1/6. Again, the streak break on 1/4  is not that I didn't take my meds, but that I didn't do them first thing in the morning.

STREAK 3: walk at least 10 minutes. Done 1/3, 1/4, ?, ?

I'm very proud of 1/4! I got myself to the gym, and learned how to use the treadmill! I learned that a treadmill for 10 minutes is harder that just walking in a garage or sidewalk because I had to keep up the pace! 10 minutes was ok, but a good workout. I'll be gradually increasing that.

1/5, I don't think I did walk for 10 consecutive minutes, but I did go to the basketball game and walked from my car to the shuttle, then into the arena, and a good distance around the top to my section, then down a bunch of stairs to my seat, and the reverse of that to leave. So it was a workout. (I think the top row is 42, I'm in row 8, and two stairsteps per row, so 68 stairsteps, unless there actually are 43 or 44 rows, I'm not quite sure) So I don't think I count this as a broken streak day!

1/6, this is the day I volunteer at the thrift store and again, it's probably not 10 consecutive minutes, but it is a lot of walking and my knees are tired, so I don't walk on those days, so it's a planned day off, not a broken streak.

STREAK 4: walk down at least one flight of stairs. Done 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 (way more), 1/6

STREAK 5: walk down at least one flight of stairs. Done 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 (way more), 1/6

Healthi just sounds time-consuming to me, but I'm glad it works for you, Heather! 
 

Thanks, Margaret! Yeah, it's surely not for everyone! The first few weeks took some acclimating back when I started it in March. I wasn't even tracking my food, weighing it, or measuring it before I started, so I had no idea how much creamer I was even putting in my coffee. Or how much mayo I was putting on a sandwich. So even to just start paying attention to my food was an adjustment - but what was the alternative? I couldn't just keep doing the same ole same ole and getting no where. I was also spending a good bit of time in the "chat" communities in the app as I loved reading people's questions, stories, tips, ideas, etc. I loved those little chat communities and that was time too, for sure.

But, after a while it became much faster, especially after I found the right foods for me. And I haven't been in the chat communities in the app in a while. Now, I would estmiate I spend about 5-10 minutes a day on it.

Good job tracking your streaks, too! It's great to visualize your accomplishments like that.

ETA: Your treadmill comment is great! I don't care who you are, treadmills are no joke! The treadmill is my go-to cardio machine. I only walk/jog/run on the treadmill, as non-absorbant surfaces give me shin issues. I feel you 100% on the topic of treadmills being a hard workout.

In my area is a frigid cold temperatures in the teens this wee.  During the winter months like January and February, I don't get out to walk as much because it so darn cold.  Doing some exercise at home will help me keep moving.  

Heather, you and Margaret are doing great, Keep up the good work.

Today was grocery day for me and I ended up buying a lot of single serve frozen meals, like Banquet pot pie. My store has them for $1.00 each til tomorrow, when the new sale starts, so I got a few of those and got a couple small lasagnas. I also got instant oatmeal for breakfast (when I want breakfast). Couldn't get eggs as the store didn't have any but thankfully I still have some. And I got half & half coffee cause I'm trying to cut back on caffeine a little. I'll drink the half & half this month then switch to full decafe next month.

I did get in about 30 minutes walking between while in the store and then unloading the car and bringing groceries in. Took 3 trips back & forth to car/apt.

I'm still munching the Christmas candy so I put my head in the sand and have not stepped on the scale for a few days. But I think I finished it last night and won't buy more. Yesterday my food choices were, well, yummy. I decided not to be judgy and just enjoy the experience, but also realize it's got to be an exception.

i had to work at 4 but I got up late and kept doing "one more thing" until finally I had no time to fix food so ended up stopping for egg bites at Duncan on the way to work. Poor planning on my part. No work today, so I can prep for tomorrow so that doesn't happen again! Then I only worked till 7 and after that we went to Applebee's to use a gift card I got for Christmas. Yum. That definitely won't be repeated because I could never afford that without the gift card! Dinner for my daughter and me used the entire $50 gift card and I had to add cash for the tip. But it was excellent food and we did share an amazing dessert. So the scale might be up, but I'm just going to say it was a very enjoyable meal that I received as a gift and as a one time thing, that's ok. I did have broccoli!

I am sad that I broke my streak of 10 minute walks yesterday, but I can start up again today. It's cold here, too, Towana, though not quite as cold as where you are. It's 16 degrees now but supposed to get up to 22 degrees later today, and forecasts for the next few days show highs right around freezing, but lows in the teens. So I am planning to continue with the treadmill at the gym instead of walking outside!

Was supposed to see the doctor today but when I got there, they wanted me to have lab work first. So they scheduled me that for Feb. 25th, then I go in for the wellness check-up in March. Works for me.