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.

Here and I've decided my new habit for November will be to get 7 hours of sleep per night.  That's kind of always been my goal, but I haven't worked very diligently to make it happen.  I know when I am tired that I am not as good at the other disciplines either.

I'm starting off November 7.3 lbs heavier than I started on October 1st. That's not the way I want this month to continue. My goal for this month is to lose the 7.3 lbs. plus an additional 4 lbs. That will get me firmly back on the right track.

Good luck to everyone this month on reaching your goals.

I made up my daily tracker on graph paper yesterday & will continue on with what I've been doing. The exception being sweets once per week because I know I won't hold to that from now until Dec is over. I will stay conscious of them & limit them but doubt it will be one per week. I'll probably pick that back up in the new year.  I weighed in today at 126.2. Not bad but not what I want, I do know it's from the junk I ate yesterday. I didn't sleep well last night so didn't work out in the garage but am going to try to walk this afternoon. 

Successes so far today...meal planned to eat in the rest of the week. Lunch choice today was a success in that it was baked salmon & raw veggies. 

I kind of like that some of you are looking at where you start and end the month weight wise.  I just checked my Fitbit app where I record my weight weekly and it looks like I ended October 2# less than I started it.  I kind of like that encouragement that I headed the right way overall for the month since some individual weeks might have been up.

Here's wishing you a successful journey for November Vicki.  You can do it.

I was thinking about sleep, too! I completely agree that I make poor decisions when I am tired.

But my habit will be as easy as I can make it ( and it is already hard!).

November habit: I will go to bed with light off at midnight.

Already this is hard today because there is so much more I wanted to do today! But I know that in the long run I'll get more done tomorrow. So I have 42 minutes left, and must use some to feed the cat! Guess I won't watch my baseball recording tonight!

I didn't weigh in this morning but I checked my Carb Manager app and see that I started October at 208 but ended at 204. 

I've been sleeping propped up on my sofa because of my cough/congestion. I still think its not a bacterial infection, just allergies. I may have mentioned that I started coughing in October when I started burning fires regularly. I had coughing spells while visiting Dad in Tucson. Its so dusty and windy there.  Cough drops helped. I managed to not cough on the plane. Back home, I can smell leaf mold. It gets just a little better every day with the use of a humidifier, Mucinex ans Zyrtec. I might try sleeping lying down in bed tonight.  I thought about the possibility of my cough generating from medication but I've been on the same meds for months.  I do wear a mask now when I remove ashes from the woodstove; I didn't last month.

This simple habit: go to bed by midnight 

is going to be hard! I'm used to using time at the end of the day to catch up on urgent things, or to grab a little "me" time, even if it cut into my sleep.

So, to keep this simple habit going I'll have to do lots of planning and be diligent to find "me time" earlier in the day in spite of the to do list. I know it will be worth it, because I know from personal experience that I lose weight more easily with enough sleep and that I make terrible decisions about food choices and use of time when I am tired.

Yesterday I had an evening meeting at church and I spent the afternoon running around doing errands, so the only reading I got in was a few minutes of listening to an audiobook and then about three minutes before I turned out the light. I get pretty grumpy if I don't get reading in for a few days!

And I was so sleepy this morning that I slept through the alarm. Upon reflection and noticing other symptoms, I have concluded that this warm spell has awakened something that is setting off my allergies, so I started taking Claritin this morning. (Well, a generic of it)

I read this today from a food blogger I follow on Facebook...Clean Food Crush...thought I'd share it here.
Nothing profound but hopefully motivational. 

10 Tips To Get Back On Track:
1) Start now by recommitting today
2) Drink water like it's your job
3) Plan each meal
4) Eat to live, don't live to eat
5) Revisit your food journal & repeat a good week
6) Remind yourself how far you've come
7) Move to get your sweat on
8) Don't let a bad week turn into a bad month
9) Vegetables are your friends 
10) Repeat this tomorrow 

Hello. I weighed 121.4 this morning. I'll think about my November goals.

Good afternoon.

Margaret, I could never stay up so late.  I wouldn't be productive if I did though.  I'm too much of a morning person.  It's hard to change our habits, but we will make better decisions all around when we aren't tired.  I also can get grumpy if I don't get a little reading time, which is why one month my goal was a dedicated 30 minutes of reading time.  It's been nice to get that, even if some days it's all I get.

I've made 7 hours of sleep the last two nights, but Sunday night I only got 6 hours and 44 minutes.  So close!  That was not November though, so I guess it doesn't really count.  But I started a checklist for the habits so it's not just keeping up with it in my head, and the week starts on Sunday.

I ate out today and I'm eating out tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday which will be 4x for the week (allowable is 6x).  Could be better.

Teri, sounds like you are doing all you can to fight the cough with OTC meds.  Hope it's working.  And, 4# for the month of October is a pretty good loss, especially when you were traveling for one week of it.

Shayla, sometimes things don't have to be profound.  Some good wisdom in your motivational tips for getting back on track.

I did get in bed by midnight last night, and I was reading and going to turn off the light at midnight, but though I thought I set an alarm, I guess I didn't! So then I looked and I read way too late. At least I did get my reading in!

Lisa, I stopped at one of the convenience stores popular all over NYS, Stewarts Shop, for lunch Tuesday while I waited for Meggie to be groomed. I made good choices...hardboiled egg, salami slices, string cheese. THEN, I spied a display of locally-made bakery loaves of bread in paper bags. IT WAS STILL WARM!!!!  I touched it. I picked up a bag and smelled it. Deeply.  I bought it.  Back in my car, I dutifully consumed the nutritious egg and salami first. But then I tore a hunk off that wonderful warm loaf of bread. I nibbled so that I could inhale the intoxicating odor of fresh bakery bread.  I savored every bite! I didn't eat it all in one sitting as that, a) would be physically impossible, and, b) demonstrate a complete lack of self control.  I am a sucker (and a goner) for fresh Villa's bread.

Teri, I love my bread too - especially warm.  Keto would never work for me.  I'm going to an Italian restaurant today that has the best garlic knots.   I will try to just eat one.  Why everyone wants Italian all of a sudden is a mystery to me.  Good for you on the self control of eating it slowing and not overeating in one sitting.

This week, it looks like I'll have at least 5 and maybe 6 meals out.  6 is my max (was my May habit).  I haven't had this many meals out, except maybe the week I was on vacation at my Mom's, in a long time.

I've got 7 hours of sleep all week, in spite of being up late to watch the Astros and the Phillies.

I haven't had any sweets/desserts, except the week I was on vacation, in quite a few weeks.  It really is best for me to abstain entirely rather than try to exercise self control.  I think the sugar changes something in my brain and I just "don't care" anymore.  It is very much an addiction for me.

Hope everyone is doing well.  I as down a pound from last Sunday when I weighed this morning.  Not sure it can hold up with at least 2 more eating out occasions, but hopefully I'll be a little bit down on Sunday at least.

My habit is supposed to be in bed with light off at midnight, but I didn't realize just how different my current habits are! So it's still my goal to have this by the end of the month, but starting out more lenient! I have made it to bed by midnight most nights, but some nights I didn't get the light turned off by midnight. One night I stayed up a little past midnight to get clothes put away so they wouldn't wrinkle. I started the load too late.

Good Sunday Morning All. Hope this is a good start to the week for all of us.

I'm down 1.4 lbs. from last week which is good but still up over 5 lbs. from last month so I've still got a ways to go to get back to the point where I'm back to just losing and not re-losing. But I'll get there.

Hope everyone remembered to set your clocks back last night before going to bed. In the past, I prefered it the other way but with me working morning hours now, I see I'm going to like this time change better since it's now light out by 6:30 and I'm not having to start out with it dark and having to use my headlights. I didn't like driving to unknown addresses and not being able to see all around me as well when it was still dark outside. Now I won't have that problem. So I can get started a little earlier now most mornings.

Good afternoon.  Surprised this morning when I weighed for my official weekly weight.  I lost 2#.  Amazing because I had a lot of eating out meals.  I did try to make them basically my only meal though.

Margaret, I've had to adjust a couple of my monthly habits too.  Sometimes we think something will work, but it just doesn't.  Or, as may be the case for you, sometimes we need a step change or two to get us to the actual goal.

My sleep goal will be much easier now that baseball is over.  I had good timing for initiating this habit.  :)

Congrats on reversing the trend Vicki.  That's half the battle.  I like the morning hours lighter too because I'm an early morning person.  When we are on DLST I often go to bed when it is still light.

Hope everyone is having a good day.  Later. . . . .

I was avoiding the TBR too long thread so I wouldn't get baseball spoilers! I recorded last night but didn't watch it. Oh well, as long as I don't know the score it will still be a little interesting 

Vicki, I think I have turned around too. I had gotten up to 240.0 but never higher and today was 238.8. Earlier I had set aside all of the size 20 pants for donation, but then I had very few pants! Last night I tried them on again and I found that two pairs of the size 20 are ok for now, but the rest are still huge ( a good feeling!) so they went in the donations box.

The fact that turning out the light by midnight - my November goal habit - is so unexpectedly hard may mean that I really need this habit! But for this week I'm saying in bed by midnight, turn off light by 12:30, earlier is better, and I'll work back. Last night I turned out light at 1:30 am, pretending that I had already changed the clock so that it was really 12:30!

I meant to make chili today because I have some ground beef that needs to be cooked. But I took time this afternoon to go for a walk (I'm at 9981 steps!) so I guess I'll cook up the meat but make the chili Tuesday. I don't have time tomorrow. I have season tickets to the Iowa women's basketball games, and tomorrow is a mens/womens doubleheader, so I'll be out late.

I don't like this time, because it gets dark so early, but I can live with it. I just want to QUIT changing! I don't mind the fall change so much, though it takes a little adjustment. But the spring change is awful.

Margaret, the baseball game was good if you decide to watch it.  Sorry if we spoiled it for you.

I don't mind the fall back time change so much either because it doesn't take a lot of adjustment for me.  Up a tad earlier maybe, and in bed a tad earlier too for a few days, but then it all evens out.  I don't like it dark so early just because once it's dark I think it's time for bed.  But, bed at 5:30 is probably not a good idea.  Lol

Wishing everyone a good week.  Stay focused and be intentional.  We'll all get there if we persevere.

I already have 9500 steps and I'm at a basketball game. I will have well over 10000 by the time I get back to my car.

I have so much that must be done tonight that I'm not sure about the midnight bedtime unless I set the alarm really early!

last night I didn't make that goal because I was crazy wide awake due to the time change. I was in bed by midnight, but light wasn't off.

203 this morning! Yay! I don't know if this will resonate with anyone, but since losing so much weight, I have appreciated not having to use bra extenders to make my bras fit. I've only lost 2" on top as opposed to 8" elsewhere so I suppose I'll always be bigger on top. I had breast reduction surgery in 1992. I put most of it back on over years of gaining a lot of weight. I'm never doing that surgery again so it is what it is!

When I hit 200 pounds in the near future, that will be 50 pounds, half of my weight loss goal met. I feel I should celebrate this milestone in some way but how?

I haven't gone grocery shopping in forever. I need everything! Grocery shopping is usually an ordeal that takes a day to recover from.  I'm going to split the sizeable list into two lists, make two trips. Produce, dairy, meat on Trip One; canned goods, frozen foods, cleaning products, seltzer on Trip Two.

I just don't go to sleep if I go to bed too early. But there is construction going on in the next door lot. Today the noise woke me up at 6 am, so I'm getting really tired now...

Wow, Teri! 203 and dropping! 

Scale said 238.8 today. Again. It has said that for 4 days in a row... but at least it is staying under 240. I walked a lot on Monday (12,770 steps), not as much Tuesday (7887 steps), and about 7000 steps today so far. But in the unpacking, I unearthed my elliptical walker. (It can be used seated or standing.) I've never used it. I bought it and never found the time to put it together. But now I have more time, and if I put it together tonight, I might get more steps yet!

As far as November habit of going to bed: I did it on time last night, and today I may be really early!

I went up to 242.6 the othe other day but I'm 240.3 this morning so it's going down. I'm starting a new plan this morning and am going to make myself stick to it no matter what. I don't like how I feel at this weight. When I had dropped down into the 2-teens, I was feeling a lot better physically but with the weight back up I'm giving out much quicker and I get out of breath very quickly. So I'm going to do everything I can to drop the extra pounds I had regained the last few months and be back down into the 2-teens by the end of the year. Thank goodness I have no parties or anything to go to over the holiday season so I won't have all that temptation to deal with.

 I have noone to take care of me if I get down physically so it's up to me to do everything I can to get the weight off so I have the energy I need to get things done.

Hope noone is having to deal with "Nicole" in here. I am but so far it's been ok. I lost power briefly but it must not have lasted long because it didn't wake me up when my fan went off. It affected my appliance clocks, my alarm clock, and shut the computer and cable off, but it's all back up and running now. Hopefully the high winds won't knock it out again.

Hope everyone has a good rest to your week.

Hi everyone.  Just a quick check-in to see what's going on here.  Nicole is no threat to me, but I will say a prayer that no one else is bothered by her either.

I wanted to weigh this morning and the scale needed to be charged.  Then I dropped it on my foot trying to plug the charger in.  I think I probably broke a couple toes which isn't a good thing when I'm leaving on Sunday for a cruise.  Maybe the Lord wants me to just chill on the ship and read instead of doing excursions.  Not sure how good I'll be for extended walking.

I hope the toes are just cut and bruised and not broken.  Broken toes take so long to heal.  I'm sort of afraid to take my shoes and socks off and see what it actually looks like now, but I'll have to tonight - maybe sooner.  I have a meeting tonight and the shoes I have on aren't really the right ones to wear, but they may be the ones I wear for weeks now.  They are those tennis shoes that look like you left them untied, and they have a nice wide toebox.  Plus they are flat.  Heels seem like they would be painful with the bending of the toes.

Never did get to actually stand on the scale to see where I'm at.  My guess is maybe up slightly from Sunday.  I'll do my official weigh-in on Sunday before the cruise and then I get home on the following Sunday and will probably weigh on Monday morning to see how much damage I did.

Like you, Vicki, not a lot of parties and dinners to navigate which saves some temptation.  I've got Thanksgiving weekend blocked to do all my baking to mail things out to people.  I hope to bake and pack and mail all in that 4-5 days so that I don't have stuff sitting around to tempt me.  Some of the stuff is for friends though and that stuff won't get delivered until mid-December in most cases.

If we stay focused - success will come!

I do not understand... for days the scale said 238.8. I allowed myself a treat yesterday - a turtle sundae at Freddy's! (I did get the mini size, but it is not what I would call mini!) I was sure the scale would be up this morning, and was just hoping it would be under 240.

It was 236.8. Guess that was delayed reaction from all my steps?

Today I walked part way over to the basketball game (a mile) I rode the bus part way because it was raining fairly hard. I walked all the way back because I had started before I realized that the weather forecast was wrong and the light rain wasn't going to end, but get harder. It was about 30 degrees colder than my way there too, and I don't have boots, so my feet got very wet. Oh, well, steps, right? I now have almost 7000 steps, but they aren't showing on my fitbit app, even though that is supposed to sync with the iPhone health app. (I forgot to put the Fitbit back on after my shower.)

Nicole isn't anywhere near me, but I feel for those impacted. 

Lisa, I am so sorry you injured your toes! I hope they feel better very soon!

I don't have many parties and things to worry about. But the cold weather means that I need to be sure I have a back up plan for exercise. I haven't put together that elliptical yet, but my other options are to walk in the mall or swim at the public pool. I'm not paying for any gym!