Bea Amaya

Wow! What a start! It looks like that, as a group, this bunch has DEFINITELY recovered from the holiday indulgences and are clearly back on track again. Out of the 36 reporting in so far this week, thanks to some "overachievers" in our group (LOL!), our group AVERAGE so far is a WHOPPING 4.0 lbs! Awesome start, Sweethearts! Looks like many in the group have an EXCELLENT shot at making goal!

Congrats on your move from obese to overweight! That's simply AWESOME!

Thanks for the suggestion, but, as they say, "great minds think alike". I contacted Alex this morning and explained the situation. He suggested we use the functionality of a "group" to handle this kind of discussion. It was a good suggestion, but I've joined "groups" before and have actually had trouble keeping up with their discussions. I think we'll just drop the "reminder" idea and try to keep this thread interesting enough to keep us all coming back. There have been some really interesting posts lately, I think. They go beyond the weigh-in submissions and have me thinking about other, related topics. This is DEFINITELY my kind of discussion thread. You guys are all AWESOME! (Fingers crossed for a good showing on the scale in the morning!) P.S. If anyone is interested in thinking about setting up a "group" for us, maybe something that will involve future challenges as well, I wouldn't have an objection to you giving us a review here and letting us consider it. I just didn't want to try and figure it all out.

I was a little curious about your question so I went by and took a look at my own stats. I weigh myself every day, so I have a pretty good database even though I'm just over 5 months out. Here's what I found: the highest amount I lost over a 6-week period was 18.2 lbs (weeks 6-11) the lowest amount I lost was 12.6 lbs (weeks 16-21) my average per week loss over the entire 5 month period was 2.7 lbs in general, my average losses have slowed slightly over time average losses for the last 6 weeks are 2.2 lbs So, if we were analyzing my own body's performance, the best estimate for my loss in 6 weeks (remember, there are only 5 weeks left) would be 13.2 lbs. When I set my own goal, I went for just a little stretch and set mine at 14.4 lbs mostly because I'd really LOVE to be in the 100s by the end of this challenge! I admit that I think I'm a bit of a slow loser, but I thought it might help to share how I came up with my own goal. Good luck to you!

That's GREAT! Way to go!

STRUGGLES with this forum! Sheesh! Okay...so I tried to send out a reminder message to everyone on the Valentine's Day Challenge list. It's no easy thing to do in this website as each name must be typed in individually (no copy-and-paste) as there are a LOT of repeated names (now that the forums have been combined) and there is no way the program will choose the "right" one from the list (I've experimented) so I have to type in each name, then CLICK on the one I think is the right one. So...I finally get all 120 names typed in, with the proper ones chosen from the options list, and hit the SEND button. ERROR: "You cannot enter more than 100 names!" Next...I tried deleting half the names from the list and resending. No joy. I was still getting ERROR: "You cannot enter more than 100 names!" Next...I started over and entered a little over HALF the names, starting with 2013sleevegirl and ending with kltklass. There are two options when sending to a group. One is for sending out messages as if they were one-to-one and the other is sending a one-to-many. Last time I selected the second but didn't like the way it worked as it seemed every response was copied to everyone. This time, I tried the one-to-one choice. Yippee! It worked (I think). Great! So now I get ready to add in the second half of our group and send a message but guess what...I can't! Now I get an error message that says "You have sent the maximum number of private messages per day that the administrator allows." So...my apologies for HALF of you getting reminders and HALF of you not! I may have to give up on this "reminder" thing. Although it makes good sense, it just seems too problematic to try again.

I can't believe it! 145! : Whoopsie! That's AWESOME! CONGRATS!

Evolving is right...we'll be happy to add you. Just give us your current weight, your goal weight for Feb 14, and start posting your weights every Friday (or whatever works for you...we're really laid back here!) Welcome to the Challenge! That's an awesome goal, I think. Crossing over into the 200s will definitely be a big milestone for you and we're all here to help support you in your quest. Welcome to the Challenge, and good luck!

Evolving is right...we'll be happy to add you. Just give us your current weight, your goal weight for Feb 14, and start posting your weights every Friday (or whatever works for you...we're really laid back here!) Welcome to the Challenge!

AWESOME progress! And you really look great! Congrats on being so very close to goal, especially after only 5 months!

Absolutely! Post your stats and I'll add you to the challenge.

Love the dress, love the look, and LOVE that pose...I think it's awesome that some of us are finding we have waists now! Yours is certainly looking good. Congrats on your progress!

You're definitely welcome to join us. Post your start weight and goal weight and I'll update your stats. Welcome!

Looks like we're off to a good start today. We've had 45 report in so far (out of 92 that asked to be included) and find we're all over the place on the measures...a good thing, in my opinion! We've got a handful of pre-surgeries, a whole LOT of folks that are hoping to cross a major hurdle in this challenge (like me...hoping to move into Onederland!), some at the beginning of their journey, some almost to their goal weights, and a whole lot of us somewhere in the middle. I love it that when a question is asked in these challenges someone is always willing to jump in with an answer, opinion, or comment. Please keep that up, even if the poster addresses me in the question, as it helps us all out to have that kind of participation. I am SO EXCITED about this challenge and have high hopes of staying on task and meeting my goals. I hope you are all feeling that too! Good luck, everyone!

Not too late at all. Welcome to the challenge!

You look AWESOME! Congrats on your progress! Also, thanks so much for sharing your photo and stats. I am about your height but weighed 12 lbs more than you at the start. I am REALLY bottom-heavy and started with a lot of excess fat from my upper stomach all the way down to my feet. Looking at your photos makes me think there is just a little chance that I could get rid of some of this...I guess I've always been worried that I would lose everywhere EXCEPT where I need it most. Your photos show that it's possible to lose it EVERYWHERE it needs to go. Thanks. Anyway, you look FABULOUS and should be proud of your achievements! Again, big congrats on your progress!

Yes, that's right...weigh-in for this challenge will be on Fridays. But...we're not that formal, or strict, on this stuff. If you have a need to report in a day early, or 2 days late, we'd rather you participate than not and will definitely take your stats. For consistency, and so our last reporting in will be ON Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14, Friday is our regular reporting day. Can't wait to get going on this one!

Beating your goal by 1 lbs? Priceless!

Another Onederlander! Fantastic! Congrats on making your goal!

So sorry you're feeling a bit down at the beginning of the new year. I don't have much more experience than you as my surgery was on July 30. The last week-and-a-half was a little rough on me as I was GAINING for the first time since my journey started. I didn't try to make any adjustments until after our family holiday as I knew it would only make me miserable. Thankfully, now that I'm on the other side of it all, I'm doing a lot better. I did have to adjust a bit, not because I was overeating at meals or overindulging in sweets, but rather because I fell back into that "grazing" habit so easily. After 5 months, I thought that surely those old habits were long gone. Um...WRONG. My advice is to wait it out a bit longer as I'm sure you'll pass this plateau soon. If (like me) you are not good at the waiting game, go ahead and try something different. I kept my calorie intake about the same but went 3 days on Soups, just to try something different. I also bought one of those $25 little trampolines and am running in place on it a couple of times a day. I have absolutely no idea whether those two little modifications had any impact; I only know that it made me FEEL better to make an active adjustment and that today I am at my all-time low and moving forward once again. As far as the hair loss goes, I have to say that mine has only recently gotten worse. The good news (for me) is that I have a LOT of hair and have no real fears of bald spots. I guess I'm lucky in that case. I did get my hair cut much shorter, however, not because it makes any difference in my hair loss, but rather because it makes the strands of hair that I find EVERYWHERE much shorter and easier to deal with. As a side note, this is the first time in my LIFE that I feel comfortable with a hair length that is not designed to mask my large neck and multiple chins. Anyway, I keep reading that the hair loss phase can be longer than wished for, but EVERYONE says that it does come to an end. I guess I'm just going to hold on to that thought. Hang in there, sweetie! I know that you'll begin to see changes again soon. Stay on plan, keep your chin up, and be thrilled with your progress. We're all pulling for you!

I would be giggling too! How nice to start off the year right on the border of Onederland! Congrats on a fantastic challenge experience!

That's AWESOME, Sophie! And I love how close the snowman is getting to the tree on your ticker. He's obviously making a dash for the finish line now. "Whoo hoo" is right!

Ok, I want to be in the Valentines Day challenge. Ive been really off track during Christmas and New Years so it's time for me to get back to life. Where do I go to post my weight and goal? I posted a note with links a couple of posts ago. I hope this will answer your question.

So sorry, Susan. I am one of those that seems to have a "need" to do the daily weigh-ins myself (no specific reason, just my personality type I think). I will be traveling overseas for a week at the end of January and am already thinking ahead about how I will miss that morning time of review and retrospection--you know...the time when I reconcile what I see on the scale with what I've been doing for the past few days--for the entire time I am gone. I'm thinking BUMMED is probably going to sum it up for me as well! Congrats on your progress anyway and look forward to seeing you in the next challenge!

Just a quick review about Challenge data: To find the links to the online tracking spreadsheet, go to the very first message in the current topic. To do this, look at the top or bottom left of the messages pane and find the place where the page numbers are shown. Clicking on the left-pointing double chevron (<<) will take you to the very beginning. For a quick review, however, here are a couple of links for you. (Note: Sometimes links here don't work as they should, but we're going to give it a shot!)New Year's Challenge spreadsheet: http://sdrv.ms/1cGHwsS Valentine's Challenge spreadsheet: http://sdrv.ms/JJFPls Valentine's Challenge topic: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/291848-valentines-challenge/ Hope this helps! Bea