Although it's still a little early, I wanted to go ahead and get things set up for a new challenge...the

Valentine's Day Challenge!



1. Be sure and log in here on Friday, January 3, 2014 to post your start weight and your goal weight for the challenge.
2. When setting your goal, keep in mind that challenge is 6 weeks long.
3. Weigh in every Friday and post your updates here.
4. Watch the data at http://sdrv.ms/JJFPls to see our progress as individuals and as a team.

GOOD LUCK!

Old challenges

- Halloween: http://sdrv.ms/19Qmc3j

- Thanksgiving: http://sdrv.ms/1c1AT8J

- Christmas/New Year's: http://sdrv.ms/1956TlT

Edited January 1, 201412 yr by Bea Amaya

Thanks, Bea. My starting weight as of yesterday morning is 316.8 I know it seems like a lot, but I'm just getting back on track so I'm going to set a goal of 299 by 02/14. We'll see next week if I need to readjust or not. Thanks!

I haven't been on the boards in quite some time & someone let me know about this challenge today. I'm really struggling to get back on track & I think this would help. Any chance that I can still get in? I know that I'm getting a bit of a late start.

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!

Reporting for duty!

CW 148

Goal 142

I can't believe it! 145!

:

Whoopsie!

That's AWESOME! CONGRATS!

I messed up - didn't notice we were moving to Friday.

Starting At 165

Goal for Feb 14- 160

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.

Edited January 9, 201412 yr by Bea Amaya

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.

Thanks for what you do!

Half way to my goal! My weight is 176 today. *happy dance*

Half way to my goal! My weight is 176 today. *happy dance*

That's GREAT! Way to go!

Hello. I joined the challenge as well last week. I see a lot of people wanting to lose 20lbs by Valentine's day, is that possible? My surgery day was March 13, 2013 and I'm down 53 lbs. I have been stuck for a month. I would love to be down 20 by Vday. Help.

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!

Edited January 9, 201412 yr by Bea Amaya

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.

Bea, you do so much already and are giving so much of your personal time to do these challenges you shouldn't have to spend even more time reminding us to report in. Each of us should have enough personal responsibility to weigh in and report without you having to remind us. If that is too much for us then thats on us. Thanks again Bea for all you do.

Hello. I joined the challenge as well last week. I see a lot of people wanting to lose 20lbs by Valentine's day, is that possible? My surgery day was March 13, 2013 and I'm down 53 lbs. I have been stuck for a month. I would love to be down 20 by Vday. Help.

I've been tracking my loss by the week. This challenge inspired me to go back and figure it out based on myfitnesspal weigh ins.

I've gotten more focused in the last few weeks..since Christmas actually. I've been losing 3-4 per week since focusing. I do low carb too. In all, I have total of 141 to lose so I wanted to maximize the honeymoon phase to the best of my ability.

Hope this helps a little. I'm now 11weeks and have lost 65 in all since surgery.

Edited January 9, 201412 yr by gomekast

Bea, you do so much already and are giving so much of your personal time to do these challenges you shouldn't have to spend even more time reminding us to report in. Each of us should have enough personal responsibility to weigh in and report without you having to remind us. If that is too much for us then thats on us. Thanks again Bea for all you do.

Agree

Bea: I too think you don't need to send all of us a reminder. But maybe you should send the administrator a message about the difficulties you encountered.

Bea: I too think you don't need to send all of us a reminder. But maybe you should send the administrator a message about the difficulties you encountered.

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.

Edited January 10, 201412 yr by Bea Amaya

Bea, you do so much already and are giving so much of your personal time to do these challenges you shouldn't have to spend even more time reminding us to report in. Each of us should have enough personal responsibility to weigh in and report without you having to remind us. If that is too much for us then thats on us. Thanks again Bea for all you do.

I totally agree.. I know your heart is in the right place and I totally appreciate that but it is a challenge after all and the only way to be successful at any challenge is to at least show up. If people can't remember to show up, then, I'm sorry but it's just not that important to them.