How did you fare over the holidays and what are your goals for 2016? (veggies, weight loss)

[Eazine]

Holidays are over and its that time of year where many of us embark on new weight loss/ fitness goals. If you've already been on a journey in 2015, how did you fare over the holidays? Any new goals for 2016?

Those just starting out, what are your goals and plans for success?

I'll start. Over the holidays our family was traveling and I ended up slipping into some bad eating habits. When I came home after Christmas I was delighted to find I only gained 1lb. Unfortunately, instead of counting my lucky stars and getting back on track, I continued to overeat and indulge. Today I decided to clean up my act and get back to eating right and excercising. I don't want to gain the 40lbs I lost back! I haven't weighed myself yet but I imagine I'll be up 4lbs overall.

My goals for this year is to lose 15lbs and exchange it for 7-10lbs of muscle. What's yours?

[aneye4detail]

I maintained for the holidays.


My goals for 2016 are to lose at least 10 pounds, and to run one mile, more than once.


Also, to eat cleaner and cleaner, and stop running to sweets.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

My goal this year is to lose the 60 lbs that I've gained back. I'm still down 120 lbs from my absolute heaviest, but I need to get back on track.

I didn't do well over the holidays...I'm a stress eater and my parents are one of my big triggers. My mother has been stressing me out to the point where I get migraines that last three days and affect the vision in my left eye so I can't judge distance at all, so I've been spending a lot of time laying down in a dark room or vomiting every time I move. You'd think that would be good for weight loss, but it's not.

[Jo48]

We drive up from Florida to NY for the Holidays to be with our kids. It is next to impossible to eat right on interstate highways in all those hours it takes on that drive.

While I do a lot of cooking and baking for Christmas, I generally do not eat a lot being in a house and not on the road. My husband, who is the one who needs to diet, cannot resist. He gets some comments from me over it but he knows once we get home, it is BACK to the low calorie meals which I will be cooking (and LIKE) during the year. I weigh 100 lbs. When I want to buy cookies and cake, I hide them and eat it when my husband isn't around. He buys raw veggies and fruit to snack on when we are home. So I figure once a year, let him enjoy all the high calorie Holiday food.

[Girl]

Goals:

• Lose 50+ pounds by December 31
• Mini-goal: lose 10 pounds by mid-February
• Mini-goal: lose another 20 pounds by my birthday in the summer
• Mini-goal: lose another 5 pounds before our trip to see family in NYC
• Mini-goal: lose another 10 pounds before 24-hour run
• Mini-goal: lose last 10 pounds before Christmas
• Start walking program to the point where I can participate in a 24-hour run in the fall and complete at least a marathon distance.

In 2013 I lost 40 pounds in about 6 months via diet and exercise, but then I had surgery in 2014 which wiped me out and had complications, and the result was that I sat around in pain, bored, and gained all the weight back. In 2015 I was fully recovered, but had no desire to try all over again. Suffered a bit with depression (an ongoing issue for me for 15-16 years) as a result. Gained another 10 pounds.

So now it's 2016 and I've decided that I need to tackle this straight on, and one small step at a time.

I'm doing weekly weighins, monthly progress photos, and literally taking it one day, one MEAL at a time. Foodwise I'm back to having salads for lunch every day, and going to bed early to avoid the temptation to snack late at night. But I'm not cutting out any foods, per se - just reducing quantities. This worked for me in 2013 just fine, so I'm sticking with it in 2016.

I started my walking regimen on Sunday, with a plan to walk 5x a week, starting with at least 3 miles each time. My hope is that by the end of January I'll be back up to 5 miles per walk, which was what I was doing pre-surgery. Then in February I'll add a mile, and so on, until June - at which time I'll be doing 8 miles per walk (at 4-mph), 5x a week, for a total of 40 miles per week. If I maintain that rate throughout the summer and early fall, then I should have no problem walking 26 miles in one 24-hour period in the fall.

The last thing is that I'm NOT telling my husband that I'm dieting. Over the years whenever I've made a comment about trying to lose weight, he suddenly decides to start baking every weekend, or purchasing cookies in bulk, or buying me "treats" like 1-pound bags of M&Ms. I don't know why he does it - he's either testing me or sabotaging me. Either way, if I don't say anything, but just quietly reduce how much I eat (rather than cutting anything out), he'll never know and won't mess me up! *lol*

[Lilypad1126]

I managed to maintain over the holidays. I was pretty active, so that helped, even though we traveled and I didn't eat as good as I usually do. I've really upped my veggie intake this week, and am making a concerted effort to eat more veggies on a more regular basis. That's really the biggest downfall of my diet, I think.

I plan to continue working out regularly through the January and February, and by mid to late March I'll start running/race training again. It's just too cold and too dark for me to be motivated for that right now.

[Eazine]

Great goals and updates everyone.

Congrats on maintaining and adding more veggies Lilypad. I'm on a big squash and mushroom kick, mostly because they can be eaten warm and in this cold weather that's a treat! Plus the calories are low and the nutrients are high - a win, win, unless you hate those foods

@ Girl- gah it would be hard to have a hubby that does that, but you've got a great plan. Maybe he's worried about his own weight?

@ Hedgehog_Mom - yep, stress eater here too. I completely understand. I wish I had formed a stress exercising habit instead, but unfortunately I think it might be too late to develop that . Great job on your initial weight loss and keeping 60lbs off. It's so easy for it to creep back on!

@aneyefordetail - great goals and congrats on maintaining with all the holiday temptations! Those darn sweets are everywhere!

So earlier today I finally had the courage to check the scale. I'm officially only up 2.5 lbs BUT since I didn't workout at all besides an occasional walk, I believe I lost muscle for sure. The last couple of days have been a little rougher than I expected. By over eating I started getting useto that overly "stuffed" feeling as signifying being satiated. I know that's not the case. So now I'm slowly adjusting to the feeling of "having enough" but not being full/stuffed. Hard to explain.

On a lighter note, I was gifted a Fitbit Zip which has added a bit more excitement to my efforts.