Bea Amaya

Although it's still a little early, I wanted to go ahead and get things set up for a new challenge...the Christmas - New Year Challenge! 1. Be sure and log in here on Wednesday, November 27, post your start weight and your goal weight for the challenge. 2. When setting your goal, keep in mind that challenge is 5 weeks long. 3. Weigh in every Wednesday and post your updates here. 4. Watch the data at http://sdrv.ms/1cGHwsS to see our progress as individuals and as a team. GOOD LUCK! Old challenges - Halloween: http://sdrv.ms/19Qmc3j Old challenges - Thanksgiving: http://sdrv.ms/1c1AT8J

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

Awesome! And I have to say that after looking at your stats, yours IS a hard one to set a good goal for. You are losing at an incredible (incredibly fast!) rate right now, but that's all good as it will probably slow down soon enough. Again, congrats for an AWESOME showing in this challenge!

Big Congrats on making your goal weight! See you in the next challenge!

Congrats for making your goal, Julia, and welcome to the Valentine's Challenge!

I set a reminder on my calendar :-) Good luck I'm going to try something new and send out a reminder on THURSDAYS to post your results on FRIDAYS. This will be our first time to try it, so we'll see if/how/how well it works out.

Nope...I did not make my challenge goal. Yes...I am still upbeat about it all and ready for the next challenge! My goal was 215 and I weighed in this morning at 215.4. Fearing I was going to miss my goal by POUNDS (after a really tough week of ignoring all of my well earned healthy routines!) I am THRILLED to have only missed it by OUNCES instead. Yippee! Happy New Year, everyone!

Congrats on blowing this challenge out of the water! Awesome progress!

If you go to the very first posting in this thread you should see a link to the spreadsheet. Congrats on getting so close to goal, by the way. Like me, you just missed by OUNCES. Way to go!

It's set up to start on FRIDAY, January 3.

Awesome! Way to go...especially at this time of year! Nicely done!

Congrats, Bombs! That is so wonderful for you! I'm hoping to join you in Onederland around Valentine's Day. But today is obviously YOUR DAY, so ENJOY!

Sure, Stacy...that will be fine with us. Thanks for joining in on the fun!

Big congrats on this AWESOME achievement! Hope to be there myself by Valentine's Day!

Dang! Overdid it this week and now won't make my New Year's goal. However, when I took a look at Christmas photos from this year as compared to last I realize I've made significant positive changes in my life. So...I'm back on board now and looking forward to the next challenge...the one that will (hopefully!) take me into Onderland! Happy New Year to all!!!

Oooh...sounds like fun. Have a GREAT time!