Rhyming away our disappointments...

We are moving on to WEEK 4 of this NEW YOU NEW YEAR GAME ON.  For me, Chapter 6 in my personal Game On book.  I do have what it takes, but at times, it does take everything I got...laughing, helps, and I love to laugh.  Thankfully, so does this group...

This group of 57 different folks, are different in many, many respects.  The common goal of trying to be healthier and lose weight makes us all friends, of a sort.  We cheer, jeer and laugh at each other.  We just finished WEEK 3 of this current game.  Week 3 has been hard for me every time I have played Game On!  Some folks get cranky with lots of excuses...some get mad that they are doing EVERYTHING right and the scale won't behave...some are pissy because they got their alcohol taken away during Week 2, and the Ravens are playing in the playoffs...well, we all know what happened with that ...

So how does one make the results day fun??  Many of us didn't make our 1% goals in Week 3.  That's okay.  It is a process.  The first person to report that he didn't make weight said this:

B.H.:

"This week I gave it my all
But I still wasn't enough to beat the week 3 weight stall.
On to the next one, lets go week 4!"


BRILLIANT, I thought, that is going to make today fun...no cranky excuses, whiny anything...anyone who didn't make weight should post a short poem...oh, and did they make us laugh!!

Mine:
So my goal was just 1 percent, I was determined to only rent,
This week shows no loss again, Who thought I would want to be like a RAVEN??

So, not trying to beat a dead bird/horse/whatever...I am sad they lost too, but maybe next year...

I tried to copy and paste all of the ones folks put up, but FB doesn't always allow you to copy and paste all whilly nilly-like...so here's a sampling of losers who gained, yet laughed through it :).  LOVE THIS GAME!

J.H.:
That 1%, Dang it, I missed it,
Even though I drank all that water and pissed it...

  


L.G.:
Losing the 1% seemed so shady. Thinking like Cindy S blame it on Brady!
  
 L.M.


Missed it by 0.3
Woe is me
But cute black pants with tags
Now fit my butt with sags
So happy I will be!


 L.G.
I said to my daughter, I drink all this water and watch every crumb that I eat, yet still the scale I can't beat!

C.S.

I worked out twice a day
How can this tiny weight loss be?
Eating all the right foods…

…‘tis the curse of week 3


V.U.

Oh the Bangles,we are doing great,
I'm so sorry I didn't make weight!
Pms has hit me bad
and now I'm feling very sad!!

The last sampling is from a gamer who has played a few times before and has had the weight STALL for this entire game...she was doing her best NOT to get discouraged, but having a rough time with it...and she MADE her weight anyway...it all came off on the last 2 days!  Your body is an amazing thing...and your weight will come off when it is ready to...just keep on doing things right.  She didn't have to do her poem, but she wanted to because it was fun :)  LOVE HER.

M.H.


It wasn't week 3 that made me crazy,
It's the see saw scale that makes my mind hazy,
When you know indeed that you aren't being lazy,
But I must keep saying.."I won't let it phase me"!


"

T minus 8 and counting...

So, here we are...8 days until the end of this game.  You can see it in our facebook posts...or some lack of posts.  It is not as much fun as 21 days ago.  Not because it is not fun to lose weight, but because this is the teetering point.

At 21 days, they (whoever "they" are) say that a habit is formed.  I disagree...I think it is more like 2 months or so for a serious good habit to be formed/bad habit to be given up.  But I don't have a "they" behind me...this is my opinion.

I have a friend on the game who is truly eating the same thing everyday, and she is totally fine with that.  However, I think she was doing that before she started playing the game...she just wasn't eating all of the right foods..    Once she bought into how the game worked, she jumped on board.  She loses a pound a week.  She won't win a "game" but she's won a bigger game with herself.  She is not saying "T minus 8 and counting." She is in this for the long haul.   She takes her days off well...enjoys them and the food she is eating, and moves on.  She doesn't have regrets because she has jumped on this bandwagon with two feet, and she is in it for good. 

This same friend doesn't complain when things are not working the way they do with everyone else.  Although she envied my 5.9 pound loss for the first week of this game, I envied more that she didn't GAIN weight the week after Christmas when we were off the Holiday Game and waiting for this game to start.  She didn't gain because her good new habits are that--she has gained a habit, and is continuously losing weight...slowly, but the formula works...she plays the game EXACTLY as it is supposed to be played. 

So to my friend, and she knows who she is, I say cheers...she is not a person who puts herself all over the place, but she is one of my heroes in this journey.  She has found what works, and thankfully, it works for both of us...And when those who don't want to stay on the bandwagon, jump off, I know she will be right alongside with me...riding slowly, with all of our new habits, weighing less, feeling great, and in a better, healthier place.

Why the GAME works....

The food: yes, very clear, eat this, not that...The pure foods...not organic, not RAW, not just fresh off the farm, but most foods, at least when you start cooking, that are as basic as they come...
The sleep: yes, study, after study, after study, after study shows that the road to weight loss is paved in Zzzz's.  Get 7 hours, at least, you will LOVE it once you start it.  And how wonderful to have something other than yourself force you to go to bed.
The exercise: I was going through a website with former Biggest Loser contestants.  I use to watch this show religiously, but knew that these folks had to move away from home, exercise 8 hours a day and get yelled at to lose their weight...and MOST have gained some, if not all, back...I am not moving away from my family, don't have time or want to exercise 8 hours a day and NEVER want to do a weight loss program so fast that the moment I leave it, I gain 50 pounds back...NEVER.  Exercise on Game ON, minimum of 20 mins...that is NOT asking for much!
The water: Never have I seen a game where water was such a controversial subject.  I played this game 3 times, then had bladder surgery because I was NOT going to give up the amount of water I was taking in (truth be told, needed the surgery for 10 years, but after starting the game, realized that with my water increase, the original problem was 10 times worse...fixed it, now, no problem :)...and yes, I still pee all the time too...but I get where I am going first :))
The habits: Giving up a bad/gaining a new.  This game, I gave up complacency in regards to a wedding cookbook I am making for my cousin...who was married last May...yikes.  I now have 24 recipes typed and ready to laminate....yay for me...and my embarrassed self who still has not sent a present.  I have a year, right?
And my good habit: Sun Salutations every day...will admit to not loving it, but I do think the stretching and slow breathing is really, really good for me...
Communications:
THIS is why the GAME works.  Yes, you can play the game, do all of the above, and still succeed...but what you get from the GROUP communication, particularly as a woman, is leaps and bounds anything else you get, at least in my opinion, from this game.  The Game On! book stresses playful picking at each other.  We are not so good at that because we ALL want each other to succeed.  Our men in our game don't participate very much on our message boards, but they are getting what they need...perhaps the accountability or some of the things above.
But for the women, the checking in, sometimes several times a day, keeps us focused, in touch and from reaching to that dark chocolate, delicious Breadery pumpkin bread which will sit in my kitchen until my day off tomorrow.



Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.

- Virginia Burden

Quitting....and losing....

There may be someone who reads this who may have been playing our game who has quit...if you are, I am so sorry you left...and so sorry I didn't get to talk to you about it...because this isn't quitting a game..it is quitting you.

I received an email early in the week (Monday, I think) from a player who I have played with and watched WIN before...She is days from her 40th birthday, 3 great kids, great husband, wonderful support network.  She heard about the game from me on July 4th at the pool, and was instantly hooked...She is THE most organized person I know, and the structure, plus me RAVING about the plan, hooked her, and I joined her in HER game for my second game.

This person, who knows the game so well, hit a ROCKY point...  I bet anyone who is a parent has hit this wall...one kid with a fever, one throwing up, the entire extended family sick (and were at your house two days before)...the black clouds have rolled over your house, and it was supposed to a be a short, easy week.  AND this mom has to think about sleep (ha, ain't happening!), water (coughing, coughing, and we know where that goes!), taking care of kids, oh, 5 meals a day and exercise, RIGHT...done! 

DONE??  I received 2 emails reading her desperation and her readiness to throw in the towel...as soon as I drop off my youngest at school, we are on the phone.  She starts in on how bad things are.  She starts in on how she should just stop playing.  She starts in on this is NUTS...and I interrupt.

I am not ALL-KNOWING, ALL-POWERFUL, or ALL-COMPLIANT....I am sure I don't have the record for playing this game...but I know that I have not played all 6 games with extreme passion or conviction, but I have still played because it STILL worked.

One line that the author wrote that I will never forget is something like this (paraphrasing) 'Even if you play this game at 60%, you are going to be healthier, feel better and be taking better care of yourself by doing so.'  This gamer was having an all out CRAPPY start of her week.  I don't blame her AT ALL for wanting to throw in the towel...but her family was not chronically ill...this was a family bug, that God-willing, would get be done in 3-5 DAYS...all of them!!  And then, what??

I told this gamer that it was the wrong message to quit.  That some score was better than no score.  And that the reason this game works is because of your teammates and your competition.  Yes, our cash pot right now would be nice in all of our pockets...realistically, it would be best in the pockets of our sweet, very cute youngest group who are all still in college or just graduated with no real money to their names....but in the end, we are all winning because we are all LOSING....

In regards to losing...we all did weigh in today.  The gamer above, not only made her goal weight, her team has shot to the top 3 teams...darn it...but yay...yay for her gummption to stick with it...

IF you are still reading, and frustrated by the lack of weight loss this week, please remember that this is a process...what many folks realize by week 2-4, is that there is truly no quick fix to having a weight problem.  BUT if you can find a program that will work for you, keep you accountable, have some fun doing it, and learn how to re-prioritize food, you may be able to stay on this plan long enough to NOT have a weight problem....

Emotional eating, eating with emotion, just eating....

In September of 2011, I vividly remember unwrapping a Snickers, laughing and stating, "Damn terrorists are making me eat this."  The fear of what could happen after 9/11 paralyzed me at times...I had 3 very young children and was fearful for their future and our families....living in DC and having a husband working in the government was enough for me to do anything I could to control what was going on....at that time, the only thing I could control was my food...and boy did I take it in...

Fast forward a few years, we had moved to another state in the mid-West, found friends with similar fitness goals, and joined Weight Watchers, again...pounds came off, but life was pretty grand there...small town, not too much pressure, stay at home mom, part-time fun little job.

Fast forward to another move...current state, going back to work...kids all in school...all of us under alot of pressure just because this is a faster pace of life than the mid-West...pounds, creeping back on...emotional eating full force again...

And now, today...the past 6 months...I have controlled my food in a way that emotional eating seems to be gone...Have I slipped up??  Sure...I have had days that were not my days off where I felt myself eating 8 Oreos at a time...and I texted each teammate to confess and ask for forgiveness and give myself the penance of 10 extra mins on the treadmill....but this has only happened once per game...Not 5 times a week...

This game doesn't give you the "Oh, I screwed up today, will start again tomorrow."  You can't...you are working with not just yourself, but your team...They just had a GREAT day, and you throw up your hands and say, tomorrow is another day??  If you screw up, and take in what you shouldn't, you lose points, disappoint you and your teammates, and move to the next meal...

But what everyone should work towards, is where I feel like I am today.  Food is not talking to me because it doesn't make me feel emotionally better when I take it in...it just sustains me.  I am in control because I can eat what I want on my day off, and feel BETTER to be back on plan the next day.  My body needs the good food.  My emotions don't need food...

Food sustains you, keeps you alive, and sometimes tastes really great.  Food doesn't make pain go away, solve problems or keep your emotions in check....  This game, if you keep playing, can get you to that point...sure, it is a game...it is a game with food, with friends, with support.   What you GAIN with this GAME is control....

FIRST WEEK, and we lost, a PERSON??

Pretty much, and a decent sized one at that...our 56 folks, playing the game, on my game 6, their game 1-5, and we lost a combined...drum roll....195 pounds!!  I know the Biggest Loser doesn't play with 56 people, but I am very impressed with all of us losing a combined 200 pounds....!!!

Yes, still many jokes about the water, and how much they are peeing...even to the point that we, those of us who have played alot (5+ games) if 100 ounces was too much...  We checked a website  (I googled "how much water should I drink a day?), and lo and behold, for me, the site stated "94 ounces."  I did this in my first game (because I felt I was drinking alot way back then), and it said "96 ounces."  And this was with two different weights entered because I am not almost 25 pounds lighter....So, go with it, friends, drink the water...in the end, if you pace yourself, slowly, you will receive the fabulous health benefits---beautiful skin, feeling BETTER, detoxifying your body, and losing weight...all great things!!

So, goodbye to the 195 pound person we lost...we made our carbon footprint smaller, we are all taking up less space, and we FEEL better!!  And our teams are supporting each other, even in this competition!!  So we all are winners...and losers :)

A Football Championship -- just about the football?

I have to admit, watching the Alabama Crimson Tide was PERFECTLY enjoyable tonight...and I did so with a GAME FRIENDLY snack of multi grain pita crisps, shredded low fat cheese and some pistachios...and ...water...

And I really enjoyed the game--and my team--will be PERFECTLY happy with me...and my teammate/husband did the same (except he had a GAME FRIENDLY smoothie of greek yogurt, frozen pineapples, peaches and mangos)...yummy...

ROLL TIDE--love the 14 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM!