I’ve moved back into weight-loss mode full-time (it will be a glorious day when I don’t have to devote so much time to this anymore!) and I’m gearing up to start That Weight Loss Challenge 4. Last year I started it around my birthday and so I figured I’d start another one around the 15th of April again. We’ll have the Facebook group (I just removed everyone from the existing one so we can start fresh and try to limit the group to active members), and we’ll use DietBet for the prizes (I’ll explain more later), and I’ll offer up a Jenna Cole session once again. It’s going to be awesome. And I’m not going to get pregnant and drop out halfway through this time .

For the past two weeks I’ve been using an app called The Eatery to track what I eat. It’s like someone took my food blog idea, and gamified/social-networkified it!

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The idea is really simple. Take a picture of what you eat, and rate it on a scale of 1-100. 1 is fat, and 100 is fit. Then your food will be shown to other people using the app and they will say where they think it is on the scale of fit to fat. Then the app takes all of your data and creates a variety of charts/graphs to show you how you’re doing over time.

The gamification aspect has been really effective for me, as I constantly find myself thinking “Do I really want to eat this? If I do, I have to take a picture and show Eatery and then my score is going to go down.”

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The company, Massive Health, has been acquired by Jawbone and I’m not sure that they’re going to keep the app going indefinitely. That’s fine with me though, as it’s doing what I need to do right now. And if they integrate the app into the Jawbone UP I’d probably consider buying one just so I can keep using it! That’s how much I love this app!

I’m writing this post in part because I hope that Jawbone will see it and think about maintaining the app (fix the ability to connect to Facebook friends please!) but also because I’m wondering if anyone else is using it, or would like to start using it? I think it would be fun to compare our weekly scores and see if we can beat each other.

It’s taken me a long time to get these pictures put together, in part because the process is a bit of a pain. Now I’m kind of glad it took so long because I think it’s really motivating to see these pictures when we are two month into the progress and losing steam (I’m not the only one going through that right?)

ALL of these ladies are superstars and I hope you will take the time so leave some encouraging comments. 

Lydia

4.26%

Amy

6%

Laura

7.87%

Joy

10.05%

Paula

13.36%

Alicia

20.49%

 Ali

21.87%

Leah B

26.29%

Brandy

Start: 198.5

End: 140.8

57.7lb lost, 29.07%

The best part about seeing these pictures? I think the results from TWLC3 are going to be EVEN BETTER.

I’ve started my revised Once playlist as I write this post, same songs I’ve listened to a hundred times before, but I find they hold a slightly different meaning now that I’ve seen the Broadway musical. I saw the musical with a friend of mine  in New York this weekend! Some friends graciously hosted me for a weekend of photography, blisters (all that walking!), and food.

Oh the food! I worked really hard to eat my veggies (and pretty much nothing but veggies) for the days leading up to the trip, because I had plans to make my social time on Friday and Saturday all about delicious culinary adventures. I met an e-friend on Friday afternoon, another on Friday evening, another on Saturday morning, and the same friend from Friday night on Saturday afternoon along with another mutual friend we have. It was AWESOME. We ate at Doughnut Plant, Caracas, Eataly, Levain’s, and Sarabeth’s, all which I highly recommend if you are planning a trip to NYC.

Now that I’m back, I’m stuffed and bloated and thinking about what I would do differently. I would definitely eat at all of those places still, but I think if I could have a do-over, I would really focus on eating less at each location. I’m forever going to be fighting a tendency to binge because of the mindset that I get into which has a little voice screaming into my ear “YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO GET THIS EVER AGAIN!!!” That little voice is a liar, and I know that, but I’ve got to keep working to remember that in the moment.

One of the highlights of my trip was a 4-mile run through Central Park on Saturday morning. I was doing it on 5.5 hours of sleep and came so close to rolling over and going back to sleep for an hour. How often do you get to run next to a castle though? Central Park is magic.

Best nutrition choice of the last week: Read more →

Welcome to TWLC3 everyone! You can still join us by signing up here. Feeling hesitant? Maybe the knowledge that the winner is going to get $500* will help push you forward. Join us!

I already mentioned that I’m setting up a little challenge for myself. If I do the following things, perfectly, I get to train with my best friend at the gym she works at in Provo this summer. If I don’t do them, the training is not an option. I feel confident that I can do all of these things.

1. Run 3x/week
Shouldn’t be hard to do with my half-marathon training.

2. Strength or cross-train 2x /week
I’m going to try out P90X (a friend loaned me a DVD to try it out), and I’ll also keep using Ripped in 30 as well.

3. Three carb free days/week
My own personal definition of this is a day where I have no rice, no bread, no tortillas, no quinoa. Minimal lentils and beans. What I really want to get out of this is three days where I eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, and a little dairy to keep me sane (maybe some meat if I happen to have some, and I’m also allowed to eat these vegan veggie patties from Costco that I keep in the freezer, even if it does have some sort of flour in it).

4. Dessert 1x/week
Once a month is too restrictive. But I am going to start turning down dessert, because dessert is always there. It’s always coming at me, and I’ve got to remember that turning down this cupcake doesn’t mean I never get to have a cupcake ever again.

5. Unlimited fruits and vegetables
Heavy emphasis on the vegetables of course.

6. Weigh all cheese
Doing low-carb and low-meat makes me love dairy like I never have before. It provides the satisfaction I need to stay happy (I don’t know how raw food vegans do it) and is a quick snack to grab when I”m preparing my vegetables. Therein lies the problem, I snack and fill up on it and feel sick! So I’m going to give this “weighing” idea a try to see if it helps me cut back.

7. Zero white flour
Excluding dessert once a week. If I want a croissant made with white flour I guess that will be my once-a-week dessert treat.

What are your goals for TWLC3? Writing them down is necessary, but sharing them publicly is even better. You can see my goals from TWLC2 here. I failed pretty badly, and my new goals reflect that, but what matters most is tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Yesterday can’t be changed.

We’re going to do this!

*Conditional on everyone who signed up sending in their payments when I ask for them within the next two weeks.

This Fall, I want to hit my goal weight. Won’t you join me in That Weight Loss Challenge 3? In two years I’ve gone from what you see on the left, to what you see on the right.

What I’m shooting for is a little bit closer to this. (Albeit a decade older with several more stretch marks, of course.)

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