Happy New Years everyone!

Woke up this morning and weighed myself. Somehow up almost 2 lbs from my weigh-in yesterday morning. Biology is crazy!

On Jan 1, 2023, I began my first transformer. I was 215 lbs. at the time. My goal was 180 lbs. On June 2, 2023, however, I had foot surgery. So I had to get down to 173 by June 1 in order to overcome the weight of the cast I would be wearing on the final weigh-in. I made it by the May weigh-in, and was able to hold steady through the final weigh-in on June 30!

But . . . here's the rest of the story.
I spent 6 weeks in a cast getting around on a knee scooter, and 6 more weeks in a walking boot. My back got screwed up and I was in excruciating pain for 3 months. I could barely walk, much less exercise.

After all that, I'm back at 200 lbs. starting this transformer. After some injections in my back, I have been released to begin workouts finally. I'm determined to get back to 180, and prayng that my back is fixed. Workouts #1 & 2 are in the books and I'm excited for this challenge to begin. Good luck everyone.

Weigh in, check. Drinking lots of water right now. Who else is getting up for an early morning run, get this year off on a good start? We got this!

What are you looking forward to eating MORE of over the next six months?

For me, it's legumes: A hearty bowl of white or pinto beans in the morning, a kidney-bean chili with cornbread for dinner, a loaded salad featuring butter beans for lunch, a heap of 50% brown rice and 50% lentils as a side dish, a serving of split pea soup on a cold evening, a black bean burger at a barbecue, stir-fried tofu with vegetables, refried beans alongside tacos, cucumber and carrots dipped in hummus... There's no end to the possible preparations.

For weight loss, they couldn't be more perfect. They fill me up, they're delicious, they never get boring, they're shelf-stable so I can always have them on hand, and they're about the cheapest food there is.

It's easy to focus on what we'll be eating LESS of, but I think it's a lot more fun to focus on what we'll be eating MORE of. I'm looking forward to trying new recipes with my favorite ingredient. I'm even going to try my hand at home-made tofu and other bean curds.

I'd love to hear what you're all going to be eating more of. I bet we'll all benefit from hearing each other's favorites.

:)

I am heavier than ever but also super excited to start this journey! I like having a program when it comes to fitness, and I just finished a book that gave me a clear plan. We will all find out in the next few weeks whether or not it’s working. I am going to do my very best!!

Hello! This is my first DietBet in four years. I was maintaining effortlessly pretty well (with seasonal ups and downs) until around April of this year when stuff happened that required so much focus that I just had to let other things go. One of those things was meal planning. I also got injured, which hasn't helped. I'm not sure how long physical therapy for that is going to last. I'm not totally immobile, but I'm not able to be terribly active, either.

I don't know how likely it is that I'll win. I'm pretty close to my goal, so I don't have a lot of wiggle room. That was my situation for my last DietBet -- I won every round but the last one, which I lost by 0.7 pounds. I'll be perfectly happy if something like that happens again. My goal for this bet is the low end of my happy weight range; if I get within two pounds of that, I'll have "won" even if I lose monetarily. I think the investment is worth it to get back into good habits.

As far as methods go, my plan is to track calories on Cronometer and eat around 1500 calories a day throughout January and then bump up to 1600-1700 for the remainder. That gives me a pretty small deficit, but it should be just enough to keep me in the running.

Good luck, everyone!