Race for the Cure

Anyone who reads my personal blog knows “07″ wasn’t very kind to our family. If I could I would erase it from history and pretend the whole year just didn’t happen. Since that is not possible we are just moving on and making the most of a new year.

Among many horrible events of “07″ there is one that sticks out the most. For the first time in my life I got an up close look at cancer and what an ugly horrible disease cancer is. I very unexpectedly lost my biological father to cancer. This came just weeks after my mother-in-law found out she had breast cancer.

Loosing my dad was a huge shock, I didn’t even know he was sick. I just got a phone call one day that he had died. I missed the chance to say goodbye, and maybe resolve old issues.

The loss of my dad also made my mother-in-laws cancer uncomfortably real. I don’t deal well with things I can’t fix so I threw myself into caring for her the best way I knew how. I cooked, I cleaned, I ran errands, I took her to her appointments, and I prayed a lot.

I watched as cancer took everything from her, first her hair and slowly it robbed her of her ability to even get out of bed. Through it all she was a tower of strength and dignity. She was worried about how her kids and grand kids would react to her bald head. It didn’t bother us any, and she slowly started going without a wig more and more. We laughed and joked with her about the situation and she helped get all of us through it. My hubby even suggested she dress up like Uncle Fester from the Adams Family for Halloween.

After 9 long months she beat it. She worked really hard at getting her strength back, and is now in London with my father in law on a church mission. I’m sure she would say that all she went through was worth it to be where she is now. We are truly blessed to still have her with us, and to have her healthy enough to serve the way she is.

This year in honor of my wonderful mother-in-law and all the other brave women battling this ugly disease our family will be running in the Susan G. Komen breast cancer race in Salt Lake city. The race will be on May 10th at the Gateway mall. If you want to join the fun you can register here online.

I am in no way ready to run a 5k, yes I am that out of shape. I am setting my standards very low. My goal is to finish the race. I think that one I can manage. I will be running with my sister-in-law, my 13 year old daughter, and many friends who are joining the cause. I hope to never have to deal with cancer again although I know this is very unlikely.

Discuss

Okay, so I’m kinda sick of writing out “Biggest Loser: Fluffy style” all the time. I think we need a cute name for the competition. Fluffinators?

Second, I kinda feel like I’ve hijacked the blog, but oh well. I’m sure you’ll get over it.

Third, I ‘thought’ that on the show, they have the percentage in the beginning, and then in the end. Not every week in between. I thought that the winner each week was who lost the most weight. Am I wrong?

Fourth, I need those numbers. And I know lots and lots of people want to join, but at some point, I think we’ll have to have a cut off date. So, get me your stuff. (Meanwhile, should there be a cutoff date? Because what if someone finds us in three weeks and wants in? Do I add them? I don’t want to exclude anyone but I want it to be a fair competition, you know? Jen? Randi? What do you think?)

Fifth, another update.

NAME	WEIGHT	BODY FAT
MomBabe	217.8	32.79%
Randi	148	27.41%
Jen	196.2	27.81%
Susan	180	27.7%
Nichole	171	%
Nicki	202	27.41%
Liz	174.5	27.62%
Karen	209	28.71%
Alison	208.7	%
Tenille	269	32.02%
Marissa	198	27.7%
Sarah	271	%
Toni	305	%
Amy	213	27.34%
Shar Monica	222 ???	27.69% %
*to calculate your body fat %, go to http://www.fitwatch.com/qkcalc/body-fat-percentage-calculator.php plug in the numbers and let us know your results. Thanks!

Sixth, Discuss.

Ready to Run (well, not literally)

This is my first post on FtF even though I’ve been a link on the sidebar (under the name Sarah) for months now. Basically I thought when I joined the site that I was ready to make the dedicated effort to losing weight (and, uh, I’ve got alot to lose) but then some crazy stuff happened, like, oh, losing my housing and trying to go to college while living out of a grocery sack. So, the whole weight loss regime got derailed before it even really started.

But now that the crunch time of school is over and I’m used to living out of a grocery sack, I’m ready again to put “the plan” back in action. I think.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to lose weight. I’ve been trying to lose it for what seems like my entire life – I’m only 21 and have been fighting this battle since age 8. I finally “got skinny” in Grade 7, but the following year went away to boarding school 2 provinces over and didn’t have the best of times (that’s putting it mildly). The weight came piling back on, and then some. And I’ve never quite lost it. I was working on it by being involved in competitive swimming and living with the “Diet Nazi” (aka my mother, but my issues with her are another post entirely) but left home at 17 and fell on some really hard times. At 19 I picked myself up and went to college, but I gained another 40 or so pounds due to this lifestyle change. I like to say I gained a few peoples “Freshman 15″, you know, took some for the team.

Anyway! thats the weight history so far. I’ve tried Herbal Magic, Weight Watchers, good sense, not-so-good-sense, extreme poverty, hard drugs….but now, I have a three-pronged attack plan in place, and I can’t WAIT to get started.

PRONG 1 – EXERCISE
Join a gym. Specifically, my boyfriends gym, so I always have someone to go with. Mom agreed to pay for 3-new member personal training sessions, which I’m grateful for, because I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. Go 3-4 times a week (I would go every day, but I have class from 9am-9:30pm two days a week). The thing I’m most excited about is starting swimming again.

PRONG 2 – DIET
Join Weight Watchers online, listen to my body to say when it’s full/hungry, employ “good sense” eating habits. Mom again offered to pay half the membership (she sure does want me skinny). The other two I’ve been slowly implementing over the past month. Its a really strange feeling to stop before you’re so stuffed it hurts!

PRONG 3 – SUPPORT & REASONABLE GOALS
i) support – Blog here. Pretty self explanatory, no? And having that built in support of a boyfriend who goes to the gym regularly and is making some lifestyle changes himself helps alot; I’m not going to lie.

ii) reasonable goals – before I would look at the big picture and get discouraged. I have 121 or more pounds to lose, which is a whole other person. No wonder I got discouraged when I thought of that number! But now I’ve broken it down to managable chunks. My first goal is to lose around 50 pounds by Christmas. That’s 7 months to lose 50 pounds. Much better to think of it that way!

Anyway, uh, so that’s me. Thanks for listening to that – I can’t wait for the BL:Ftf Edition to start!

Weight Loss Wars

What do you guys think about doing something like Weight Loss Wars?  What, are you scared?  Well, I’m a little afraid of Caroline, but she’s like two states away.

We would still blog here at Fight The Fluffy, but this site has very cool tools that we could use to set up private competitions (they have ones that are open to the public too).

We could do it on a weekly or monthly basis, have cash prizes or not (we could use paypal instead of the site if that’s a worry), and can see everyone’s progress.  The also have different competitions to choose from, like weight loss, minutes exersized, cholesteral level, body fat, water intake, etc.  The site is free too, we just decide whether we want to do prizes.  I’d be happy to set it up and e-mail everyone the info.

Anyway, it’s just a thought.  I’m totally ok with doing it either way – I just like a little incentive like challenges and money to get me moving! If we each put in $1 a week someone would be winning $13.  Or something else, like a food scale, new running socks, a Hello Kitty lunchbox, etc…

Whad’ya think?

Updated List

Here’s the latest list of participants in our biggest loser contest. If you want to be added, let me know. First weigh in is Saturday morning.

NAME WEIGHT BODY FAT MomBabe 217.8 32.79% Randi 145 % Jen 196.2 % Susan 180 27.7% Nichole 171 % Nicki 202 27.41% Liz 174.5 27.62% Karen 209 28.71% Alison ??? % Tenille 269 32.02% Marissa 198 % Sarah 271 % Toni 305 % *to calculate your body fat %, go to http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/ plug in the numbers and let us know your results. Thanks!
Amy         213        27.34%
Shar         ???          %

Nicki suggested challenges. I think that sounds like fun, but am not quite sure how we would work that. Unless we had challenges like, no soda this week, and no white flour, or something. If you have suggestions, put ‘em up. We’d love to hear them.

And no, there will not be eliminations. Likewise, there really won’t be any prizes. unless someone wants to donate something. I volunteer to make you a badge thingy to post on your blog at the end but other than that, I got nothing.

Like I said earlier, suggestions are welcome. Thanks guys!

Biggest Loser, Fluffy Style

Well, I think I miscommunicated with you all. I thought you were going to send me your stuff and I’d post it all together in one spot, for easy access. Next time, people, next time.

So, this is it. The last chance to jump in. Biggest Loser, Via Fight the Fluffy is now officially ON. Over the next 12 weeks, your mission is to lose as much weight as you can through diet and exercise.

Due to my miscommunication, today’s post is a bit different than I had imagined. SO, if you’re participating, go ahead and let us know in the comments. We need your name, and your weight.

I’ll get the ball rolling here. Hi, my name is Caroline, (most of you know me as the MomBabe) and I weigh 217.

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Sorry, that was the first time I’ve ever posted my weight and I fell off my chair. ahem.

Anyways, let’s get this started!

P.S. next Saturday, email me your weight so that it can all be included in one post instead of in the comments. Just for easier viewing and such. Thanks!

Going forward with Fight the Fluffy

By Jen

Last week I asked y’all if you want to continue Fight the Fluffy or scrap it due to lack of interest. Your answer was loud and clear — let’s keep FtF going. I’m glad you think it’s a worthy cause.

I think we do need to set some parameters:

• I encourage you all to post at least once a month, if not twice or more. Don’t feel like you have to post just for the sake of doing so, but please let us know how you’re doing, share interesting news articles and recipes, and just generally keep the content going on this blog.
• I also ask you to comment. It’s not time consuming or difficult, so do it.

That’s it. Just two easy things.

Now some housekeeping matters. Several of you have expressed frustration about the early days of FtF when there were ten or more posts daily. I agree, the sheer volume was overwhelming. Let’s keep things a bit simpler and try to keep posts to no more than three per day. I said “TRY” and I understand that sometimes you might have a pressing issue that will need to be blogged about immediately, regardless of how many posts are already up in one day.

I could put together a schedule so that everyone posts on a certain day, but I find those to be constraining. What if I don’t feel like posting on a particular Tuesday but have something to say that Thursday? So let’s just sort of figure things out as we go along.

So, to reiterate:

• post at least once a month
• comment

Everyone agree?

Biggest Loser, fluffy style

Yay! I’m so excited that people want to do this. I thought about responding individually to the people that are interested, but then I figured, why not post this once and for all, and if there’s questions, I’ll add ‘em. Just so we have some ground rules. (not that there’s like, rules)

ANYWAYS.

The official Start will be Sunday. That’s when I’ll post our stats and progress and stuff. So, Sunday to Saturday, you try your darnedest to lose as much weight as you can. Weigh in should be Saturday mornings, (because we all know that you weigh less in the morning) After you weigh in, email me your results, and I’ll put ‘em up.

This contest will be over the course of 12 weeks. After that time, we’ll see who our winner is.  (and no, you won’t win any money…. You’ll just be cuter, m’kay?)

ALSO, make sure to take your measurements!!! I will need your Height, as well as waist, hip, forearm, and wrist measurements. Then I’ll plug them into this site to get body fat readings… it’s not the most accurate, but, it can be done online and not in person, so Score!!!

I’m so excited that we’re going to do this. Everyone is welcome to participate.  Like I said, just email me your stats and measures to sweetmommybingham(at) gmail (dot) com

We’ll have the official Kick Off post this Sunday!

ummm, yeah, hmmm, Hi, yeah, I’m still alive, uhhh, yeah. that’s all.

Well, a big thank you to Jen for the wake up call. I’ve been slacking over here BIG TIME. In my defense, pbbhhttt. Who am I kidding, I have no defense.

Anyways. I was thinking, how bout we do our OWN Biggest Loser? See, I tried out and didn’t make the cut. And I desperately need to lose some poundage. Therefore, I say we have a little contest. (Cause I’m ALL about the contest.) You in?

The Future of Fight the Fluffy

By Jen

Have y’all noticed how quiet it’s been around here in recent weeks? Most of the people listed over there on the right haven’t posted in a while — weeks or even months. Comments are down down down. I’ve been keeping an eye on our stats and our readership is slowly and steadily declining.

From all of this I can make two conclusions: Either everyone has lost all the weight they want to OR people are losing interest in this blog. I’m thinking it’s the latter.

So, I’m going to put this out there for a debate and vote: What should we do with Fight the Fluffy? Keep it going or put it out of its misery? If it’s the former, then we need to see some renewed and sustained vigor. If it’s the latter, each one of us could write about our successes and failures on our own blogs and then everyone else could comment, cheer, and/or console.

So PLEASE leave a comment and let me know what you think. Let’s leave discussion open until next Friday. Lack of comments on y’all’s parts will be considered votes of disinterest.

Thanks for your participation. Enjoy your weekend.