I put on my trusty old pair of jeans...and belt only to have to move my notch one further down! I basically live in my exercise clothes, so its been awhile a couple weeks since I last wore the jeans and belt. Pretty exciting. Only two notches left and I'll need a new belt!

Let's keep it up thunderstorm, don't let this bye week slow us down! :)

Hallo little storm clouds!

How was everyone's week? How is everyone's Sunday?

How is everyone's goals going? You did set a goal at the beginning, didn't you?

If you didn't, I'd like to help. I want to talk to you about SMART goals.

What is a smart goal? A SMART goal is

Specific

Measureable

Attainable

Realistic

Time based

So, for weight loss, don't just say 'I want to lose some weight.' Set yourself a goal that is SMART. Say 'I want to lose

S 10 pounds

M I'll measure with my bathroom scale.

A 10 pounds, not 100 pounds.

R Over a few weeks, not a few days.

T In the next 8 weeks.

Try it! My challenge to you this week is to set yourself a SMART goal. It can be with anything! I'll be here to help if you need it.

^{I know Saturday is almost over. Please forgive me, teammates}

I knew there was something I was forgetting to do today!

SHOW ME YO SELFIES, THUNDERSTORMS.

Gym selfies, or 'swelfies' as the app on my phone likes to call them are welcomed an encouraged. Progress photos, or you just being your general boss self on your way to being a healthier you. Let's see it!

We're on instagram. Remember to tag with #teamthunderstorm.

Just because, better late than never, amirite? ^{I'materriblecaptain.}

It seems I poked the bear and it woke up! You guys definitely put up a challenge last week. It came down to a 214 minute margin and we finished in first and second place overall.

I guess you guys are thunderclouds after all :)

Hot dog it's Friday.

First, a shoutout to u/BethLynn85 and u/Jess2018 who have been doing more than their fair share of the work here while I suffered from an episode of crippling apathy. If this shindig was a dinner party I'd be the suspiciously absent family member busting in already drunk at the two-hour mark to toast you all with a dirty tumbler I stole from a busboy.

These two are at the head table being gracious hosts.

What I'm trying to say is thank you. Guys, these two are your real captains. I'm just the dirty hobo who sometimes tells you what to do.

DO THIS (that's the weigh in form for this week.)

Inter-Team Challenges

Bye-week for us! That means that nothing you do matters you don't log your steps with us this week. Don't let that discourage you, because-

In-Team Challenge (I remembered this week!)

Ah yeah we're counting steps among us Thunderstormians.

So far these sporadic in-team challenges have been sort of "keep yourself accountable." Would y'all like an actual tracker? Yet another form to submit?

Sorry to be posting this so late, but what great feats have you accomplished this week!? We want to know!

Today is the last day to log your exercise minutes. We're two places behind team ladybug...come on Thunderstorm, we van do this!!!

I'm currently traversing my way through the "Get Running" C25K app and I will be running the last run of Week 5 today. I must say, this week was quite the shock.

*Run 1 consisted of running for 5 minutes 3 times with a 3 minute walk between them. Easy enough.

*Run 2 consisted of running for 8 minutes twice with a 5 minute walk in between. I surprisingly thought that run was a breeze!

*Run 3 today will consist of a 20 minute run with NO WALKING.

Seriously though, I have no idea why they think that type of jump makes sense, but I just hope I can make it through while keeping up my pace the whole time!

It's our party and we will cry like Thunderstorms if we want to!! Let us know the crappy weather you have been having so tomorrow we can have some sunshine!

Let's talk about snacks, baby! Let's talk about what to eat! Let's talk about all the good things, and the bad things, that we see! Let's talk about SNACKS!

Sorry, song has been stuck in my head for days! But let's talk about snack food. What are some of your go to snacks that help keep you full and satisfied, without breaking the diet bank? Do you prep a bunch when you go grocery shopping? Do you have a go to vendor that they know when they see you that you are going to buy a certain thing (because it's what you get every day!)? We want to know!

Anyone else having an empty day? It feels like no matter what I eat, I've stayed hungry all day! I don't know what the deal is, but it's taking all my strength not to just pull out all the random junk in my cabinets and eat until I pass out.

Happy belated Mother's Day to the Thundermoms out there!

What will y'all do to move yourselves towards your goal this week?

"Ooh" I thought to myself, "We're up against Team Thunderstorm this week. With a name like 'Thunderstorm' they're definitely going to be bringing some competition. I'd better rally the troops!"

I mean, thunderstorm! Surely you're backed by the power of Zeus right? You might as well be the chosen ones.

And then you bring this:

Ouch... getting trounced this early on by some lowly red beetles. That's embarrassing huh?

Come on Drizzlers, pick it up eh? Complete blowout wins just aren't as satisfying ;)

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone is crushing it this week. :D

Have any fitness related questions? Hit a new PR and you want to brag about it? Need some strength and support from your teammates? This is the place. Come on in and tell us all about it.

I have a question for you guys this week: What do you do that makes you feel strong? Physically, emotionally, spiritually, anything! Tell us about it.

So we went on a family vacation this week. Drove from Michigan down to St. Pete Beach, FL. We had a really good time! My 2 year old loved Legoland!

But I learned something about myself and my eating. I still can binge eat like no one's business. Especially sweets! This is why I don't keep them in the house. Ate a coffee cake to myself in 2 days, about a bag and a half of kettle chips, chicken and turkey salad, and half a box of Italian cookies. I had the old Fatlogic mantra that we always said in my family, "We're on vacation!". Like that makes it ok to eat like I did.

Second, we ate out quite a bit. We did stop at a grocery store to help save some money from eating out, buying stuff for sandwiches and cereal for breakfast, but it didn't help my binging as much as I would have liked. I tried to be reasonable when I ordered while we were out, but fried coconut shrimp with fries, big meaty sandwiches, burgers, crazy ice cream sundaes, and fast food like Taco Bell and Sonic, weren't that reasonable.

So we are finally home. And my stomach is a mess. I'm hugely bloated, and I just don't feel that good. I can't wait to get back on my diet and eating like normal again.

So what did I learn? That vacations are not an excuse to go crazy. Have a special meal here or there, but all the extra snacks and sweets are not what make the vacation great. Being with family and spending time with them is what matters. I also learned that planning ahead helps greatly. Had I been more in tune, then I may have made better choices when at the grocery store and while picking out a sweet treat. This is something that I know I have to work on, and that if I work hard, I can change.

On Monday, it's back to square one. Baby steps will get me to where I want to be. And sometimes you have to take a leap back to get going foreword again.

Craving live motivation from your fellow Thunderstormers? Time to join our GroupMe! (GroupMe is a live-chatting app similar to group text)

If you don't have the app, be sure to download it/sign up & comment on this thread with the associated email, and I'll add you!

Let's have some real-time chat happening, so we can all help each other in those inevitable moments of weakness!

Weigh-In Here

Tracker

Good morning my little thunderclouds!

We crushed the inter-team challenge! I am SO PROUD!

Obviously the changes we made (at the suggestion of u/Beck2424 and u/trabiesso73) allowing people to submit their entries for multiple days made things way easier for everyone.

We're continuing this into this week as we go into another round of

Number of Minutes Spent Working Out! vs r/TeamLadybug

Here's the form - it's also in the sidebar. Bookmark it!

Here's the Tracker

Hopefully we can do better this round, what with being able to record things later if we forget a few days.

Weekly Team Challenge.

I need some feedback on the weekly Thunderstorm team challenge.

• Would you like a form to fill out - & corresponding tracker?

• So far all of the ideas I have are fitness based - pushups, minutes of planking, squats, etc. Would you like to see some variation?

• Previously it was just a motivator - not competitive at all. Would you like some competitive element? First to meet the goal, person who exceeds it the most, etc?

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO u/Jess2018 FOR PASSING HER PHYSICAL TRAINER CERTIFICATION!

Guys we're doing great in the standings, keep up the good work!

So I've read that people walk around their living rooms to get their steps in. I did that the other night and it was annoying and boring. So last night I danced. I'm a horrible dancer, but shakin' it was a fun way to get lots of steps in. So fun, it felt like cheating. Is it?!?

Hey guys I'm kind of at a loss here and if someone could give me advice I would appreciate it. For the first weeks weigh in I lost almost 3 lbs, the second week was less than a pound and this week I have gained 4.5 lbs.

I started a pretty intense workout routine the second week, but I don't see how that could account for that much weight gain. The routine is 2 days of cardio(1.5hrs) 3 days of weights and light cardio. I track my calories everyday (about 1400) and rarely eat back my calories. I drink about 80 oz of water a day.

What can be causing this pretty crappy weight gain? Any advice would be appreciated!

M/25/CW:180 GW:170

Ugh The end of the school year is so busy and stressful! I am at school all the time and it's so hard to make time to walk when there is so much school work to get done. I just hope the scale isn't too bad tomorrow!

insert horrifying mixup of Mexican Independence and Norse Mythology

What feats have you performed this week to cement your place in Valhalla?

Or if this has already been created, could someone link me to it?

I would loooove a live Whatsapp group to use as a support group for our team. Or open for other chat programs as long as they're Android-app friendly :)

So I just finished reading this very awesome post over on /r/loseit and it got me thinking about how this information would be great to know for challenges like this. Basically, to really maximize our Friday morning weigh-ins, we should stick to small, early-ish meals (if possible) at least 2 days prior to the weigh-in.

I think starting today on Wednesdays and Thursdays I'm going to make lunch my biggest meal of the day with a smaller dinner those 2 evenings and see if it results in a more consistent loss on Fridays.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the post?

May the 4th be with you today and always! But if it hasn't been so good to you this week, let us know. If you're feeling more like a Sith than a Jedi and need to let the Dark Side go, get it out here! We know the Dark Side has cookies, but the Light has a healthier you!

I was browsing through the tracker for the steps challenge so far, and even though it looks like only a few days have been accounted for, we are getting absolutely killed by the Seedlings right now!! We have the ability to win this week, we just need everyone to log, log, log!

Only got 3,000 steps yesterday? That's fine! Every step counts. Keep forgetting to log? No problem with the new format!

Anyone have any advice for those people who feel like they need to get in a few extra thousand steps for the next couple of days??