u/brassica-love

Just over a year after I decided I wanted to lose weight, and after about 7 months of using MF, I am down to my goal!! 🥳I started somewhere over 180 (I didn't have a scale at the time, and in some of the pictures I might be closer to 190) and weighed in today at 140!

I feel so freakin pleased with my progress, and the process has been really empowering and honestly pretty fun. I am really grateful to the app as well as this community for the structure and encouragement! It is such a relief to feel like I finally have the knowledge and tools I need to maintain a healthy weight, after years of feeling like fluctuations were something that happened totally beyond my control. I feel super calm and in control now, I can be flexible and relaxed while staying in the right zone, and that feels awesome.

It is actually wild to look at pictures of me at my heaviest - it's a little dizzying, and I think it will take some time before I get used to being this size!

I am excited to build more muscle in the coming months 💪🏻I started doing some resistance training just in the last month and a bit, and I am already seeing a little more definition in my torso, which is wild. I also ordered a fitbit and am excited to be able to track certain numbers more easily 🤓 Feeling stronger in my daily life and knowing I am setting myself up for healthier aging are highly rewarding.

Anyway thanks everyone for your support, vulnerability, and wisdom, and I hope to be as encouraging to new users as y'all have been 🥰

After months of planning, I hosted a Game Changer party yesterday. It ruled. My friends are hilarious and interesting, and they surprised and delighted me over and over. I originally planned this as a single-occasion party, but honestly, I might pull a Sam and do another one in a year or two! I thought I would share an overview for others planning similar events.

We did two rounds of games with a 2-hour BBQ party break in between (which also served as prime time for the One Party Later players to complete their challenges). During Round 1 we played Make Some Noise, One and Done, Sam Says, and Rulette. During Round 2 we played Guess That Melody*, The Earnest-est, So You Think You Can Dance*, Pool (Noodle) Party*, This is Not DnD*, and One Party Later (* = developed for the party).

I had a prop master and two scoring masters stationed at the back of the yard - it would have been impossible to run this without a crew, so if you want to run a Game Changer party, I do highly recommend recruiting crew! I had a few lighter crew roles as well: my partner was the One Party Later coordinator (gave these players their instructions at the beginning of the party and answered their questions), a friend ran the BBQ and another friend was on photo duty.

Some more logistics: I had a total of 21 guests, 16 of whom were players. They did not all know Game Changer, and they did not all know each other; two of the guests (including my prop master) were in fact strangers to me before organizing this, and were invited by a mutual friend who knew they were very into Dropout. Most people played 2 games each. There were 16 props prepared for the prop master to manage, 3 props I had up front, 2 apps (1 of which I downloaded for this specifically), 1 spreadsheet of links to YouTube videos, and 1 Google Slides show (plus 1 email address created) for the One Party Later submissions. My GM notes document was 27 pages, and I had master docs for the prop master, score masters, and my darling cohost / One Party Later Coordinator as well. I spent $70.91 Canadian on supplies and accessories, not including party food etc. I sent out the Save the Date (Get Ready... for a Game Changer!) in February, and spent 5 months planning. I did not closely tally the hours spent planning and preparing but I will guess 20-40 (this does not include building the D20, which I had done for fun last fall). I invited guests to contribute to the stash of prizes, which worked really well.

Minor costume detail: I do have a white button-up shirt and bought an orange tie, but I decided that my interpretation of Sam (Hot Girl Sam) could look a little different, and I used the tie as a prop for One and Done instead.

I am happy to answer questions :)

Spring 2023, at around 180-185 lb (I didn't own a scale at the time), vs. spring 2026, this last Sunday, at around 150 lb.

I have just under 10 more pounds to go to reach my goal, but it's definitely awesome to see how far I have come. I started to vaguely try to lose weight at the end of last summer, but started to see real progress once I got MF around mid-January. I think my chubby look was very cute actually, but I recognize myself more in photos now and I feel great about improving my health 😊