Step 1 Sole Source Team FireShark

Everyone needs support, and everyone feels better knowing that they are not alone. Not to mention I find I'm talking to the same people across lots of different boards So I am starting a new team. Here we can all chat about how we're getting on, how we get through the hard days, how we feel on the good days, and share all our ideas and inspiration. A group is a POWERFUL thing.

Now, I don't know if the actual minimins team challenges are still running (they look like they petered out), but I don't really care about those, I care about YOU, and ME, and THIS team, and how WE do. So if team challenges come up and we want to take part, I'm all up for that, but otherwise I'm happy to set our own team challenges and goals.

What we do with this team is going to evolve over time, because the possibilities are limitless and I am always open to ideas and suggestions.
It can be anything from a place to chat about how it's going, to sharing ideas, to posting the inspirational words and pictures you've found to help inspire your team members, to setting team weightloss targets and team goals to work towards, and more!

For fun I think we should give it some structure, to give everyone something to work towards and so we can feel pride in ourselves when we work up the ranks. So I propose a ranking for team members based on how many weeks you have weighed in and registered a loss (no matter how small). Every single week that you lose weight is a success for the team!

Rankings for team members:

• Initiate: 1-2 weeks of losses while a member of the team (this can be as little as 1/4 pound, anything at all!)
• Member: 3-4 weeks of losses
• Angel Shark: 5-6 weeks of losses (That's it, you're a real fireshark now!)
• Leopard Shark: 7-8 weeks of losses
• Tiger Shark: 9-10 weeks of losses
• Great White Shark: 10+ weeks of losses

Every week that you stay the same or put weight on just means that you won't progress through the ranks that week, there are no punishments in this group!

In it together:
Some teams are very strict, but here participation and effort will be measured by your rank, you will NOT be kicked out of this group for not posting enough, not losing enough, cheating too often. We are here to help each other succeed, not to give up on one another. We are in it together <3

Team numbers:
I don't see any reason to put a limit on how many people want to join the team, but if we do enter any minimins competitions I believe there is a limit of 6 members per team. So if we take part in something like that I propose the highest 6 ranking members at the time form our 'alpha' team, and if we have more members than that, the next 6 highest ranking members can be our 'beta' team etc. etc.

Why FireShark?
Why not? I was toying with 'Team Awesome', but it lacks inspiration. We're sick of being flabby flounders. Here we are aiming to be hotter than fire, and fitter than sharks! We're achieving the impossible, like a shark on fire

What's expected of you?
All I ask of the FireShark members is that they don't encourage others to cheat, be proud of each other's successes, and forgive each other's failures (including your own). Everything else is optional.
If you see something that you think is inspirational somewhere else, post it here to inspire your team! Come to us for help when you have questions, or you're struggling, or feeling fantastic!
Lastly, if you want to earn your gills, every week that you're weighed let me know the result (either in a post, or a PM once we/I have that functionality if you'd rather keep it private - I'm happy to receive emails: marri . russell @ hotmail . co . uk). The results will count towards your rank, and the team's weightloss.

Of course, I started right at the bottom too, as an initiate of the fireShark team, and I am now proud to call myself'

So who would like to join me in Team FireShark? Geared more towards SS and SS+ dieters, but anyone is welcome to join Just post on the thread!

Current Team Members:


Weekly Team Loss = 40.5lbs - WELL DONE FIRESHARKS! Quite a few of us on the way to being REAL SHARKS!
Total Team Loss = 6st 9lbs

I'm in! Can't wait to be a real shark

Great! Welcome aboard TeaPot, WE'LL GET THERE SOON! ^_^

<--- My fridge after I committed to sole source! (And made my OH do the same )

Haha looks so clean!!! How are the chocolate velvet tetras?

When I first tried them I though "hmmm, it's not DELICIOUS, but certainly drinkable." But now I genuinely love them I think, of the three tetras, chocolate velvet taste best because the other two taste too strongly of sweeteners for me. I've never been able to make myself like sweeteners!
What are your favourite products so far?

Also, yes, when I first emptied it (and was therefore able to see every single little stain and spot) I was a bit like 'EW what the hell happened in my fridge??' so it's had a good scrub recently!

Here is our fridge, but on the other hand I will not be eating ANY of this for the next 12 weeks.

I've managed to convince OH to throw all the easy to grab snack food that was in there...


Untitled by marshmallowfluffs, on Flickr

TeapotTee said:

I've managed to convince OH to throw all the easy to grab snack food that was in there...

Click to expand...

Brilliant! I had to have a serious talk with mine about not leaving snack food lying around, they have absolutely no idea how hard it makes it for us! :S

I'm going to post a random inspiration thing every day on here, so here's today:

Well I have not tried many as could only have two yesterday because I fell asleep earlier than I planned. Yesterday I tried:

Chocolate Orange shake... didn't think much of it at all but it was 6am so it could have clouded my judgement...
Mango shake... Was actually better than I thought, next time I'm going to blend in some ice and I think it'l taste a little smoothie 'ish.

Today I've had:

Fruits of the forest which I actually really enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would... but I make most of of shakes with about 350mls of water as the thickness just doesn't agree with me.


Chocolate.. Was ok but the water I used wasn't as cold as I like it so using very COLD water next time and again more diluted.

I will probably have Butterscotch later

Do you have any favourites?
Doing well on my water today so far had nearly 2.5l where as yesterday I only managed that much total and I woke up today feeling super dehydrated!!!


Random question...


Where it comes to water consumption I want to try and aim daily for about 4 litres of water but I am peeing SO much as expected, when should i east down on the drinking before bed and peeing all night? I was thinking if i slowed at about 9pm most of it would have filtered through by the time I goto bed at about 11pm sometimes later...


Ok if I post pictures every now and again too?

Of course! Pictures are good, feel free to post pictures whenever you want. Have you taken 'before' shots? ^^ I did! My OH and I did and then took new photos after our 4th weigh-in (since he joined me, anyway.. 0) and the difference is great!!! I've still clearly got a LONG way to go, but it's great to see that there IS a difference already.

Hmmm, favourite flavours. Annoyingly, my favourite flavour was coconut but that was limited edition :'(
Other than that, the oriental chilli soup is my favourite! It makes me feel like I've had a real dinner, and I make it with 400ml of water. I like the veggie soup too.
My favourite shake is banana (the powder, not the tetra). Fruits of the forest was much better than I thought it would be
I prefer the chocolate and chocolate mint flavours warm

As for the water - wow 4l! Why do you aim so high? I aim for 3L, but everyone is different, and I don't think there is an upper limit! I had the same problem and I tried stopping at a certain time but that didn't work for me. Now I seem to have.. gotten used to it? The problem just fixed itself after a week or two! Now I drink right up until bed, and have the bottle next to me for first thing in the morning. I make sure I go pee LAST THING before bed. Literally, if I end up sitting chatting for 15 minutes or more to my OH before going to sleep I'll get up and go again before sleeping XD
I only wake up to go 1-2 nights a week now, instead of every night like at the start.

My CWPC took pictures of "before" I saw it when she took it "URGH" and asked her to show it to me when I was having low moments and needed a boost to show me how well I am actually doing so I might need it give it a few weeks I am ok at the minute full of enthusiasm and rumbling stomach.

I always drink about 2l a day when not on the diet so to me between 3-4 is my target the nearer 4 the better with my little moto of "the more you drink, the more you shrink" we will see if it's true on my sneaky home weigh on when my week mark comes as my official weigh in is a couple days later

Do you ever weigh yourself during the week? I was gonna just see how the shakes went but I asked my CWPC for some soups earlier and will get them on the 26th and see how I like them, I feel like by then I will need the savoury and sweet flavours rather than just sweet.

Oh no! I wrote a massive post then lost it!

cliffnotes: That all sounds like a great idea Good to get an idea of what you like and what you don't.
I prefer soups for dinner, just because having something warm and savoury makes me feel more like I've had a 'dinner'. It's purely mental. I have shakes for breakfast and dinner ^_^

At the end of the day though, it's whatever works for you! My OH tends was having three bananas a day (one powder two tetras). NEARLY EVERY DAY XD until he got bars, anyway.

Yeah too true, I'm just going to go with the flow I didn't get any banana last time but I can't wait to try them I normally LOVE banana stuff so it should be a winner, than or put me off bananas for life.

I bought this little tool to motivate me a little, see how far I've come...


Untitled by marshmallowfluffs, on Flickr

Well the banana tetras and banana sachets taste really different! So maybe get one of each, and don't let one put you off the other! XD

Aww, that's lovely! I love the little chalkboard Where are you going to hang it?

I'm not sure yet, probably on one of the kitchen cupboards incase temptation does get the bett of me!!! Hehe.

Hi there

Can I join the team? I would love to join the chat to keep motivated and help/be helped etc?

Brilliant idea, Teapot!

Also, of course you can Bessie The more the merrier! The more experiences we have to share, the better off we will be! Welcome to Team FireShark!
Wow, it looks like you're doing REALLY well so far, congratulations

How are you finding it at the moment?

Hi BessieB welcome Well done on where you've got so far you must be really pleased!!!

Im so in lol

Welcome to Team FireShark Nazz! ^_^ We're glad to have you aboard

I can't believe you've been on and off for so long, argh! XD It's SO easy to do isn't it? It's a real danger XD For me it was always "Oh well I've cheated now, I might as well eat what I want and start fresh after my weigh-in" terrible attitude to take, it's so self sabotaging! Working hard to make sure it doesn't happen again though

Ivory i used to get to the end of day 1 and then at the end of the night eat a massive meal and think il start again and it was a horrible cycle which i couldnt get out of it was a horrible time coz its so depressing knowing that id failed and thinking il start again.. So im really happy now eventho im only on day 8 well almost the end of day 8 woooop.. Lol x