rainbow: hey beautiful! you're gonna move to Canada! wow! that's nuts! good luck with all the visa stuff! ;) good job on the run!! that is something i will never be able to do (or want to!) no matter how fit i get! lol.

bea: yeah, i'm sure the info's on there, but it would be all in japanese!! anyways i'm gonna wait til their contest ends cuz i'm pretty sure i have a good chance to win stuff!! seeing all my progress! lol. congrats on your weightloss! wohooo! and no noes with the tanning woes... lol. i've had that happen to me once, but with my peachy-white blondie complexion, it was not a pretty sight, and i was in pain in places where it's not normally possible to get a sunburn, if you know what i mean...

namaste: wtf girl! be careful with your health! it's not good to go up and down like that... :( but well done for turning down food with your fam! and congrats on getting into the honours society! sounds fun! :)

aaaahh... you guys... yesterday was the "sayonara party" of a friend of mine, who is leaving Japan for good so we had to send her off in style... incidently, it was also my cheat day... i was actually pretty good all day, allowing myself some stuff i shouldn't really eat but i didn't really eat very much, assuming i would just pig out at the izakaya later. well, at the izakaya (small restaurant where you go for drinking), since we had reservations, we also had set foods (normally you can just order whatever you want) and all-you-can-drink, but the set foods were ridiculous. there was only five things and in tiny amounts. needless to say, i still felt hungry afterwards, and i was considerably drunker. i was just gonna grab something from the convenience store on the way home, but my good friend, who was really drunk and upset that our friend was leaving, begged me to stay and keep the party going. she even offered to pay my 40$ cab ride home if i stayed, so i stayed. we were gonna go to a club, but somehow we ended up in mcdonalds for 2 hours, drinking cheap combini wine and ingesting way too much food. i had a big mac set, and then after, i was like "i want another burger!!" so i went and bought another burger, and a macflurry (luckily, in japan, they're tiny, but still)... i really should not have had that second run, but i was drunk, and the weirdest part was that my friends were egging me on. they were like "you're TINY now! go and have that burger!!" lol. i'm far from tiny, but it was pretty funny.

anyways, long story short, i ate way too much, and then i was somewhat hungover for most of today and didn't really eat as well as i should (i munched on some leftover tortilla bread... not bad but not really part of my diet...) and i just feel blergh. my headache finally lifted in the early evening and i dragged my as$ off the couch to do my workout, which i'm pretty d*mn proud of myself for. and now i'm all sweaty.

i had a good time last night, but i'm really pissed at myself for having that extra burger, and for knowing that my weight's gonna be back up for a while.... *sigh* oh well... how was everyone's weekend?

Hi girls!

So I broke out the Insanity DVDs this week because hubby decided he wants to do more cardio (he was a college football player and loves to lift NOT run lol). So we did it together in the mornings this week and he was SORE lol! Men complain so much more than women I swear. Had a short work week because of the holiday (teachers get president's days off :)). I am back to low sugar intake which means mostly just protein and veggies for me while I bust out Insanity to try to lean out those last lbs before the 120s. I hope you all are doing well this week!

Icon: both of my kids are young, just 5 and 2 :). I am a teacher in the US and it's a great job to have here. I work about 180 days a year with amazing benefits for my family (since hubby and I work for the same district we pay ZERO out of pocket for any hospital, ER, or doctor visit it is completely bad*** lol). I would say that being a teacher here is mostly great but it is hard because Americans dont really out their money into education so we fall behind many other countries. My school district is one of the highest ranked public districts in my state but many districts struggle due to lack of funding. Are you trying to be a teacher too?

Kawaii: thanks! Seems like a lot of the girls who were here when I was are gone but it sounds like you have been doing well! Don't beat yourself up too badly over the burger, you will be able to overcome it :). It's nice to be able to be with friends and can be hard if you are a little tipsy to be good like you normally would lol!

Namaste: I'm sorry you were so sick :(. That does not sound like it was fun! Congrats on making the honors society that's a really great thing! Keep up the hard work to keep those lbs off!

Rainbow: wow moving to another country is awesome. I have never been out of the US lol. It sounds like a great opportunity. Exercise is so great isn't it? It's my favorite thing to do for myself honestly. After a bad or stressful day or as the start to the day it's so great! Keep working hard :).

Everyone have a great day and week and hope I can get to know you ladies better soon :).

namaste Congrats on the honor society acceptance, it's always good to have extra stuff to add to your resume! I used to be super active on the boards but life always gets in the way.

Kawaii Moving to Canada is huge, but I'm so excited. I just hope all the visa stuff works out smoothly because it would suck to only be able to stay there for 6 months/1 year depending on how I get over there and leave my boyfriend there for another 3 years! I see you've also got some time apart from your boyfriend coming up too. Don't sweat the extra burger too much - I know how you feel though, I always feel so guilty when I do stuff like that

munster Wow, you're doing amazing. I haven't heard much about the insanity dvds, but I kind of stopped dvds a while ago when I moved into my current place as I don't really have anywhere to do it while my room mate is around haha. Moving to Canada is a great opportunity, there is no way I could do it if my boyfriend wasn't studying there so its pretty cool. I do love the feeling of leaving the stress of work behind at 5pm and going straight home to run!

kisskiss New guy/dating sounds like so much fun, that is so cool. And yay for joining a gym! I would love to if it were in my budget, I feel like the weight training/strength training is so helpful.

~
Monday morning has gone so quickly, such a busy day at work! I just had a delicious salad for lunch - pretty plain, just lettuce, cucumber, a bit of cheese and leftover chicken breast from last night. I buy the side salads from Wendy's here because they're only $3, which is good since I would never use a whole lettuce if I bought one anyway.

My weight was down this morning so I feel like the last few weeks of running are finally paying off! I've decided I want to get down to 55kg (my original goal) by the end of September this year, which is when I'm planning to go to Vancouver. I think it is more than achievable, but I also know it gets harder when you get smaller, so I don't want to set myself up for failure!

We chose a couple over the weekend who are going to move in with us in a couple of weeks as our current house mate is moving out, so I'm a little bit nervous about living with new people, but they seem really nice and they have a cat which is a bonus because I haven't wanted to get a pet due to not being sure of my long-term situation.

Hope everyone has a good start to the week! February nearly over!

munster: well i am also a "returnee". came back in november and i had gained all my weight back, so... -_- lol. i hear you! men are such babies, haha... you tell them you're doing an exercise dvd and they laugh at you going "sure honey..." but if you make them do it... lol! good luck with the new diet regiment!

kisskiss: i know, right?!?! i remember when i was in college and i used to b!tch and moan that the gym was 40$... i WISH it cost me that much now!!! aww... yay for happy new love butterflies! ^_^

rainbow: apart for 3 years?!?!!!!! i could never do that! i hope it works out for you! yeah, 1 year is gonna be enough for me :/ i really hope we can survive... gah! congrats on your weightloss!

morning girls! no work today! :D though i am heavily procrastinating on writing a test for my returnees, and grading 3 piles of test papers for tomorrow... T_T gah! i did my workout today, and weight is still a whole kilo over what it should be so blergh... i'm just gonna take it easy today! have a good one!

I just wanted to pop in and say to Rainbow: Helen Clark is doing an IAMA on Reddit, wat da fuq????

Kawaii Urgh, I height weight fluctuations, but I'm sure you'll be fine! We did 6 months apart in 2008, so I know what it's like - you will do lots of emailing and skyping I'm sure!!

Icon Wow, weird - my b/f is ALWAYS on Reddit so no doubt I'll hear about it when I get home, I'm sure it will be an interesting read as well! How odd though! And also congrats on your wedding!!

~
Weight is down again, YAY. Finally the scale is moving, and so it should - this is week six of the higher intensity regular exercise!

Also yesterday I beat my running record again - when I first started, I was doing a 3.2km (1.9 miles) loop and walking probably half or so of it, I've gradually been building up, adding kms to it, running more of it - last night I finally ran the whole first 3.2km (I did just over 5km total, still some walking in that last 2km). I was/am so proud of myself and happy!

Boyfriend has paid his entry fees to various different places at the Canadian university he's going to - so it's definitely all happening now. Eeeeeep!

KawaiiCandie:
no work? Lucky! Yay :) I'm counting the days until my Spring Break for my job (24 days left!!)....

rainbowstripe:
:carrot: on weight being down :) and beating your record!! You should be proud of yourself :) wait, I probably missed this but are you going with your BF to university? or long distance?
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How can it only be Tuesday! I have such a long week ahead of me; I am already wishing it were the weekend. My friend's BD celebration is this Friday, so you can bet I will be partying :) I'm even going to wear a short skirt :o Excited. Hope everyone is doing well... omg it's only 9:25. I have to be here until 3:30. counting the hours....lol

Kisskiss- Girl I feel ya, I keep thinking it's later in the week myself. Plus the weather is really dreary and nasty so it's kind of sit-around-and-type-notes weather.

Munster- Thanks for the well-wishes! I wish I could take my fiancé to town doing my exercise routines, but he loves to work out and is good at it! We always seem to have competitions going as to who can lift more and I think I beat him once. (It was on a leg press, I did 150 and he did maybe 130? Not sure.)

Kawaii- I know, right? That was over a month though, not just all at once, so it wasn't too bad. I have recovered from that particular illness, and I'm feeling a bit better. :)

Rainbow- Thanks for the well-wishes. I understand, life happens. :)
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First weigh-in tonight for Biggest Winner! I am kind of apprehensive about what the scale will say, but I'm sure it will be fine. My mom and my sister are doing it with me. They went to their weigh-in earlier in the day. :)

I have been recovering from a nasty cold (not the previous illness mentioned). Since I am recuperating, I have lost a few stray pounds due to not being too hungry, but not the massive weight loss I had before. I am okay with that though, I know this sounds hokey, but I would much rather lose weight by taking care of myself rather than not taking care of myself.

Other than that, I have been keeping busy. Doing lots of schoolwork and driving back and forth to school two days a week. Nothing really exciting. Still trying to figure out a tentative venue for my wedding, nothing yet though because apparently you have to have a membership at my previous venue and the guests have to pay to come in, and we nixed that pretty fast. Thankfully I have another 2 years and three months to figure it out! lol

Well, that's about it for now, have a great day all. :)

kisskiss Yay to have a great outfit and celebrations to look forward to! My bf is going to university in Canada and I'm going with him, hopefully for the full duration of his PhD - if the Visa Officers are kind!

namaste I always thought that if I got married it would be nice to have lots of time to plan. Hope you're feeling better, colds suck.

~Weight down again. This is good, I'm so glad it's finally happening.
My run last night sucked. I did do 6km or 5km I can't remember now, but either way, I didn't run the whole way because my legs were not having a bar of it. Seriously, I would try to keep running and my calves were so sore they just slowed to a walk without me really having much control. Worse run ever.

I got home, sat around for a while figuring out what to do with the chicken breasts I'd defrosted for dinner, made up some very average chicken and vege pasta dish, and then I started to feel sick. I took dinner to my bf at work and felt even worse.

I came home and had a shower, but still didn't feel that great, so I forced myself to eat dinner (sometimes I feel sick when I haven't eaten enough) and then got into bed. I'm wondering if there was some correlation between feeling sick and the crappy run earlier. I still feel marginal today, so I guess I'll see how the rest of the day goes before I count out a run tonight. At this stage I am thinking I'll just do my shorter loop, but sometimes you need time off right?

Hope everyone is doing well - Wednesday here for me, cannot wait for the week to be over!

Ugh. I can't keep up with everything and it is annoying.. I am going to make an appointment so that my doctor will give me some a.d.d. meds. It's killing me!! I have no idea how I made it before being on stimulation meds. No good.

I didn't make my 35 miles for February goal because the surgery; as of today I have 27.3 miles so I am not too far off! If I go another 3 tomorrow, I will have only missed 5!! But I am not going to push it, because I have a zumba class tomorrow! ($15 groupon for 10 classes!! I think so!)

And my surgery is letting me start physical therapy. I wasn't able to start before because I had a deductible which caused a $270 copay! But now it is free!! Ok well off to try to do some homework and shower.

beahawkins 27.3 miles out of 35 is great! I wonder how many I've done this month. Also good news about the physical therapy, that's awesome.

TOM is killing me :(

I am having intense food cravings and feel HUGE. How do yall deal with it? :(

Rainbow strip: thanks I'm actually really proud of myself. I normally count calories and but I think I like this much better!

Soft speaker: I am horrible at managing cravings. Try drinking a big glass of water before reaching for it. Or I learned this from a book about a girl with an eating disorder but if you don't go to that extent I find it helpful. Everytime you have a craving paint your nails. You can't eat when your nails are wet so by the time your nails are dry your craving will hopefully be gone..

Well I am sitting in the hall way before class and freaking out. His is the first class I've attented for this class (last week I was out from surgery and then Tuesday was canceled) and today, today I have a humongous test!!! Yay!!! I am so excited.

I was able to get appointment to get my concentration fixed hopefully it will be fixxed within the week I start it my grades are suffering

SoftSpeaker Cravings suck. When TOM comes around, I always leave some calories spare to eat some chocolate or whatever else I'm craving - within reason. If I want fast food, I'll have a cheeseburger and small fries - none of this extra large everything. If I want chocolate, I'll have a fun size bar. I can't really be strict enough to keep anything off limits forever, because I know it won't work long term. Also I am trying to drink more water because I totally mistake thirst for hunger!

beahawkins I'm totally not anti-medication or anything, but have you tried any natural remedies for your concentration? I know this isn't that helpful but I seem to recall there are some natural remedies or something that can help with your concentration. I'm thinking Omega 3s like those found in salmon and "healthy" oils. Hah, sorry, I know that sounds silly. Hope the test went ok!

Rainbowstripe: I've tried the natural stuff but it doesn't work and I've like doubled/tripled up on the dosage. My thyroid keeps most vitamins and stuff like it from absorbing in my system but the weight loss meds I was on before helped me a lot. I don't know if they may have absorbed quicker or something? I think now that I am off of the meds I notice the concentration issues 100 times as much.