Hello everyone!

Well the move went well! Only lost one tiny little screw that holds one of my kitchen cabinet shelves in place during the process, so I call it a success. My boyfriend was such a super star, he carried all my heavy furniture with the moving guy (I paid for the cheaper 1 man service >_>) so I was so happy to have him there on the day. On Friday night I ordered us pizza, which was so bad and so good at the same time. Packing took me a lot longer than I thought. I really did think I didn't have that much stuff, but boy was I wrong!

I've settled in nicely to the new room. Got my projector/PS3 set up nicely so I'm happy with that! Having an entertainment space is quite important, considering I'm about to be jobless! My new roomies have been really chilled out about my move and haven't given off any awkward vibes. We both just do our own thing so it's pretty great really, I still feel like I've got a sense of privacy. I had such a great lunch/dinner made for me...omelet and potatoes for lunch and a courgette pasta for dinner. I unintentionally had a veggie day!
I know I'll have to step it up and cook some healthier food for these guys. They're both not super health conscious but I can tell that they value a good nutritious meal. I don't want to shock them with any really bad unhealthy cooking!

Last night we went out to celebrate the move, we went to a bar/restaurant (izakaya) and had food and drinks. They have this Russian roulette type game where you order a certain number of pieces of the same food and then one of them is filled with a super spicy ingredient. So there were these fish rolls and one of them was stuffed with wasabi. On the first round I got it, oh man my nose was on fire since wasabi just shoots straight up into your face holes! Unlucky!
But on a side note my friend recorded us doing it to get our reaction on camera. When the video was played back to me...god I was pretty horrified with how big I looked. I'm sure you've all been there, seen that one picture where you think "oh my god." But it just really bummed me out seeing it. I didn't act like anything was wrong but I still remember the feeling. I think it sort of dawned on me that I have made it back into the 160's after getting into the 140's 2 years ago (2 years!!!). But I know that once I've left my job then I have to focus and shift this weight pronto with this challenge or I'm going to be seriously unhappy! It sucked to see myself revert back to stage where I'm uncomfortable looking at pictures/videos of myself, but it's also a serious wake up call to get my act together and do something about it.

But anyway, we continued our celebrations into the night, drank WAY too much and way too fast and felt AWFUL. Had to be taken care of by my friends/bf (didn't puke but was reaaallly out of it), I felt like my body was just rejecting everything! Glad I didn't puke though! My friend was like "we're just too old for drinking games!" and I think that's so true!! Couldn't believe how quickly my body shut down!

Tomorrow begins my last week at the school. It's going to be very strange saying goodbye to the kids, I don't think I'll cry but I might get close! I've gotten so attached to some of them.

That's it from me! I think I'm gonna get through this week and then seriously get back in the game with the challenge. I'll have plenty of time and there'll be no excuses!

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Silver - I'm curious, how come you're focused on squats? Definitely a good idea to ease into a crazy work out routine! Lol at your kitty being mad at you for taking away a box!! Carbs are a huge part of my day too...I eat a sandwich every single day! It's been a LONG time since I've regulated my food intake...which is something that I'm aiming towards so I'll probably be having a similar outburst too soon! But I think that carbs aren't the devil that they are usually thought of.

kailpea - Great job on succeeding at phase 2!! What wonderful news!

Dott - Wow, Dott, you're so beautiful! I'm so glad your concert went amazingly well, and hells yeah on showing your boyfriends parents how it's DONE! I can't imagine how satisfied you were!! Do you think there'll be a video of your performance? I'd love to see it! So happy to hear you're balancing your previous goals with your current ones. I thought exercising every day was a pretty ambitious first goal, so definitely be proud of it! And yay on the scale finally budging for you!

Rie - So glad that your move went so well!! Moving sucks! Sounds like you had an enjoyable couple of days anyway. I bet seeing that video was quite the kick in the pants for you :) I know for me, those moments can be huge motivators (occasionally the opposite and end up drowning my sorrows in bucket of ice cream lol) Don't you hate that moment of realization, that you're too old to get all drunk and disorderly like you used be able to do?

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I think I thought squats and planks were going to be a whole lot easier than they were lol. I forget that my knees suck and make horrible gross crunching grinding noises all the time! Not cool. I had hoped that they would be a good starting out point anyway, helping my get some core balance and strength. My legs are strong, knees are weak :( I know carbs are not nearly as bad as some people can make them out to be, it is just that I have noticed that they do tend to make me WAY WAY hungrier than I should be. If I were to eat a big filling plate of pasta salad or potato salad (it would be delicious!) and filling for the time, but it seems that less than an hour later and I have got the grumbles again. I want to eat ALL OF THE PASTA SALAD. Not just a little! So, I am hoping that by at least reducing those sorts of carbs will help me with my seemingly never ending munchies! (I don't really worry too much about any of the fruit and veggie carbs)

Dott - Nice work hitting your goals for the week :D Carbs are a PITA to try to track I have decided, so screw that noise! lol. I am still going to make an effort to have less bread and pasta.

Bought a new scale over the weekend. It is 2lbs more than my old one :( Not cool, not cool at all. 2 more lbs that I had hoped to be rid of already ;)

I emailed the fancy gym that I am considering switching to, and inquired about hiring a personal trainer for a week or two. I have no idea how much these things cost, but I would love to have someone show me for reals how to use the things at the gym! I hope to hear back from them soon! I measured everything I possibly could this weekend (Sunday was out for dinner, I ballparked as best as I could) Saturday I ended up a little over as I needed to refuel after busting my butt trying to beat Kailpea in steps :p

For phase 3 I am just going to repeat the whole thing, even though I nailed the 60 min of strength 3 times a week part :)

last week of Feb guys! Hopefully winter will calm the f down and the temps will come up to above -20c for a while!!

Rie-So glad the move went well :D Aw thanks! Yeah there will be a professional video in a few weeks probably that I will totally post the link to! :) I totally feel you on the drinking! I too really can't drink anymore. I maybe have a drink or two, but anymore and I'm white girl wasted haha :p I'm sorry about the video :( That's rough when we're faced with those moments. Good for you though for handling the situation well. You got this though Rie, you've done it before and you will get back to the 40s again! Your life has been pretty crazy these last couple years with moving to another country and all. This break will be so good for you and I know you will get back into the swing of things and start losing again!

Silverfire-That sucks about the scale :( But you did lose all the weight you've lost even if your starting weight was 2lbs higher. Oh my! -20 :eek: I could never deal with cold weather. I hope it warms up soon for you! I think you'd really enjoy working with a personal trainer for a week to get used to the gym and equipment and stuff. Have they gotten back to you yet?

Omg I'm so depressed with the scale :( It randomly went up to 147, stayed there for 2 days, then today went up to 148. I feel so ugly and fat! I mean my clothes fit exactly the same, but the scale is really messing with me. Idk if its TOM or WHAT!? I was really hoping to get to 142 this month and I'm seriously doubting that will happen. My calories have been really good, better than normal actually and drink tons of water(12+ cups a day). Sigh. Last night I re-evaluated my calorie and exercise goals. I decided to not eat back any exercise calories, lower my calorie intake by 100 calories, and make sure to exercise 3 hours a week. I'm really hoping to keep this up for all of March as an experiment to see if it will help me get out of the 40s.

Dott - Feel you on the scale bringing you down :) I know I have lost the same number of lbs, but it just feels like I have been in the 260-50's FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER! While I know there has been some other changes happening, I really really really would like to see that hard work reflected on the scale! All we can do is tweak and try again right?

It was slightly above -20 this morning! Woo! lol

The gym emailed me back, and I have made an appointment to see the trainer on Monday. We'll asses my fitness level and go from there I suppose. She said that price varies depending on time spent with trainer (50-80 bucks! :eek:) I am hoping to find something that works for my limited budget!

Totally made spaghetti for supper last night. Mostly for my boyfriend, or so I thought, as he had a rough day and needed some feel good food. Then I realized it's about that time of the month again and decided I was probably just using him as an excuse for having pasta... I'm not sure if it actually triggered a binge, or I assumed just it was going to... I ended up overeating last night anyway. I ate way too many dried cranberries, and followed that up with some canned salmon with some miracle whip! (pushed me over about 500 cals!) Ate until my stomach hurt. Damn :(

Back to the gym today, work off those extra calories :)

Happy Hump Day Ya'll

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So I decided that my Phase 3 exercise goal is to do c25k/other cardio. 3 times a week and strength train 2 times a week. it's been a rough week at work (already) Monday was super busy and yesterday was just one crisis after another. . . so I haven't been in the mood after work to go to the gym. Plus with school I have two exams for the same class next week that I have been study super hard for. I have to get an A in the this class because I am trying to get into a VERY competitive nursing program. Not to mention having to studying for the standardized test that I have to score in the 90 percentile range to get into the program. I take that in May. Ahhh!

I did get to the gym this morning and did W2D1 of C25K over again and did about an hour and a half of strength training. Probably was really only an hour of actual doing things because I was making notes in my phone of what I was doing. Feel pretty good about it. Since I didn't do my first workout until today, I'll have to go on Friday after work and then on Sunday sometime to make sure I get my goals met for the week.

Came home from the gym and I am absolutely starving. Its supposed to be one of my veggie days but I don't have anything made yet and i don't have the time or energy to do that right now. I did have a Veggie Pizza in the freezer so warming it up in the oven as week speak and that's going to have to suffice for now. Not the best thing in the world, but I can't bring myself to cook right now. Gotta Study!

Silverfire You are doing so great with the steps. Totally killing me this week. I have to step it up I just haven't been able to find the time. Last night I didn't break 6000 steps, which is my goal for non exercise days.

Dott The scale has been getting the better of me too lately, so I totally feel you. I feel like I'm hanging onto the end of a yo-yo.

Hi everyone! I've just come back to 3FC after some time away, and determined to pick up where I left off.

This challenge sounds great - I've just read through every post on the thread so I feel like I know you all a bit already! I'd love to get involved, need to really think about my goals. I work out a lot, but really struggle with food control. I'll have a think about some achievable phases later today and hopefully get started after the weekend!

Yay! A new person! Welcome themilesawaygirl! This is such a great challenge, awesome to have another person participating!

:welcome: themilesawaygirl!!

Kailpea - School sounds brutal! You're doing awesome juggling it all I'd say! WTG getting C25k and strength training in!

I have been pretty diligent about weighing and measuring everything, re-training myself as to what proper portions look like. I have gotten to the point where, when I'm too lazy to dirty a measuring spoon or cup for a little snack, I'll put whatever it is on the scale, zero it, and just munch out of the container! Works great for things like cottage cheese or big tubs of yogurt!

The scale was kind to me today and I'm down to 253.6! :woohoo: No job #2 this week is bringing my steps average down a bit, and with the ridiculous temperatures predicted for tomorrow, I don't really plan on leaving my house if I can't help it (-57 with the wind!)

Monday I have an appointment with the head trainer at the fancy pants gym I plan on switching to. I am excited and nervous. I really am hoping she is going to be understanding of what my goals are and that I am really not looking for a full on training program. ( at 50-80 bucks an hour, Can NOT afford very much of that!) I don't want to be pressured I guess. I am really looking forward to trying out the gym though, budget gym I currently go to is getting worse and worse. More and more machines are breaking down and not being fixed. It's super busy and I am constantly having to wait. Fancy pants gym has a steam room too that I may just never ever ever leave!

Today I'll have finished my exercise goals for the week too :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Silverfire-Great job the weighing and measuring. I too have to be really careful about that! You are doing sooo well in this challenge! Seriously your weight loss is amazing! Let us know how the training session goes at the fancy gym. Regarding the trainer, people go to gyms all the time and get a session or two with a trainer just to show them the ropes/ set them up with a basic plan, show them proper form ect. So I imagine she will understand and not pressure you :)

Kailpea-Great job getting your exercise in! Good luck with the studying, I'm sure you'll do well. I remember all the stress my sister went through before getting into nursing school.

TheMilesAwayGirl-How are the goals coming? :) I used to be like you with exercise being so easy but the eating being out of control and now I'm totally the opposite :dizzy:

Had an AWFUL week. But its over and now its spring break :D I hardly got any sleep last week and so today I slept in till 10 :o I'm at my boyfriends this weekend for our one year anniversary :val2: We're going to this nice vegan place for dinner. I'm excited to get dressed up! Scale is still stupid. I'm about to start TOM though, so maybe that's why its been psycho? Its been hanging around 144/145 area. Bleh. Wasn't able to go hiking during the week, too much craziness and we're having a storm. Really need to get out this weekend so I can make my goal for the week!

Silverfire I really need to start weighing my food. I think it would really help! I notice I just kinda eyeball things and I am sure, I am completely over calories because of it!

Dottington Is your boyfriend vegan? When I met my husband I was a vegetarian for about 2 years and I had been doing the vegan thing for a few months. and then very slowly I strayed away from it mostly because I found it very difficult to cook two different sets of dinners for the two of us and I got really tired of having to mainly order salads or restaurants bland attempts to have a vegetarian dish on the menu. Part of my nutrition challenge is to get back to that. It's just very difficult because my husband has zero cooking skills so him I don't cook for him he is going to live off of frozen pizzas and fast food (which we can't afford) and while he is willing to try some vegetarian dishes, he does't prefer it.

A "lovely" snow/ice storm has decided hit my area, but I decided to man up and drive myself to the gym anyway today to get my last Cardio and Strength session in before tomorrow as I had planned. Of course, as I am backing out I realized that my back tire is completely flat. I called my Dad, and he came over to help me because I managed to jack my car up but my tire wouldn't come off to put the spare on! My dad couldn't figure it out either! So I am stranded at home until tomorrow when I can get a can of fix-a-flat and drive my car somewhere to get the tire fixed. =/ I might take my hubby's car tonight to the gym when he gets of work so I can complete this week of the challenge. I don't want to restart!

Kailpea-he isn't. In fact when we met he claimed to be vegetarian but really not serious about it. Later I found out he ate meat all the time at home! Turns out being veggie was something he wanted to do but hadn't put the time into :p Anyways, he's now strict about it. When I cook, sometimes I will make him separate dishes, but mostly he eats what I eat. Also, we only go places I can eat(which it can be difficult finding dairy free, gluten free vegetarian options). That's rough with you having to do separate meals :/ I'm lucky since my bf really likes lots of vegan food. I think its great you're moving more towards being veggie again! My bf can't cook either and I know during the week he eats tons of frozen food and fast food too :( It makes me sad knowing he eats so poorly when I'm not around.

Last night went out to an amazing dinner! The place we went is a gluten free vegan Japanese restaurant. It was very nice and the service was incredible. Also they took this really cute photo of us holding a heart(bf let them know it was our anniversary) and put it in a card and gave it to us at the end! Yesterday was awesome. I'm posting the pick they took of us :) I didn't count calories yesterday. First time in a lonnnggg time I haven't, but I'm not feeling guilty about since it was a special occasion(still got veggies in too). And I didn't go crazy anyways. Looking forward to doing well with week and staying on plan. Really hoping for a loss on the scale soon!

Kailpea - You should, it's easy and pretty convenient. To get myself to do it more, I bought a cute and colorful digital scale that I have no problem leaving out in plain sight. If it's right there, I am going to be far more inclined to use it. When I'm making just about anything, I'll just put the plate on it, zero it and log things as I fill my plate.

Dott - Awwww you guys are so cute! You look so radiant!! It sounds like you had a wonderful anniversary too. I think there are a few occasions where skipping the calorie counting for a night is totally acceptable :D

Man, I could not be a vegetarian. I am a Carnivore through and through. :lol: Props to you guys!

Well, I met with the trainer yesterday. I think it went pretty well, until the price tags rolled out. Jebus! I literally laughed in her face (nicely) when she tried to suggest a 9 month program at the low low price of $180 Bi-weekly. Sh!t son, I could buy a brand new car for that kind of money!! I KNOW they heard me, the 3 times I said, "I am not looking for a full on training program". Anyway, they do offer an "Intro" program for 3-6 weeks for 170-280 bucks. Much more what I was looking for, and I was fully expecting the up-sell anyway.

Dollar value aside, she put me on the fancy body composition scale thingy. Didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know. I'm fat. :lol: I was pleased to see that my scales numbers were all pretty similar to theirs. We didn't dooo much in the gym, I picked a few things up and put them down. She got me to do a couple of body-weight type things on the TRX(?) That was fun, and they laughed when I said that I have too much body-weight for body-weight exercises. She was impressed with my handle on my nutrition, I told her I've been doing this for a while and have been super strictly measuring again. I also explained to her what the C25K was and how far along I am and such. She did tell me I should actually UP my calorie intake a bit, she thought that 1400 was pretty low and I should probably be shooting more towards 1700-1900 range, I feel that's a bit high for me, but I might calorie cycle a couple of (healthy) high calorie days into my week. I'm pretty impressed with the rest of the gym too. What a difference from the cheapo gym. All the machines work. There huge TV's on all the cardio things. There is a thing called an AMT. It's made of magic I swear. I'm gunna be spending quite a bit of time on that one for sure! Oh, It's got a STEAM ROOM. I'm pretty sure it was the thing that sold me on this gym in fact. I was disappointed that it wasn't made of cedar. Oh the smell of cedar steam room. Standard sized towels meant that I needed to use two to have a steam (Thankfully the place was deserted so I didn't feel totally ridiculous) I have packed an appropriate for me sized towel for today. I did however manage to leave my shirt there yesterday :(

Silverfire-That is really expensive! But the intro program does seem much more reasonable. I would agree with the trainer on the calories. When I first started I was working out with a personal trainer and eating 1800 calories and losing consistently. Now 1400 is what I'm aiming for to lose the last 20lbs. The AMT looks so cool! I'm so glad you love your new gym, it really sounds amazing!

Pre-TOM cravings have been AWFUL the past couple days :( Was trying to be back on track but still wasn't' totally back on track, ended up eating maintenance yesterday. Bleh. Going hiking today with my dad. I will be back on plan today!

Hello everyone!

Well my last week at work has been and gone! The students wrote me lots of sweet messages, some of the Mums even bought me gifts! There were some really thoughtful ones, such as a collage of pictures one Mum had taken of me and her son over the last year. Another was a tote bag with my name on it!! So generous!!

I went out with my co-workers on my final day. Oh man, so emotional! My American co-worker went around the table and said nice things about everyone, but ended up on me and said the sweetest things. I definitely got the impression I was going to be missed, one co-worker even started to cry! It was so hard for me not to break down and cry! They gave me a Totoro photo album since I'd been taking pictures all week =). Afterwards we went to karaoke and had a blast singing and dancing! I even got a song sang to me, Green Day's Good Riddance. The lyrics were so perfect! "It's something unpredictable but in the end is right, I hope you had the time of your life." He got a super hug!

When I got home I broke down and cried! All the emotion just overwhelmed me! But I have some amazing memories and some life long friends, so I'm happy that it ended on such a high note. I know I'll see them again soon but it was still an end of an era.

I spent the weekend with my boyfriend, I got really sick on Saturday =(. It was perfect timing really, so happy it didn't hit me in full on my last day. I didn't really do much for the rest of the weekend, just took it easy and made my new life plan!

I want to try and not succumb to being lazy for the next few months. The worse thing that can happen is just napping all the time and not getting anything done. So I wrote up my daily schedule, which I'm about to bore you with now:
- Wake up
- Eat breakfast/Read
- Chores
- Exercise
- Eat lunch/Shower
- Productivity time!
- Shop for dinner/Cook
- Watch a film/TV
- Write
- Chill

Productivity for me just means write, draw, travel/explore Tokyo, email friends, update my blog, film/photography stuff - generally things that make me happy!! I want to make sure I do at least 1 thing that makes me feel like I achieved something in the day to benefits me.

As for weight loss and health, I'm planning on starting my exercise with 5k training. I know that I'm capable of pushing myself with 10K training, but I really want to ease back into running. I'm going to dish out my pyramid and get back on track with my goals too! Stick to meal plans and strength train at least once a week - I can do it! Easy peasy now I have all this free time, I GOT THIS!! I'm going to weigh myself tomorrow morning and see the damage I did over the last few weeks and then work hard to make things better.

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Silver - Before I forget, can you appease my annoyingly anal self and complete your row on the Phase 2 spreadsheet? If I don't see date completed then I assume you've not finished! But I know you have! Yeah, I've definitely realised recently my body just doesn't do well with alcohol! I used to be able to slam that shiz back and dance all night, but now I just get sleepy!! I think squats and planks are really hard!! It takes a while to master them! The hump day picture made me laugh so much. I would totally be a veggie too...if meat weren't so freaking DELICIOUS. Nomnomnom, couldn't live without burgers! Yeah, I once had a gym person try and sell me personal training and I found it hard not to laugh at them. Who am I, Beyonce? I can't afford that shiz!

Dott - Sometimes it's important to really "feel out" your weight, rather than judge yourself on what the number on the scale tells you. You said it yourself that your clothes fit you well, so use that to lift your move!! It's so easy to get affected when you weigh yourself often, I had to stop because I was getting really bummed out. Woohoo, spring break!! Congrats on your 1 year with your boyfriend <3. That picture is freakin' adorable. What a lovely thing for the restaurant to do!! I'm sorry you've been feeling down recently, but don't feel down on yourself. You're amazing, you can do it!

kailpea - Hang in there!! Sounds like life has been throwing you some serious dodge balls, but you can get through it!

milesawaygirl - You're here!! SO glad to see you! Please tell us your goals!!

Rie-I'm so glad you had a great last week and were able to leave on such a high note :) That was so sweet of your coworkers and it seems like you will be missed by a lot of people. I actually love reading other people's schedules haha I just love schedules, I know I need to make them for myself otherwise I get lost in the day :dizzy: Your plan sounds solid, doable, and fun :) Yeah I think you're right about needing to rely less on the scale for my happiness. I need to remember to go more off clothing and measurements and how I feel and not let the scale dictate that.

Yesterday I went on a hike with my dad. I didn't have a ton of time and have been feeling so out of shape and "fat" lately. I knew we'd go on a difficult hike so we picked one that was 4 miles and I figured since it was up a mountain that I'd only be able to do 2mph so planned on it taking 2 hours. Man, I don't know how I get so down on myself! I should know I'm in way better shape then that, but yeah that's how low I've been thinking of myself. Anyways we start off and I'm not having much trouble at all. The hike(up a peak) turned out being twice as long as my dad thought and so it ended up being 8 miles. Our average speed was 2.8mph and we did 1600ft vertical ft :carrot: It took only 2.5 hours. I actually think my dad orchestrated the whole thing to show me that I'm in way better shape than I realize, bc he knows how I can get :p It really boosted my confidence.

Hope everyone is having a good week!