Good morning feathers! You guys make me feel so special, gosh.

My official weigh in is tomorrow, but I snuck a peek today - ugh, I'm up 2lbs. It's not TOM or anything, I just went way overboard last weekend with sushi and alcohol and nachos and I am still paying the price. Bah. Maybe if I drink enough water today I'll be at least a little closer to what I was tomorrow.

I've been walking the dog every morning for the last few months for about a mile, but it was rainy and gross this morning so I couldn't, ugh. And it's supposed to SNOW tonight! WHAT.

I have a question for you ladies -- is there anything you eat that you KNOW is making your weight loss go slower, but you can't give it up? I have a serious affinity for WINE and I have cut back to a glass a night instead of a bottle, but I can't seem to give up that glass. I work it into my calories, though. Some studies say a glass a night is fine, some even say that it's good for you, but I just drink it because I like it. I also can't give up my coffee creamer -- it's Almond Joy flavored and 35 calories a tbsp, but it's my favorite. And lately I've been having a square of a Trader Joe's dark chocolate bar every night before bed.

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krampus: Wacky tobacky definitely doesn't count, nothing in there that will hurt anyone, and I am a fan. Except when I raid my pantry/fridge afterwards. (you, too?) Are you finding that you have cravings since you quit? When I was a (cigarette) smoker I wouldn't really eat much sugar, but I found in the months after quitting I would crush a king sized Snickers without batting an eye. My mom bought be sugar free lollipops, I had 11 of them one day and found out they had a laxative effect. Oh joy! That vacation sounds perfect and relaxing, it's nice to not have everything pre-planned and just go with it while you're there, I bet you'll have a kickass time.

Alexistrophic: Thank you, lovely! I agree, this place is much more therapeutic than any ED recovery site I've found (because most of the time, even when girls are recovering, they are comparing illnesses/safe foods/bmis/etc) and this is just a positive board -- I'm glad we're both here. I should find a female trainer. My boyfriend and I have also talked about getting some kind of home gym too. I have a treadmill at my mother's I could bring home, and we have a spare room at the moment. I'm excited to hear more about this army guy from you! Looks like you're doing great!

TurboMammoth - YES we have our tickets, someone at the arena was smart enough to put off printing last year just in case there was a lockout, so now they're rushing to get everything printed this week. Our first home game is next Tuesday, the arena is SOLD OUT, and my beau traded in our seats for this game and ponied up more money to get us Champion Club tickets (which is like, a nice private box with staff and whatnot) and we got new jerseys. I'm sorry your boyfriend rage quit your team, I think a lot of people got really frustrated. My puppy is great, it was his birthday yesterday, I will post a picture of him with his cupcake. Your chili sounds great, I'm making some Saturday while we watch the Hurricanes first away game -- I always use lean beef, but I bought turkey, I hope it's good, never done turkey before. I wish I could make banana muffins, but I would eat them all in one go. How is the weather up there? I'm excited that we're all going to have our weights back down to where we want!

kakers: I calorie count too! What app do you use? I do myfitnesspal, it always has me at 1200 a day but I usually eat closer to 1350. I NEED A VIRTUAL SMACK! I want to be back on the wagon! I want to lose this damn weight! I MISS MY JEANS! I have 10 pairs of jeans and can only wear 2!!!! I'm glad to see you're dropping, in spite of TOM -- that just means after TOM you'll be even lower. You do gymnastics? Color me IMPRESSED. I don't think I can even touch my toes. Gymnast bodies are always so lithe and strong too, like dancers. I hear you about the cold -- I'm ready for SUMMER.

sontaikle - WOW you have dropped even more since I was last here! 112!? Nice work chica! In regards to the job -- HECK YEAH you should do it! Life is about taking risks. Plus, 4 PT jobs sounds confusing as heII. I understand the hesitation, I've lived in the same city my entire life. But there is a GREAT BIG world out there and you should live in it!! Good luck with your phone interview! BTW, play any new games lately? I just beat Catherine, ever played it? Oh man, what a complete mind-f*ck. I clicked through your blog, I LOVE your Sailor Jupiter outfit, I was always partial to Sailor Venus myself. <3

Jossfit - Almost missed you! Haha, are you kidding, anytime I'm sad I'm going to leave for a while and come back just to GET that reception! That's excellent that you are ALREADY down, d*mn lady! Getting it done! I think you gave the weight to me though. A 4 day weekend sounds fantastic, I hope you get to relax a bit. I don't really have the money for a personal trainer, haha. But maybe as a Valentine's present or something, or maybe I'll keep checking Groupon -- they always have gym specials going on, especially this time of year. I'm going to check out ALL of those site while I'm here at work. If I can manage to go into a gym KNOWING what I'm going to do and pop in some ear buds and look unavailable to chat, that would be perfect. Thanks for the kick in the butt, I am going to throw myself at this weight lifting thing and see what happens. I'm proud of you, you're doing great!

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Here is Dorian and his (dog safe) birthday cupcake yesterday. He is 5 years old. I want his to stop aging.

Turbo ~ Hurray for being back on the wagon! That extra weight'll just fall right off. I'm with you in being up a weight decade, but hopefully that'll drop down soon. I do enjoy Miss Dalia and her lifting. And yes, feminism says "I'm doing this for myself." and you're right that it is nice to have a goal. lol - Have you eaten your pineapple yet?

kakers ~ Smack duly received. Strangelly, after the time I spent not eating well, it's been pretty easy to get back into the swing of things. How does your gymnastics program work? Is it monthly or quarterly? Love that kind of stuff and it's super that you're doing it for yourself.

Sontaikle ~ Go for the job!!! Madison's a great area and the cost of living is super low. If nothing else, ace the interview and make them BEG you to come over. (You can always decline if you get cold feet, but you seem like the kind of girl that'd be up for a challenge.) It just seems like a great opportunity all around. Good luck!!!

Joss ~ So you like the bones of steel, then. I saw your comment about Ms. Dalia and I can see how she might be a bit thin for some people's tastes. The comparison question was grasping at straws and I agree that she is quite thin in general. I actually think she looks great and I'd love to look like that, but I don't think that's realistic for me, either.

On the topic of weight, I've actually discussed the whole weight issue with the SAG and his "excuse" was two-fold. First, "I'm the right weight to do my job." Fine. And second: "You can try to fight genetics, but you'll lose..." And that is where I threw a bit of a fit. Excuse me? I fight genetics every damn day... Don't you TELL Me that it's not possible to fight genetics. But he did look a bit bigger last time I saw him and I'm hoping that it might just be that it's never been a priority for him to take care of himself like that. Although *see comment below*


Day #3 on 17 Day Plan - Cycle 1
I'm feeling fantastic. Got up and made scrambled eggs this morning, then had my two servings of fruit (which do wonders for me in the digestive arena) and am tackling work like a pro. I forget how dang good it feels to be focused sharp and eating well. Packed a lunch of chicken breast + celery + avocado. Lookin' forward to it, too!

I've dropped about 5lbs of "water weight" so that's a great feeling, too. Am just trying to stay super disciplined on the food plan. So far, so good!

On and up!

Dorian5 ~ *cross post* What a cuuuuuuutttteeeee puppyyyyy!!!! Happy birthday, pup!

kakers : oh yeah for the weight dropping! what is this new app?

Sontaikle : Okay, first, I need to say : I laughed so hard at the 'I just like shopping now'' LOL. It was written in such a casual way..!

Did you have your interview yet? What were your feeling of the compagny?

Trying something new like that could be thrilling. As you said, it is both exciting and both scary... But as you say, if you don't like it, you still have your car with you, you can still move back in NY!

I guess I'm just a big ''Why not!?'' kind of person, so if it was just me, it would be a big ''go for it and see how it goes''

Joss : This kind of training must be suuuuch a change compared to the ones you used to do! Oh and how I hate the xylitol chewing gums! lol!

my walk of shame was neutral today! My WI was the same as yesterday, but it is fine with me

For the Fat Fighters, yeah, the Tamaya (??) is REALLY thin, too thin to my liking too (or maybe it's some brain trick that me makes not like it because my brain knows I'll never be able to obtain a figure like that? LOLZ). The high heel class looked so FUN!

For the hip... I never got anything in the first place, because, well, Im broke (I put a smiley there but it is not funny lol I guess it's a I'm laughing instead of crying situation!). Going to a public thing would not cost me a thing, but because it's not a priority thing, I could wait MONTHS before getting a RMI (like 4 to 6 months). I could go to a private clinic, but again, I'm broke. But that was weird, after the run, I was feeling kinda okay, it was the next day that was feeling weird, after a night where my sleeping position was weird too. I'm trying to be conscious of how I sleep and how I sit for the past 2 days : what if it was related to that!? Anyhow, I called my bank today so withdraw some money from some investments so I can survive for a few weeks and I might take a few of those bucks to get an apointment to my physiotherapist, to know where I am standing. And again, the boyfriend said I might have started back to strong. I'm gonna do some walk run walk from now on... But it still sucks.

Dorian : If you count your wine in your calories thingy, you are probably alright! If it is something you like and not something you binge on, why not?

your doggyyyy is so cuuuuute. he seems mesmerized but the cupcake hihihih.

Luckyyyy you, for your hockey tickets box thing! I love how people at your place love hockey, not like people in Pheonix or something. I remember when it was the All Star games there (last year? the year before?) and the boyfriend and I were so surprise to see so many people cheering there! Who are they playing at your first home game where you have the Champion Tickets?

The first game of the Habs is saturday against Toronto (Habs and Maple Leafs = big passion hate for decades LOL) but I don't know where is the game. Anyway we'll miss it, we are eating at the new place of a friend and he doesn't have TV yet lol. The boyfriend is sad! (Did you got a specific player jersey? I have a habs t shirt but my player got traded last year... LOL)

The weather is weird, it rained last week, we lost almost all our great fluffly snow we got over Christmas Now it is just cold Ahahah!

Alexis : Oh, Army Guy! This is such a random comment!? I mean, what kind of things to say was that... Aww. Boys. *sigh*

''Have you eaten your pineapple yet?'' - YESSSSSSS! I was able to cut it Sunday! (like seriously.. 6 days..) At least it was delicous :P (I was going to throw it through the window if it was crappy, after waiting for almost a freakin weeeeeek LOL)

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Yoooo. Still at 142.2 this morning. Okay with that, the pooping was discret yesterday.

This morning I woke up and I did 50 crunches and 10 kneeling pushup! OH YEAH! I'm gonna go back to this little routine morning/night. (please don't laugh at me at the KNEELING pushup, I really have some tiny little chicken arms bwahaha). That was such a great reality check, everytime I was going up to do the crunch, I had such a good view on my tummy pooch. 50 times panoramic view on the pooch : great motivation to continue!

My running world is falling down : I saw that a friend, who is a smoker and never was such a sport girl, had subscribe to a 5k in may and a 10k in september (she is training for that right now). AND my boyfriend is telling me that someone ask him to run with them in some kind of a team for a project during the half marathon of my town (I did this one last year) and he is considering trying for the half too (or the 10k). So I'm like ''WTH EVERYBODY WHO IS NOT RUNNING IS NOW RUNNING WHEN I CAN'T RUN &*&*%?/%&*&**?''. (is that bad I want to run over running people when I drive my car...)

I wanted to go for a run but I am stuck inside waiting for a call of my bank. Might do a muscles training instead and go out tomorrow. Plus I have huge plan of cleaning my closet this afternoon and piling old clothes to give away. Oh and I sent out a resume for a job too. I feel so efficient ahah.ah.ah.

Wow..this is a chatty couple days.
I feel completely back OP this week. Saw some drop today but I think it's just water because I did not lift yesterday. My strength is back and I definetly feel less bloated.

I'm having "ground hog" days at work...everyday is feeling the same. LOL

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Dorian...Welcome back! I cannot give up wine or coffee creamer either. I use real creamer though 10% (no sugar). I drink a huge coffee every morning (Starbucks Venti), and 4/7 days another one at night. I tried it black and I can't do it. I don't drink through the week anymore, but I drink at least 3 glasses (generous pours) Friday AND Saturday. I know this is hurting my progress, but I can't give it up. I've learned to really watch what I eat on the weekends so I can include alcohol in my daily calories. And I have self-control 9/10 times to not eat any munchies when I'm drinking. This is one reason I have not yet seriously invested in a program/trainer. Until I can wrap up the alcohol, I won't be giving 100%.

Alex...The first days of clean eating are the best. It's not a perfect plan, but it did wonders for me to get on the "eat cleaner" wagon. I still find myself checking out the book once and a while as I have it on my iPad. Good for you, because I find the first days the hardest!

Sontaikle...This could be a new chapter in your life...I say go for the move! You can always move back if things don't work out.

KakersHope you had a good holiday! Glad to see someone did not do too much damage! lol!

Lockitup...Good weigh-in girl!

Krampus...I would never have guessed you were a former smoker. Congrats for quitting! That is one bad habit I'm glad I did not take-up. My dad died of small cell lung cancer from smoking. He was a pack a day guy. It's a terrible type of cancer and it's very aggressive.

Turbo...Good for you getting back on track. I feel completely back on track too, but it did take some pushing for sure. I feel a lot more strength this week.

Ohtheplaces....You actually did very well for 4 days of drinking and eating with friends and a wedding!

Jossfit...You don't have to worry. We all try things we know that don't work long-term or aren't really the answer. I think we're all obbsessed here with scale...or we would not be hanging out in weight forum. LOL! We try not to be, but we are. If I could break one habit, I'd like to break weighing-in daily! I would not have a hard time with sugar...I don't eat it and I can't have sweetners. I get a fuzzy tongue and lips when I have artificial sweetners. The diet sounds exactly like the one I am reading on bodybuilding.com. I actually don't follow the site much, I stummbled accross the blog through another site.

krampus I am at least proud of myself for being active and at a healthy weight. Even if I don't lose another pound, I have comfort knowing that I am active now and 50 lbs lighter than a year ago. And I also eat much healthier in general... when I'm not eating a bunch of junk food that is. I have always had a bit of a crutch with junk food, but even during the holidays when I ate way too much dessert, I always made sure my actual meals were balanced with veggies and what not. That is a big improvement, as one of my friends can vouch for, I actually chose a meal once at a restaurant based on the fact that it did not come with a side of veggies, I think my exact words were "I don't want to eat vegetables on my birthday!"

Dorian5 Welcome back! I don't think I was posting when you were on here, but I was at least stalking the thread, as I do remember you. In any case, I never had a problem with fake sugars before. I cut out soda completely, and never decided to buy diet soda until I was already down about 50 lbs. Since I've been struggling with motivation lately, I find it helps me to allow myself something sweet, so I've been having a diet soda per day. I'm not sure if that is a lot, but it is a lot more than what I'd like, at least.

Joss Nice to hear you are dropping a bit of that water weight. I myself was hoping to drop a bit more of it. Actually, I'm not sure at this point I can attribute any of the weight loss to water weight. I think it could be possible that I'm ovulating, as my weight is always sticker during that time, but it's hard to say because of irregular periods. I just keep trying to remind myself that my water weight doesn't typically drop right away. It tends to stick around a bit, and then I'll usually have a big drop after 5 or 6 days on plan. Today is day 5 on plan, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what the rest of the week brings.

Alexistrophic Glad to hear you are dropping water weight too! Keep at it

Turbo I know how it feels to be up and weight and too ashamed to post it. I haven't updated my current weight in ages, because I've been in denial. I think once I hit my next official weigh in, I'll start updating it again. At least that will get me to the point where I can't claim any more of it is water weight, and it will be a true reflection of where I'm at.

I hope your hip improves. It sure does suck when you want to exercise, but there are things you can't control that are preventing you from doing so!

kakers Good job getting back on track. It looks like all of us just suddenly decided to jump back on the band wagon this week.

sontaikle I'd say go for the move as well. You can always move back if you want to.

Bayzee Congrats on the drop. Even if it is water weight you were retaining from strength training, it's still nice to see.

oh boy, I got behind the last day or so! I've been too tired to do much more than skim on this chat from my phone!

I'll try to do a few personals, but please forgive me if I miss you!!! Not intentional, just very tired this evening! Also, I screwed things up. I was VERY tired and stressed when I got home (trigger for overeating) and I had more than half of a frozen pizza. And 2 glasses of wine. Yay, me! Not. *sigh* HAVE to get this under control. At least during the week. That's all I ask, right?

@bayzee - yay, a drop!

@Turbo - I would NEVER laugh at anyone doing kneeling push-ups! That's all I can do! I have tiny, weakling arms as well! And I agree - it's a great feeling when you're back in control. I feel the opposite right now, lol. I WAS in great control and then went back to type. Ugh.

@ALex -- oooh, what do you eat in a day (snacks, meals, etc.) So you have scrambled eggs and fruit for breakfast, chicken breast and avocado for lunch, what else? I can do all that SO easily, but I falter in the evening. In the evening I want something that doesn't taste bland, that is satisfying in some level that I don't know how to describe. Very spicy or very fatty or all of the above. Ugh. So it would never work to expect to have a chicken breast and veggies for DINNER. Lunch? Yes. But dinner it's like I need something more "exciting." I need to find that perfect diet food that I am excited enough by to have for dinner every night. Sorry, babbling! And as for singing, I think I WAS good once upon a time, but I haven't used my voice in along time and I'm very rusty!

@Dorian - HI! I didn't know ou when you were here before, but am loving your posts. My big downfall thingie is wine. Oh gosh, let me tell you. I can give up chocolate and candy and sugar of all kinds and fried foods galore, but I can't seem to give up wine for more than a few days at a time. It's so freaking satisfying to me. I have lost weight if I have wine and I do everything else right, but I do bet that it slows me down still. Aww...Lookit your puppy! So cute! And yep, you SO GET IT, that feeling of wanting/needing to call for Chinese food and even going so far as to almost order online, then valiantly closing the window and saying NO. Then angsting about. I did win a lot of those battles, although not all!

@sontaikle - I have no sage advice, since when I was younger I used to pick up and move like that and of course i don't regret it. My ex-husband and I even did that to move to new countries a few times! I am glad in the end that I had all those adventures, so I guess my advice would be to go for it. If it doesn't work out and you get homesick, you could always go back home!

@kakers - yay, weight dropping! I had that happen but then had a few baddish days of eating. Not terrible, but just not good choices in the evenings.

@krampus - You know what? You are very wise. I sort of like that idea of telling myself "[insert food that makes me gain weight] will still be there when you lose the weight!" Huh. I need to think through that!

@jossfit - It sounds like you're off to a great stop and dropping some of hte water weight already! Go you!!!! I didn't do too great at my friends' house. I had THREE slices of homemade pizza, several chips and hummus, and a mini tart-pie. So a carb-fest extraordinaire. It was all divine. Unlike the half of frozen pizza I had tonight which actually tasted terrible. Ugh. And I actually do like Greek yogurt completely plain! I might mix blueberries in sometimes, but I'm a weirdo! I don't like the sweetners or fake fruit stuff they put in flavored yogurts!

Hi again everyone!! I had the phone interview and I think it went ok. They said I should hear in two weeks if they want to progress further. It sounds like a really fun place to work, so I'm crossing my fingers!

Thanks for the words of encouragement. It DOES seem scary to even think about moving so far, but as you all said I could come back if things don't work out. I've been applying to places here still, but considering other states for teaching (I hear Virginia grabs NY certified teachers) because the opportunities here are pretty grim. I did get a subbing job in the district I live right next to, so that might lead to a permanent position, but I guess it's a wait and see from here on out.

Joss - Thank you for the advice! I do need to get out there and experience the world a bit. I've traveled, but never lived other places! Now's the time! Congrats on dropping those lbs!!

Dorian5 - Yay!! You're back! Isn't Dark chocolate supposed to suppress appetite? I may have that wrong. I love it too though, and I think I want to start eating some squares here and there 4 Part time jobs is confusing, but I managed it. So far one of them didn't quite start yet, but I can't wait until it does. Video game wise I just finished Assassin's Creed III! I love that series

Alexistropic - Thank you!! I hope all of this works out. If not for the job then another job hopefully. congrats on sticking to plan and dropping the water weight!

TurboMammoth - I had the interview and it sounds like a fun place to work. The tech field always seems to be that way with some of these big companies, so getting in one of them might be a nice place to be! And I do love shopping now! clothes shopping is too fun…I purposely got an Old Navy credit card so I could get rewards in the form of free clothes!

JessicaB - Yes, you're totally right! I could always move back. It would probably be easier to do that then to move somewhere else where I don't have friends and family I could crash with Crossing my fingers that this all works out!!

olehcat - It sounds like fun moving around like that! I always envied people who just picked up and moved. It sounded like they had exciting lives Don't worry about what you ate! tomorrow is a new day and a new clean slate!

TGIF Feathers!

I quick drive-by on my break. I feel fantastic this week. Finally, I feel back to being less bloated, sluggish and having less of a 5 month pregnancy belly! LOL! Still sitting at 116, but it's only 1.6 lbs now away from my pre-trip weight.

I stayed 100% OP and woke up early 3 days this week for workouts. I realize that I love a.m. workouts. It makes me feel more energized throughout the day. I am NOT a morning person and I already get up early enough, so this is a huge accomplishment.

Let's talk protein powder for a minute. As I mentioned before, I am perhaps allergic to artificial sweetners. I get fuzzy/tingly lips and tongue from it. Is there a lower carb protein powder out there without artificial sweetners? I was doing OK with Vega One which has Stevia, but I finally got the fuzzy tongue yesterday. I only drank it 4-5 times before this happened. I never had Stevia before, so I thought I would be fine when I did not react right away.

Anyhoooo...Wine Friday. That's another issue all together. I'm glad to know Krampus, Dorian and Olecat all share my passion for alcholic beverages. I honestly do just love the taste of wine and tequila! The buzz is just a bonus

Holy crap, I have no hopes of catching up completely!

Bayzee - PMed you about a protein powder. Didn't want anyone to think I was advertising by posting it on the chat.

Sontaikle - Glad your interview went well!!! What an adventure that would be!

Olehcat - I do think sometimes it really helps mentally to take a day off on the weekends. It very well may keep you from going off track during the week.

Dorian5 - You are a popular lady! I look forward to getting to know you!

Turbo - I want to hit people with my car all the time, I think it's acceptable!

Jessica - 5 days under your belt! That's a good solid start!

Alexistrophic - Wooooo for water weight!!! How is today (Friday) going for you so far?

Joss - I saw you had another decent drop on the scale. WOOOOOOOHOOOO!

Kakers - SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!

Krampus - Any fun plans for the weekend? I secretly live though you, you always do such cool fun things on the weekend.


I don't have much to report. Stayed on plan yesterday again (2 days wooo!) and saw another slight drop today. Still not back to lowest weight, but nearly! Resisting the homemade blueberry muffins sitting 10 feet away from me here at work. Gah, so hard!

TGIF + 3 day weekend!

I abstained from drink last night, dragged my a$$ out of bed this morning to lift, mildly tweaked something in my shoulder, and was rewarded with a 0.2 lb increase on the scale. Greeeeeeeat. Whatever...had a really good time jamming and playing music with my roomie and another friend who plays guitar/keyboard/harmonica. I broke my E string and need to get a replacement T_T

Tomorrow is WING WARS which means eating 20 wings with a bunch of dudes who are all taller than six feet and over 220 pounds (and one guy's really skinny girlfriend who never eats - I seriously have never seen her eat!). Sunday is a big drunken potluck/housewarming party at my friend's new place.

I wrote a super long post yesterday and closed the window like a genius. Derp! Personals ahoy:

LockItUp Nicely done! I want muffins now...I do have fun plans for the weekend, forgot to mention tonight my Russian friend is having a fortune telling type party. I need to calm down and take it easy!

Bayzee Yeahhhhh boozehounds! Well done getting OP and staying there this week, even with early morning workouts. I like exercising before work too though I never get a FULL workout because I'm always staying in bed too long. I don't know much about protein powder but Stevia allergies are real - my bf gets crazy rashes and itchy face from Stevia. Thanks for the support - it was being around someone with COPD (bf's mom's bf) that really kind of got the alarms ringing. I'm sorry you lost your dad to such a terrible disease.

sontaikle I'm glad the interview went well! I have heard they have slides and stuff in the building there. I am obviously on team "go see how it is" if you get the job - I moved to Japan without ever having been there and ended up having a fantastic time for three years, who knows what fun you could have in WI!

olehcat Depending on what you had for lunch, that might not be SO bad - but it is hard to exercise control when you're tired and stressed. When it's busy here I go home and eat huge sandwiches at the bar! I don't think I'm wise so much as "need to keep telling myself things" and then wind up saying them out loud.

TurboMammoth If I'm benched or injured and can't run I feel SO PISSED when I see joggers outside - I'm really sorry you're going through a tough time with the running now, but at least you're back into abs and arms and have applied for jobs! I have had terrible poops all week - none have been even a little satisfying!

JessicaB Being conscientious of what we're eating totally counts for a lot. Some days I'll eat 2000000000 bits and bobs of junk food and be stuffed - but then I'll choke down vegetables on top of it all That's hilarious about your past criteria for selecting a restaurant meal - I used to ONLY EVER get pasta at restaurants. I miss being able to do that with a clear conscience and not think about it.

Alexistrophic I hope things go well with SAG. Fighting genetics sucks, I think "genetically speaking" I should be like 30 lbs heavier. Well done on dropping water weight and staying OP...hope your weekend will be eventful and fun!

Dorian5 I cheat and use an e-cig so I didn't have to endure the SUGAR CRAVINGS that came with quitting - when I stopped for a few months in college though I definitely remember shoveling candy bars into my face at alarming rates. I am talking to you on FB chat right now but I think my vice is red wine and chocolate...good luck giving either or both up for more than 24 hours.

JossFit I see you've lost 4.8 lbs of water weight...I am totally going to be right about 5-10 lbs of cheesecake! How are you finding the new plan and the workouts so far? That salad does sound like something I'd make...though I've been slacking on making lunches this week and I don't really like to have salad for dinner - dinner has to be hot. Negative/slow lifts are GRUELING, I hate them because I think I rely on explosive movements and gravity so much normally. But I bet the difference in workouts will get things moving for you!

bayzee : triple yay for the back OP, less bloated and come back of the strenght! You really got it all in term of good week!

Jessica : I love your new picture! Speaking of living in denial concerning weight, I'm a pro at this hehe. Usually, when I was up, I was doing the ''I'll just weight to drop enough weight until I reach my previous profile weight and update it from there'' ahah. Oh well, not happening this time, I have like 7 pounds to lose... I face the truth this morning and updated it.

How is the weather in Ontario? It is freacking freaaaaazing cold here.

olehcat : kneeling push up for the WIN. I did 10 this morning and I felt like the strongest person in the world LOL I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one though, everyone here is so in shape and lifting! hehe

Sorry to hear about your slip off of OP It will come back! Hold on

Sontaikle : You seem to have many opportunities ahead of you, that is great. It is always much more fun to chose from many things that get offer to you! Good luck!

Lockitup : Resisting blueberry muffins? Sending good vibes your way, girl! (those are my freakin favorite muffin eveeeeeeeer). It's also great to know that I'm not the only one planning to hit people while driving my car Ahaha!

krampus : I clicked on your link of wing war and it was a video of a car hitting almost kids on a sleigh that are crossing a street!? OH JEEZ ALMOST HAD AN HEARTH ATTACK.

Eating tons of wings sounds like an awesome plan though (is it at the same place you are talking from time to time where they have the blue cheese wings? yummmmmmmmm)

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heyyy. I'm up 0.2 pounds today but I don't really mind because 1) I did not drink much yesterday and 2) TOM GOT HERE LAST NIGHT YAAAAAAY. I was getting sliiiiightly paranoid with a little pregrancy scare (with the holidays and everything, i kinda forgot when were my last period...). Another reason I'm super happy is because we are planning to rent a chalet in the wood at the beginning of march and it's a chalet for couples. with a private spa. and noooo way we were spending 400$ if I was going to get the visit of TOM meeeheheheheh.

Ate okay last night, we had a brocco/mushroom/leek/pork stir fry with a small patty of vermicelli. I went for another cookie when I knew I was done but oh well.

The weekend is going to be triggering though. We are having risotto tonight because it's friday (great excuse to have a carb loaded meal). We are going to some new friends place tomorrow and we heard we are eating salmon with salad (yay) but there is going to be wine for sure.. And on Sunday the boyfriend and I are going on one of our not-so-classy-date : we are going to eat smoked-meat sandwich because we saw an add on tv and we've been craving it since.

I'm off the look for some acetaminophen pill or something, TOM is trying to kick his way out of my tummy I think. Ciao!

olehcat I also find dinner much harder than the other meals of the day. I'm constantly making things that are outside the realm of chicken & veggies, because my husband would never stand for that. Truth be told, I can't really do chicken more than twice a week, or three times max, or else he'll be sure to complain about it. Lately I've been doing a lot of comfort type food, meat pies, lasagne, sloppy joes, etc. Sometimes I'll watch my portion size, or sometimes I just modify the meal slightly for me. Like last night, I had a sloppy joe salad. I literally just threw the sloppy stuff on top of lettuce and mixed it up. It was actually really good, I was skeptical that it would just be plain weird. I'm much more lenient now, and haven't been watching carbs the way I was back in the summer / early fall, and have switched my focus to portions instead.

sontaikle Going off of krampus' comment on the slides, did you interview with Google? What sort of IT work do you do? I'm a software developer, and I interviewed with them a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I bombed the phone interview, because I wasn't really ready when I applied (was not actively looking, a recruiter contacted me), and their interview material is so heavily based on principles I used in university, but don't get to apply much to my every day work. I didn't have much time to study, as my daughter was much more clingy then. Maybe I should give it another go sometime. I have found that I prefer the larger companies in this industry, and I have been with the same tiny company I'm with now for 4.5 years, so I've been contemplating change.

Bayzee Good for you on the AM workouts. I can never convince myself to work out at the end of the day, so I do the same. But it is tough dragging yourself out of bed, especially when you already have to wake up early.

LockItUp Nice to hear you are almost back to your lowest weight! Keep it up

Krampus I do miss the restaurant pasta too. Pasta was always my favourite thing to eat, and I rarely eat it anymore.

Turbo That picture is actually from September, I just decided to update it now. I was skinnier then, and so for some reason, I don't feel I look as good now as I did in that picture. But surely 10 pounds wouldn't make THAT much of a difference in my face. In any case, it's not a clear reflection of myself either way. I totally neglect ever doing anything to my hair, aside from brushing it, so I purposely went for a haircut that day so that it would be freshly straitened and neat looking for a family photo (I cropped my husband and daughter out before posting it here).

It's cold here too, but supposed to go above 0 tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was hoping to take my daughter sledding with a friend and his daughter, and we'll have to see if the snow sticks around for that. Our back up plan is to just go swimming at a rec centre.

Day #4 of the 17 Day Diet Cycle #1

Still feeling sharp and dropped another pound this morning, but can sense a bit of the hungry hungry hippo coming on. Am planning on stocking up on veggies and hopefully making some kind of winter soup so I can have a lot of volume without a lot of cals.

May meet up with some friends in the evening. If not, it's a couch night for me. Not gonna lie, totally looking forward to it. Meeting with another friend for brunch/coffee tomorrow morning (@Panera bread, of all places) then the rest of the day to catch up and recover.

Planning to stay on the rails this weekend!

(Will return for personals!)

TGIF FEATHERS WOOO. I decided to change my stats/ticker to reflect my weight loss journey of 2013 so that I can see my current progress a little better.

This was dinner last night, it was delicious:



Big sexy greek salad with olives and feta and cucumber and tomato... oh man. Just had some left over for lunch. Also some grilled chicken and some little toasted pieces of french baguette. Oh, and wine. Hehe.

Also ended up with 2 gin and tonics last night, made one because I was about to lose it sitting next to the boyfriend who was eating Nacho Cheese Doritos, and one more later because we had settled in to watch a show. BUT since I made them at home, I only used 1oz of gin and I bought diet tonic, so they were maybe 130calories for both of them.

I'm up a pound this week from last week, damn it, but I still think it's from my awful, binge-y weekend. I need to focus.

Anyone trying to get to a certain weight by Valentine's Day or anything? I'd like to be to my end goal by June, but I've found making little goals along the way helps me stack on track. 132lbs seems like a good goal by Valentine's Day so that's what I'm striving for.

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Alexistrophic - Dorian puppy thanks you for the birthday wishes! Nice work staying on plan, and congrats on another pound! I LOVE LOVE LOVE making soup this time of year, we just polished off a big pot of beef stew earlier this week and I'm making chili and gumbo next week. Warm, full of veggies, low calorie... oh yes. Good luck at Panera -- PLEASE let me know what you get, I CANNOT find anything that I'm totally comfortable with (calorie-wise) for breakfast. And don't be like me, stay away from the bakery sweets!

TurboMammoth - We are playing Tampa Bay Lightning for the first game, which is a team that we seem to get along with well enough, so probably no epic fights. The rivals we have here in NC are Buffalo Sabres (omg, the fans are just so awful around here) and the Boston Bruins (one game we played in Boston 2 years ago against them ended up with 4 Bruins in the penalty box at one time because they are just poor sports, hahaha.) CONGRATS ON NOT BEING KNOCKED UP! Your dinner last night sounds great -- and I'm sure you'll be back to running in no time. All of your weekend food sounds great, but I have to ask: What is the "meat" in a smoked-meat sandwich? Hope your painkiller calms down TOM!

Bayzee - TGIF indeed! Glad to hear that you are on FIRE this week, that's excellent! I hear you, I just have the toughest time letting go of the booze. My job is monotonous as well, and I think that's why I enjoy a glass of SOMETHING when I get home. Man I love tequila, that's my favorite thing to take shots of (a little lime and salt? heck yeah.) I get munchy when drinking though. The weekend before last I lost weight by SKIPPING MEALS and drinking instead, and that's absolutely not what I need to be doing, d@mn it. I wish I could help you out on a protein powder, I bet Jossfit will have some insight...?

JessicaB - Ah, yes, diet soda. I use one in the morning to wake up (diet mt dew is my poison of choice) and then occasionally on the weekend as a mixer (diet tonic or diet coke) for gin or rum. I hope you'll be able to go sledding!

olehcat - Woohoo, another wino! If we all got together on this board, I get the feeling we could CRUSH some booze. I figure, if I cut out everything I like I'm going to start getting pissed off and resentful of this lifestyle change in the first place. I'm sorry you had a stressful day -- just shake it off, forget the frozen pizza, and start over the next day. It's a journey after all.

sontaikle - I love assassin's creed, but haven't played III. I'll have to check it out. and YES I think EVERYONE needs to eat more dark chocolate! I find I can have a little bit and be done since it's such a strong chocolate flavor, whereas milk chocolate... well, I don't think I've ever felt like I had "enough" milk chocolate. You have to make sure and tell us what you hear back about the interview! Fingers crossed for you!!!

LockItUp - I didn't think I was popular, dang, haha. Congrats staying on plan -- every day/meal/hour on plan is another victory! Good luck staying away from those muffins, ugh -- baked goods are the worst (and by worst I mean best, of course.)

krampus - I already chatted you to death today, but I do want to say that I WANT A PICTURE FROM WING WARS! You better post one of you all sauced up! Haha. You always have the coolest plans and parties and places to go, I want to eat wings and go to fortune telling parties!

PHEW I think I got everyone! KEEP ON KEEPING ON CHICKIES!