Rie-Not sure I could ever really leave this place, and there's no way I could just skip out on this challenge I know about my food limitations and haven't had gluten knowingly for 6 months since finding out I'm sensitive, but sometimes you really just want to let go and enjoy food especially when you're on such a strict diet like me. I know it was crazy, but that's why and I honestly didn't know how bad the reaction would be. I'm sorry about your boyfriend Why can't these boys just let us be in control of our own bodies?! For me, I feel like I can't win. I don't think anything in my personality has changed, since I was on this journey well before I met him. I really think you're right when you say he's insecure. He doesn't eat like me and he'll tell me he feels ashamed of his eating sometimes. I'm going to stop talking with him about it at all, its going to be really hard for me though bc I tell him everything, but I think its for the best. I'm so glad the counting cals is working for you! I feel you on the bread! Haha I eat salads for lunch everyday and you can really get creative with them! I made this cool morocan sweet potato rice pilaf salad with raw cashew pieces and sunflower seeds and it turned out so good. You could make taco salads, seaweed salad, strawberry and spinach with balsamic salad, tomato/basil/mozzarella salad....you're so creative Rie I know if anyone can think up some cool jazzy salads its you I too was raised on sandwiches and lots of bread, but I promise over time it gets easier if you start limiting it and eventually you won't crave it as much. But if you really can't do salads, what about wraps with high protein/fiber tortillas? La Tortilla Factory has some good low carb wraps, not sure if you can find them in Japan though...

I'm pretty much all better(aside from water retention) now after the pizza incident Learned my lesson big time that I really am THAT sensitive and cheating just means I cheat myself. Important lesson I think. Exercise is going good. Went on a hike with my sister yesterday and going on a longer hike up the mountain today with my dad. I reconfigured my calories and realized I was in this starve/binge cycle from MFP giving me a goal of 1200. So I'd try that for a few days then totally fail which is why I haven't been making my nutrition goal for phase 5. I've decided to change it to 1600 on workout days, 1400 for non exercise days, and on long hike days(3+ hours) I'm just going to try and eat reasonably but not limit too much I'm hoping this will make my eating more consistent.

Over all I'm feeling really good actually. I think not talking to my boyfriend about my diet at all is a good plan. I can't not tell him about exercise though bc hiking is such a big part of who I am. So he'll just have to deal with that I mean, he has been getting more and more into hiking so at least we have that.

I started practicing again yesterday after a couple weeks break and was very pleased with the improvements I gained over the break. Its weird, I ALWAYS get my biggest gain with playing when I take breaks. Its a lot like exercise for me in that if you go hard everyday, you get fatigued and plateau, but then you take a break for a week and once you go back you've all of a sudden gotten much faster/stronger. At least that's how it seems to work for me lol Anyone else experience this either with exercise or anything else?

I've been feeling pretty confident lately and decided I want to do a photoshoot with my sister and brother. As I've mentioned before my sister is a model and my brother has done some modeling too and they have cool pictures from them doing shoots together and I think it would be so cool for us all to do one. I talked with my sister about it and she likes the idea(although she'd prefer it be just me and her since her and my brother fight a lot lol) and that she would start talking with some photographers so we can do that this summer It would just be for ourselves, but I think it would be such a neat thing to look back on when we're older.

Just dropping by quickly to say I stepped back on the scale and am up 1lb. I also hiked for 3 hours yesterday though I lost inches this past month and photos really show a difference plus people have commented that I look smaller so I'm not even bothered by it. I think I'm getting to the point where measurements and clothing size are most important to me and the scale is becoming more and more meaningless.

Hello girls,

I'm able to chew again, yaayyy!!! I'm so excited to go grocery shopping because I have a few recipes that I wanna try out. I'm getting my stitches taken out on Monday and I'm gonna ask the dentist if he thinks I'm ready to lift weights. Probably not though, I don't wanna chance it. I can definitely feel the soreness in my jaw but I also don't wanna go to the gym JUST for cardio, as silly as that sounds.
I've been calorie counting for...I'd say 5 days? I'm not sure. I aimed for 1400 the first few days, then when I went back to work yesterday I decided to go up to 1600. It's been working well so far and the scale has been moving in the right direction. I hope I'm not jinxing myself now, lol. I weighed-in at 142.6 lbs yesterday and 143.0 lbs this morning. This week is PMS week though and even though I'm feeling fine mentally I can feel the bloating settling in.

What a short update, but that's all I can write for now. Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm still heereee!! Personals soon!

Hey hey!

So I've decided to change my workout goals for phase 3 onward. Instead of focusing on specific workouts I'm going to focus on the amount of days I workout a week. That way I can really see an improvement overall, since before I was planning on cross training once a week, but if I work out just once a week I could technically pass the phase. I want to make it harder! I've drawn up a new schedule for myself, it's pretty much Hal Higdon's 10K novice training but I've taken out one cross training and put in a strength day. I really do believe in the power of strength training for weight loss and improved running.

Calorie counting has actually been really great. It's surprising me! I made meatballs and I realised that I would be over my calorie amount if I ate them without exercising, so I went on a 45 minute walk to burn off the calories I needed to eat the meatballs! In the past week I've been over twice, but every other day I've just made my limit. I have a question though, say your limit per day is 1400 calories, but then you exercise and burn 200 calories, is it ok to eat the 200 calories to make your limit? Or is weight loss seen when you don't "eat back" the calories you burn?

Today it's my friends birthday, we're going to a place called Barbacoa. It's a Brazilian BBQ place where they just cut you bits of meat. It's very expensive but an amazing experience. It's definitely a YOLO meal, like Cassey Ho has always preached, so I'm going to look forward to it. Today I'm just going to eat fruit and veg in preparation, no sandwiches for me!

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Dott - I understand about the slip, especially if it's pizza! Shame it gives you such a horrible reaction =/. If it was just bloat that's one thing, but getting flu-like symptoms is awful =(. I know how difficult it is to not tell your boyfriend everything, I used to tell mine everything but it caused a lot of problems in the end. So I think you've made the right decision. Usually I'm all about being who you are and being honest, but there's just something about weight loss that makes people kinda weird!! I love tortillas and I've seen some ideas for amazing lunch wraps...but for one they only sell the normal tortillas here and secondly they're about $7-$8 for 10!! So it's definitely a once in a while treat and at that we tend to use them for fajitas.
Sounds like a good plan in regards to your calorie limits. I think you can get both mentally and physically fatigued if you work too hard. Short breaks can be really beneficial overall in all walks of life! Great idea for the photo shoot! Wow, what sort of modelling does your sister and brother do? Are you all annoying in that sense that you're all insanely attractive people . Your calmness towards your weight is so inspiring! It's amazing to see you come to terms with your body, I need to take a leaf out of your book!!

Hoopty - Glad that you can chew again!

Hoopty-Yay for chewing! haha I'm glad you're finally healed up I like to aim between 1400-1600 too now, I think its a good range.

Rie-I think your new exercise goal idea sounds good I'm so glad calorie counting is working out for you and helping you stay accountable. If you're using a site like myfitness pal and put in your stats as sedentary or lightly active then yes, you really should be eating back your exercise calories. If you want to do the TDEE method though, which takes into account your daily exercise, then you subtract 20-25% from that and eat the same amount everyday and don't eat back your exercise calories. Right now I've switched over to the TDEE method again(I go back and forth) bc sometimes with being able to eat back exercise calories I find myself exercising just to eat I would highly suggest this site scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator It seems to be a very accurate calculator for most if you're interested in the TDEE method. Sorry to go off on such a tangent! I get really geeky about this stuff How was the bbq place? You're so right that weight loss makes people weird! Ah that sucks about the wraps :/ I thought they might be super expensive there....My sister does a lot of work in Palm Springs(where we're from) and does local ads(she has 2 billboards lol), magazines(local and international ones), and fashion and hair shows. My brother hates modeling lol but she's dragged him around so he's been published in some magazines too and has done some local ads. My sister loves high fashion and artistic kind of works. I'll include my favorite magazine photo of my sister and my favorite photo of my brother. They're both very attractive, but I'm not so sure about myself lol I don't know where this newfound calm/acceptance is coming from, but it is a relief! That last scale break was really good for me.

So far things are going good. I forgot about strength training though and have to restart phase 5 exercise again. Phase 5 really seems to be my breaking point with both nutrition and exercise. I think once I get past this, I'll really have changed my lifestyle. I did a lot of hiking though, so I did exercise, just neglected the 2x strength training. Food is better and I managed to get through the first week of phase 5 nutrition finally! Doing well with my new method. Most of the bloating from the gluten is gone and the scale is going back down. Its getting close to TOM though and I've been ravenous!

I'm taking Rie's advice and haven't been talking to my bf about eating/dieting but that hasn't stopped him from continuing to make comments. Basically trying to get me to eat gluten free cookies and donuts all weekend. Ugh. I'm just going to have to try and remain strong and hopefully if I keep not talking about weight loss he will eventually calm down and stop. It really does have a negative effect on my weekends though. I'm really trying to get saturdays in order. I still go wayyyyy over I know I can conquer it though, I just need to be strong!

Today starts Mayterm, which is like summer school. Not looking forward to it, but at least the class is supposed to be easy(early childhood music ed). And my bff is taking it with me, so that should also make it more bearable.

Have a great week everyone!

Howdy all!

I've found myself in a bit of a slump again, I've seemed to lost all drive to go out and run or even exercise in general. It's like if I focus on nutrition too much I can't seem to find the energy to exercise, it's crazy! My worst quality is my laziness, I can very easily fall into this slump of just wanting to do nothing all day. Ultimately that leads to junk food, which thankfully as a result of having no bad food in the house I've not managed to get a hold of.

I'm going to jig around my 10K training schedule a bit, realised that I really want to incorporate yoga into my routine as a staple, so I'm going to do yoga once a week, strength train twice a week and run 3 times a week. I'm going to make it my goal to exercise 3 times a week, however, but in an ideal world that's what my workout routine will be.

On a personal note I've been looking into US visas, our game plan has completely changed. Looks like I might be getting married sooner than I expected...possibly within the next year. However not really in the style I envisioned, I'm not talking about getting married by means of a nice ceremony, I mean going somewhere to get a certificate and THEN having a ceremony down the line. A lot more to consider and this way things are a lot more stable (though not very romantic) in the long run and doesn't have me going back and forth between England and America.

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Dott - Thanks for answering my question! I think while I'm still getting back into counting calories I'll keep it simple before trying the method you said, but it does sounds like a good method. BBQ place was amazing, but SO MUCH FOOD! I was pretty good with not eating the fatty bits on the meat and knowing when to stop! Wow, your are all so beautiful! I think you're stunning too, you could have totally joined your fellow model siblings ;p. Haha, can't believe your brother just got dragged into it though! Can't he say no?! Congrats on a successful week 1 of phase 5 nutrition!! Oh wow, your boyfriend is a feeder!! My Mum is too, she always buys me/offers me really bad (but delicious) food to make herself feel better about the fact she's not eating healthy. While she will happily support my weight loss efforts and buy me healthy food, if I show that I'm faltering and say "oh man, I want pizza!" she's the type to go out and get pizza despite me needing someone to say "no!" The best thing you can do is to say no to those treats. It's hard...boy, is it hard...but once you say no often enough he will give up trying.

Oh ladies ladies, I've done it again. I've seemingly been on a 3 week binge with no self control over what I eat, I've skipped workouts, I'm just so disappointed with myself.

Although I am 100% back on the wagon today, I'm thinking I need a change of plan as what I'm doing isn't working. The thing is, I've already failed phase 1 of my nutrition goal AGAIN for this week, as yesterday was a Bank Holiday so I was out of my normal work routine and didn't drink my 2 litres of water. Now I'm thinking instead of deciding I've failed, to change my goal to drinking 2l of water 6 days a week rather than every day. That way, I can still succeed for this week and it gives me a tiny bit of grace if I forget in future. But on the other hand, I feel like if I change my goals because I'm failing, then that's just cheating and it won't get me anywhere. I'm terrible with these kind of decisions, I just don't know which is better. Last week I tried to make up the days I missed. Eg if I only had 1.5l one day, I would try to have 2.5l the next to make up. Is this cheating? It feels like it is but also helped me avoid feeling like a failure for the whole week. Meh.

As of today, I'm going to be more accountable. I'm putting everything into MFP, including my walk to and from the station for my commute. I'm also going to post on here every day, even if it's just to say hi! I need to be more accountable and I think this will help. Please have a shout at me if I go AWOL again. I'm always lurking!

There's so much in your lives to catch up on, here goes -

Hoopty So glad you can chew again! What are the recipes you want to try out? It's interesting that you can do cardio but not weights, I would've thought if one hurt the other would too? I hope having the stitches out wasn't too uncomfortable for you. Good luck battling the PMS bloat. You can do it! I'm glad calorie counting is working for you. Keep going

Rie There's so much going on in your life, I don't know where to start! I'm in awe of you moving from Japan to the States. It was a huge deal for me just moving from the south coast to London on my own, I can't begin to consider what it would be like to move country! You get to see so much more of the world and soak up different cultures, I just wouldn't have the guts! Fingers crossed for you with getting a Visa somehow. It can be done, I'm sure there's a way!

It's interesting what you say about bread and sandwiches for lunch. I love bread, don't get me wrong (I really love bread), and I do love a sandwich
but I very rarely go for a sandwich at lunch any more because I find it just doesn't fill me up. Have you tried lots of different kinds of salads? don't just think a plate of lettuce food. I'd addicted to one at the moment I've been having for lunch for weeks - It's roast pepper and either squash or sweet potato, cous cous, tzatziki, mixed leaves and either falafel or some chicken. Soooo good. If you find some things you really like and chuck them over a big bowl of leaves you'll hopefully be able to feel like you've had a proper 'lunch' without going for the white bread every time.

Did you have fun at Barbacoa? I went to a Brazilian BBQ once and ate so much I was in pain and could barely walk for a few hours afterwards! It wore off pretty quickly, but I think if I go again I might try to pace myself a little more.

Dott

YAY for your finals being done. BOO for your reaction to pizza, but YAY that you're feeling better now! I'm very lucky that I don't think I have much of a sensitivity to any food in particular. I love ALL food, and not being able to have a certain group would be so tricky for me to handle so I really feel for you.

I'm clueless about eating back exercise calories / TDEE. I might have a read up later just out of curiosity. I'm so happy that you've developed this really healthy attitude to your weight. I'm still a bit hung up on the numbers but I know what really matters is how I feel and how healthy I am rather than how much I weigh. It's hard to let go of though.

Sorry that you and Rie are having a bit of a tough time talking with you BFs about your weight loss. Great that you've got your man into Hiking more though! I'm lucky in that mine's really supportive of whatever I choose to do. I've not managed to get him to the gym yet, but frankly it's his choice and if he chooses not to go then I can't make him! The weather's getting much nicer now though so we'll probably be doing a lot more skating outside which is great. It's resisting going for a drink afterwards that's tough!

Wow, your family certainly were blessed with good looks! Are your folks really attractive too!? ;-) The photo shoot is a great idea, fingers crossed you can get it all organised with your siblings.

OK gang, I'm off to drink some more water. If I'm not posting in a day, shout at me! I WILL stay accountable. I WILL find some self control. I WILL DO THIS!

So I drew up my brand new workout plan that's going to kick arse and help me lose weight, huzzah! Here it is,


Sorry about the crappy picture, but just wanted to show you guys! I'm just going to work my way through it as I see fit. Ideally I would complete a row in 1 week, but to ease my way back into this I'm going to do at LEAST 3 workouts a week for 3 weeks before moving up to 4, then 5 and finally 6.

I tidied all of the apartment which is always a cleansing process. Until my boyfriend comes home and dumps his stuff on the floor that is . I really do feel like being more productive when my living space is clean.

Despite feeling ready to take on the world I ended up succumbing to junk food today...had a big bag of chips to myself and a coke =(. Not something I could consider a binge but I always feel guilty eating junk food! Needless to say my calories for today was over since I didn't work out. Is it bad that I kinda want to wait until Monday to start for reals? I always say start asap but I kinda want my period out of the way...haha.

Last night I was pretty bummed out and exhausted to go into detail, but my boyfriend and I have decided that we're going to get married in January. Yup. We're going to file a K-1 visa, which allows me entry into the US as a fiance, then get married in a city hall so I can apply to become a resident. When we have more money and we're settled then we'll do the whole engagement/ceremony. I had a bit of a moment about it tonight, I was pretty upset that our official marriage will be very clinical...but I think I need to think of our ceremony marriage as our "official" marriage.

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milesaway - Welcome back! I'm glad you're here with us and ready to take control! As for your drinking goal, yeah...carrying over your daily limit is kinda cheating! It defeats the purpose of drinking that much in a day regularly you know? Instead of monitoring the amount of water why not have your goal "drink 3 glasses of water a day" and just drink a glass with or before a meal. If you set yourself into a routine of drinking water with your meals then you won't forget. I have recently trained myself out of drinking orange juice with breakfast every morning, I now drinking water instead. It's instinct for me to pour a glass of water with my breakfast now, its surprised me!
I'll actually be moving from England to the States, since I'm going back there in July! I never really considered myself brave or exciting if I'm honest, but I guess not everyone moves abroad! It's not as hard as it seems, well, when you've no commitments that is! If I had a family then that'd be a different question, but while I'm young and able to I figured now's the time to live somewhere crazy. I was eating a very boring salad that left me feeling unfulfilled for a long time last year. I kept repeating it over and over, to the point where I almost felt physically sick eating it. So that kinda scared me off them (again!). It was stupid though, it was literally lettuce, carrots, cucumber, avocado, red pepper and spring onion. I've been looking and hearing about salads and everyone else seems to have amazing ideas for tasty sounding salads! I will definitely need to create something.
Barbacoa was amazing! Ate too much though, but it was worth it. Definitely felt sleepy after all that food afterwards when we were sat drinking in a bar. But god, the food was so good. Will do my best to shout at you!

Hello Ladies,

Ah! I don't know what happened. I lost complete focus this past month. I don't even know when I last posted here! I feel so utterly terrible, but I have to remind myself that setbacks are a part of life and at least I am fixing it now. I've only gained 5 lbs, so that isn't terrible. I could have that off in two weeks if I really wanted to. I actually vowed to get back on track yesterday and I actually did really well, Mostly it was because I worked an extra 12 hr shift at work and I packed plenty of healthy snacks. But by the time my shift was over i was famished and a friend needed picked up from work and we went out for Mexican and Margaritas, which pretty much ruined my calories for yesterday. Today, my husband came home from work very upset to the point of tears. He hates his job ( he is a corrections officer and working at the jail is very negative environment). We talked a little and he admitted to being depressed, and he said he is going to try and get counseling. I am very relieved, I think that is part of his problem, with trying to lose weight. He is depressed and drowns it out with food (I can relate) and can't find the energy to work out. So I conceded to going out for breakfast (he works 3rd shift) because that's one of the things we love doing together and it really cheered him up. In hindsight, maybe food to cure a depressed mood wasn't the best thing for him, but we did walk to the restaurant because it is right down the street from us. Once again, completely blew the diet though. So perhaps tomorrow will be the day for me to get back on track?

I need to start posting on here regularly, and I need to start blogging in detail again. That really helped. I am thinking though about moving my weightloss writing to a different blog. Right now the blog I had been writing in was also with my husband. But he has said that right now he is focused on other things, and not the weightloss, so I feel weird keeping a blog about a couple losing weight together when its just me who is writing. I guess, I have come to realize that this is my journey and my story and as much as I want it to be his as well its a very personal thing and we might not be on that path at the same time.

themilesawaygirl I completely know where you are coming from. I have to, have to start logging on MFP everyday. When I got a way from that it was like the pounds just would not come off. glad you are back on board too!

Rie Congrats on the engagement! My marriage was pretty clinical too. My husband and I had be living together for sometime, I had already gone part-time at work so I could pursue school full-time, so I was pretty dependent on him to get through and our goals were pretty much intertwined anyway. I had never really cared all that much about getting married one way or another. We both knew we wanted to be together, and that we were 100% committed to each other , and our goals for the relationship. It didn't matter if we were married or not. For us it honestly came down to matter of health insurance and finances. Sounds terrible, no? After going part time I was paying out the wazoo for health insurance. And it really came down to if I went on his insurance we would be so much better off financially. We looked into it, and considered filing as a common law married. But I felt weird about that so we just decided to go for it and get married. We had a courthouse wedding on a friday evening. Our families and close friends were there. I wore a white dress and he wore a suit, and then over the weekend we had a big party at the lake with all our other friends and family. I thought I would regret it, but I really didn't!

themilesawaygirl- The important thing is you came back and are being accountable. We all slip up, but its the coming back and getting back on track that's most important. Changing your goals because you're repeartedly failing them does not mean you're "cheating", it means you recognize that the goals you set were not the goals you were ready to tackle. I think its really smart to realize when you need to change a goal The first goals should be skewed a little easier anyways. Also, its been a few days so give us an update! lol

Rie-Great exercise plan! OMG You guys are getting married!!!!???? How exciting! Congratulations I actually think its super romantic what you guys are doing and don't worry, you can have a big wedding later on. Gosh, you must be so excited! You have such an exciting life, I'm a little envious First you move to Japan, and now you're getting married and moving to New York. So cool! On a side note, I hope you're out of your slump, I've kind of gotten into one too the last week(TOM hasn't helped). Aw thanks, I don't think I'm cut out for modeling though But yeah, hopefully we can put a shoot together so we can at least have photos of all of us to look back on. My mom has food issues too and is a total feeder as well. I don't have much trouble with her though anymore because she literally does not know what I eat! haha I was raised a vegetarian bc my dad is Seventh Day Adventist, but my mom isn't and she loves meat so she always had trouble figuring out what veggie stuff to feed me anyways. Then with going dairy and gluten free she really has no idea. She will buy me random gluten free cookies, pretzels, ect but its so gross that I end up tossing it or giving it away But yeah, my bf is a total feeder too.

kailpea-So glad you're back! I saw you post on MFP yesterday and was glad to see you posting again. I'm sorry about your husband, but I'm glad you guys were able to talk and figure things out! 5lbs is nothing! You will get that off so fast As far as the slip ups go, they are a part of the journey and being aware of them is important. You know the last few days haven't been great so now you will be better because you recognize where things went wrong and have the tools to do better

This weekend was pretty bad eating wise. I had a friend's birthday party I hosted friday night, then my boyfriend had been planning on taking me out Sat night, then mothers day, plus TOM, and being depressed from my summer school class(have you ever hated a class so much it made you depressed and gave you nightmares? yeah I hadn't either till this class....) But today I'm back on track. I know I didn't really gain any real weight and I was super happy last week to break past 143 finally and get to 141 Today I'm back up to 144 though from the less than stellar weekend

I did have such an awesome weekend though! Went hiking twice, didn't fight with my mom, ate lots of delicious food, and I finally bought a new bikini! A black string bikini! lol I was feeling brave

I totally failed my nutrition goal, I've changed it now a couple times to try and make it work better but its just killing me! I feel kind of dumb about it, because its not that hard of a goal :/ I have a new rewards system though. I've never been able to reward myself in any way before bc of financial issues, but now I can! I'm thinking this will be the final push so I can make it through this goal. Exercise is going great though! I'm doing strength about 3x/wk on average and hiking 4x so I'm actually exceeding my exercise goals. Haha I hate how I always do better in one than the other

Have a great week everyone! I'm including some pics from hiking and one of me and my bf.

Oooh it has been a few days hasn't it Dott!. Thanks for the reminder.

Rie Awesome plan! I think it's a great idea to start with fewer workouts and then gradually add more into your week. What kind of strength training are you doing?

You know, I think there's a lot to be said for having a clean living space and work area etc but I am SO BAD at cleaning and tidying. It takes me hours to try and clean one room, but I end up just moving everything around.

Amazing news about getting married! Congratulations! I'd say definitely try to think of the ceremony as the important bit - the rest is just a formality. I know people who have had joining ceremonies etc which were the exciting part, but at some point or other they had to pop down the registry office to make it "official". It might not be exactly how you planned, but if it lets you carry on living your life in the country you want to live in with the person you want to be with then brilliant!

With the water thing - I do have a glass of water with every meal, and one when I wake up, and one by my bed. But often that's only 5 glasses a day, which isn't quite enough. I set the challenge as 2litres because a) that's the minimum I want to be drinking each day and b) it's easier for me to do volume as sometimes I have a 1.5l bottle at training, and there would be no point in only counting that as 1 glass! I'll get there, it's just a case of remembering to fit in those extra couple of glasses in between meals.

Kailpea Good on you for coming back! That's what matters and it sounds like you've got a good mindset going of letting go of the past, accepting it wasn't quite what you intended and moving forward. I need to work on this kind of attitude! Sorry to hear about your husband, I'm glad you managed to cheer him up and that he's got you to talk to and support him. If you think starting a different blog will be helpful, go for it! Times change and your needs will change too. I'm sure if you talk to your husband and explain that it really helps you in your weightloss journey, but you don't want him to feel pressure to write in a joint blog if his priorities are elsewhere at the moment. I'm going to update MFP tonight, I've not done it even though I said I would!

Dott I'm here I'm here! I'm not changing my goal just yet because I think they're achievable, I'm just not really trying if I'm totally honest with myself. But I'm on target for this week, and intend to nail phase 1 of nutrition and phase 2 of my exercise goals so I can finally move on!!

What's your new rewards system? Your exercise dedication is amazing! I'm jealous of your hiking pics, those views look awesome. (I'm quite jealous of your genes too, you are absolutely stunning!) That's a lovely pic of you and your man. I feel the same with my food goals, sometimes it's a struggle even though it seems like it shouldn't be. I think it's a case of just tweaking a few things until it works.

Hope everyone's having a great week. xx

Hello everyone!! How are you all doing?

I'm back at my own apartment now, just for 3 days a week now until I leave Japan. When I moved in with my friends they didn't ask for rent but they wanted me to cook and help clean, which was fine, but I made a huge miscalculation of how much food would cost for 3 people. The couple who I'm living with have the deal that the guy pays for the rent and the girl pays food/bills. So I split the cost of food/bills between 2 people instead of 3. Aaanyway, I figured to keep the peace and not kick up a fuss about not being able to afford to cook for them I thought I would stay here 3 days of the week and stay with my boyfriend 4 days. They're pretty easy going, they've not questioned why I've spent so much time with my boyfriend, so I'm not worried about it. But since I agreed to pay half of the food I didn't want to go back on that agreement.

I've discovered a new hobby, scrapbooking! I bought one over Christmas since I wanted somewhere to put all my Japan memorabilia. But I came across the massive pile of photos I've printed over the years, I used to have them put up all over the bedrooms I had. It would literally cover an entire wall of one room. So I wondered if they would all fit in my scrapbook and sure enough, they do! So I'm now having lots of fun sticking in pictures and doodling around them. I don't have scrap bits of decorating paper or cool trinkets to stick in, it's quite plain compared to the ones I found on google images, but I'm having fun!

The more I've been telling close friends/family, the more excited I am at the fact I'm getting married next year! It took a while to sink in, but now that people are finding out and getting excited it's made me excited. I told my parents on Sunday, my Dad said "Wow, I guess we'll have to look into flights to New York" so I said "It's only going to be a quick ceremony at the city hall, our official ceremony is later and you can come to that one." He then said "I don't care, if my daughter is getting married even if it's on paper - I'll be there!" It was very sweet. So now my parents are coming to witness for us! They're just excited to go back to New York now, but it's really nice that I'll have family there to be our witness =).
I'm also really determined to be healthy by the time I get married. So not necessarily at 130 lbs, but definitely below 150 lbs. I think I'm going to wear a casual white dress, nothing too fancy but still in the wedding theme, and I want to look pretty! So I have approximately 7 months to get down to below 150 lbs, I think I can do it!

Now onto the weight loss stuff!
Counting calories has been happening on and off. I had bad week last week with staying accountable, sometimes when I'm having bad days I feel like there's no point counting the calories - but that's nonsense! I should always be staying accountable for what I eat, because that's the whole point of counting calories for me. So yesterday I got back on track. I managed to stay within my calorie limit with just 9 calories to spare! Phew! I thought I would have gone way over since I did have a few snacks but I think I was ok because...

I went on a run! 10K training is underway and I completed one of my 3 exercise days per week. It was 2.5 miles and omg it was HOT. Japanese seasons literally change over night. It was about 27 degrees when I was running, it was around 12pm so I know for sure I need to start waking up earlier so I don't die in the heat. I was a bit sluggish on the run, probably because it had been a while and because of the heat, but I made it around. I did it in 28 minutes which put my pace at 11:12 min/mi. A lot slower than my April times, but I was running for longer so I don't mind.

I've also started a new blog, this is like my 4th blog now...I have a problem! I don't keep them all updated though! I started one on 3FC, then I made a random one on Blogger, then I moved my weight loss blog to Blogger and now I've combined my random blog & my weight loss blog over on Tumblr. Here's the link: http://www.unclassified-girl.tumblr.com
The only problem I have with Tumblr is while it's prettier than blogger it doesn't encourage commenting but rather "liking" and "reblogging" posts. But like I said, it's a lot prettier than Blogger so I think I'll stick with this one!

Yesterday I weighed in at 166.4 lbs, but this morning I weighed 165.7 lbs! - 0.7 lbs down! I've updated my ticker and my spreadsheets with my new weight so stay accountable.

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kailpea - Welcome back!! You're right, we all have set backs in life, I'd love to hear about someone who just had an easy cruise towards their goal weight but I think that story is non-existent. Sounds like you have the right attitude towards just jumping back in. I'm so sorry to hear your husband has depression, it's a horrible situation to be in but I think counselling will really help him. If that breakfast cheered him up, then that's the main thing to focus on! You could join me on Tumblr for a new weight loss blog .
Aww, thank you for sharing the story of your marriage! It makes me feel a lot better that I'm really not the only one out there who's getting married this way. I told my friend on Monday and he said that him and his wife just decided to get married too, it wasn't a big deal. I think I'm going to have a second ceremony someday so all my friends and family can be there - but even then that might be complicated since people will have to fly to America if it's in America!

Dott - Wow what a hectic week but sounds fun minus TOM! I'm sorry your summer class is bumming you out, what is it exactly? I used to hate Maths in high school, the teacher would always single me out in front of everyone and I would always get the answer wrong under pressure. If I got it wrong she would ask me again and again until I got something right, it was horrible! Do you fight with your Mum often? And go you getting a bikini!! Don't feel bad about not passing a goal, I think this challenge is here to show us what our limits are. I had to change both my exercise and nutrition goal to feel like I could move forward!! Love the pictures you share, you really are a beautiful lady . Is that a wild iguana??
Hehe, thank you!! I'm starting to get more and more excited now that people are responding to the news! You're right, I am intending on having a proper wedding ceremony down the line. Will have to do some serious saving until then! I'm finally getting out of my slump, I think last weeks TOM really threw me off since I was just craving all the junk food! It's so bad, I know we've all been there, but I really want to be different and not succumb to the period monster! That's such a confusing house hold to live in! My Mum was vegetarian for a while, but then suddenly stopped! I really wish I was a vegetarian...but I just can't deny how delicious meat is ;_;. I love my Mum to pieces, but I think she shouldn't have let me each so much food when I was growing up. When I was 11 I would eat tomato soup with 4 slices of bread every day after school. She kept buying more soup and more bread to enable me to do it, instead of saying "that's too much food". I was literally eating 4 meals a day! Right now though all the responsibility is on me, but it does getting annoying when you don't want to be tempted all the time. What's going to be your first reward? I really would love to set up a system but have no idea what I could buy myself! Plus I really can't now I don't have a job!!

milesaway - I was about to remind you to come back and post but someone beat me to it! Have you ever read Jillian Michaels "Making the Cut?" It's got an intense strength based workout routine that's really good. Some of the things are very gym oriented but I just skip it or sub it with something. Thank you and you're absolutely right, it's about staying together at the end of the day so I can't complain! I was really worried at one point he wouldn't want to get married at all and I would have to stay in England alone and heartbroken, so I am really happy we're moving forward with our lives! I try and drink a pint of water in the morning, afternoon and evening. Ideally I always have a glass at hand so I can sip away throughout the day. It's hard to fit in a certain amount of water when you simply forget, but you can definitely do it - it's just drinking water after all not running a marathon!

themilesawaygirl-Great job being honest with yourself I had to buckle down and be honest with myself this past week when it comes to the weekends. I really have to be more accountable, no one is forcing me to pig out on the weekends! For my new rewards system, I'm going to get a little reward every sunday night after keeping my nutrition goal for the week and not going crazy on the weekend! Just little stuff I might want/need like flowers, or makeup. I realized that doing a goal for 5 weeks is a long time and I really need an incentive to keep me going each week I love to exercise and I'm lucky that in the summer I have time, I wish I could hike more though! I can't wait till June when my summer class is over so I can start my real training for my backpacking trip in July.
Have you tried a reward system before? Or some kind of incentive system?

Rie-I'm glad you've found a new hobby, I've always been fascinated by scrap books and I wish I had the patience to make them You can totally reach below 150 in 7 months! I'm so glad you're really getting excited about getting married, that's so sweet that your parents will come! Have you found any type of style of dress you might want to wear? You should post some dress idea pics! Good job getting back on track with the calorie counting. I've been doing a little better lately too. Are you on myfitnesspal? I love your new blog, but I love all your blogs You're such a witty writer, I especially liked the hippotohot blog because your humor really came out. Can I say though that you look really good in your photos on the blog!!!! You have such a cute figure, I'm jealous of your proportions Congrats on the loss My summer class is childhood music education. I didn't realize it was only going to be classroom teaching though I've had my own piano studio for 6 years and have taken teaching classes before, but this one is AWFUL and all we do is sing songs. Its a ton of work and there's a lot of pressure. I'm not a strong singer, and the teacher is definitely grading us on our singing abilities too and that's really annoying especially since its not supposed to be a singing class but a teaching class. The other day I lost my voice from singing children's songs for 3 hours and it was hard for me to teach my own lessons! That math teacher sounds awful! I'm sorry you had to go through that Lol its not a desert iguana but a chuckwalla. They're really big fat lizards and I think they look like dinosaurs. Regarding your mother-that's rough when you're young and don't have boundaries set for you with eating, I know your mom meant well but that is frustrating because its teaching you to crave a certain amount and certain kinds of food from a young age :/ Me and my mom are completely different personalities. She has her own issues too though and has a tendency to project so that's mainly why we fight, although I TRY not to give into fighting with her. I'm not sure what my first reward will be! I really need a new bra though....I MIGHT splurge on that since I only have 2 bras that fit and have to wear these little cutlet things to fill my old ones up lol

So this week has been strange because I'm just dropping weight like crazy and I'm not sure what's going on? I know, terrible problem to have But it is VERY odd because I've upped my calories and I stalled for 2 months before eating much less. Really unsure. I think it might be the stress from this class because since starting it I've lost 3lbs in two weeks, when I normally might lose 2lbs in one month. Very odd. I am up to 60lbs lost though and less then half a lb away from the 130s so that's exciting

As I lose weight though I've become more unhappy with my body shape and my boobs. I'm not sure what my measurements were when I started but I remember at around 175 I was 42-30-42 and loved my shape! As I've lost though I've lost my hourglass-ness and am getting more of a banana shape The first to go was my chest and I was ok with being more of a pear but now I've only been losing inches off my butt and hips! So now my chest and hips match again but my waist isn't shrinking. Its probably silly but I feel less sexy now(especially from the boob shrinkage). Its ironic because I'm finally ok with my weight and now I've found something else to stress about How has your guys shapes changed as you've lost? Have they changed? How do you feel about it?

I'm going to LA this weekend to see my bf and am super excited to get away. The weekend after we're taking a little trip and I'm really excited for that too

Good morning from Japan! Although it's almost afternoon...but anywhoot, I weighed today and I lost a small amount of weight - I'm now at 165.5 lbs so a 0.2 lb drop! It may be small, but I'm just happy that it's going DOWN and not up! I really need to be careful this weekend...going out for sushi tonight, tomorrow I'll be having film night with friends which always calls for snacking.

I'm about to do a strength workout to bring my exercise goal to 2 out of 3 times this week. I will go on a 2 mile run on Sunday to complete week 1 of phase 3! I'm still counting calories, yesterday I was slightly over because of an unexpected unhealthy meal. I made sweet and sour chicken with rice, but I'm always stupid and don't read how to make it I just see if I've got all the ingredients first! It had a lot of sugar in, and the chicken was deep fried in vegetable oil. It actually ended up tasting really good, except I didn't have orange food dye so the sauce was a weird clear colour! So if I make it again, it'll be a once in a while treat.

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Dott - Ahhh, congrats on almost making it into the 130's!! Even if it's unexpected! Not sure what to tell you about why you're losing weight, other than it's pretty awesome that you are . Sometimes it's the strangest thing, when I was training for a 10K then stopped running for a few weeks my weight continued to drop. You might be in that sweet spot where all your hard work is still paying off despite not feeling like you're doing much to aid it! Wow, that's a bit of a conundrum...it's a shame we can't command where the weight comes off right? I say if you're happy with your weight, then try your best to accept that this is what your body will look like at that weight. If you feel sexier and more confident with a bit more weight on, then you have the choice to put the weight back on. I know it sounds crazy after so much hard work, but at the end of the day your confidence is what's important! One of my friends found she felt too skinny and unattractive when she lost a lot of weight, she prefers to weigh extra pounds to feel good. You have your goal of 125 lbs, which is great, but you always have the power to change that goal and stop whenever you want. You look amazing, you're definitely at a healthy weight for your height, so really think about what makes you feel good rather than just focusing on a number if you get what I mean. Obviously I'd be hear to cheer you on no matter what you decide! As for me, well, I've honestly been happy with the way my body has changed when I've lost weight. I've not really gotten that close to my goal, so maybe when I hit 140 lbs I'll decide whether or not I'm happy to continue to lose weight or not.
I've only really looked at one website, but I really just want something simple/casual. Here are some examples:


So as you can see, nothing fancy! I do use myfitnesspal! Aw, thanks for visiting all of my blogs! You've inspired me to let my random crazy rants come to the surface with my new blog, because I do think the writing is a little stiff at the moment. It's hard to maintain a quirky style of writing when you're literally just talking about weights and runs and the such . But thanks! I'll try and bring some of the humour from hipptohot to my new blog .
That's so stupid that they judge you on your singing! Not everyone is a great singer! And it's MUSIC you care about not singing some crappy childrens song! Sorry you're going through so much bullshit, I guess just try and take it all with a pinch of salt and find some humour in it. Try not to let it get to you in other words, is it a really important class though? Can you switch classes?
I can't stand bra shopping...I always have to spend so much money on bras that fit . I, too, only have 2 bras that fit me right now! And even they are losing their elasticity so I feel that my boobs need more lift. Even though I hate the process of getting a new bra, the feeling that they're well supporting is pure bliss. When I step out of the store with my new bra I feel like shouting "BEHOLD MY SUPPORTED BREASTS!" but I don't because that would be weird...

I rarely post up twice, but I'm so impatient to wait for you lovely ladies to update me on your lives, in particular your weekends!

First things first - I completed Week 1 of 3 for Phase 3 Exercise! Huzzah! I worked out 3 x this week, a run on Wednesday, strength on Friday and another run on Sunday.
MFP tells me I have a 6 day streak going for counting calories, so just today and tomorrow and I'll have completed Week 1 of 3 for Phase 3 Nutrition! Woohoo!

I've been at my boyfriends this weekend so no scale to tell me how I'm doing. I went out with friends on Saturday, had delicious food and a few drinks. I was just over my calorie limit that day, which was really surprising considering I went out and usually pork out big time. But I paced myself with drinks, we shared some small dishes together which no doubt helped and I was only over 105 calories! I've bumped up my calorie intake from 1380 to 1400 purely because I wanted a rounded number. Yay, extra 20 cals .

I've also reconsidered my blogging activities - I now have TWO blogs. From Hippo to Hot, my weight loss blog, is back in action with a makeover. I've kept my Tumblr blog, Unclassified Girl, but I cut out any weight loss related content so it's now my more personal blog where I'll post pictures/ramblings.