takingcontrol, sounds like a good plan! southernbelle..here's to a large loss for the next week!

Huge BUMP for this thread. We had a lot of missed weigh ins. Where is everyone?

Yeah, I just saw all the misses and wondered the same lostangel. Hope everyone's OK and checks in with us soon!

Come on Team Daisy!

Oops, I totally forgot to post WI here this week. I've been staying pretty uninvolved in the boards here lately thanks to a winter blahs funk (yes, it's STILL winter). Sorry team!

Here is a current progress pic of me... 141 lbs down so far

Hi Peanutt Sorry to hear you're still 'suffering' with winter, it's even relatively cold in Thailand at the moment, in what should be one of the hottest weeks of the year we're seeing 16-20 with wind/rain/cloudy grey when it should be 35-40 blue skies and wall to wall sunshine. The weather really is going mad! I hope your weight loss is on track

Southernbelle WOW! That's amazing!!You're looking GREAT! And the difference is remarkable!
I might do a before n now shot soon, I still don't think I look that different, and have still got along way to go to get to skinny, but maybe a progress photo will motivate me! It's lovely now that people have started to notice, so I guess I must be changing. In another 1kg I'll have lost 20KG or 44lb since my highest weight.

Well OP day so far today, not eaten dinner, but will do soon, I've already cooked it. Got some melon for supper, happy days. Just did a killer hour workout, n can already feel myself ceasing up, even after a great stretch n cool down, hope I'm not too bad tomorrow!

Exercise challenge = 1 hour 45mins down, 8 hours 15 to go!

Good luck to all

Hey Ladies! I'm back - had a crazy week/weekend and totally spaced off the weigh-in. I'm holding at 163 though. Everything's slowed down this week so I'm hoping for a whooosh! Hope everyone's doing well!

Hey team! Sorry I haven't been that active posting on here. I have been lurking but should be commenting instead, I know. I'll do better from now on. I hope everyone (active posters and otherwise) is doing ok.

I'm still plugging away and trying to stay on plan on my travels. I've been UK-side for a week and i'm still not yet accustomed to the grey and cold. I'm having an awesome time though and absolutely loving it. It's been a bit difficult staying on plan with lots of delish "outside" food and wanting to try this and that but I'm working really hard at it, trying to make up for extravagant gastronomic days (rule being never to eat more than maintenance for the day) with strict plain eating days (1200cals). So far though, there've been a few more extravagant days than plain days unfortunately. Another issue with being away from regular life is that I've not yet really worked out. I brought work out vids but haven't yet done them. My friend I'm hanging with and I are mostly together and I don't really feel comfortable working out in front of anyone really, especially not a natural skinny Minnie (who has never had a fat day in her life)- she already thinks I'm weird with my food scale and the fact I travelled with my actual scale from home. She expressed an interest in going jogging and I would, but it's super cold, although maybe I wouldn't notice once I got warmed up. I don't know if they're any per-use or short term membership gyms here but I'll look into that. So far though, other than a good amount of walking about exploring, there's been no real exercise.

Travel-wise, so far it's been awesome. The perfect mix of vegging out in her warm apartment, shopping, doing London-y things and also doing a couple of road trips to Bath and Penzance (both picked for literary reasons-my obsession with Jane Austen and a random reference to Pirates of Penzance in a tv quiz show). We're not as spontaneous as I thought we'd be since we actually look up things before we set out and sort of plan at least a day or 2 in advance but it's still good. As far as self-discovery and getting out of my QLC funk, no astonishing moments of enlightenment yet, but I feel a bit better and more optimistic about the possibilities. AND I think I'm definitely going to pursue starting my own business.

In NSV news, ok so I mentioned shopping before. The main thing I wanted to accomplish was bra shopping. I don't really want to spend too much on clothes 1.)bcos I think the uk is incredibly expensive for clothes and 2.)bcos I'm still a work in progress and the clothes I got in America in January are already loose so it's not the best time for a clothes shopping spree. Anyway so to bra-shopping. I've been feeling kind of depressed over my boobs. Don't get me wrong they're still a good size but they've gotten super saggy and wrinkly and just really long and depressing to the point you can see the wrinkles on my boobs even in a bra if I wear a low cut top. (Reason why it's depressing i haven't had any kids, I'm 24 and I have granny boobs. Added to this I haven't already got a man that "loves my boobs the way they are"... so the situation is all the more stressful and worrying in that direction- I keep thinking how am I going to explain these boobs???). Anyway, i decided to go to what I consider the best place in the world for recalcitrant boobies, Rigby & Peller, hoping to get 1 bra to help my chest out. I went in with a wrinkly, saggy 40DDD, I came out a 36F with perfectly rounded, unwrinkly cleavage. It's amazing. The lessons I learned were, no smooth cup t-shirt bras (saggy boobs apparently need to extra support of a seam) and that no matter how saggy your boobs are, if they look wrinkly even IN a bra, the problem is not your boobs, it's the bra. Anyway, I got that advice and 1 bra at considerable cost to my wallet but it was definitely worth it to me! I then hustled over to a more pocket-friendly store (M&S) and got 4 bras at my new size for the cost of my 1 amazing one. The 4 though slightly less amazing, were still wayyyy wonderful and eliminated the wrinkly boob effect and were actually quite pretty. In other non-bra related NSV news, I mow fit into UK size 14 (US 10) jeans which was my original goal when I started this journey at 275lbs in Jan '09. And just so you know what an eternal optimist I'm not. My reaction to fitting in the jeans was: "who knew size 14 was so large." i need to work on the attitude and dysmorphic eyes. The jeans don't look large to me on a hanger but I feel they must be large since they fit ME! <shakes head at self>

Anyway, that's pretty much all that's been going on since I last posted. I'll definitely try to be more active here in terms of actually posting.

takingcontrol: Excellent work on the 44-lb loss so far. I'm really inspired by your excercise challenge for yourself. I think that's an awesome idea and maybe something I can do to motivate myself to get going.

Southernbelle: You're always soooo inspirational. The difference between the pics is amazing! you look AWESOME!!! WOW!

Peanutt: Sorry about the winter blues. I complain about the heat and unrelenting sun where I live all the time but I'm never so grateful for it as when I visit somewhere cold in the winter and imagine months and months of that. Hopefully spring shows up soon for you!

kariatari Hope the last week was good crazy! Fingers crossed for your whoosh this week!

toastedsmoke Good to hear from you! Your trip sounds great, and well done for not falling off the wagon while away! SOunds like you've got a great balance between treats and being sensible, hope I'll manage the same when I'm back in the UK! Love the shopping NSVs too, way to go!

Well, last night I didn't do any exercise, and went out for a meal to say bye to one group of friends. I did my best to not over eat, and to eat only a tiny bit of the naughty things! Was a lovely evening, topped off by the comments on my weightloss from people who haven't seen me since the start of my journey, lovely

Today I've been on plan (minus a few sweets, I hate having them in my class to give as prizes to students on my summer class!)

I'm currently trying to get out of a big night out on Saturday night, as right now my weightloss is more important to me than a night out. I know it's the right thing to do, but I also know my friends just don't really get it. But, we've got anotehr meal out on Sunday, and I'd much rather indulge with that than waste calories on alcohol and then probably food that goes with it when the munchies set in. I dunno if I'll actually get out of it, but we'll see!

Tonight I did one of my 30 min boxing workout DVDs, which used to be really tough, but it was over in no time, I was sweating, but was feeling good, so I did another 30 min strength and cardio DVD. Felt great getting through them both

So exercise log 2hrs 45mins down - 7hrs 15 to go. I'll try and do an hour tomorrow, another hour on Saturday, and some swimming on Sunday and I'll be on track, not easy, but doable!

I hope everyone's having a good week, good luck for Sunday

Toasted - thanks so much!! You are an inspiration tome too!! And, YAY for great bras!!!

This has been a really quiet challenge! How is everyone doing?

Takingcontrol: Well done being so on point with the exercising!!! And with trying to balance fun times with friends with staying on plan. Friends especially those without weight issues tend not to get why you'd want to sacrifice a fun night out. My friend i'm visiting thinks I'm odd and I'm sure, less fun since she lives off takeaways and I rarely indulge with her like I did I'm the past. And another friend who used to be normal weight but is now morbidly obese and wayyy unhealthy (he gained weight pretty fast and his body is obviously not used to it- heavy breathing, wheezing, panting with very little physical activity etc) told me to my face last night that my behavior with counting calories was obsessive. Now this is one of my best friends and I worry soooo much about him because he's in such denial and thinks calorie counts are wayyyy overstated and lives off junk coupled with vast amounts of healthy food. I don't say anything because I don't want to nag or seem judgmental or anything. But yeah anyway, I get how friends can make on planned-ness complicated.

southernbelle: Thanks!!!

I still haven't got my workout on properly. I am just cold a lot of the time so if I'm not out and about I'm like curled up on the couch (not good)! I'm committed to going to a Chinese buffet on Saturday night (at aforementioned guy friend's instigation), I'm trying to eat strictly saving towards that, but I'm not that worried, I'm sure I'll find some not too unhealthy stuff to eat and it shouldn't be a problem since I no longer feel the need to eat my money's worth.

TOM is here Feeling poo, hope I"m not getting a cold, don't want to be sick for my last week here!

Weighed in today, the same as I was on Sunday, not sure I'll manage a loss this week, first time since I begun my journey seriously in Jan. Oh well, I've got to be realistic about things, and the next month is going to be a slow part of the road. As long as I stay OP as much as possible, and only stray for treats/occasions that are worth it, and keep up with the exercise, I'll get there. Just hope I don't let down the team in the process!

Still a little time left for a whoosh this week though, fingrs crossed!

No exercise today, feeling wayyyy to meh. Have managed to do a load of sorting out ready for the big move though. Hope I'll be organised soon!

Have a good weekend everyone

Takingcontrol: Sorry you're feeling meh! Maybe the lack of loss could be due to a crappy TOM water-retention experience... Hopefully you get your whoosh though! Moving countries sucks with getting organized and packing up your life for a few years, but somehow thankfully it always gets done by the time it needs to be done. Enjoy your last week!!!

Today was kind of meh! I did some more shopping, managed to stay on plan food wise, still didn't formally exercise but spent hours pounding the pavement looking for deals so hopefully that helps a bit though I'm not really counting it. I need to figure out the exercise thing though- I haven't sweated or panted in over a week (who knew I'd one day whine about that?!!) I hope in spite of the silence, everyone is doing ok. Changing seasons are always chaotic so here's wishing everyone good weigh loss, on-plan, anti-stress karma and an awesome weekend!

toastedsmoke, last week was like that for me...no formal exercise. Worked out Wednesday and Thursday....did I really long walk pulling my kids in their wagon today. Having issues with my calories though. I usually keep to 1550 but this week, it's been mostly 1600-1650 instead. Taking my cna test in the morning! Eek! I wasn't too nervous until now.

After a lot of soul searching, I've decided I need to put life first, and remember this is a marathon not a race, and a plan/lifestyle I want to stick to forever.

So yes, I'm disappointed that over the next few weeks my weight loss is bound to stall somewhat as I live life. But, I've gotta use this time to learn how to do things in a controlled way and not make the choices be over indulgence or abstinence and nothing in between for the rest of my life.

Tonight, I'm going out, tomorrow I'm going, next Thursday I'm going out, next Saturday I'm eating out. This is life and the things that come with moving homes. Saying goodbye and all the rest of it.

I hope I don't let the team down too much, but I know I am in this for the long haul, and there'll be other challenges at times when I'm more settled and can really give it my all for the duration.

Have a good weekend all, and let's see a high weigh in turn out on Sunday, whatever the results may be!

Hello everyone, sorry for the missing w-ins. I didn't want to throw our team of balance with the weight gain. But I'm finially back down around the last weigh-in weight. 139.8 today. So I will be weighing in from now on, but may not be to chatty and just focusing on everything. I'm going to be focusing on a 2 pounds loss every week.