JL - Yea I should except I'm so anti social that it's like blah when it comes to dating and meeting new people...lol i just finished my laundry yay :)

IShisnow - Yay for shriking boobs and waistline, buh bye size 16!!!

Luvja - Welcome back!

Jmko - I don't count calories, I did that for the month of feb and it did me no good. If I obsess about my weight loss I won't lose a single thing. I got it under control though. :) Soup and LOTS and LOTS of water to keep the salt at bay.

Rissa - Sometimes taking a step back is what we all need to do ever so often to keep ourselves on track. It's a good thing you saw a doctor although it seems frusterating now, you did the right thing to be able to get on the right track.
Lupo - Maintaining is better than gaining right? :)

Sweets - On badminton is fun! haha At least you're getting the freezer for free :P
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My job I swear to god = a bunch of children. This guy got mad at this girl at work, well call her girl A who is friends with Girl B, and I guess I'm friends with them like I talk to them but won't hang out with them after work. But anyways the guy got mad at Girl A, so he deleted Girl A, B and Me off of facebook. not that I really care but the fact I got wrapped into those two is kind of stupid since they are both in their own little worlds...not to mention too many hot head control freaks on a mission...no one seems to do the same job, people slack, others have to pick up the slack. I'm just glad I sit at a desk and don't work downstairs haha so I don't really deal with any of it...but really it's like childs play.

indi I wish it was 137 I was stuck at hah. It's 138.8, which is basically 139. I know alcohol has calories, and I accounted for everything I drank...and as for the salty chinese food...well I guess it was salty but I really didn't eat a lot. Sorry if that came off as extra defensive, I think it's just because I know you're right - I know what to do, I just need to do it. Chocolate shake sounds so good. There is a chocolate place here that does amazing shakes with their chocolate, but I haven't had one since before calorie counting because I have no idea how to count it.

krampus I am already lamenting the fact the next Sunday I have off will be over Easter...and I doubt it will be a lazy one, but I can only hope! Congrats on your good day yesterday and yay for freshly dyed hair! I'm getting mine re-done tomorrow, but finally saying goodbye to red..probably in favour of a darkish brunette.

fromthebox Your group Italian date sounds fun! Yay new boyfriend! FUN! Thanks for the kind words. I think I could see lower numbers this week...I also think I have to stop half-a$$ing things, so I've just made a plan. Hope your cough improves!

Laneyy Sorry to hear about your stresses.

MiZ So many boys! I'd say boy 2 was probably just miffed you didn't want to hang out when he asked the second time - maybe he's one of those guys that wants things to happen in "his" time.

JL Sorry about the small gain. I'm sure it's just a slight fluctuation, you've been on such a downward trend that will no doubt continue! I wish we had decent frozen pizza (I'm assuming smart ones are frozen) in this country! They are all CRAP.

Ishi I wish I was as excited as you about losing a cup size! But that's awesome if it's a good thing for you! And the non-fitting 16's is cool too!

luvja Hey Sherri! Welcome back. I'm sure you can do it!

lupos Sometimes letting loose is a good thing if you enjoy it and don't go completely overboard.

Risssa Sorry about your problems. I hope your 30 day plan works out for you. "Real food" sounds like a good place to start.

jmko I've never had Panda Express (mainly because it doesn't exist here haha). I have to say, I got kind of annoyed when I read what you wrote about me not exercising enough - and then I realised I was only getting annoyed because you are 100% accurate and I've been in denial for a little while about my exercise level. Your date night food sounds tasty, did you enjoy Rango?

Sweet Hope you get your freezer soon! And sorry about missing the Zumba class - but I bet it will be fun! I enjoy Zumba a lot.

~Yup. So I have dug my head out of the sand and I'm ready to admit that the lack of loss could be my fault. And even if it's not, it's time to improve my habits anyway. As of this week, I'm dropping my weekly calorie average to 1400 per day. I'm still going to kind of cycle so I can still have a higher day here and there if I have a lower day here and there.
I've also just been through my diary/daily planner and written a whole lot of "do this" notes regarding exercise. I know I've been slacking off a lot, basically most of the year, and even if that doesn't have much to do with the lack of loss, I need to get back into improving my fitness.
This week I already lost Monday, so today is Tuesday. Zumba after work. Tomorrow I'm going to allow myself a small sleep in (day off) and then exercise in the morning before breakfast. Tomorrow I also get my hair colour changed - saying goodbye to the fading red.
Thursday I can get in exercise after work again, maybe a run or some time on the stationary bike/rowing machine. Friday morning I can exercise again. Saturday there may be some kind of tramping/hiking/walking expedition happening, so I will try to join in on that with my boyfriend and some friends. I'm going to aim for a minimum of 3 days per week, ideally 4, great if I do 5. At least half an hour on the days I get something done.

MiZ Sorry, missed your last post. That situation at work does sound super trivial and childish haha.

Hi everyone! My weight is down a bit from yesterday which is promising. I did have a weird grazing episode where I ate a calcium supplement cookie and some caramel chews IN MY BED but not enough to warrant real damage or feeling sick.

I swear my complexion is already going to **** after being off BC for 4 days, my forehead feels "bumpy" like there are thousands of zits just bubbling and curdling under my skin. Hopefully they don't erupt or I will cry.

Also in more disheartening news, my Achilles tendon has decided to creak and crack audibly whenever I move my ankle. The answer is probably rest but I hate the idea of not being active. T_T

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rainbow That sounds like a good, reasonable plan for getting in more exercise. I think you'll feel better about it on the whole.

MiZ The world is full of adult babies and work culture just breeds them it seems!

Sweet Better luck with the scheduling next time! That sports facility sounds intimidating as heck.

jmko That meal sounds delicious. If I lived in HI I'd be so fat. It's like all the good stuff out of Japanese cuisine plus all the good stuff from American comfort food!

Laneyy I hear you on being impatient with life. I have 5 months left in Japan but it feels like 5 years.

Risssa Good luck on primal/paleo! That sounds challenging...

lupo No gain is a victory. I've never had a weekend I didn't gain since I started dieting almost a year ago!

luvja Welcome back! Stick around for a while ;)

Ishisnowcone Awesome victory on the shrinkage and the pants!

JLNichols Don't worry too much about the bouncing on the scale, you're doing everything right!

miz work-drama, we all love it. i work with 4 other girls and 1 of them tried to get me fired by creating a fake email address and sending out a complaint from it about me to the VP of our company. Everyone figured out it was her though, so nothing horrid happened to me. the rest of the girls just despise her now. childish work drama sucks.

rainbow i didn't mean to offend you or have it sound like you're not working hard! i was in a rush to leave and run errands...i should have explained more. i went back and re-read my comment and understand how it sounded to you. sorry!!!! i just meant that it's recommended that your body needs exercise at least 3x a week to lose weight. especially at a plateau, adding 2 extra days a week will help to confuse your body and kick-start your metabolism. you've done fantastic being down from 205! i'm not saying your lazy!! i promise!! gah! i feel so terrible. but date night was tasty and worth it to go off plan, and rango was good. if i was a parent and took my kids to that movie though, i'd be kind of peeved that it was marketed as a kids movie and ended up kind of not being...

krampus my joints do that too. it's really just air depressing, i think. as long as you don't feel pain or swelling, it should be okay. and yeah, living here is tough with all the awesome food. all the asian influences, and all the great fatty american food, it's no wonder that i weighed almost 180. haha, i keep saying this diet will all be worth it when i hit goal weight and i can eat all the good stuff again (in moderation of course).

krampus Urhg, sorry about your achilles, that does not sound fun - but great news that you're down again! I just need to stick to my plan. Stick to my plan. I'm hoping you guys will question me and keep me accountable for it haha!

jmko It's totally fine, please don't worry! I actually needed to interpret it in the way I did haha, you can take the credit for spurring me into getting back into it properly! 205 was back in 2008...I have wondered whether to leave it there...in 2008 I went from 205 to 176 in 3 months...and then kind of just stopped, getting back up to 187ish, which is where I was when I started in July last year. Please don't feel terrible haha! It's really ok! I'm probably going to have an off plan date night next Wednesday...and I'm already stressed about it hah! Also, if you were saying I was lazy, you'd be right anyway :P I've been super lazy the last few weeks!

rainbow no totally hear ya- nothing wrong with drinks + chinese food, I mean this is the person who had a whole chocolate shake, lol! For me even though alcohol and Chinese food may be in my calorie allotment it still makes me stall or gain, so maybe that's what happened? Anyway all of that meant to say that I think being off-plan sometimes is part of being on-plan, if that makes any sense, and that the overall progress is more important than day-to-day dips and peaks. But maybe I didn't express that well, so I apologize! All that to say you are doing awesome so keep up what you're doing!

krampus yeah careful with cracking. Try RICE-ing it perhaps, if you haven't already? I'm also having to take a hiatus because of my pulled hamstring. I remember having this problem before and my physical therapist was adamant that you can't push through an injury. It's so hard to just sit around on the couch but sometimes that's what's best in the long run for the body.

jmko haha no but we definitely battled our fair share of dysentery and cholera lol. Your dinner with DH sounds amaaaaaaaazing!

Rissa yay real food! I'm so into that. Have you read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"? If you're going paleo you might be interested in it.

lupos good for you for enjoying a night out! Even better you didn't see a gain! yay!

luvja welcome back, even though we didn't know each other before :) Look forward to getting to know you and supporting each other through the weight loss journey.

ishisnowcone congrats on the shrinkage!! what a great feeling.

indiblue Sorry! I misinterpreted yours and another post haha...I think I was just feeling super defensive and it's basically because I know I've not been doing amazingly well with the foods I've been eating and the exercise.

~Hah, I was doing so well today...until now, but I can get back on track anyway. I had an egg and an english muffin for breakfast, a mini wholewheat pita filled with lettuce, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, falafel and greek yoghurt for lunch...an apple for a snack...and then I remembered the mini caramel-filled chocolates that have been hiding in my bag for a while. I use them as calorie-controlled portions when I'm craving chocolate, but I just ate 4. They're only 18 cal each, so I'm only up to 666 (DEVIL NUMBER) calories for the day so far...but still, the chocolate was not part of the plan (at least until after dinner haha)!

mmmmmm I LOVE GREEK FOOD. The pita sounds fab. And so healthy- chick peas in the falafel, yogurt, veggies. nom nom nom.

I love that you and a few other people are in the same hemisphere as I am so I have someone to chat with throughout the day!

Eeep, I am so stressed and overwhelmed that I didn't even notice it was a new week.

I also just broke my no-binge streak :( :( At least it was on healthy stuff.... siiiigh.


I have a day off Wednesday, I'll update and do personals then. Gotta get to bed, another very long day tomorrow.

Talk soon....

Boys are complicated and I don't even know why! OR why must I over Analyze everything. People tell me I don't need to have the tough girl act around them and to let down my shell a little bit...but when I do I don't trust it so I don't want to! :( Ugh...

indi The pita has been my go-to lunch for a couple of days now, at least while I'm at work. For a few weeks I was having an english muffin filled with egg, low fat cheese and chicken bacon for lunch while at work...but I wanted something else this week...I just cook up a patty of falafel in the morning, stuff it in the toasted pita, put the salad stuff in a separate container and the greek yoghurt in another - refrigerate vegies + yoghurt at work. Reheat pita, stuff with veges and drizzle yoghurt on it as I'm eating haha. And it's super low cal, which is good because it allows room for fruits as snacks! And chocolate! Hah, joking on the last one, I should have left it alone in my bag!

FPSJ I am so sorry to hear you broke the binge-free streak... but as you say, at least it was healthy stuff! I have no doubts you'll get back on track. I hope you get less stressed soon!

rainbowstripe Yum. I should try that. What falafel recipe do you use? I'm trying to find one without so much oil, but when I cut back on the oil they fall apart.

indi I actually buy a pre-made mix... -_- My boyfriend keeps telling me to make my own but I'm kind of scared of making something like that! No idea why...I really should give it a go. I just like the convenience of this stuff, and it appears to be pretty additive free in terms of ingredients.

Spent 2 hours scrubbing the hallways and sweeping and mopping and carrying boxes of books. God bless Japan and its "teachers and students clean the school" policy, especially in winter - the hallways are the same temperature as outside! Made me hungry so I had a bigger lunch than I would have liked. Kitsune soba (buckwheat noodle soup with a piece of fried tofu, half a hard boiled egg, and dehydrated seaweed) and karaage (4 bite sized pieces of boneless fried chicken). It was delicious and filling and I ate it way too fast. I'm going out to dinner with friends later, gonna try and eat lightly.

indiblue What's RICEing? It's painful to do pretty much anything. I probably messed it up from not stretching before long walks.