It's been a weird/busy week, but I'm enjoying reading everything y'all have to say!

It doesn't feel like Friday at all for me. This is my last weekend to enjoy having the place to myself... roommate comes back Monday night from her trip.

katbot: I LOVE that phone!! Gorgeous.

namaste your inspiration jar looks beautiful! I still haven't put mine together. Shame on me.

The nomikai had a very strange drink menu...it HAD cocktails, but only ones mixed with ume, mango, or grape. I also didn't spot any tea on the menu (maybe they assumed that we knew they had it?), just tons of soft drinks. Unfortunately for me, while I was frantically scouring for something that looked low-cal among the forest of kanji, the 6th grade teacher in charge of the English department came up and went "You had beer last time! I remember! Today they have Super Dry...so much better than Yebisu!" and with that, the server automatically brought me a beer and the others assumed that was my drink of choice for the night and kept trying to refill my glass from the big bottles. I ended up falling off the wagon hardcore (1300 calories for dinner and drinks, which was still under 2000 for the day, but higher than I've logged since joining MFP...I even used my exercise calories!), but it was worth it. Scared to step on a scale atm, but I'll bust my butt this weekend to make up for it.

I think the highlight of the night was my kochou-sensei telling the first grade teachers "F--- food! I'm busy drinking!" essentially every time something new and tasty was brought out and they tried to offer it to him Coming from a small, smiley man in his 70s, that was absolutely adorable.

krampus: Actually we had no puking...the teachers at my main school all typically have about a 40 minute commute from different directions, so they tend to be a little more laid back about drinking themselves and more interested in stalking my cup because they want to see how much I can drink >.< You'd think that I'd be less of a novelty after a whole semester with them, but apparently not. We only had one 4th grade teacher who got super drunk, then decided that the best way to cure being so drunk was to try to ingest everything on the table. Even he managed to walk away by himself (though everyone created a protective wall around him while going down the stairs because we were pretty sure he was going to trip and crack his head on the hardwood), so it was a good night.

Hey everyone.

I'm pooped, but I'm trying to catch up. You have been extra chatty the last few days.

Katbot - Cute phone!

Kawaii - Pampered Chef is a company that sells kitchen gadgets and stuff to help you in the kitchen. It's like a Mary Kay or Beauty Control party, but it's all about kitchen and cooking stuff. I love it. So many neat things to help make your life easier. And yes, finally done with school and about to get into the "real-world." I am very excited, but also a little overwhelmed right now. Just don't know what to really expect. Anyway, glad you got to spend some needed time with your BF.

Kahokkuri - Hope you are feeling better!

lisa - Sexy legs?! Haha!! I know what you mean. Having little ones makes it so hard to do those simple things. I started taking showers at night instead of the mornings because of my LO, but my hair is oily before the day is over, so I'm going to have to figure something else out.

Hotaru - Sounds like you had a good time! So, do you get some time off now that school is out?

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So, I went by the school today and got a tour from the principal. He wanted the new hires to come by and get to know some of the other people who worked there. He still wasn't 100% sure what I was going to be teaching and was supposed to let me know today, but I guess he got distracted and he hasn't let me know. He said that we could start working on our rooms next week! We are basically starting from scratch though. I have NOTHING to work with. Even the desks are gone. He said the company that was running the school before took everything when they left...literally. It's not just your average high school. I don't know if I told you, but it's a school that runs a program for students who are 2 or more years behind. The school helps them get to the level they need to be so they can graduate with kids their own age instead of 2 or more years behind. So, I still don't know if I'm doing English or Science. I definitely know that I'm going to be teaching 10-12 grade. However, it's not set up like a normal school. The kids will be ability grouped and we will teach them based on their abilities. It's going to be interesting and challenging at once. It's only been going on for 3 years now and the past years haven't been too successful. So, there is a new principal and new teachers and hopefully all us new people can get some things done.

On another note, I've started couponing and I love it! Not extreme couponing, but I'm still saving a ton of money and able to stock up on a few non-grocery items. It's awesome. I've started recording a few YouTube videos if you'd like to check them out. I have actually thought about doing something with weight loss on there too...maybe talking about my journey or calorie counting or something...I don't know. It's an idea. Here's a link to my channel if you'd like to follow my coupon deals! You might can get some too! http://www.youtube.com/user/sgregg1283/videos

hotaruchan: haha, i know there's more jumping in level 2... i've done it before T_T, the whole thing. actually i forget if it's level 2 or 3 but those "rockstar jumps", i can't do them at all, i just do squats instead, plus the deafening noise they made when i jump was not appreciated by my neighbours, i'm sure... oh, your man still lives back home? that's gotta suck are you planning to do just one year in japan then? sorry to hear nomikai was a bust... but one night off the wagon won't kill you. for next time, just ask for shochu. they will always have some.

krampus: come back and we can have a krampus-o-rama

sgregg: ah, thanks for explaining. sounds fun. wish i actually had room in my "kitchen" for fancy tools..... your future school sounds cool. hopefully they can get desks before the semester starts. haha.


hey girls, so i've been pretty bad yesterday i dunno what's wrong with me but it's like, when i'm dieting, all i can think about is food. since the day before yesterday, all i was thinking about was that i wanted to go to the convenience store, buy some chocolate crap, and eat it. and i didn't and then yesterday i went grocery shopping and was actually very reasonable, and when i came home i was also very reasonable. and then around 9pm i just couldn't stand it anymore and decided "f*ck it" and down a whole bag of cereals. luckily in japan, they're not very big, but still. anyways, today is a new day and i don't mean to repeat my mistake, but i just hate that dieting makes me so crazy. why can't i just think about food like a normal person??? and sure enough, scale was higher this morning. meh.

well, off to do the 30DS i go.

@ Hotaruchan I'd count that night as a special occasion, they're gonna happen and if you were still under 2k, it wasn't THAT terrible.

Sgregg couponing is awesome, and so useful for budgeting and still getting some exotic cooking ingredients. I will have to check out your channel tomorrow on my day off

Kawaii I get that too sometimes, the other day I had a small box of jelly bellys and a tube of mentos before I could talk myself down from my littl binge. I'm just glad I could stop myself there, it used to be that I would eat 3 or 4 different candies. ****, once I bought a jar of Flintstones vitamin gummies and ATE the entire jar on the walk home. It was so humiliating to lose control like that.

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So tomorrow I'm off to buy a couch! Originally, my parents in a surprising display of goodwill towards the fiancé and I, offered us one of their leather couches and an armchair. The couch was 15 yrs old but genuine leather and from a house where children were not allowed to play on furniture, so in very good shape. Not two days after I had been offered said couch, my parents' 160lb english mastiff decided to play in the basement where the couch was while my parents were spring cleaning. She lept up onto this thing full force and bent the center bar. Needless to say, the couch was kaput. So now they're buying me a new couch instead, and since the original promised item was leather, they're not going to settle on anything less than a leather couch since "a promise is a promise". I'm pretty excited for my day off AND the new couch!

Kawaii: Congrats on resisting the siren song of the conbini...I'm sure that you could have found something there that would have done a lot more damage to your diet than some cereal.

Katbot: Yay new couch! Personally I'm not a big fan of leather ones because they feel unpleasant when it's humid, but a couch is a couch and couches are pretty spiffy!


Bleh...why do I have to be productive? I have to go to school for 2 more weeks despite school being out for summer and I think I did about half of the work I have for the entire 2 weeks today. I probably would have done more if I hadn't run out of pouches to laminate my game cards too...I'm going to end up so bored by the end of the week...I finished lesson plans as far ahead as I dare to go last Friday, so really I'm just revamping class materials and getting rid of old crap that's cluttering the English closets. On the plus side, I apparently made a good impression at the nomikai...the teachers were talking to me waaaay more than usual today. It made me feel special

Why don't you try not dieting but simply cutting down on how much you eat? Personally whenever I tried to diet I would do the exact same thing so I took it as a sign that it wasn't going to work. Perhaps try calorie counting instead? Then you might see that the bad foods you craved really aren't worth the calories they contain. Losing weight is a change of lifestyle, if you can't keep it up for the rest of your life then try something that will work!

OK where do I begin...Ok so Friday in the office I went crazy with the snack size snickers and Twix. I ended up going over about 240 calories, but I did do Turbo Fire that day. Saturday, my cousins graduation.....foood fooooood and more fooooodd!!!!!!!!!!! I ended up taking in about 1000 calories on that alone, I used mfp and I’m pretty sure the count was right, after that I didn’t eat anything else that day and did Turbo Fire again. I really got in to it forgetting I was in my apartment upstairs. My boyfriend said I have never seen you sweat (we’ve been together about 4 years total) I was like I KNOW, it takes a lot to make me sweat and those HIIT workouts do it! Worked out Sunday as well, went to Walmart picked off some tilapia, pre packaged, 100 calories per serving. Baked that, some potatoes and asparagus.

Now the kicker! Ok so I don’t know I you all remember me saying I need to invest in a new scale. Ok, my scale has been jumping from about 214-216 since I had my LO in March. It was saying about 214.4 when I started to get back on track. So my brothers girlfriend bout a new scale...weighed myself last night 212.4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! While my scale at home is saying 215.2. So needless to say I’m throwing mine away, I have had for 3+ years, and its seen better days. But I want one of those good ones. So I will have to budget that in to next month’s expenses. I’m having ********** and a plum for breakfast. I’ll tell you all how that goes for me tomorrow or later tonight.

KawaiiCandie- I agree, anytime I look at is as dieting, it doesn’t last. I just say I’m trying to do better.

Katbot24- I want new furniture so bad, but my LO will be crawling and touch and jumping on things real soon. Since we live in a one bedroom and I can’t keep him out of the living room.....that’s a no right now. Hope you got a nice one....and a good deal too.

sgregg- I have really been looking into couponing , but just haven’t. I’m going to check your channel out. Aint nothing wrong with saving money!


Hope everyone has a good day!

kabot: yeah, it's a shame that even though those "mini binges" are better than what we used to do in the past, we still can't make ourselves stop it completely... oh well. congrats on the couch. i wish i could have a couch... my apartment is just way too tiny

hotaruchan: haha, the "siren call of the combini"... actually i failed to resist it yesterday :/ oh well. haha... your story reminds me of when i was on JET... except i had to go into school for the whole summer, not just 2 weeks. i was soooo bad and boring... had to find ways to entertain myself on a computer... but even the internet gets old real quick when you gotta find stuff to do for 8 hours every single day. meh. ganbatte

Rie: yeah i know, it's what i'm trying to do. workout everyday and not make myself crazy with the "dieting" part. it's just that this part of me can't seem to get out of "diet-mode" and i feel like i've just f*cked everything up whenever i stray a bit. meh. today is another day.

lisa: your scale story made me laugh. it reminds me of a similar situation i had about 3 years ago... i had this old scale back home, you know, the non-digital ones with the little pin... well, i weighed myself at an onsen one time and it said about 3kg less than my scale back home. i was like "that can't be right..." but it turned out that my scale was the one that was totally wrong, and this whole time i felt like i was like 8lbs heavier. it was really weird trying to adjust mentally to being "lighter", even though i still was the same weight than i'd been. lol. but yeah, investing in a good scale is a good idea. i got a super cute hello kitty one XD

hey girls. so i was bad again yesterday. gah. actually, i was good for the whooole day, and then around like 6pm, a friend texted me to go out, and since i've been basically a recluse in my house for the last week, i agreed readily. we had a couple of drinks and some food at an izakaya. i was pretty good with the food actually, and only had 2 drinks, but then when i went home, i bought some kitkats and ice cream at the combini. why? why did i do that??? i have no answer for you... meh.

well anyways, i was pretty good today. not only food-wise, but i finally managed to drag my as$ out of the house to go study japanese at a cafe, which is something i've been telling myself i'd do pretty much every day for the last 2 weeks. hopefully this is the beginning of a pattern i also did day 9 of 30 DS, which scares me a bit cuz it means tomorrow is my last day of level one. i know level 2 will be harder... haha... i hate pain

anyhoo. hope everyone has a good monday. it's time for bed for me.

Lisa my MIL's scale told me I was 213 in the middle of the evening yesterday, but mine tells me I'm 216 this morning, so I feel your pain. I'm just going by my scale because I'm trying to focus on progress not numbers (focusing on numbers will just make me sad!)

Kawaii Same thing happened to me, good all day and then BIL wanted to go out for bar food. I only nibbled from my fiance's plate but the bar food was so greasy I had an upset stomach all night and had to call in sick this morning. I think imma try to avoid eating and drink only a tbsp or two of water at a time (standard food poisoning procedure) today because I feel so sick. Needless to say, I think my bar food days are over!

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So I got my couches! Really weird story, I went with my mom and dad and the first place we went to we found a love seat in red bonded leather that we decided on. They told us we could get a matching armchair ordered in too. So we go to the back to pay for the stuff and they tell us it will take 6 weeks o deliver! Omg! So we ask if we can have the floor model, they say no. Anyway long story short we end up talking to the store manager, a rude, disinterested little man who says no again in the most unpleasant manner ever. So we decide to take our business elsewhere, but before leaving my dad asks for his business card. The man asks why he needs it. My dad says he wishes to review the store's and manager's performance to head office. The mans says, and I quote, "you can't do anything to me and I won't give you my card" while covering his name tag. So my dad whips out his phone and snaps a picture of the guy, saying "ok, I'll just send this picture of you covering your name tag along with my comments to your head office". The manager proceeds to chase after us as we're leaving the store screaming "I'll MAKE you delete that photo". He goes so far as to chase us OUT of the store and chase our reversing car down the parking lot while furiously writing down our registration plate (what's he gonna do? Tell the police someone took a photo of him?)

So we went to a competitor's location and in FIFTEEN minutes had bought, ordered, arranged for delivery in 2 weeks and gotten a $150 gift certificate for a set of much nicer loveseat and armchair.

This is the stock photo of them:



They're also gonna be professionally treated and carry a guarantee that if either furniture is stained and the stain cannot be professionally cleaned by the company (for free) then we get new free couches, which will be treated with the same stain treatment and re-guaranteed for another 5 years. Apparently this stuff can withstand kids drawing on the couch with crayons. Considering The couches are white leather, this is good news!

sgregg It would make me nervous to not know what class I was teaching. That sounds like such a wonderful program!

Kawaii I was pretty bad this weekend too. TOM and all I wanted was chocolate and salty chips.

hotaruchan That's wonderful news about the teachers talking to you more!

lisa That is awesome news about the scale!! Congrats!

katbot That is the FUNNIEST thing I've heard! I can totally picture the angry little store manager chasing after y'all. Fantastic news about the better couch with all the stain treatment. Very cool.

My weekend wasn't too shabby. Had TOM cramps so that stunk. Most of my time was me with a heating pad. Now it's back to work, a new week of classes, and...getting back on track after a bad eating weekend.

Oooo: some good news! My student loans don't cover my full tuition for school, so I have to pay some money out of pocket each month. For this upcoming academic year, I'll be saving $130 a month in out of pocket costs! Already have it set up to deposit that money automatically into savings.

sgregg- That sounds like a really interesting teaching job, and very rewarding too. Best of luck to you. The couponing sounds fun, I have seen it on TV but never done it myself.

Kawaii- Hang in there! I've been on a bit of a food bender this weekend too, but the important thing is that it is a new week (or Tuesday there, am I correct?) and there is always time to change things.

Katbot- Sounds like an eventful weekend, lol. Glad you found a couch you liked and that you were able to do something enjoyable with your parents. (When you weren't being chased by angry managers, that is. )

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This weekend was fun for me. My boyfriend and I stayed active, we went swimming and to the gym on Friday and bowled for a couple of hours on Sunday. Tonight he is going to a wrestling event, which I decided wasn't something I wanted to do. It's not like the DVDs where you can actually see what's going on. So I decided I would take my yoga class tonight and then come home and read a book.

In not so good news, I've been kind of going on a food bender this weekend. I had one of those moments of "am I doing the right thing?" type of moments. I have a supportive boyfriend and parents when it comes to my veganism, but a lot of people don't get it and that sort of bugs me. Anyhoo, I had some stuff that was not vegan and kind of backslid for a few days, but I think I can get back on track. Especially since the meat was gross, and I prefer my tofu and seitan anyway.

I also checked out from the library a book of vegan cooking with 400 recipes in it. I keep hoping I will like one of them, lol. If I cook more I will of course take some pictures for you.

Hope everyone has a great day/evening/afternoon.

@QB: Student loans are a pain, the ones in my province thankfully cover tuition and living expenses, but the down side is I'll have more to pay back once I'm done.

@ namaste: Your weekend sounds great and I applaud you for veganism, I couldn't do it! I love cheese way too much. You should share any good recipes you try in the recipe section.

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So my next few weeks are gonna be insanely hectic - dentist and the bank tomorrow followed by work, getting tenant's insurance the next day then work, Saturday is ALL about packing, the fiance is working all day so I can get the packing done without him being underfoot (he's sweet and well meaning but Kat likes things done a certain way and gets grumpy when someone interferes), Monday we sign for the place and move in half the boxes (we're borrowing MIL's car for a week), Wednesday we move in proper and get all our utilities hooked up. Then work every day till the 8th when we go to the fair, then work every day until the 12th when I'm getting my hair/nails done for vegas. 13th leave for vegas, come back on the friday and have the weekend off to get the apartment finished up. The week after that is orientation for my student volunteers starting their positions this school year and then school starts! I don't think I have a single day in August which isn't booked up with at least one thing needing to be done. I'm starting to miss being a woman-child mooching off my parents and playing video games all summer! Phew!

hey guys... i pretty much fail at life... T_T so after a day with the bf (which was awesome but he wanted to eat pizza), i weighed myself yesterday morning and my weight had gone right back up to what it was when i first weighed in nearly 2 weeks ago. nevermind that i'd been good the whole day without that stupid pizza. nevermind that i'd been working out every single day for ten days. oh no. so i got so cranky that i ended up kinda bingeing for dinner last night. i didn't even bother weighing in this morning. i just hate this so much. i just feel like i have to starve myself if i wanna lose weight. like, i can eat 3000 calories a day and stay at my current weight, and then i can eat 1800 calories a day and maintain too. how is that fair??? it just makes me wanna give up, as usual... *sigh*

well anyways, nevermind my little rant. at least i'm still exercising... today i did level 2 of 30DS and i'd forgotten i like it so much better than level one. lol.

later today a friend of mine from my old town is coming over to spend the night cuz she's flying back to England from Narita and i'm looking forward to seeing her. it's probably gonna result in restaurant food, but at least i haven't eaten much all day

kabot: nice couch and omg, that guy sounds like such a douche... hope your dad mails hq, haha...

ballerina: sorry to hear you were bad too... hopefully this week can go better for you. and yay for starting savings. i should do that too...

namaste: yeaaaaah... not giving up yet even though it just feels i just keep on failing... meh. it's pretty cool you and your bf can be so active together though i wouldn't worry too much about your little bender, since it sounds like you're already back on track

Yes , Im still here. I hadn’t logged in a few days because my life has been hectic! BUT I have managed to eat well and I have done TF twice this week. My plan is to do it today and tomorrow. I will be moving into a new apartment this weekend due to relationship issues. SO that will be a workout in its own. YAY for me I have gotten down fast food and dieting. Can’t lie, I have had several grilled chicken sandwich from McDonalds and sonic, no soda, no fries. Each time i stayed within my allotted MFP calories. Scale went down to 211.6

Kawaii- yes, our bodies can be tricky! Don’t give up though, you will go down some more in due time.

nomaste- I am fairly new to this thread, so you may have answered this question before. How long have you been a vegan? What prompted this move? I’m just curious? Oh and I’ve never tried tofu, have to put it on my list