Madison: welcome back!

katbot Well, I almost broke a nail, but that's all. (except the knife). Just do what you can in terms of weight loss. Power through and be happy wherever you end up.

beahawkins I spent most of my life in Louisiana. Just outside New Orleans. 15 pounds down?? WOooo!! And you kept up with your little brother? Great job! (Oh, and I saw you asked: yes, I'm a nanny. Look after 2 little girls)

hotaruchan Aww...sorry you miss band camp. :(
Nope. I'm good. No cuts for me. The knife tip snapped off in between two pieces of quiche, so I let them thaw out to make sure I could find the knife tip, then tossed it all.

Kendal Plans falling through did suck. I cried a little. But he made it up to me.

Side note: Hurricane Issac is due to hit New Orleans on the 7th anniversary of Katrina. Send good vibes that way please! I have a lot of family and friends there still.
My weekend went well. I did some cleaning, and some cooking, and some tv watching (ok, homework too).
I made bread! For the first time ever without a bread machine. it came out yummy. I'm probably going to bring some to work for the kiddos so a) I don't eat it all and b) it gets eaten before it goes bad. I'm a little bummed that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product before I cut into it. But I was so hungry and it looked so yummy! Oh well.
I also got some chicken breasts to cook in my crockpot. Now I have a bunch of shredded chicken to add to lunches and dinners! Woo! I usually don't cook meat because handling raw meat grosses me out, so I'm a big fan of this easier way to cook chicken.

My husband was in town for the weekend and I was bad when it came to my diet :(. I hope it hasnt set me back too badly. I wont know till the morning. Here's hoping!

Q.Ballerina: Nanny-ing is cool. Glad you didn't get hurt with the knife!! And that bread sounds delicious!!

Kendal: That's great that you got to see your husband. And it's also okay to miss plan every so often. Don't worry about it too much!!!

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I start my first full time semester in probably 3 years tomorrow morning. 18 credit hours is daunting. But it will be so worth it once it's ok!! Trying to make a plan so my workouts don't go down the drain.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! :)

beahawkins- I started Synthroid almost a month ago and I've had great results on it. Tons more energy and everything seems more stable/normal. How long have you been on the Armour?


Hotaruchan - My sister in law just did an interview to go to Japan and teach English for a year (or two.) She did a study abroad program in college and went to Japan for a semester then and fell in love with it. If she ends up going back my husband and I plan on visiting for a couple of weeks.

Quiet - Sending good vibes your way! Thankfully Issac isn't currently as strong as Katrina.

This weekend was pretty good....I ate too much Mexican and had too many drinks Saturday night, but I biked 32 miles yesterday and burned 2300 calories. So, it's all gotta balance out, right? I'm ridiculously sore from a dance class I do called "Jiggle It." (It's an *** jiggling, clapping, shaking, popping, dropping, twerking, cardio dance booty life changing class.) I took 3 weeks off (for my last tri) and my thighs are having no part of functioning today.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

Fattitude: I've been on Armour for a little less than a week. So, as much as I think I see improvements.. it could be my mind expecting them. Actual Synthroid worked best out of the synthetics. Which is weird because a generic is supposed to the exact same drug. But my new dr took every thyroid test and then a few other blood tests and Amour is supposed to do better for the results I was given. But oh man. It has a nasty aftertaste of pork. I'm glad it's helping!! Just remember to stay on top of the blood tests!!! Your body can get used to the dose or some other crap and your doctor probably won't remember to get you in for another test especially if you go to an offsite testing center! Mine have always been bad about it . That dance class sounds awesome!!

Ballerina: Watching Issac! Hoping everything will be ok!!

beahawkins I like working with kids, but didn't want a classroom full of them. :) 18 credits? Oh wow! Good luck with planning your schedule. What are you studying? (I forgot if you said before...)

SoMuch Thanks! This is true. I think I always get at least a little antsy when hurricane season rolls around. Had to laugh last year though; I moved away from LA (to VA) and VA got hit with a hurricane AND an earth quake!
Wait wait....you biked 32 miles?? I don't even know if I could bike for 32 minutes! That is amazing to me. The dance class sounds like fun.

I've been up since 5.45 this morning. :coffee: on the one hand, it's very early in the morning. On the other hand, I had time to actually fix my hair, drink coffee, eat an actual breakfast....and still log onto here and chat with you ladies! We'll see how I'm feeling this afternoon/evening. :)

beahawkins That's SO weird that there's an aftertaste. Is it a pill? All of my blood work came back normal, but my endocrinologist said that since I have every single physical/mental symptom of hypothyroidism she wanted to try me on it to see what would happen. She said that if the blood work missed something the Synthroid would make me feel better and if it didn't I'd react pretty nastily to the Synthroid. So, out of desperation I agreed to be a lab rat. LOL. Thankfully, it's been a huge help. I thought I felt a marked difference the first day, honestly, but also chalked it up to my mind; however, it's a month later and I still feel great.

Ballerina My husband and I visited NOLA last year. It's insane that even then, 6 years after Katrina, you could see the water damage, etc. It was incredible. Nature is such a powerful thing. The rain has started here and I'm in Atlanta. We'll just get that eerie, creepy, quiet weather where you know things could get bad. The 32 miles was my cyclist husband's doing....and yes, Jiggle It is amazing.


Last night was a challenge to keep my eating in check. I was in a bit of a mood and really just wanted to eat everything in site; however, I was good. My husband had a couple of drinks and a small bag of popcorn and I partook in none. I know I'll be having a rough weekend eating/drinking wise so I'm trying very hard to cut back this week.

Every year my brother hosts a Labor Day event. A bunch of us go over the night before and help prep. It's a big pig roast where we'll roast a whole pig over a spit and have more food than you could ever imagine. This year we are expecting over 100ppl. It's a sponsored event with a live band, food, dunk tanks, etc. It's called Pork-a-pocalypse this year. My parents are bringing 40lbs of potato salad, 40lbs of baked beans, etc. I'll bring a 36x18 inch cookie cake, etc. It's essentially a fun festival. All of the proceeds go to My House, a home for essentially homeless infants. My mom and I volunteered there for years. It's an amazing place. In fact, we are still very close with two of the boys that were adopted out and I even work with their mom! They'll be at the event, too.

I'm incredible excited, but hoping I can keep my eating/drinking at bay....

QuietBallerina: I can understand that. I love hanging out with my baby brother but I had to help in the preschool room at a church a few years ago and it was horrible! I am a Com major right now but will probably change to human resources because there are a lot more job opportunities. Either way I want to get at least a master's in Com. and then teach. But if I work in human resources say for 5 years while I'm going for my master's I can essentially pay off all my student loans and buy a little condo or something so I wouldn't have to worry about them on with a low college teaching salary.

Fattitude: Yeah! It's a pill. It's like they ground a bunch of porkgrinds or porkbones or (probably the pig thyroid actually...into a chalk like state and then formed a pill. That's great that your doctor thought to put you on it even if the blood tests were normal!! I was 17 when they finally decided to test me. They thought I was just tired, depressed and fat. And my childhood dr. even said I was just lazy. Maybe it is the meds instead of our heads! It is kind of magic lol. That party sounds crazy!! And the charity sounds amazing. Good luck with the temptations!!

Oh god, that sounds horrifying. lol. I can't even choke down porkskins. Ick! They'd been testing me my whole life, but finally my endo wanted to try me on it. I mean, I was working out 5-6 times a week, running 10ks, doing triathlons, etc. and I was gaining weight despite eating a 1500 calorie diet.

It will be crazy and fun. lol. I'm excited!

Iconised Ghost: It's good to hear that wedding planning is going well! Sorry that you seem to have an allergy to medication...that's always awful. I had a severely infected toe and was put on doxycyclene once and ended up vomiting for days. I was PISSED because it was during vacation and a bunch of my friends took it upon themselves to day drink for 2 days in a row and I was the one being responsible and puking my guts out.

Ballerina: Here's hoping that you and yours come out of it relatively unscathed...hurricanes are awful. I've only experienced a few since I lived in New England, but there was one last fall that knocked out power for pretty much the whole state for more than a week and trashed everything with fallen trees.

Kendal: When I hear SAI, I think of the Photoshop alternative software, so I'm guessing no. For eating, don't stress too much...I hope you enjoyed your time with your hubby. I'd give pretty much anything to see my guy at this point...Almost 6 months apart now and it's driving me nuts.

Fattitude: Good luck to your sister-in-law! Hopefully she gets a better company than I did... For the testing...I know the feeling...they didn't think to test me until my OBGYN realized that I had PCOS my sophomore year of college (after a 2 1/2 month long heavy period >.<)...so in high school I would diet regularly while playing varsity sports every season and practicing for 2-3 hours 6 days a week and not lose anything and was incredibly frustrated.

Bea: Glad that you're having good results (or at least a good placebo effect, if you're imagining it :p) on Armour. They've had my mom on synthroid for years, but they went straight for the Armour with me, and unfortunately it did nothing useful.

Today...sucked. I had to go to Tokyo for training yesterday (7 hours on a train for 6 hours of training, a large portion of which didn't actually apply to me because I have a special type of contract) and because I live so far out I had to ride in on Sunday and stay over in Tokyo. First off, I don't like Tokyo. Secondly, I apparently caught a plague while I was out there. I rode 5 km to my farthest school today, and when I tried to say good morning and had no voice, the principal promptly threw me in the back of his car and drove me to the hospital, where I received 5 medications and orders to go home, sleep, and not even consider the possibility of going to work tomorrow. Great. 2 fewer paid days in a month where I was already only getting half pay.

On the plus side, awesome people come out of the woodwork in a time of need apparently. The JTE (Japanese teacher of English) at the school came by my apartment after she got off with soup because she was worried and the principal took it upon himself to call tomorrow's school and tell them the doctor's orders, so the JTE from that school called very worried and told me that if I needed anything, she'd drop everything to do it for me. I felt like I was inconveniencing so many people, but they all assured me that I needed to stop apologizing and relax and get better. I've been chugging as much water as I can keep down, so hopefully that'll flush everything out faster.

Hotaruchan: How can you not like Tokyo?! :( The place is so huge and diverse and you can get EVERYTHING there. I spent a month at Saitama and took the train to Tokyo almost every day to explore. Mind you I like Ueno better, but that's because of the museums and galleries. Maybe it's different when you live there instead of just being a dirty, dirty tourist.

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News: I've been eating ridiculously large amounts of food but all of it whole foods so my calories have been insanely low these past two days, less than 1000 each day. It kinda scares me, I'm thinking of incorporating a cheese snack to bolster out my caloric intake.

Wedding news: The monk (!) at the cathedral we want to get married in ok'd our Catholic/Lutheran marriage, as long as I get confirmed. So on top of 2 jobs, 7 classes, belly dance class and a year-long research project, I now get to go to confirmation classes once a week too! eesh. It's so worth it to get this cathedral though. It's a 100 year old cathedral with real bells in their bell tower! Picture attached. We'll have to decorate the cathedral too, so I'm guessing our budget needs to stretch a bit...sigh.

Oh, also, the church is across the street from our venue, so we're saving by not getting transportation. Our venue is a castle-style hotel, so beautiful. It's the second pic.

Fattitude: That is sucky! I have been there. Thyroids. bleh. If they don't find the right meds then it's almost like trying doesn't even matter. But it's just awesome that it's working!! Thyroids are tricky little monsters.

Hotchuran: I did the same thing in high school. When doing conditioning for sports they would all tone up and lose 15 pounds or something and even after practice was over I would go home and run around the block for an hour and nothing! Although, I don't know how you could deal with PCOS! That just sounds horrible : ( I get upset when mine lasts more than 3 days, just thinking about 2 1/2 months. : (

I think all the vitamins/yaz/amour/working out are helping so much with losing weight. I'm hoping at this point it's not placebo!

Aww! She sounds so sweet! And the principal too!!

Katbot: Those buildings are gorgeous! I don't know how you do it!

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I'm almost to the 20 pound mark! I am so incredibly excited.

First goal!
 

I have only posted a couple of times so you won't know who I am but I just have to tell you about my IP success! I started IP June 25 because my son is getting married September 7 and I wanted to lose a chin or two before that. I hoped to lose 30 pounds by that day. I weighed myself Saturday and at exactly two months OP I hit my 30 pound goal! Happy dance! I was even able to find a dress that looks good on me and am able to buy smaller sizes in clothes. My back no longer hurts, my feet don't swell and my outlook on life is very positive. I am finding the real me again! The happy me! My coach is adding back some carbs for the wedding week then back on program. Next goal is 30 pounds by December. I know I can do it!

Treebee! Go You!! That is awesome!! You can totally do 30 in 4 months!! Especially since you started late June and have already done that much!!

Hotaruchan
Sigma Alpha Iota is a music fraternity for women (founded before the word sorority was used). Hope you feel better!
SoMuch
OMG that all sounds delicious! besides the pork, Im a huge potato salad fan! Stay strong!
Katbot
I was in a catholic wedding recently where the groom wasnt catholic. They made them jump through alot of hoops. Hope your experience is easier!

I feel like I've hit a wall. I should have seen it coming. I was losing weight so quickly and now its slowed to practically a halt. Gr! I dont have time for this! Its so frustrating.