Hey everybody, long time no see! Took an unplanned break, but I'm trying to get back in the groove now.

beahawkins- YAY! Congrats on no more math!!

Bea- GLAD to see ya back! We all have been slacking here, nothing like november! I really hope you pass your science!

Quiet-!!!!!! I didnt know you had a fitbit, I thought I was the only on here! What is your user name so we can be friends! Im Prettybrown1913. I have some really big stepper friends and it keeps me so motivated to step!

penmage- Welcome back! Good luck!


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I am very proud of my eating lately, I have been staying on target, its not quiet as planned as I like, but fridge is full of good stuff!

Good to see some new and older faces. :)

Kawaii- It is awesome to see you again! :) Thanks for the well-wishes. I know you can do it. We're here for you. :)

Bea- Thanks! :) My hair is red-orange now, I redyed it and I love it! It is a rich, beautiful color. This isn't the best pic of me but this is what it looks like:

Attachment 43660

It was meant to be candy-apple red but I liked the color so much I decided to keep it. I LOVE Sally's, I go there all the time. I love their nail polish.

Lisa- Good job on staying on track! :)

QB- Good job doing so many steps! Moving will do it, lol. Thanks, my fiancé did an amazing job!

Rie- Thanks! :) Best of luck to you on sorting everything out, I can totally relate. :)

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I am finally done with finals. :) I have 3 A's but one professor is taking his time posting the final grade. I hope it is an A as well, but it will be at least a B.

My fiancé and I celebrated one of five (yes, five) Christmas celebrations last weekend. Thankfully, we didn't get much in the way of food, but I got all kinds of beads to make jewelry with (I make jewelry and scrapbook... I'm a crafty type). I will probably have enough jewelry making supplies to last me for several weeks and pieces of jewelry. And I am probably going to get some scrapbooking supplies from my in-laws. So I will definitely be set for awhile. We also celebrated my fiancé's birthday by going out to eat and seeing The Hobbit. It was so good, if you haven't seen it you definitely should. :)

Well, that's about all I have to report. Have a great day all. :)

namaste: thanks ^^) congrats on being done with finals! and crafty gifts sound fun! oh, was the movie good? really? i've heard mixed reviews... mostly from uber fans of the book.... but i really wanna see it!

bea: congrats on finals to you too! lol. i am so glad i'm done with school... i hope you didn't get in too much trouble from your baking shenanigans... :p and good luck with the scale!

Hi guys! well it's wednesday night over here and i am pretty peachy cuz i just had my last day of work for the year! it's also at my "least-liked" school (i teach at 2, one that i adore and one that kinda annoys me...) so it's always a little victory when i finish my time there, lol. so i'm on vacation for like 2 1/2 weeks now! woot!

then after school i went swimming for 30 min at the gym and felt pretty good about that. my back has been absolutely killing me for the last couple of days and i think it's either bladder or kidney-related but i didn't have the chance to go to the doctor because the medical system here in japan is f*cked and only open during work hours, basically. (even emergency at the hospital... if you chop off a limb on a weekend, too bad!!) so anyways... but i also don't wanna go because my new insurance doesn't kick in til jan and i don't wanna pay cuz it's soooo expensive... gah! well anyhow, i was glad that i was able to swim!!!

i weighed myself this morning and my weight was up from my last weigh-in, which made me a little depressed. i know i had a cheat day on saturday and i normally only weigh myself only on saturday mornings, but still i was bummed. oh well. i guess i will just continue to be extra good all week!! i just wish this weight-loss malarkey was a lil bit easier... T_T

hope everyone has a good day!!

I'm alive! I've been stupid busy and trying not to be so crazy about everything since it consumed so much of my life.

I need to find a middle ground of focus, yet healthy focus. The Holidays are definitely a struggle; however, I tend to be doing well Mon-Friday (for the most part) I'm still cooking from my month of Cooking Light Menu which has been fantastic! I haven't weighed in since Thanksgiving and I'm sort of okay with that. I'm measuring success by the way my clothes are fitting and how I'm feeling. My rings are lose, which is always good.

The true battle will be this coming week as I'm baking a triple chocolate mousse cake, heaven and **** cake, tuxedo cake, NY Style crumb cake, chocolate cheesecake and a sweet potato souffle - all while PMSing.

I havent been to the gym as faithfully as I should be this past week, but I am still being somewhat active.

<3

I actually really just wanted to pop in while I've got a chance to wish you all a great Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a good new year too! Or just a good break in general.

Not even really going to update much on me as nothing much is happening. Lost 1kg haha, but at least I'm still maintaining. Still running 2/3 times a week except for this week and still calorie counting also, except for this week. And probably next week too. Anyhow, hopefully I'll find some time to return in 2013!

Dear semester end: I hate you. I've been running around with my hair on fire trying to make sure that Christmas lessons were in order and I'm on schedule to finish all of my lessons in time for the end of the year. Yesterday was the last day of classes, but somehow I still managed to stay half an hour overtime today because I have a nasty habit of trying to get everything done at once even though I have 2 weeks of sitting around in the office waiting for me.

Looks like I missed a lot here...
Namaste: Huge congrats! I'm so happy for you!
Ballerina: Congrats on the big move and for using it as an opportunity to get extra exercise in :D
Lisa: Sorry! I've been slacking here while real life has been hectic. I'll try to post more >.<

Namaste: I did that the last time I did my hair like that! I was trying to bleach it down to blond (Very bad idea or my hair) so I could do something very light and after 4 packets it stopped at an orange color.. I liked the color a lot but it wasn't even so I bought I found a color close to it. It was fun.

PenMage and Lisa: I passed all my toughies!! To be done with my analytic courses, I have one more science to take and it is called History of Geology. So, it shouldn't be math related at all... and he already opened the site so we can used to it. I've never had a pro do that before, they always seem to wait until the day the class is supposed to start. : )

Kawaii: I think I am doing pretty well. I know I have had wayyyyy too much junk but looking back, I have done so much better than any other year so I'm ok with that!! Are all the hospitals in Japan like that? That just doesn't seem like very good practice. People get hurt all the time, not just 9-5... weird!

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Well yesterday was my birthday! I turned 24. I feel so bleh or not being graduated but so very excited for being on my way!! I received the best birthday present ever yesterday!! I have been doing school off and on since 2007 and This is the first time I have passed a full schedule of classes! And hard ones at that!! I am so proud of myself. So, today, I am preparing my room for next semester ughhhh. And trying to find every reason to not go upstairs and eat left over icecream cake for breakfast!!

beahawkins Happy (belated) birthday! And congrats on passing your classes. Awesome news!

penmage welcome back!

lisa awesome! I'll have to add you. I don't have any friends on fitbit so I have to figure out how. :)

namaste Wow! Lots of celebrating!

Kawaii Yay for vacations! Hope you get to get things checked out soon. Your health is important. :(

SoMuch You always bake the best goodies!

rainbow Hey! Maintaining is better than gaining.

Hotaruchan Hopefully you'll get to relax soon.

Great news for me! :carrot:
I am officially finished moving out of my old apartment. I went over last night and cleaned, spackled, and removed the last few items. I'm going to do one last walk through after Christmas and then hand in my keys. Woo!

....though I still have loads of organizing to do at the new place. :)

I can't believe Christmas is only 5 days away. Where did the time go??? I still have some shopping to do. Oops. :)

hiya rainbow! good to hear from you! eh, 1kg is great! merry christmas to you too! :)

hotaruchan: good luck with the end of semester! at least it's friday today, right? do you have any classes next week? がんばって！

bea: yeah, all the hospitals in japan are like that! well, i think that if you get into a really bad accident and people call an ambulance, they'll come get you of course... but outpatient stuff, there is just nothing. it's incredibly stupid. happy birthday and congratulations on passing all your classes!! hey, don't worry about being 24 and still in school, i was 26 when i graduated so there's no shame! ;)

Ballerina: thanks :) yeah i know... though the pain subsided a bit now so it's more manageable... but yeah, i know i have to be careful with my health! i'm just fed up of being sick all the time!! i had this back pain thing in october so i went to the doctor for it, got meds, then 2 weeks later i got tonsilitis, then the week after that i caught a cold!!! it was actually one of the deciding factor on me trying to eat healthy cuz i thought "my body is shutting down on me!". but now i just feel so angry cuz it's like "i've been healthy for a month!! why am i still getting sick?!?!!!" :( well anyways... congrats on finally moving out!! must be a great feeling :)


well good morning guys. i'm pretty peachy today cuz weight is back down to 179, eheh, and i'm on holiday and later i'm going to get my nails done! woohoo! yesterday i had a nice date day with my boy and we went to see the new james bond movie and it was really cool!!!!

hope you all have a nice one ;)

I don't have classes, but I have to work every day except Monday next week (including Christmas). On the plus side, today was the closing ceremony and my principal let me go home 2 hours early. Nomikai tonight, though...that's going to spell trouble.

i'm so glad i don't have to go to nomikais anymore! good luck!!!

Quiet Ballerina- I may have bitten off more than I can chew this Christmas. Pardon the pun. :p lol I am baking an oreo cheesecake, sweet potato souffle, triple chocolate mousse cake, NY style crumb cake, heaven and **** cake and a tuxedo cake. It will NEVER end. YAY to moving out!

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I've noticed when I look in the mirror my "fat pack" in smaller. I'm liking what I see and that's an awesome feeling for once!

Merry Christmas, ladies!

The nomikai actually went pretty well...apparently if you make sure that there are no bottles on the table close to you and mostly stand in one spot, you can talk to the same people for most of the night and people will be less likely to try to refill your drink :p It was really fun. I'm not going to miss my job or the place where I'm living in the slightest when I leave, but the people that I work with are pretty damn cool. I hopped over to the onsen so that I could enjoy being properly warm yesterday, and I'm down from the last time I weighed, so I guess that I didn't screw up too badly. Not making 10 lbs for December like I'd wanted to, but I clocked in under 150 for the first time since about middle school.

Tonight I'm going to be bad. Since I have to work on Christmas, I'm going a few towns over and doing nomihoudai karaoke with some friends. I've already decided that it's going to be a pretty massive cheat night, since I won't have a Christmas dinner to splurge on or a new year's celebration...so I intend to drink until the thought of singing AKB48 doesn't sound absolutely mortifying. I didn't have breakfast and only had a small lunch to make up for the fact that there'll be party food and booze aplenty tonight, but I'll probably still go overboard. Maybe I should go do pushups until my shoulders scream at me...

Fattitude: Holy willpower, Batman! Kudos to you for being able to make all that delicious-sounding stuff without stuffing your face. Huge congrats on losing some of your fatpack too...can't wait until I manage to do that >.<

hotaruchan: lol. have fun! actually, you really should eat something before your party instead of having "saved up" all your calories, cuz you're much less likely to binge like mad in that case. but anyways, it's your night out. enjoy it! i'm saving my cheat day for the 26th, when i have a big date with the bf (he is working on the 24th T_T) and i fully intend on eating cake!! oh and also one for NYE when i intend to get blind drunk. lol. have fun!

Hey hope everyone is having a great holiday! Just checking in. I thought winter break was supposed to be a relaxing time. Ha!!

Hey everyone! Things have got super busy again because I'm now home in England and having a great time with my friends and family so far! I probably won't be around as much to post but just want to wish you all a happy holidays from me. Hope everyone is relaxing and not worrying too much about weight loss, this is the time of the year EVERYONE slacks I think!!

hiya guys!

looks like you're all having a good time since this thread is pretty quiet! i hope everyone is being good!!

I'm having a bit of a weird time today... see, my bf is really busy and has to work nearly all of the holidays (he's a student so it's a part time job) and yesterday was his only day off. we'd planned a big fantastic christmas date, where he was gonna take me to lunch at a fancy restaurant, and then my christmas present was that he'd bought tickets to go see a singer we both really really like. i also bought cake and champagne for the evening, so it shoulda been a really magical day. so yesterday rolls along, i'm super excited, i meet him up before lunch and he's SICK. i can plainly see he dragged himself out of bed just so i wouldn't be mad (and cuz of the concert, he would never not go... lol) and from then on everything was just blah. he barely ate anything at the restaurant (which was really amazing), we went back to my place where i put him to bed and he slept all afternoon. then he woke up worse, we went to the concert where he enjoyed himself but afterwards look much worse for wear. as we went back to my place he was saying he wanted to go home (his) and i got really upset. i felt like this awesome day was just ruined, and i knew it wasn't his fault but i was just so sad. he thought i was crying cuz i was mad a him, lol, so he ended up staying. he seemed to get better a bit after we got home, and we ate a bit of cake and just slept. this morning he had to leave early cuz he had some family lunch to get to, and i went back to bed.

actually, yesterday was supposed to be my big cheat day, and i'd be surprised if i ingested enough calories to really make a dent in my diet. the restaurant's food was really small portioned and healthy, and i didn't eat much else for the rest of the day, so i guess that's good.

now today, i know i have to drag my a$$ to the gym... i've been making excuses ALL week and haven't gone since last Saturday (i think...) so i really have to go! but i feel just so blah...

anyways, thanks for letting me rant!

Hey guys!

Checking in today before I go to sleep. I have had a wonderful Christmas with my fiancé and both sides of his family, and with my family earlier in the month. I think my family is snowed in in Northeast Arkansas right now though, but ironically it didn't do a thing here in East Missouri. It seemed to be doing a lot all around us though.

However, the abundance of food sucked eggs for my waistline. I weigh 229 pounds. I haven't weighed that much in over 2 years, not up to my highest weight but getting there. It's kind of getting to the point where I can't really say I rock my curves or anything like that. I just don't look very nice, and it is starting to wreck my body. I am worried that my knees, which occasionally give me trouble, will eventually give me too much trouble. I'm not exactly young, but I'm definitely not old, and I certainly don't want to feel like it.

Well, that's my rant I suppose. Same sh*t, different day, lol.

Kawaii- Awww that sucks. That's happened to me on numerous occasions, where a date (or even a vacation, at one point) didn't go right. But I'm sure there will be many more where you will have a great time. I'm sure the bf will feel better soon and you can plan a remake of the epic date. :)

Have a good evening all. :)

wow, you can almost hear a in drop in this thread!

Well, I hope the holidays are going well for everyone! Im proud to say that my weight is down and not up!!!!!! I seriously think I will meet goal if I stay on track! Christmas went well, I ate almost everything but in proper portions.

kawaii- sorry about the day! I guess you can be happy that you atleast saved some calories!

namaste: thanks. i hope so! aww... sucks about your weight... but you're still in here, you can restart your weightloss anytime you want and we'll be there to cheer you on! think about your wedding and how awesome it would be to look super sexy fit in that wedding dress, eh? ;)

lisa: haha, yeah, at least one good thing came out of it :p congratulations on keeping your weightloss going through the holidays! if you can do that, you can do anything! :)

hey girls!

so yesterday i did managed to drag myself to the gym, although i went and felt like i didn't work very hard since i didn't sweat very much and didn't even hurt anywhere when i left (lol). although this morning my leg muscles were sore so i guess i did do something! lol. i also weighed myself this morning, and i was a bit worried, but was pleasantly surprised that weight was the same as before my cheat day. no loss, but no gain, so it's good in my book. it'll go down eventually.

today i'm off to meet my friend from Canada who is staying in Japan for two weeks! so i'm excited :D and we are gonna get hair extentions in!! so i'm gonna have long hair in just a few hours! yay! hopefully they'll look better than last time... getting extentions in Japan is super cheap compared to back home (like under 100$) but it's a bit hit or miss whether they'll look nice or not... like i went to one place one time and they looked fabulous, then i went to the same place again a year later and they got really gross after washing them only once... not sure what happened! so we're trying a new place today... wish me luck!!

hope y'all have a good day, and you be good! ;)

Kawaii- That's great, I'm glad ya'll are willing to welcome me back. I am looking forward to my wedding, and hoping to be thin to wear something that doesn't resemble a white shower curtain wrapped around me. I would like more creative freedom with my dress, especially since I love form-fitting stuff even at 229 pounds. :) Good luck with the hair extensions, I have always wanted to do them but they seemed painful to me, especially when they sew it into your original hair.

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So glad it is the end of the holidays. We ended it with a bang, we went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra for the second time (first show was better) and ate at this really fancy restaurant in the ritzy part of town. My mother-in-law (to be) paid for it all so it was a real treat. The portions were HUGE but I just ate until I was satisfied. I thought it was a pretty cool accomplishment cause usually I just eat until I'm super full and eventually eat more at home.

I guess I could join the bandwagon and say that I will change from henceforth, and that today is THE day, but to be honest I am just jaded about that whole process. I'm not saying that I'm quitting by any means, just approaching it in a slow, methodical way so as to make it last. It hasn't worked for me to have unbridled enthusiasm and throw myself into a diet plan that is severely restrictive, so it makes no sense for me to do it that way.

I do, however, want to do some more exercise. I am thinking of getting back into walking and into my yoga classes first of all. Eventually I will add other things like Zumba and bellydancing. I just didn't want to go into something hard-core like running right away. You have to walk before you can run, after all, lol. :) Besides, I always had more energy when I exercised.

Anyway, I've talked everyone's ear off so I will go for the evening. Have a great one all.

Kawaii: Sorry that your Christmas date didn't go as planned, but hopefully the massive amounts of fun you're about to have with your Canadian friend will make up for it. I've never done anything especially fancy with my hair, especially in Japan, but one of the local shops is running a new year's special with super awesome prices for a dye and cut set. I'm super tempted to call my company and ask if the "no dye" policy means no purple hair or no dyeing at all...my hair's about 5 different colors from getting bleached out by the sun while I was riding my bike everywhere all summer. I'd hoped it would fade into something normal by now, but it still looks like a crazy person tried to give me highlights...I'd really like to have it a nice, solid, normal color again >.<

Lisa: Props for staying on the wagon! I went a little overboard last weekend, and while I'm still scale-less I'm pretty sure I'm up a pound or two. Bleh.

Namaste: A) You're way too awesome to not have at least some success in the next 2 years. I'm sure you'll be slim and svelte in time for your big day and B) I'm willing to bet that you could rock a shower curtain if you wanted to...maybe not for your wedding, but sometimes it's fun to pretend that things that aren't clothes are clothes. Idk if you've ever been to an ABC party (ABC=Anything But Clothes, in case you haven't), but they're kinda ridiculously fun.

SO jealous that you got to see TSO! They're the only Christmas music that I can stand...orchestral music in general makes me happy, but if I hear them or Apocalyptica that'll completely make my day...


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Just finished my super boring week of work...most days there was a maximum of like...5 other people in the office throughout the day. I ran out of even busy work to do 2 days ago. Yesterday I drew a comic (which made the vice principal unreasonably happy...he demanded that I make him a copy and sign it because it was "awesome" and he was going to show EVERYONE). Today I sat and studied kanji for 6 hours.

I'm not sure whether or not to be happy that it's the weekend because I don't have any New Year's plans and my apartment is FREEZING. I'm sure that Kawaii can confirm how stupidly uninsulated Japanese buildings are...it's so hard to avoid just making myself into a blanket burrito and powering up my VPN so that I can veg out on Netflix all day. My apartment's too small to do much exercise indoors and the wind is way too strong to go outdoors or make the 30+ minute bike ride to the gym. My face was bright red all day today because I was working at my far school (about a 25 minute bike ride) and got absolutely mauled by the wind this morning. The vice principal had to actually shoo me out the door at 3:00 because he wanted to go home (in his nice, warm car) and I didn't want to face the nasty winds.

In any case, I need to get my butt in gear somehow...just a little over 3 months until I go home, and I want to make my boyfriend's jaw drop. ;) I know that spot reducing doesn't work, but maybe I should look up some core workouts since in general those seem to require less space than lunges and cardio and such...

Hotaru- Thanks for the encouragement. I imagine I was just bummed because my heaviest was 240ish, and I didn't want to go back to that number. It was just too difficult to get around at that weight. Besides, it just feels weird to go back to my original number after I lost 50 lbs. I think I can still lose it though.

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I have had some time to think about things, and I think I can still lose weight if I continue along the path I am going. I am not making any huge changes yet, but I am limiting my portions and I am almost certain I will go back to being a vegan very soon. My boyfriend and I are also working out tomorrow, and I think I will go back to some of my fitness classes starting next week. So, I am making changes in the right direction. :)

I hope everyone has a good evening.

namaste: i understand how you feel... i'd been feeling like this for months, pretty much since summer. unhappy with the way i looked, knowing i had to get my as$ into gear, but unwilling to give up food and the motivation was just not there. finally it was just this one comment from my bf that made me realize that it was time to do something about it. you just have to have this one moment where you make the decision "yes, i am doing this", and that you know that it's not half-assed and you stick to it, good luck!

and the extentions look nice! oh, it's not like that here. japanese-style exte are braided into your hair. it's not painful at all! they just take a strand of fake hair, a little strand of your hair and braid it together at the top. it can be a bit uncomfortable the first night, but after that it's fine. the only downsize though is that you can see them a bit through my hair... and since my hair is blonde, you can see some of the bands which are brown :/ my friend got some too though and her hair is dark brown, and hers look really really natural! i'm jealous, haha. here's a pic! I'm the one in the middle.

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps25d815d2.jpg

hotaru: you should just do it. i was always told by other JETs in the past "don't ask, just do". if you ask, there's 90% chance they're gonna say no. if you just do it, there's 90% chance they won't say anything. heck, they might not even notice. i bleached my hair really really white blonde 2-3 weeks ago, then i went to teach after a 2-week break and only a handful of people noticed it was colored (and those people were kids). cuz i went from dark blonde to light blonde, for those people, it was just "still blonde" lol. as long as you're not dying your hair a freaky abnormal color, they should be ok with it. and if they complain (which i doubt they will), you can just say you didn't know. besides, you're only there for a few more months so i wouldn't care what they think eheh. do it!! and oh yeah, i feel you on the cold. it takes ages for my heater to properly heat my room, and when i got home yesterday, it was 9C in my place T_T it was like 14 when i went to bed... i was freezing!!! lol.

well good morning ladies!

I am pretty peachy this morning :) yesterday, i went out and got my hair done and hung out with my friend and her friend, and we went shopping afterwards (bad idea, i am so poor now... ) and then we went for dinner. at first we were gonna go to this Hawaiian restaurant that i'd been to before, but then i stupidly mentioned that there was a really good okonomiyaki restaurant on the same floor, and they HAD to go there. Okonomiyaki is really delicious, but it's so not on my diet plan!!! it's basically batter, mixed in with vegetables and meat or seafood, fried on a hot plate and then topped with some sweet brown sauce and mayo. i know it sounds gross like that but it's really heaven. i was stressing about it the whole time, but i figured that since i'd barely eaten anything all day, i would be ok and not gain. i didn't even eat the whole thing either, good girl that i am! :p

so anyways, i step on the scale this morning just to check and... lo and behold! i am lighter!! wohoo!! pretty peachy. scale says 177.7 but i am happy to just move my ticker down to 178. it was my NY goal so yay :)

oh and little nsv too, yesterday, we went shopping at 109, which is a famous department store in shibuya, which caters to "gyaru" which are super trendy young japanese girls. the clothes are usually excrutiatingly small. sometimes you can luck-out on certain items cuz oversized shirts are really in, but yeah. well anyways, i bought a shirt from there and it fit me so i was really pleased. also, when we were shopping and i'd look at myself in the full-lenght mirrors, i think for the first time i realized that i was visibly smaller than i'd been in a while, so that made me feel good!!

hope y'all have a good day! ^_^

Namaste: Good to hear you're working your way out of that little funk...we all have them from time to time. The fact that you can pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and keep making good choices after setbacks speaks volumes about how much *** you have the potential to kick.

Kawaii: Congrats all over the place! On the scale...off the scale...sounds like you're doing awesome. I know how weird the sizing on Japanese clothes gets, so I'm glad that you found something trendy and awesome that fits. I can't seem to win...when I got here I was too fat for the cute clothes, and now that I fit comfortably into normal sizes, I've come to the realization that I'm too tall to wear most of the trendy stuff without having to tug on the hem constantly to keep from feeling skanktastic. I have a few cute short dresses, but I don't like wearing them around town because my students are everywhere (and impressionable...and frankly pretty much all of my 6th graders seem like they'll be troublemakers in the future, so I try to be a good example).

Okonomiyaki...hisashiburi...I'm not a huge fan (I prefer takoyaki), but when I was studying abroad my university was right outside of Osaka, so okonomiyaki was kinda a big deal...whether or not I like it, it brings out a natsukashii kanji...

Also, you make ridiculously gorgeous purikura...I'm so jealous. What ended up happening with that talent search thing, btw?

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So last weekend I was in the next town over and wasn't there to answer the door when the postman came and tried to deliver my Christmas packages from home. Between holidays and work, today was the first day I could get to the post office...only to find it closed aside from a little booth they'd set up for people sending New Year's cards. While I stood there and cursed quietly to myself for not realizing it would be closed, one of the people manning the booth asked if they could help me. I showed them the slips that had been left in my mail slot and explained that I'd had work and couldn't make it out during the week. I expected a "zannen, ne" or some keigo-rific and unnecessary apology for not being open, because those are the responses I've grown accustomed to hearing when my stupid interferes with my plans and the rules state that there's not much to be done about it. Instead the woman took my slips, unlocked the post office, retrieved my packages, double checked my ID, and told me to have a nice day. BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER.

The way that my family does Christmas is that on Thanksgiving everyone draws a name from a hat and spends $100 on the person that they pick. With the exception of my niece (who just turned 1 and is too young to really understand Christmas anyway), there's no small kids to impress with tales of Santa and piles of presents, so with the state of the economy we figured this was a better way a few years back...anyway, the new FitBit was JUST at the $100 price point, so that was my Christmas present. Can't wait to try it out...

Hotaruchan- You are going to LOVE the Fitbit! Once you get setup, request me as a friend prettybrown1913! The more Fitbit friends you have the more your motivated to move!

All is well on my end , would be better if I could get out and go to the gym.

hotaruchan: yay! thanks :) i guess i am, eheh. oh yeah... as if being fat wasn't enough, being tall sucks here too... lucky i'm short so it doesn't affect me too much!! and compared to lots of my friends, i can actually buy shoes here! XD yeah, i prefer takoyaki too, but okonomiyaki is pretty good as well, especially at that place! oh the puri contest? i didn't win anything :/ it was so lame, they gave us so many things throughout the competitions, i thought we were gonna get freebies for just showing up, but all we got were sandwiches. lol. and everyone was like half my age and half my size, haha... i guess it was an interesting experience though... and now many students at my high school call me "purikura sensei", which cracks me up. i'm so obsessed with puri because it makes me look so much more prettier than normal, haha.... aww... that's an awesome story about the post office! i guess stuff like that is more likely to happen in the inaka though... i hope you enjoy your present! tell us how it goes!

well good morning ladies!! It's raining in Tokyo, and I do so hate rain... gah! but my friend from Canada is coming over, and we're gonna have a girly day with make-up tutorials and then more shopping! XD normally, in the last month, i've been weighing myself only once or twice a week, but recently, i've taken to doing it more often... this morning i was .2kg down from yesterday! so happy!! ^_^

hope you all have a nice (rain-free) day! ;)

Lisa: I set it up, but I'm not sure how to add people...I guess I need to explore the site more.

Kawaii: I wear a US size 11.5 shoe, so it's hard to even find men's sneakers that fit (I need to grab a 27.5 or 28 cm shoe...I tried to go roller skating at a Round 1 with some friends for Golden week and while they had skates big enough for my 6'3'' Norwegian guy friend, they didn't have them big enough for me TT^TT). It's so funny how kids latch onto things like that...for the first 3 months or so I was "Angela-sensei" or "Angela-sensei ja nai" because they were still stick on the last ALT's name...then they got used to "Rachel-sensei" then I ruined everything and ran around in Pochama pajamas for the week that I was doing Halloween lessons, so now for any student not actually in my classes, I'm referred to exclusively as "Pochama-sensei."

It's raining out in Gunma too, but I'm actually pretty okay with that...it's been drizzly for the last 2 or 3 days, but in that time it's gotten noticeably warmer. I'll take any break from the cold and the wind that I can get.

I've decided that I'm going to try out some intermittent fasting for a while...essentially you just confine your eating to an 8-hour window, which seems reasonable given that a lot of the time spent not-eating is also spent sleeping. Hopefully not worrying about breakfast will give me a few more minutes to exercise in the mornings too. I only have 3 full months until I go home now (contract ends April 4th :D ), so while I'm pretty close to my goal weight, I'd really like to be less squishy by the time that I get there. If the cold doesn't keep me in my blanket burrito, I'm going to try to do a short workout when I get up and before I go to bed every day. Hopefully that'll get me some results.

hey everyone, sorry for being MIA, wedding planning is time consuming! Especially now there are only 20 days to go!!!!!!

Hope everyone is doing well, and happy new year to all if I dont get on again before the 1st

Sweet Jeebus...you were wedding planning and holiday-ing at the same time? No wonder you were busy! Happy New Year and good luck on your big day :D

who said anything about holidaying? Haha xD thanks!

Icon- That is so exciting! Hope you have a great time on your wedding day. :)

Hotaru- I appreciate the kind words. :) I am getting more and more out of the funk as time goes on and getting into more of a healthy lifestyle mode. It's taken a little time and effort but I am proud of my progress and hope to lose back to where I started to begin with. It sure would be nice to see the ticker actually move. :)

Kawaii- Your pictures are always so pretty, and I love your eye makeup. :) The style of the photos crack me up, I have several friends from college who volunteer in Japan or have visited friends, and they post those purikura pictures on FaceBook a lot. I already have really wide eyes so I imagine making them larger would make me look like a deer in headlights, lol.

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I have eaten well and exercised today, and it has been a long time since I have been able to say that. I am not following a diet plan in particular, just a combination of different things, like regular exercise, eating smaller but more frequent meals, and a combination of workbooks and other books. It helps a lot. :) I don't have too much to report tonight, so have a good evening all. :)

hotaru: haha, what's pochama? that's cute though. too bad about the shoes thing though :( i don't really think you should starve yourself, but i guess if you think you've got it under control... besides, you already lost a lot of weight! i'm sure the people back home will be like "wow!" :)

icon: hey! :wave: happy new year!

namaste: haha, yeah, i am puri obsessed! and makeup obsessed... my eyes are actually pretty much that size. lol. i don't choose the "big eye" function when i do puri, otherwise i look like an alien!! XD but yeah, it still makes them a tiny bit bigger, but not much! i am a big, round-eye gaijin for real! lol. that's great! congratulations on treating your body well today ;)

hi guys!! today is my cheat day! woot! *lol* and i got a lot of stuff going on today so i should really get off the interwebs and get into the shower! not gonna weigh in for a while, me thinks... but i'm gonna wish you all a happy new year!

Kawaii- Yes I love makeup too, and lip gloss! I have a forty-color eyeshadow kit from Elf which cost me less than $10. I am forever trying something different with my makeup, and I definitely have a thing for dark liner. Though for Christmas my mom got me all these makeup brushes, including a liner brush so I will be able to line in all the colors now. :) Thanks for the encouragement, I can't wait til I can back into exercising more often. :)

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My fiancé and I are going to a NYE party at the bowling alley tomorrow night (still Sunday here in the States) which means I will have to restrain from eating and drinking everything in sight. Thankfully, I don't drink alcohol or have much money to spend so I think my partying will be limited to way too many games of bowling, laser tag, and other active things. I'm excited nonetheless.

My family is back in town, which is a bit of a shock to the system after almost a week alone. I don't think I've ever completely gotten used to having a roommate besides my cat, let alone several roommates all at once. But I just keep telling myself it's only for two more years and then I can have a house and a lovely fiancé (and probably many pets) to myself. Optimism, right? lol

I guess I'll go chill for now. Hope ya'll have a great evening or morning, whatever floats your boat. :)

Hey ladies!

On this last day of the year, I would just like to let everyone know..... I HAVE LOST MY MIND. As you read, I am purchasing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. I hear I might cry. It was nice knowing you all :p

namaste: haha, i win, i have TWO 88-colors palettes from coastal scents (because i am a crazy person) and also several individual colors from MAC and INGLOT... dunno how many lipstics and gloss but i told myself i wasn't able to buy anymore cuz i already have all the colors... haha. dark liner is awesome. really makes your eyes pop! and brushes are really good for making makeup look more natural and flawless. that sounds like an awesome gift! ^^ so how did the party go?

penmage: lol. have fun. it is really not the end of the world... it's a good workout! I love Jillian <3


Hello all, and happy new year! it is now almost 3pm on the first here, and it is a very hungover (well not that much actually, mostly just tired...) KC who is writing you now! I think i'm not gonna weigh myself for a couple of days after yesterday, cuz i'm really afraid of the number i will see!!! so i'd given myself yesterday as a cheat day, and i was gonna use it to my full advantage! i'd like to say that i still was reasonable, but i really wasn't haha. started off when the mall that i wanted to go eat in was CLOSED!! (wtf, 31st is not supposed to be a holiday) so we went to eat somewhere else and my friend suggested this one place that is a buffet :/ not good! so i kinda ate a lot there (still probably less than i would have pre-diet, but still) and then we were good at dinner time, with just a bowl of gyudon, but at the club i kinda drank a lot (so booze-calories) and then as we left i decided that i wanted to go eat ramen, so it's like i had a 4th meal, haha... i'm hoping that i danced and walked enough to burn most of that crap off! lol. it was a good night though. bit crazy. and now i'm starting the new year with a bruised knee and a lost ipod... so i'm gonna say that new year starts from tomorrow so i can start it fresh!! i was so sad i lost my ipod... probably on one of the multiple times i fell down on my as$ on the street trying to get home... lol. i swear, i was wearing flats and i managed to break of of my shoes... who does that???

well anyways, i hope you are all having a nice time, either partying it out or spending quiet time with your loved ones... 2013 is gonna be a good year, and we're all gonna look fabulous for it! ;)