Sorry, can't go through everyone's post right now as I really should be sleeping (passed out at 730pm... Can you tell I was exhausted from a swamped day at work?). I will get to everyone tomorrow or so when I have a moment to go through it all (just on the forums to try to get myself tired again).

I managed to avoid going downstairs to the basement for pancake breakfast. Of course I got questioned with why I didn't go have any. Just told a selective few I was watching what I was eating, and told the others I just didn't feel like it. Now the next 4 days - all the food will be on the unit. So harder to avoid as I'll be surrounded by it this time. And I'll prob get a million questions of why I'm not eating. Bah humbug. Bring on Baking Day! Which of course I didn't bake anything for so I guess I gotta tell myself "since you didn't bake anything, you didn't participate, so therefore you can't taste".

rainbow a fine dining restaurant sounds nice! I wouldn't worry about calorie counting either - it's nice to enjoy yourself and sometimes, your body needs a change like that to kick start it back into weight loss!

dani great job for staying op! I was reading that you had a personal trainer? how was that? it's something that i've thought about but I'm so ashamed sometimes.

sweet just keep busy!

Finally went and bought myself a scale last night. Had a piece of swai, roasted asparagus, and a salad for dinner. I feel okay, but ended up going to bed with a headache last night and woke up with it so I'm struggling through today. Hopefully it'll get better. We're having dinner with my BF's parents tonight - his mom asked us to pick something up so I have a little more control over what my choices will be. I'm just not too keen on telling her that I'm trying to lose weight. I feel like that's just an embarrassing conversation to have with her.

missy Nice on all the walking! You sound so upbeat and on the go. Its catching!

Dani great on you for keeping strong!

jmko Nice to see you again as well. I feel you on the pants getting tight! I even went back into my larges. grr It is embarrassing to tell people you are losing weight. I feel like they are going to be watching and judging on how slow or fast I lose then. Silly right?

rainbow I love hearing talk about your running! Makes me keep on going too! Your new route sounds lovely. Enjoy yourself at your sister's bday. I am turning 30 next Jan. Hoping to be at goal by then.

sweet Way to go on resisting! You are doing great!

So I didn't feel well yesterday and didn't get my run in so I will run today and the next 2 days to make up for the lost day. I am still feeling a bit scratchy throated but otherwise ok so hopefully I get better sooner than later. See you later.

sweet How did you do with baking day?

jmko Having the trainer for a few sessions really helped me out with technique and HOW I should be exercising - I definitely can't afford her long term but the few sessions were awesome.

sun Hope you feel better soon!!

Anddddd, I weighed in at 227.4 today (10 lbs down!!!) So happy that my weekend of being less than awesome didn't stop my weight loss!

Sweet Well done on avoiding the pancake breakfast and the baking day!

jmko What is swai or was that a mis-type? Hope things went ok with cooking at your boyfriend's!

sun I'm sure you will be close if not at your goal by Jan, you are doing awesome! Hope that you are feeling better.

Dani Woooo congrats on the 10 lb loss, that's awesome stuff, well done!

~OMG GUYS I got my confirmation letter that my Canadian Open Work Permit application has been approved!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! It's not the actual work permit, I get that when I enter Canada, but OMG I am going to live in Canada for four years!!! I am so relieved and so excited and also nervous at the same time. Now I just have to remember to keep save-save-saving..and also I think it's a good driver to keep losing weight - with all the new-to-me shops over there I am bound to want to do some serious shopping!!

My sister's birthday dinner last night was incredible. I probably shouldn't talk about all the food haha, it will make me hungry again (even though I just ate tonight!), but suffice to say, it was probably one of the most tasty and memorable meals of my life so far!!

My weight yesterday was at a low for me (this time) of 62.6kg (138lb) but after dinner last night, I was back up to 63.2kg (139.3lb). It's ok, definitely just a bit of sodium.

I didn't get to run before dinner last night because the reservation was for 7pm and I wouldn't have had time to get ready, but I've just completed my third run for the week tonight, and again, it was great, I am just really enjoying myself and pushing myself to run more and more. I'm probably averaging running 85% of the route...there are still one or two patches of walking, mainly when I hit a bigger incline!

Hope everyone is good. I'm buzzing right now about my big Canada news and it's Friday tomorrow, so I'm pretty good right now!!

Huge congratulations rainbow!! That's amazing!! Figured I'd just fly on in to say I'm super happy for you!!

Sorry I've been MIA lately, I've been busy trying to get a lot of errands done this week. I don't have a lot of time for personals right now, but I just wanted to congratulate Stripe on Canada! Yeah! A whole new country - how exciting!

I started C25K Monday, and I successfully "ran" both Monday and yesterday without dropping dead! I'm thinking of signing up for a 5K at the end of the summer to get me motivated. Lately I've really been making an effort to focus on fitness: C25K, walking, and biking. A Planet Fitness gym just opened up a few miles away and I'm thinking of joining as it's super cheap (only $10/month, compared to $30-60 at other places I've looked at). I'd like to get some strength training in there.

Anyway, I've got a ton more things to do, so I'll have to catch up on personals later.

Have a great day everyone!

P.S. Morning WI = 134.8. Yesterday's calories were in check.

sun it is embarrassing to tell people! to me anyway. If you lose too quickly people say you're unhealthy, if you lose too slow they wonder what you're doing or if you're cheating. You and I started at a similar weight. My ultimate goal weight is 125, too, but 145 is the short term. We'll get there!

dani congrats on being 10 pounds down! How long did it take you?

rainbow very cool on living in Canada! Is your bf going with you? When do you move? Swai is a white flaky fish - catfish family, I think.

krissy I'd love to join a gym, but I'm always so exhausted after work. It's always nice to be able to go to a place that has all the equipment to get your strength training in, though!

Good morning! It's almost Friday and I'm so excited for my weekend! Work has really slowed down so I've been bored out of my mind all week kind of just lurking around the internet.

Dinner at the BF's parents house went well. We picked up CPK and picked up some healthy options so I could eat like a normal person too! Italian chopped salad, lettuce wraps, tried the new grilled chimmichurri chicken, chicken picatta, and a bbq chicken pizza. I didn't eat the pizza or the pasta but I got to eat everything else. We do it family style so we each get to eat a little of everything. Then the BF's brother brought out mochi ice cream for dessert - I had to resist but it looked so good! Last night we went to a hot pot place - again, yay! Still on plan and I got to eat lots of veggies and some meat. Hopped on the scale this morning and weight in at 164. I'm down 2 pounds, woohoo!

Jmko - CPK, yum! I haven't eaten there in ages! I think the last time was for my birthday 3 or 4 years ago.

Another quick post for me. Yesterday's calories weren't so good, I lost control at the end of the night and helped myself to 2 extra servings of cowboy casserole plus a butt ton of watermelon. I'm estimating that it was an extra 800 calories but I'm back on it today.

This morning's weekly WI was 134.8, which is down 1 pound from last week's gain. *Sigh* I know that weight loss slows dramatically when you get close to goal, but I don't think I realized just how true that is. Gotta keep at it!

Busy day today. Hope everyone is well.

Dabi Great job! 10 lbs is awesome.

rainbow WOOHOO How awesome. WHat a relief is must be. Your dinner sounds lovely. Loving your run updates. You go girl!

Missy Yay you are joining the running! I just finished c25k. It works! I can run about 2.5 miles now. Keep going.

jmko I totally agree about telling people.Nice on the weight drop! Keep up the great habits!

Went for my run today and I thought it was so hard and I was struggling but when I looked at my mileage and time I realize I was going faster than I thought! So I was working harder, nice. Eating is going ok not the best but I am still 168 so hopefully I see 167 on monday,. I would be losing faster if I could control the eating better. blurg.

krissy what is cowboy casserole??

sun are you running on a treadmill? I'd love to run but I've got bad shins

It's FRIDAY!!! Taco lettuce cups for dinner last night and I got full way sooner than I usually do. I saw a slight drop in scale again, so I'm at about 163.8. I'm hoping I can go down to 162 by monday!

I bought myself a new Samsung galaxy note 8 tablet last night and I love it! Now...if I could only figure out how to use it, haha! It's got an android operating system and I've been strictly apple for about 5YEARS. Before that, it was blackberry so I'm completely android illiterate. I have no idea what I'm doing with this thing. Helpful hints?

jmko no I run outside but use an app on my phone to time myself and clock mileage. nice on the eating less and the weight dropping! Enjoy your tablet.

Riestrella Thanks!!

Missy Wow, that is super cheap for a gym. I feel like maybe we get ripped off here for gym memberships! Average is like... $15 per week!! 1 pound in a week is all good. You and me, we're both at that slow stage (though mine is part weekend-failure related). It's tough, but we both have to stick at it! I was just looking at my diary today (not like "dear diary" but like calendar haha) and I noted that I've basically been maintaining the same couple of pounds for a few weeks now. Gotta get shifting down!

jmko The food sounds good, congrats on resisting icecream and the two pounds. Yup, boyfriend is the main reason for the move to Canada as he's studying for his PhD over there! And yum, taco lettuce cups. That sounds so good. Jealous of your new technological play thing! I want one of those!

sun Awesome on the speed with your runs, that's such a good feeling when you realise you're working harder - I need to start trying to up the intensity a bit with mine I think! Thanks for the congrats, it is definitely a relief to know it's all confirmed!

~So even after last night's dessert degustation, when I weighed after my run this morning I was down a little more (62.4kg or 137.6lb) but I know that it might not stick, especially after today...brunch with cousins where I ate a smoked salmon/cream cheese bagel followed by light lunch (a singular small beef taco, some tortilla chips and 2 deep fried olives...oops) and then basically more desserts. My sister wanted to take my mum to this dessert place for Mother's Day (tomorrow here) so we did, and I had to try all this stuff because I'm actually quite sh*t at saying no to this type of thing it seems! So if it all goes pear-shaped after this weekend, I know what's to blame, but I'm owning it for now. I can make better choices tonight - like a VERY light dinner, and then tomorrow, just by eating better.

I also caved in another way last night and bought myself a new pair of boots. I wore my three year old, slightly too big, flat boots to work yesterday and I felt frumpy. A close friend at work even said I looked frumpy haha. They're not great boots after three years, and with my initial weight loss my feet actually shrunk! So I splashed out and bought a new pair. I never thought I'd be into ankle boots, but I love these! I wore them out last night and all day today. Here's a link to a picture in case anyone is interested:
http://www.styletread.co.nz/short-di...ack-brown.html

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!!

Hi everyone! Well, it's another rainy/cold day here, but don't worry, I'll be getting my butt out there to run later this morning (or early afternoon). Yesterday was another poor food choice day, so I've at least GOT to stick to the exercise.

I didn't want to say anything until it was over, but my DS had to have surgery yesterday. It was nothing major, a routine procedure, but they had to give him anesthesia, so of course I was nervous as he's only 11 months old. He did great though, and is recovering just fine (he's currently laying on the floor, drifting in and out of sleep due to the painkillers he's on watching Yo Gabba Gabba through half open glazed over eyes - it might not sound like it but he's totally cute right now). BUT that meant that DH and I spend a good chunk of yesterday in the hospital, so I caved and got hospital cafeteria food in the form of 1/2 a slice of bacon pizza and 2 cheesy bread sticks, plus a Mediterranean salad. By the time we left it was 4:00 and we decided to pick up some Chinese for dinner because neither of us was up for cooking after our emotionally draining day. I feel like I'm making excuses, but the truth is that yesterday I decided not to give a f**k and that I wasn't going to worry about it. So today I decided to forgo the scale as I'm sure there will have been a carb and sodium gain and I didn't want to be discouraged today.

Sun - I hope you get that 167! At this point I can't imagine running 2.5 miles straight, but I know it takes baby steps.

Jmko - Cowboy casserole is dangerous! Dangerously delicious. It involves tatertots, ground sirloin, tomato sauce, corn, onion, and mozzarella cheese. It comes out to 1.8 calories per gram, or about 300 calories per serving, but the trouble is that it's so good it's hard to have just one helping! I'm pretty big on cooking and trying new recipes, and that's one that I found on Pintrest and I love it. Sorry, I've got no hints for the tablet, I only just got a smart phone a few months ago and am slightly technologically impaired!

Stripe - What type of PhD is your BF going for? Deep fried olives, uh oh, I'd be in trouble! I love olives but have never heard of deep frying them. Nice boots! Don't laugh, but I actually want to buy a pair of cowboy boots! I tried on a pair at DSW and after that I decided that I need some. Yeah, $10/month is cheap even for here and I'm thinking I need to take advantage of that! Especially if I want to start incorporating weight training into my life, which I do.

rainbow Isn't it nice how a little thing like fitting shoes and clothes can make us feel on top of the world and attractive? Enjoy that lovely feeling.

Missy Ahhh about your DS. Hope he feels better. My DD has had many surgeries and stays in the hospital so I know that feeling of f*** it all. Unfortunately because it has happened so many times I ballooned up to the weight I did.

So its my day off running and I will be having salad and pizza for lunch. So yum, dinner will ahve to be light. Hope you all have a great time!