Hello and Happy November, Feathers!

For me, November will be all about buckling down and getting back on plan. I bounced over my red line last week and decided to basically ignore it. Throw in Halloween, and now I really do have to address it. My goal -- back under red line by Thanksgiving!

How is everyone else doing this November 1?

OH pooey! You beat me to it again Amy

One of these days I'll be up before you in the am and will start the Monthly chat

So we made it through Halloween weekend! Shew! NO damage! Thank God. My goal was to not lose this weekend but to maintain. And I succeeded! 132 on the dot today. Now, I really want to get to my goal of 128 by Thanksgiving. This is a lot for a feather so I will really have to work hard. I ran 3 miles the other day in 26 minutes! So I guess thats a NSV. I really just want to get to the point where I start seeing my legs get slimmer. This probably wont happen till after my Thanksgiving goal. We'll see.

Happy Monday and November! Dont forget to vote tomorrow!!

I did pilates this morning (why, oh why does my favorite way to exercise have to be a non-aerobic one?). Planning to do elliptical/runs for the rest of the week with the exception of one day of weights at the gym.
Food is so my friend here at school--I am finding more and more ways to eat healthily in our cafeteria and it's sort of fun to play "What can I eat tonight?" (I love to cook, so picking my own food is way more fun than just getting whatever is on the hot bar).

Happy November members. I am so excited today because I finally lost weight after 2 weeks of no change. My goal by the end of nov is 128. Hope we all achieve our goals.

Holy **** do I hear ya on the red line. I weighed in at 130 this morning after a weekend of candy, pie, cupcakes, pasta and chinese food. What the **** was I thinking?! Why do I let myself not care until Monday morning? I'm sure most of that is water and waste but I know I must have solidly earned at least one pound of fat this weekend and I am pretty unhappy with myself right now.

On a positive note for those that have been reading about my hives thing- Day 4 on synthroid and only a few small hives in the past 3 days! YES! That's probably about 100 less than usual.


BACK ON THE WAGON and hauling butt back to 126.

Dianne and Goforit24- Congrats and good for you for staying on track!

Forgive me being dumb, but when people talk about the "red line," do you mean under the magical 10-pound barrier, like between 139 and 140 or 129 and 130? Getting down below a set number, that sort of thing?

Ditto - how do you define the red line?

I haven't posted in here in a while but things have been going pretty well. I've been sticking to plan better and also not letting minor mistakes cause me to give up entirely for the day. It's beginning to feel more like something I can sustain for the long-term. I even learned a valuable lesson when I went to IHOP for dinner with a friend over the weekend, decided chocolate chip pancakes sounded good, and then felt sick to my stomach later that night! Body doesn't want crap anymore. Hooray for negative reinforcement...

As for Halloween, I managed to eat just one chocolate miniature, and bag my leftovers to bring in to work and leave there. I'm proud that I got it out of the house right away!!

Oh, and I went for a 13-mile bike ride yesterday and it was GREAT!

Kat, you're not being dumb! And of course, the "red line" probably means different things to different people.

For me, I'm in maintenance, so I set a red line above my goal weight (in theory high enough to take daily fluctuations into account). The idea is that if/when you hit that red line, you immediately, no excuses, no questions asked, no "wait til Monday," go back into weight loss mode. It's a barrier to keep me from regaining.

I've been tinkering with my goal and my red line, and I'm still not sure where it is. But at most it is 125, and I bounced over that last week, got back down, and then bounced again today. So it is time to get serious and get myself back to a steady 122 (which is where I was on Oct 22). Part of the problem is that when I bounced last week I made excuses (post-weekend bloat, ovulation bloat, post-lifting soreness maybe causing water retention). No excuses now! I don't care if it's water -- I'm treating it like it's weight!

Awesomely clarified, TS7P! Thanks! I hope to be able to establish one of those once I'm finally at my goal and maintaining! ;D

Thanks ts7p - that's a great idea! I don't know why I didn't have my own "red line" the first time I lost; that would have been really helpful (I gained all my original weight back ). I will definitely set a red line of my own when I hit goal!

krampus, where are you?! you've got me curious now -- how do you know about krampus? did you live here for a while? or were you only visiting?

Goforit24 and Dianne -- Good job! You will reach your November goals before you know it.

thanks for the red line idea, guys! i think i might use that while i stick with this trial maintenance period. like, maybe if my weight creeps up to 134 or 135, i go back to weight-loss mode?

fivestone, I just visited Salzburg for 3 days as part of a 2 week trip to southern Germany, though I wish I could have traveled all over Austria and seen more of the country. I think a friend told me about Krampus a couple years ago around Christmastime and I just loved the idea so much I made "krampus" my username on several sites. I have a question for you - are you native Austrian, or are you from an English speaking country?

thesame7lbs, Changed you can do it! You'll be back below red line in no time.

cornellchick, I hear you on the "body doesn't want junk anymore" thing. My brain thinks I still like junk food, but my body protests loudly! Anything overly oily or sugary makes me feel rough these days.

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Good news, I weighed in this morning at 58.5 kg which is 128.98 lbs according to the "converter" feature on my cell phone. Yesterday I ate well (about 1370 calories) and ran for 45 minutes, and I did 45 real pushups - no more knee pushups for me! Granted, I had to fall on the floor gasping for breath every three or four once I hit 20, but I'm getting there.

It's a little different for me, the red line that is. It's just the number that I PANIC at. I can weigh in at 129 and while I'm less than thrilled to be up, it's not that big of a deal. 130 makes me sick to my stomach, literally. It's a slap in the face that screams WHAT THE **** ARE YOU DOING?! And it's well above my goal weight but it's a mental thing. In my mind, you can't be less than 130 and fat I guess? It's the number I've decided is always and forever too much for me. Probably because also in my mind losing 10 pounds or so isn't that hard but more than that is.

That said, panic has fled and I'm sure things will look better in the morning. I fasted a few extra hours and did a little calorie cycling to get my 24 hour total down to normal.

Krampus- You wild woman! Keep up that momentum!

You'll be fine, Changed. I went from weighing almost 132 Monday morning to 129 this morning. Just had to poo and eat right for a day!

After looking at lots of real-body websites, I think I'm going to lower my ultimate goal from 120 to 115 or maybe below that. I still have a very considerable amount of jiggle at 129 and while my arms are getting stronger and there is even a little definition in them now, I still almost have a back roll, have a definite pooch that can only be reduced by overall fat loss, and my hips are still very well padded. I would venture to say I am probably built similarly to Petite Powerhouse in that everything is very small underneath.

I was planning on 115 too (but I'm 5'3) but my hubby keeps mentioning that I look really thin to him. I don't look thin naked.... My former trainer said 117 is ideal.