Hi Ladies!

Just popping in for a quick hello. My diet has been way off track lately. I have a huge problem with portion sizes. I need to learn to eat until I'm not hungry, not until I'm stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Thanksgiving is on my mind, though. I'll be seeing family that I haven't seen in months, and I'd really like to wow them. I need to get on track, however, if that's going to happen.

I keep promising myself every night that "tomorrow will be different," but that just hasn't happened yet.

Hi Feathers! Happy August! The heat has been zapping my will to run. I have only been running twice a week for the past month. My Nike+ app finally reads 100 total miles. I started using it April 26, so about three months. At first I was disappointed, then I thought I have run 100 miles in about 100 days. That is 100 more miles than I ran this time last year.

I have no idea how with all my crazy eating, but I have maintained my weight from the first day of July until now at 132 lbs. I feel so fat though. The tricks the brain plays. I swear I look chubbier, but the scale remains steady. I need to eat better foods and less junk because I just feel so much better when I do. The scale says 132, but I feel 142.

Claire Congrats on passing the exam, and I bet it feels great to have the bandages off too. Backpacking for three weeks.....sounds like a good weight loss plan.
Dorian I just signed a lease on a house with my fiance. It was so stressful for me. I found a house I loved, but three other people also found it on the first day it was listed, and we lost out It was perfect and nothing else has measured up. I hated the rush feeling of having to sign on a house NOW before someone else snatched it up, and I think ended up rushing myself into the wrong decision. The stress is causing me to EAT. My fiance brought me a king size candy bar on signing day because chocolate is the only thing that soothes me. Ten more days till moving day.
Philana Have fun with C25K. You will feel so amazingly proud of yourself when you complete it!
Amy That dang frosting is so hard to resist. Happy birthday to your daughter!
Fitmom It sounds like you completely enjoyed your vacation! I am sure you looked fabulous in your bikini on the beach!

Hello feathers! My weight is up this morning, but I'm not stressing it too much, I had a hard run and a lot of salt yesterday (cottage cheese, soup..) I ate fairly well all day, until I noticed some chocolate animal crackers at the grocery store yesterday. The bag said 16 cookies for only 130 calories, so I figured they would cure any chocolate cravings I had, and plus a huge 1 pound bag was only $2!

It would have been a good snack in moderation, but I ate about 300 calories worth when I got home, they were so good. I just kept sticking my hand in the bag, pulling out a handful, and putting them into my mouth. This put my calories at 1450, but I got in a good run (treadmill said 300 calories) and then took my dog on a walk, so I think I evened out. Still, it was a purchase I should have avoided. If I plan to eat them in the future, I'll have to open the bag, count out my treat onto a plate, and then put the bag back before I take my cookies somewhere else in the house.

My new favorite work-day breakfast (meaning I can eat it at my desk) is plain greek yogurt and low sugar oatmeal. NOT mixed together - I tried that and didn't dig it. But the fiber in the oatmeal and the protein in the yogurt make me feel so full for a long time, plus the cold yogurt and then the warm oatmeal make it interesting to go back and forth. A few berries thrown into the yogurt and I'm set. I look forward to breakfast as soon as I wake up now, haha.

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mamamorgan - Welcome! Always great to have new feathers!

philana - Glad to hear you had a great birthday! Nice work on prying that quick gain off, AND staying level headed about it instead of freaking out.

sumire - Nice work! New lows are so awesome, I feel elated and SKINNY all day after I reach one. Congrats!

claire0412 - Mmmm, I LOVE champagne, and mango beef salad sounds AWESOME! YAY FOR BANGS/FRINGE! I have to have bangs, I have a big forehead. Way to go, bringing your resistance bands along! Have fun on holiday!

laurielou - Wow, Cancun! That's excellent! I hope you have fun! I hear you about these last pounds, they certainly put up a fight! But it sounds like you're doing all the right things, they won't stick around and I'm sure you're already looking great!

Amy3680 - Yummm, cake. I love cake. I am a slave to cake. Any cake. Good luck staying on plan! Drink plenty of water, it might help with that "fluffy" feeling!

skinnyelle39 - Thanks for the positive reinforcement. We'll make this month count!

fitmom - Would love to see your bikini, I'm sure you looked great! You're so fit, I can't imagine you NOT looking good in a bikini! I'm sure much better than a lot of females half your age -- work it! Stoked to hear about your 1/2" loss as well, that's incredible!

FatPantsSkinnyJeans - I dig your goals, especially the "reduce stress about things you can't do anything about" - I can be a control freak and try to plan things that are unplannable and beyond my control, then STRESS about it! I need to make this a goal of mine as well! I dig the mantra too.

banananutmuffin - You'll find your groove soon, portion sizes are such a pain in the arse. I wish I could eyeball correct portions, but everytime I try and then check myself, I'm WAY off and it's closer to 2 portions. I start getting excited about Thanksgiving when fall starts rolling around, I love the food/family atmosphere! You'll be so trim by then, everyone will be awed.

aimeebell - I KNOW! It's so frackin' hot! I know what you mean about feeling bigger, you would think that just looking in a mirror would tell you if you were thicker or not, but your brain distorts your view of yourself depending on how you feel. Frustrating! Keep your chin up and know that you look great still, and are working on looking even better! 100 miles is awesome! I'm so sorry about the house that you loved, it is so hard to not get stressed and freaked out when you know that other people are vying for the same thing YOU want and there's only ONE! I hope you can manage to stay calm and level headed throughout the moving process and find that you really like the house you have.

You ladies are all totally awesome.

Dorian5: I've heard that Greek yogurt is really good. I personally do not like the taste of yogurt (gasp!) but my sons do and I saw that Yoplait now has a Greek-style yogurt so I think I may purchase it for them. Ah, oatmeal, that's what I ate every morning when I was away - with dried cranberries, slivered almonds and cinnamon on top. Don't beat yourself up about the so-called 'slip'. Just move forward. I try not to keep tempting things in the house even for the kids because then I find myself having just one which turns into twenty, lol.

aimeebell: I have days like that too when I feel chubby. Sometimes it's because I had a fizzy drink which can bloat you or the TOM plays havoc with my body image. Don't worry you're not alone in that thinking. Keep up the excellent work.

FatsPantsSkinnyJeans: I hope your run wasn't in this godawful heat that we've been having, lol. Isn't running awesome? I love, love, love it. Did I mention I love it?!?

banananutmuffin: It's a new month so therefore a new slate. You've come to far to throw in the towel now. You can do it. We're with you all the way.

I'm itching to getting back to my running. Tomorrow I start towards my 4K goal. Adding a little mileage on each week and keeping my time steady. We'll see though. Tonight is my kettlebells and core work after the kids are in bed. I'm starting to love planks, weird or what?!?

This afternoon I'm taking the training wheels off my younger son's bike and teaching him how to ride without them. Should make for an interesting afternoon. Then we have to practice tying his sneakers later.

Had my customary salad topped with tuna for lunch with a baked sweet potato. As much as I loved being away, it does feel good to be back on my regular diet and exercise schedule.

DH says he wants to go down the shore (just a short car trip for us) sometime this month before the kids start school again. Hopefully, we will book the hotel this weekend for a few weeks from now. Now I'm all stressed about the bikini again, lol.

Sounds like everyone is ready to buckle down for the month ahead! Woot!

I think I have figured out what my problem is. I AM HUNGRY. Geez oh Pete. I am just hungry all the time. It's 3 o'clock and I feel like I could chew off my arm. I had breakfast at 10:00, steel cut oats with a little PB mixed in, and lunch at 1:00, cob of corn, sweet potato, and a turkey and cheese rollup on a whole grain light tortilla. It was a decent sized lunch, and yet two hours later I am ravenous.

aimeebell: Have a protein snack. Right now, as I type, I'm noshing on apple slices dipped in all-natural peanut butter. That's what I do. Hope this helps.

This is what I do too! Yes, you should have a snack with some protein, aimeebell! I just had some blueberries and cottage cheese.

I just can't make it until dinner otherwise!

OMG! Blueberries with cottage cheese topped with a few walnuts is my mid-morning snack, lol. Are we brain twins?!?

Delicious brain twins. I have walnuts at home for the muffins I make, I'm going to totally throw some in my cottage cheese tomorrow! Yum!

Uhg. My day was decent, had a big lunch but then made the nicest low cal salad for dinner. And as I was sitting on my couch watching one episode of Alphas before going to the gym I remembered the Tony's Chocolonely in my kitchen. And I just HAD to get it. Ofcourse I got all uhg feeling after eating half of that and just didn't want to go to the gym. The only good news is - all the bad foods that people brought into my house as "gifts" for my bday are now gone. So there's no off-plan foods anymore, that will make things MUCH easier.

I didn't think I had actual food issues except pure laziness. But now I start to notice, if there's bad food in the house - I can NOT control myself. I just have to have it. It's super easy for me to just not buy the bad stuff. But when it's here I am so screwed.

philana: You've got to get rid of the junk food, lol. I really try to keep the treats in my pantry to a bare minimum but with two growing boys it's not easy because then my DH and I start snacking and can't stop. BTW, Happy belated birthday! I've been MIA because I've been away - hope it was a good one. Don't stress too much about the treats, birthdays are special. Tomorrow's another day, right?

It's a lot of work for me to stay on plan, and so easy to give in to my laziness. Right now I'm struggling to plan and cook meals ahead so I've no excuse not to eat all my veggies or get enough protein.

Also, I ate the last piece of DD's birthday cake last night, so no more of that to tempt me, either. Thank goodness my dad likes to take home leftovers or else I'd of had twice as much left. Still lots of junk food around for DH and DD but nothing I really like so it's ok.

BTW, I like your avatar-big fan of TB and the books here!

fitmom: Welcome back from vacation! Sounds like you totally rocked it.

FatPantsSkinnyJeans: Sounds like some great goals! A half marathon, wow! I'm impressed. Good luck finishing up training!

banananutmuffin: Hope you get back on track soon! You can do it!

aimeebell: Hope those hungries calm down. That's the worst! I agree with fitmom & Dorian5, protein snacks & non-starchy vegetables are things that ward off my hunger.

Dorian5: I live on plain greek yogurt and fruit. So good and so filling! Darn those animal cookies, but 1450 sounds fine to me anyway, so I'd count it as a win.

philana: For what it's worth, when I started losing weight, I also had trouble controlling myself when it came to junk food. So I told myself, no chips, no fries, no desserts (besides fruit). I went for months without these things--didn't keep them around the apartment, didn't have them when I was out--then started re-introducing a little bit here and there as a treat. Now I have no trouble not eating any when it's around (hubby likes to keep junk food around the place, so it's always here) or telling myself, ok, I get 50 calories worth of cookies/whatever and stopping there. Everybody's different, of course, but that was what worked for me. I make a point of not eating junk food when I'm really hungry, though; I fill up on something healthy first. And now that I'm calorie cycling again, I find that my low calorie days require WAY more willpower from me than my days that are 100-200 calories higher.

Thank you for the super nice replies fitmom, Amy en sumire! That helps so much. I'll just make sure I don't have junkfood around when I don't think I should eat it. So next time people bring me stuff I am giving it back or treating my housemates. I can't bring myself to throw it out, which is what turned this into a mini disaster.

Happy to report that I did not gain any real weight because of it. Just hovering around the mini-goal from last friday.