Good morning feathers! I've got today off for a 3 day weekend, and so far I've spent it planning meals, grocery shopping, and hitting the gym. My workout was not great (since I got back from Chicago I just haven't had my intensity up where it should be) but it was better than not doing anything!

I have a nice chest cold going on, and last night I took some Nyquil and went to bed early...yeah, at like 7 pm! :D I slept for about 11 hours and I feel a bit better today. Hopefully in a couple of days my workouts will be back to kicking *** and my cold will be history.

While I was asleep in bed here in North Carolina, my fiance was out on the town in Colorado for a buddy's going-away celebration. As I was getting ready for the gym at 7am my time, I got this message from him; "Holy party. It's 5am. I'll try to recall last night's events for you later but it's almost beyond comprehension if you have never had a real Brian rally. We did a scuba exfil and stole a boat... well, two boats. Lolz." - The funniest part of this being that he actually wrote "Lolz" which isn't something he does. He's 33. hahaha.

This is why he's my best friend... too much fun. :D We are going to have a blast next month in Las Vegas.

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Dorian - I've never actually had a fried Oreo, cheescake, Twinkie or anything like that so I want to! It's kind of a culinary bucket list item for me. It's a short list, but I've also got black truffle, fois gras and some other things on there. I can knock off a few this summer.
As for the party, just do your best and don't worry about being judged for eating light. I promise nobody is that concerned about how much you eat! :) Just be social and drink a lot of low cal beverages. You'll be fine!

Krampus - I have a theory; your weight was lower than you thought it would be yesterday, after having a beer the night before... and now it's up... I think the beer mildly dehydrated you, but now the excess calories from that, dessert and such has processed through you. Remember, it takes up to 72 hours to fully digest a meal. (Just a thought) - Either way, you just have to tighten it back up and you'll be good to go in a week. Don't hit 130 again!
Oh, you had me at 'bacon'. That sounds great! I'm sure there will be no shortage of bacon at the fair. Now I just have to convince my fiance to go!

Toni - Like Crazygurl suggested, maybe some sort of incentive/challenge would help? For me, a deadline always does the trick (Photo shoot, big event, holiday out of town, WEDDING!) and keeps me on track. I also find that my success builds on itself; each day I stick to my planned meals and workouts it makes me proud and makes it easier to do the next day.
Would something like that help you? Let's all brainstorm some ideas for short and long(er) range goals!

Turbo - Heck yeah girl, they can fry anything up at the fair! LOL I've seen shows about fair foods on Food Network and Travel Channel sooo many times (haha don't judge me... I like food porn!) and basically you take whatever you want to fry, dip it in batter, and toss it in the frier.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wosEZOJ58D...ied+Oreo.2.jpg

Other "popular" things to deep fry are Twinkies, candy bars, and cheesecake.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...JfejTVIARfTv3J


http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...xHq08XYpxCIVbh

LOL as I was looking for images I got grossed out. None of them look particularly appetizing, and I saw deep fried bacon, s'mores, beer, cheesecurds, butter (Yes... butter), ice cream... the list went on and on.

I think I'll have to choose one item and call it a day, lest I spend it running to the toilet. :)

Joss- just looking at those pictures makes me feel like I gained 5 lbs...hah.

Hope everyone is well today. Personals later.

My weight is 133.6 this morning! Im excited.

Well, had some unpleasant dealings with a friend yesterday who is very self-destructive..hopefully the mini intervention will help in the long run. I don't feel great about the situation but I think space will be good.

Tonight my husband is taking me out to dinner and a musical...should be fun. I have a massage appointment later today as well. Looking forward to relaxation!

Have a great day everyone!

Congrats on the whoosh crazygurl61!!!

My 3 year Japanese pension refund came in!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to check my bank balance and it was up by $8500. I've already moved all the money into (1) savings (2) Roth IRA and (3) brand new "VACATION" savings account so I can't waste it all on dumb crap. If my bf gets back from CT in a timely manner, I'm sooo taking him to a fancy dinner tonight.

TurboMammoth: this is the cake I just made! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2...shortcakecake/

Aaaand these are the cookies I just made: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/g...ipe/index.html (Anyone else ever wonder how Giada stays so d@mn skinny?)

The cookies are for my mother, she is staying at my house for the weekend while we are visiting my boyfriend's parents and thought she might like some cookies to nom while taking care of the real Dorian dog. :D

I only ate one cookie off the pan, and it was the scrawniest one (I used a 1tbsp scoop instead of the 2 tbsp scoop for this first cookie by accident) -- but I licked the spoon here and there, so I put in two cookies on my calorie tracker. Also have killed a lot of shiraz tonight. I'm looking at about 1400 calories for the day still, not bad at all!

Guys, not to get off topic, but have any of you heard about Burger King's new BACON ice cream sundae? Okay, everyone I show is like "Ewww that is so gross!" but I can't lie, I would eat the F*CK out of that thing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/so-goo...b_1600304.html

Jossfit I didn't know you were in NC like me! :) Those fried foods look sooo delicious, I am a food porn addict myself as well. The NC fair last year had chocolate covered bacon -- it was bad ***. I keep forgetting to tell you that you have sweet ink!! I have 20+ hours of ink myself. Sounds like you are getting back into your routine just fine! VEGAS sounds AWESOME!!

Crazygurl61 - DANG girl you are killing it!! Every time you post you have a new low!:carrot:

Krampus- WOW, nice check!! If you go out to dinner, let us know what you get!! Where would you go for vacation??

Sorry if this was a little rambling... I'm between tipsy and drunk. MWAH, feathers! xoxo

Oh I know it... somehow that took the fun out of it! I always feel that way when I see things in buffet style or just a ton of food all in one place; too much food just looks gluttonous to me, especially if it's all fried like those pictures were!

I have no idea what a Japanese pension refund is... can you explain it a bit? You sound a lot like me with your money; I always put a bit aside for fun, and the rest goes right into savings for my "fun fund". I've been doing this for a couple of years, and I'm pretty pleased to say that I've got about a year's worth of income saved up! It's not for anything in particular... just a little nest egg, but you can bet your booty that I'm not at all worried about the cost of my wedding next month, and I never have to stress over plane tickets to see my fiance. :D I may not have all the Louboutin shoes I want (or any for that matter) but I have some peace of mind.

Yeah, I'm stationed at Fort Bragg so I'm down here in Spring Lake... not too far from you. :) I actually keep missing the NC state fairs due to my deployments, so I'm excited to hit the one in Colorado this year. My fiance and I LOVE to people watch and I can't think of a better place to do that than a state fair! I'm already super excited and it's not until September... haha.

Thanks for the compliment too! I've got about 36 hours on the sleeve (I had it done twice basically to get the color saturation in there) 18 hours on the side piece, and another 2 hours on a small leg piece. I've also got about 10 more hours in cover-ups that the side/back piece is over. :)

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Well yeah, I am getting back into my routine just fine... that's never an issue for me. I love to workout, but like most people, I love delicious food! It's not hard to turn down when I'm focused (like now) but on vacations I tend to overdo it. I thought I did okay this past weekend so I was shocked at how much bloating I had going on!

Today I bit the bullet and did my weekly Saturday morning weigh-in instead of waiting until next week to pick it up again.

Weight... 120.0 lbs. Is that horrid? No, absolutely not, but for me it's a 3.4 lb gain from the weekend in Chicago. I am sore from my workout and have a chest cold, so I *could* be retaining some water... but it's not really important. 120 pounds is what it is, and if I *am* holding water it will only make for a whoosh this time next week. :D

In any case, I'm focused on getting those 3.4 pounds back off so that my wedding dress fits the way it's supposed to. Even if that dress weren't a factor I would be OP until I took it off anyway. It might seem silly, but as you other feathers can attest, it's a slippery slope!

In another thread we were talking about our goal weight/happy weight/danger zone weight and "Oh **** NO!" weights. 120 lbs is my OH **** NO weight... so that's not happening.

I'll keep you posted, but I'm shooting to have that 3.4 pounds completely off in 2-3 weeks.

Jossfit : OMFG. Those fairs can deepfry EVERYTHING! Butter!?? I get you about the fact that even if 120 lbs isn't horrible, we all have our treshold of some ''okay weight'' and than suddenly the ''oh no freakin god'' weight! Keep up updated on how it's doing and don't forget, we are here for you!

Krampus : woaaaaah unexpected money income is the best! You are so good with it. I would have just left on the biggest shopping night ever. I'm dangerous with too much money.

Dorian : How funny, I was asked to bake a strawberry shortcake for another bbq at my boss place next week or the week after. I ice mine with whipped cream though. But an cheese cream frosting... yuuuuumm. (oh and everybody around me is all grossed out about the bacon sunday. I haven't admitted to anyone I would totally try it yet LOL)

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Hey! 134.4 lbs this morning, but it's okay. I ate chips yesterday and my tummy is sticking out from water.

I went out for my last long training this morning, bright and early before the eat. 19k done, yay. A thing I love about running is that you can eat bad stuff before and after (like nutella toasts before and chocolat milk after. Yumm)

Okay the following is a rant, considered yourself warned ;)

I kinda had an issue with a friend of mind yesterday. She moved back in town and her kinda boyfriend still lives away and was coming to see her for the weekend, so wednesday she asked us if we wanted to go for a beer on friday. I said yeah, we had nothing planned. She said she'll call me back with more information.

She stopped by our place on thursday to borrow something and we asked her if it was still okay for the beer the next day. She said it will depend if the guy is tired or not. I told her it would be cool if it wasn't not too late because I had to get up early for my last long training on saturday. There, she rolled her eyes (like, was it necessary) and asked me when all of this was going over. I told her that the race was only 2 weeks away and it would be a very bad timing for starting messing up with my training, so close from goal. She told me she would text me friday night.

She ended up texting me last night, at like 7:45, telling me that they were going for a run around the park, and than for sushis, and the beer would not be AT LEAST before 10PM. I seriously wasn't feeling like going late to bed when I had to wake up at 6AM to go for 19k of running, so I backed out. She seemed a bit frustrated about it.

Which got me frustrated. I feel a bit like people don't understand what I've been doing for the past 4 months, like it's just a joke or not that important. I've been running my *ss off for the past winter for that. Plus she KNEW I had a training planed. That is kinda a bummer and I don't know what to do with that. I honestly see this race like the start of a new chaper of my life, like a good way to kick out the overweight thing out of me for good, and people like that make me feel like I'm a freak overreacting.

Rant over. Sorry for that ;)

Have a good day everyone!!

Yeah, the butter thing is REALLY weird... icky! Thanks for the support... I feel so whiny about it, but you guys know how it is.

I forgot about the bacon sundae thing too! I would TOTALLY eat that. I add bacon crumbles to my protein pancakes and to my maple oatmeal and it's delicious. I have had chocolate bars with bacon in them, and some other random bacon add-ins and haven't ever been disappointed. In fact, Hormel makes pre-cooked bacon pieces that are only 25 calories per serving. I just add a bit to various dishes for a ton of flavor and only a few calories. It feels so indulgent!

I'm sorry about the frustrating night, and I can totally relate. Once your friend's BF is out of town and you have her full attention again I would suggest talking to her. Tell her you apologize for backing out, but to be fair she KNEW you had to get up early to train. I think if you explain to her how much this means to you, she'll understand. Just don't let this small thing turn into something bigger.

JossFit The pension refund is basically giving foreigners their taxes back that they paid while working in Japan. Since I was there for 3 years, it was a decent chunk of change. ;) You will totally get off those few pounds and fit wonderfully into your wedding dress!

TurboMammoth People are so frustrating when it comes to not respecting your plans. Either way I hope your 19k went well this morning!

Dorian5 My theory is Giada is a feeder. Solid, I know. Bacon makes everything better...

I was gonna write an update but my bf just showed up. Feeling better, I took photos of myself in my bikini and liked it.

Yikes, fell behind here pretty bad! Will catch up properly asap.

I want to eat everything Jossfit just posted haha, nom nom. Also I've heard of this deep fat fried butter thing and my brain still doesn't get it.

I've been a bit all over the place this month and eating more and more. I feel bloated and uncomfortable, I have no idea how I weighed 150.8 this morning (down from what I was). I'm not binging just eating bigger portions and more snacks. Want to get my head back in this badly. I just got home today so I'm hoping it'll be easier now to control what I'm eating.. but my willpower just isn't what it was.

waaa waaa waaaaaaa

ok I'm done ;)

Hope you're all great.

Hey Feathers,
Looks like everyone had a good weekend. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Friday my husband & I went out to a nice dinner and had planned to see the new Wes Anderson movie. I had a lemontini that was disgustingly sweet. I couldn't finish it. We split two entrees (although one came with fries). And halfway through dinner my husband was like, "Is it cold? I'm freezing" By the end of the meal he was downright shivering and feverish. So, no movie, I drove home while he collapsed in the car. He's literally been in bed since Friday night. I hope I don't get whatever he has.

I kinda had my whole weekend blown because of it, but I'm trying not to be down about it because I don't want him to feel bad. He had planned on taking our son with him to go visit his Dad for father's day on Saturday. I was going to stay home and was really looking forward to it - I was like "I'll go to yoga 2x, clean the house, get all the shopping done, watch my trashy tv, etc." Well, nah, it was just me and the 5 year old all weekend. I'm exhausted. Checking my calendar tonight I realized my husband is away next weekend for work - so I'll be on my own again. Hats off to all the single parents out there!

Been maintaining in the 134s the past few days. Glad to be back to work tomorrow, thinking I can clean up my eating a little bit and start moving things in the right direction again. (I ate three brownies today.... had to go brush my teeth to stop myself. For some reason brushing my teeth just makes me not want to eat sweets. Not sure if it's because they're clean or if it's usually the last thing I do before bed)

crazygurl61 - congrats on your new low - that's awesome!

krampus - nice on the refund, and splitting it between fun stuff and saving. Can't wait to hear what/where you're going to go on vacation!

Jossfit - Ah, fried food is a downfall of mine. They fry cheesecake at the beach near us. So good. And while it's not sweet I do love fresh beer battered onion rings. To be honest I can kinda see the deep fried butter. My parents both grew up on farms and sometimes I'd have fresh butter. It is super sweet. I'm just take a little slice and lick it. Seems so gross to me now. I can't do the bacon sundae. Grosses me out, and not just because I'm a vegetarian.

TurboMammoth - frustrating for sure. Sounds like you were upfront with her about when you could meet up. Still, I know how annoying that is.

Hi all! Hope you are having a great weekend and celebrating Father's Day if you have a cool dad in your life :) I went to dinner with my folks and my boyfriend tonight. I had salmon with orzo and a bunch of bites of everybody else's food, and went grocery shopping at the Asian supermarket afterward. It really cuts down on impulse buying when you're full!

I went to a street festival yesterday in a BELLY SHIRT. It was kind of a test of my chutzpah and confidence, just did it because I could. I rode a pony (intended for small children but the weight limit was 150 pounds!) and ate too much ice cream and managed not to drink all day.

Personals tomorrow morning!

Dorian5 - I just looked up that strawberry shortcake recipe. OMG. Yum. Plus I like the idea of adding a little booze into it. ;) Tasty.

This is my 3rd week in row where I come here and say I am really back on track now. LOL. Gosh, I don't know why it's so hard. I am detoxing today with just soup, soup and soup. Trying to really let the thought of what is healthy and good for my body sink in again. I have been feeling sick/nauseaus and tired with eating all the candy and hardly any veggies. I know the tremendous difference when I eat better. So, back to that again. Have to really find my motivation in that area because I am so comfortable with my current weight. But exercise is hard when I eat bad so I forgo that after junk-days. Which does not help in reaching my exercise goals.

Argh. Never mind me girls. I am just struggling in getting back on the healthy bandwagon.