Joss- congrats on starting your new wholesome way of eating! It's exciting, isn't it? Just keep trying things, because I've had some disappointments along the way, but mostly everything we eat has a very healthy, natural way of being made if we take the time to do it. I felt like booty this morning because we went to a new friends house last night for dinner, and they went out of their way to make eggplant Parmesan, fried green tomatoes, garlic bread and some delicious cake thingy. They are cross fit junkies, but Saturday's are their off days for eating. But I don't have an off day. It was so incredibly rich, and I usually don't care what people think about me not eating very much or trying everything, but I just felt like I had to! Peer pressure. Lol it was good, but I came home and looked like six months preggers, and I didn't even have the fried stuff. My body just isn't used to it, and I still feel junky today. I think it would have been fine if I just stuck to my regular portions...dunno. Just wanted to share in your Misery today. ;-)

Fresh15-sorry you are a bit down! I am so jealous of people who are like, hey...yeah..just off to run a 10K." wow. It's like me saying I'm about to do laundry or something. So casual, but I'm jealous of runners. I run like a defective mule or something. Not pretty.

Philana- I more pound! Woot wooT! So close. :-) I love me some caffeine, too. But my espresso machine is being a douche and not working, so life just isnt the same. I can't drink "regular coffee" because that would be too simple and cheap. ;-) did you already run a half, or are you training for one? Hubby and I are doing a 10K Halloween run.

Sarahlynn- I'm scared that if I respond your post, I will magically be transported back in time to when I was breast feeding a little leech who also refused to sleep....noooooooo! Must look away! Can't go back! ;-) how old are your kiddos?

Dottie- congrats on the bikini!! Kids are so funny! Gotta love the little body-wreckers! ;-) hubby and I took our much,ins to the pool today, and this is my first summer in a bikini, too. Feels good!

everyday of these crazy migraine meds is making me feel so much better. Normal. Unfortunately normal means having some degree of a headache all day long, but at least I'm not sitting in a corner rocking and humming... ;-) I've dealt with them for so long, that I can do pretty much anything with a migraine. I have to, or my life would really, really suck-a-roo. So we did the pool, and now all my boys are napping.
I'm going to gets my eyes checked this week, because maybe eye strain is making it worse? I had LASIK 8 years ago, but maybe it is time for reading glasses. That would suck. On the bright side, we have two week old puppies here, and that has been a riot. We bred our Japanese Chins, and they had 3 girls. They just opened their eyes and are getting fluffy.
I'm rambling, but since I have no workouts to report anytime soon, you all get to hear about my random musings!

Hi everyone I am not feeling good but I am in bed reading all your updates. I woke up dizzy and my husband had to give me a bath because I didn't want to stand in the shower. I will update more when the screen isn't as dizzy.

It IS exciting, which is so odd! I know it's not some miracle thing, but I am the type of person who needs a motivator to shoot for. I didn't eat well yesterday and then today I went out for a "send off" meal with my roommate and I had way too much pizza, a piece of key lime pie and a cocktail. It wasn't necessarily unnatural food, but it wasn't clean or healthy. I'm still figuring out what my "rules" are but regardless, pizza and the like aren't going to be regular features of my diet.
My body sooo isn't used to it either, and the plan is to keep it that way! LOL if nothing else, maybe I can try to remember today and think about how crappy I feel at this moment the next time I feel like indulging.

*This is totally embarassing, but I actually used my leg as an excuse to use a day of leave for tomorrow. It does legitimately hurt, but really I'm just so bloated I would rather sleep in, get in a good workout, and have a day to detox at home and try to get rid of some of the bloat. I know people say this a lot around here, but quote me on it; Today is the last time I will ever treat my body so disrespectfully

Maybe it's just the recent changes in my life and the fact that I'm dealing with this skin cancer scare, but I think I've had my big "ah ha" moment.

Oh my goodness, I hope you're okay!

hey feathers!

I just got back tonight from vacations, we spent 2 weeks camping/staying at my dad's place by the sea and we got back in town tonight in the middle of a heatwave... oh god, it's hitting hard in the face!

I sweating my like away and I haven,t WI in 2 weeks... I ate CRAPS and too much for the past 2 weeks, gonna be hard facing the scale tomorrow... I'm so bloated, I'm probably up in the 140's.

I'm going back on plan tomorrow and starting the run again on tuesday.

I'll try to catch up tomorrow with your posts! I'm glad to be back!

Welcome back! I feel like a bloated cow today too, so we'll hit it hard together tomorrow!

It's always good to know that you're not alone feeling like a hot air balloon! And let me just had to you and your new husband look to cute together in your picture! Congratulations (better late than ever)!!!!!

***

Reality check-ins this morning :

-My cat seems to have forget about us after 2 weeks at my brother's sister
-Rotten garlic forgotten before we left in the kitchen smells A LOT
-Rotten ginger smells a lot TOO
-After getting back last night in an appartment with NOTHING to eat, the salad from McDonald was a great choice, my boyfriend has been pooping is life away since last night after his hamburgers (the words ''never again'' were said)
-I'm UP TO 141 POUNDS THIS MORNING. OMFG.

Starting drinking water to wash away the salt and everything and back on plan!

So many new people around here, I'll try to keep up with you all!

Can I jump on the "heavyweight featherweight" bandwagon? Weighed in at 129.6 lbs after the gym and a gigantic dump this morning. I am at work and forced myself out of bed to hit weights and run at the gym, and my lunch is hilarious: 3 hard boiled eggs, a plain Greek yogurt, tomatoes and a whole bell pepper.

It was worth it for the fish and chips and New England clam chowder and clam steamers though. I was also SUPER dehydrated and got a little sunburned all weekend long. We saw seals and lots of sea birds, but no sharks - success! Also, somebody somewhere is looking out for me, my period has been really light so I didn't even need to change tampons on the beach.

TurboMammoth I missed you!!!!!! Welcome back. 141 isn't that bad for two weeks off plan. Some of it will fall off right away, I'm sure!

JossFit I'm sorry you're all bloated and feeling out of control - it's not hard to see how all the stress of biopsies and missing your husband after your wedding and all that adds up. Hope the new way of eating produces the results you desire - everyone, especially people who work as hard as you do, deserves to feel good in their body!

crazygurl61 Feel better ASAP. I hope this vertigo thing is a one-off and not a symptom of something worse!

ChickieChicks It's funny how fried food makes you sooo sick when you get out of the habit. I want to see puppy pictures!!!

fresh15again Hope your 10K boosted your mood. Running solves a lot of problems when I'm just feeling restless and cranky.

philana Woohoo almost under 60 kg! Meanwhile here I am blowing up 2 kg over a weekend, haha. Good luck kicking the caffeine addiction. I will probably never be ready for that.

Miley You absolutely CAN eat more if you're working out! That's why I think 90% of people who exercise do it...

Sarahlynn Awwww thank you - I joined in September 2010 at 133 and went up and down, up and down a bunch of times. Nothing like the people who joined, lost to goal, and are now maintaining! I think the most important lessons (portion control, eat good food, exercise for fitness not calories) stuck though, which makes this easier overalL!

DottieMae Crinkly shminkly, you are going to rock that bikini. I spent my entire weekend in a bikini and barely thought about it except when a big wave knocked the bottoms off. O_O Have a GREAT vacation!!!

pixellate Your haircut (and your face too, obviously) is beautiful. From what I know that water weight may be from stress...hang in there and don't let her get to you!

ValRock Hope moving day goes smoothly today! Thinking of you!

Well, kicking off my first day of my new eating philosophy! I don't anticipate any real difficulties to going natural, but I know it's going to take a week or two to really clear stuff out and find better alternatives.

I wish there were a Trader Joes or a Whole Foods around here. The closest ones are about 1.5 hours away, so that's a 3 hour drive round-trip! My plan is to eat mostly protein, fruit and veggies so I can find that anywhere, but I'm trying to get as natural as possible and shopping at those stores is not only helpful but fun!

There is a small store about 30 minutes away from me so I stopped in there today after the gym and picked up a few pantry items; Quinoa Flakes (I like them in place of oatmeal sometimes to change things up) some whole quinoa, organic dark chocolate squares, Sea Snax and a couple of other random things like Flax chips, flax seeds and Ezikiel Bread.

Yeah, the bread is 80 calories per slice and literally double the amount of calories as the light stuff I was using, but I just feel better about eating it. I don't have bread often anyway, so the fact that I have to keep it frozen means that I won't end up tossing any out because it started to mold in the cupboard. Bonus!

I got off my *** and went to the gym this morning even though I really wanted to lay in bed and take another day to rest, but my guilt complex wouldn't allow it. I posted my WOD in the Feather Weightlifter's Chat.

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Krampus - Welcome back to you too! I'm glad you had a good time and didn't get eaten by sharks or attacked by bears. It looks like you, me, and Turbo have some work to do!

Turbo - Blah blah water weight... yada yada... you know what I'm saying Give it a couple of days and then you can see where you REALLY are. I ate off plan for 2 days and I feel like I set myself back a month... but I know it's mostly just water.

Heck ladies, if anything else I call that an extra dose of motivation right? LOL I have a visit planned to see my hubby in 3.5 weeks and I'm going to look AWESOME... so I'd better get my *** in gear! Hmm, I guess now that I'm going as clean/natural as possible those deep fried Oreos at the fair are out huh? I'm okay with that... we can always put together our own BBQ and have delicious goodies that we picked up from Whole Foods since there is one by his house! Yay!

Hi everyone feeling better today, I think this was all due to TOM which just started today.

I'm jumping on the bloated featherweights bandwagon....

JossFit- I wish I had a Trader Joe's around here too. I miss all their yummy good for you stuff. You already look awesome, but a trip to see hubby is motivation to keep on track for sure.

Krampus- sounds like a successful trip!

crazygurl61- hope you are feeling better today.

My 10K run was the worst race of my life. I was just not myself. I almost turned off for the 5k but I just couldn't do that so I stuck with the 10K and kept looking over my shoulder to see if the race sweepers were coming I went really hard core with exercise since last Tues with no rest days and I'm also not eating many carbs right now so I had nothing in the tank. It was frustrating, but I'm taking today off of cardio and one more day of eating pretty much carb free before I start to add healthy whole grains into my diet. I'm off to read the weight lifting posts to see what I can do for my upper body.

Checking in. Actually went on the treadmill yesterday for a mer thirty minutes. Felt great at the time, but today was a bad of a$$. Sigh. This is so frustrating! I'm glad to not be on the meds and feeling completely out of it, but now I am right back to going full steam with a migraine all day. Sucky. Lots of doctors appointments this week. Blah! Just ate a healthy dose of cheezits. This week has been crap, and I don't want to look at the scale. Salty carbs everywhere....

Hi everyone!

Sorry that I have been MIA after committing to keeping up here!

I am feeling better then last week and more confident about my weight. I think that 119 is going to be the high end of a range for me. As it is, I have popped up - seems my body loves 121. So I want to get back down a few pounds and then start enjoying life rather then worrying about my weight all the time.

I ran my 2nd 10K this weekend. It was hot and humid. Out of a field of 70 racers, I came in 6th and was the 2nd fastest female!!! Pretty exciting!

Tonight is going to be difficult. I am going to a potluck work party and there is going to be a ton of food. My weakness is FREE FOOD. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone else, but when free food is around, I feel like I have to stuff myself or it's like I'm losing money. Isn't that weird? So I'm going to do my very best to just eat a normal meal.

Hope everyone is enjoying August!

Jen

Cherry- congrats on your run! Wow, you must have been blazing! I no longer have a weakness for turning down food, at least not like before. And since I used my one "give in topper pressure and eat it" pass last weekend, I'm good for awhile. ;-) at first I felt so badly wasting food in my own house. Throwing away the unbeaten Mac n cheese my kids would leave, or just unbeaten portionsof anything. Wasted money, right? So I started a compost type bin where all the scraps would go into. It was gross, so once it went in, it obviously never came back. We have chickens, so it all went to them. Made me feel better and not wasteful. Now I just don't mind pitching scraps here and there, or I compost it.

Fresh15- definitely no fuel can make you feel that way! I don't do races often, but I do have to gear up a day or two in advance. Not because I am a superstar, but my body just doesn't do well with long workouts like that, and I fade fast.

Joss- how do you like your new pantry items? I love quinoa. I was thinking of you when I ate a owl of cheezits. Random, right? But it made me think that a few things have snuck into our house, too, mainly for the kids, but I get into them when I feel awful. (guilty face) I'm so excited for you that hubby is coming in a few weeks! How does it feel to be married? I know you are separated for now, which stinks. Will you be able to be stationed near each other, or is one of you switching jobs? Yea for doing the WOD and getting back to it.

Turbo- lol about your cat. They get so pissy when you leave. ;-) sounds like most of the featherweights are bloated on some crazy salt goodness. Me, too. AF and too many salty carbs. I'm up two pounds of blech!

Feeling a bit less poo today. I know I'm not a doctor, but if only one thing has come from this summer of craziness, it's that I really feel like almost all of my headache issues are stemming from my neck strain. I can't think of why suddenly it just got horrible in June, but every time I do anything physical, I get the worst migraine. It has to be related. And I'm peeved, because all I want to do is workout! I miss it!

Okay, so I need to get things back on track! I can't workout, which is stupid, but I can eat better, dang it. Starting my day with my homemade mocha and a banana. Did I tell you all that I hurt myself doing yoga? I mean, wow. I tried it, as a relaxing alternative to my cardio stuff, and I freaking stressed my carpal tunnel in my right hand from all the planks and downward dog. I swear I am not 80. Wtf? I probably looked like a dork the whole time anyway. ;-)

krampus : omg, new englang clam showder, I'm drowling. I'm glad you had a great time in Cap Cod (by I'm glad I mean glad that you encounter no sharks LOL)! ANd I loved you lunch, specially the whole pepper bell! hehe!!

JossFit : I love you clean and new natural food philosopy! the bf and I have decided to we are going to eat clean for a while, after the 2 weeks of ''EATING ALL THE FOOD!!!'' we just feel blaaah... I think a few days of good food will help detoxing our bodies! And if you deep-fry Orea in some organic oil, maybe it can count in the natural food district?

crazygurl : welcome in the bloated crew...!

fresh : another runner! awesome! At least you made it through you run! great job!

CherryPie : Awesome results on your run! Congrats!

Chickie : eh, yoga is DANGEROUS! i always destroyed our tv trying to go some yoga exercice on dvd the other day! I hope you hand (and you neck!) will be better soon!

***

Yo, feathers!

Good news, I'm at 140,4 lbs this morning, which is less dramatic than me 141 of yesterday. I hope to creep my way back in the 130's before the end of the week!

My cat also seems so recognize me now, he started back his routine of ''I'm screaming at you like a demon for you to pet me when you cook dinner and totally ignore you as soon as you're done cooking and free to pet me''. Gotta love him.

I was kinda scared to go back to an healthy food routine yesterday, I feared my stomach had increased size and got used to eating more... I was scared to be hungry through all the day but so far everything is doing okay, I'm full after my pork/pepper bell salad and I wasn't hungry through the morning. I'm also trying this new stuff of not writing down my calories like I used to, I'm gonna try to do it mentally and try to figure out how much I eat and everything. I can't spend all my life writing everything in my little book...

I also went for a 5k run this morning, first run in a week. It was to fast to quickly and made me feel like the worst runner in the world... I neeeeeeeed to get back to it, I'm in a half marathon at the end of september and I feel SO NOT READY!

Have a good day, feathers!!