Hi everyone,

Stuff's been weird lately - our former board president and a founding member of the organization I work for, one of the most prominent New Yorkers in the disability independence movement, died suddenly on Friday. May she R.I.P. and all that. On the bright side, a dude in my building just told me he's a Dungeon Master and tried to recruit me to game with him and his buds.

Weekend was great! Saturday was a music festival - I got EPIC munchies at night and destroyed some macaroni and cheese. Sunday BF and I went hiking in Vermont during the afternoon, and then my roommate and I played music at a bluegrass open jam at the local old man pub! I hadn't touched my violin in months, and it was like a fire was lit beneath me. I feel all inspired to play more music now.

Something's whack with my (cheap digital) home scale maybe? I dunno. It has been inconsistent lately and weighed me today at heavier than yesterday despite the gym scale weighing me at considerably less. Oh well I kinda don't care. I hurt my knee running on Saturday on hills, but went for a 5 mile hike anyway yesterday. Today I just lifted to try and give it a rest but it was still hurting. Oh well!

kakers Awww I love cats on leashes. If I could have one (landlord is allergic) I would bring him/her EVERYWHERE with me! What did you have @ Wendy's? Wendy's is definitely my favorite drive-thru fast food chain in the Northeast.

JossFit As always your cooking looks amazing. Yesterday I had to eat some leftover salmon with orzo, so I stir-fried up some mushrooms, dumplings and spinach in garlic to go with them - adding gorgonzola cheese and vidalia onion relish from the local orchard kicked it up x a million. No picture because it looked gross and I was so hungry I just inhaled it. Hope you had a happy birthday - with a breakfast like that pancake I bet you did ;)

LisaTcan I also use hunger before bed as a sign I'm at a deficit. I have been...not so hungry before bed for a long time now. The hardest part for me is balancing progress in the weight room with eating at a deficit...I always get worried I won't be able to lift as much if I'm hungry!

LeilaJey How did the crumble work out? Pork roast...mmm. How are the kettlebells treating you? Awesome that your friends have noticed your arms and gotten inspired.

irishcanary Get well ASAP! Hope to see you posting around here more often!

TurboMammoth GIRL how did the half marathon go?!?!?! I hope you had a good time and that TOM didn't bother you or affect your performance in any way. Did you get rained on Saturday? Good luck delivering those triplets.........bahahaha. EDIT: I see you had an AMAZING time, congratulations on beating your "hopeful" race time too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all! Thanks for all your well wishes and kind words. I think I'm through the worst of it now - and I only ate badly once, only a small slip, when I had a little pastry thing one day. So not too bad, I'm pretty pleased with that. Considering the stress of it all and due to lack of sleep and stressing out I have been ill too. Really ill, I had a fever, no fun at all.

My ex is now being annoying about returning my stuff. She has one of my hoodies and some DVDs. And she says it's too expensive to post - I'm not even asking her to post them to Spain, just to my parents house. She wants me to go and pick them up from her house over Xmas. Needless to say I'm not impressed.

But on a positive not my student loan has come in so I can now afford to join the swim club :) So excited, I have missed swimming.

Kakers I can't get a refund of the ticket so I have changed the date and my friend is paying me half of the money for the ticket so he can come and visit me here. Which I think is a pretty good outcome from the mess of a situation.

Turbomammoth yeah all break ups are rubbish. The worst is I'm still receiving letters here that she wrote before she broke up with me. It's horrible and I can't stop myself from reading them. :/

JossFit She really hasn't been given enough credit for her no non-sense attitude to life. I hope I learn from this, she made all sorts of promises about coming to visit me etc. In the end she just couldn't be bothered to keep them. She's incredibly fickle I should've probably seen this coming.

Krampus/LeilaJay yep I'm definitely going to take advantage of my being in another country, Spanish girls are definitely easy on the eye. Unfortunately for me, being so Catholic and all, there are not that many out people around. There is only one gay bar in the entire city and it's tiny and depressing. Though me and another exchange student are planning to go to one of the bigger cities for a weekend to find a proper gay bar.

Krampus- it's official. You are definitely the busiest and arguably the most fun. Lol getting down with a bluegrass band, hiking, festivals and D&D. Lol I envy you!! I was n such a rush to have kiddos, since I was told I would be very difficult due to my PCOS. I miss those days when I could just get up and go to something that sounded fun! Sorry your scale sucks. I was cleaning out my bathroom closet and found my old scale, not digital, and that baby is off by five pounds. It was nice to see a number way lower...lol. Mac and cheese is my absolute weakness! I make the best homemade and cheese with mushrooms.

Joss- happy belated birthday! Way to celebrate it with that yummy PB choco pancake. Yumm. I am on a huge PB kick right now.

Kakers- I make a really yummy homemade pizza with lite alfredo sauce, turkey pepperoni, mozzarella and whatever veggies I have on hand. I'm not totally accurate with calories, but I make it so much that I've worked out that two slices is 350 cals.

Turbo- way to go! Look at you rocking that medal! I am so proud of you and so jealous! I barely survived a 14K last spring. If I ever have the cajones, I'd really love to do a half marathon, too. Take it easy and enjoy your big accomplishment!


Maneiko- Ugh. I really hate seeing people's true colors... Obviously your ex isnt that awesome...can't even drive over your stuff? Why o earth would your parents pick it up? Weird. :-/ that's awesome that you resisted almost all temptation when you were feling down and even a fever! Great job!

Monday's are my extra busy days, since I teach in the morning. I am going to start subbing, too. I got new medicine that seems to be working for exercise, but it also makes me sooooo tired. I think I need to use it for only extra special exercise, and keep everything else more moderate to low paced. Hubby finished the floors in the mudroom renovation yesterday. Hallelujah! Only one more day of big work to do, so hopefully we can squeeze it in next weekend. I am so ready for this tone done!

My eating has been good and not so good. I had a few days where I just snacked and snacked. So much that I wasn't even hungry the following mornings. I think I got that out of my system, though, because I am only craving really good food now.

Hi everyone. I haven't posted at all in probably 2 weeks, and find it a bit overwhelming to post now because I feel like I should be doing personals and addressing everyone. I'm going to skip out on that today (so forgive me) or else I might not post for another 2 weeks, but I have been reading up on everyone and keeping up to date.

I have been really busy the past couple of weeks, finally got the playroom all painted. It took me a week straight of all my spare time. Being a working professional and a mom is exhausting when you are also trying to do extra projects on the side. Anyways, at least we got all the toys upstairs and got the house a bit more organized for when we had 30 people over for my daughter's 3rd birthday party this past Saturday. It seems a bit excessive for a 3 year old, but that's basically just immediate family. I look forward to when she has her own friends, and we can just host them instead of my enormous family. I spent all last week making goodies and cake decorating and organizing, and I'm very happy with how the party went, and feel like the hard work paid off.

Today I am getting back into running, as I've only got 2 weeks before my 5k run with my dad. I have been doing my weights and cardio on the elliptical in the mornings though, so my fitness levels should still be up and hopefully the run is as easy as it was before. My dad has been doing a bit of running here and there, but his foot is still bothering him after recovering from the blood clot in his leg, so we'll see how the 5k goes. I'm torn between whether I should push myself to do my best on race day, or slow it down a bit so that I can be by my dad the entire time. I told him I've been running 5k in about 30 minutes, and his reaction made it sound like that's super slow, so even if he's not 100% maybe we'll do okay with running it together, who knows.

I'm struggling with getting back on plan a bit today. I gave myself a free pass on Saturday to eat all the goodies at my daughter's birthday party. And the whole weekend ended up being a wash because of another family gathering on Sunday where the food choices were a bit less than ideal, which I just used as an excuse to indulge in leftovers when I got home. My only plan right now is to shed the water weight by the weekend, because my birthday is on Sunday, and I plan on going to a buffet. With thanksgiving the weekend after that, I'm focusing on maintenance for the next couple of weeks. But after that, I'm pretty sure there won't be anything to get in the way of things until Christmas, at which point, I'm fairly confident I'll be down to a nice happy weight anyhow.

I went to see my doctor for an annual exam today, and was measured at 5' 4". I'm not sure if I was slouching because I thought for years I was 5' 5", so I'm going to have my husband check my height for me when I get home. I know it doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but it does help explain why I don't feel like I am carrying my weight well for my height in comparison to others my height, and might actually make me feel better about lowering my goal weight if I decide to do so.

I did finally talk to my doctor about my irregular menstrual cycle, so I'll be having blood tests and a pelvic ultrasound to look into the possibility of PCOS or hypothydrodism. I'm not overly concerned about it, but I figure that since I'm making an effort to live a healthier life, it's time that I mention to the doctor that it's not unusual for me to go 3-6 months now and again without a period (it's been that way since I started menstruating, and has been that way at healthy weights, while overweight, while eating healthy, poorly, at a deficit or a surplus, so I don't think my weight loss or fitness regime is really much of a factor in it). I'm going to have my blood tests done tomorrow. I would've had it done while I was at the doctor's, but because they are going to do a glucose test, I have to fast for 8 hours prior, so I'll do it in the morning. I'm wondering if I should just count that super sugary glucose drink as my breakfast, as I tried looking it up on google, and it looks like it is about 300 calories. I'll be skipping my breakfast to do the test anyways, so it might balance out okay if I do that.

Just needed to vent. I hate my body right now, and I hate food. I feel like I ate even LESS today but I'm already close to my max calories for the day. WTF. It's not even 8:00 either. I do at least have enough calories left for a string cheese if I stay up and do work like I should but GRRR. Why am I so hungry???

~Katy

Jessica- lol about having tons if people for a three year olds party! When they are little, it is almost all close friends and family. My boys are turning five and seven in November, and the last couple of years have been harder to whittle the guest list down. We don't even live by family, in fact they have never had an extended family member present for their birthday.....odd when I think about it. Anyhow, that tells you about my family, plus they are twelve hours away. But now that they have legitimate school friends and we always have a joint party, I've had to set a list on the invites. Did you have a theme? I don't go too crazy...it looks like it...but I just challenge myself every year to stay under $150 total, cake, supplies, everything. And since they have a joint party, I can usually get under $100. Two years ago we did Building & Construction. Last year was Super Mario Bros. and this year is Karate.

I'm glad you are getting tested, just in case, but it totally sucks to have to count that nasty drink as breakfast. Hack... It older even count the damn thing. If you don't eat anything afterwards, you might feel like junk from all the sugars. I'm having this semi-midlife crisis where I felt the need to check myself out medically. It started with the migraines, but then I just ran down my list. It feels good to know that at this point, nothing is worse than it was ten years ago, and at least I have healthier habits now, too.

What color did you paint the playroom? Was t an extra bedroom? My two boys share a bedroom so we can also have a playroom. Eventually they will each get their own. Our playroom is a very dark blue. It's okay...love the color, but when anything scratches the wall...an inevitability in a playroom...it looks worse than normal because the scratch stands out so much. There is nothing better than disregarding the mess in there, just shutting the door at the end of a long day and ignoring. ;-) just recently they can clean it up all by themselves and actually put everything where it belongs. It feels like Christmas every time they do it. Lol I give full time working mommas huge, huge props! There really isn't a lot of leftover time to do projects, etc. what do you like to do for "me time"?

Kakers- I was starving for the first month. Nt because my body needed the food, but my stomach and brain just missed it terribly! I really did just white knuckle it through those first few weeks, and it became so much easier! The biggest thing I hated about the weigh loss phase, is that you work SO HARD every day for a week and you might lose a couple of pounds. I know that is "great" but it doesn't always feel like that! Weight loss usually isn't, at least for me, instant cause and effect that shows me how well I did getting through those rough moments multiple times a day! Hugs.

P.s. I live about 20 minutes from you. Small world!

Hey guys,
I'm just gonna start contributing if that's ok. I'm currently trying to loose the last 10 pounds, and get fit and strong before summer (that Australian summer, so American winter). I'm feeling fine and really in control at the moment, but in the past I always come under at the end: binge, give up exercising for a few weeks and feel dreadful. I'm really trying to change the way I think about food and exercise, so I figured this would be a great place to get support!

Good luck everyone!
Libby

TurboMammoth GREAT job with your race!! Definitely some time for some RICE for the foot, I hope it feels better soon! And yep I totally have relatives up there. They missed my wedding cause something was going on at the Piggery that weekend. Do you know where Montee McKinven is? And as far as running, I can't even make if a full km without stopping to walk. But I can swim for ages!

krampus We actually have 4 cats. Only one goes on the leash though... the others have no interest in going outside, especially the feral cat that moved in 2 winters ago LOL. At Wendy's I got the chicken nuggets and fries. I love chicken nuggets (or popcorn chicken, or chicken tenders) and fries. And pizza. Even counting my calories, I typically have one of the above for dinner most nights.

TheManekiNeko I gotta say, one pastry is reasonable for the situation. I'm glad you were able to change the ticket so your friend can come visit! I think you should tell your ex to just mail your stuff, it is not THAT expensive and definitely bring up how much YOU spent on a plane ticket you don't even get to use (she doesn't need to know it got changed.) So exciting you can join the swim club now! I love to swim, too.

ChickieChicks No way 20 minutes away huh? Small world for sure! I bet I drive past you at some point during the week, too, I do in-home therapy all around the region. I'm glad it's normal to be so darn hungry... and I sure hope it doesn't last long! The hungry feeling for tonight is under control, thankfully, so maybe tomorrow will be better!

libbywaldron Hi there! Welcome to the featherweights :) This is a great place to help you stay on track.

~Katy

Hey all -

I apologize, but I am a bit overwhelmed right now and don't have the time to do personals today... just checking in. My diet yesterday took a turn for the worse, and today I just feel sick and weighed down by life/work/etc... the bad food didn't help.

I had to take today off from training, I got like ZERO sleep, and I just hope that tomorrow I'm feeling all right again. I know we can't all be 100% perfect all the time, but for some reason September has been a harder month than usual.

I did actually committ myself to a photo shoot with a very prominent photographer for the 17th of November, so I have 7.5 weeks or so to really fine tune my physique. It's not that I have any significant amount of weight to lose or anything like that, but I just need the motivation to stay on track.

Anyway, sorry again for not getting to personals right now. I'll try to knock them out tonight.

krampus : That is so sad for the former president of the compagny. OH JEEZ, Dungeons stuff! When I was in high school, I was hanging with guys played and they got me a a friend to play with them a couple of times. I randomly drafted the biggest and strongest character of all and was taking advantage of this against a guy to one of the guy that I did not like much and who was really bugging me with his ''I know everything in the world of D&D'' but who drafted the weekest character. In one single night, I killed 3 of his characters totally on purpose. Poor guy LOL What did you hike in Vermont?

TheManeki : Oh, I hate annoying ex! Come on, why won't she send you stuff! I hate those situation, you decide to break up, don't mess more with me after! Stay strong!

Chickie : Finding the right balance with meds can be such a pain in the ***! Did they work so far with the migrain post workout? Did you finally go to your zumba class on friday? :)

Jessica : OMG, I was tired for you just reading your weekend description! I seriously don't know how I'm going to make it through with eventual kids. I'm already tired as *hit if I don't sleep my 7 hours night... Your 5k is already in 2 weeks! It's awesome! :D Are you looking forward to it?

kakers : I was really hungry during the first 3-4 weeks too. After a while, the body (and mind) adjust to the new quantity of food you're feeding it, I think... I know a bit where Montée McKiven is :) North Hatley is such a pretty little place, so peaceful :) I love swimming too but I have no more bathing suit that fits. OOOPS hehe!

libby : Welcome libby! this place really helped me not falling into the drama of the binge and fall down ;)

Joss : Aww girl, you alrigth?! Take a day off to clear your head and everything. Nobody can be perfect on a 24h/7 days a week basis. Keep in mind that you are doing a wonderful job and it's not a little fall down that will destroy all the progress you made in the last years. *hugs* let us knpw if we can do anything for you!

***

Thanx all for the supe nice comments concerning my race :) I'm still super thrilled but the outcome and it helps me soothing a bit the foot pain and the fear related to a potential serious injury... I googled a bit, and Google being Google, it told me it could be anything from just a post intense workout soreness to a letal cancer that would kill me in the next 2 days. Meh. More seriously, I red a bit about foot injury related to running, and I'm doing as the lady at the drugstore told me it says : stop training and rest the feet, take ibuprofene on a regular basis for the inflammation and put ice on it. I know n bones is broken because it's not swollen at all. I found some streching exercices online that I will do tonight, it can't be bad. Plus it is still painful, but less than yesterday. I really hope it will get better, I'm gonna freack out if I have to take more than 1 week off LOL

On the weight side, I was at 136.2 yesterday morning, which was awesome, -0.2 from saturday and including some heavy carbs loading saturday night, a cheeseburger after the race on sunday and a heavy meal of pasta on saturday night.

BUT I was up to 137.8 this morning. It probably won't stay because I peed only twice yesterday (and after 1 XL coffee and more than a little of water, it is NOT normal for me lol, I pee like 6-7 times a day usually) and I did not poop. I was probably dehydratated from Sunday's race.

Back on a healthy plan today, I cooked some lentils and spinach soup last night and I have a bowl of that for lunch. Yummy!

Have a good day feathers!

ChickieChicks We did a Winnie the pooh theme. I honestly went way over board. She picked the theme like 6 months ago, and so I got a head start on making decorations and putting together loot bags and what not a long time ago. She's already decided that next year she wants a Cinderella theme, but we'll see if she changes her mind or not. I get so excited about making her birthday extra special that I pour so much work into it. I just feel like her birthday should be really special, since mine never were. I do feel a bit guilty perhaps for spoiling her, but we don't generally buy her things aside from at her birthday and Christmas, and honestly I am very budget conscious, so the actual cost of the party was pretty reasonable considering all the people I had to feed.

I actually didn't have to drink the sugary drink. I just assumed I would have to, since I had to fast prior to having the blood work done, and one of the things checked off on the blood work was glucose. The only time I ever fasted for blood work was when I was screened for gestational diabetes, so I just assumed I'd have to drink the stuff. I am a bit hungrier today though, as I should've brought more food to work with me, as I was kind of assuming that I'd be consuming the calories from that drink.

The playroom is purple. 3 walls are a lighter purple, and one wall is a dark purple with chalkboard paint. The colors match her room, which is 3 walls of the lighter purple, and then one wall of a darker pink. And the colors carry on into her bathroom, which is between the 2 rooms. It was a spare room. We used to rent a room to my in-laws, but my mother in law and I were butting heads, and so they moved out a few months ago. After they moved, we moved our guest room into their old room, and decided to give Eva 2 rooms and move the toys upstairs. It just took me months to finish it, because I started painting the empty room, then we moved her bedroom over there, and I was so tired of painting that it took me a couple more months to get around to painting the play room and the bedroom. I'm glad it's all done now, but the rest of the house still needs to be painted, so my plan is to knock one room off every few months.

Honestly, my "me" time is pretty minimal. Once I get my daughter to bed, I normally lay in bed and watch tv to try to wind down. I think most nights, I'm only awake about an hour before I pass out, since I wake up before my daughter to fit in my exercise. If we get a day where she goes to visit my parents, then my husband and I usually like to watch movies together. We just keep it simple in general.

libbywaldron Welcome. That first month or so is always the hardest. Once the exercise and healthy eating becomes a habit, things get so much easier, even if you do fall off plan now and again.

kakers Like others have said, that first month is the hardest. You'll adjust and it will get easier :)

JossFit September has been a harder month for me than usual as well. It's almost over though, so let's all start french in October :)

TurboMammoth I actually find that I am more productive now that I have a child. I guess I know my hours are limited and it keeps me from procrastinating, and keeps me motivated. It was actually how I justified waking up early to exercise... I told myself that I got much less sleep when she was an infant and waking up all the time, so now that she gets up usually only once at night, I should be able to wake up a bit earlier. Since I survived less sleep before, I knew I could handle it. Most nights I fit in at least 7 hours, but I find that 9 or 10 is more ideal for me, though I rarely ever get that much sleep now (and if I'm working on a project, I might get by with 5 hours for a week or so).

I am looking forward to my 5k, I just feel guilty that I haven't been doing much to train for it lately.

------------------------

I went and had my blood work done this morning, and I passed out. I was so embarrassed, I've never fainted before in my life. I don't know if it's because I wasn't allowed to eat before hand, or if it's just being at a calorie deficit in general, or because she took 4 vials, or because she had to put the rubber band extremely tight just to find a vein, and had to keep pulling on my skin to get the blood to flow. But it was a super weird feeling to wake up to 2 people I didn't know saying my name over and over. Honestly, I just felt like I was waking up to an alarm clock, and felt like going back to sleep. They just shuffled me into a different room to lay down so that they could continue taking other people's blood. The nurse was concerned that there wasn't enough blood in one of the vials, so hopefully they got enough of it, because I had to sit in a waiting room for an hour to get the blood taken in the first place, and don't really feel like going back.

JessicaB I have heard that some people faint when having blood drawn because of a physiological response that causes a rapid drop in blood pressure, thus making you pass out. Could have been what happened to you!

TurboMammoth Montee McKinven is named after my relatives :) It was their land. As far as your weight being up, I wonder if that is common after such a long race? Like your body thinks it may have to extend this sort of effort again soon and is saving up a stash of fuel to deal with it. IDK, just a theory I had!

JossFit I can't blame you for not doing personals. I find them overwhelming at times, personally. Anyways I hope you are feeling better today! Hopefully it was just a day long funk from the food and not something you have come down with.

_________________________________________

So I managed to deal with it last night and I came in a little under my goal calories! YAY! When I was getting ready to head to bed I got a craving for some lemonade, and luckily I keep crystal light mix on hand all the time. So I had me some lemonade instead of tea before bed. And it was delicious. I was considering at one point having a string cheese, which wouldn't have put me over, but I decided unless I was STARVING I would save the calories after going a little over the day before. I actually think what saved me was the not-quite-diet soda I had with dinner. I have Pepsi Next in the fridge right now instead of my usual diet, which means I can't just grab a soda whenever I want I actually have to track it, but then I didn't end up chugging it and I think the small constant dose of good old fashioned sugar helped keep my body from thinking it was dying. Then I woke up and I'm a pound down!! THAT I was not expecting. Actually, it was a half pound, but after I got out of the shower a little while later I was down a little bit more. Wasn't expecting to be another pound down already!

Today is going well so far. Had some delicious if totally unhealthy cinnamon roll oatmeal, I just don't do healthy so I'm OK with it as long as it's under 200 calories and it is. Then I went shopping and figured out that corn tortillas have fewer calories than flour ones, so I got some of them (and some other flour ones. Like a lot of tortillas LOL) And then I made a pizza-dilla! Small corn tortillas, a spoonful of pizza sauce, a little less than a half cup of mozz, and 7 pieces of pepperoni. Delicious, and 336 calories. That's right, this girl can eat crap and still make it work for losing weight.

Feeling super good today that I will have the energy for gymnastics tomorrow too!

~Katy

Just a quick check-in, we received an email telling us that we can see the pictures that were taken during the race. BWAHAHAHAHAH I look so ugly when I run, and basically look like I'm on the edge of some hearth attack.

Straight at the finish line. I have the gold headband. The one in green next to me looks like she was just doing something super casual ''Oh hey, I was just taking out the laundry from the laundrymachine''. I love how I am ''FU, I'm basically trying to survive here, thank you very much''.

I don't get why my legs look so tan though.... I like the way they look :D
http://imageshack.us/a/img163/719/ewwwk.png

I don't know about that Turbo... I've seen some uglier running faces.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...3tcTickGFygCR0

I think you look quite nice!