Bayzee : your eat & drink fest does not sound too bad! Hope you enjoyed it!

TheBunneh : Aww, is your throat feeling better? Take care of yourself! I think cat see Christmas tree as their own Disney Land or something like that. This is if the first time our cat is not trying to destroy it completely!

Ohtheplaces : I repeat it, your dress is stunnnning. I'm a fan of the lace overlay thing! Must have felt so good, feeling great when you still remember how you were feeling the years before

LeilaJey : I've been doing a lot you do yo, eating/restricting. It is so hard to find balance. I haven't workout in forever neither, welcome to the club

I also join the club of weird eating stuff for breakfast, I hate tostitos chips while waiting for my english muffin to toast. Oh god.

Mottaini : I'm so glad to hear you're having a blast. Post some picture!

olehcat : hope everything will be fine at your doc appointment!

Joss : Your stone massage probably did you so much goooood. I also red about your struggle during the weekend When are you moving with you hubby, exactly?

krampus : That is so sad for your friend moving, especially since he was dating your roomate. Is he planning to come back or is he going there for good? Can't wait to see your tree! Worst fake trees ever are the best, you can actually see totally through mine bwahahah

I looooove potluck and sadly for my weight, everything was soooo good. 2 of our friends brought pinwheel-tortilla rolls, one with smoked salmon and cream cheese, the other one with proscuitto and goat cheese, and a shrimp veggies cream cheese layers dips. 2 other friends brought some kind a salmon pot pie thing, a huge plate of dessert and a potatop salad. The boyfriend and I were cooking a braised porc and duck meatpie, sweet&sour meatballs and deviled eggs. Oh and I prepared some vodka slushie. SO we just kept and kept and kept eating.

I never celebrated New Year Eve in Montreal actually, I was always heading home. I don,t like snobish place neither, my favorite place to hang out in Montreal is a place called Latulippe, on the saturday nights they always host a 80's theme night and it is AWESOME. Don't know much what is going on this year in Montreal, I'm celebrating the 31st on the countryside, my cousin bought a land to build a house that is not done yet but their garade is all up, so they are building a huge fire in the yard, their putting food and music in the opened garade and we are told to wear our winter snow gear and get drunk as **** outside. OH YEAH

***

Hellooooo. Walk of shame coming your way., I'm at 140.4 this morning, BLEH. Somebody forgot chips at our place saturday.. We did not eat lunch on Sunday, but watched Christmas movies in PJ while eating away the bag of chips.. HELOOOOO TONS OF SALT!

While the boyfriend was watching a million games of football yesterday, I checked another thing on my Christmas baking list, which was Peanut Butter and Rice Krispies balls covered with a find layer of semi-sweet chocolat. They tasted like my mom's recipe It all went for the freezer but one (split with the boyfriend for a quality test :P). I'm almost done, only have 2-3 recipe to bake. I'm gonna use the freezer stocks to prepare some host guests for the Christmas party because we are cheap and broke and can't buy massive gifts hehe

I was planning to go and do some Christmas shopping but it is snowing outside.. Not big time don't get out of your house snow but I'm lazy and I'm taking the snow as an excuse to now shovel around my car. hehe.

Taking control of my diet AGAIN (at least until friday). I jsut had my lunch of lean turkey and spinach wrap and I am preparing a lentils and cari soup for dinner.

TurboMammoth Hehe, walk of shame. I was 130.0 before gym and dump. I am reading about La Tulipe now and saw this: "On s'entend, La Tulipe n'est pas une sortie très snob...On peut s'attendre à du beau monde entre 25 et 35 ans le vendredi (90-00) et entre 30 et 40 ans le samedi (80)"

I thought since you like it, the Saturday crowd should be between 50 and 60 LOL

AHAHAHAHAAHAHA! See, even Internet agrees that Latulipe is not snobbish!!

Well usually my favorite nights involve bridge games you know..!!! bwhahaah

Krampus ~ lol Couldn't help but giggle at your flats pinching your feet. Join the club -- My underwear was tight this morning-- gotta love it Can't wait to see pics of your tree/decorations and I do love your "naughty n' nice" card idea, too. What is this "le tulipe" you're reading?

Turbo ~ Your baking looks stellar! Sounds like a good plan to just be kind to yourself for the rest of December!!! Heartily support.

Leila ~ :heh: Delicious! Lindt is indeed the (occasional) breakfast of champions... I just have to watch that it doesn't turn into the breakfast/lunch/dinner all day binge of losers...

Joss ~ Yummmmm - pumpkin spice massage lotion. Not a bad way to spend a
Sunday afternoon at all...
I do have pics of the dress, but don't feel like I look especially attractive in any of them. Bleh. They are on the 'book, though (someone else posted) but I guess I just don't care when they're in the context of so much other random crap.
Forgive me if you've mentioned this already, but which branch are you with -- army? When do you join the hubs in CO? Exciiiting!!! And like it or not, you are an inspiration with all the dedication and knowledge you're discovering/sharing.

Bayzee ~ It does seem like a lot of goals get thrown out of the window for the holidays... I try to make a spending plan, too, but it usually ends up being a record of what I spent, rather than what I planned to spend.

olehcat ~ I can understand that same wanting to look slender. The muscles tend to come easy for me, too. I crave that straight, long, lithe, willowy look, but that is just not how I fall naturally.

thebunneh ~ Sorry you woke up feeling poorly! Lots of water and rest and hopefully you can shake it before you travel next weekend.

Ohtheplaces ~ Such a good feeling to be "comfortable in your skin" this year at the party. I remember that feeling... . I'm taking that quote of being glad a year from now that you started today.

mottainai ~ So glad that you're having such a great time!

~~~
Here comes the walk of shame up in here, too... 156.4 this morning.

I knew it would be bad (plus some weird bloating/gas going on-- lovely)

since I took the dirty plunge off the cookie sampling dock last night. Ended up with three tins of saltine toffee and a few plates of sugar cookies, so the net result was fine, but man, it got messy there for awhile...

I was baking treats for our trip down to Nashville on Friday. I think I'm just about done with the sweet variety (cookies + toffee) and now it's only the savory stuff left to make (cream cheese + olives and possibly deviled eggs). Am saving that for later in the week so it doesn't go bad.

Planning on going to the last volleyball meeting of the year and then relaxing at home for the rest of the evening. Exhausted from a purposeless late night last night (I stay up late doing nothing...bleh!)
and then on with packing and last minute gift gettting. I'm trying to decide if it would be worth it to spend $76 on jewelry for myself, mom and sis. On the one hand I think, better to just not spend the money and we don't need things to have a good time, but on the other hand... this is the first time in 2.5 years we're all going to be together. It would be nice to have something to mark the occasion... It would be pushing my budget just a little bit beyond what's comfortable, but darn, it would be nice... It'd be cash, at least, so no cc surprises in the mail.

Decisions, decisions...

Well, I was all set for awesomely clean eating, starting today again, to last until Christmas Eve at least, and got the kale and the fat free yogurt and the eggs and the salad ingredients and veggies for steaming, etc. Then I remembered that I was invited to a friend's house for dinner tonight. They generally are pretty healthy (always cook with real ingredients, as whole as possible, are making lentil soup tonight, for example) but they are amazing bakers and I know there will be some sort irresistible bread or dessert. So as is typical with me, I felt eh, I can't eat totally clean today anyway, so I might as well eat other stuff I didn't plan. So I ate a cookie that a student brought me and I ate some cheetos. Ick. Why? I'm not walking the walk of shame ONLY because I haven't weighed myself today, but I feel gross and bloated and I’m sure the number would be ugly!


@alexistrophic – yeah, when I am an ideal weight, I am very tiny overall (I’m short with petite features) but my legs are monsters. I can’t explain it, LOL! I’ve even had people comment on it (rudely). It’s like they’re totally disproportionate to the rest of me. Ah, if someone could come up with a very specific exercise to make them smaller and fit in with the rest of me, that would be great. And OH YUM, toffee!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I once made some soft toffee by accident and I loved it so much and I’ve always tried to recreate it and never quite have…☺

@turbomammoth – oooh, I’d love to visit Montreal! Love to! My mom loves it and she’s been there several times. Part of my dad’s family is originally from Quebec but I’ve never been there. I was in Calgary this past summer and I did try poutine for the first time. I LOVED it. And oh gosh, I LOVE those peanut butter rice krispy cookies. I could eat a whole pan of them.

@krampus – you crack me up! Ugh, the last time I had a hangover was…embarrassingly enough just in September and I drank WAY too much wine with a friend and I puked for the first time since college (and college was a LONG time back for me). And yeah, if I had ever taken heed of my stomach troubles when I eat certain bad foods and cleaned it up permanently, I would be many times my ideal weight by now!

@jossfit – I don’t know if I mentioned this, but before the divorce, my ex husband and I were separated by countries for 4 years, only seeing each other in the summers. (The divorce was unrelated to the strain of the separation – another issue altogether – and it was amicable and we are still good friends). It’s tough!!! That’s too bad about your friends not being around as much because you don’t go out drinking all the time. My problem is more the opposite. Er…no, I don’t like going to the bars and stuff (I’m a homebody, really, who really likes being home by er…9 or 10) And my problem is friends slipping away because they’ve had children and I have no children and I am divorced now. So yes, I have friends who don’t have children (like the couple I’m going to their house for dinner) who are married and a few friends who are single/divorced and without kids or with grown kids, and some of my married friends with kids make SOME effort to eek out some time, but it’s just not the same. Oh, thank you so much about the pictures! I will try to find what I’m looking for!

I'm noticing a gaining trend in our weight ins ladies! What is it about this time of year that likes to slap you in the face! Good luck everyone. My TOM has arrived and I feel a bit more in control of food and my desire to snack on everything. Working towards a good week, hopefully down to a nice weight before I leave town on Sunday morning to celebrate Christmas with my boyfriends family. His dad is kind of a food pusher but the last time I ended up with indigestion so bad I thought my appendix burst. I ended up at urgent care. I WILL NOT be doing that again!

Count me in on the weight gain club...115.8 today! Good thing I waited a day to weigh-in. It didn't help that DH moved the scale and MY TAPE! WTH? LOL!

I'm digging deep this week to stay OP...food was everywhere at work today (people dumping their weekend leftover treats), but I didn't touch anything. Made a healthy lunch (my 3 small meals) but ate it all by 1:00 p.m. Should have lasted me till 4:00 p.m. So I came home starving...scarfed down some cheese and jerky. YUM...sodium!
Ate a healthy dinner but crashed on energy. Planned on skipping my workout but I dug hard and worked out at 8 tonight. I'm so ready for a break!

I'll do personal tomorrow...so tired!

Krampus, you are so right on... it was way cooler seeing 132 on the way down then it was today. Yay for a Christmas tree though... have fun trimming it with your roomie!

mottainai, glad your trip is going so well! How long will you be in Japan?

Joss, a hot stone massage sounds heavenly. I'm 28 years old and have never had a professional massage in my life... not even while pregnant! I may have to remedy that in 2013! I know what you mean about looking back at your former heavy self and being embarassed that you let things get so bad. Isn't it a great feeling though to know that your husband loves you at your best AND worst? It makes me love mine even more knowing that he never made me feel bad about myself, even at my heaviest. As for old clothes... I donated everything except for a pair of my biggest work pants... a size 14... They are so ridiculously huge at this point, but I pull them out sometimes when I'm having a bad day to remember how far I've come.

Turbo, Peanut Butter and Rice Krispies balls sound freaking fantastic though!

Alexistrophic, good luck with your jewelry buying decision! It sounds like a really nice sentiment!

The walk of shame seems to be a common theme today! (breaking out my best Michael Jackson voice, "You are not aloooone, I am here with yooou!") I woke up bloated and was up 2 lbs on the scale. I've been drinking water like mad... it's just been a crappy day despite a great workout this morning at the gym. Tomorrow starts my work week. Ugh.

olehcat ~ I tend to do the exact same thing -- The (faulty) line of thinking goes: "If it can't be "perfect", might as well throw the whole thing away."

Dom ~ Let's reverse that gaining trend now! Group effort!!!

Bayzee ~ Good for you for digging in deep!

~~~
Back from volleyball and about to take a bath and get to bed. Just posting in for accountability.

And a correction on my weekend recap (it matters because 3fc determines reality :thup We had hot chocolate in little cups... (cioccolata). Amaaaazing! I'm not normally a chocolate kinda girl (actually don't like it at all) but something about hot chocolate in tiny cups just does it for me... Yum.

And with that, it's off to bed! Do not stop in the kitchen. Pass go. Collect $200. Done!

Ohtheplaces ~ posted at the same time. Happy YOUR Monday and I just caught that line in your siggy "...break the yo-yo pattern once and for all." Count me in, chica!

Good morning! Today is a new day. I have decided that today will be awesome for me. I will not have time to exercise much, aside from maybe some squats and push-ups at home in the late evening, but I can eat clean, one day at a time. I'm not going to worry that next week everything will be out the window for a few days. I'm not going to think about our holiday luncheon on Thursday at work or a holiday party that I may go to on Saturday evening. I am only going to think about today and what I can do today. That's my new challenge.

@alexistrophic - yes, that perfection thing has probably ironically been the cause of lack of weight loss over the years for me! oh yum, hot chocolate!

@bayzee - this time of year is SO HARD - food and parties everywhere, cookies, off plan schedules! I think I'll be very happy if I don't gain 5 pounds over this time, much less try to lose!

@domlacha - good luck with the food pushers! That's tough -- I have a few of those in my family, too!

It's Tuesday and I've dropped 2 lbs of bloat overnight, feels good to be out of the "oh shhhhhhhhhhhhh-" range for now. Yesterday I wasn't even hungry until about 4 PM!

My boyfriend is sick so I'm probably gonna get it just in time for my birthday party on Saturday. BUT last night my roommate and I put up our Christmas tree and it is the best:



Before the tree trimming we went to the holiday concert at my high school. I sought out my violin teacher and he didn't recognize me and mistook me for a 19 year old Chinese former student. I will choose to be flattered. I guess I look a lot better!

olehcat Good morning! Nothing ever HAS to be out the window but it's ok to relax sometimes. What are holiday lunches at your work like? I am in a two person office and my boss is male so there is no annoying female food pushing to be had, but he subsists on Doritos and Coke.

OhThePlaces Sorry you're all bloated, but I find it falls off once the work week starts (unless youre having cupcake parties with the kiddos...).

Bayzee Heyyyyy remember when you were so excited to be under 116.0? Hang in there!

Domlacha It's a week before Christmas! Everyone is falling prey to piles of sugar. :P That is SCARY about the indigestion - what the heck did they feed you?

Alexistrophic La Tulipe is a theater/concert venue/club in Montreal! Was that your first weigh-in in a long time? Never underestimate the power of gas/bloating in making the scale say whack things.

olehcat ~ Sounds like you're staying committed and doing the best you can. This is a good plan. :thup:

Krampus ~ I've been weighing in steadily, just not posting b.c it's embarrassing. I was 153 this morning, though. Heading in the right direction.

~~~
Trying to stay focused at work. Just got a new assignment and am tapping away at it steadily.

Hope to meet a friend for lunch later today. Goin' to Qdoba and probably getting a veggie burrito. Delish!

Just a quick drive-by on my lunch. 115.4 today...getting there.

Anyone know about Ezikiel (sp?) bread?
Yesterday I bought Ezikiel (sp?) bread. Been reading about it, so I decided to get it. It tasted really good toasted and I made an egg white sandwich with it. First time for bread in 2.5 months. YUM!
BUT...it has 80 calories per slice and 15g of carbs per slice and 5g of protein. I'll have to take a better look, but I think my deli rye I always buy for hubby is 60 calories a slice, 3g of protein and 10g of carbs. Plus...It's expensive $5.99 a loaf. I guess it's all natural stuff which makes is a "clean" bread. However, I felt really full after that sandwich and I didn't eat my a.m. meal. Can't wait to haveit with PB tomorrow! I'm certainly not wasting it at $6 a loaf...and you keep it in the freezer as it goes bad fairly quickly.


Krampus...Stayed away from the chips on Saturday, but the drinking, salted nuts and shrimp made up for it! Shoulda had the chips! LOL! I've felt so dehydrated since Sat. night. Drinking tons of water and feel thirsty all of the time.

How is it possible that I have THIS MUCH to catch up on already?!

Good day so far today; I have the day off from work so I hit the gym for a nice long cardio and abs session before running some errands. I got a message last night that there was a package for me at the apartment complex I used to live at, and that it would be waiting for me at the leasing office. Unexpected packages? Sweet!

I drove over there after the gym only to realize that whomever sent me the message was at my old apartment complex IN CALIFORNIA, LOL, not here in North Carolina. I moved out of that apartment in September of 2007! How could there possibly be mail for me there? Maybe the ladies in the leasing office will mail it to me, so I'll call over there later.

I also FINALLY dropped of several pair of really nice Miss Me jeans off at the alterations shop. I bought them when I was in the mid 130's so they're not comically big on me, but definitely too loose in the waist/hips/butt. They still fit fine in the legs so I figure they can be fixed. I spent so much on them and I'm tired of giving away clothes! I haven't worn them in over a year and they're doing me no good now, so my options are to either give them away, get them altered or gain 15-20 pounds. Um, I'll pay the $40 to alter them.

It's nerdy but I'm super excited to wear them again because they're awesome jeans!

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

Krampus - Your tree is awesomely bad... LOL. It looks like you guys had some fun with it! I'm sorry your BF is sick and I hope that you don't get it from him, especially not when your birthday and the holidays are right around the corner!

Oh, thank God some of the water weight fell off... that must have been miserable. I DEFINITELY know what that's like! I never weigh after a day of indulgence like that but I can only imagine the damage I've done some times. I'll bet I've put on 15 pounds of bloat and whatnot more than once... haha

I recently had someone not recognize me after only like a 20 pound loss (not even from my heaviest) and it sort of blew my mind. Its like, WE don't think we look that different. Bodies are smaller but how can our faces look so different people don't recognize us?! Its a trip!

I'm actually not falling prey to the sugar... yet. It's not really that I had a hard time on Saturday, but I just felt like some yummy stuff would be nice. Its definitely not that BINGE urge... you know the one I mean! Yesterday was a lot of the same; had some hankerings for goodies and at one point REALLY wanted to have some, but the urge passed and my willpower is in tact for another day! I'm just holding out as long as I can!

olehcat - I think your plan is FANTASTIC, and a great way to look at things! I tend to fall off the wagon from time to time in anticipation of upcoming events... isn't that stupid?! It's like, I know I'm GOING to eat 'badly' or overindulge in a few days so why not start now? What's the difference? Really what I have been focusing on is just making it through each day. Thats what I did last night and what I'll do today; eat as well as I can, workout as I can, and eventually all those days add up!

I can relate about the issues with your friends too; I seem to have two categories of friends - the single ones who just want to go out and party, and the married ones who have kids! My husband and I have ONE set of friends (my BFF and her hubby) that are married and don't have children. We meet up with them on vacations when we can, but right now I am in NC, my BFF is in UT, my BFF's husband is in AZ, and My husband is in CO! 4 people in 4 different states does NOT make get-togethers easy! LOL
Fortunately I will be moving to CO in July 2013, and my BFF and her husband will likely be moving there in 2014 after she finishes up a year long deployment. I know, I know... hard to follow... but all roads lead to Colorado! haha

Anyway, my friends with kids don't have a lot of the freedom to go out or do anything like my husband and I do and frankly a lot of the wives of his friends are 'typical' dependents; stay at home mommies that I can't really relate to. I'm not saying there is ANYTHING wrong with being a stay at home mom or military spouse, but I just can't relate to that. I'm used to being the one going out on deployments and missions and the last thing I want is children. I want to talk about shoes and working out and girly stuff!

Alexis - Mmmm, hot chocolate. I'll take mine in a BIG cup, thankyouverymuch. Whipped cream is a must, and so is some Godiva Chocolate Liquor while we're at it.

Alright, alright, you get a pass on posting pictures of your fun dress if you didn't like how they turned out. Totally understandable.

For everyone who asked; I'm in the Air Force (Special Operations Intelligence) and my husband is in the Army (Special Forces/"Green Beret"). I will be separating and going back to school full time to get my degree in personal training in July of next year, at which time I'll move to Colorado to be with him. He'll actually be gone on a deployment at that time, so I won't REALLY get to live with him until he gets home in Jan/Feb of 2014. We've NEVER gotten to live together and by the time we do it will be 4 years into our relationship... long overdue!

You're going to have to explain these saltine/toffee things to me, I'm intrigued! Let me live vicariously through you! haha

Any less shame in your walk today?

OhThePlaces - SERIOUSLY. GO GET A MASSAGE. NOW. I am also 28 BTW... but I started getting them regularly just this year and it's amazing the difference it makes for me. I've gotten them randomly as special treats since I was like 20 (maybe 1 or 2 a year at most) but I met a woman and became friends with her and she happens to be a massage therapist. She lives near me and only charges me like $60 for 90 minutes or so, and she's amazing. I can't beat it! I don't see it as an indulgence so much as physical therapy; I train so hard that getting the deep tissue/hot stone/trigger point treatments actually help me to recover better from my workouts.

I too gave away all of my REALLY big clothes (the size 12's and 14's) because they were totally unsalvageable, but I have a couple pair of size 6/8's that I have been hanging onto 'in case'. I've maintained this size (2/4) for over a year now so I figured it was time to $hit or get off the pot. I don't want to haul a bunch of ill fitting clothing around nor do I plan to gain back that much weight so now is the time to do it. Besides, I'm not at my smallest so this is a good, easily maintainable size for me.

Ugh, sorry you've got scale bloat going on! Any better today? Less shameful?

Have a good day at work!

Bayzee - You barely veered off plan and you know it's sodium... no shame in your game! It will drop, and good on you for digging deep and getting a workout in at 8pm! $hit, I'm in bed at 8 pm... hahaha. Granted, I get up at 0400 but still.

Domlacha - Holy foodpusher is right! Wow, I've done my fair share of overeating, sometimes to the point of not being able to catch my breath (I swear to god) but NEVER have I thought I ruptured an organ! LOL that's impressive!

I'm sure if you stay OP this week you'll see a drop too - you're, right, there is a trend going on in here and as much as I love you guys I do not want to add to it right now! LOL I'll be at my hubby's for the holidays and I only weigh at home so my next one (after this weekend) won't be until like 5 January. I'm just hoping I do well enough over the holidays to break even. Of course, until I weigh in this coming Saturday (the 22nd) I won't know what "break even" means in terms of numbers.

We plan to stay very active and I personally plan to try to limit the indulgences a bit more this year than I normally do around holidays so I'm crossing my fingers!

Turbo - Mmm, it almost doesn't matter what's inside, those pinwheel rolls are always awesome! I can eat so many of them, and the salmon ones sounded particularly delish!

Our families (both my husbands and mine) like to have big barn parties so I can totally relate! We don't come from fancy families, and while there are occasions we all dress up and break out the fine china most of our get togethers are like yours will be for New Years; putting on our cold weather clothes and getting drunk outside by a fire! That's the best! We'll be spending Christmas Eve out at the Ranch, and then doing fancy dinner on Christmas night with our friends at their house. Best of both worlds.

How are you doing taking control of your diet again? Better weigh-in today?

I'm so impressed with you, and all of the feathers really; so many people hit that first holiday celebration and go "Eff it, I'll start again in January on my 'diet'" but we pick up the next day and get back to it! That's the difference between us and them -- we know that it's silly to just eat like crap for weeks! Go enjoy the parties and get togethers but there is no reason to do that every single day. Why make it harder on ourselves once the holidays are over?!




I'm really hoping I didn't miss anyone, but this post is getting so long I am scared it's going to accidentally get deleted and I'll lose it all!