Joss, you look fantastic! You and your husband make a great looking couple. That food (especially the dessert) looks Ah-maaazing. My husband would totally have the frat-boy style going on if I wasn't here to stop him... His "man cave" aka the garage, is a hot mess though!

Olehcat, I'm a weakling too. On the rare occassion that I break out my 30 Day Shred dvd I use 3 lb hand weights! Haha! Sorry to hear about your knee pain. I personally would not run if it's killing you... maybe a few days rest is all you need. Asian buffets are a killer... so hard to resist! And I'd say it's a huge accomplishment that you didn't eat a ton of movie theater popcorn... that is like crack to me!

Alexistrophic, your shepards pie sounds awesome. I only eat turkey and chicken, so a traditional shepards pie is off limits for me. I'll have to try making one with turkey, I hadn't thought of that. Even if you haven't been totally OP, the scale is moving in the right direction, so woohoo!

Today my BABY turns 2. This is really bittersweet for me. I'm planning to get to the gym this morning, then run errands and clean my house. Tonight we're having our friends over (the ones we spent New Years with, that have kids the same age) and we're ordering pizza and cupcakes to celebrate. I really wish I could skip the pizza but I don't want to look like a crazy person.

It's Friday! yesssss. Weighed in at 125.8 today. Yesterday was a food fail though - I was so full from almonds that I just had 2 hard boiled eggs, a plain Greek yogurt and a 180 calorie protein bar before dinner. We went to the place where I had the disappointing fettucine Alfredo, and I thought I'd get a salad. WELLLL that sucked too, here is my scathing Yelp review of that place.

I had a beer and 4 peanut butter Smidgens and a couple bites of leftovers someone had brought around, but overall I didn't actually consume that much food yesterday, so the scale reflected it despite the salty nachos and other "meh" food. Tonight looks to be a big night out with the gang, prowling for "fresh meat" as it were (a challenge since we travel in a mixed pack of 4 girls who carry themselves confidently and 6 big intimidating-looking dudes). I want to go to cat-themed goth night sooo badly but no one else is really interested except my boyfriend, bless him.

OhThePlaces Happy 2nd to your baby!!! Good luck with the pizza, you may be able to get away with having just a slice? Ha I have put on 9-10 lbs of waterweight overnight before due to huge binges (5-7,000 calories) but I have not partaken in what I consider "binge eating" since September 2011. Biiiiig step for me, and it's really reflected these days - I see much less extreme fluctuations on the scale, and I pretty much stay within a 2-3 lb range.

olehcat Starting strength training sucks because you're so embarrassed about how weak you are, but everyone has to start somewhere and if you keep it up soon you'll be throwing 20 lb dumbbells around like it's nothing!

JossFit Holy moly those arms are a good goal to work toward! Everyone and their mom is a "certified personal trainer" but it sounds like those certificates are kind of akin to the "certified ordained minister" thing you get online to marry your friends. All that food - healthy and less healthy - looks mouth-watering to me...and I see what you mean about frat boy decorating, yikes!

TurboMammoth Nine hours?! That is loooooong. I hope you had a good time at your dad's! Your pants will fit again soon - for now don't put them in the dryer! :P By the way I had the WORST poutine in Montreal and totally thought of you.

Alexistrophic Mmmm bagel and lime tortilla chips...were they Tostitos Hint of Lime? That is CRACK for me, I can NOT stop no matter what. I'm happy to see you were able to spend quality bonding time with your little sister - I'm an only child but wish I had siblings sometimes!

Krampus, yep... I think it was you that I remember... It would have been back in the summer of '11 when I was active here the first time around. Glad to hear you kicked the binge habit!!

My plan is to eat just one slice of pizza, then make up a big salad to munch on. I also bought mini cupcakes (110 calories each) instead of the big ones and it won't be too hard for me to resist the ice cream.

Sorry that your second experience also sucked at the restaurant. It's awesome that you took the time to write a review though... Hopefully others will heed your warning!

I feel great... Just had a long cardio session at the gym, have my food planned out for the day and I'm about to run around town to get a few errands done beforr heading home to clean. Woohoo for productivity!

Turbo ~ lol - Wear different pants. A: It seems like your metabolism is pretty high and B: you've been in maintenance for awhile now, so I am 99.98% sure you'll blast through those extra "lbs" in no time...

Joss ~ Beautiful lady, smokin' dude, and some mouthwatering food porn. :P and it looks like your indulgences were TOTALLY worth it. That food is art. So much better than the random disgusting stuffing of stupid not memorable crap that SOME people (like me) did.
Urgh. I know you're right about not being able to "ease in" to healthy eating--it's usually all or nothing for me, too. I'm just trying to make more healthy choices in my eating behaviors and aim to come out on the healthier end. Another of my compromises is be eating healthy foods, but larger quantities (i.e. - TWO pears instead of one for breakfast).
I remember you mentioned that you were pursuing a PT cert but didn't know that there were actual degree programs in personal training. It does sound like a more throuough program and I agree that it's scary that people can be certified entirely online... (although I think that's what one of my friends did... )

ohlehcat ~ I had a fitness instructor say: "you never mess with the gods or your knees". Remember that slow and steady wins the race

Krampus ~ They WEREN'T Tostitos (I wish they had been)... they were Target brand (lime and cracked pepper) and they were AWFUL - greasier, with a thicker texture and more of a yellow tint. Bleh. Still, I was a sucker for the lime flavor and they were just.. there. So into my mouth they went. I wish I were more of a food snob.

Ohtheplaces ~ I say it again - so cool that you have couple friends with kids the same age who like doing the same things as you... sounds like a good plan for the evening and you go, girl, with your productivity!


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Had a bit of a food bender last night. It was moderate (a homemade quinoa tortilla my mom made, some pita chips: plain and gingerbread, two slices of buttered toast w. jellly, and some hummus) compared to what I've done in the past, but the idea is that I ate past my cut off point which is my own personal out of bounds marker. I though I had been doing pretty decent through the holidays, with not too much out of control eating, but I think I've been giving myself one too many "pass" cards with food.

*Note to self: Out of control eating never tastes good.*

Tonight is going to be a "stay in/regroup" kind of evening. I haven't started my yearly budget or record keeping (if there even is such a thing in my life...) and my bedroom area is a cluttered mess, so that could use a tackle.

Planning a sojourn to Long John Silver's tomorrow with a girlfriend. She's leaving for Italy in a week and change and she's been wanting to visit one for ages. It's a combo KFC/LJS, so I'll try my best with some baked chicken (full of grease) and coleslaw (full of sugar), but no guarantees of health. Oh, well.

We got home late last night. It was very sad to come home to snow and -10C temperatures. But worse...nobody made me my Huevos Rancheros this morning or my margarita, chips and guac for lunch! Lol!

OK...I stepped on the scale as soon as I woke up. I swore I WOULD NOT weigh-in for a few days but I needed a reality check....119.4! That's a 5lb weight gain in 10 nights. Really, I was expecting worse considering the alcohol and amazing food I consumed and virtually no exercise.

But the good news is, I'm ready to eat clean...desperately craving veggies.
I already worked out today and I am also switching up my workout plans for the next 3 months as well. Joss...I want to pick your brain about that. I'll sent you a PM.

There's nothing really healthy in the house so I'm off to get some groceries. I'll come back for personals tonight!

@bayzee - welcome back! I find it's SO hard to get back into a regular routine after a vacation. But on the other hand, I also know what you mean about craving veggies after a couple of days of major eating and drinking!

@alex - I KNOW how that feels. Right now I'm forced to NOT have a food bender, although I'm totally craving it, mostly because I didn't go grocery shopping and there really is nothing but veggies and fruit in my refrigerator!
AND LOL on the knee comment. So true, so true...

@krampus - Oh, that's what I'm hoping! I have this big excitement about this year, that I'm going to get all strong and it's going to change the shape of my body and all!

@ohtheplaces - yay, I feel a little better I'm not the only weakling here! I used to joke that a toddler could beat me arm wrestling, that's how weak my arms are! So this dumb bell stuff is no joke for me, lol. And I may have resisted the popcorn last night, but I'm meeting my friends for dinner tonight at this place that has really good onion rings! Argh! I NEVER go there so all I'll be able to think about are those onion rings if I don't get them.

Yeah, today I bought some new clothes because I really was lacking some long-sleeved work clothes. I survived on about four outfits during the last few months. I kept holding out, hoping I'd be down some weight and be able to get the next size down. Alas, that was not going to happen. SO, some of my size 8s at home fit okay and even a size 6 I have in a pants that runs notoriously big. But at the store, very few size 8s fit, especially in jeans. I found I had to go up to a 10 or even a 12 (not today at least, but the last time I got clothes back in October).Before my divorce and weight gain of this past summer (and really over the past year), I was a solid 6-8 and sometimes even a 4. So anyway, it was a very humbling experience standing in the dressing room with the fluorescent lights that brought out my skin and hair defects and made me look about 20 pounds heavier than I usually see myself and trying on double digits. Ugh, I had to not look at myself much in order to try stuff on.

This makes me all the more determined to accomplish my goal this year. I want to not feel such ickiness when I look at myself in the mirror. I want to look at myself and say, "Dang, she's hot!" and believe it.

I'm being a lame feather yet again! I just wanted to stop by and say hello! I'm back at work Monday, I will actually have time to catch up then and do personals.

I've been keeping up though!

Hey everyone! Sounds like the holidays were fun and the food plentiful! When I weighed in on 12/31 I was up to 153.2 lucky for me most of it was water weight and I am at 149 today. I don't think I plan to weight-in daily this month maybe weekly or something like that.

Good luck everyone!

Well...I did a whole bunch of personals last night and when I went to post I must have been timed-out. So frustrating! I'll have to come back later for that.

This morning I weighed in at 117.8. I still feel puffy and I was starving yesterday all day. But I stayed OP. Tonight we have company so I'm sure the wine will be out. I can't sweat it because really a few more glasses of wine isn't going to do more damage then I've already done.

Since being back from holidays, I feel like I'm in a crappy mood. I miss the sun and heat! I'm not a winter person so this stretch from now till April is really hard. Plus, going back to work is another crappy reality!

I did not rejoin my private studio for this session. I am going to focus on HIIT workouts and heavy lifting. I think I have plateaued with other routines and I want to switch it up! I can always go back in March.

My goals for 2013:

-Lose body fat and focus less on the scale.
I'd like to focus more on being leaner and more muscle definition. I hate feeling "skinny fat".

-Get the tattoo I've been wanting to get.
My recent trip to Mexico had me inspired by all of the beautiful women who have amazing tattoos. I'm a wimp for pain so I need to suck it up!

-Save up for fake boobs!
I know this sounds crazy but again, my trip to Mexico made me realize how much by boobs have shrank and how insecure and unhappy I felt about it. All my fat loss has been in my chest! Lol! Plus, it seems like everyone has them now...especially Americans and people from the U.K. Is it cheaper there? Lol!

Yay for the weekend! Its Saturday, and I'm in my home state... so this would normally be when I would post my weekly weigh in, but not this week! (Or this month for that matter... maybe at the end of February?) I have been saying for a while that I want to focus less on weight and more on composition, and the best way to do that seems to be not weighing at all. Its hard to ignore the number on the scale while you're staring it in the face, so I just wont make eye contact.

I had a good workout today and it's nice to be back at home and into my routine. I LOVE visiting my husband but the house isn't set up yet and he has to chauffer me around everywhere, and the pantry isn't stocked with my healthy cooking staples so that always makes it difficult. Each time I go out there I do a bit more to make it comfortable (like the furniture this last trip) and this next visit (in February) I'll put up the curtains I bought yesterday to go in the bedroom.

Yesterday I also picked up some new pans, spatulas, chef's knives and other kitchen odds and ends. I cook so much and all my stuff was WAY overdue for replacements.

I also paid off my car yesterday! Whoot! I just got used to the payments being a part of my montly budget and have had plenty enough to pay it off sitting in savings but I just didn't think about it. Anyway, it's nice that it's "mine" now and it saves me $31 per month in interest.

I noticed at the gym today that even though I don't like how high my body fat percentage is right now, I look better in clothing; my body is curvier and sexier... more womanly. I have a booty again!

The trick is now to keep building muscle and get my bodyfat back down so that those curves are muscle and my abs look nice again.

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Bayzee - I think we have all had that happen with super long posts getting deleted or timing out... it's so frustrating!

I'm with you on returning to the 'real' world. Blaaahhh. Isn't it super common for people to get some pretty bad post-holiday depression right about now? I'm sure its even more magnified coming back from a tropical climate and with some extra weight on as well. You'll get back into the swing of things in no time, I'm betting.

I think your goals sound great! Other than the breast augmentation, I'm right there with ya.

Oh, and PM away! I'll help where I can.

Domlacha - Welcome back from the holidays! Did you have fun?

LockItUp - We've all been slacking!

Olehcat - Trying on clothing can be a great experience some times and a horrid one at other times... the hard part is that you don't necessarily even know which one it is going to be! There have been times I have gone out shopping and ended up dancing in the dressing room and other times I have almost cried in frustration with literally NO difference in my body. Shopping is a b*tch.

Thank you for the compliments, but I was dressing my body for the bloat and gain... LOL things DO NOT look like they should right now. Blah.

How is your knee feeling? Are you going to get it checked out?

Alexis - Aww, thank you! My husband is a hottie. Can you believe he's going to be 34 in April? He looks like he's 25. Jerk.

SOME of my indulgences were worth it (like that NYE meal, a few of the sweets, and the food at my brother's place)... but a lot of it (or most of it) was pizza from Dominos, granola bars, cereal and crap like that. Not worth it at all. Grrrr.

Your food bender sounds like progress to me still! Do you plan your meals out at all? I find that it helps me. If it's not on my plan I usually don't eat it.

How did the fast food send off with your friend go? Thats not exactly the easiest place to order good food...

Krampus - I read your review but something freaked me out a bit; it had your real name on it! LOL you are KRAMPUS to me, not that name! It was weird! Hahaha Good review though. I've never done a review of a place on any site but I've eaten at so many great places I probably should.

How did the hunt for fresh meat go last night? Did you manage to get anyone to go to the cat-themed goth night thing?

It's funny that you mentioned the certificates you can get online showing you are 'ordained' because I totally did that... hahaha. It was an absolute joke because I don't believe in any sort of 'God' (Sorry if that's offensive to anyone but that's the truth of it) and it took about 2 seconds to do. I definitely don't want my personal training credentials to be gotten the same way!

OhThePlaces - Thanks for the comments!

I am definitely undertaking a project by renovating my husband's place and trying to mesh all of our stuff together into a livable space, but thats why I'm starting now and getting a plan together of what will go where, what needs to just GO (Um, a lot of his crap) and how to set up the bottom floor (we have a finished basement with a full bedroom, bathroom and living room) so that it is an awesome man-cave for him.

How did things turn out with the pizza and birthday celebrations last night?

krampus : Glad you had fun in Montreal! Okay, your Hot Dog poutine sounds disguting! I'm pretty conservative with my poutine, I hate when they start throwing everything in the pot... Chez Cora is one of my favorite place to have breakfast though. I love how much fruits they have on the menu!

Alexistrophic : Just red about your artichoke/spinach dip for your NYE and I remembered how this thing is GOOOOOD.

Bayzee : Mexico for NYE! Luckyyyy lady! Don't know for you in Ontario, but here we had SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWNEVERENDINGSNOWFALL.

Ohelcat : If you are used to drink wine, like a bit everyweek, it's probably gonna be a bit challenging... Sipping a cup of wine had a relaxing effect on me, so stopping drinking my cup(s) of wine on the weekend was a bit hard.

Ohtheplaces : Happy birthday to your little one! 2 years old! Is Terrible Two is already going on?

Joss : I red your resume of what you have done during your holidays and the important presence of alcohol got me ''Heyyy that's pretty much meee'' LOL

I love your new furniture. It has a ''Mountain Chalet'' thingy about it, it's really pretty! Oh and the picture about the decorative sense of your hubby with all the empty bottles : LOLS. My boyfriend, at his previous apartment with roommates (alllll guys), they had a BEER BOTTLES COLLECTION. Like, abotu 70-80 of them. I had to argue that we were NOT going to be MOVING 80 EMPTY beer bottles in our tiny new appartment. He also had this huge back of beer bottle caps that he is planning to make a killing table top with. (...&?%/$"*&?$).

Lockitup : Long time no see lady! Hope you're doing good!

Domlacha : Hope you had a nice holiday time!


****

Hi ladies!

I'm so glad to be back home, in my own stuff. We had a a great time during the holidays, but wayyyy to much car riding for my own good. I think we scored over 2750 km in the car in less than 2 weeks. HUUUUUUUUUUUHHG. I so need to change my oil now LOL

We started by going to see my new goddaughter who is the smallest little thing eveeer. She's so tiny but she is cute (and I'm very reasonnable now, I usually don't find babies cute at ALL). They all laughed at me because I only wanted to old her in a pillow.

The next day, on the 23rd, we rode to my bf-dad's for the evening, which was okay. The next day, we headed to the bof-mom's chalet, which is about 250 km away and we had a good time, they cooked some killing turkey, and the place is just so pretty in the forest!

We then headed home on the 25th and did nothing with ourself and stayed in pj's for 2 days, not being able to leave the town to my dad's place after being caught in a snowstorm. They time at my dad's place was nice and relax, we saw familly, had dinners together and we celebrated NYE at my in-construction cousin's place where they builded up a huge bonfire outside and had fireworks at midnight

The only problem is that I ATE during ALL the HOLIDAYS and I am kinda not able to stop eating right now. I'm just always hungryyyyy. Im trying to drink more water to calm down the craving.

I faced the scale this morning, after my breakfast and with a pair on jeans on and it was at 145.8 lbs. that is pretty much a 9 lbs gaiiiin. I know some of it will go off with the water weight (I barely kept up with my water intake during the holidays) but it struck hard. I need to get back on track.

I think I'm gonna do this thing where I won't WI until Feb 1st because right now it is just depressing to WI daily. I haven't really thought about goals for 2013, I am much more on a survival mode right now. I also need to start running again, slowly, to see if the hip is still painful...

Being back with a computer and some Internet connexion, it will help me stay accountable! yayyyyy

Yep, I can't do the single glass of wine because it relaxes me too much and I have several... and then whatever goodies I want! haha

I think ALL men have that stupid 'look how much alcohol I/we drank" collection at one point or another. My husband is going to be 34 though! He's a damn E-8 and a Green Beret, has a 14 year old daughter and a wife! LOL he's too old for that bachelor crap. I can't wait to decorate that house, and even more importantly I can't wait to buy our own home and really decorate! That will have to wait until summer 2014 though.

Seriously, it is SO HARD to stop eating like that once you get into a groove with it. My last night eating the world was the 31st, and I am sort of shocked I was able to get my crap together on the 1st and ESPECIALLY on the 2nd when I was traveling home. I almost ate like a piggy at the airport because they make it so easy, but I dug deep and stuck to my guns! Just drink a ton of water and tea. It should help flush out some of that excess water and if you're anything like me, some of the poo! Holy **** I felt like I did nothing but $hit for a week. I'm finally back to normal in that regard but still way way squishy all over.

You and me both sister. I don't need the scale to tell me I gained weight, it's pretty obvious! Besides, it's keeping me from adding more muscle which is what I know I need to do in order to look the way I want to. I'm just going to keep taking pictures and posting them up here and you guys can tell me when I have the Jessica Biel body.

I hope it's not painful! When was the last time you tried running on it?

Joss : Last time I tried running, it was November 23 or something like that. I wanted to take a 30 days break first, but then we were on the road all the time and I decided to wait after the Holidays so I would not be stressed out about this during my time with my family.

I'm super nervous about starting running again, to be honest :S We went for a walk this afternoon in the snow, and while trying to get up without destroying my snow-angel (yeah, I know, #firstworldproblem ....) I felt something in the hip and then I focus on the sensation for the remaining of the walk. I'm going to give it a shot on Monday or Tuesday, depending of the weather.

Concerning Jessica Biel, I do admit that she had killing arms in this movie! It's a bit funny that your ''goal'' is Jessica Biel though, because my cousin, her friend and I have this thing that we don't like much this actress LOL My cousin and her friend even call her ''Stick figure with no soul''. But as long as you keep your soul gaining those fab arms, no worry!

There, for ONCE I kept my protein whole and separate from my veggies. LOL totally PG-13 food porn, but I did it for you guys!

Ah, so yeah... it's been a little while. Just take it easy and if its STILL bothering you I would go see the doctor again.

LOL I don't actually like Jessica Biel at all as an actress or really covet her body now that she has slimmed down again. I just think she looked great in that movie when she was all buffed up, and I feel like that's actually attainable for me in the next few months if I keep working hard.