February Feather's Chat!
 

Continued on from here: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/feat...s-chat-20.html

Hurray, was hoping someone had started this new thread by early this morning, starting us out right in February, whoo hoo! :)

I'm in a pretty good mood today, despite being hit-by-a-truck exhausted. My weight was down again. I should tell you that two days ago, I weighed in at 147. Today I am back down to 144.8 (which is close to where I was before this horrid weekend eating of last weekend). Definitely some water weight, hopefully a tad of real weight, too.

Wow, so much news. So, I think, if I get approved okay, I'm going to buy a little house this summer!! I've never owned property before in my life, as when I was married, we had a very mobile life, never staying in one town long enough. My dream is to have a small, cottage-like bungalow, cozy and sweet, not too expensive, easy to care for, etc. Anyway, I'm so excited because I met with a realtor yesterday and he gave me all kinds of helpful and hopeful information.

As for weight loss, I am working very hard on getting rid of my former attitude of reward and punishment when it comes to food. Like this morning I had 2 oreo cookies, which I NEVER have, much less for breakfast. Well, because it's Friday and I deserve something more exciting than my usual healthy breakfast, right? Usually that just sparks an entire day of over-the-top indulgences for me. Especially with the mentality of, "Well, I didn't start out perfect today, so might as well just start fresh tomorrow, eat like there's no tomorrow today!" :) So, NOW, I'm working on, nope, 2 cookies in this package are 140 calories. That's not great, but it's not a deal breaker for the whole day. I can still have a great rest of the day, plus go running after work, and probably lose weight tomorrow, although I AM supposed to go out tonight, although I might cancel -- it's SO COLD here today. The point is, Friday doesn't have to turn into a run away binge fest just because I decided to have cookies for breakfast. Well, stay tuned, we shall see if I can manage it. I will have a LOT of mines to get past. It's a special meeting day today, and in the morning people usually bring tons of snacks. Then it's one of those rare days when I can go out for lunch, so there's that temptation. Also the potential of going out tonight.

@Wildflower, I continue to be impressed with your steady weight loss. You eat so healthy! So let me get this right, you have a green smoothie (as you described) for breakfast, veggies and hummus for lunch, and sweet potato/veggies for dinner. You said that was a light day. What would be more typical? That meal sounds yummy (LOVE hummus), but it sounds so light (and also one that would leave me ravenous most of the day, grr, I think I need more protein in general). I am interested because I used to be much stricter when it came to being a veggie, but I just have slacked off so much with that lately. The half marathon that I signed up for is part of the Illinois marathon, and it's getting more and more famous. The reason being is that it's a qualifying marathon and the terrain at the marathon is VERY flat. So it's ideal for making personal bests.

@Krampus - wow, Quest bars. Jossfit mentioned those, too, and I have the feeling there was a discussion about them earlier that i'm blanking on. What are they exactly? As for your cabin away, haha, I know if I'm around a skinny person who never eats, it makes me not eat either because I don't want to look like a little piggy in comparison or to have people think, "huh, that's why she's so big!" whereas, ironically, if I'm around people much bigger than me, I tend to eat tons more than they do and I'm sure they're thinking, "Wow, she can eat all that food and still be small! How?" LOL! No, I'm not obnoxious and I don't do that on purpose, it's sort of just what happens.

@Turbo - I can never NOT weigh myself every day. I mean, I try, and I have gone through times when I refuse to weigh because I know it's bad, or maybe a few weeks before a vacation when I know it will only piss me off or stress me out, then I'll take a break from the scale, but if I'm in weight loss mode, I cant' resist looking at the daily numbers! ;) (Also, I don't want to miss a spectacularly good number that might happen randomly in the week!)

@Jessica - I can never just eat one slice of pizza, oh gosh, that's why I rarely, rarely order it. I always think I'll be perfect and just take one slice and be satisfied, but nope. I think like Krampus said earlier somewhere, pizza is one of those foods where I want to eat until I literally can't eat any more. It's dangerous food for me! :) And I'm excited about the half marathon! I'd like to have signed up for the full, just to say I've done it, but the time that I'd need to put in for training is not realistic this winter/spring.

@Jossfit - This is what is so admirable about you. (Sorry, I tried to quote something you said and had a fail moment). I love how you have just a zero debate once you're on a program. It's not an option to do otherwise than follow the plan. The closest I've EVER come to that was 10 years ago when I did Atkins for the first time, and I lasted about a month. I would have lasted indefinitely (I enjoyed that way of eating, I had dropped my desire for all sweets, I wasn't living near relatives like I do now with all kinds of temptations, I didn't drink alcohol at all then - hadn't started my wine habit-- etc.) The only thing that ended up sabotaging me was a roommate that I had while my then husband was overseas for a short time. She would whine and break me down about sharing food with her when she had gone through the trouble. I just got tired of telling her again and again what I couldn't eat. It broke me down. I feel silly in retrospect letting someone else do that to me, but ever since then, I haven't even been able to last a month at something like that before someone else influences me or I get tired of not being able to have wine/treats, etc. So yes, I am hoping to become influenced by you and your awesome motivation/determination.

As for my half-marathon, I did the same one last year, which was my first!! I was soooo proud of myself. I did have to stop and walk a few times, but I was okay with that, and I finished in around 2 hours and 30 minutes. I'm hoping to beat my last year's time, but it will have a lot to do with the weather. Last year, the weather was cool, ideal for running, but it could just as easily have been 90 degrees!

@Alex - I LOVE your manifesting goals for your weight. I need to come up with some of those. I agree with someone else (Jessica?) who asked whether you had other goals that were not weight-related. I know I have tend to have some in the body/weight/health realm, my writing, and how I interact with my family/friends usually. It's so awesome that you are thinking so hard about that and planning. Let's make 2013 our great year to get slender and strong!

@Bayzee - I hear you about the regret of not "having a better body earlier". I am 42, and I sometimes despair and wonder if the time has passed for me to get the best possible body for me. I know that can't really be true, but it's just so much harder now.

@Dorian - I hope you hear very soon about the job!!! It's so crazy to be on the edge like that. Over five years ago, when I was still married, my husband out of the blue got a job offer overseas. It was CRAZY the planning we had to do and yet so much was uncertain because we had to wait on his work permit before we could make specific plans to move. So that was a crazy stressful time. But exciting, too.

Turbo - LOL I hear you on the scale thing... we all seem to go back and forth and set rules for ourselves but it seems like whatever ends up happening is what suits us best. You might not weigh EVERY SINGLE DAY but once a week isn't enough for you either. No bid deal, right? Just weigh when you feel like it! :)

Oh no, I'm sorry about your pie mistake with putting too much sugar in it! Did it make it taste too sweet or make it set up wrong? Baking is such an exact science a lot of the time, so little mistakes like that don't just mess with taste but with the whole process.

My husband can eat whatever the heck he wants to also, and generally has no real care for food. Sometimes he'll go all day hardly eating and some days he'll eat like a pig-face-man (I don't know what a pig-face-man is...). Last night I spoke to him and he was getting food from "Panda Wok" which is, for some reason, what he calls Panda Express. :dunno: He's a weirdo. He's still super hot though so whatever works I guess! :whoo:

Good to see your hip is feeling better! Thank you for asking about my foot too; yes, Burn the wart! LOL that sounds so gross... it does feel 90% better and hasn't been limiting my activity but both of my feet still get a bit tender from having not done too much running for a long time. I have a massage on Sunday so I'll have her hook up my feet extra good this time.

Olehcat - Thats exciting news about buying a home! Neither my husband nor I have never owned a home and we wanted to buy when I moved out there, but it's going to have to wait until he gets back from his deployment next year. I'm very excited at the idea though, and want what you want; something small with personality, not too much upkeep... just nicely decorated and lovely. :)

I don't know if I am an 'eat Oreos for breakfast' kind of gal, but I TOTALLY get where you are coming from. Its the idea that yes, you CAN have a bit of whatever and still eat well the rest of the day/weekend/week, whatever. For me it's TOTALLY mindset, and I love that when I'm in the zone I just don't want to eat badly and toss it all away. I can have a little something something and fit it into my day and be fine with that. I regularly (several times a week -- not on this program of course) have chocolate, marshmallows, things like that in my meals and I don't feel any anxiety at all about it or like I have to eat more. The other ladies around here can attest to my love of putting chocolate in my breakfast foods and putting pictures of them on here. :)

I'm flattered that you think I'm motivating! I haven't felt that way the past few months, but thats a huge part of why I committed to trying to push my physique to the next level with this program; to get my head out of my @ss! LOL
If seeing me stick to a pretty restrictive diet (no wheat, dairy, artificial sweeteners, processed ANYTHING, fruit, etc.) helps you in ANY way, it is worth it to me. :)

Wildflower - 5 pounds in a month is great! I'm so happy too, because you were pretty bummed about that water retention and were worried you wouldn't end up showing a loss for the month. (Gee, that sounds like someone I know...)

I hope you can do the same this month! LOL I don't think you're losing it about the scale weight and your floors... that would frustrate me too. I think it's more important the differences rather than the actual number, so as long as you find a relatively stable surface and always weigh on your scale you should be able to accurately track your progress.

Awesome NSV with your clothes too!!

Yes, I'm happy my trainer upped the intensity of the program a bit. If nothing else I feel like something should start happening so that in and of itself is somewhat reinvigorating.

My hubby and I have our things we spend on; I spend on my fitness related things whereas he likes to build guns, buy snowmobiles, and have fun man-toys. Like you and your husband, we see things as things that enhance the quality of our lives and are an investment. Even his 'toys' are things that get him out and keep him active so it's still fitness related in my book. We'll spend a bit more to buy grass fed beef but we also have a huge freezer full of wild elk and salmon from his family in Alaska and Montana... doesn't get much better than that. :)


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

Well ladies, I had a bit of a revelation that I HOPE will help me get the scale moving again;

I had asked Wildflower if she had added anything new to her diet that might be causing water retention, and Krampus had mentioned that her BF is allergic to Stevia... and then it hit me this morning; I DID change something in my plan the day before I started seeing the scale go up!

I normally use Truvia brand sweetener but switched to Stevia In The Raw brand last weekend. My weight started climbing back up on Monday. It dawned on me that, while it's a long shot, I might be having some sort of issue with the sweetener causing water retention.
:mag:

I am going to switch back to the Truvia starting today (though I already had it in my coffee and my oatmeal this morning) and see if maybe that will help things. It won't hurt, at least, and I prefer the taste of the Truvia more.


I also heard from the hubby that he MIGHT still get the two weeks of leave in May! Whoot! I am excited because the timing would be great and I'd be able to see him for a week or so and not be as restricted by this current plan. Wish us luck... things have been changing a lot.
:lucky:

Hello feathers!!! I know I've been MIA for while. I have still been working on weight loss, working out and being healthy! However I I have been going a little overboard on the weekends. This past weekend I did much better but still started the week heavier then my Saturday weigh-in. We shall see what the scale reads tomorrow or Sunday. I have game night tonight and don't plan to go over my calories but there could be some bloating from eating stuff that someone else made. In the workout world I am proud to report that I can do one full real chin up!!!! I have been working on them with assisted pull up thing at the gym and I have a pull up bar at home and can finally do one from a hanging position unassisted. Super stoked!

JossFit I hope that switching back to your regular sweetner helps with figuring out what might have caused a spike in you weight. Though the change to you diet and workout plan from your trainer sounds like it might get the scale moving! I'll be sending good vibes that your hubby's schedule works out so that you two can see each other.

olehcat Wonderful for you being back down to 144.8! Trying to find a calorie range and a menu plan can be hard and frustrating. When I first last weight back in 07 I did slim 4 life, which now has a different name. But I bought a cookbook that they sold and it helped me so much.Now I just try to get creative and eat lots of veggies and protein. I have posted different menus with calorie counts on hear before. If you are interested in seeing any of them let me know.

Alexis Finding shoes or clothing or anything for that matter that you have enjoyed but misplaced somewhere is amazing! I love when that happens.
I know that many of you posted things the last couple days but I feel overwhelmed in going back and trying to catch up! I hope everyone is doing well and will try to respond more frequently to watch everyones progress!

I will officially declare myself back at pre-vacation weight...I was 114.5 today. I'm feeling way less bloated with TOM on its way out!

Sorry...don't have time for personals but I will be back tonight.

SOOOOOOO Pizza Wars was an absolute fail, think only four places were there and one had run out of pizza an hour into the event, long lines with like 20 minute waits...reminded me a lot of BACONFEST in the summer when all the vendors ran out of bacon, except Baconfest was at a beautiful riverside park in summer and Pizza Wars was in a sh!tty concert venue with nothing else to do. We stayed for 5 minutes - I gave my two gross-looking postage stamp sized slices to my BF and friend's bro, and then the four of us went out to dinner. I had eaten 500 calories and lifted weights in the AM so I was like FREAKING OUT LOW BLOOD SUGAR HUNGRY and went a bit overboard at dinner, but it was great and now my desire to eat chocolate PB anything is gone.

I am making my BF leave for cabin weekend at 6:30 tonight so I can go to the gym after work. Made a healthy lunch of chicken and veggies with some parmesan cheese and sent my dinner leftovers to work with my BF. We got "special" caramels from a friend of a friend that are so stinky I can't imagine they will taste good at all. I am excited about getting to know the other couple better and doing some woodsy walking.

Still haven't had anything higher than 2/5 in ages. Today was a solid 1/5 and I weighed in at 123.4.

Bayzee Congratulations!!! It was the pasta that brought the scale down, hehe.

Domlacha There you are - CONGRATULATIONS ON THE PULL-UP, I still cannot do one from a dead hang at all. That is no small feat of strength! Glad to hear you are continuing along the good food and good exercise path!

JossFit Maybe that is the solution - I believe the BF's reaction was to Truvia Crystal Light, not sure if he's had Stevia in the raw. I hope a visit is in the cards in May with your husband - you deserve it for being so patient and adaptable (and awesome)! I only have 2 capsules of each thermogenic, not sure if that's enough to move past the "jittery nausea" onset side effects? I suppose I'll try it someday, but not today.

olehcat Quest bars are super high fiber protein bars that are better tasting than other protein bars I've tried. Not sure where they are sold in stores so I order them online. They come in a million different flavors and instead of sugar or sugar alcohols most of them use stevia. You must be SUPER EXCITED about your little house - I hope you get approved and can become a property owner! That's super thrilling. And glad to read you're talking yourself down from "bad start = BAD DAY" - that's hard to get past but when you talk yourself out of a binge you realize that an imperfect item in your diet has pretty much no effect on anything.

Wildflower Awww yeah 5 lbs lost in January! I also was 5 lbs down from 1/2 to 1/31 (didn't WI on 1/1 but I'm sure it wasn't pretty, I ate poutine on New Years Eve at 2 AM)...puts things in perspective even if we're mad at the scale now. Interesting science project with the 40 lb dumbbells you had going there - I guess your scale just hates you. Take what it says with a grain of salt! :P From what I've seen Hydroxycut took the ephedra out after 2009 when there was legal action taken and now uses other stuff.

TurboMammoth I can't not look at the scale, hence why I am a daily weigher...you are super close though and you know you're eating better than over Christmas holidays, and the mirror is probably reflecting that! It's weird to me how 139.8 feels 20 lbs lighter than 140.0.

JessicaB Sorry about the pigout, I felt that way last night when I had half my sandwich and all the sweet potato fries, and then my roommate ordered dessert (a HUGE piece of peanut butter/chocolate cake split 3 ways) and instead of stopping after a couple bites I destroyed it. Sounds like good poo progress is being made with your daughter - I hope yesterday is just a fluke and she continues to keep going regularly. Old habits can die hard.

Aww, what a bummer! You weren't super pumped about going anyway though, so I'm sure you were happy to have saved the mediocre calories

Yeah, been there! If I go too long without eating (which is rare because I am like ALWAYS prepared) I get HANGRY (you know, hungry + angry) and have been known to freak out. There have been a couple of times that my BFF or hubby have had to throw food at me. :)

Meh, choke em down anyway... it'll make getting to know the other couple easier and the woodsy walking a lot more fun!

I feel like I haven't either! Ugh! Maybe this weekend I'll get some quality stars... haha

I don't think I have any allergies but, it's worth a shot at this point. You mentioning that was basically just the lightbulb moment when I realized that I HAD, in fact, changed something in my diet. I know it's grasping at straws but there might be some correlation.

I really hope I do get to see the hubby in May! I know he'll work it out so that we see eachother before he goes for sure, but ideally it will be when things with me are a bit more flexible and he's off work, not stressed and trying to do a ton on things at once.

Yeah, I say stash them in your gym bag and use them when you need a boost. I don't get jittery or nauseated from thermogenics but if you do I would be careful.

http://www.questproteinbar.com/store...p?idCategory=2

Joss ~ *fingers double crossed that your hubby still has his leave* You guys have earned some face time, for sure.

Will be interested to see also if the sweetners have an effect on your loss. Here's hoping for that, too!

You're right that we only see a snippet of peoples' lives via this forum, so again, I apologize if my comments were completely off the mark. It sounds like from what you've said, this period of "classic yo yo" you've been going through over the past few months was out of character for you in the context of your entire history with food and I think that was the part I was missing.

I totally understand that feeling of wanting to be able to do something that requires extreme discipline that not everyone can do. (hello, special forces?) I also remember you saying that you and your coach have designed a plan that will transition you into maintenance, so it sounds like you're well prepared to transition out of this period of being strict.

And of course, we filter everything through the lense of our own experience, so maybe I was drawing comparisons from my own experience that were unwarranted.

And (heeheehee) on a slightly unrelated note, can I ask what digestive enzymes you're taking?

I found these on a google search, but have no idea how to go around choosing this type of product. Does MORE enzymes make them better?

Turbo I think I'd have a hard time not weighing regularly too. A few months ago, I thought it would be a good idea to take a scale break for a while, and I tried to hide the scale. It didn't take very long for my husband to roll his eyes at me and ask where the scale was. I guess he weighs himself pretty regularly too, even though he doesn't really worry about his weight.

Joss I'm not sure if it came across the right way or not, but I actually do admire that you hold your health in high regards and are willing to spend that money on health related things. I do my best to make sure my family is eating healthy meals, but protein powders & bars, etc, seem just too expensive. I've thought of buying them, but I figure I can get my protein elsewhere anyhow. But I am hoping to buy a treadmill soon. I've been using the world's crappiest elliptical for the past year (seriously, it was probably like $200 brand new), and I've been dying for an upgrade. I think I've proved that I'm committed enough to buy new fitness equipment, but I still haven't been able to bring myself to shell out the money. My husband is looking at buying a motorcycle, and there's a ton of upfront costs, aside from just the insurance and monthly payments, like all the riding gear, and doing a motorcycle course so that the insurance is lower. So I told him that if he's spending all that money, I'm going to buy myself a treadmill. Heck, he's getting a whole motorcycle, so I should feel free to indulge myself a bit more. The motorcycle though, is supposed to be an incentive for him to quit smoking, and I agreed to let him get it if he quit ages ago, but he has yet to start trying. He does know that I'll be mad if we fork out all that money and he just keeps smoking, so I hope he's still committed to doing it. Sometimes my daughter talks about pretending to smoke cigarettes, and I've made it very clear to her that it's not even acceptable for her to play pretend with that. I'm hoping him quitting will help set a good example for her, at the very least.

Great to hear you might get to see your hubby before his deployment after all. And with regards to the change in sweetner, you'll probably never know if that was the problem. If ... when the scale starts moving again, it'll be hard to know if you were retaining water from the switch in sweetners, or if it were the changes to your program that got things moving again.

Wildflower Yes, my husband's birthday is this weekend.

Actually, I don't think many people get their rabbits fixed, but it's probably more common for a neuter rather than a spay.. the vet said they don't do rabbit spays, only neuters. We only have the one rabbit, but he had started marking his territory, and mounting the cats, so we figured we had to fork out the money for it. He's completely litter trained (rabbits are actually very easy to litter train), so we didn't want to have to worry about him spraying on the floor when he's been doing so well with it. I never have to clean up after him after he's been running around, and I'd like to keep it that way. Had I know about the expense when we looked into getting a rabbit though, we probably would have gone with a female.

olehcat House shopping is so exciting! I love being a property owner, mostly because of building equity rather than paying someone else's mortgage, but my rental places just never really felt like a home to me, because I wasn't willing to put money into making them the way I wanted them to be when it was just a temporary thing. I enjoy having the prospects of projects to be done that make my home feel better to me.

And way to go on getting back on track so early in the day.

Domlacha Congrats on the chin up, that is awesome. I'd like to get a pull up bar for my place, just so that I can know where I stand with things like that. I did a chin up once when I was at the park with my daughter, but it wasn't from a dead hang (nor could I do it from a dead hang due to the height of the monkey bars), but I remember being very excited.

Bayzee Congrats on being back to pre-vacation weight, and so soon after your little indulgence :)

krampus Like Joss said, at least you weren't really looking forward to the pizza wars anyhow. Have fun at the cabin

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

So we're starting to get back into dangerous territory with my daughter's poops. Last she went was Tuesday morning, and I brushed it off a bit just hoping that she didn't need to go Wednesday (I know sometimes I don't go every single day), but it was pretty obvious this morning that she has to go, and just doesn't want to (she didn't go pee when she woke up, which is a sure sign... when it starts to get bad, she doesn't want to sit on the toilet at all). I'm just hoping it doesn't ruin the weekend, and that I can get her to go tonight.

My parents are going to have her over for a sleepover tomorrow night, so we'll have a bit of couples time for my husband's birthday. It was mainly just so that we could go to a movie, but the movie starts when my parents are at church, and my daughter likes going to church with them. Then when I talked to my dad, he asked if she was sleeping over, so I gave her the choice. So now we'll have a good chunk of time kid free, which is nice. We will still get to celebrate together as a family, as we're going to pick her up after the movie and go to the restaurant together.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Wildflower : 5 lbs in a month, that is a bit more than 1 pound a week! That is an awesome result! Congrats, lady!

Oh don't worry, I tried pretty much every single place in the house for the scale LOL. For my hip, actually, I did nothing specific LOL. I saw a physiotherapist this fall for a feet issue twice, and I couldn't afford to go back for the hip. So I took a 6 weeks break in december/beginning of January and now I'm starting the running again slowly while trying to strenghtening my body and the legs, I'd figure it wouldn't hurt! What you are saying about yours is confirming my plan a bit, I like that ;)

olehcat : Seriously, you are having amazing drops lately! You are all having such good arguments on going back to daily weighing LOL I'll maybe try another week for a weekly WI and if I am still not happy, I might go back to the daily.

Don't forget to take some time for you this weekend to rest! :)

Joss : As I was saying to Olehcat, I might give another try for a week of weekly WI and if I'm still not happy, I might go back to daily WI. I was used in the past at WI only once a week (I did Weight Watchers for about the first 30 pounds that I lost) and they were working on a once a week thingy. I think I started to weigh daily when the loss was not as consistant that it was for the first 30-40 pounds ; I guess it has a lot to do with doing more a maintaining/losing than just losing 100% when I was overweight... Oh well! I'll see :)

The lemon pie is actually still really good. :) I guess it was a good recipe to mess up with the sugar recipe ; the pie, when you use the correct amount of sugar, is reallyyyyyyy lemon-y and sour, which is great. With the added sugar, it is just a bit sweeter :)

Panda wok! That is cute heheheh! :) I really hope you can work this out with your hubby so you can see each other!! Okay, I saw that you wrote to Wildflower that your boyfriend has some family in Montana and Alaska? Alaska? That is sooo cool. I so want to go there, there is tonnns of awesome hiking trails to do!! Did you ever been there?

Domlacha : OMG congrats on the chin up! I have to start training to do those, I want to do a Spartan race and they say that you should be able to do some chin up... How long did it take you to be able to do one?

bayzee : You skinny thing! Way to go!

Krampus : Oh, so sad for Pizza War! It is true that between 140.6 and like 139.8, there is almost no difference.. But this decade is KILLING ME lol. Have fun walking in the wood this weekend!

Alexis & Joss : Digestive enzymes? They sell stuff like thay? I really had no idea. I was curious and went to look at the website and there was so few scientific informations I got frustrated LOL. I guess I am biaised, having a degree in Cell Biology where I worked specifically on the digestive tract LOL

Jessica : Ah, you posted while I was writing! I really hope your daughter agrees to go to the toilet... that must be such a stressful moment. Sending best vibes your way!

***

OH WEEEEELL. Still 140.6 this morning. At least it is not going up, we had a meal of pasta with chicken and light alfredo sauce last night, the WI could have been worse. Luckily we still had some green salad to cut a bit the portion of the pasta. After WI (and taking my breakfast) I had a 4 stars. That was awesome, after having like a 0.3 stars (yes yes, 0.3) yesterday. I really have a cycling pooping thing going on.

I did a workout on my yoga mat before eating lunch... a little 20 minutes to get things moving! I was still sore from yesterday session a the gym so I was not feeling like pushing it.

I was not really excited about the leftover of omelette we still had in the fridge for lunch so I scrambled it, put a bit of light mayo in it and ate it as an eggsalad on a grilled english muffin. It was so small but I'm so full. We are having chili with chorizo tonight and I am so excited, I was liking beans before starting dieting and now they are my favorite thing in the world, I could eat them every single day.

We don't have big plans for the week, we'll maybe go to the movies, we received a gift card for Christmas and we did not go yet. The movie place we got the car don't have much movies in english and it is really annoying to us, we don't like to watch movie that got translated... It's gonna be fun arguing which movie we are going to see ;)

JessicaB ~ *hugs* Such a stressful situation with your daughter. Hoping that she'll be able to let go of her fear of the poo!
Re: goals - I have a whole SLEW of other non-weight/body related goals, but I posted those because I felt like they were the most applicable and all the comments got me thinking about how I really want from my body this year. I was actually working on my "Incredible 2013" planner last night (last day of January!) and am in the process of breaking down all the big goals into smaller action steps, ranking them in order of priority. It can get a bit overwhelming with ALL the areas I want to work on, but slow and steady wins the race.

Turbo ~ Ooooh, I didn't know that your specialty was on the digestive tract! Fascinating!!! Do YOU have any advice on regulating "digestive issues" (aka- dealing with the bloat/gas- tmi). Hurray for putting some distance between you and the numbers.

Krampus ~ OMG - I have a HORRIBLE track record with thermogenics. They worked great for awhile, but the last time I used them before a workout, I looked down and could literally SEE my heart beating through my chest. Nearly gave myself a panic attack and had to stop mid-way through to regroup. Scary stuff, man.

Sorry that pizza wars didn't work out, but it sounds like you have a great weekend to look forward to. Lol - I didn't know that they made "special" caramels. Thaaat sounds interesting, too.

Dom ~ Welcome back! Wow, a chin up! That's a huge accomplishment! It takes all my strength just to hang there, so woo hoo for you!!!

Wildflower ~ lol - you're not "obsessed" with your scale, you're just thorough. ;) I'm thinking of you as I try to make my after work yoga class tonight. It has been TOO LONG!!!

Ohlecat ~ We ARE food twins! My breakfast looked a LOT like yours this morning... The challenge is always to walk that line between moderation/depravation/overindulgence. I'm also trying to walk away from the idea of food as reward/punishment.




~~~
Just got back from a midmorning breather/walk.

one of the exercises from the 2013 planner was to make a list of "Things to do when Everything Sucks". She provides some examples.
My list looks like this:
1. Go for a walk
2. Smell vanilla (her suggestion is to smell lavender--either works)
3. Stretch
4. Do a silent scream
5. Have a drink of water
6. Eat something living and green

I wouldn't say that everything sucks... but I'm on the bottom of the wheel right now. Found out that yet another one of my candidates didn't work out for a job (she didn't want to do the travel). Oh, well. Onward and upward.

In food news, this is my simple
5 Point Manifesto for Living and Sustainable Loss.

1. Keep cut-off (the out of bounds marker)
2. Emphasis on whole, unprocessed, living food!
3. Drink Water (I aim for 80-100oz per day)
4. Yoga every day.
5. Check In! Be accountable

That's it. No food plans, no work out logs. Lol - a simple plan for simple people. I haven't been doing yoga, which is a big factor in general sanity for me. Hoping to get to a community class tonight, actually. Hurray!

Alexis : Yes, I did my master project in a department working on Intestinal disease, which was awesome :) I had many classes on physiology of the intestines, although not much informations on nutritions, except when we saw the digestive enzymes... So I don't think I could really help on some advices on the bloat/gas. Although, the big question that come into my mind with the commercial digestive enzymes is if they are able to go through the stomach and still be functionnal. Enzymes activy can be super specific to the pH, and there is big changes between the stomach and the intestine... It just got me wondering :) Unfortunately, those kind of product don't make much of science informations available online :(

My degree got me a whole new vision on some stuff though, for exemple probiotics that might not do all what they claim to do. Papers got out in the last years saying that the bacteries used in popular branded probiotics yogurt were in fact massively used in the pork industry, to help increase the mass of the porks. I remember the seminar that was talking about that, everybody in the audience got :O

Hey, everyone!! Long time no post here. (:

We got back from Japan a couple weeks ago, but since then I've been busy being lazy, haha. Currently though I'm on a little mini-vacation back in Oklahoma, staying with my parents for a couple weeks (alone! hubby's still at home) and suddenly felt motivated to come check out the forums again!

Long story short----

1. Japan was FREAKING AMAZING. So many great things there, but best of all was my in-laws. They are a huge family of all sorts of distant relatives but very tight knit. I especially love my mother and sister in-laws.... That plus all my husband's friends, it is just such an awesome community over there. I really could go on and on about all the things I liked about it, but that'd take forever, so suffice to say, I loved it! And (kind of) therefore....
2. We're MOVING TO JAPAN IN A FEW MONTHS! I personally haven't been that thrilled with living in Vancouver for a while, my husband neither, and I think especially since he found that I functioned so well in Japan after all, we've decided to move back there.
3. Therefore I am no longer taking uni classes (no point, since I was only doing it to get residency), and husband and I have both been just kinda hanging around, doing a bit of part-time work and odd jobs, me mostly going to the gym every day (OK, well, I go to the sauna, which technically is inside the gym, lol).

In other news, my eating behavior is much improved since the trip, very low stress. Weight fluctuating wildly as usual but at least steady always somewhere in the 110's! After not exercising basically at all the whole month we were in Japan and realizing that I didn't automatically turn into a blob even then, I've also become super much relaxed about my workouts. All in all, many improvements!

The one thing is though-- I am fully owning up to being binge-eating-disordered. I was trying to play it off as being normal for a while, as I sort of had it under control, but I admit now that it's just not normal at all and it's something I've gotta quit! I guess I'd forgotten how bad it is since being married and living with my husband (naturally having to refrain from binging due to not wanting to be around my husband when I'm super huge stomach bloated and gassy and nauseous, not to mention not wanting to binge in front of him!) but in the few days I've been back at my parents' by myself, it's been one four-day-long binge. No kidding. I instantly reverted right back to my old ice cream bucket habits with no restraint. Yeah, I'm thin and can stand to gain weight, but it's getting to the point now where I'm physically just tired of shoving food in my mouth anymore, and my stomach's been unhappy about 24/7, and I'm just ready to stop this. Obviously, I hadn't actually gotten any better....it was just that I physically COULDN'T binge with my new living arrangements and therefore didn't. As soon as I was "set free," I've gone right back to where I started.

Annnyyyway, sorry that got long. Hope all of you guys I remember from a couple months ago have all been well, and I look forward to catching up!! (:

I had an amazing lunch!!! I just had to share it was so good. I made egg dish, kind of like a frittata with mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, and avocado mushed up with spicy salsa on top, heaven.

Turbo so cool that you studied cellular biology! Smart lady! Maybe your weight will be down a bit tomorrow after your 4 star. Good luck with the movie.

It feels like it has taken forever to be able to do the chin up, but I would say I put more energy into the last 4 to 5 months. I've been doing a lot to not just work on my upper body strength including my back and arms but also on my lower body to help decrease my bodyfat.

Krampus Lame about the pizza wars put at least you got to have a much better dinner! I bet the caramels will still do the trick ;), have a blast at the cabin!

[BJessicaB][/B] That is terrible about your daughter not liking to go poop. Some kids have a hard time with it, hopefully it'll get easier. I actually bought my pull up bar for like $20 at TjMaxx or marshalls, way cheaper than at the store. Its really nice to have at home because I don't feel so self-conscience when I'm just trying to see what I can do. Get yourself a treadmil they are good investments, I own one and love it, especially when I'm being lazy but feel like I need to get a workout in. I walk on it while watching tv shows on the internet!

Mottainai Such exciting news!!! Sounds like moving to Japan will be good for you and your hubby. It is also good that you have learned more about yourself and your binge behavior, I'm sending strength your way!

I haven't had a new meal idea in a while so I had to share! (short personals....)

This is tilapia with dill and garlic, mixed a zesty hot slaw I made using bagged coleslaw mix and apple cider vinegar. I topped with cubed avocado and it was amazingly delish!

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...22984759_n.jpg

Domlacha - I love egg dishes like that! I'm planning something very similar for dinner on Sunday.

Congrats on the chin up! Your first one is so exciting

Mottainai - Wow chicka, lots of changes for you! I'm thrilled you had such an amazing trip, you're moving, AND you're dealing with your binge issues!!
Any plans for treatment?

Alex - Everything you said makes total sense so I can see where the original inquiry came from. In case you had any concerns; I was in no way offended and actually am glad I got the chance to explain all of that not only for you but for anyone else who might be wondering! :)

Turbo - LOL you referred to my husband as my 'hubby' in one sentence and then my 'BF' in the next... haha people are going to think I'm married with a man on the side! :D Yes, he was raised in Alaska and his mother lives there still. His parents are divorced and his father has a ranch in Montana. I haven't been to either place but he wants to take me to Alaska but wants to wait until summer. Since he'll begone this summer it will have to wait a bit.
His whole family (cousins, father, uncle, brother, etc.) and he own a huge cattle ranch collectively outside of Boulder Colorado, so there is lots of ranching and stuff in the family. :) I've been to the place in colorado many times.

I'm glad the pie turned out!

Jessica - I absolutely was in no way offended or put off by your comment regarding my fitness budget, no worries! I was just explaining that it's really all I have to spend my money on. :)

I think a new piece of fitness equipment would be a great investment for you! (But hey, I'm biased... ;) ) I bought my own treadmill a few years ago and I wish I had looked longer because I know now that I spent too much!

You're totally right; if I DO see the scale start moving I won't know if it was the Stevia in the Raw or not... but I don't care! LOL I'll be happy to see it move! I like the Truvia anyway, but picked the other stuff up just to try it. Meh.

Ugh... your situation with you daughter SUCKS! I really hope shes able to go. Is she taking the Miralax still (was that the one they gave her?)

It sounds like a nice weekend otherwise though... enjoy that cake!!

Morning, feathers!

SOmehow and miraculously I dropped down .2 of a pound overnight, despite not eating so great yesterday. I'm sure I'm going to pay for it, though. We had an all day meeting that was awful in a lot of ways, but people brought treats! I "binged" on mini oranges (those cuties) because they were so yummeh. I also ate a few donut holes, a wonderful brownie-sized cheese cake thingie, and a bite of a brownie. That was all in the morning. At lunch I got a salad from McDonald's but also had about half of a bag of small fries. At night, I ate healthy, but I had about 2 1/2 glasses of wine.

But I do have my running back up. Okay, so I'm walking/running, but I feel like I will be able to progress to pure running within a week or two. I'm training for the half, and I think as long as nothing like injury or illness gets in the way of my training, that I'm better on top of the game than I was last year when I did the same race.

@jossfit - I've never owned property either, and the idea is suddenly really thrilling to me. But scary, too, as I'm afraid to have to spend a lot of money (that I don't really have in excess) on it. That's why I don't want too much house. Just a manageable size with hopefully new updates so nothing major goes wrong for a good long time! I hope your hubby really does get that time off! Oh, and thanks for the quest bar link!

@Domlacha - hi! Glad you're checking in. And I'd love to see some of your recipes! I would love to make chicken breasts NOT taste bland and dry (I had this discussion with jossfit before, too), which is hard, because at heart, I just love the fatty parts of meat better, *sigH* :) Oh, that frittata sounds divine, too!

@bayzee - WHOO HOO! Good for you!

@krampus - have a great time at the cabin! I'm still working on the reward thing on Fridays. I just can't get out of that mindset of "I've been so good all week and now I get to relax and not think about what I can't have!" That would be okay if I truly WAS perfect the other days of the week, but I'm not. Ha. :)

@Jessica - that's exactly it (about the home ownership). I live in an old place but very nice right now, but it's not mine, so I can hardly give a crap about it. I mean, I do minimal housework, etc., but I just don't have that sweet feeling of THIS IS MY PLACE and I should treat it with love. I am looking forward to that part of it! And I'm sorry your daughter is having such poop trouble. :(

@turbo - yep, I'm really amazed that I dropped even a little last night. Sometimes I wonder if it's my decision to stop being so stressed about the weight loss thing. I am telling myself that I am going to live my life, that I am not going to restrict so much that I need to binge later or have "last supper" meals now because OMG I'll never be able to have oreo cookies again, or whatever. What movie did you end up seeing? And oh my goodness, that probiotics thing sounds horrifying! D:

@Alex - I think my main worry is that I will figure out a way to maintain via my natural eating less but not too much, everything in moderation, blah blah blah, but not to lose, which I desperately want and need to do. But then your life gets so restricted. Like tonight I'm invited out for curry. If I'm on my super restrictive thing, then I get very stressed about what I will order or whether I should go at all. Tonight< I'm going to order what I want but take most of it home and not actually ingest that much of it at one time and try to have something healthy like veggies on the side. Then I know Sunday I'm going to my parents' house, and the food will be healthy, but I always want to drink more there and there are often pre-snacks and desserts that I'm tempted by. So I have to go into it with a non-stressed attitude and trust myself to make good decisions. I love your lists, but I'm sorry you're feeling low right now! I ADORE the smell of vanilla as well!

@mottainai - SO MUCH ENVY! Wow, that's really great that not only did you end up loving your trip to Japan but now you're able to and are going to move there.

Domlacha, Jossfit, and Ohlecat, thanks for your well wishes!

I'm just incredibly excited about the upcoming move. I really feel like it's a step in the right direction, as far as life path goes, or something like that. We've been kinda....I don't know, stagnating? here for the past year, I've felt, so it'll be good to get going on something.

I just got back in from a run....haven't been properly running in ages! Basically I've done no cardio except for walking for about two months now, I'd say. But anyway, I still made it about six miles in a little over an hour.

I'm so ready to start being a little bit more healthy and on some kind of routine. The scale says I gained over 15 pounds in the past 4 days, which is kind of laughably a lot, actually, but still a bit disheartening when I think of it!

I plan on, for one thing, going out every day the rest of the time I'm here and doing the six mile route of back roads by my parents' house. Don't care if it's running or walking or whatever combo of the two-- just to get out and get moving a bit! Give me something to do other than sit around and stuff my face, haha. And then, two, I'm actually loosely following the Dukan Diet....I know, I know, crazy fad diet alert, but I actually sort of like the general plan and the ideas, and I enjoyed following it (with some modifications), as I was doing up until these past couple crazy days, as it's pretty non-restrictive, more guidance about what TO do rather than NOT do. So I'm going back to doing that for a bit...

Mottaini : HEYYY! Long time no see! :) I'm super glad to see you back here, we lost a bunch of Feathers over Christmas... Sad sad! OMH you are moving to Japan?! That is so awesome!! Do you know when exactly the move is gonna be?

And from your last post : 15 pounds in 4 days? you sure nothing is wrong with your scale??

Again, super happy to see you back! :) You look so happy and motivated, that is inspiring! :)

Domlacha : it gives me hope to see people who were not able to do chin up succeed! Next time I'll go the the gym I'll ask if they have this assisted chin up machine! :)

joss : Yum, your tilapia coselaw looks amazing! And hubby, boyfriend, mancandy... they're all the same! ;) Ahahah!

Ah! Colorado and Alaska and Montana! It must be so cool! I love country place like that!

olehcat : It's weird how sometimes we see drop when we just say to ourselves ''okay I,ll just chill out with this the diet thing'' and then BANG! A drop ;) Good for you!

When is the half marathon you are doing? I'm so excited for the race/running season to begin :)

***

Hey ladies! I woke up and felt blooooated, my tummy is sticking out. The scale confirmed the feeling, telling me I was up to 141.4 this morning. I guess I can blame the portion of salty omelette I had for lunch yesterday, I had the same bloaty feeling after we had it earlier in the week.

We ended up going to the movies and seeing the Hobbit last night and it was great. A bit long, but great. (Is it wront that I found 3 of the Dwarfs kinda sexy...!?) I skipped the popcorn and had some berries candies instead. HOLY CRAP, those were about 550 calories only on candy... I should have checked the bag BEFORE eating them... Oh well. What is done is done, and I had an okay day yesterday, so I guess I ended up maybe a bit over my daily calories for maintaining.

I'm taking a day off working out today after working out every day since last Sunday. I'm trying to eat as healthy as I can today and tomorrow during the day, we are going out in a bar to watch the Superbowl AND eating there. I want to go for a run tomorrow and push it to 6k to burn a bit of calories and see how the hip is behaving :)

The boyfriend announces me this week (the boyfriend who loved to claim he did not like running and blablabla) that he might be considering doing the half marathon of the town. He was approach by people at his lab that are doing it to get money for a foundation of the hospital. He said he could do the 10k, but feels that it is not a big enough challenge if he is going to ask people to to gave money for the foundation for the run.

I'm like super happy about him wanting to run, but also feeling a bit weird about it. My boyfriend is better than me in EVERY SINGLE SPORT. Running was about the only thing that I was more in control than him (and even there, only on the distance thing, he beat me by 2-3 minutes at the 10k race we did together last fall). So not I'm like ''Aaaaaand another thing that the boyfriend will be better than me at'' :P It's not much about competition, I'm happy he's going to be running, we'll be able to train together, but... I don't know. Weird feelings about this.

ANyways, I warned him really seriously : he loves to complain that he doesn't like running. I told him that he is going to train seriously for the half, which mean about a 12-18 weeks training program, I'm not going to take any complaints about how he dislike it. Live with your decisions, boy. I think I scared him :P

Have a great saturday ladies!

Quick personals and some drive by food porn! Tonight for dinner I roasted a bunch of broccoli, red peppers, onion and garlic that had been tossed with balsamic vinegar. To that I added shredded turkey breast and of course, avocado.

Nom nom nom

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...73491286_n.jpg

I had a little bit of a drop (.4 pounds) on the scale today, so I'm hoping that with a couple of changes today I might see it drop a bit more tomorrow. I am back to using the Truvia to see if that helps, and I'm also going much lighter than normal with salt today. I've always learned from watching Food Network that when cooking you need to 'salt and season each layer' and I probably added a lot more salt than I needed. Today I am cooking my meals and then sprinkling just a bit of sea salt over the top of the dish before I eat it. It tastes the same and is probably helping a bit.

Anyway, we'll see what happens!

Tonight I'm babysitting my roommate's kiddo. I initially volunteered to do it in exchange for her taking me to/from the airport to visit my husband... but, since I had to cancel that trip now I'm just doing it for the heck of it I guess.

She and pretty much all of my other friends are going to a huge ball our command has every year; big huge formal event and I've never been to one but I hear they're amazing. Normally not a lot of people my age go because you have to wear your Formal Mess Dress Uniform (unless you are a spouse and going as a guest) and the uniform is HIDEOUS. So unflattering on women and really expensive! Here's an example;

http://www.afpc.af.mil/dress/femalemessdress.asp

Pretty much designed to make us as unattractive as possible.

Anyway, this year they said women can wear ballgowns, so EVERYONE jumped on that and are going out. It would have been fun, considering it's sort of my last chance to do that in the Air Force, but I didn't want to spend a ton on a dress and all that stuff, plus drinking and dining isn't really in the cards for me right now. Besides, I'd rather go to a ball with my husband, and I know I'll have opportunities to go with him to his events. The military is pretty into them.

Turbo - I know the EXACT three dwarves you mean, and yes... hot. :) LOL
Wasn't the movie great?! I loved it! I can't hardly wait to see the next two. My hubby or 'mancandy' haha, and I saw it on Christmas in 3D, which was pretty cool.

I know it feels weird about your BF and his running pursuits, but it sounds like its something he wouldn't have done if not for the people at work. Who knows, maybe he wants to do it because YOU inspire him with your 1/2 marathons and such. Maybe he feels a bit insecure because he's a man and feels on some level he *should* be better than you at sports... know what I mean? I'm not saying he's doing it in any vindictive way, but maybe he wants you to be proud of him just like he is of you?

Most likely he's just a dude and none of those thoughts crossed his mind. :D

And don't worry, you WILL get back to it!

Sounds like you have a great plan by trying to eat smartly before the game and such. I was sort of laughing at my roommate because she keeps saying she "needs to get serious" but then just slacks off! She is turning 30 in may and has it in her head that she has to be in the best shape EVER by then, but she skips most of her workouts and then eats like crap. Sheis going to the ball tonight and eating and boozing her face off, and then I'm sure tomorrow she'll be at a Superbowl party doing the same. *sigh* I only care because every other week she comes to me to have me tell her to pull her head out of her @ss. LOL

Mottainai - Do you think starting another diet is a good idea for you right now? It worries me a bit that you were doing so well in Japan and then came back, binged for 4 days straight and put on 15 pounds. You said you've accepted that you have BED, so what are you doing about it to get better?

I'm sure it felt great to get out and run today! Hopefully that helped you to work some of that excess off (which I'm sure is mostly water weight) and to get you in a better head space.

Olehcat - So even though you ate more than you planned, was it still a successful day? I know after the Oreo breakfast you were excited to have a normal day and NOT eat all those little treats, but even though you did, you seem totally ok with it! :D That's great!
I also think you have a great plan for the dinner situation as well.

Congrats on the small drop in spite of the less-than stellar eating... that's always nice!

Olecat- good job getting the weight going back downward! I’m super jealous that you are starting the process of buying a house. Our finances are a hot mess, so we’ve been putting off the house hunt for a couple years now because, well, we just won’t qualify.

Joss- I wouldn’t think there’s be a big difference between the Truvia and the Stevia in the Raw but all those products are just a little different. I used Truvia or Pure Via, or Splenda. Hope everything works out for your husbands leave!! Those meals looks yummy, and much more reasonably sized than some of those meals you’d been eating a couple weeks ago! I’m enjoying the fact that the woman in that picture of the uniform can’t even bring herself to look even neutral LOL she looks so miserable in it!! As far as military balls, I want to go to one so bad. But that’s one of the things I have to talk about so… read on below! LOL

Domlacha- I think most of us go overboard on the weekends. I know weekends are harder for me because I am home, where there is food. Weekdays I simply don’t bring much food with me. I am jealous of your chin-up! I have been telling myself that once I lose some weight, they will become closer to a possibility!

JessicaB- Ugh, poop problems. I doubt it will make you feel any better but you are in good company, I have so many kids I know with poop issues it’s not even funny. I hope she let it out! Have you tried sneaking mineral oil into her food? It could help.

Turbo- I feel like anything with eggs tends to fill me up pretty well. I keep meaning to eat them more often, then I just forget. And I can completely sympathize with your feelings about your BF taking up running! I had a similar type of thing with my sister growing up, she was better at, well, everything, and at times she would take up things I had been enjoying doing, and of course, do them better, it was just so discouraging. I managed to learn to not be bothered by it, though. You’re still going to love running whether he does it too or not, and regardless of who can run faster or for longer.

Alexistrophic- I like your list for when everything sucks. Especially stretching, and smelling vanilla!

Mottainai- That is some very exciting news about the move! I remember you saying that Vancouver just wasn't working out the way you had hoped, I’m glad that you have the opportunity to make this kind of a change so hopefully both of you will be happier. I know all too well how much of a difference it makes living somewhere you love vs somewhere to just tolerate. I’m sorry about the bingeing. On the plus side, recognizing it is a very important thing to do, and now you can move forward from here. As far as the 15 pounds, I would imagine that you will poop a bit of that out. It will probably take some time for your body to process all of it.


If I didn't write a personal for you, it's because I suck and couldn't think of anything to say so, hi!
_______________________________________

Sooooo things have been going pretty well for me! I've gotten back out of the habit of counting my calories (bad, me!) but I've been doing a pretty good job without specifically tracking. I have been eating EXTRA small lunches, and then by the time I get home from work I can pretty much eat whatever the heck I want until bedtime. But now that we're stocked up on soda I more often just drink a lot of diet soda and eat a reasonable amount. I actually wonder if I'm eating too little, but I have been feeling fine and not been feeling hungry too often, typically just on my drive home from work, so I imagine I'm not being so bad, even though some days I doubt I eat much more than 1000 calories.
Yesterday I was getting dressed for work and didn't want to hunt for clean pants in the garage or wear the 2 pairs I'd worn all week, and I dug into the bottom of the clean laundry I have inside and found some pants I haven't really fit into for a while now. Well, they're certainly still not ideal, BUT they weren't horrible so I wore them anyways. Had an annoying muffin top but my sweater covered that just fine, and they weren't as uncomfortable as I expected. Plus, fitting into smaller pants = win. So I was pretty thrilled.

THEN today I woke up to 146!! I was surprised. Even though I shouldn't have been, I mean, after the smaller pants yesterday and I actually had a really long day yesterday and barely ate. I had swiss cake rolls for lunch (cause, why not?) and then while I was at work my friend texted to see if I could bring her to she store after work, cause she's on pain meds for a kidney stone. I didn't even get to her house until 7 and then I got home not long before 9, and ate a whopping 3 big chicken tenders. Good thing for my deep fryer and putting some sugar in my tea with the splenda cause otherwise I wouldn't have even gotten close to 1000 calories yesterday. In any case after that I was still somehow surprised to see the scale drop down a pound.

Today that same friend and I hit up the thrift store. She didn't take her pain meds today so she drove (yay LOL) and I found this AWESOME dress. I just had to try it on. So, it's yellow, and I wasn't too sure about the color but it works. It's a long dress covered in sequins with mesh on parts of the top that make any sort of bra impossible LOL. But it fit so well! And I have been telling my husband we NEED to go to a ball. I told him, he's in the Navy, they have balls, we should go. Then he got home today and I told him, well, I got a dress and now you HAVE to take me to a ball! LOL... I'll keep you all updated.

In any case, I didn't eat before thrift store shopping and then got home not long before my husband got out of work, so I just ate some potato chips. Then he wanted to order pizza, so we did but I ate a donut before we ordered... and I ended up having less than 2 small slices of pizza and 4 or 5 mozzarella sticks for dinner. And somehow, I feel like I really over ate today and ruined my skinny day. I'm starting to feel like my view on what is a reasonable amount of food is getting skewed by my lack of eating earlier in the days! I mean, I probably ate 1500 calories today and my goal currently is just short of 1400. And 1500 is still a deficit. Especially considering I walked around a thrift store for like an hour, then got some groceries, and carried a relatively large number of 12 packs of soda in from the car.

Oh, yeah... I have a soda problem LOL... It's superbowl weekend... there are some GREAT deals on soda for the super bowl. I like to stock up. Food Lion has 4 for $10. that's $2.50 for a 12 pack of soda! I just can't pass that up. And no limits either! Also Harris Teeter has buy 2 get 3 free. Granted, their normal price for a 12 pack is at LEAST $1 more than everywhere else but with the sale it still works out to less than $2.75 each. So we currently have... erm.... *counts* 58 12-packs of various varieties of sodas. And I'm getting at least 10 more tomorrow. It was just going to be 10 more, but looking back on my comments about last years stash, the exchange had 5/$12 last year so if they still do, that's even less per 12-pack than Fiid Lion AND no tax. Win.

Did I mention I have a soda problem?

We got at least 50 last year (because after we got over 40 we stacked it all up and realized we were painfully short on a few varieties LOL) and they lasted until sometime in late May or early June. This year I will be drinking more of it, too, because last year I worked in an office that supplied us with Diet Coke, so I drank the office soda while I was at work.

Anyways, time to drink me soda and go to bed! LOL :)

~Katy

hiya, all!

First of all, the good - I had an awesome workout today! I ran 3 miles, did some strength training, feel great. Then the bad -- I was up about 2 pounds today, blah. I know why. I ate a lot of stuff yesterday that while was mostly healthy was sort of sodiumy (like a curry I made last night but with ALL healthy ingredients, meh, although maybe the rice made me bloat up), plus I drank too much wine this past weekend. Ah, well. Today won't be much better since I'm going to a super bowl party (I could care less about football, lol, but since I've canceled out on all plans I've had this weekend so far, I should just go to this to go out somewhere before the end of the weekend, lol).

@jossfit - I would say that Friday was a semi-successful day. I still snacked on things I shouldn't have, like the brownie, etc., but it wasn't this OMG it's Friday, and I have to stuff my face with bad things because it's back to a diet the next day (!!!) mentality that I usually have after a week of eating super healthy and then hitting Friday. I STILL have a major problem with needing to reward myself on Friday, though, via food and drink (yay, unrestricted wine, for example). Not sure how to get around that yet. Life IS very stressful right now, I'm tired overall, and winter is really getting me down. The things I normally use to cope/give myself extra energy during the rest of the year just don't work (like go out on a walk or whatever, not when it's below 0 windchill). So in other words, am a work in progress still.

@mottainai - good luck, but I wouldn't be too restrictive. That binging is happening for a reason, and I wonder if it's because you're TOO strict during the healthy times(?) I have never had a serious binging problem, but right before my divorce, last spring, about a year ago exactly, I did get into a binge and starve pattern that scared the daylights out of me because I'd never experienced it. And it was such a merry-go-round, and I had a hard time getting off it. And it's something that I'm working on right now, trying to get out of the reward and punishment pattern that got me into that, and it is harrrrd. So I applaud your running (that always makes me feel a lot better after I feel like I overate), but maybe don't be tooooo strict with the eating (?). I don't know, I'm probably not a good person to take advice from since I'm not quite successful at anything yet, lol. Anyway, welcome back!

@Turbo!! Omg, some of those dwarves WERE totally sexy, I 100 percent agree! :) The half marathon is in late April! So I'm starting my training just in time. As long as there are no major health glitches between now and then, it should be plenty of time.

@kakers - oh believe me, I've completely been where you are financially (with it all being in a hot mess). And I'm not even sure they will approve me, frankly, since I am not married and I don't make a lot of money as a teacher, but we'll see! Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

Do you eat breakfast? You said you eat a small lunch and then eat whatever in the evening. That sounds like it's working well for you. I need to go back to doing that myself, because frankly, I can't usually bring any of what I consider my delicious food to work because of a long wait for the microwave or stinky smells (like curry/fish etc. that will gross out everyone else probably). Besides, I look at lunch with my coworkers as a chance to get my veggies in (since I normally just have a big salad with spinach, kale, other veggies with sometimes a protein source like a hardboiled egg or chicken breast or turkey. Sounds disgustingly healthy right? Well, then comes Friday and everything goes out the door because I get bored with healthy. I need to stay a lot stronger!

Olehcat nope, I don't eat breakfast. Right now, I don't let myself eat before 12 (with a few exceptions, like once a clients dad offered to make me an omelette and that was 1-delicious and 2- filled my up so well I wasn't hungry again until dinner anyways) Then after 12 I will have a small snack more or less and only eat a real meal come dinner time. Unless you count Easy mac as a meal for lunch LOL.


Good news, woke up to 146 again today! It wasn't a fluke yesterday and I had no reason to beat myself up over what I ate yesterday, clearly. So yay!

~Katy

Hey ladies. I had an awesome weigh in today 144.6!!!!!! Lowest weight as an adult, so everything after this will be super awesome. I just have to not be too crazy with it being super bowl Sunday. I also did my measurements they are about the same as last month. OH I'm down 4.4 pounds since 1/5!

JossFit I love tilapia! I have it often with sweet potatoes and some kind of green veggie. I wouldn't want to go to that ball either if I had to wear that terrible dress!

Turbo Looks like I need to go see this new Hobbit film!

Kakers Not really just the food that I overboard with, its more drinking of the booze that does me in on the weekends. I did much better this past weekend and so far so good with it being Sunday. Though super bowl party could do me in...

Hopefully you hubby takes you to a millitary ball, especially since you know have a great dress to wear. I personally like counting calories mainly because of what you talked about worring that you've eaten too much because you'd been eating so light. It helps me enjoy the things that I want without worrying then overestimating and possibly being hungry later.

Olehcat mmm... wine! I found a list of some of the food I'd eating over the course of a week or so a little while back. I think it makes things easier when you have an idea or example to build off of. Let me know if you want to know more about any of the stuff. Note I don't always eat super healthy but try to get my veggies in :) Its a long list but i've included the calorie count for the day:

Breakfast
Apple Cinnamon pancake:
2 eggs
grated apple
cinnamon
2 melba toast
1tsp sugar
dash of vanilla
cooked in 1 tsp olive oil

lunch
Tuna sandwich:
1 can tuna in water
1 T olive oil mayo
1 hamburger bun
1 cup spinach
1 c cherries

Dinner
Vegetable chilli:
1/4 cup dry beans(cooked)
100g asparagus
124g yellow squash
100g tomatoes
3 brussel sprouts
3 mini sweet bell peppers
1 babybell cheese
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 tsp olive oil

snacks
1 mini bag of kettle corn microwave popcorn
3/4 c Chicago mix popcorn (Garrett's)
1 nectarine

Calorie total 1395


Breakfast:
1 egg
3/4 c Peanut butter capn't crunch
1/2 c skim milk
1/2 tsp olive oil

Lunch:
1 can tuna in water
1 80cal hamburger bun
1T mayo with olive oil
1c spinach
1 large apple

Dinner:
Green beans
Tilapia
small sweet potato
(tilapia cooked in olive oil and cornmeal)
8 trader joe's coconut cookies

Snacks:
Pineapple bar
pear
tootsie pop
Kashi TLC bar
mini pretzels
pear
cucumber
(calories 1577)


Breakfast:
2 3/4cups of honey nut cheerios
1/2c skim milk
1 nectarine

Lunch:
cucumber
baby spinach
tomatoes
80/15 ground beef (I usually don't buy meat this fatty but it was left over from a neighborhood BBQ)
1 bun
1T light catalina dressing
1T sweet baby rays BBQ sauce

Dinner:
1/2 serving of Houlian lettuce wraps
1/2 serving of Houlian BBQ Chicken flatbread pizza
71g zucchini
3 mini sweet bell peppers
2 6oz glasses of red wine

Snacks:
caramel corn rice cake
Carrots
Babybel cheese
85g blackberries
173g pear
carrots
tootsie pop
coconut cookies
(total calories 2078 )

Today
Breakfast:
1/2c 1% cottage cheese
2 melba toast
1 nectarine

Lunch:
56g wheat rotini pasta
1/2c pasta sauce
3 brussle sprouts
3 sweet mini peppers
1 babybel cheese-gouda

Dinner(maybe):
4oz chicken
zucchini
yellow squash
tomatoes
rice or tortilla

Snacks(so far)
1 c cherries
1 slice toast
1T chunky peanut butter
Calories 1374

Breakfast
2 3/4c servings of peanut butter capn't crunch cereal (not a lot of nutrition but I love this cereal!)
1/2 c skim milk
1 nectarine

Lunch Salad w/
2c spinach
100g tomatoes
3oz carrots
133g of avocado
124g cucumber
1T papaya poppy seed dressing
8oz coconut water

Dinner
1c Barley
85g Green Beans
124g yellow squash
124g zucchini
sweet mini bell peppers
veggies sauteed in 1tsp olive oil
1 light babybel cheese cut into pieces

Snacks throughout day
1 Caramel corn rice cake
133g strawberries
69g kiwi
1/2c chocolate ice cream

@domlacha -- wow, thank you for that detailed list! I LOVE seeing what people eat in a day. It really does help to give me ideas of what people who are losing weight or are maintaining a weight I want to be at eat! Thank you again! And oh gosh, Garrett's popcorn!!!!! *dies* My sister (who lives in Chicago) just sent my parents a HUGE container of the caramel stuff. I go over there about once a week and I have to stay away from it. I won't stop eating it if I start!

@kakers - when did you start eating that style? I know I've gone through phases when I eat like that, and I always really like how "light" I feel. I haven't been consistent (at anything) lately. But since I really don't like breakfast or breakfast food and I don't really enjoy lunch either (never relaxed enough to enjoy good food), it's actually better for me to eat a small lunch of just veggies (or something else very light and low calorie) and then just enjoy what I want around dinner. *food for thought*

I ate too much today. I had a semi-fail of a weekend, I admit it. I didn't eat a lot of super unhealthy food. I HAD unhealthy food but in small amounts. But I overate regular healthy food. I just had too much food. I can feel it right now. Had too much wine this weekend, too. I will do better this week.

Hi Feathers!

I was really busy this weekend and didn't have much time on the computer. I also wasn't really on plan Friday night (went to dinner at a friend's house) and Saturday (birthday party out for a friend). Yesterday went well and I am back on top of things now. I also kept up with my exercise (90 mins of yoga Sat, 5 mile run Sunday), but I am staying away from the scale!!! Friday I was 131.8 and I am surely up 2-3 lbs, so i am going to weigh in tomorrow at the earliest.

Sunday:

B: banana and tea (pre run)

L: green smoothie (post run)

D: homemade veggie chili with guacamole

Exercise: 5 mile run.

So many new joiners! I'll have to stop back for personals later as I am off to a meeting here.

Joss : Concerning the Hobbit, the boyfriend and I both loved it a lot! We only thought that it was a taaaaad too long. But the visual effects were just so awesome! I have been waiting for this movie forever, I am a huge fan of Tolkien, I was happy to finally see this!

I know that in the end, I'll be happy that the boyfriend takes up the singing thing :) He was running once a week last fall when we had planned to do a 10k race together and he started running on a threadmill 2 weeks ago... but he always delay the moment of starting to run outside in the cold ;)

kakers : LOL you girl love soda!! ;) And awesome, now you your husband really has no choice for this ball thing ;) It must be so fun to just dress up and go out!

olehcat : Good for you for your great workout! Hope you had fun at your superbowl party!

Domlacha : Lowest weight as an adult, that is awesommmmme! Congrats! :D

Wildflower : The green smoothie, is is the one with spinach in? I never tried it! :) Does it taste spinach?

***

Hi feathers! Ohhhh what a tough weekend. Saturday was okay but the boyfriend prepared the dinner, which was some heavy stuff, and I had a few handfull chips while sipping an apple cider while watching a movie with the man.

Yesterday I ate lightly during the day before the Superbowl night out at the bar. I also scored a 6k run and pushups and crunches. It ended up being not so bad at the bar, I had the fish&chip, which was fried but SO SO SO SO good. I had wayyy too many beers though and I feel all wronnnnnnnnnng and hangover today.

Anyways... back on plan today! Let's get rid of this poooooch!

Hi Feathers,

I'm up like 4 lbs after a weekend of just not being careful about what I put into my mouth and overeating chocolate chip cookies and having pizza for dinner during the Superbowl. I'll deal, I'm putting myself on 1200-a-day and cardio-every-day until I leave for the Florida Keys Thursday night.

Cabin weekend was fun. Special caramels knocked us UNCONSCIOUS for like 7 hours - I still don't quite feel right. We went for a walk up this road which was nice and somewhat physically taxing, bummed around playing card games and had lunch in Woodstock, and it was all very nice and not awkward at all. The other dude had bought a ring for his gf - I wonder when he'll pop the question??!!!

Got in a STUPID car accident last night - I tapped a parked car, saw no damage so I walked away, owner saw it happen and followed me to my friend's house and called the police, there was like NO damage from my car (just a smudge that came off with water, no paint damage) but scratches elsewhere on his that he was trying to say were from my car, all in all just a really stressful and embarrassing incident I was NOT in the mood for. I guess I mostly just feel really guilty because that guy is not gonna get **** from his insurance since there was no damage, and he obviously had just gotten the car and was upset about it. File under "stupid idiot move!"

Wildflower On or off plan, that sounds like really good quality exercise. Good luck catching up at work after the weekend.

olehcat Weekends are rough like that. I never, EVER stay 100% "on plan" during weekends...or during the week...heh. Still, that workout you had with running 3 miles + strength training sounds encouraging, I like to balance out eating crappy with strong workouts...

Domlacha Hey CONGRATULATIONS on the lowest ever adult weigh-in - that is the BEST feeling. Also thank you for posting such a comprehensive list of meals - lots of ideas there that I might have to steal, hehe.

kakers Daaaang dude that's a lot of soda! Congrats on weight loss and smaller pants, it sucks not having lots of reasons to wear nice dresses out - make your husband bring you to a ball! I just registered for a free 20 oz bottle of Coca-Cola online...some of the Superbowl ads were pretty crazy, I think the Coca-Cola one was second or third best.

JossFit That's some serious like, Mennonite sh!t - no wonder they call it a MESS dress, hurhurhur. I am happy to see your food photos make a return (gimme that SLLLLAWWWWWWWW) and to see that you've dropped a couple lbs finally. How are you finding the increase in cardio/calorie cuts? Still easy to live and feel sated on your food plan? I wouldn't be too into the idea of attending such a ball without my guy either. I like that you used "hangry," HANGER is very real, my BF gets awfully hangry like five days a week and I've learned I have to pretend he isn't hangry and "nicely" suggest he eat something.

TurboMammoth That is not unreasonable at all to feel funny about. My BF never runs or lifts weights but sometimes we'll run together and I am huffing and puffing to keep up. However I think it's important to think about all the stuff you excel at that is a separate, independent interest from your BF's. And consider the fact that no matter what you two do sport-wise, you are the FEMALE half of his relationship and you have all kinds of feminine powers and characteristics he will never have! OK don't you think Fili and Kili are just "Legolas" from the LOTR movies chopped up into two people?

mottainai 13 half gallons of ice cream is a lot of ice cream...I hope you find a treatment for your BED that works. Congrats on moving to Japan and such soon, though! You'll be hard pressed to FIND such large containers of ice cream there, so the problem may end up correcting itself. I hope you'll enjoy your last few months in Vancouver and be happy and healthy!

Alexistrophic Heart beating out of your chest sounds REALLY FREAKY, glad you didn't die or something! I hope this week affords you more time to go to yoga. I liked all the items on your lists - often the simplest plans work the best.

JessicaB Congrats on scoring some quality time with your husband for his bday weekend, did you make the best of it? :D I wonder if you can scare the poop out of your daughter, my BF used to hold his poop in and then his mom said if he didn't go it would come out his ears and mouth and then he would die. That might be a bit intense though...

YES! And the Thorin guy as such freaking killing eyes!

That sucks for the car accident, what a bummer. And I'm so dork, I just understood about the SPECIAL caramel bwhahaha.

How about the scene where the elves fed them salads...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Krampus - What a bummer about the accident! You're right, it's silly and it sounds like that guy is overreacting a bit but I think if I saw someone hit my car and walk away I'd be really pissed off too. But, if I were the hittER of the car like you were and didn't see any damage I'd have done the same.

I think a more restrictive diet and some extra cardio for 4 days should get you right back to where you were pre-pizza and cookie fest. I'm sure it was delish and you enjoyed it though. :) I don't know about the special caramels... LOL I think I'd rather just smoke the special ingredients and then EAT the caramels! :) Thats probably just because I've never had anything made with MJ so I am under the impression it would taste kinda grody.

My weight did drop over the weekend but it was back up a bit this morning... my new theory is that I relax and have some quality poopin on the weekends, but Monday rolls around and I don't have time to wait for my body to go through it's processes so I'm in 1-2 star instead of 4-5 star territory.

The decrease of food and increase of cardio is fine so far. I'm still eating a fair bit of food, and probably too much in fact, so I'm hoping after this week he drops it a bit further so I can start seeing some forward progress. It's just taking time to find the sweet spot which I understand considering he doesn't know me or my body.

Well that's not entirely true... the extra cardio sucks balls. LOL

Turbo - Apple cider sounds great! Was it alcoholic or virgin? I tend to find some ciders to be overly sweet but a nice crisp one (especially if it's a hard cider) always hits the spot. It can be so high in calories that I tend to choose 0 calorie mixers and hard alcohol or wine instead, but I do love a good hard cider. :)

I don't know how long its been since I've had fish and chips... since I was a kid probably! I bet it's great with a beer or two... or however many you had... ;) I hope you shake the hangover-y feeling soon! A good workout usually does it for me if it's just a mild hangover.

Wildflower - Sounds like a fun and delicious weekend! I used to have such an 'all or nothing' mentality that if I didn't eat PERFECTLY, I wouldn't work out either... what was the point? I know better now, and even if I eat a bazillion calories over my maintenance at least now I can tell myself that the extra calories went to rebuilding my muscle from that hard workout, or that at least by doing cardio my cardio endurance isnt going to suffer regardless of the wasted calorie burn.

Olehcat - Its never a 'fail'... it's just a weekend. You could have made some smarter choices, sure, but it's nothing to say you failed over. You ate food and that is that. :) Nothing can be done about it now, but like you said, you can do better.
Like you said, you're still a 'work in progress' as we all are! You had some good workouts though right? Thats success in my book!

Kakers - Definitely no reason to beat yourself up over a less-than-stellar day of eating, as you said. It did stick and wasn't a fluke! Nice! Congrats on finding an amazing dress too. Sometimes even if you don't have a need for it right away its just a good idea to pick something up like that. Who knows if you would have such luck when you are staring a deadline down?

LOL actually my meals are the same size, it's hard to tell from the photos though. That last one was also a full sized dinner plate piled sky high, and my dinner from last night (that I forgot to post) was equally huge. :)

Domlacha - Congratulations on the weight loss milestone... that's fantastic! How did you end up faring with the Superbowl? I know that sometimes when I would hit a new low it would be SOOO HARD to stay on track because, after all, I was at a new low so I could 'afford it', right?! :D It never did me much harm though.

Just rolling in after the weekend...
Did not make the best food choices ever and it wasn't even due to social pressure (it rarely ever is... :rolleyes:)

I had a giant hot dog at Costco yesterday and feel like I'm all bloated today as a result. Yech. Note to self: You no do that no more. Their chicken caesar salad is fantastic. Just get that next time.

Busy week ahead. Will try to be back for personals!

Ahahaha that was hilarious! I think my favorite scene was when they realized the pony were gone, their face of ''sh*tthorinisgonnakillus'' were perfect LOL

I found a meme online expressing exactly my reaction when we saw the dwarves for the first time :

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6...hotdwarves.jpg

I was saying to the boyfriend back in the car on our way home from the movie something like ''hey some of the dwarves were HAWT'' and he asked ''Which one?''. ... jeez, the chubby one that does not say a word in the whole 3 hours.

Joss : I was an 5% alcohol cider. :) We saw that while picking stuff at the grocery, I think it's something you. I got totally interested because there was a dog on the advertising board and the boyfriend wanted it because they were said to give a winter hat if were getting a pack of four. There was no hat in the box, but the cider were really good ;) LOL It was not suuuper sweet and just enough crisp! :)

I had more than one or two beers LOL The beer at the place we were is sooo good, they have their one brewery and their Scotch Ale is just out of this world :)

Alexis : I never ate at Costco, the size of the portion always scared me LOL Did you get nice stuff there? :)

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/wp-cont...bur-poster.jpg

A little bit of this guy lives in all of us, c'mon!

Alexistrophic OMG Costco food - sorry you are feeling a bit pickled after the hot dog!

Happy Monday Feathers...I am so behind it's not even funny. I won't even attempt personals right now but I wll follow along this week:)

I weighed in at 114.6 today after serious drinking on Saturday and my hangover fries on Sunday. No major damage so far, but things like this tend to sneak up on me a couple days later....I still feel dehydrated!

Hope everyone has a good week with their goals!

Krampus ~ hahahaha ... "pickled". That is it, exactly. I am trying to dry out as I type this.

Turbo ~ I got "party food" (veggie tray for my mom and a SLAMMIN' 7 layer dip). It was yum-tastic. :D

Bayzee ~ Dang girl! You did excellent over the weekend. Good job!

Remember the wing burger?

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...82512115_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...57135637_n.jpg

The "cabin"

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...46944582_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...60900554_n.jpg

Ice freezies

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...20859249_n.jpg

oh gosh, guys, I've hit a really low point. I weighed myself today and it's back up to 147. I can't stand this jumping back and forth between numbers I shouldn't even be in in the first place, and up and down between about 144 and 147.

So apparently not worrying too much about "dieting" doesn't work for me either and I need to crack down. *sigh* And I'm super sick on top of all this. Just came down with a bad cold. And this alwasy happens at the beginning of the week when there's no rest in sight for me (mandatory classes, meetings, etc.). Gosh, I'm so bummed. I know I just need to eat so much less of things, I need to cut out the wine, I need to cut out the sugar, blah blah blah, I know what I have to do and I feel like I don't have the strength to do it right now (these classes on top of working full time are killing me and I have 3 months of it to go before a brief break). I'm sorry to be a whiny pants. I just had to vent for moment.

@Turbo - fish and chips, *LOVE* Haven't had that in ages. But a 6K run sounds great! And Thorin - holy crap, yes, that man (dwarf? :D) is hot!

@Krampus - oh your weekend of eating sounds wonderful! I feel like that's the kind of thing I do all the time, but I feel like I shouldn't until I'm in your position, where I want to be as far as my weight (maintaining). But that's so far away. Did you have weekends like that when you were in active losing mode? Oh, man, Krampus, I would have been mortified about the car accident thing. And that's just the kind of thing that would have happened to me, too! That place you stayed at looks awesome, too. :)

@Jossfit - oh ugh, I FEEL like such a fail at this, though. No will power. And I noticed that it's so much easier for myself to be stern and firm about doing workouts on a schedule than it is to control my eating. Like if I say I'm going to run 4 miles on a particular day, I do it, no matter what, and there's no question that I will do it unless I'm injured or sick. And with eating? I can tell myself that I'm going to eat a particular menu all day, and by the end of the day I'm throwing it in the towel. I do not understand! I'm glad you've seen some dip in the scale, though, that's really good. I bet you'll see more and more as your body adjusts to this new life of eating and working out.

TOM came - I knew it was imminent at dinner last night when my parents said something to the effect of "you should pay your insurance premium on time" and I got so annoyed that I spent the rest of the evening sulking, not going to the gym, and describing to my roommate all the horrible violent things I would do to her b@stard preschoolers if I were their teacher. Then I went to my BF's and took a bath and had an ice cream sandwich.

Despite keeping calories far lower than normal (350 before dinner, dinner was chicken/veggies without rice, a little clear soup I'd picked noodles out of, an iceberg salad with no croutons/cheese, and a couple nibbles of chicken soup - and 140 calorie ice cream sandwich) I was up in weight this morning. Stepped on, saw 126.6 and felt disappointed, stepped off, stepped back on, 127.4 and it stayed there. I barely recognize my own face in the mirror I feel so bloated. I hope this is a whole bunch of hormonal TOM BS. My roommate and I have plans to go shopping tonight for outfits for our upcoming trips (I leave Thursday night...) and I'm having the dumbest thoughts like "I'm too fat to deserve new clothes" - yeah, sure krampus.

olehcat Active losing mode has never included weekends. It was glacially slow, I think I went from 130 in March to 125 in June and then kind of stayed there, occasionally dipping down to 124. There was some considerable recomp happening during that process so I feel totally transformed from virginal pre-strength-training krampus. Sorry you're feeling down and discouraged and sick again :(

Krampus - I'm sorry you're having a crappy, bloaty, heavy day... but maybe getting out and shopping with your friend will actually make you feel better, especially if you find something super cute to wear! 5-ish pounds is a decent amount of bloating for sure. Does that always happen to you around TOM or is it made worse by eating the pizza and cookies and such this weekend?

Either way, you know the drill; water weight, blah blah, back to normal in a few days... that whole deal. ;) You ARE NOT too fat or bloated or any such thing, so go out, have fun, and buy something pretty!

I loved the pictures from the cabin. It looked really nice! LOL the buffalo burger also looked really nice. :D

Olehcat - I can't have both you and Krampus down about your weigh-ins today... don't you know yet that us Feather's always have this stuff happen at the same time?! If you two start having a hard time, next it will be the rest of us jumping on board! Turn that frown upside down!

Now that you are undoubtedly smiling and in a better mood, what do you think will help your situation? You said that workouts aren't an issue for you so that's in your favor. Even in spite of your busy schedule you can still get workouts in so that's pretty impressive!

With the diet, it's not much more complicated, is it? You HAVE to eat, so make better choices. If you are going to eat out, choose the best thing you can rather than whatever looks tastiest in the moment. Yes, it's not fun all the time but it takes 10 seconds to order something healthy and then it's done... no more decision to make.
If you are at home and cooking for yourself anyway, just cook healthier things!

I hate to oversimplify the situation because everyone has their own struggles, but it's time to put on your big girl pants and just commit. If you literally just take things one meal at a time and commit to making just that ONE meal healthy and good food to fuel you up, you've succeeded. Don't get overwhelmed and think about what you can't have because you're 'dieting'; it's irrelevant. Focus on that ONE meal and before you know it you've gone a full day and soon those days add up.

If I had to sit there and think about all the days I have left on this program before I can have some different foods it would make it so much worse. I don't do that... I focus on one day, one meal, one workout at a time, and so far it's added up to a good chunk without me really noticing! Tomorrow night will be the end of 3 full weeks; 25% completed. Seems like only a blink of an eye. ;)

Decided to get a cookie with your lunch or go out for a drink with your girlfriends? Fine, no harm done! Get back to your plan the VERY NEXT MEAL. You had such a great outlook Friday morning after the breakfast Oreos, so what happened to that?

Turbo - Yay for alcoholic cider! Whoot, that's my girl... not letting me down! hahaha

How have things been since? Not feeling as puffy I hope?

Alex - I've never been to a Costo, but I imagine it to be a huge wearhouse filled with 5 gallon tubs of mayo and people giving out samples... but, then they have TVs and stuff? LOL Maybe I need a membership so I can go check it out. :) I should wait til I'm not on this program though so I can eat all the samples!

Bayzee : Ahh, alcohol and dehydratation.. they sometimes helps to drop a pound! ;)

Alexis : Awww Costco party food! I love Costco. I just can't drive their card without hitting tons of people :P

Krampus : Okay, first, this wing burger looks FABULOUS. And the cabin (do we even still call that a cabin at this point :P) is huge and awesome! The frozen waterfall is so nice, phenomenal picture!

You're probably up from TOM.. Hope your hormins will give you some slack and will let your weight drop!

olehcat : Even if we know what you gotta do, knowing it and doing it are such different things.. Hold on :)

Joss : The only time I drank non-alcohol cider, it was YUCK. Every time I took some with alcohol, it was amazing. Does not take much to my brain to see a trend here and always go with alcohol beverage ;)

I'm still bloated as h*ll, but I'm living okay with it. I wasnt going to drop 5 pounds overnight after drinking my life away on Sunday :P What happened happened, now I'm trying to move forward :)

***

Hola ladies! Haven't stepped on the scale in a few days, I'm still trying this weekly WI thing and having misbehaved on the food side this weekend and feeling bloated, I'm not really super excited to step on the scale anyway :P

Yesterday was okay in term of food, but I ''tasted', way too much while baking a cake, so we can use a leftover of mascarpone and not lose this freakin 13$ cheese. Dinner was healthy though, it was a lentils coconut milk and sweet potato stew. I probably had a bit too much... It's weird like after indulging during the weekend, going back to ''okay I'm losing weight portions'' is so hard. I think I can also blame the hangover situation and having to take the ''oops we forgot protection'' pill that got me nauseous for most of the afternoon.

Just got back from a great workout, I ran 4.5 km on the threadmill, I did some muscles workout (which KILLED me today) and than 10.2 km on the bike. I'm deeeead. I can't wait to eat dinner, we are having grilled sausages with the remaining of the lentils stew.. yummm

have a good day ladies!