Well, today's weigh in was a shocker... 130 pounds. Seriously?! Up 4.5 pounds?! My body is all out of sorts and I look and feel puffy and bloated but dang, that's REALLY disheartening. My weight on 1 February was 130.2 pounds so essentially I've lost nothing over the past month.

I've got my fingers crossed that some of that will drop off in the next few days but I'm a bit scared that I'm just going to be stuck in this range from here on out.

I'm off to the gym and will be back for personals later... hopefully I'll have a better outlook then.

Drive by to say good morning. :coffee: Didn't see 148 on the 1st, but weighed in at 148.6 this morning so that's close enough.

Joss :hug: I'm certain the gain is just from the shifts your body is being put through. You've been working really hard so you know you've changed something about your body and you couldn't have had a "real" gain.

So I'm up in weight this morning, but no surprise. I let loose a little yesterday. Not out of control loose, like Fridays of my past, but certainly ate a few things I normally haven't been this week. Ugh, I stopped for coffee at McDonald's and ended up getting a biscuit and hashbrown in the morning. That's so not me, but I just was craving the forbidden after being super good all week.

I did just have a salad for lunch, haha, so that sort of at least maybe kept the damage to a minimum.

Then I had an awesome intervals workout which may or may not lead to some water retention. I know I'm not drinking enough water lately.

For dinner I finally had going-out plans with some friends, and it was a great time. I had not been to this particular restaurant in MANY years but it is very good and known for really good quality Italian food and pizza to die for (the very thin crispy kind). So i couldn't go to this place that I never ever go to and not have what they're famous for. So I got a crispy pesto pizza and it was DIVINE. I ate the whole thing (it was a personal pizza, but still :-p). Also I had 2 glasses of wine there and 1 later at home. One triumph? Everyone else was ordering dessert. I simply didn't want it. I didn't order it just because it's Friday and I was letting loose a little and I could. I just didn't order it. I didn't want it. So that's a bit of a triumph, I guess?

I don't feel so bad today. I got enough sleep finally for the first time all week. I'm determined to eat well today. I will not let Friday's stuff leak into Saturday just because I think I need to be rewarded for having to do homework most of today. I do need to go to the grocery store and replenish my veggies. They all look meh in the refrigerator right now.

@Jossfit - don't be discouraged! Your body IS very wonked up right now. You say you feel puffy so a lot of it is probably your body clinging to everything it can right now because it felt so deprived and stressed. It will even out. And think back to your journey from before when you got down to 120. What were you doing exactly? Are you implementing that at the moment? If so, I think you're on the right track.

Joss : Your body might be in shock after the food your reintroduce in your diet? After being on a strict program for weeks, your body maybe entered a ''OMG WHAT THE F IS GOING ON'' state...

With your dedication, I really doubt you'll be stuck there for long. Hold on! *hug*

TheBunneh : Good job on the 148's!!! :D

Olehcat : HUGH, hashbrown! And the pesto pizza...! YUMM! At least you did enjoy what you eat, which is better than over eating and being just BLAH about he food you ate.

Oh, and I can do to the eating normal foor for breakfast... Never got scare of a part of lasagna for breakfast (even if the boyfriend is disgusted everytime I even mention this :P)

***

139.0 today. I was a bit surprise, my tummy was feeling puffy this morning. But seriously, I think something is up with my scale, I was seeing tons of daily fluctuations in the past. But what is bottering me is that the boyfriend is seeing fluctuations when he weighs himself. Anyways, I'm going to get new batteries next week, maybe they are getting low.

Did good yesterday, we enjoyed a steak with sauteed mushroom and a salad for dinner, we did not have red meat in a loooong time. I am a bit ashamed , I ha a second serving of dessert though.. My steak was so tiny, I was still hungry when I hit dessert, so my hand streched for another one without really thinking. I'll know better next time :)

Leaving in a few hours for the snowshoe trip, have a fun weekend ladies! :)

Joss - I'm so sorry! Those ups & downs are just a killer on you emotionally. You know it's not a true gain, so find some kind of peace in that. You'll be back down tomorrow. Hang in there!

Girls' night was a blast! We had a **** ton of food, I wore my favorite hot girl dress & we laughed & had a blast! We already planned another girls' date for next month :) The scale was kinder to me than I expected (136.9), so I'll be diligent today & keep my calories low & wait for it to drop. I'm going to be doing chicken breast & veggies for lunch & dinner until I can see 132 on that scale.

Picture from last night! I felt like the hot girl last night! And I have not felt that maybe ever! It was amazing!

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...ps60c24140.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...psbe6cc005.jpg
Look how skinny my arm is!!! I was in love with this photo just because I finally saw it!

I do feel a bit better after my workout. It was a good one, and during my post-workout cardio I got the chance to think about some things.

I wore my HRM today and noticed that doing my typical style of workout as opposed to the style my coach had me doing, my heart rate was MUCH higher. Its not a huge shocker, because I know doing kettlebell swings and such is more of a challenge, but actually SEEING the numbers made me realize it's no wonder I've been able to get and stay leaner doing less cardio. It was some validation that my style of training works better for me.
**Just as an example, at MOST my heart rate would get up to 100 beats per minute doing one of his workouts, and today mine got up to 100 beats per minute just doing abs! It was up to 150 at many points.

I didn't like how I looked in the mirror today, which also validates my preferred style of training. 6 weeks doing body part split workouts (chest and triceps one day, back and biceps another, etc.) only served to beef up my upper body. In truth I needed to add a bit of upper body mass but since its still covered in a layer of fat it's not the pleasing look I want to see.

Another thing I thought about was that I've never had a real 'goal weight' until recently, and never put timelines on myself to lose fat. Checking my weight was more or less something I did out of curiosity, and when I would go on vacation it gave me an idea of what the damage was and what I needed to do to undo that damage.
I said the other day that I want to get to 120 by mid April, and while that's true I'm not going to stress over it. I'm going to tackle each day and each workout as it comes and just try to enjoy the process.

Anyway, random musings. :)

I feel kind of crappy still and have decided to color my hair a bit redder today. LOL bring the attention up to my head and off my body! :D


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Maddie - *Some* of it is true gain, I'm sure. I definitely overdid things on Monday and Tuesday (nachos, peanut butter, ice cream, cookies, cereal, cake, chocolates, chips... Oh God, when I start writing it out I feel less and less like ANY of it is water...) but some of it has to be water (I hope I hope I hope). If not, it's just another small set back and diligence and hard work will get it gone again. But, enough about me...
Look at you in your hot girl dress! Its so fun and makes me think of summer! I'm happy you had a great time and decided to do it again next month. Its good for us to get out with the girls and I know I'm definitely guilty of NOT doing it enough.

Turbo - Yeah, I hope the "WTF is going on?" stuff stops soon! LOL Have fun with your trip this weekend!! It sounds like it's going to be a blast!

Oh, and if your scale is stuck for you but not for your BF, it's probably not the batteries. Just be happy it's stuck where it is and not going up, right?

Olehcat - 120 is actually a HIGH goal weight for me. I used to maintain about 115-118 up until recently! I am going back to what I used to, and have definitely learned that just because I gained weight doesn't mean my plan/approach no longer worked, I was just eating too much more often than usual. Simple matter of cutting that out!
Thin crust artisan pizza is like, the best thing ever. I love crispy thin crust... nothing else appeals to me. I think if you stick to your resolve to eat well and workout today that's another pretty nice NSV for you! It's a slippery slope letting things spill over. I definitely did that on Tuesday, even though I had planned to keep it to one night.

TheBunneh - Congratulations on the weigh in! You're getting there :)
LOL, if you saw my response to Maddie you can see that it probably IS real gain. Sadly I was back on plan W,T,F and STILL weighed in that high today. My goodness...



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Oh, couple of random photos!

Me and my friend Lisa at her baby shower last Sunday;

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...17049357_n.jpg

This is my freshly colored hair (not super red, but definitely redder than my natural strawberry blonde);

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...25433404_n.jpg

My epic nachos (pre sour cream and salsa);
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...48202776_n.jpg

Morning ladies!

Weight was down 1 pound today, so thats a start... and I got an email back from my former coach saying that since I had paid for a 12 week program and only used 6 of them he would have the ladies in his office freeze the other 6 weeks worth of services so that I can use them again in the future. I don't know if I will or not, but perhaps it would be something I can do after I move to Colorado and get settled in again.

We'll see... :)

My weight stayed the same today, despite eating ONLY veggies from a veggie tray with a few tablespoons of hummus for dinner. Ah, well! I'm sure it will be up tomorrow, too, because I had an AWESOME workout.

Yes, I ran 5 miles today, but I did it faster and easier than last Sunday. Plus I did some strength training right after and was able to increase SOME of my weights for some of the machines. The goal was to get a weight where it was really a struggle to finish the set. The chin-up assist machine? I still practically have to set it at my own weight, lol. I struggle every time on that one. But I still feel bad*** at using it. Anyway, my body is humming with that good workout feeling that you get. But I know my weight will be up tomorrow, especially because I'm going to my parents' house for dinner tonight and have no idea what I'll eat there.

I need to cook for the week (I have salmon and turkey breasts to bake and turkey chili to make, eggs to hard boil, etc.) and my kitchen is a mess. Ugh. I guess I should get to it.

@Jossfit - you look VERY tiny in those pics! I can't even imagine what you'd look like 10 pounds less!

@Maddie - great pics of you!! Your arm DOES look skinny! I'm glad you had a good time!

@Turbo - hope you're having a great time on your snowshoe trip!

Olehcat - The current profile picture I have is me at about 117-118 pounds, so that gives you and idea.

I also ran five-ish miles today (5.1 actually :D ) but then I did another 20 minutes on the elliptical... I wasn't hardcore enough to do weights like you! Nice job! Today was just cardio for me, but tomorrow I have weights and cardio in the morning and unit PT in the afternoon.

You SHOULD feel badass doing ANY kind of pullups! If you stick with it you will improve, and it gets much easier the more weight you lose. I was doing 12 or so pullups per set, but now I can only do like 5-6. :(

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

Since we all like photos so much, here are a few more!

I got my hair touched up today. I colored it myself yesterday but it looked so FLAT. I just wanted a more strawberry version of my strawberry blonde hair, so I think it finally looks that way after some professional highlights and lowlights today;

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...72065403_n.jpg

(and yes, I'm super pale.)

This is one my mom put on my FB page of me when I was little. I was living in CA at the time so me and my brother were both super blonde from the sun!

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...68456906_n.jpg

Who doesn't look hot wearing ducks?!

Joss - Your hair looks great! And I'm super pale too! Go vampires!

Down 1.1 today! Woohoo! Only up .4 from what I was before my night of 3 apps, a beer & donut holes with caramel sauce :P

I walked around the neighborhood yesterday for 30 minutes & took all the hills I could, only to be brought to the reality of my stupid tendonitis in my knee! I was seriously seeing red last night. I can't even go for a dang walk without being in terrible pain!? This isn't fair! My sister & her husband are gym rats & she said they both have had injuries like this & they took months to heal - she said she was shocked when the ER dr told I'd be fine in 2 weeks. And here I am, 5 weeks later, & I can't take a walk without major pain. Thanks, doc.

So, I'm back to wearing my old brace & icing my knee & taking it easy AGAIN. :/ I don't want to take it easy, but I can't put any kind of strain on my knee without serious pain radiating up & down my leg.

I don't come here to *****, but I'm just super annoyed. I knew I couldn't run or do squats, but walking!? I need lift my saggy a$$!

Harrmph!

Where did the weekend go Feathers?

Very bad weekend for drinking this weekend. It put me WAY over my calories. I did well with eating, but it doesn't really matter IF I drank a bottle of wine on Friday AND Saturday...right?

Well tomorrow is another day. I didn't bother to weigh-in all weekend because I knew it wouldn't be pretty (although I am sure Saturday's weigh-in would have a great dehydration one) :). I will weigh-in tomorrow for a "reality" check. I know when I see the number, it will motivate me to get back on track. It was just sooo much fun!

Ironically, my trainer cut my calories and my carbs for this week.
We have a week off work starting Friday and I thought we might go away (somewhere hot, I am sick of this snow), but we can't find any deals. We left it too late, so I'm not surprised. I know it will be "Eat and Drink" fest regardless, so I have to figure a way to find a balance. My trainer is aware of the week off, and I just going to look at it as a "diet" break, although I have been warned not to go crazy!

I am still feeling puffy, having those TOM symptoms and coughing up a lung or two! Let's just say, I am NOT looking forward to Monday. Good times! Lol! :)

GOAL for March:

STAY OFF THE SCALE! I have to check-in for my trainer, but I do not need to be on it everyday. I REALLY want to work on that this month.

Joss...OMG those nachos look amazing. They are by far my favorite snack food. You look so tiny in that pic with your friend :)

Turbo...I change the scale batteries too when I think something is up. Sometimes is works, sometimes not! lol! I love red meat...but I try to limit to once a week.

Ohlecat...You will see a whoosh soon. Keep up the great work!

Krampus...Looking forward to hearing about weekend festivities. I'm sure it involved awesome food and good company :)

TheBunneh...Good work girl! Keep it up!

MaddieB...That sucks about the pain. I hope you get some relief soon. Looks like a great time with the girls. Love the dress!

Sorry if I missed anyone...not much time again tonight!

Maddie : Oh I love your dress!!!! It suits you so well!!! it is so nice you had a blast with your friends!

That sucks for you knee :( Those injuries take always so long to heal, I do agree with you, it is not fair. Did you see someone since those 5 weeks?

Joss : First, yay for the pound dropped! :) Your nachos looks awe-freackin-sooooome.

Love what you did with your hair! This color is wonderful on your skin tone! I'm team super pale too :P The ''oh god, are you sick, you're so pale you look so sick'' ''... nop. not sick. feeling just fine. this is my usual february skin tone'' is really a usual thing for me :P

Wearing ducks is definitely coming back, in my opinion :P Next fashion week, it is gonna be EVERYWHEREEEEEE

Olehcat : Great job on the run! For the assisted chin up/pull up machine, I am planning to use it for the first time this week and I am terrified LOL. I have no idea what weight to put on that thing (and I'm kinda concerned on HOW to get on that thing in the first place... oh jesus)

Bayzee : Oh I did bad bad BAD this weekend too. I'm kinda happy I was not the ONLY one screwing up this weekend LOL We don't eat red meat that often anymore, actually :) it was the first in 2 weeks or 3, making it even more awesome!

***

Hello ladies! I'm back from the woods, where we had an awesome time. The good news : I really kept it relax on the wine, sipping slowly through the bottle we brought the boyfriend and (one of the girls drank a bit more and wanted to die being hangover this morning. she was feeling so bad we were not feeling strong enough to be mad at her when she all woke us up super early searching for some headache med LOL). I also drank sooo much water, so i don't think I got dehydrated (the downside of that was that I had to use the outdoor toilet-cabin that stinked like H*LL like 5 times over the evening).

The bad new : I ate too much :P. Okay, that will sounds vain, but my cookies were really awesome and I ate tons of them LOL. the other people were laughing at me because I was always eating cookies... while they were eating I don't know how many bags of chips. I guess I had a sweet tooth last night... but at least we snowshoed during the afternoon, climbed a big hill to go down sledding and had to carry our heavy bagpack with snowshoe oever 1.2 km in the forest. I'm gonna know what kind of damages I've done when I'll weigh in tomorrow.

Oh and I POOPED TWO 4-5 stars pooped today. Everytime I eat crap I have the most wonderful poops in the world. Ain't that awesome.

Here is a picture from yesterday afternoon, it was lighlty snowing and the weather was just around freezing point so very comfy. And pretty. :)

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1696/img1186od.jpg

Turbo - BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! "Everytime I eat crap I have the most wonderful poops in the world."

oh gosh, feathers, my cats are right now stalking a mouse!!! Ick, ick, ick. I want them to just take care of it before I get home. Yes, this has happened before, I live in a very old house. Unfortunately, I don't get home until 7 tonight, so a dead, mutilated mouse will just be sitting somewhere almost all day, if the cats are successful at least. They key is to not accidentally step in it when I get home and it's dark!

In weight news, I'm definitely up this morning. I'm not changing my profile because I think it's a HUGE water weight issue. I did not eat huge amounts of food yesterday, but what I ate was sodiumy and carby. Plus my epic workout yesterday. AND I was thirsty ALL day yesterday and it seemed like all the water I drank just wasn't doing it for me. It's like I'd drink some water and be really thirsty again a second later. I wasn't drinking ENOUGH water for what my body wanted. Plus, I drank some wine last night. So a perfect storm for my weight to be up all the way to 149.2, which at least is .6 pounds less than it was last Monday. Small triumphs, small triumphs!

So I'm drinking tons of water today, even though that's really hard with my work/class schedule. Monday through Thursday is ultra-clean eating for me. My low during the last week was 145.0. We'll see if we can beat that this week. I should be able to run a little more this week, too. It's just today and tomorrow that I can't.

@Maddie - so sorry about your injury! I HATE that. So frustrating.

@Turbo - that area looks GORGEOUS! And haha on the poop. That is SO TRUE. On the assisted chin machine, I would say just setting it to within 10 pounds of your weight. Like if you're around 140, then set it on 130. That way there's very little resistance to start. If that's easy, then just set it at 120 and keep going down, etc.

@Bayzee - oh, those bottle of wine nights. Love them at the time, hate it the next morning! Good luck with staying off the scale.

@Jossfit - very cute kid pic! And I like the hair color!

Olehcat - I wasn't digging my scale today either! I am back up the pound I was down yesterday, so I'm hanging out at 130. I honestly cannot decide WHAT to do about my scale issue. Do I continue to weigh in everyday, lest it get away from me, or do I put it up and just focus on watching what I eat and hitting my workouts hard? Gaaaahhhh.

Seeing your post did help me to just remember that I too had a hard run yesterday, a pretty sodium heavy dinner, and that being in a caloric deficit there is NO WAY its anything other than water weight fluctuations. Regardless, I hope we both see some progress soon!

Thank you for the compliments on my photos! The redder tone isn't dramatic to anyone else, but I'm not used to my hair being that dark and I feel like it makes my face look different. I'm sure I'll adjust soon.

LOL I hope you don't step on a dead mutilated mouse tonight!!

Turbo - The nachos were pretty epic, and since we had discussed them I had to make them happen; chicken, bacon, black olives, jalepenos, shredded cheese, chips, sour cream and salsa... just like we discussed. :D

I actually used to tan a lot as you know, and now that I don't I'm so much happier. Yeah, my body looks a bit leaner when I have a nice tan, but my skin is softer and smoother and hopefully with all my moisturizing and sunscreen wearing I won't need more skin biopsies or look like a leather bag in a few years!

I WISH that first pound gone had stayed gone, but alas, it was back this morning to say hello. I was displeased. I feel better after my workout but it's still just so frustrating.

Your weekend sounds like it was fantastic! Wine, excellent cookies and 5-star poops! :D Why can't all those cookies and wine come without calories? Has anyone ever asked you what you would choose if you could have any superpower? Some people say they would choose to fly, or be invisible, or speak to animals... not me. I would want my superpower to be the ability to remove the calories from anything I choose. :D I'm dead serious too! hahaha!

I'm going to try my best to take a page out of your book and go easy on the drinks when I see my hubby this weekend, and also on the food more importantly, but we'll see. My *realistic goal* is to keep the indulgences to one evening and get right back on track for the remainder of March.

Bayzee - Between you and Turbo, I want wine right MEOW! :D How many calories is in a typical bottle of wine? *nevermind, just Googled it* - It looks like depending on the type the typical 750ml bottle has like 600-850 calories, so that's a wide range. I am debating which would be better for me this weekend; a bottle of wine OR buying some mini's of liquor and mixing them with a calorie free mixer. An oz of vodka has 75-85 calories depending on the proof, so I could get like 8-10 shots of vodka for the same calories as a bottle of wine... hmmm...
Meh, who am I kidding... I'll drink what sounds good at the time. I'll end up eating 5000 calories worth of food anyway... haha

How often do you plan on weighing then? Once a week or so for your trainer? I keep going back and forth about what to do. I don't want to keep getting discouraged but I also don't want the excuse of letting the pounds creep up because I'm ignoring the scale. It's a tough call.

LOL I do NOT feel like I look tiny at all in that picture. I'm the same size as the PREGNANT WOMAN!

Maddie - I'm so sorry to see you're having issues with your knee! Injuries are SO frustrating because you want to workout and I know that for me it just makes me feel like I have to be even more strict with my diet. I sure hope it gets better for you soon.


** Random question for everyone ** for those of you who count, how many calories are you eating per day? I am keeping mine low this week but I don't know if it's doing any good and I'm on the fence as to how many I should be eating. My coach started me out on about 1600 and slowly lowered them. I was eating about 1270 when I stopped working with him (at which point he wanted to bring it down to 1100 or so). I've always had the best results while losing on about 1200-1250, but I'm just so all over the place right now with what to do. My instinct is to keep them at 1200-1250 because that's what I know, but then of course there is the thought that a few more might be MORE effective for fat loss at a faster rate.