LockItUp- no we haven’t met, hello! :wave:

krampus – those are some pretty rockin’ sneaks! and the bacon menu just cracks me up! I don’t eat pork but if I did I would probably have gone for the bacon milkshake, LOL. otherwise, awesome for the 5 miler, gotta love nice weather :sunny:

alexis – good call on buying yourself something nice instead of spending it on junk food! my british tv nights are Saturday/Sunday with Keeping up Appearances (oldie but such a goodie!), New Tricks and … it used to be Doc Martin but the series just finished, then on Sunday it’s Call the Midwife. Have you see Absolutely Fabulous? I used to watch that series too, it is hilarious!

Turbo – WOW! you look AMAZING! I am totally jealous!!! but you have worked so hard to get there and you work hard to maintain it, you go girl! tu m’inspires toujours!

-------------------------------------------
mid-week check in for me here! yesterday, I don’t know what happened but I had a major case of gastritis in the afternoon and I went home straight after work, and it kind of ruined my night eating wise because I just ate a ton of crackers to try to calm my stomach, booooo. needless to say today’s weight was absolutely horrible! at work, there was a huge Mexican food potluck but I didn’t want to chance another stomach issue (still a bit sensitive), so I just ate my salad. (probably a better choice for kcal anyways!)

I can tell it’s about TOM – super bloated, kind of crampy tonight and not to mention way overly emotional (I cried watching a commercial tonight…seriously… LOL) So yeah in general I’m having a low self-esteem, hate my body, type of day. blegh. However, I did do a walk/jog for 3 miles along with an arm workout, so at least I did something other than sulk about. I decided I am going to start an “Arm Challenge” – to do an arm work out 4x a week for 6 weeks and see where that takes me.

Dinner was simple and yummy tonight – I made trader joe’s vegetable pasta with some steamed broccoli, tuna, avocado with a bit of olive oil drizzled on top with some garlic salt. Quick and yum!

enjoy the rest of your week girls!

Hi, feathers!

This is like the busiest week of my semester yet, so no in-depth personals, just a few drive-bys!

@Turbo - you look great!!!! You are so tiny!

@Krampus - I WANT THOSE SHOES!

@Lockitup - HI!

@Alex - you can do it! No Doom loop! If I can avoid it, you can! (because I'm queen of all doom loop diet thoughts! :))

As for my situation, I've continued doing what I'm doing with the whole eating a nice breakfast, a healthy lightish lunch, something proteiny around 3ish, and nothing food-like after that. Monday and Tuesday were great, and I felt really light yesterday. My pants felt a little looser on me and I just had that overall lighter feeling. I did not weigh as I did not want to be put in a foul, discouraged mood if it still said like 147 or something. That has SO happened before, where I FEEL light and then the number says something totally different.

So this week has been hard to keep to plan exactly because it's such a social week. Last night I was at a birthday party. While I tried to eat pretty light during the day, I know I still ate WAY too much last night and I woke up iwth stomach cramps in the middle of the night (pizza, even really really good quality homemade pizza does this to me every time -- stupid lactose intolerance) and I feel mega bloated this morning. Today will be okay, but tomorrow I'm supposed to meet a friend for dinner. Saturday is my half marathon race and I have plans that evening, too, to celebrate. So basically I'll only be doing my thing about 3-4 times this week, which probably will not equal success overall.

So my overall, long-term plan is supposed to be to be on plan for the days I have control over (hopefully most days) with the idea that maybe once a week or so, I'll be off plan because life happens, but this week, there are at least 3 off plan evenings, not to mention last weekend! But I don't want to get neurotic about it, and I want to be doing something that I could do for life. So I have to get over the fact that the weight's going to just fall off me. But I would sure like it if even if there was a definite loss without bloating or dehydration in the way of at least a half pound a week.

Anyway, hope everyone has a good day!

Alexis : Aww, thank for your nice words! I always considered myself really lucky, even at my highest weight, my weight was still proportionate along my curves...Although I really don't think that lithe could ever be a word associated with me; I am really not graceful, I am mostly awkward, MC Hammer-type awkward

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/1810/mchammer.jpg

But to be quite honest, you are truly an inspiration to me too! You are so calm and focused on life.

Hope you had a great run, height twin! ;)

krampus : Great for you that you took time to enjoy the weather! It was so crazy here, I live closed to a college campus and it felt like it was spring break or something yesterday afternoon, the kids all took their couch outside and were sipping beers on it. Did your friend win the fight against the burger??

Thank for the nice words! And I love this camera, the bright pink color really help me not losing it, being so easy to spot in my usual mess :P

chahma : For a moment I had forgotten you were speaking french too and I was taking aback LOL! But thank you so much :) HUGHHH, I hope your stomach is feeling better :S Good luck with your Arm Challenge. What exactly are you doing during this challenge?

Olehcat : I love your attitude about wanting to follow your plan but also knowing you can't go crazy about it when you have social things to attend :) And I sure do hope you're planning celebrations after your half! I think the food I get to eat in bonus when I'm running might be a reason why I love running so much bwhahaha

***

Hi! 132.6 this morning. A little mix of ''wth'' and ''hmmm, okay, I'll take it'' but I know it is probably a fluke. It is weird because I ate a 7 oz steak last night, I expected a gain actually this morning. Gooo figure. It would not be the first time I'd see a drop after a meal I considered heavy.

So last night we had steak tournedos on the grilled with grilled veggies (onion, yellow sweet pepper, zucchini and mushroom with spices) khebabs and it was SO GOOD. I begin to think we are not using the grill as much as we should, we mostly used in during the weekends last year... trying to change that this year. Tonight on the plan if stuffed chicken breast with some leftover proscuitto, pesto and a bit of light mozzarella with grilled cabbage wedge. I already want to eat dinner lol

Planning to run this afternoon, I wanted to get it done in the morning but it was so windy. It is supposed to calm down in the next few hours, my 11k will probably be less painful. My legs are sore, I'm expecting a sucky run :P

Have a great day ladies!

krampus ~ I saw that it was Admin Pro Day. What a great way to celebrate. ;) It's kind of a milestone year for me b.c this is the first year that I've been in the states when I don't have "assistant" in my title. (I'm an "ASSOCIATE recruiter/researcher", thank you very much. Make less money than I did as an asst, but that's a different story... :P) Dried fruit IS triggery and I have no idea why I'm hitting the dates so hard... mostly b.c I feel like they're a 'healthier' form of sweet... Fewer chemicals. Still pretty heavy calorie wise, but less processed crap at least. It makes a difference in my head, if nowhere else.

chalma ~ lol - your Brit night sounds a lot like ours. I have seen AbFab (love the New Year episode). Right now I'm into Miranda and Men Behaving Badly, although I do fall asleep to Are You Being Served? or Keeping Up Appearances DVDs. ;) Good for you for getting out there and moving, rather than staying in and sulking. That's always a better option.

oleh ~ First of all, gold star to you for checking in even though you're busy. And it does sound like a plan you can manage for the forseeable future; it seems like you're painting the difference between real hunger and emotional eating. Actually listening to it is another issue all together, but at least you're aware of what's going on.

Turbo ~ Heya! Send some of that fluke on the scale over my way! Maybe all the protein did your body good? Both dinners sound delicious!!! What kind of camera do you have? Is it a powershot? Those are some heavy duty runs, girl. Sore = good, for sure.




~~~

Since it was dark when I got home, I debated running outside vs inside (deadmill) but opted to go outside in the end. Awesome decision. :thup: I forgot how much I love being out in the world. And it was the perfect night for it too: cool but not chilly, low pollen count. Just awesome. Tree flowers blooming in the dark. Breathtaking.

So doom loop mostly avoided. I tied a knot, if nothing else. Momma brought home Korean food AND we had pizza, fusion cuisine fo' sure - delicious but potentially dangerouns. I ate just a tiny bit past comfortably full, but oh, well... Up a pound this morning, but at least it was only a pound.

Have a meeting tonight, then hopefully will get in another run this evening.

Happy Thursday, Feathers!!!!

Thank you, everyone. :) Turbo, you look amazing! I am almost that thin. ;)

I was slacking here and there too which dragged out my loss at a snails pace but to get those last few pounds off (which are the biggest pain in the @ss) I stopped eating outside of the house almost completely and jogging. Lots of jogging. Now that I am at goal I want to focus more on lifting to tighten things up a bit more.

I've got personals comin' for ya tomorrow. Right now, I've just got one thing to say: 19.72 miles.

I'm. Freaking. Spent.

But I had no prep other than a sedentary day yesterday, and the yields of 1 cup white rice for breakfast this morning (so ~750 cal worth) plus a hot soy milk, a couple dried Chinese dates, and two black coffees. I stopped a couple times for water, snacks, bathroom, wedgie pick, etc., but while running, never once did I slow to a walk.

As far as snacks, at about 7 miles in, I had a 35 gram Snickers (170 cals) and a 16 oz water. Another 6 or 7 miles later, I had two little Oreo wafer bars, which totaled 140 calories, and another water. So my snacks were pure sugar (as they should be), but not that high in calories, given the activity I was doing. Dinner was big, but not heinously so: 2 small boiled porkchops (~200 cal), salad (~220) and a bowl of oatmeal made with 3/4 cup oats, 240 mL milk, and 1 TBSP sugar (~570). In total, I ate 2270 today. Something tells me the scale's gonna be down a bit tomorrow :)

Anyway, despite being totally beat, I feel really happy. With a proper 2-3 day carbo-load and gels+Gatorade in-race, I feel 100% certain that I could do a marathon. Now just to buckle down on my pace. I think I could do a <4:30 marathon this summer if I really work at it.

Alexis : Yup, my camera is a Canon Powershot, but I have no idea of the other details of the camera, I bought it only because it was pink :P LOL I needed a flashy color so I would not lost it everywhere... Aww, I love to run at night :) There is just something about running after the sun is down, everything is all calm and relax! OH YEAH for avoiding the doom loop!!! You rock!

novangel : thank you :) And yay for jogging!!

xiao : That is some SERIOUS RUUUUUUN, woman! No wonder you are spent!! You are so close to a marathon distance, I'm 158% sure you could do this too! Ah, gels, I always found they taste so bad.. in my training run I bring dried fruits but during races I take the gels offered... Funny thing, at my last half, I had red online that when you took a gels, keep your water cup from the water table to wash it after you had it because most of the time they taste nasty. In front of my there was a bunch of woman who were on their first half and had never taken gel before. They were all excited ''oh cool gels! that will give us a boost!', but as soon as they took it, with no water to wash it down, it was a festival of ''JESUS CHRIST THAT TASTE BAD BLRPRBLPRBLPR'' and ended up spitting the thing out lol

***

hi! okay, I hit 131.8 this morning and I am reallyyyy confused. I really thought I'd be higher today, I was a bit dehydrated after my run yesterday and despite drinking tons of water, I barely went to pee after dinner, so I really thought I was keeping all the water in... And than this morning, BAM. I ate more proteins in the last 2-3 days, maybe my body was just fighting against my lower calories intake before? Anyways. I'm kinda lost and in a ''what is going onnnnn'' situation

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/5787/jackichan.jpg

I'm struggeling in trying to increased my calories to enter maintaining mode, I honestly think I am not eating enough for the amount of calories I burn. I think I was lying to myself for a while, saying that I eat around 1600 calories everyday, it is a good amount right? Well, 1600 is probably too low when you burn 400-800 calories in training 5 days a week. Yesterday I ate 1800 cal and I felt all badass- before realizing I burned like 700 cal during my run.

I think the people on Calorie Count got into my head a bit, you know, if you eat more than 1300 and don't have a net deficit of -700, it is a bad day and the end of the world? And at the same time, I'm kinda in the loop of ''well, I'm just gonna lose ONE MORE POUND and I'm stopping''. I feel I'm flirting with the eating disorder line right now. It might be the reason why my period are still a no-show.

... sorry for the rant :( I'm just kinda scared to talk about this stuff with the boyfriend, I'm afraid he'll freak out.

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Hello Feathers! Happy Friiiiiiiiday!

I weighed more than I have in a couple weeks this AM apparently. I had a beer and a few chips and a bit of leftover couscous and some chocolates and some chocolate and sea salt almonds after said beer last night - I felt hungry after lifting a ton yesterday but could have definitely made better choices. Wahhhh. More than anything I'm just annoyed that I still CARE what the scale says - but throwing it out and not weighing myself in the mornings is SCARY for some reason and I'm not sure if I want to do it or what.

My boss took me out to lunch today and I had half a Reuben and some chips. Maybe that will confuse my body back to normal - I've been having horrific (TMI) spicy diarrhea all day, which is clearly no fun. We had our big annual meeting here yesterday, which I attended in full. I love all the members of our organization - we're like Island of the Misfit Toys, really diverse crowd of folks of all ages, backgrounds and disabilities.

Tonight is a going away party for my friend who ate the 4 lb burger on Wednesday - my roommate wrote a bluegrass hoedown song in honor of him and our group of friends which we will debut. Then tomorrow is a bridal shower - I did all the food shopping and it's ALL CARBY SNACKS with some fresh fruit and cheese. I'm hoping I rein it in and don't completely gorge myself as I am wont to do at boring social events (oops). Sunday I am planning a long mountain hike with my BF which will be fun and a great excuse to load up on granola bars :D

Boss left an hour ago - I am so not staying here until 5 PM. Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Turbo It is really scary to not know if you are really "in control" of how "in control" you are. Especially with training, you run faster and better and recover faster if you eat more, but if you eat more you will see the scale jump - and if you see the scale increase, you eat less to see it go down. For Featherweight athletes (excluding boxers, MMA fighters, wrestlers and others who need to make weight by deadlines) the scale is probably a serious ENEMY and obstacle to achieving fitness goals. I do think the body adapts to exercise so calorie burns aren't as high as they would be for people who are beginners or heavy - even if activities like running are listed at "500 calories burned per hour" it is probably a lot less for small females who have lots of practice. STILL - hope you are able to find the right balance and your period comes!

xiaobaicai Daaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyuuummmmmmm that's a lot of mileage! Very impressive. I gotta ask like a five year old though, when you say "bathroom" did you actually stop at a bathroom, or...? If you can run 19+ miles you can definitely run a full marathon! Is that one of your goals?

novangel F--- the last few pounds, seriously. I admire your willpower in resisting the allure of eating out and doing all that jogging, though I saw in other threads there is other stuff going on too. Hope you'll stick around and post often!

Alex Hooray for tying a knot in that doom loop and getting in a nice run outside. I HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE running anything other than warmups < 2 miles or speed intervals on treadmills - it feels like cruel and unusual punishment having to jog for half an hour in place. Doesn't help that neither of my gyms have any half decent TV shows or anything on, ever. I would love to be something other than an assistant SOMEDAY, sighhh. Congrats on professional milestone, the money will come!

olehcat It sounds like you are best off not weighing because really a couple lbs makes no difference at all, and the tragedy that is a "feeling light" day that is ruined by a disappointing WI is not worth the negative feelings that ensue. Spring and summer involve like 5 "off days" a week for me - it's harder this year than last year because I'm not actively losing anything! argh!

chahma Jeez, as soon as you're done being sick more illness gets tossed your way - hope you're back to 100% soon!

nova ~ Those last few pounds are MURDER, man. I like that your strategy of not eating outside of the house works for you. I mostly do this for budget reasons anyway, but it doesn't always work for weight loss for me... Usually most of my weight is gained inside the house... in secret... usually over a tub of nutella...

xiao ~ Freakin' amazing, you. I'm always in awe of marathon runners. Do you have plans for a marathon this summer? How's the spring been treating you up there? I remember when I was in SoKo, we got all that yellow dust coming down from China. Is it less of a problem for you b.c you're actually IN China? I always wondered that.

Turbo ~ Running at night is where it's AT, yo. Just haven't had the energy to do it lately. Thing is, I know it's a chicken/egg kind of thing: the more I do it, the more energy I'll have to do it more... Look at that calorie burn, girl! I can understand how you'd be confused with the loss but man, what I wouldn't give to be in your place... Just gotta keep telling myself: Flywheel, baby.

Krampus ~ Yummmmmmy reuben. I had on Saturday and it was delicious. Kind of sub par quality (meat was dry on the edges...) but still pretty fantastic. :) Do you get corned beef or pastrami? I feel like the scale keeps me accountable in my choices, but then again, I'm still in losing mode, so it's kind of a necessity.

~~~
Urgh... Just feeling a bit... unfocused lately. Was 158 this morning again. Not happy, man. Not happy. It could have been worse, but man it could be so much better. Ended up staying out late with a friend after the meeting, so no run after I came home.

Gots a packed weekend again. Rehearsal tonight. Tomorrow = AM Seminar and PM concert. Sunday = AM church and PM date, then capping off the evening with Once Upon a Time - (frothy mush, but I loooooove it.) Hope to squeeze in a wardrobe switch-over/spruce up in between the AM seminar and PM concert. We'll see how it goes...

Happy FRRIIIIIIIDAYYYY, feather friends.

krampus : I do agree with you, even if my Garmin is telling me 465 calories, there isn't many chances that I did exactly burned those... Freaking nummmbeeers. Hope you live through your bridal shower tomorrow (it does sounds.. exciting.. :P). Aaaaah mountain hiking! I'm so excited to start that again!

Alexis : I really want to say that I'm sorry I came in here today being all a whiny b*tch being all concerned I'm losing too much, especially when you are not in a place you enjoy right now.. :( The 6-months-from-now-me would have probably smack me in the face!!! I hope you'll find some time to relax in your busy busy weekend

olehcat – I know it sucks that weight doesn’t just “fall” off – it sure is easy to put it on, but double the work to get it off! good luck with your half marathon this weekend! Is this your first? keep sticking to your plan!

xiao- wow!!! you are amazing!! and I agree with every one else – you definitely could do a marathon! You really should look into signing up for one this summer, and GO FOR IT! I always hear about the terrible pollution in China, but I’m guessing where you are it isn’t too bad? I couldn’t imagine you running all those miles with really bad air quality!

alexis – I will have to check out those series, I really enjoy British shows. We’re about the same height/weight and I’d love to be 158 right now, so don’t get too down on yourself! is this weekend the bowling date?

novangel – congrats on making it down to the last few lb! I, too, rarely eat out – mainly for budget reasons and because I’ve seen too many of those kitchen nightmare shows and I get freaked out thinking about how my food is prepared – LOL. but I can say it makes a big difference for weightloss! and I see you are another runner/jogger, you’re in the perfect area because almost everyone here is a runner/jogger at all difference levels!

Turbo – I think that you look absolutely wonderful, and if you are happy with your weight then you should start to go into maintenance mode. I think at first it’s scary for everyone because you may see the slightest gain on a scale and immediately want to go back into kcal deficit mode, but at some point you have to eat what you burn to stabilize. I’m certainly no expert in that area, I’ve never made it to the maintenance part, LOL, but always listen to your body! oh yeah, the 6 weeks arm challenge is just a 10 minute arm workout video that I want to do 4-5x a week for 6 weeks, that's t :)

krampus – I totally understand about the scale – stupid numbers, why do they have to dictate us! I also have thought about throwing out the scale, but I can’t ever bring myself to do it. Have fun at the bridal shower! Sorry to hear about the diarrhea, that is never fun. the hiking trip sounds awesome!!!
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**VENT POST** (skip over if you want!)

Well this week was a wash. This morning 161.4, which I knew was going to happened. At first I thought I shouldn’t weigh in, it will just discourage me, but then I was like no I need to face the scale – the numbers don’t lie! TOM is here, so let’s say that contributes to 1 lb, but the other is completely my fault for being a monster eating (borderline binging) machine these last 2 days.

I don’t know what it is, but it’s like as soon as TOM is here the day before plus the first two days I cannot stop eating sweets and starches. I can control myself all the other 27-28 days in a month, but those days are absolutely horrible, and I never have enough will power to just say no. Let’s take yesterday as an example… morning I was fine – oatmeal w/ flax and a bit of honey. Lunch – baked lemon pepper chicken with roasted brussel sprouts, but then I saw there were left overs from the Mexican luncheon, so I took a few spoonfuls of Mexican rice (again, not that detrimental). However, I then had a piece of spice cake (a small portion, so again I could have just left it at that for damage for the day). But no – the sugar monster kicked in and then I had to have 2 chocolate chip cookies after school, as well as some extra tortilla chips (I didn’t want them to be thrown away). I was craving pizza, so I told myself fine, I will have a modified version – so I made a whole wheat tortilla with chicken, tomatoes and mozzarella in the oven which was fine. I could have left my day at that. But noooo! Later on I had to have a PB/honey sandwich (probably like 4 tbsp of PB!). As I was craving chocolate, I told myself I was going to be good and instead of ripping into some Ben & Jerrys I bought myself a nice expensive 85% organic chocolate bar – which I ate half of last night! So, that was a typical day for me, and pretty much how I ate Thursday, too… I am so disgusted! I feel pretty nasty this morning, several trips to the bathroom and overall feeling blah, which I refer to as a “food hangover”

I really wanted to go for a nice long walk today, but it is raining as of right now, but maybe it will clear up later in the day. I am going to focus on eating correct, balanced meals today – and NO sugar. Seriously sugar is a drug for me – if I have the slightest bit, I want more and more and I can’t seem to stop! Honey I can control myself with, but refined sugar like in cakes, and sweets – it’s all over.

I also keep thinking to myself that this time last year I was feeling really great about my body, I was around 153 but I was in really good shape because I ran/jogged every day – I know I need to get focused again on running because I feel that is truly the only way I am going to lose. I really like zumba, but I don’t feel like it does much for my weight loss. The hubby always tries to comfort me and says things like “oh your body is so cute” but he hasn’t seen me for a year, and +10 lbs makes a difference! Not to mention, he is a runner and very fit himself and pretty much can eat whatever he wants and not gain an ounce. I am nervous about going back for vacation because, well, for staters – they live in Provence region, beaches everywhere! I put on my cute bikini from last year, and it’s muffin top city, uuuughhh! Plus let’s face it – French women love to talk about weight and his family makes comments about my weight every time I see them – (they aren’t mean at all, it’s just always a topic that’s brought up) Last time I had lost a lot of weight, so it was nice to hear when they would say “you’re too skinny!” but this time I don’t want to hear the comments of “you’ve gained weight!” Plus, they love to make the correlation of everytime I come back to the US I gain weight (which doesn’t help the “all Americans ae fat stereotype!) I love my in-laws but the weight issue is very sensitive for me.

Sorry for all my ranting - I just needed to get it off my chest and move on. I’ve dusted myself off – today is a new day, and I’m done with excuses. I’ve got 6 weeks to get myself “beach” ready, but not only that I need to really change these nasty habits of allowing myself the out of control eating.

Goals this week:
1. Eat healthy, balanced meals – NO SUGAR (I’m going to be strict – not even 1 little cheat!)
2. Drink plenty of water (80 oz every day)
3. Exercise every day – begin jogging/running again, walking on recovery days + ARM challenge

If I manage to do all three of those things, then mentally I will feel much better.

Have a good weekend ladies!

Eeee! I did it, ran the half marathon today!!!! Man, that has absolutely sapped every bit of life from me the rest of the day, lol. I had to soak in epsom salts, take a nap, the whole bit. I didn't do my best time today, but part of that was having to have a bathroom break in the middle of the race, and part of it was just not being quite as well trained as last year. Ah well, there shall be other races! :)

@turbo - I TOTALLY rewarded myself with Thai noodles today! I didn't eat breakfast or anything at all until I ordered the food, so even though the noodles no doubt have enough calories for the whole day, that's all I'm eating! :). And 131!!! Wow! Turbo, I don't think that you're being disordered at all in your eating (not yet). I think it's completely natural and normal to be around goal and have that mentality of "i wonder what the scale would look like 1 more pound..." I think the key is to keep eating as you are, but maybe enjoy some fun days more often.

@Alex - Thank you! I'm hoping to get this eating thing/weight loss thing under control without having to suffer so much that I want to sabotage it all. You know? It's such a fine balance. And I LOVE running outside so much more. But I also like the treadmill for when I want to COMPLETELY space out and not worry about traffic, cracks in the sidewalk, etc.

@Novangel -- awesome! How much were you running per week when you were in active weight loss mode? I always think of about 4-5 miles a day four or five days a week to be a lot when I'm not training for a race (mostly because of time constraints).

@xiao - HOLY CRAP! Okay, you're officially my running hero now, as I sit here with muscles aching from barely finishing 13.1! ;) I know I couldn't have made it 6 more today!

@krampus -- Your social stuff with friends always sound so fun! And not weighing has been spectacular lately. I know I'm doing relatively well because,hey, I just ran 13.1 miles and with the exception of yesterday where I ate quite a bit during the day, today, for example, I've only had one meal because that's the way it worked out. Granted, it's a high calorie meal of greasy Thai noodles and some soup, but hey, I'm sure I still have a deficit today with the big run and all.

@chahma - thanks! Yes, that's such a big frustration for me because when I was a lot younger? Yeah, all I'd have to do is think about not drinking soda or something and I'd easily lose weight, lol! Not so much these days...Ah, well! I finished my half marathon today and feel VERY accomplished! ;) It's not my first -- I did one a year ago, too! So my next plan should be a full marathon! Eep! And don't worry about ranting. I do that here about every other day, too. I love how supportive and listening everyone is. It really is a good place to just vent about weight without judgment. I know exactly what you mean. For me it was about a year and half ago, I was about 10 pounds less than I am now and I was running all the time and felt and looked great (but I still knew I needed to lose about 15 pounds to be ideal, but hey, at least I was just a few pounds from what is considered a healthy weight for my height). Now it all sometimes seems so insurmountable. And TOM can completely mess you up. I am on medication to stop mine because of multiple problems, but when I had my period, about a third of every month I weighed almost 5 pounds more than my usual weight. Talk about discouraging whenever I was trying to lose weight. Ugh. So I sympathize! And no sugar is a great way to feel lighter!

(In advance -- I'm sorry to anyone who wrote me a personal on the last page, but it totally sucks to go back and forth to remember who wrote what and then respond. If the Quick Reply box would stay fixed between page browses in the same thread, that would be awesome.)
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chahma: Oh man! Pasta with vegetables and tuna is something my mom made all the time when I was a kid. Reading that just reminded me how delicious it is. I think I know what's for dinner tonight...
But onto your most recent post: Up where I live there are a few issues with air quality, but it's a small city and so there are relatively few factories. Basically, as long as you don't go running thorugh the industrial or village areas (these usually are the same places, anyway), you'll be okay. Rural areas can have bad air quality too, because industrial regulations are even more slack in the countryside, and because they burn big piles of trash, having no garbage trucks like in the city.

Also, yes on the no-sugar thing, especially if you find it to be a big trigger. Honestly, if I think I'm about to plow into an overeating session, I know it'll suck giant monkey balls to do, but summon your psychological energy and make yourself go outside for a jog. Not only does it get you out of the house, for me, a moderate jog cuts out those nagging "wanna-snack" urges.

olehcat: Congratulations!! I've never run a single event in my life, and so I'm really excited to come home and start doing them this summer. How many other people ran today? Rest up, and good work: :D

Alexis: Ah yes. I used to do this most beautiful and amazing summertime night runs when I lived back in my college town. It's not that I can't run at night around here, but it's all city and it's just not that great of running scenery. Also, there's no greenery or blossoms here, yet. Temperatures have been like highs in the mid-to-upper 50s with lows maybe in the 30s or something. So it's getting to be good running weather, although I'm ready for some HEAT. And it's funny you mention about the dust -- I'm not sure what the heck was going on with the air today in my city (it's called Jiamusi if you wanna see it on a map), but it looked really dusty and yellow. We got duststorms all the time when I lived in Daqing, which is a city in the same province, but it's closer to the Inner Mongolian flatlands, where I think a lot of dust comes from. Here, we're more surrounded by mountains, so I'm not sure if we're gonna get beaten with dust. I hope not; I *hated* those duststorms.

Turbo: Thank you so much for the kind words on the running I've never actually eaten a gel before, but I thought they were basically glorified candy, and so should taste great. Your description of the runners on tasting them made me LOL for real. And about your crazy weight loss -- I hope that happens to me, too! Who knows what the cause of it is? Oh yeah, and figuring out what constitutes maintaintence calories totally sucks. I've thought I was maintaining before, but was actually setting myself up to gain prodigiously. Basically I think if you stay under 2000 most days of the week, you'll be fine -- I know it sounds really general, but that's how it seems to work for a lot of active women.

krampus: Oh, I stopped in at gas stations to go wee. There's plenty along my long routes, seeing as it's all highway. I read something real nice the other day about how Tour de France and other distance bike event participants do their bathroom thing -- just yank their shorts aside and pee off the bike! I can see that being do-able for men, and I guess it would be for women too, if you didn't mind flashing all the bystanders and peeing all over your bike.
---------------------------------------------------------
--TMI--
So yesterday I was considering doing an easy little 5-mile recovery run in the park before dinner, but my plans were abruptly thwarted by a painful uprising in my colon. All day long, I'd been farting up a *storm*, and I have no idea why. Anyway, I jogged out to the nearby park, and felt awful the whole way there. I ran about half a mile or so before I decided I'd best head back and have a seat on the can. Yet when I did, it was nothing but rabbit turds! WTF.
--/TMI--

Anyway, had myself a good old fashioned recovery day yesterday. Surprisingly, however, my muscles felt totally fine! The only reason I couldn't complete my run earlier was due to the abovementioned GI issues, although my ankle did feel a bit off. Eating, I did badly, although to be fair I was just really hungry for most of the day. 2565 calories and a zero activity day. That sucks. I could have stopped at 1900, but I just *had* to keep going. Also, I chewed a bunch of sugar free gum, which I didn't realize has like 8 calories a serving, meaning my daily intake is probably more like 2600 for the day. Ugh. I chew so much gum when I'm sitting at home working, to prevent myself from nibbling the inside of my mouth (a bad habit I'm trying so hard to kick). Guess I'm gonna have to chew the pieces for way longer, lol.

I'll probably do a good 15 miler today, and then try to stay on tight track (<1800) until the end of the month. Just took my waist measurement, and it's still a 26.25", meaning no change. Maybe next week I'll post a progress pic...

chahma : Aww, TOM is a b*tch for triggering out of control cravings! Freaking hormons! It must be weird to have your weight randomly brought up in the conversation, even if it is not in a mean way. Usually, people tend to compliment a weight loss but prefer not to say anything when someone gain! When exactly are you heading to France? --- oops just red the part when you are saying it ;) if you've got 6 weeks, you've got time to shed a few pounds that might help you feel much more comfortable at the beach. I don't know if you are like me, but just losing a few give me a confidence boost that will change completely how I am feeling about my body, even if there is not big real results with what I see in the mirror... That is the power of the number of the scale, I suppose... Good luck to you :)

olehcat : CONGRATS ON YOUR HALF!!! Just the fact that you finished it and pushed through it, after being unsure about how well you were trained during the last month if a major win! :D Great job! Threat yourself today and relax!!! You diserve it!

xiao : Omg, is your GI feeling better today? I think eating your 2500 cal after the day your ran 19 miles is okay, especially since your said that you did not eat all the food in the world on the day you did that run. JESUS CHRIST, another 15 milers today? You are my IDOL.

For the gels thing, I tasted one that was banana-strawberry, my favorite so far :) They don't feel like candy though, they taste so ''processed-food'', like ''WE THREW ALL THE SUGAR WE EVER COULD IN THIS TINY 2 INCHES PACKAAAAAAGE''. But I think it is mostly the paste texture that weird people out... it really just stick to go everywhere in your mouth and you're there, trying not to stop because well, you are running a freaking race, trying to swallow that sh*t.. that is why I always try to have water with me when I have one LOL

***

Hi! Not much to report... Hold steady at 132.4 yesterday and today. I had a 12k run yesterday that was still a bit harder than I would have like (the last 4k, I felt bleeeh) but I felt much better than my crappy Thursday run. I would probably been better if I would have been dress more lightly on my upper body. Oh well, I'm a enjoying my rest day today.

There is bad news in my family, one of my cousin (that I was not close too) comited suicide 2 nights ago. He was always troubled, and I feel so sad for his mom. This aunt really helped us out, my brother and I, when our mom passed away and we still turn to her a lot now for little random life things. That is so sad how life sometimes just seem to hit always the same people...

Have a great Sunday, ladies

About 20 miles a week but I was overcompensating because I was cheating with restaurant food. Once I stopped cheating I cut back on exercise and lost a lot faster..obviously. Now I'm getting lazy though! Can't win. :lol:

Like Krampus said, I have other stuff going on but hopefully soon I will have much less going on. I plan to get back on track today.