Alexis : Did you survive your busy weekend? You had a full schedule ahead of you! Still seeing Martin Freeman tomorrow?

Krampus : Hope you had fun with your friends visiting! You always has so much nice activities to go to, aaaah a bonfire! I grew up by the sea and we used to make a bonfire every single week with my friends, but now that we live in cities, that is not as easy lol. Can't wait to go camping to drink beers around the fire and grill marshmallow!

novangel : I understand your lack of motivation to train in the morning, I am slowly starting to run in the morning again because it is getting a bit too hot in the afternoon and I have to KICK MYSELF in the b*tt every single time LOL

chahma : Awww, I hope you're okay Take all the time you need to refocus. Sending good vibes your way!

Olehcat : I hope you'll see a number that you like better on the scale today!

***

Hello ladies!

I survived this weekennnnd yes. After the overeating of saturday and the obvious I'm-6-months-pregnant tummy I woke up with on Sunday, I decided to just skip the scale yesterday morning. I tackled my 10 miles run in a gorgeous weather ; I seriously don't get how my body is working, I spent all the previous day going up and down stairs, carrying tons of boxes and the next day I have the best run I had in weeks. Won't complain about it though, it gave me a huge confidence boost for the upcoming half. We have the Spartan Spring race in 3 weeks though, and I am so not strong, I am terrified by this one.

ANYWAY, I was up to 134.2 this morning AND I lost a lot of the bloated tummy already AND had a first glorious pooping session in 3 days after weighing in.

Today is a rest day, which is nice, my calves being sooooore from yesterday run. Since I am flirting with my upper red line, I'll pay attention in the next days to not massively over indulge.

Still aiming for around 1800 calories a day (a bit more if I train) like last week, since I'm up because of this weekend and I don't know where I really stand. It is CRAZY how better I'm feeling since I increased from 1600 to 1800! No more under feeding myself

Have a great week Feathers!

Hi Feathers -

I ate EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD all weekend long to the point of total discomfort. I think I've satisfied my "fatty fatty cholesterol carbfest" urges. Weighed in at 128.2 this morning, ha. I look like I'm gonna have a kid tomorrow.

Some pictures of some of the things that were tossed into the black hole:



Burger in a fried bun - was like a donut! That white stuff is mayonnaise.



Everything bagel with scallion cream cheese from Ess-a-bagel. Think my next bagel will be in Montreal.



Vegetarian japchae from the Korean food court in Koreatown.

After all that in NYC with my friends I came back NOT HUNGRY and went to a friend's Cinco de Mayo BBQ, where I probably ate at least a third of the 2 bags of tortilla chips that were there (there were 6 of us there) and 2 tacos and wound up feeling like I couldn't touch my toes.

Back to routine/gym/pilates today and tonight. I feel absolutely disgusting and I hope this isn't the start of the pattern that resulted in me regaining 10 pounds two years ago. -____- I probably can't run for a while because I have been having sciatic pain from deadlifts on Friday morning - I wonder if being semi-injured is playing games with my mind? I can't wait to be better since I bought new running sneakers Thursday:



TurboMammoth Ohh growing up by the sea must have been so lovely - I wish I were near an ocean and not just a dirty river! Actually BF's landlord came and told him we couldn't have any more bonfires because the neighbors don't like the smoke. Sad times. It often works out that the best runs occur when you would expect them to be crappy! 10 miles is no joke.

olehcat Not knowing is worse than knowing, I think. I have been thinking about not weighing but I am pretty desensitized to the number and I think I would wind up feeling crazy trying to not gain without actually having hard data available. Whatever the scale says - don't let it have too much power! The weather is perfect now for running/walking being outside, just enjoy the activity!

novangel Really happy your first day went well!

Alexis Yikes - are you alive after eating the yogurt that went off?

xiaobaicai I think feeling sluggish is a pretty surefire sign you need to change things up or take a breather from long runs - runners get more injuries than almost all other athletes (besides the ones who get hit all the time like footballers and boxers obviously)! I hope you win the heck out of that contest and have a fantastic celebration.

Leaves Did you carry out the experiment with the low fat cheese?

angie Hi! Nice to see you here again!

Krampus ~ Do you play tennis often? I'm absolutely terrible, but sometimes my guy friend and I will take a racket and balls and have at it in the park. What kind of sneakers are those? They be lookin' supafly, girl.

Turbo ~ Yep. Seein' Martin Freeman tomorrow. I loooove bonfires, too! There was a firepit at the party yesterday and my hair smelled like smoke when I got home. Love that feeling.

Nova ~ Good luck on the new job!!!

Chalma ~ *hugs* hang in there, girl!

Oleh ~ I could have done a lot better at the party yesterday.... Errr... three cupcakes, a slice of cake and some flan later... ugh. AND I came home and had an "f-it all" moment, too.

~~~
Kinda feeling bummed today.

Slept through a 7:30AM therapy appt this morning. That just set the stage for a hairy day all around. Gah. Hate sleeping through stuff. I never hear my alarm and I totally thought it was Sunday morning instead of Monday.

Then I had a 3 lb jump on the scale this morning, although given my overindulgence last night, this is not surprising. It's also right around TOM time, which is fun also Must stay on target through this.... *repeats to self* clooooose the fridge.

Ugh.

Party yesterday was lots of fun, but there was one guy in our carpool group that just managed to find my last nerve and get on it. ("Oh, [Alexistrophic] doesn't like talking about how old she is..." "I didn't know you were friends with so-and-so... he got in a lot of trouble in college." "Wow, you couldn't wait to get out of there, could you? --wtf? we were at the party from 2:30-7:30...) I dunno. Reports have indicated that he may have had a crush on me, but come on now. That is not the way to win over a woman... Ugh. He just seems super duper less than suave in social situations... Oh, well.

I've been very good on overall cals but I did have a sausage/egg muffin from McDonalds this morning, those things are damn good. I'm not a big McD's fan but I love those....and Shamrock Shakes which are like 600 cals so I only get one or two when they're around.

I spent an hour at the gym and hope to go again tomorrow night because Wed I won't be able to.

TOM is due so it's bloat city.

very exciting news at work...... a new trail has just opened up literally 3min walk away from the office!!! So for the last 10 years whenever i've done a run at lunchtime, it's been round the industrial estate, or down the busy main road next to it. Not my idea of fun really. But today i went on the new trail and it's lovely!!! Its gravel, flat, with grass on either side (so you could run on that too for a change of surface), it's got streams, little bridges, newly planted trees, lots of birdlife, and fields and woods along the way, and goes 2.5km to a little country station.

So i ran to the station and a bit of the way back by which time i'd reminded myself that i was very unfit and not used to running, so i walked/ran the rest.

The only slight concern was that every minute or so, mounted neatly on the fence, were little boxes that said 'snake bite kit'!!.......

^It's funny, we used to get excited about food (well, still kind of do) and now running trails turn us on. Snake bite kit though? Glad it's available but still a little unsettling. :/

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum, but have been on 3FC for a while now. I completed the Ideal Protein diet and successfully hit goal (118), but then when I "phased off", I quickly started to gain it back. It's pretty frustrating, but I think I went so long without the things in life that I love (beer, wine, pizza ) that when I was finally "allowed" to have them again, I went a little crazy.

Well, it's time to get back on the wagon, and I think this forum is a little more appropriate for me since I only have ~5-7 lbs to lose. Looking forward to adding in some exercise and feeling better. Have a great day everyone!

nova ~ man, something about that McDonald's breakfast is just so darn addicting... What is in the "shamrock shakes"? I've seen them advertised, but never been tempted to indulge... I do eye their eggnog shakes come the holidays... Disgusting, but something so intriguing about them...

ange ~ Great news about the trail by your office! Hurray for new places to explore! Do you get all sweaty when you walk/run at lunchtime?
Re: Snakebite kit... er... be prepared? Better safe than sorry?

PacNW IP Welcome!

~~~
Urgh. Am in a jacket and dress b.c we have a candidate coming into the office. Uncomfortable mostly b.c I'm not used to the "business corporate" uniform, but a teeny tiny part of me likes dressing up for work.

Date with Martin Freeman tonight (so just staying in my work clothes...) Am excited for it! This whole idea of "seeing someone" is just so totally foreign to me... I have no idea how to feel or act and it's completely throwing me for a loop (in a good way, though). Over the weekend, male orchestra colleague (the Polar Bear Bassoon, if anyone remembers) posted a pic of the two of us together. MF clearly saw and I wondered how he would react... then he referred to himself as my boy-friend (hyphenated?) in a text the next day... Hmmm... lol - as my friend commented: "poor *******"

This all relates back to food b.c sometimes I feel like every new feeling feels like "hungry". There are moments of "I never want to eat again!" and then moments of "gosh, is the fridge going to be enough?" Bleh. Knowing the difference between "tummy hungry" and "heart hungry"... that's the key.

so much catching up to do! I went home to my parents for the weekend and piggied my way through all the food they buy. Luckily, it seems I maintained rather than gained, so back on plan today.

I'm in a mad paper-writing frenzy so I'll be back later for personals

krampus : I saw your woosh on the Daily WI thread, you must be relieved a bit. YOU GO GIRL. (I hope giving birth to your food baby was not painful! ) Hamburger on a fried bun? This is a first time seeing that for me! (seriously, is that slices of apple on the side? I find it hilarious : GIGANTIC fried thing burger + apple slices LOL). That sucks that you won't be able to do bonfires anymore. And nice shoes!

Alexis : Aww, the sleeping in through something sucks I hate this feeling, it feels like the ''ahh crap'' just lingers and lingers through the day. Hope it got better for you! Woah, hello, douchy guy! Yeah, you're definitely help your case by talking to the girl you had a crush on like that LOL

have fun with Martin Freeman!!!

novangel : As long as you don't have McD mcmuffin everysingle day, you are fine Have a great workout!

ange : Having a new trail to run is AWESOME! (not so awesome for the bite snake kit though) Is there that many snakes in the areas? We don't have any dangerous snakes and stuff in Canada to care off in trails, but when I traveled to Arizona and we were hiking, all the horror stories of snakes and spiders that could kill you were terrifying me LOL

PacNW : Welcome!!!

Leaves : Welcome to the ''I ate my life away in food last weekend'' club LOL

***

Hi! Still holding at 134.2 this morning. I had a good meeting with my bathroom though, I hope I'm gonna be down tomorrow morning :P Just patiently waiting to get back down to 132-133.

Food was good and in control, actually my mind kinda still think I need to eat 1600 calories and than at night when I realized I still need to eat more to make it to 1800, it feels like I am allowed to eat SO MUCH. We had Tofu Chili last night and I had enough room to indulge on a piece of Crêpes Cake I prepared yesterday.

My workout for the day is done, I ran my hills training 8k this morning. It was a bit harder than I would have liked it, but I think it was mainly because of the heath. Hill training is now DONZOOO and I am starting intervals next week, I am sooo excited!

I am now off to declare war to my cat who keep jumping on the freaking table, despite being pushed away 12 times in the last 30 minutes.

Have a good day, Feathers!

Leaves ~ Good luck in your paper writing frenzy! We do get a little chatty in the feathers thread, but just jump on in, girl!

Turbo ~ You crack me up with your "good meeting with the bathroom". HI-larious. Good on ya for getting that training DONZO!!! Yummers crepes cake, too!!!

And the thing with the dude from Sunday really stuck with me for some reason. (I realized in hindsight I am under the TOM cloud, so emotions are subject to random doubling... or tripling... but still...) He bills himself as a "nice guy" and is always trying to do things for people and be helpful... but come ON now... And I'm not the first chick he's been this irritating to. (I'm actually like the second or third... interestingly enough. I think he's working his way down the list of our friend group...) He is quoted as saying to one other girl: "Wow, you're really cranky when you're hungry." For which I would have smacked him square in the pie hole.

Alexis: I'm starting to think you're my food twin. I'm not heavier than I want to be becasue of consistent overeating/hunger. I'm heavier than I want to be because of eating for reasons other than hunger, your "heart hungry". I too find both eating out and the aftermath to be derailing. I get into the "well I'm off plan today, so I might as well enjoy the entire pantry mindset". I'm not a big drinker, but I sometimes have a glass of wine or two when I'm out. Sometimes I wonder if just that amount of alcohol is enough to decrease my will power and that contributes to the "eat the house after eating out/social event".

TurboMammoth: Laughing at your cat remarks. A friend of mine used to say "You don't train cats, you push them off counters."
The is so awesome that you're nailing the negative spilts. That is a goal of mine and one of the best ways to improve race times

novangel: Congrats on the new job. What are you doing? As far as shoes go, I'm a longterm lover of the Asics GT-2000 series. I've worn nothing but since the late '90s.

ange: That trail sounds awesome, but the snakebite kit thing would freak me out. I sometimes see "Recent Bear/Mountain Lion Activity" signs posted on our trails here in California and it's a little scary, but i'm honestly more creeped out/scared of snakes.

leaves: I hear you on cool shoes being a motivator. I'm always more excited about working out if I have new shoes/workout clothes, or ones I really like.

olehcat: I just run a few miles on my steady state cardio days. My HIIT days are separate and I either run intervals or do Step-Mill intervals. I have a love/hate relationship with that "stairway to nowhere".

xiao: Everytime I've been running high mileage for a decent number of weeks, a week off was followed by substantial performance improvement.

krampus: Thanks for the food porn. I love living vicariously through you with all your intereesting social and culinary events. Your posts have kept me sane over the past year (yes, I'm a lurker), because I've always wondered, ok, but what about maintainance. I can suck it up to reach goal, but I'm not willing to never eat in a restaurant or never drink alcohol again. You have given me hope that it is possible to indulge occasionally and still maintain.

chahma: Hang in there and take care of yourself. All marriages go through their rough spots...you are not alone.

PacNW: Welcome. How much weight did you lose on IP and how long did it take? I'm a calorie counter and I know that it works, but I admit that I'm secretly fascinated by diets like IP and PSMF because of how ridiculously fast they work. Do you think you gained the weight back because you started eating carbs again (ie was the weight loss mostly water), or did you just eat above maintenance? Now you're starting to feel like I'm shining a flashlight in your eyes and asking "where were you on the night in question?". Sorry for the twenty questions.

As for me. Ate too much this weekend. Story of my life...eat well all week; a restaurant meal or two on the weekend almost negates the work of the rest of the week. It works well for maintenance (I think), but not ideal for active weight loss/recomp.

Alexis, Shamrock shakes are mint vanilla flavored w/ green dye. I skip the whipped cream. Very high calorie but worth it once or twice since they're only around in March.

Blue, thank you. I left dental assisting to go back to being a hair stylist again.

I hear Asics are a very good brand too, Asics Gel were my second choice next to Brooks. It's amazing the difference when you have good shoes. I found out real fast that cheap shoes are a huge mistake when jogging. Oh the pain! I got posterior shin splints something awful but I don't have that problem anymore.

No gym tonight I have PMS fatigue. Blah.

flippin 'ek - i only stepped out for a few hrs and there's 5 million new posts! Don't really have time for personals, but reporting my second run round the trail this lunchtime. I had my garmin this time and can confirm it's 6.1km (er which is just under 4miles maybe??).

Ran 3km, walked 0.5, ran 1, walked 0.5, ran 1. Too unfit to do the whole lot easily at mo.

Yes, i get hot and sweaty, but luckily there's a shower at work and luckily i have my own office, so after a run i tend to go straight to the office and sweat for a bit, then when i've calmed down i go get a shower. I do sit around with a bright red face and my hair plastered to my head for the rest of the afternoon, but ask me if i care!

Yep heaps of snakes in the National Parks round here and i've seen plenty but never seen snake kit boxes before!! Is this a new thing, or are there just a super-ridiculous number of snakes on this particular trail??

In other non-news, the diet is perfectly on plan but i've lost nothing for the last week. Humph.

Good morning! I'm doing pretty well. I might have found a way to trick my inner toddler...we'll see. So telling myself I can't eat chocolate cake and Thai takeout every single day (okay, I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean) just makes me rebel. Basically I've just been telling myself, "It's your choice." Like there was a chocolate cake at work yesterday that someone had brought in. I just told myself I could have some if I wanted it, my choice, no restrictions, but then I decided I did not really want it. Or basically I would imagine how my stomach would feel after I ate it (sort of sick and bloated) and that I'd feel regretful and that it was going to keep me the current weight that I am. I've been eating pretty clean this week, no refined sugar, mostly salads and fruit for lunch, eggs for breakfast, some sort of protein-based something or other for dinner (last night I had a burrito bowel with chicken, veggies, guacamole, and salsa. Yum!

Anyway, I weighed in a few days ago and it was indeed a yikes -- 149.4!! But this morning I am 147.2. I feel ashamed even giving those numbers since I shouldn't be anywhere near any of them but yet I haven't been able to move under 145 in a good long time And all because I get into these perpetual patterns where I burn out on eating "healthy" by Thursday or so and then I overeat all weekend with the promise that I'm going to do well again on Monday. And so the cycle continues. I feel so weak that I got caught into such a typical unhealthy pattern! Like when I get to Thursday or Friday and I'm tired of healthy food. I just want to say f*** you to salads and want to eat stuff I'm not "supposed to" and to have excitement on my tastebuds. So yeah, this is why I'm hoping that telling myself that it's a choice will help.

I wish I was good at calorie counting as so many of you seem to be! I keep screwing up at that, getting impatient, or running into instant problems where the calorie counts aren't available for things...And I'm so ocd about numbers that it drives me crazy when I can't write an exact number in...

@Turbo - heh, haven't seen a number I liked for a good while, lol, but at least it's going downward right now! Sounds like 1800 is more realistic for you, because of all the activity you're doing! So my cat's thing to get my attention is to bat at the curtains with his claws until I yell at him. All these curtains have claw marks in them. Luckily they are just cheapo curtains that I used just temporarily before I move into a new place, so I don't care if they are damaged, really, but I don't want him to pull the whole thing down! He totally does that to get my attention.

@krampus - BURGER IN A FRIED BUN!? Wow, I'd never heard of that. I'd heard of fried twinkies, though. Love your shoes! I hope your injury goes away, I know how frustrating that can be!

@Alex - I have a morbid fear of oversleeping - I rarely do it because I'm so nervous about it that I snap awake when I even think I'm going to be oversleeping...That guy in the car pool sounds REALLY annoying...

@navangel - oh, those shakes from McD's are sublime. I never get them, but my weakness is the fries.

@ange82 - that trail sounds AWESOME. I'll be moving into a new place this summer that is surrounded by jogging trails, and I'm very excited about that. And er...snake bite kit. EEp! And you guys have some poisonous snakes there!

@PAC - welcome!

@Blueisis - add me to the list of being heavier than I want because I eat for other reasons than hunger. For me, it's not that I eat when I'm depressed or angry so much, but I see food as Excitement(!) and of course it has to be fattening food that causes the excitement, not salads, lol!