Hi guys!!! SOOO busy. I haven't been here for MONTHS. I'm ready to get back on track and things are about to get even more stressful in my life... so I'm going to need you!!! (even though I gained some weight and am not really a feather anymore *WAHHH*... am working hard on changing it!)

Glad I recognize some names still :).

Thanks, all, for the encouragement and congrats!

No time for personals this morning, but I am down 2 pounds. So yeah, I know that high weight was mostly water weight. Especially because I felt like I was a peeing machine yesterday!

I successfully started my running again. Here's my method to ease myself into it. I pick a standard fitness time (30 minutes). I then will walk 4 minutes and run one minute of every five-minute period. The thing is, I could probably run most of it, but I am choosing not to. I want to look forward to the exercise at this point because I want the habit back. The next week I'll up it to walking 3 minutes and running 2 minutes, the next week walking 2 minutes and running 3 minutes, etc., until I am able to fully run 30 minutes. That is my base. Then I can add mileage or speed or HIIT to that once I have the base of being able to run 30 minutes. Sometimes I've done that with just 20 minutes as a base.

Today's challenge: 2 eating events, eep. I have a cookout for mentors (I'm a mentor to a fifth grader) where there are hamburgers and hotdogs. Luckily I already told the coordinator that I was not interested in having one of those (nothing wrong with hotdogs and hamburgers, but just not now), but now I have to figure out what to bring for myself that I can eat without heating up and will be satisfying. Then there's a dessert party after school at the house of a teacher who is retiring at my school. I want to drop by because I like this person and want to wish her well, but desserts! Well, I think my plan is to choose one and nibble on it. Or if there is fruit, mostly fill my plate with fruit.

Hello feathers!

Been lurking around and finally decided to say hi! Not only because that stupid guy outside woke me up by mowing the lawn right outside our window at 9 frickin 15 in the AM, aaah! But also because I need some support from fellow feathers!
I've been stuck between 139 lbs and 143 lbs for a while now. Once I get down to my lowest weight I get these cravings, or maybe it's just really bad timing with PMS and all that fun stuff? Anyhow, I'm trying to get my shiieet together. After a few days of food-fest I managed to stay in my calories, wahoo! I'm very determined to make today a healthy day. DH is off from work so we'll probably relax a little and then hit the gym after lunch.

ange82much - Congrats on the whoosh! :cheer3: Those intervals sound good, it's a great way to burn some fat.

olehcat - What about bringing a salad? Fast, easy and no heating-up required. It was definitely smart that you had already announced no hot-dogs and hamburgers for you! This will avoid the "oh come on have some this" and "you have to try some of those, they're sooo good"-moments. Well, let's hope so.

ValRock - Hello! :wave: Isn't stress such a beautiful thing? Not. Been dealing with aloooot myself and know how you feel. Let's stay strong! We probably need some serious :kickbutt:

nineteen - 140. I hate that number! Can't wait to be in the mid 130s so I won't have to see that number ever again! :crossed:

krampus - Picture pretty pleaseeee! I don't know if I will ever get to wear a crop top. By the time my body allows me to they probably won't be in trend anymore :lol: Also, <1300 is brutal. I've managed to only eat fruits and veggies for 2 days and boy, that was no fun. I told myself I would never do that again.

Leaves - Good luck on your exam! About your bras - maybe just get a couple cheaper ones to last you until you lose some more?

xiaobaicai - Yay on oatmeal! Can't start my day without it. I just always look at the packaging for calories and rarely check online, for the reasons you mentioned. Oh and - hello hipbones! :wave: Waiting for the day that mine will show as well.

TurboMammoth - Holy ****, 18k!! I'm impressed, seriously. That puts my first 10k to shame (on the treadmill, mmhhmm). Though I focused on speed and getting it done since I had no idea what to expect.

Laters!

olehcat : Yay for shedding the 2 pounds! And going back to running gradually is a great idea, you won't feel overwhelmed by just taking it easy :) That's the best way to stick to it!!

xiaobocai : nice trick on your brain, with that oatmeal situation! ;) You are having really great results lately : nice job!!! And welcome back to your hipbones! hehe!

ange : JESUS good job on the zero calorie party. MEGA PROPS to you! You run is improving so much. Good job!

Leaves : For some weird reasons, my college program loved to put on on Saturday morning exam. I hated it SO bad. I might have already ask but I have a really bad short term memory, what field are you studying?

krampus : I want a picture of this crazy top! And I don't get how people do less than 1300 calories either. There is tons of those on Calories Count, like they log a freaking 1000 calories a day. Sometimes 1000 calories is my dinner ALONE.

nineteen : Hope you'll see the number you want by the end of the week! :)

ValRock : Welcome back! Omg, your profile picture : your arm and back are so TONED! I'm jealous!

Hoopty : Welcome! :) Oh and seriously, no shame on a 10k! That is an awesome distance! Honestly, I run slooooowly. I just work on improving myself from a race to another :)

***

Hi! Weight holding at a nice spot, happy about it. I ate out last night, I met up with 2 friends, I was seeing one of them for the first time since she delivered TWINS. I indulged on one cup of white wine (goodbye, detox :P). It was a nice thin crust-pizza place, I had one with brie, goat cheese, merguez and sundried tomato. It was amazing and a decent not over the world size. The dessert I ordered was crap though and so small, so I did not even felt bad about eating it :P

Today is a rest day, I did a 10k run yesterday, my training is all over the place this week because of the 5k Spartan race next Sunday. I need to do a 14k tomorrow for my half training, which will get me a rest day Saturday before the race.

Fun fact, as I was running around the lake yesterday, I met a old guy who was walking many times around the loop. I don't know how you call that in english, but he seems to have the syndrome, you know, when you shout out really random thing, and you can't help them out? In french it is the la Tourette Syndrome, but I have no idea how to translate it.

WELL. The third time I met the guy, I got a ''Hi miss- YOU RUN BIG B*TCH''

I felt special. LOL

Have a nice day ladies!

krampus- yes pictures! I'm intrigued :) When I first tried dieting and MFP gave me a figure of 1350 I was like 'pfffft yeah right', but these days i get by on about 1210, I'm not sure how I'm doing it! I put off breakfast until pretty late so I feel fuller for longer in the day though, so that helps.

nineteen-Thanks! Good luck with your next weight in :)

val- Hi o/ Welcome back, and good luck for getting back on track!

oleh- yesss WHOOSH!! And that sounds like a real grounded, sensible way to build things up. hope it works out!

hoopty- Welcome! You know, I wish I could get a couple of cheap ones to make do, but at my size they just don't come cheap! :( That's party my motivation for trying to lose weight, I can't afford to keep spending a fortune on specialist bras. I figure I'm something like a 30/32GG in UK sizes, you don't come across bras very often in those sizes :(

turbo- that pizza sounds sooo good. *drool* and it's Tourette's Syndrome in English too, probably named after someone! My major is music, but I also studied Mandarin and French, it's the French reading/writing/grammar paper on Saturday. I toyed with the idea of training to be a French teacher, but chickened out at the last minute! I'm on a music teacher training course now instead next year :)

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Came across a bunch of cauliflower recipes that look really interesting, especially ones that substitute flour for cauliflower. Cauliflower pizza base! I have to try it soon. Wonder if it tastes any good..

dang, I just wrote out a long post and then I accidentally hit backspace and lost everything!!!

I just rambled about how today was not too bad, but not at all perfect, and I was derailed by one of my coworkers who maybe once a year makes the most delicious vegetable samosas and brings them to work and today was that once a year day. No way i wasn't having one or more of them. I had 3-4, probably the equivalent of one restaurant-sized one! And I had a tiny 1/4 sized brownie at the other party. So meh, not perfect, but not bad either.

@Turbo - LOL! I laughed like crazy about the Tourette's guy. It makes me think of something we were just talking about at this party today after school, about a former student at our school who was there a long time ago, long before I was there, who used to shout out all the time with random "f*** you"s thrown in.

@Leaves - I tried cauliflower based pizza a few years ago and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't for me. I realized that though I can't eat pizza often (it gives me stomach pains at night), I have to have the real thing when I do. Or eh. Maybe I'll try the cauliflower one again some time.

@Hoopty - hi, welcome! I actually bring a salad or raw vegetables dipped in salsa almost every day to lunch. I wanted something that wouldn't take a long time to eat and for some reason I tend to linger over my salads a long time, lol. Also, I'm out of salad ingredients at home, heh. I ended up having carrots and grapes and a few chips at the event along with the cereal I had brought for myself (cereal was a poor choice, but it was what I had on hand to pack easily and quickly this morning).

Omg, hilarious!

I would never guess French is your first language your English is perfect.

Not much for me to report, still getting settled into new job/schedule. I have been eating high sodium since yesterday (and it's only going to get worse for Memorial weekend I'm sure) but just got back from running 4 miles and now want to eat the entire house. Off to bed. I know I still owe a pic of VS jeans but I'm bloated right now. :p

Night ladies!

Heeeeeeeeeey Feathers,

122.6 this AM OH YEAH. Gonna feel great and confident for the festival but I can't wait to gorge on Chinese food next week, ahaha.

Tonight we leave, tomorrow, Sunday and Monday we party. Driving 10 hours each way. O______O

Hello!

Last night wasn't so much fun. I cried my eyes out for a little while while DH tried comforting me, ugh :( Our current situation sucks: Where we are, what we're doing, who we're around. I just wanna pack all our stuff and move back to my parents' though that is faaar, faaaar away in Germany. Unfortunately, we need to get things done here first. I just hope that, once all this stuff is over, DH wants to go back to Germany, too. I wouldn't leave him here, never ever would that even cross my mind, but would I be 100% happy here in NY? No. Well, we'll see.
All that lead to me eating a lot of peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets. I didn't count them or the calories but I'm pretty sure I stayed around my maintenance calories.
The good news is - my pajama pants are getting loose again :cool: I hope I can break out of the 139 lbs-143 lbs soon.

TurboMammoth - :rofl: That reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman fakes having Tourette Syndrome. Super funny. (Though it's seriously nothing to laugh about!) DH and I were asked if we wanted to go to the Spartan Race in NY though we decided not to, I'm too scared :D

Leaves - Well that makes it more difficult and I understand why you don't wanna buy any new ones :stress: I've been wanting to try mashed cauliflower. If you have some other good delicious recipes, I'm interested :T

olehcat - Sounds like you didn't do bad at all! I wish I could only have 1/4 of something sweet and then stop. That would never happen with me though. I HAVE to finish the whole dang thing :D

novangel - Wanna. See. Picture. Too! :D I saw that we almost have the same numbers. May I ask what your goals are? I feel uncomfotable, still, at my current weight and want to get back down to 120-123 lbs where I was 2 years ago unless I look super toned at a higher weight.

krampus - Congrats and be safe! And have fun of course, duuuuh. ;)


Time to make poopies.

jumping in with both feet...I used to post in 3FC prob 4 years ago when I was just starting my weight loss journey. Since then I've been at goal, ran 17 marathons, done a half ironman, became a personal trainer, joined crossfit, etc, etc and yet here I am back at it.

My lowest was probably about 112 but that was on just running. I'm ok weighing more now that my lifting has increased alot. I'm best around 116-118 and then I let a few lbs creep on so I hovered around 118-123, then before I knew it a few more so lately it's been 124-127.

ACK! This has got to stop since I'm far too short to carry it well. 5lbs on me looks like 10+ on a taller person. So I hope I'm welcome and still considered a feather (not feeling super-feathery). For the last 2 days I've been back at MFP logging in everything and loosely calculating WW pts even though I don't think it's ideal for the last few pounds. Plus it's far too low fat for me. I tend to be a more paleo eater but currently not being super strict about it.

Looking forward to getting to know you all!!

And OMG turbomammoth-I just snarfed my coffee!!! I hope I run big b*tch too!!!

ok tried to do some back lurking but my boys are driving me crazy.

But olehcat sounds like we're kinda in the same boat. THIS IS ABOUT TO GET REAL!!! Let's do this!!

I'm actually right where I want to be, if I get below 135p I don't feel good (physically I get light headed) so 138-140p is perfect for me. I'm currently a size 6. :)

On a side note: The VS skinny jeans run so small I had to get a 10! The waist has a little room but the calves are super tight and I have bird legs as it is. :lol:

After this weekend (Memorial holiday) I'm sure I will have a gain...hopefully it will just be water retention. :crossed: Yes, I plan to splurge a bit. :^:

YUS!

Just measured at somewhere between 25.5" and 25.75" (took several measurements), and then weighed in at 55.1 kg!

You guys gotta try this oatmeal brain trick. I don't know what it is about my stupid psychology that makes this work, but it's workin' like gangbusters and so I ain't asking questions! I'll post some of the oatmeal recipes I've been using when I get back from class today.

Edit: I'm not gonna change my ticker, though, until the new progress stays for at least a couple days. But it's not like I did anything real drastic yesterday that would result in a drop in water weight or what have you. In fact, I had a big dinner (with my white wine and banana chips!) a couple nights ago to celebrate submitting that essay, and the day's sum total wound up at 3100 cals, so...

I was down another 1.4 pounds this morning! I don't know what tomorrow will bring. I had one little treat today -- a half of a cupcake. Other than that, I have eaten on plan, although I do have a bit of extra wine on Friday evenings. So yeah, for dinner had an Asian soup (I can live off those, sort of hot and sour soup-like variations with lots of veggies and very spicy) and a big salad. I feel very satisfied and not overly stuffed. My usual Friday night is very dangerous, usually involving going out to dinner, frozen pizza (which kills my stomach) or Thai takeout. I think I've done well so far. We'll see what the scale said. I'm hoping to be at my first mini goal of 144 pretty quickly since I do think a lot of anything above 145 is water weight.

@xiao - good job - whoo hoo

@novangel - Go for it with the splurging. You'd have to eat a huge amount to cause any really significant gains. Most if not all of it will definitely be water weight gain!

@batmomm - I know what you mean about being short and the pounds showing up so much. I think a lot of other people might think that being in the 140s is a great or at least acceptable weight, but on me, it looks chunky! I feel best around 118-125ish range as well, the upper range if I'm exercising a lot and look slimmer.

@Hoopty - I'm sorry you're so stressed. Are you both from Germany then? I have lived overseas at various times in my life, and while I always love it, there are just times when you want to be around familiarity and home and it gets stressful. I've never heard of peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets! Maybe I don't want to know...lol!

@krampus - what a GREAT weigh-in! :) Have a fun and safe trip!

Leaves : Music, mandarin and french! Quite intense!! :) Let me know how the cauliflower crust turned out, I tried a Alfredo-Cauliflower thingy one and it was disguuuusting LOL

olehcat : I think you did good with the samosad and the brownies, in my opinion! That could have easily turned out in a food overhauling, but it did not, which is a win in my book. And oh yeah for the drop!!!

novangel : Yup, I speak French and learned english at school and while traveling. Good job on the 4 miles run!

krampus : HAVE FUN AT THE FESTIVAAAAAL! Jesus, you skinny thing! you'll diserve this chinese food fest next week ;)

Hoopty : Sorry you were feeling in a bad place yesterday :( Hope everything will get better soon. Oh and P.S. I'm pretty much deadly terrified of the Spartan Race :P LOL

Batmomm : Your picture is so badass!! JESUS CHRIST 17 marathons!!!! Welcome!

xiaobocai : YO GO WOMAN! I can't wait to check out your oatmeal recipe, I was looking to try it out lately, so have something really filly before heading out for longer runs.

***

Hiiii. A bit up today but I had a disappointing meetup with the bathroom yesterday, so it makes sense I guess.

Food was ok today, I came up with a 2000 calories of logged food and I can add up a 7.25 km run on the treadmill this afternoon, but I nibble a lot around, so I don't know if I'll dare to eat a snack tonight. Im frustrating, I gave up to the pressure of the boyfriend to have a third cookie, I already had 2, he already had 3 and there was only one left and he got all ''oh come one, eat the last one, it is stupid to let the last one there etc etc'' and I GAVE UP. I should not have. Stupid peer pressure :P

Spartan Race is SUNNNNDAYYY and I am scared. We are heading to Montréal tomorrow to hand out with friends and have a closer drive to the race on Sunday morning... which means dinner with them, which means probably overeating. Oh well. I need calories to comfort me for all the mud to come the next day :P

Have a good weekend Feathers!!

Hellau!

Yesterday evening DH and I decided to go out, get some junk and watch some movies at home. I was at around 900 calories and thought - fcuk it! So I had garlic knots, 1 king-size Milky Way bar (omg to die for, I freaking love those!), 3 Healthy Choice vanilla bean Greek frozen yogurts and 4 Pillsbury Cinnamon buns. We watched "Society" (1989) and let me tell ya - what a weird movie that was! And we saw "Jacob's Ladder" (1990) but got too tired and stopped halfway through.
When I woke up this morning I just knew that my BM would be heavenly. I've also FINALLY been peeing like crazy today :woohoo: Anywho, I need to start lowering my calories a little. I've been eating around 1700-2000 for the past few days but that's not gonna cut it if I want to get rid of a couple more pounds.
With that being said - I'm gonna try to stay low today and I also plan on working out HARD at the gym.

batmomm - Hello! :wave: Wow, you've done some serious stuff! I'm impressed!

novangel - Gotcha! It totally makes sense. Holy cow, a size 10 though you're a 6 :fr: Still wanna see a picture :D

xiaobaicai - Looking forward to the recipes! If it works for you then hey, I'll definitely give it a shot :D

olehcat - Oh trust me - you don't wanna know what those are :D It was a huuuuuge bag too :yikes: so we HAD to finish them all :D I'm from Germany and DH is from New York which puts us in a very difficult situation. I had lived in NY for a year a couple of years ago, then we both moved to Germany and stayed there for about a year and now we've been back in NY for a year. It's just not working out here. Don't get me wrong - everything is fine between DH and I but I can't stand being away from my family. Also, living in Germany is much easier and better as far as insurances, apartments, jobs and such things go. We'll see what's gonna happen. Where have you lived so far? It kinda helps me to know that someone understands how I feel :)

TurboMammoth - Bahahaha, slap him for pressuring you! DH does it with me all the time and I lose every. singe. time. Oh well, I'm sure it was good ;) Have fun tomorrow!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Omg, guys I have been baaaad. In the past few days: Panda Express, Applebee's sizzling fajitas platter, home baked spicy chicken w/ rice, and then today bacon with a mound of french toast with syrup. O_O I had to go to Portillo's today for my neice's b-day but opted for an light asian salad. Monday is BBQ ribs and pulled pork at BF's Dads. Lord help my midsection. I didn't have time for the gym today so I'm going to have to make time tomorrow after work for sure. I haven't indulged this much in a very long time. Weigh in should be interesting.

I love Portillo's...for those that don't know what that place is you're better off. :lol:

The VS jeans pic is gonna have to wait. Besides sodium overdose I haven't had an acceptable poop in a few days. :/ I'm ready to break up with my bowels.

ha, hi!

Yesterday was my blow out eating day for the weekend. I ate a normal breakfast, but for lunch I was hanging out with my family and my brother-in-law wanted barbecue, and at that place I always get the fried shrimp. So I ate every bit of it. Then I ended up snacking in the afternoon, little snacks, but still..>I don't usually do that. An m&m here, a pretzel stick here, etc. For dinner we went to my sister's in-laws, and there was lasagna, copious amounts of wine, and garlic bread, as well as dessert (delicious brownies and I even had a scoop of ice-cream, which I NEVER have because I'm lactose intolerant, and oh my gosh, my stomach was fit to burst.

I have to admit (DEEP THOUGHTS HERE :D) that there was something deeply satisfying about it, a freedom of just not caring in that moment. It's obviously the problem behind my weight gain over the years, so yes, it is problematic, but I think I realize now the mindset, WHY I have gained the weight. It's when it's a "special day" and I know I'm not going to be on plan anyway, this giddiness comes over me that I can eat ANYTHING on a particular day, there is no food forbidden, there are no restrictions, no counting, no measuring, no deprivation. It feels like Christmas to me! I suspect that people who are around my ideal weight either don't get that type of giddiness around food or they have fought it big time and are more often than not able to override/resist that.

On the other side of the coin, since I'm back on my generalized healthy choices today, I made up a nice alternative to pizza. Okay, not really, but I made a pizza omelet! Just need eggs, 1/4 cup pizza sauce, 1/4 cup mozarella cheese, and any veggies you'd put on pizza (I used onions and hot peppers). It was so tasty. For lunch I plan a salad and Asian soup again. For dinner, not sure yet.

@novangel - yep, weigh in will probably be scary if you do it right after the indulgence. You might wait a few days afterwards of cleaner eating and then you may be surprised that all the water weight goes away. At least that's been my experience, although sometimes it takes a good three days or so for all the extra water weight to go away. I went a bit crazy with the food yesterday and did NOT weigh in this morning because I knew it would be bad.

@Hoopty - ooh, that sounds like a nice stress-relief night. Now maybe you got all that out of your system and you can focus more on the healthier, lower calorie side and lose what you want to lose. I lived in Trinidad and Scotland at different times. I'm divorced at the moment, but back then, it was where my husband was teaching at various universities. My ex still lives in Trinidad, and is in fact coming here for a visit in a few days! I've begged him to bring me spices and a bottle of hot sauce. I have visited Germany, a long time ago. I used to be almost fluent in the language, although I'm soooo rusty now.

@turbo - THANK YOU!! And good luck to you in the race!!! I'm cheering for you!

hoopty- Sorry you're feeling so bleh, sounds like you had a good evening the other night though! :hug: Good luck with your workouts!

batmomm-Welcome! And wow, those are some sporty feats to your name! Hope you manage to get back on track to where you want to be :)

novangel- ahh, sounds heavenly, though I'll take your advice and not look up Portillo's.. haha.

turbo- Good luck with the race! Let us know how you get on :)

oleh- that omelette sounds delicious! And at least you had a laid back day and then got back straight on plan, good work!

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

I'm feeling really lousy right now, I'm back at my parents looking after the cat while they're away. I was so planning to have a healthy soup and a yoghurt this evening but I've just eaten a load of crisps and cheesy snacks, bread and a cake, now I'm feeling so guilty and awful :( It's a lovely evening, so maybe I'll go for a run later. So annoyed with myself for getting a record low weigh in and probably having blown it now. Gah!!

This is my first time posting in this group. I have been steadily losing and doing really great with my diet and exercise up until a few weeks ago (I've lost almost 24 pounds since Christmas). I had some health issues come up and I had to stop exercising for several weeks until all of the test results came back. I found that while I wasn't exercising I kept up my diet for the most part but would cheat more frequently. I stopped logging my food and moved to intuitive eating a couple of months ago. I decided yesterday that I am officially back on track (no more cheating except on designated cheat day) and on Friday I was cleared to exercise again. I'm getting close to my original goal but I'm debating on whether or not to reset my goal to 135. I exercised today for over an hour and it felt good (fast walking, weights, and yoga).

Have any of you reset your goal as you got close? What made up your mind in terms of your goal change (or non-change depending on which you chose)?

What's up, feathers?

I only managed to stay close to maintenance calories yesterday, though I got a good workout and lots of cardio in. My arms are SO sore! I did well with my food until dinner. That's when DH came home from work and we decided to go to the grocery store where I picked up one bag of organic light popcorn and dark chocolate roasted almonds (on top of having 1 can of Healthy Choice Split Pea soup). We finished "Jacob's Ladder" and went to sleep pretty late.
So far I'm up to 870 calories. I gotta wait for my poop to make it's way down and then I'm gonna head to the gym, only for some cardio though. The gym closes at 7pm anyways so I wouldn't have enough time to do weights. To avoid a nightly binge I'm gonna stop by the store after the gym and pick up things for dinner. Yay on pre-planning, lol!

novangel - Lord help my midsection - :rofl: I know how you feel! There's no Portillo's anywhere where we live, thank God :D

olehcat - I swear, I get that giddiness too! About once a week, usually on Thursdays or Fridays since Wednesdays are my weigh-ins, DH and I have our cheat-day and we have whatever type of food we want. I get so excited thinking about it right now! As soon as I wake up I feel such joy and freedom. I can pick out whatever I'm in the mood for in that moment and it feels AMAZING to know that I don't have to be worried about the calories. --- Trinidad, wow! Sounds very interesting! Which cities have you been to in Germany?

Leaves - We all have those unplanned days where it just overcomes us :/ Did you get to go out for a run?

bunnabear - Hello! :wave: Congrats on getting cleared for exercise! That must be a great feeling, especially after such a long time of not working out :) I'm not very close to my goal yet so all I've been thinking about is simply getting there. What makes you wanna change your goal weight?

Laterrrrrs!

saturday was a disaster! Novangel-not sure what Portillo's is but if anyone is familiar with Chuy's, my dh is in charge of their kitchen. I think all I ate was fat a$$ mexican and ice cream all day long.

Today was better up to the bbq we went too and I ate my bodyweight in tortilla chips and this avocado/mango/tomato salsa.

Tomorrow I will be taken the boys ot the annual opening pool bbq but I really think I'm eated out and will be able to stay controlled

Welcome Bunnabear-I'm brand new to the board too. I would def adjust your goal if you don't feel like you'll be "finished" yet.

Hoopty-what kind of eating plan do you follow? just curious the poop connection ;)

Turbo-hope the race was a blast!! pics?

Leaves-hope you got back on track. I have issues with blowing it after a great low weigh in too.

Hoopty : Ah I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who get pressure from husband/boyfriend to eat more! Last night, I decided to return the thing back to him : I was having one of the 2 cupcakes left and I told him ''eat the lat one, that will empty the box and we'll be done with it'' and he was all ''yes, yes yes later'' and he never ATE IT. Next time he puts some pressure on me, I'll remember what to say! ;)

novangel : Despite the anxiety related to the food fest, you seem like having a fun weekend!! What is Portillo? I never heard of it, we don't have it around here! And by the way, I think I'll join my prayers for my midsection to yours :P

olehcat : Pizza omelette? Nice!!! That is a great idea!! I'm with you on the enjoying the freedom of not caring what you are eating at the moment. But for me, because of that feeling, I tend to just give in to gluttony instead and simply enjoying food I'm not having usually. The line is super thin there in my case.

Leaves : Don't feel to bad about an eventual set back.. It's okay to go down and go back a bit ; I find it is less depressing to look at the general trend over a week or two :)

bunnabear : Hi! Welcome! I did reset my goals as I lost weight. I was heavier than you when I started (I see we are the same weight). I was around 185 and I had set a goal of getting to 140, mostly because it was a nice round number and I thought losing 45 pounds would be pretty much enough. When I reached 140 though, I still not felt 100% comfy with my body and I decided to push to 135 and under. But even at 135, I was still feeling BLAAAH. I was mostly doing running, no weights. I gained about 10 pounds and in the next months, but I lost them back, but this time while adding weight training and at 133-134, pretty much the same weight I was the first time I hit goal, I feel much better.

batmomm : It is stupid, but everytime I overeat during this weekend and feel bad about it, coming on this thread and seeing I was not the only one screwing up makes me feel : AWWW I'M NO ALONE IN THIS WOOOOORLD!

It is a long weekend in the state, right? Memorial day is usually big on BBQ things?

***

Hi! My scale was cray-crazy this morning, giving me a bunch of random numbers. In the end, it showed me 134.0 twice so I took it. I was expecting SO MUCH MORE but thank to dehydration, I got this ''not so bad'' number. I finally poop last night and this morning after a 3 days of no-show, JESUS I FEEL LIGHT.

We headed to Montreal on Saturday, we ate out in a asian cuisine resto (tons of food. tons of sodium. AAAAAAHH) with friends on Saturday night. We had the race on Sunday, where I had a big breakfast (2 english muffin + PB + banana) because we were racing at 12:30, so no time to eat lunch. I had date/almons energy balls I had made up the day before and ended up eating a can of Pringles with the boyfriend in the car on the way back, a McDo salad for supper and a cupcake. Honestly, could have been worst.

The race was AWESOME. Much harder I though it would be, but awesome!! The race was held at a ski station and we thought ''ah, we'll probably run around it''. NOPE. Running in the SKI SLOPES. Well, not really. RUNNING IN THE ANKLE-DEEP MUD SKI SLOPES. It was really a nice challenge though, I was able to do much of the obstacles, there was really just one I was not able (lifting a weight using a slippery freaking rope), the other one I missed wre including hanging on some bars with muddy hands = I slipped and I had to do the burpees.

Honestly, I did much better I had expected, my running and the hills training I did last month probably helped a LOT. I'm super sore and full of scratch today (my knees hurt like ***%$%?&*&*).

Picture from the course are not all out yet, but here's of what we looked after the race, after drying a bit.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/7445/img1231oe.jpg

Some of the last obstacles :
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8119/img1236x.jpg

People ''welcoming'' us to the finish line :
http://imageshack.us/a/img571/4387/img1235oz.jpg

Hiya Feather friends! Sorry for the MIA! Just has to post in quick to keep accountable. Been busy at work and at home. Still seein' Mr. PhD. Food is off the wall, but I just started running again and that helps a ton.

Turbo ~ Great pics! That race looks like a force, to be sure!

Hope to be back for personals soon.

Happy Memorial Day anyone in the USA!!!

Turbo Love the pics! Congrats!! :)

batmomm Welcome to the group! (I'm new, too). :)

Hoopty Good work with planning ahead!

Bunnabear Welcome! I have hit "goal" and changed my mind about what goal should be several times....just takes some trial and error, I suppose. I have set my goal weight anywhere from 120-135. 120 was definitely too low for me. 135 (or possibly 130) seems to work better for me. Let us know how things progress for you.

Leaves Be gentle with yourself...it happens to all of us. I hope you're feeling better about things today. :)

I am still at 140, and perhaps overindulged a bit too much yesterday. (Sunday dinner is usually my "cheat" meal, but I also had a high cal snack). I did not weigh in today...waiting for sodium to leave my body. I am back on track today, though.

Just curious, is anyone in this group also in the "dieting with obstacles" group? I am thinking about checking it out....

I hope everyone has a fantastic day! :)

Hello from the girl eating Golden Oreos and Nutter Butters,

Mmmhmmm, yeah, I'm having a bunch right now. Shame on me! I'll be back on track tomorrow, I promise! PMS has kicked in and I can't stop thinking about crunchy, sweet stuff. My gym closed at 1pm today and DH and I slept until 12pm so no working out for me. We went for an hour walk though.
Guess what - I bought myself a measurement tape today and it's pink! Woohhoo! :D I would always use one from Germany but I'm too lazy to convert centimeters to inches all the time. The one I got was only $1,49 so I thought hey, why not?
Oh, and I signed up for My Fitness Pal today and I'm a little confused. According to that website I need to eat 1200 calories + exercise cals in order to lose 1.5 pounds a week. Huh? 1200? Isn't that a little low? All the other websites would tell me to eat around 1500-1700 calories a day in order to lose 1.5lbs. My BMR is 1400 (5'5", 141 lbs, 22 years, sedentary lifestyle, 3 x 90min at the gym). I don't know, weird. Maybe it's just me and I don't know anything about all this, but I always thought to eat at least your BMR calories.
Tomorrow, or maybe tonight, I wanna create my own calendar where I can keep track of on-plan and off-plan days (you know, on-days get a green happy smiley and off-days get a red, bad, unhappy mean face!) just so I can look at it and remind myself of how I've been doing. It's been really hard for me lately, due to all the drama that's going on with our situation AND now PMS, to stay fully on track.

Aaaaanywaaaysss.....

batmomm - LOL! :D Well, I've been trying out the vegetarian lifestyle for a couple of months now. Mostly fresh veggies + fruits, tofu, eggs and beans. I also avoid rice, bread, pasta and potatoes (which I don't eat anyways, but sweet potatoes for example) as much as I can. I don't remember the last time I had any? It causes huge cravings for me! About once a week I have a monster-cheat-day which I always look forward to :D And yeah, that's pretty much it. How was the annual opening pool bbq, did you manage to stay on plan?

TurboMammoth - Wow, looking great woman! Looks like you had a lot of fun but dang, that race looks tough! Who ended up eating the last cupcake? Please tell me it was you! :D Guess what: There were 2 Nutter Butter cookies left just now. I'm taking one and tell DH to have the last one (and I tried to sound really bossy lol) and what does he do? Takes a bite, about half, puts the other half back and says "eat!". Man, sometimes..... :rolleyes:

Alexistrophic - Hello! :wave: Being busy like that sucks...I hope we can both get back on track food-wise :kickbutt:

nineteen - I lurk around in that group a lot but never posted anything. Just curious: How long does it take until you feel like all the sodium has left? For me, I feel like takes forever :(

Hope you guys had a great Memorial Day!

ahhhh nope Hoopty! Not even a little bit on track. Well bbq wasn't bad but pizza tonight wasn't exactly budgeted for. Starting fresh tomorrow...hope this isn't a trend

my workout today was a classic crossfit one done on Memorial Day, “Murph”

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. Tough but rewarding.

Turbo super pic! And congrats a great race :)

Nineteen-thanks for the welcome. What kind of obstacles on that board? might check it out, sadly I'm my only obstacle :P

Turbo, great pics! Portillo's is a hot dog/burger/Italian beef/ribs/beer chain Illinois and it is freaking heavenly.

I went to the family BBQ today but I didn't go overboard. I am still so bloated from the previous damage that it's not even funny. My stomach feels like a waterbed. *sigh* I did go to the gym last night and ran for an hour though.

Hoopty, not sure why MFP gave you a 1,200 allowance but I'm 5'5" and was allowed 1,540 to lose but I only wanted to get to 140p. You could eat at 1,200 but that's not really sustainable for life. I would stay in the 1,300-1,500 range if you still want to lose but that's just my opinion seeing as we are about the same stats. I personally couldn't stick to 1,200.

Good morning, feathers! I haven't weighed in a few days because omg, wow, I really blew it the last few days! It started Sunday with a HUGE chocolate milkshake, which I hadn't had in years from my favorite place, but that wasn't enough, oh no. If I had just stopped there, it would be fine. But then I went and ordered Thai food for dinner and ate a HUGE amount of it. It was SO SO SO good. But holy crap, less than a week after I vowed no more Asian takeout for a good while. *shakes head* Then yesterday I just ate crap. Not a huge amount of food, just the choices I made were crappy. I just can't handle holiday weekends. Also did not exercise. The weather was awful.

But here we go again, no more holidays for awhile, so I can get strongly established and see some hardcore movement on the scale and that will probably motivate me to not lose it so much the next holiday. ;D

@Turbo - AWESOME pics!!! You look great, and that race looks...wow, that takes some major endurance, I think!

@novangel - good for you for not going overboard!

@batmomm - I'm so intrigued by this crossfit thing! I haven't delved into it because it seems expensive in my town, but it sounds like it's running combined with other random exercises?

@Hoopty - I'm sorry things have been so rough for you as far as staying on plan. I hear you, I hear you. I feel like the last few months have been one solid stress mess for me as well, and when you're stressed, it's so hard to think about diet, even if by eating well, you're actually doing yourself more favors. I think 1200 calories is WAY too low for what needs to be a lifetime. Sure, you can eat 1200 "just to lose some weight" but what's going to happen when you lost the weight? How will you maintain? This is why counting calories so extremely is just not for me. I can't do it because it has to be something I'm willing to do for the rest of my life, and if you must eat 1200 the rest of your life, you will have to count meticulously and to me, at least, that would be frustrating and triggering. As for cities in Germany, I've been to Munster (sorry I can't make the umlauts here) and Koln (again, sorry no umlauts) and some other cities when i was a young child traveling with my parents!

@nineteen - I hear you about needing to wait for the sodium to leave. So tiresome. I hope it leaves quickly for you!

@Alex - HI! Keep up the good running work! Glad you checked in!

@Leaves - I SO hear you! I do that all the time. I get a great weigh in and then I have this need to self-sabotage. I have no idea why! I hope you are feeling better today!

@Bunnabear - welcome! I haven't gotten close enough to goal, but I am keeping an open mind about my goal, depending on how difficult this process ends up being, lol. I have 120 as a goal, but I may think 115 is better or I might be really wowed by myself at 125. I'll have to see!

bunnabear- welcome! Hope you're recovered fully now :) I don't know if I really have a solid goal right now, as I've never been near my goal range so I don't know what I'm going to be happy at. I think the only way to know is to get there!

hoopty- aha, I did manage to get out, and I went out the next day too! I've never ran two days in a row before, my calves are sore today but I needed the exercise. I'd have gone again today but it's raining :(
My MFP target is 1220 calories a day (sedentary, 5'3, 1lb a week) which I thought was insanely low at first (my original figure was 1350, it keeps lowering it as I lose weight!) but as I've gotten better at eating I find that I'm not too hungry for most of the time. If my maintenance calories allow me another couple of hundred I'll think I'll be pretty content :) I guess it's really individual to your needs and exercise levels though, good luck with working yours out!

batmomm- sounds delicious! hope you can get yourself back on plan- mexican is a real downfall for me, so much delicious cheese! And that workout sounds insane, 200 pushups?! I can't even do 20 :(

turbo-hey sexy lady! how do you look so good after all of that? haha, looks amazing fun though! I think you deserved the pringles :p

alex- nice to see you! and yay for the mr! :)

nineteen- I haven't posted I don't think, I read occasionally but I don't really have any major obstacles other than my laze!

nova- well done at the BBQ :) and lol at the waterbed comment, if I were you I would have lay there poking my tummy for the giggles! (totally do that sometimes anyway :P)

oleh- me too! gah, I think we've all been having a bit of an indulgent weekend and Thai food is so yummy...

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Bah, bit of a bad run for me too, and I'm meant to be going out for lunch with the BF when he comes to visit tomorrow. I should be ordering a salad with the amount that I've eaten recently, but I always feel like I can't order salad when I'm out because I can make that at home! Really need a good workout but it's raining and I'm not going to be at home to make my weekly swim. Hoping that I can move it to another day to make up. Bleurgh, glad I've left my scales at home!

Nineteen ~ A belated welcome to you. Looks like you've already made quite a bit of progress. I'm not in the 'dieting with obstacles' group, but now I'm curious... Thoughts so far?

Hoopty ~ I feel the same with the "on day/off day" tracking. I'd love to see it all laide out in frotn of me in the form of smiley faces. ;) And yes, 1200 does seem pretty low. Out of curiosity, how do you define a "good" day? Would it be just eating at a deficit, or do you use other metrics?

batmomm ~ Belated WELCOME to you, too. And boy, can I ever relate to that "Obstacle"... I definitely have the same one.

novangel ~ Yrgh to the water bed stomach. My whole body feels like a waterbed and I didn't even eat that much sodium... ugh.

oleh ~ By can I ever relate... It's like one indulgence just opens the door for a whole host of other indulgences. I hear ya on the stretch of time without food events. Locking arms to July 4?

Leaves ~ Hurrah for weekly swims! I hear ya on not wanting to order a salad when you go out... Then again, maybe you can get some good ideas for new ways to make your salad? Dunno. I'm reaching for straws here...


~~~
Urgh. My old nemesis, the bagel for breakfast, has returned. It's my own sweet fault, really. Now the challenge is to not throw the rest of the day away...

Weather is gross and rainy, although perversely, when I can get it together, I sometimes like running in the rain. Makes me feel all hard core and melancholy.

I have crazy rehearsals every.single.evening this week, and a concert on Saturday. I knew it was coming, but I kept trying not to think about it, because there's really no way to make it easier. Yargh. Just kind of hold on 'till the finish line.

Have a great week, Feather Friends!

well i took a hiatus because of university finals.... I didn't get on the scale for like three weeks.... and I still lost a lb! Haha, I was basically scared I would gain. But I worked out, ate ok, and basically maintained my loss! I guess I really have made a life change! Phew. But I'm back and ready to do another round of really losing the pounds! wew! summer! :)

Alexis : Glad to see you back here, woman! But not so glad to see you so tired :( I hope you'll be able to get some time for yourself this week to relax a bit.

nineteen : I'm not in the dieting with obstacles group neither. What obstacles are you facing?

Hoopty : The boyfriend ate up the last cupcake!! VICTORYYYY! Woah, 1200 calories a day is low... Especially since you are not small (like, 1200 for a 5'0'' woman, maybe) but for someone who is 5'5''? I would at least bump that to 1300-1400.

batmomm : My boyfriend is into crossfit a bit and when I told him you were doing a Musher, he went all OMG. You seriously rock, just reading your working got me tired ;)

novangel : hot dog/burger/Italian beef/ribs/beer chain? Jesus. Best place on Earth!?

Olehcat : It is weird how holiday weekend just seem to go overboard so much more easily than regular weekend, isn't it!? I always wonder why. It is hard to stop associating holiday with food.

Leaves : I did not look good at all after the race, the mud was actually hiding my multiples bruises and scratches ;) Good luck handling going out for lunch!

***

Hi! The weight was still holding to 134 this morning, but my stomach is still bloated.. I guess I'm still retaining water from the salt and everything. I did good with the food, I actually still have some calories left to snack on on my daily food log + calories from my workout.

I did a good 8 km run this morning with 6 x 3' sprint interval. It really kicked my butt and I wanted to give up after the first 2 sprints but I pushed through it and I felt good afterward.

I am skipping the weight lifting workout for this week, as I am still sore from the Sunday race. I want to let the muscles to get a rest a bit, as I am entering my last month of training for my half at the end of June. A little break might do good to my poor legs ;)

hi all - too lazy to do personals, but can just about drum up the effort to write a quick update! Had a moderate week food-wise and have been out to quite a few events, but have stayed steady on the scales (well, i put on 0.3kg, but that's 'steady' isn't it?!). Hoping to finish it off with two properly good days and get back down to where i finished last week.

Went for my lunchtime run again today and it felt terrible. I kept wanting to stop, and it felt sooooo slow. At the end i was thinking to myself that the only thing i would get out of the run was that at least i didn't stop. Anyway, when i got to the end and looked at my stopwatch it was 40 seconds faster than i've done it before! Couldn't believe it. I must have gone out faster because i certainly came back very sluggishly! Amazing how you can change your thinking based on stats - if i hadn't had the stopwatch running i would still be thinking that i'd done really badly!

Om ~ Well done, you! Just maintaining through any exam period is a victory, but you managed to lose. Nice work!

Turboooooo ~ Hallooooo there! You are not doing too badly AT ALL for holding onto water. Sheesh woman. And you have CERTAINLY earned a break from training. Sounds like the rest will do you good. Any news on the TOM front?

ange82much ~ Crazy about your time being faster than you thought, eh? Just goes to show you: don't give up b.c you might just be doing better than you think.

~~~~
Rehearsal last night was scores better than expected. I'm actually getting paid for this gig, so that's a plus, and feel much more confident with my performance in general. Still not as good as I know it could be, but not doing that badly at all.

Food has been all over the map again, but trying to just be "moderate" whatever that means. Keeping the cut off helps fence in the crazy a bit, too.

Happy Wednesday, Feathers!!!

Alive if only just barely. Music festival was INCREDIBLE. I pretty much spent the entire time dancing, occasionally remembering to eat. My appetite is coming back with a MIGHTY VENGEANCE - had Chinese takeout and Pizza Hut breadsticks last night. WI 121.8 this morning.

Hello girls,

I don't even know where to begin. DH and I are in a serious situation. We're getting kicked out of the apartment on the 31st (DH's Dad lives here, it's his place, he's on the lease). We have no place to go other than back to Germany. We don't have any friends or family here where we could stay, we also don't have enough money to rent out our own place. There is something that I have to pay off here and if we leave in 3 days I might not be able to come back to the US for a long, long (and I'm talking YEARS) time.
We found out yesterday evening. We were just about to go to the gym until DH's Dad told us. I didn't know how to feel, still don't. You know when you're free-falling and you have that ticklish feeling in your belly? That's how it is for me. It's horrible. I wanna cry but I feel like I can't. Maybe I didn't realize it all yet? I was doing great food-wise. I was at 1000 calories at dinner and did 70Min of Cardio. And then when we found out...I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know how to feel so I resorted to food. I had a whole pint of Häagen-Dasz dark chocolate Gelato, a whole Entenmann's Marble loaf cake and a king size Milky Way bar. Yes. We walked to the store at 11:30pm at night and I bought all that stuff. My stomach was killing me this morning. I fell asleep at 6 AM after spending all night looking for cheap tickets and woke up 4 hours later. For some reason I don't feel horrible about the food I had. How could I, if I don't feel anything at all anyways? Gah, gah, gah, gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

batmomm - Your workout sounds great! 200 push-ups - forget it. I would never be able to do that :D

novangel - I definitely agree with you! My target is 1400 a day. I'm gonna stick to that and see how my body will react to it.

olehcat - Thank you :hug: Oh yeah, is it even possible to stay on track when you're stressed and busy? Gah :( Münster is actually close to my home! :) Now that the holidays are over I hope you're able to go back on track!

Leaves - 1350 sounds good! I'm gonna find out how my body reacts to 1400 calories day and I'll make changes if needed. Honestly, when DH and I go out to eat I always feel like I should order the foods that I can't make at home (or that take too long or that are too expensive). I would NEVER order a salad at a restaurant. I feel like it's a waste of money :/ Going out is always a special thing to me so I order what I'm in the mood for. I totally hear you on that.

Alexistrophic - LMFAO! I cracked up at the feeling hard core and melancholy part, bahaha, so true! Doesn't the weather suck over here? We're pretty close to each other (well, we're east coast gangsters), lol! A good day, or on plan day for me means that I stayed under my target calories even if that means that I had chocolate. Hope you find some moments where you can sit back and relax a little :hug:

om namah shivaya - Congrats on losing a pound! :) What a relief that must have been!

TurboMammoth - Lol, good boy! :D And yeah, 1400 it is! I can't do 1200, waaay too low. I can only imagine how sore you must be. Go get a massage!

ange82much - Congrats, that's awesome! Thank God for the stopwatch, lol! I'd definitely consider 0.3kg "steady".

krampus - Happy to hear you had a good time! :) Pizza Hut breadsticks? Sounds friggin delish, never had it! (Do I want to? Probably not! :D )

Thanks everyone for the welcome! I think my issue may be more with my tone than my weight. I was lifting before my health issues and have restarted lifting so perhaps it's just a matter of time for my body to have that "in shape" look.

Had a great run today and stayed on plan as far as food!

I realized something really er...embarrassing. I have an addiction to Asian takeout food. I mean, seriously. And it's WAY too darned easy to order it on line and have it arrive at my house in less than an hour! D: And I realized that I have ordered either Thai or CHinese food WAY more times than is healthy or normal (for me, who usually maybe orders it a few times a year). I think I've ordered it at least five times in the last two weeks! D: So some of what I order is relatively healthy, like green curry or hot and sour soup. But some of it most definitely is NOT. And anyway, Asian takeout places tend to use stuff like MSG and other unhealthy, fattening ingredients and so much is deep fried. Anyway, I realized yesterday that it was like an addiction. I'd start hearing the siren call and temptation and then I'd look at the menus a few times, shut down the window so that I wouldn't order, wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it, it would eat at my brain, then I would go ahead and order it, promising myself to REALLY be on plan starting the next day. Such a feeling of giddiness and anticipation as I waited for the food! So I realized I have a problem, so no more for quite awhile. For real.

@Alex - stay strong! Ah, those freaking bagels! If I kept those around, they would be a problem, but I won't buy them, lol! What I really crave is a soft honey and butter toast! *drools* Too bad I don't keep bread at home!

@om-namah - go you for losing weight during that time!

@Turbo - Actually you might consider taking a few days off running, too. After a big race, it is good to give it almost a whole week to recover! You won't lose fitness, and it will give your muscles time to recover!

@ange - that is so funny how that works - when you think you're not doing great and your time actually surprises you!

@krampus - wow, congrats! I know I can never forget to eat, no matter how good a time I'm having, alas! :D Sounds like a great time!

@Hoopty - I'm so sorry. :((( That sounds wretched. Was it DH's father that kicked you guys out? I think the best thing for you to do right now is not to count calories but try to eat foods that are nourishing and healthy for you and will make you feel good (not emotionally good although nothing wrong with a little chocolate therapy but physically good and strong). Just worry about taking care of yourself during this time.

@Leaves - ah, I know what you mean about ordering salads. It's probably better just to order what looks best to you on the menu and then put a huge portion of it into a takeaway box so that you eat just a small amount of it. That way you're not eating too many extra calories, but still getting an enjoyable meal.

Hey ya'll. Nothing too much new to report with me. Been biking my a$$ off what with the flawless weather we've been having. I'm lucky to live in a city with miles of bike trails and nature hiking areas. Other than that? My sister came back from Europe a few weeks ago. We've been hanging out. We're going to a classic car show this Saturday. Might go out of town this weekend and go night clubbing with my bestie. Haven't decided yet. Either way, things are going well. Ragnar Relay is coming up in eight days! My weight keeps bouncing between 109 and 111 lately. Lol. :carrot: