I was head assistant for 5 years at a high tech dental office. I would take 3D scans for pre-op implant placement among 800 other duties. I'm happy to be out of there for numerous reasons. Too many to list. :lol:

turbo that's crazy service at the pregnancy clinic, waiting 3 months for an appointment! Maybe your regular doctor could help instead? The Spartan thing sounds good. You'll have great fun! I've heard everyone helps each other and it's a real community atmosphere at those events. Would love to give it a go myself and maybe that's a challenge for next year (i'm early days of recovering from shoulder surgery at the moment, so not allowed to lift anything above my head or go back to the gym and trekking club til september, which has slowed me down a bit!)

novangel Great news on the extra work from next week. Great pants too. I'm just so the wrong shape to wear skinny pants. My knees are fat and so are my hips. And i'm short. It just looks so wrong on me so i'm jealous of anyone who can wear stuff like that!

Alexis sounds like things progressing quickly with the new man! Like your attitude of just letting him say what he wants - that's good.

olecat hope you're feeling better very soon, and you're not super-hungry when you do!!

blueisis my whole wardrobe is 'goal clothing' unfortunately!! There's hardly anything in it that fits me at the moment, and i'm really reluctant to go out and buy 'big' clothes. I've been this weight a few times before and have a couple of things i can wear, but i chucked most of it out a few years ago thinking i wouldn't need it again lol. At least i know that when i lose the weight it'll fit me again. I do change shape when i lose, so as you've found out it's hard to predict ahead of time what's going to fit you if you've not been there before.

krampus can you put me down for the tuna tartare (can't resist high quality raw stuff!!!), and the green curry prawns please (narrowly chosen over the beef rendang). Looks a yummy yummy menu! Well done on winning the comp. Your BF doesn't have to dress up as your mum to collect his meal does he?!

It's Saturday - yippeee!!! Not that i've got much planned. Out with a friend today. Nothing planned tonight, so just home with hubby in front of the tv or something! Neighbours coming round for drinks tomorrow, so bit of a house-tidy required at some stage, although we'll probably just sit out on the deck.

I've just been for a run round with the dog this morning but had a bit of lazyitis and my legs felt heavy, so did more walking than i intended to. The scale finally moved though from 62.2kg where i've been stuck for 10 days to 61.8kg! My rules say I don't get to move my ticker until i've seen the same or less on Monday though, so hopefully that will motivate me to stay well behaved.

Have a great weekend feathers and try to stay OP!

OOMMMGGGGG

Finishing that essay, I feel like I've just given birth to a thought-baby. I still have to compile the 34-source bibliography before I submit to the competition and I am *not* looking forward to that. However, as soon as I hit that "submit" button, I'll be pulling a bottle of ice-cold white wine from the fridge and letting the banana chip and chocolate festivities commence!

I'm sitting here eating a bowl of oatmeal made up with dou jiang (Chinese sweetened soy milk) and a tablespoon of sugar, a concoction that I conceived of this morning as I thumbed around in the kitchen, trying to decide what to eat for breakfast. Looks exactly like puke, but it's delicious :D

It was a weird week, though. For the past 5-6 days, I had been really bloated and heavy around the lower abdominal area with intermittent cramps/jolts, sore breasts, and a lot of urinary urgency -- yet no period. I've had ovarian cysts in the past, and have insanely disorganized periods, and so I thought this might be a reprise of all that. I started to feel kinda freaked out about the fact that, if I were back in the States, I'd just call up my gynocologist, drive 15 minutes to see her, and be in the ultrasound room getting checked out the same day. Here? Outside of big cities, medical facilities are quite behind Western standards, and are often pretty dirty. If I had a serious problem -- like ovarian cancer -- I'm not sure they'd even catch it. When I go back home, I'm actually really looking forward to getting my whole body checked out.

Anyway, all that freaked-out hypochondriac stuff aside, I was so happy to wake up this morning to find all my bloatation and other symptoms subsided, and my waist measurement back down to normal -- 26.25". I weighed in a couple days ago at like 56.7 (FFFFFUUUU), with a waist of like, a tight 26.75", and I was none too pleased. I'm changing the metric on my progress thing, too, to waist measure in inches, since my scale weight's not really my big concern -- it's about how I look :)

Finally, after a week off of running and doing some great bike rides instead, I feel *SO* much better with the lower leg crap I'd been having trouble with the week before this. It might be hard to go back to my old mileage, now that the spring's finally here. I'd forgotten how much I love biking, and how good of a butt workout it is.

Okay, onto these long overdue personals!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Turbo: I'm not sure if anyone else has asked you this before -- and if not, then I have no idea why -- but...how in God's name do you manage to make all these awesome cakes and still lose weight? I mean, you say you're eating like 1600-1800 usually so...do you just eat dinner and then cake? Or are you a professional baker? All I ever see outta you is crepe cake, birthday cake, confirmation cake, cake for h*ll of it. I'm jealous!

BlueIsis: I'm gonna wait until Monday to get back with my running, but I already feel so much stronger. My body really was in need of a rest! And about the goal clothing -- I've totally done that before. I still think it's a good idea, but maybe just pick up something from the thrift store, so in the event that it's not even cut well for you at goal size, it's not like you spent more than a couple bucks on it!

angel82much: Ha! I love the workday workout, and yeah, I totally never cared if I came back into work all red and sweaty. At the school I worked at in the city I lived in before this, there was a little pay-by-the-hour gym right upstairs, and I'd sometimes go up for a quick 40 minutes on the treadmill. It feels so great to kick up a sweat right when that mid-day drowse is about to come around.

krampus: Oh God that BBQ sounds so good! I don't know if you ever felt like this in Japan, but I guess I'm homesick now to the extent that I'm craving things I normally never ate in the States. For instance, I don't even like cheese, but found myself thinking "a ham and cheese sandwich sounds tasty" as I lay in bed a few nights ago, contemplating the simple American goodness of diner fare. Also, I am surprised that my computer is still functioning after the tantruming toddler crap I've put it through on a few occasions. "Frozen a-f**king-again? Better smash it with my fist! Yeah! That'll show it!"

olehcat: Ugh! That sucks being sick when you're trying to stay on plan (not that it ever doesn't suck, lol), because it's hard to determine when you're fully ready to get back into running and stuff. Feel better soon!

Alexis: About this complimenter, my thinking is like, as long as he doesn't cross into weirdo territory, I'd rather have a guy who compliments me all the time than a guy who doesn't say anything nice! :P

Alright, that's all I got time for right now, so I really hope I didn't leave anyone out! I know it's been like a week, so I had to open another window to browse the last couple pages I missed!

novangel : I'm happy that you are happy to be out of the dental assistant job then! ;)

ange : I think a Spartan race is a great challenge... I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm a bit scared at the same time. Congrats on the scale moving!!! :) You had a shoulder surgery? Yikes! What happened?

xiaobaicai : welcome back, woman! congrats on finishing your essay, you must be so relieved! Okay, I really laughed at loud at your question about my dessert baking LOL. I guess I never actually say the irony of constantly chatting of what I am baking on a WEIGHT LOSS forum bwahaha. Honestly, when I was eating 1600 calories or lower, I would eat one part (on a day where I had a good training) and let the boyfriend polish the plate :P But now that I am eating 1800 or a bit higher depending of my training, I can treat myself much more easily and if it fits in my calories log, I eat it. I usually have a light breakfast, rarely going over 300-350 calories, so I guess it helps to keep room for the rest of the day. And when I bake a sweet hing for the week-days, I usually make it a it more healthy, by cutting the sugar or the butter ;)

***

Hi! Up to 134.0 this morning, for no reason. I had a WTF moment on the scale, because I woke up, looked at myself in the mirror, told myself ''LOOKING GOOD!'' and than stepped on the scale to see that LOL. But whatever, I feel great so I'll let the body deal with this crap while I put my ''I don't caaare'' hat! YAY

I was planning to do nothing today because it is raining + no workout planned today = perfect day to be lazy, but it was finally decided that the boyfriend's mom,her boyfriend and the boyfriend's sister are coming over for dinner tomorrow for Mother's Day... Hello, cleaning time. Meeeeeh.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

I forgot about an AMEX gift card that was given to me from the ladies at the dental office when I quit so I ordered these pants for work. They were on sale for a price too good to pass. Oh, yes I did.. :lol: I love the red but I got them in the beige python color. I have been eyeballing these for a year.

http://www.victoriassecret.com/cloth...alogueType=OLS

I ordered a size up, I pray they fit. :crossed:

I really need to get back to the gym today. Enough with the TOM fatigue and this dreary weather!! I want 80's!

I've had this happen too! :rofl: Looking in the mirror thinking "Oh yeah!", get on the scale and yell "You SOB!" Oh well..

We were in Africa on holiday over Christmas, and i managed to fall down Mt Kilimanjaro (as you do!?) It served me right, sort of, as we'd just reached the top and were coming back down and i was playing around and running and jumping down the scree (this all still above 15,000ft), when i got going too fast and just tumbled head over heels and landed on my shoulder. It semi-dislocated, but then popped back in, but as a result i'd torn the tendons in my rotator cuff and labrum, so they all had to be sewn back on (meanwhile i still had another two days of walking to get down the mountain!). Fun and games. At least it won't be difficult to avoid doing the same thing in future!

angel82much: Sounds like it sucked, but at least you got a good story out of it! I mean, when most people dislocate their shoulder, they don't get to do it on Mt. Kilimanjaro :P

Ugh, so I guess I had what you might call a minor binge last night. It wasn't anything too severe, although I did rack up 2700 calories for the entire day with that. My friend and I went out for what was actually a reasonably light lunch at this mini hot-pot restaurant, which does these little pots of veggies, tofu, and meat (of the unidentifiable and highly questionable variety). I also added some noodles, but stayed at likely under 1.5 cups of those. I was satiated but not *full* after, which is a good thing.

Anyway, I had my Chinese lesson and had a snack of melon and tomatoes after. Took a nap. Got up feeling not hungry, but voraciously munchy, so I decided to take a spin on my bike and went out for 1h10m. When I got back, I was at 1600 total estimated cals for the day, so I figured a pear and 30 almonds should do for dinner.

This was my undoing. I started with that, then I had grapes, a small piece of chocolate, 3 little bean flour tea cakes, the rest of the almonds, anndddd I think that's it.

However, I don't feel too bad about it, like I said. I haven't properly overeaten in several weeks, and because I simply could not get full, I feel like this probably won't stick to me too badly. Also, today's the day I go back to running after my little recuperation hiatus, so that'll be food fuel for my long run.

Good morning, all!

I'm feeling back to almost human levels again. I was so miserable Thursday through Saturday or so! That virus kicked my butt.

My weight was hovering around 145 the last few days, but then yesterday I am so gross, I just ate a lot of stuff that wasn't good for me. I had Taco Bell, for crying out loud. I NEVER get Taco Bell, lol. I just had this urge for it yesterday. And then when I went to my parents' for dinner, I had picked up barbecue for them, and I always get the 1/2 fried shrimp, and so yeah, I had 6 fried shrimp dipped in this amazingly spicy barbecue sauce and some fries (not many, fortunately) and two glasses of wine.

So I knew with absolute certainty that my weight would be up, just from sodium alone, so I don't need that kind of start to my Monday, so no weigh today.

I just have 2 full weeks of work left before I'm "off" for the summer. "off" is in quotes because I still have other work-related stuff to do this summer, including taking an intense summer class at the university for four weeks. But there will be a few weeks of summer freedom, about six weeks' worth all together, so I'm not complaining!

My ex-husband is coming back into the country in a few weeks to help me with a few things. Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to hanging out with him just as a friend. We always have a good time together, we're just not meant to be married. I look forward to long walks, watching cheesy true crime shows, and taking little road trips.

@novangel - I like those pants! For myself, I'm always suspicious of the skinny jeans look though (the tapered look) on me, though, since I hate my legs and really hate drawing attention to them. And yay on getting more work!!!

@Alex - heh, alas the weight loss didn't stick since I got my appetite back yesterday, argh! But it was great to feel light for awhile! I'm glad your date worked out well! That must feel nice! :)))

@krampus - oh man, I can't get over how fast a runner you are! I MIGHT have been able to do 2 miles in 21 minutes like that, lol! Rock on with that! I hope you are feeling less bloated by now.

@turbo - omg, no appointment for three months at a place that deals with pregnancy EMERGENCIES!? That sounds terrible! That's really odd about your TOM, though. I wonder if because you're so active now and are at a low weight? Or maybe just stress. Oh, and I hate those weigh-in days when I feel light and feel like I'm looking awesome and then the scale goes up. No fun!

@ange - alas, I got my appetite back yesterday, lol, and I went a bit overboard, so I am not even weighing myself today. Too scary. Heh, and not many people get to say they fell off Mt. Kilimanjaro!! :) Sorry about the dislocated shoulder, though, ouch!

@xiao - that must be disconcerting to be in a place where you don't know what the medical care could be if you had something serious. Glad to hear that the bloating went away, though, whew! You're right about not being sure about the running! Sometimes I can be just fine within a few days, but other times, the fatigue and not being able to get a full breath in lingers on a long time (in December I was out of running commission for almost a month because of being congested in my lungs! - yes, I've been sick about a million times this year), so yes, definitely frustrating! :-p

Hey everyone...Mind if I join you guys?

I am a "maintainer" who has let extra weight creep up on me slowly during the last two years.

My last weigh in was about 10 days ago (I went on a week long vacation). I am afraid to weigh in until I've done a couple days of clean eating/drinking lots of water. I definitely overindulged during my trip.

Before I left for my trip, I was at 144 lbs. I'm hoping the damage won't be too bad.

I look forward to getting to know everyone in the group!

Nineteen, :wave:

I don't know WTH is wrong with me, I'm so fatigued for about a week now and it's really cramping my style. I don't know if my body is "recovering" from the awful stress caused by my last job but I feel very discombobulated and all I want to do is sleep. :tired:

I did go to the gym tonight but it was so forced that it wasn't even funny.

How's everyone else doing? It's been quiet around here...

hello chickettes!

welcome nineteen - looks from your info that you've lost lots of weight in the past, so you certainly know what you're doing! Good luck this time around.

Well we had the neighbours round just for a drink on Sunday. I'd never even seen them before and they live directly opposite, but my hubby had bumped in to him at the dog-park and invited them round. They were really nice and ticked a few potential-friends boxes - same age, no kids, dog, like holidays, travel a lot etc etc. Anyway suffice to say Fiona and I scoffed 1.5 bottles of wine and i was so wobbly afterwards i went straight to bed. Pretty embarrassing really and don't think she was any better. Normally i'd manage to drink that with no problems but it must be this dieting lark that's weakened my constitution! This wasn't all bad however as i got a great nights sleep and didn't eat dinner (hence felt less guilty for all the wine calories!!)

Last night i was out with the girls at the Banff Film Festival (on tour in Sydney), where they showed about 8 short adventure documentaries . Stuff on extreme kayaking, and mountain biking and climbing and trekking etc - it was great! Felt very inspired!

Ran round the trail at work again today and kept running for 5km this time, then walked 0.5km, then ran the last 0.5km, so next time i'm just going to have to do the whole 6.1km. That's better than the 3km + 1km that i managed last week. Improving Slowly slowly!

And i'm down at least 0.5-1lb. So all is good in Australia.

krampus- That menu looked good! How was the meal? We have the same name!

turbo- That's really crappy of the clinic :( Can your regular GP not help? (I'm not very familiar with health services outside the UK) Good look with your boyfriend's family, do you get on? I'm terrified of my boyfriend's parents!

nova- Are you feeling any better? Maybe have a day of rest from the exercise, last time I did too much I couldn't even walk around the supermarket. So wished I could sit in the kid seat and have my boyfriend push around, lol. Hope you're feeling better today!

oleh-What's the class you're taking? Work stuff, or things-you-want-to-study stuff?

ange- ouch! Also, I only just figured out what your username actually says! haha. I kept reading it as ange eighty two.

xiao- Congrats on the essay! I'm hoping to join you in finished-ness today. 600 words to go! I think as far as binges go, you had a very mild one!

nineteen- welcome!

600 words to go until I've finished my undergrad! arghhh. What a scary thought. I weighed in at a tentative 144 this morning (waiting for a more solid confirmation later this week hopefully!) and had a look at my tummy in the mirror. Think I'm finally starting to see a bit of a change. Then it struck me that I don't remember ever seeing myself at a lower weight in the mirror and started panicking that I won't like my new look because I hate change. Silly :dizzy:

Turbo ~ That IS crazy about the almost 3 month wait... For an EMERGENCY appointment. Hopefully, TOM will show up before it comes to that. I love your attitude with weigh-ins... Sometimes you just gotta say "you look great!" no matter what you weigh...

Krampus ~ Hey there, pretty lady. You did such a great job with the essay!!! How was the free meal?

Leaves ~ Congrats on being so close to done with your undergrad!!! Well done, you!!! It's always a bit of a challenge to acclimate to any significant change in our bodies. This is a great way for you to accept the new, lighter you!

ange ~ Well you know, falling down Mt Kilimanjaro and all... that DOES give you some pretty sweet bragging rights. How exciting about having new friends with similar interests. Maybe I missed it earlier, but who is Fiona? Is that the other friend?

Oleh ~ I think it's pretty normal that you'd look forward to seeing your ex when he comes back into the country. You two shared a significant chunk of your life together and it's probably a good thing that you're still able interact with him without bitterness or resentment.

Xiao ~ Doesn't sound like the "binge" will do much harm, but I understand that it can sometimes be more the feeling of not being full that throws us off.

nineteen ~ Welcome!

nova ~ Digging those pants, too. Lucky you to have a workplace that supports fashion forward choices. Bet you feel a bit more "free" fashion-wise now that you're working in a salon... ;)

~~~
Good morning, feathers!
I've just been feeling pretty "blah" lately...

Woke up at 2Am to drive my momma and a colleague to the airport. Went into work early, hoping that I'll be able to leave early... :rolleyes: We'll see about that one.

I was watching secret eaters and heard about making a "graze box" with snacks in it that are within your cal/nutrition allowance for the day. Then once the box is done, you're over. Thought this might be nifty to try with things like cucumber or my beloved dates. Good way to work portion control into the equation.

Dinner with a friend tonight. Not concerned about cals, as that's not usually my area of weakness. When I'm with other people I usually behave. It's when I'm off by myself that I usually give in to the temptation to "overindulge".

Have a good one, feather friends!