Today was an oddly not-hungry day...I scarfed down my packed lunch (the same salad I always bring) before noon because I just couldn't wait, and then everything was totally fine and manageable the rest of the day despite low calories for me (under 1300). I wonder what I'll weigh in the morning?

GOOD day eating-wise. Some jellybeans that my mother sent from the US did make their way into my diet, but so did Kashi Go-Lean, a homemade pumpkin "cookie"/health bar, yogurt, eggs, etc. I couldn't muster enough motivation to really exercise today, but I did do 25 minutes of intensive yoga to get the heart pumping for at least a little bit.

Now, really hoping I stay on track for the rest of the night. It's one of those critical crossroads in my day where I can either close it out perfectly or completely mess up.

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krampus I also can't wait to see what you weigh... will keep my fingers for you the middle number is a 2!

lackadaisy congrats on your 10K!! It sounds so much fun. It must have been surreal to be in that crowd. Sounds like you're nourishing yourself deservingly after such intense exercise, so good for you

claire Ooo maintenance that sounds wonderful! It's nice to hear you're happy with your body. Such a wonderful place to be!

kat I'm playing around with what food works best for my run days. I'm practicing IF and often don't eat anything before my run. Sometimes I'm pretty hungry and consume about 25-50 cals beforehand. Not sure yet what works best...

This might crack you up (or gross you out) but I just read something in a fitness magazine yesterday that recommended "no high-fiber foods 3 days before a big run." (You can probably imagine why they made that rec. ) Instead, they recommend a light, high-carb meal or snack before a run. I've often heard folks swear by a half a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Might be slightly more calories than you're currently consuming, but the combination of natural sugar/carbs and protein is very satisfying.

Hey everyone! Thanks for your well wishes, it meant a lot. Power is back as of yesterday, and the yard is cleaned up. The insurance people are coming tomorrow to look at the damage. Here is a picture of our yard and my mom's car:



As you can see, we're VERY lucky those trees didn't fall ON the house itself, just on the carport.

As for my weight, I clocked in a 131 this morning, which is .4lbs more than last Friday... but considering the amount of CRAP food I ingested, I'm pleasantly surprised. Must have worked it off with the yard work.

I'm going over to the boyfriend's place tonight, and bringing my scale to weigh in the AM. Yes, I'm that girl.

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krampus Stoked to see what you weigh! We're both 131lbs now, but you'll probably weigh less than me at your next weigh in! We're getting to the 120's SOON I can feel it! I've never had anyone call my eyes "dangerous," but I love it, favorite compliment ever.

lackadaisy - Damn the noms to the deepest pit of ****. I have them today too, I kept shoving lunch meat, of all things, into my mouth tonight - even though I was full. I am totally digging the burger suit as well.

indiblue - I only know if I had a good day the next morning - lol! I end up eating and eating right before bed on days when I think I'm doing great. Nice job on the intensive yoga, even though your energy was down.

claire - great job on your run! Wow!! I love to hear that you're getting happy with your body, I can't wait to feel that about mine!

kat999 - SO glad to hear you're getting pumped up about this run and telling stress to take a hike!! You've so got this! I can't wait to hear how you do!!!

XOXOXO to everyone, glad you're all doing so well!

Managing the noms today was definitely harder than normal, especially with my rough start in the morning,. but I actually ended up finishing dinner under 1350 -- (relative) success!

Dinner was especially delicious -- a HUGE bowl of steamed Chinese cabbage, two roasted tofu patties, a grilled teriyaki chicken breast, and a big spoonful of sauteed mushrooms. Literally over a pound of low-carb deliciousness for 340 calories -- yum!! So foolishly proud of myself for resisting cookies / pound cake to actually plan out a good day for once.

This morning I was 0.3 kg heavier than yesterday, boo! But clothes fit fine, face doesn't feel fat and I got in exercise before work. I sort of assumed I'd be the same or heavier going by hunger cues. If I feel like I desperately want to chew off an appendage in the evening, I tend to see the scale move down in the morning. Do any of you have a system for accurately predicting these sorts of things?

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Nice work containing the munchies lackadaisy! That dinner sounds great and I am really impressed by your willpower.

Dorian5 O_o I'm really glad the trees missed the house itself. Who knows what's going on with my weight - bouncing all over the place - but I'm really hoping that I'll at least be 130 even by the end of the week.

indiblue No such luck today, but I'll keep trying. How did your night end? All those healthy foods you mentioned (and the jelly beans) sound fantastic. I'm getting Easter candy in the mail from a Canadian friend soon...eep.

kat That's funny... fortunately my runs are little runs (30 mins/5K) so hopefully I don't have to worry about... er... runs on my runs, so to speak. (Sorry if that was bad, haha). I used to actually do the banana- pb combination and I haven't been lately for various reasons, but it's a good reminder.

Dorian For some reason the photos aren't working for me, but I'm sure the damage is bad :-/. You're right though, it's almost like the worse the damage in the yard/carport the more grateful you are that nothing fell on the house. We had a neighbor lose literally 90 trees on their property in a storm once, their yard was completely full of trees so that you couldn't walk more than a few feet without stepping over a tree trunk, yet none hit their house. Always something to be grateful for. And yes I hear you on the good day/bad day thing haha. Most of my bad days were once good days until about 8 PM.

lackadaisy Your dinner sounds amazing! Congrats on closing out a good day without the cake/cookies.

krampus You mean accurately predicting little day-to-day gains? Not really. I'm not one of those who loses .2 lbs every morning or whatnot. My losses come in big and small whooshes- drops of .6-1.2 lbs at a time. I've gotten used to seeing a series of days like 127.2, 127.6, 127.4, 127.6, 126.6.

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Yesterday ended up well! I had a bowl of 1 c ff yogurt, 3/4 c Kashi, and 3/4 c strawberries and that was pretty much it. I did have probably 3-4 more jelly beans and 2-3 "hot chips" (Indian homemade potato chip things), but that was all. For me, a good night. Phew.

BF and I are going on a trip for the Easter weekend, so I may just pop in once or twice over the next few days briefly to say hello. Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Enjoy your trip indiblue - where will you be headed? I completely forgot about Easter.

Thanks to everyone for the supportive comments in response to my giant hysterical rant the other day! I appologize for being so negative in general and after having a bit of a time out / break the past 2 weeks, I am feeling better mentally about things. I think that dieting can really make me crazy...I tend to need lots of breaks!

My new strategy will be to focus on exercise (weights 3 times per week with running and yoga mixes in) and eating more but not a ton (I want to be up closer to 1500-1800 calories but with more protein). I don't know if eating that much will lead to weight loss, even with exercise, but I figure if I can at least boost my metabolism by eating a bit more and having the energy to exercise, I can check how I am doing in a month and adjust downwards again.

Wildflower - I completely get the needing time out in dieting. I get too obsessed with it really easily. I think you'll be fine with 1500-1800 calories and lots of exercise. We have to think about our state of mind as well as our bodies!

I'm focusing on exercise too for the time being and just doing the Paul McKenna rules:
1. Eat when you're hungry
2. Eat what you want
3. Eat slowly
4. Eat consciously
I'll listen to the mp3s every day (when I get my new Ipod!!) and concentrate on maintaining what I've managed so far. I think I'll weigh in every month just to check and if I put on loads of weight then it's back to dieting but otherwise... I'm starting triathlon training tomorrow, I am a bit scared but will think of the extra muscles I'll gain!

I weighed in at 69kg this morning. I had a nice bike tour with my friends around the lake and they didn't believe me when I told them how much I weigh. So that is something to be thankful for!


Have a nice rest of the week everyone

Hi Feathers! Conga-rats on all your success - glad you're feeling better, Wildflower.

The stomach bug has incapacitated me for the last few days, but I'm OK now. I had to break my carb-restrictions with an upset tummy - it needed bread, crackers, and sports drink. But I'm ok with it - still floating at 134 this morning, and I'm healthy now (which is what counts).

I made "protein slop" for dinner/lunch; it turned out okay and it's so bland you can dress it up with anything. I just cut up 4 chicken cutlets, a 400g block of firm tofu, and 2 eggs, and mashed them up in a frying pan. Not attractive to look at, but it's very filling!

6 days later I'm back to the same weight I was last Friday, just at 130 or so. Really hoping to inch downward; it would be sad to make zero progress in a week.

Wildflower I am so happy to hear you're doing better and feeling less negative. Life isn't worth living if you feel miserable and like you're running on an empty tank of gas.

Hi everyone! I didn't weigh in this morning because I decided to not seem completely psycho by taking the scale to the boy's place. I am home tonight so I will know where I'm at tomorrow. I've drank a LOT of water today! I ate kind of late tonight (as in, I ate dinner at 10pm about 15 minutes ago) I hope that doesn't affect my weigh in much! I'm actually under my 1400 calories today, just wasn't very hungry.

Would really like to slide my ticker down and add a bat to my signature by Easter... Come on, 130lbs.

krampus hoping for you to see a drop too, I'm sure you're itching for 129.

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

ALSO -- I tried on some nice jeans today that I haven't worn in QUITE a while (years.) They buttoned and zipped! I will probably look good in them around 127ish, right now I got that muffin-top thing going on. But they're size 27, so that makes me happy!

Mayday, it sounds like you made great choices -- sports drinks always make me feel much better when I'm ill. That or chicken soup -- it's all about the sodium!

I'm thinking of starting intermittent fasting as an experiment in self-control, to switch up my plan (which is starting to become dull and harder to stick to) and because I find the research on it very interesting. I find that I'm eating unenjoyable snack foods (mostly parts of meal replacement bars) between dining hall meals and missing things I like because eating often is so hard on my schedule. As I get busier close to finals, it might be a better idea for me to just eat more, less often.

I've also noticed that my hunger cycle changes easily in response to behaviors -- I used to eat half my calories after 6pm, and this week I've been waking early at 7 am naturally and wanting to stuff my face immediately. It's odd to be so hungry in the morning (and inconvenient, in terms of access to food). So it may be possible to do this without a lot of stress (I hope).

Anyway, I'm going to try IF tomorrow by fasting after my early lunch at 11:30am until my Friday lunch at 1pm. Wish me luck!

Good luck with the IF, lackadaisy, and let us know how it goes! That idea continues to interest me, but I've gotten so used to eating breakfast. I'm sure I could readjust my hunger peaks and valleys, but it seems like such a leap!