Dorian5 Congrats on hitting 120! You have been doing soo great lately!

fitmom Glad u are already aware of the site. How do you measure your body fat % Im just curious. I have a scale that does it but I dont trust it.

Skinnyelle39: I have a friend test my body fat with a skin-fold caliper every once in awhile. I also pay special attention to my waist measurement because if it goes down, I've lost fat. FYI: Visually if your stomach is flat and has some definition, you're most likely at 20 percent or lower.

Dorian5: Just a thought but I wonder if HIIT has made the difference for you dropping weight fast because it's such a fat burner.

I think I may do my new bodyweight circuit tonight because it is sooo darn hot that running today is not an option regardless of how tired I am. I'm getting to the point where I can't not exercise for a day...definitely a change from before when I would make every excuse in the book,lol.

You guys shame me into getting my butt out the door to run. Heading out now I swear!

My eating buddies and I put away shameful amounts of everything but they're gone and I probably won't see them again for a year or something...very sad but I'm glad to be back to semi-normal eating. Yesterday I ate about 1500 and went on a walk, and today I went to a bridal shower for a bride-to-be whose father is a Greek chef and managed to not eat until I was full.

Krampus: Good for you on getting out and going for a run. Nice to hear you had a nice time visiting with friends.

I have to you ladies that today I officially got rid of my Spanx!
I don't need it anymore and keeping it IMO would just be a crutch. This was a huge deal for me, you have no idea, lol.

Honeyz I am homeeee!
OMG, so glad to be back near internet again. It was killing me to have no contact with the outside world for over a week!

So, France was GREAT! Nice weather, lots of food and lots of nature. I just got on the scale and was 4lbs heavier, BUT... i ate lots of salt, I am on my period and it's evening. So I am keeping my fingers crossed for tuesday morning. I am not weighing before then. Hehe. I had so much french bread, mortadella and nutella around me all day and I could not control myself. I think I went on or just a tiny bit over maintenance calories everyday, even though I constantly pledged to stay on plan. I guess if I hadn't done that I'd have massive gone overboard, so all ends well.

Back on plan though because I better rid myself of these extra lbs before the week is over and start on plan for atleast 1/2 a month. It's been too long since I had two on plan weeks in a row.

Personals later! There is so much Internet to read before bedtime and work in the morning.

Hello everyone! I'm back from a really good holiday, probably about a million pounds heavier after eating kebab, baklava and lokumi for three solid weeks. Obviously I didn't rein myself in at all, there was too many nice things to try!

I've come back with added pounds, but also with added body confidence that comes with not weighing yourself or focusing on weight loss for an extended period of time. I've decided I'm pretty much happy with my body, and am learning to accept the bits I don't like. From here on out I'm just going to do what feels good, which includes a lot of sport and healthy food, but also treats and not actively trying to lose weight any more.

My mum warned me it is the women's trap to spend their best body years unhappily trying to achieve the ideal figure, only to look back on photos of themselves in their 20s and 30s and realise they looked just fine. So, I'm going to try and keep up this new found body confidence (which is harder than it might seem when surrounded by Anglo-Saxon media and lose 10lbs overnight articles in magazines).

It probably means I won't be here quite as much as I used to be, but I'd still like to take part in the discussions about healthy food and workouts, if that is OK! Hope you all are having a nice August

claire0412 it's very true about spending the best body years of your life feeling imperfect. It's great that you've found body confidence, good luck trying to stay so happy now you're back in the UK.

This week I am packing like a mad person getting ready to go to Reading festival next weekend. Going to be one awesome weekend of instant noodles and vodka. I expect to come back several pounds heavier but I think it will probably be worth it.

Welcome back claire0412 and philana! You both were missed.

I don't have time for personals today. I'm in a contemplative mood this morning. I'm starting to feel a bit um, burnout from three months of strictly dieting and exercising hardcore. Now don't misunderstand me, I've gotten awesome results but with the kids starting school in two weeks, the stress level in my house has been amped up...just a bit.

I've been seriously thinking about giving IF or Intermittent Fasting a try twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. The way I'm eating now 5-6 times a day is kind of exhausting me. My diet has to be completely clean and on point at all times, there's no room for error. My birthday and the holidays are coming in a few months...how can I not indulge just a bit in birthday cake and/or my sister's Christmas cookies? I still want to eat cleanly but I need a diet that allows me some "wiggle room", you know?

Also, I'm working that body weight circuit into my routine slowly to mix things up a little - keep my body guessing, lol. I did that this morning instead of my 3+ mile run. Last week practically all I did was intervals and I'm fried from all the running. I'll get back to it on Wednesday though.

This time around, I'm determined not to get down on myself when things don't go my way - just make the necessary adjustments and move on. The world doesn't stop because I didn't run this morning, right? So, I did something else - no big deal. Gosh, I'm actually sounding like I made some progress...I'm starting to scare myself.

Sorry to be so serious on a Monday morning ladies...have a good one.

Hello Feathers, I am happy to hear that some of you had some wonderful vacations and time with friends. I am beyond jealous and can't wait for my vacation mid-September. Keep up the positive mind set!

Its Monday and I am feeling sluggish. Again, I am doing good on the workout wagon but still not doing great with the dieting. Again, I am not going to far over calories, only about 100 to 150 a day. I believe TOM is the absolute evil, I get SO hungry. I can't help but eat, and eat, and eat. Happy its almost over.

Classes officially start for me today and I excited to get it started and get it over, lol. I enjoy school in one aspect but in another, I can never wait for it to be over.

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

I'm hitting an annoying plateau :/ I've been weighting between 105.2 and 105.6 for like a week. And my digestion is horrible and irregular and I'm bloated.

My mother say it's because I eat too much salami which is true haha. It's SO bad for digestion. So I buyed Activia Yogurt in small cups, and a big one of PRUNE yogurt haha. Hope it help!

The wedding was wonderful, the FOOD was SO good! OMG! There was an open bar and you could get whatever you wanted, but the "specials" were the bride's drink (firefly sweet tea vodka with pink lemonade) and the groom's drink (captain and coke) -- I thought that was totally cute! I just had 2 glasses of chardonnay, the bride and groom were friends of my boyfriend so I told him to drink and celebrate as much as he wanted and I would be the DD back to the hotel. By the end of the night I was the ONLY sober one, haha.

Yesterday we ended up getting breakfast on the road heading back home (we had to drive a few hours to the wedding) so that was a greasy Bojangles biscuit. It was downhill from there, I ate and ate and ate all day yesterday, then when we got home I started drinking too. Oh well, back on track today. I weighed 125.0 this morning -- sheesh, it's insane how fast that can shoot up!

I have another weekend of heavy eating coming up with the boyfriend's birthday. I'll be lucky to get back to last Friday's 120.4lbs by the end of the month.

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FatPantsSkinnyJeans - I buy premade protein shakes in bottles because I'm lame. I probably SHOULD make my own, it would be cheaper and I could probably make them yummier!

fitmom - I definitely think HIIT made the difference! I can't wait to do it tonight! Congrats on tossing out the shapewear, I can't imagine you would ever need it! I still have some Spanx, maybe when I get to goal I can get rid of them. And yes, life is DEFINITELY about enjoying food and events with friends and family, you have to find balance between indulging and being healthy. I've heard good things about IF for the people that it works for -- I couldn't do it, I'm RAVENOUS in the mornings, haha. It could be what you're looking for!

krampus - Nice job getting back on track! Hope you can find some normalcy and routine in your life soon!

philana - Welcome back! I'm glad you had fun! Mmmm, nutella! I hear you, I haven't had 2 weeks on plan in FOREVER, maybe after the boyfriend's birthday this weekend I can do the same as you and stick it out for a while!

claire0412 - Welcome back to you as well! Glad you had a great vacation, and your mom is right. I sometimes have to remind myself not to get obsessive and strive for perfection, since I will never be 100% happy. I'm starting to feel pretty good about my body, and I'm glad to hear you are too.

mamamorgan - TOM definitely IS evil, I am insatiable during it! Keep up the workouts, I'm sure the diet will get better/easier once TOM is over!

Magalo - Wow, I've never even heard of prune yogurt! The thing that helped me when I was having digestion issues was tracking my fiber -- I was barely getting any. Now I make sure to get 20-25g a day with lots of water and I'm very regular -- maybe it could help you too? I love salami, yum!

KEEP IT UP EVERYONE!

Maniko Enjoy Reading! I always went to V but Reading is always better!

fitmom You can afford to let it up a bit, it is all about enjoying life!

mamamorgan Wait until the TOM is gone and you'll be back on track quickly! Good luck

Magalo I recommend fruit / dried dates or prunes and a few espressos

Dorian The wedding sounds lovely, I like the sound of the bride's drink! Good luck getting back on the wagon, I know you will!

I weighed myself completely out of habit this morning (toilet, undress for shower, weigh, shower has been my routine for ages) and pleasantly surprised that I appear to have lost about 3lbs on holiday. I weigh 66.4kg now, random considering I ate and ate. That was the last weigh in until I come back to visit my bf in mid/end October. I fly back to the UK on 3rd September (although i've officially moved back already), and then we are oing long distance and I'll miss him and my friends here terribly. The next weeks are all about enjoying Vienna before it is too late!

Have a nice Monday

I am definitely going to start IF on Wednesday. I will skip just breakfast the first couple of times then ease into skipping lunch. I have a feeling that might be harder, lol. I come from a generation where we were told: "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", eat your three squares" and "clean your plate". So IF goes against everything I've been taught but I'm willing to give it a try because thinking about my diet 24/7 is exhausting! I think once I get into a routine for a few weeks it will be fine so here's hoping.

I find IF interesting but could not pull it off myself. DH never eats breakfast, eats a small lunch, large dinner and a bedtime snack (which I call eating breakfast the night before) and hardly any fruits and vegetables and is slim. If I go too long w/o eating, I overindulge later. It's all about finding what works for you. Eating 5-6 times a day was exhausting to me too, and made me gain weight. Good luck, here's hoping it works for you!

claire - sounds like you had a great trip glad you found body confidence, that is certainly nice to have! I agree with your mom that it's a waste to spent the best years worrying over it so much. That's why I am glad this forum puts the focus on health and accepting yourself. Though I agree we can get carried away in obsessing over a few lbs that nobody other than ourselves would notice! Hihi. But it's good to keep it healthy, for the mind as wel as the body! I think the fase where you spent a lot of time weighing and measuring is certainly not bad, it gives people a real image about where they stand physically and what happens to their bodies when they do certain things, but there's a point where it's enough and you should be able to relax and be happy!

fitmom - How are you today? Hope it's better than yesterday. Goodluck with the IF, but also hope that you don't burn yourself out trying new stuff for these last few lbs. I am pretty sure you look AMAZING already, so hope you just have fun with tweaking your body, and not stress too much .

Dorian - I'd kill to be at 125lb :P I'm struggling to get below the 140s for the past month now lol. It just sucks when you can't stop eatign I agree. I had the worst time in France with all the food around me. It's great to be back home. Anyhow, just ENJOY! What's a few weeks to get back to desired weight? Just dn't eat yourself sick :P

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I am so glad to be home. I can keep track of what I eat again and control myself. Though, yet again it was an eye opener to have so much food around me and NOT be able to control myself. I consider that a problem. I don't go binging or anything. I didn't consider myself to have actual issues with food. But I think it's a bit nuts that if I really am determined it's not the best plan for me to be eating all those carbs when I wanna run or go on a long hike and then still end up eating everything because I am bored or see the food infront of me that is just weird.

I mean, when I feel like going home when I am at work but know that I am not suppose to and it's not good for me, I dont do it. But with food I can't control myself. That bothers me. I really already am at a weight where I think I look okay, it's vanity lbs I wanna loose to get nice toned/skinny legs and I am taking it really easy. Not stressing when I eat bad food. Not saying no to stuff when I am in social situations. And no guilt. So it's not like I am driving myself crazy, I am being so relaxed about it that it bothers me that I don't have control on moments I feel I should opt for the healthy choice. This whole journey so far has been about health before looks, and I have learnt a lot in just 6 weeks, and also lost a nice amount of weight. So all is good. But I should be able to stop eating when I tell myself I want to.

Anyone struggle with this also?