Hi Ladies! I havent posted in a while but Im hanging in there. Had another somewhat off plan weekend where I enjoyed some foods I havent in a while. I took a "break" from dieting so to speak, no calorie counting, and let my cravings guide me. It felt good but of course time to get back to work now .

Dorian5 That was extremely sweet and selfless of you. Totally worth the sacrifice and calories

krampus 134lbs is hardly obese no matter how tall you are! Hope the move goes smoothly from here on out and you are able to get back to a place where you feel comfortable and are moving forward.

ann71 I agree with Dorian5 hes probably more interested than you think but doesnt want to show it just yet. If not... its his loss!

Have a great Monday chickies!

Woohoo! After one week of tweaking my plan, I'm seeing results! The last couple of days I was at 127.5, which I hadn't seen in a while, and this morning I saw 127, which was something I only saw once several weeks ago. Moved my ticker back down! I have been cycling my calories for a week (still eating an average of about 1500), added in an extra ~60 min of sweaty cardio last week, and seem to be having my first post-pill period. Don't know which one of those did it, but I'm grateful. Pics & monthly measurements in a couple of days, but I'm feeling slimmer than I have been for a while.
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skinnyelle: I'm a big believer in breaks! Hope it did you well.

Dorian5: Hugs to you & your mom. SCORE on the clothes! That water weight will disappear in no time. Most of the maintainers here seem to have a range that they consider acceptable--maybe 115 might end up being sort of the low or middle end of your range?

ann71: Good luck with the dating! Like the other gals have said, he might be more interested than he seems, or otherwise he may just not deserve you.

krampus: Candids are brutal sometimes. I'm sure they were just unflattering photos.

philana: Hope you get through TOM unscathed!

claire: Yummy-looking recipe!

Dianne: Hope you had a sedate, alcohol-free weekend, and I hope your baptism was nice, too!

Why is the hardest thing always getting back on plan after having gone off? Argh! Somebody please kick me to the gym already. LOL.

Okay. I'm going. I am going. Now. Really. Now. Bye!

Update: yay, I went!

Attached is a picture of the muffins to help you imagine them. These are orange, cranberry and dark chocolate!

I am in England now so am enjoying the internet good enough to upload some pictures. Yesterday and today have been an absolute nightmare food wise but I will do my best to sort it out from tomorrow (a week till holiday time, eek!!!!). I weighed in at 67.6kg this morning, which I found out is the same weight as I was when my favourite picture of me (skinny wise) was taken. So bonus! I hope the bad food days haven't ruined it too much. It is soo hard to stay on plan at home with my mum. There is literally no fruit in the house, she bought me chocolate, cooked me roast dinner, offered me wine... On the plus side, I didn't take the wine and ate half the chocolate bar and put the rest in the fridge. I did get free Ben and Jerry's at the airport though (which is a bigger treat for me than you, I haven't ever seen it in Austria!).

Anyway, long speech but short meaning: back to plan tomorrow, borrowing my bro's weights and walking into town + low carb eating and no alcohol. The end.

Philana I feel your pain (or will do tomorrow) Good job!

SumireYay for you, feeling slim! Excellent!

Skinnyelle Welcome back I agree, breaks are important!

Dorian SCORE for the clothes! Awesome. Why doesn't anyone give me free clothes... (( Enjoy them! Also, good idea about being the designated driver. Always good to have a legitimate reason for not indulging. I am thinking of telling everyone I am on low carb to "help my skin" instead of "to lose weight", because people don't argue with that!

ann Another one whose boyfriend seemed disinterested at the beginning... We spent about a month going on dates that didn't even end up in a kiss or anything. I let him see me in my tight running tights (this was when I was pudgy) because I didn't think it was going anywhere. Would never have done that if I thought he was interested...! Men are hard to read, especially the ones that are worth it!

Krampus Your name reminds me of Christmas every time I type it! I am sure you didn't look obese, but we all have those photos. I spotted a horrid one of me from two years ago in my iphoto today. Urgh! Proper fat, now I appreciate how far I've come

Have a lovely week everyone. I'm off bikini shopping tomorrow, if I find a nice one I will post a goal picture with it when I get there, hehe.

CLAIRE! Your muffins look sooo goood.... I'm making muffins right now because you made me crave them so hard! I just use what I had on hand -- cherries, banana, and dark chocolate. I cannot WAIT to get them out of the oven! And neither can the real Dorian (my pit bull) -- haha. I made him a safe peanut butter doggie-muffin with no chocolate.

skinnyelle: good luck getting back to work! I agree that sometimes you just need a little break.

great job, sumire!

philana: yay for you on the gym! I'm hoping to get inspired for a run one of these hours!

Oh goodness, Claire: If I had to spend time with my mom, I'd gain so much. She's ALWAYS got treats, multiple treats, hanging around. Good for you for doing so well with it!

dorian: cherry banana chocolate muffins! Yumm!

Thanks for the kind words about the date. It was a match.com date (I was going to come up with a cuter way to have met, but oh, well, I didn't). He looked a little older than I expected, but then throughout the date we had so many "really you think that, too? No one else ever agrees with me about that" moments, that I was sort of excited. Then at the end, he shook my hand, said nice to meet you, and just kind of walked away. I didn't even know where my train stop was. (which makes him sound like a jerk, which I'm pretty sure he's not). Anyway, who knows. There are other fish in the uh, internet.

Despite that, I had a fabulous weekend. It was in the 80s and gorgeous. On Saturday I hung out with friends and then went on a 25 mile bike ride.

You gals are killing me with the muffins! I guess I'll just HAVE to go buy wholegrain wheat today.

Dorian Ooh let me know how they were! I'm just finishing the last carrot and walnut one now! I worked out the calories for the orange and chocolate ones, and they were only 120 calories each. They are small, though and don't have butter or much sugar in them. I made them with agave syrup before too, which was nice!

Ann I met my boyfriend online too. I am not really one for clubs and wasn't interested in any of my friends or friends' friends. I had to date a fair few meh-men before I met a good one!

Philana If you can buy wholegrain flour in Vienna, you can definitely buy it in the Netherlands. Most normal supermarkets have it here.

The weights workout was a no go, my bro's weights were too heavy and I couldn't work out how to take some plates off them. I'm going to go and buy some resistance bands in a minute, so I can take them to Turkey with me too. I am going to a pub quiz with my mum and her friends this evening (haha the things we do to make our parents happy) and it is steak night. England being England, you can look up the calories online and every steak is over 1,000 calories so I'll go for the superfood salad instead. I am literally craving vegetables after two days of eating complete rubbish. Urgh! I'm tee-totalling it while I'm here too, it is too easy to sink a 1/2 bottle of wine while gossiping with my mum so I won't even start!

Have a good Tuesday

Hi Featherweights! I just wanted to introduce myself after lurking for a week or so.

My goal is to fit into my summer clothes (before it's over) and fit better into the clothes I'm wearing now. I think that will take about a 7 pound loss (down to 115). I have a hate-hate relationship with the scale, though. If I lose weight, I reward myself with food, and if I gain weight, I give up and eat whatever I want.

So, I've made my goals activity based rather than by external measures. So, 6-8 glasses of water, focus on eating adequate protein, eat 5 cups of fruit and vegetables combined each day and exercising at least 5 days a week-3 days heavy lifting and 2+ days cardio. If I stick to this, I think the weight loss will come.

Other important stuff: I have a 2 year old daughter (well, tomorrow she'll be 2) and I'm still trying to get off all the baby weight. I weigh as much now as I ever have except when pg and postpartum. I also have a pretty complete home gym. I'm trying to eat clean and soon will be getting New Rules of Weightlifting for Women from the library.

The only plan that ever worked for me was the Body Type Diet. While on it I also kept a food journal and counted calories. I still use some of the rules from that, but it is too restrictive and time consuming for me since dd was born.

Wow, that got really long! Thanks for reading.
Amy

Hi Amy!

Good plan, I think you have a sensible approach. I've never heard of the Body Type Diet but a home gym sounds amazing, 'd love that! Good luck and check back with us

Quick update: I went shopping for a new bikini and found a half decent one. I am not amused that my boobs have shrunk and my belly/hips have not. Hmm. I haven't bought it yet, but here is a picture of me sucking in my belly with it (excuse the stupid expression!). Do you think it is the right shape for me? I think it makes my boobs look even smaller, but meh I guess it is just working with what I gave it! I'll keep it up overnight and take it down in the morning, I don't want it staying online forever! I just don't know whether I should buy it or not and my friends are useless with fashion advice...

I like it claire! I think it's not the shape that makes it look like you describe, like your boobs are "small" but I think it's the color, there's not a heavy set distinction between your skin and the bikini! So, I don't know if you ever do brighter colors, but that's the only way to get the extra focus on your womany shapes I think :P - Either way, I think it looks great and you look great! Your tummy looks good, even though you say you are sucking it in. Haha.

I just weighed myself because I can't sleep - and I have lost another 2.2lbs (1kg - my scale sucks, so I only note the difference when it's dropped a whole KG, and otherwise I just don't make it count because I can't guess how many lbs it is.)

So - I've lost a little over 10lbs since I started (19 days ago)! I am so happy. It's my bday in 2 days, and I am gonna work SO hard to try and loose the other 2,2 so I am at my mini-goal of 65kg.

Just.. it seems like my body is way more.. fleshy or so? Like everything is sagging inside my skin and being soft. Even the parts that are still rather fat and haven't lost any weight. Am I imagining things or what?

Philana Yay go you! I need to learn from you! I don't know about the fleshy thing, maybe try heavy weights?

RE: BIkini - Good point, I'll try a more colourful one. I like bright purple, I'll see what I can find! Thanks

I haven't had my heart in my weight loss efforts this week. A guy at work told me to not lose ANYMORE weight. I was kind of shocked and had a few different feelings. Kind of excited at first like, oh wow you think I look ideal at this weight??! And then kind of pissed off, like, who the h*ll asked you?

I haven't been drinking my water or running or using my weights at all this week. I've been eating healthy and within my calorie range, but I've eaten a lot of salt, so my weight is up from retaining water.

I'm starting to feel comfortable with my weight, but not exactly happy. I still pick myself apart when I look in the mirror, so I know I'm not done.

I have my healthy lunch today and I'm going to make a conscious effort to drink my allotted amount of water and get a good run in after work.

By the way, those muffins I made were yummy, but they needed something else, a tartness or an acid or spice. I'm making more tonight (my recipe only makes 6 or 7 muffins, my mother and boyfriend and I made quick work of them!) I'm adding dried, unsweetened cranberries and apples to them, as well as some cinnamon and a little bit of oatmeal on top for texture. Yum!

claire0412 - I saw the bikini last night before you took the picture down, I just didn't have time to comment -- I thought it looked excellent! I liked the shape of the top a lot! You really do have a pretty figure.

philana - 10lbs is EXCELLENT! I think with exercise you'll find that everything will tighten up, I also notice that when I lost fat (especially in my abdomen) my skin started feeling like there were microwaved marshmallows underneath. Since then it has bounced back a little. You're also very young, right? In your 20's? You have a lot of elasticity in your cells, it will draw up shortly, I'm sure. Water helps too. Whatcha gonna do for your birthday, anything fun?

Amy3680 - Welcome! Keep us posted! Sounds like you've got some good goals! I think if you stick to that plan, you will be thrilled with your body in NO time!

ann71 - My mother is on match.com as well as my best friend, they've both had some really great dates! And some really awful ones, haha -- but the great ones outweigh the bad ones! Even if this guy doesn't work out, I'm sure you'll find someone soon! Do you find it difficult to stick to a diet going out to dinner on dates?

Claire,

I cant see the picture. Did you take it down?

Dorian I always take it as a compliment when people tell me not to lose any more weight! You seriously look good at the weight you are I don't think we'll ever get to the magical point where we're happy with everything but I know what you mean, I pick myself apart too (this week it is my stomach, last week my legs!). Your spin on the muffins sounds good! Mmm I'll have to make some more soon!

Dianne Yeah I took it down. I'm not body confident enough to have my bikini body on the internet!!

Sooo, I was flat hunting today and found a nice room in a cool flatshare with a vegetable garden. Fingers crossed! I was out of the house all day today so I ate really healthily. I really wanted the half a chocolate bar I left in the fridge a few days ago, but by the time I got in someone had eaten it. This family is what caused my 'quick, eat it before someone else does' mentality, tskkk! Still, stopped me from eating it.

I didn't end up getting that bikini, because I saw O'Neill bikinis for £10 each, bargain! I got this one:
http://www.bikinishack.co.uk/ONeill_...ue_Bikini.html (but in dark pink) and

http://www.bikinishack.co.uk/ONeill_...ed_Bikini.html (but the pattern is green, purple and black).

The last one is basically the same shape as the one I posted. 'm lucky I lterally have no boobs left from weight loss, least I can wear triangles without popping out Wish my stomach looked like the model's in that photo. Grr!

Have a nice day