Just thought I'd pop in to say I voted for you. Good luck!

Sandy is avoiding my corner of NY, whew. I had a nice hour long workout this morning because my office was closed and I have been home all day feeling restless trying not to boredom eat. I ate very little yesterday despite running 7 miles, and I lifted for almost an hour straight today so I think I'm naturally bound to be hungry.

Ate CRAP all weekend long but eh. Bodies are resilient! I was up to like 128 on Saturday and Sunday but this morning I was 125.2.

JossFit All of those outfits are SUPER HOT, and I voted for you in that contest! How did your Halloweekend turn out? It's great to hear you're close to your happy range!

sontaikle Hope you're doing OK on the Island...!

LeilaJey Long car trips = really tough not to just eat to keep yourself focused. I always spend time at rest areas cruising the candy shelves talking myself down.

TurboMammoth You guys are a gorgeous Quebecois power couple - and also, your cat is SOOOOO CUTE!!! Are people panicking as far north as you are about Sandy? Hills are terrible things - I totally never want to run a hilly race for fear of having to encounter one.

kakers Glad the storm didn't hit you too hard! Congrats on zipping the dress!

bayzee Weekends continue to be hard. I had tons of alcohol and like EXTRA MEALS all weekend long. 4 lbs sounds suspicious........is your scale working properly?

mottainai Stay strong!!!!!! It's awesome that you are cutting down and banishing old excuses to binge though, from an outsider perspective it's pretty cool watching you figure out how your psyche works.

LeilaJey : Heyyy! Glad to see you back Yeah, I have this kind of thing where EVERYTIME I'm into a sport/intense activity lately (half in Mtl, Hiking in USA, and THIS race now!) something ALWAYS happen, making it impossible to sleep, and weirdly, I always kill it the next days... But I CAN'T manage to wake up at 7AM and be functional on a normal basis before 10. Go figure LOL A creep was checking you out? God, that's a good excuse for not wanting to go back there. It's hard finding the motivation to go out there and work out during the fall, and the days getting shorter... Freacking seasonal depression!

Mottaini : YUMM! Spaghetti squash! I love those. I usually eat them by myself too : the boyfriend was demolished the first time he tasted it, he was expecting and actual ''pasta'' taste. Poor guy lol. I think it's normal to have ''high'' and ''low'' days on following the plan. You are sooo not alone in this situation though! Hope everything is going smoothly at your church meeting and for your school stuff this week!

Bayzee : Smells a lot like water weight... Hold on a few days, it will probably go down in a few days!

kakers : I'm glad to hear you're okay in the hurricane situation! We're still waiting for the picture of the dress that zipped

Joss : VOTED! Best of luck with this

krampus : Glad to know you're also doing okay with the weather! NJ seems to be in trouble right now. 7 miles! You're on fire! Glad you appreciate the cat picture There is not much panic here for Sandy, we're supposed to get rain and a bit more wind than usual.. it's supposed to be on us in a few days.

Joss- will vote after this post! That would be so cool! I am feeaking smitten with that crystal bikini!! Why didn't you get the bottoms, too? That thing is HOT! What are you going to wear on the bottom instead? I bet your hubby is going to drool...maybe you should laminate the photos, just in case...lol. Also, what's up with the military? Is there now a possibility of you staying in? What did I miss??

Turbo- I am soooooooooooooooo jealous. You did AMAZING for your 10K! I do sympathize with those pesky 12 seconds. *******s, all of 'em! how are you feeling today? Is your foot holding up? Since I am a lazy butt, my calves and hip flexors are very, very mad at me today. I look like I've been ridden hard and put away wet...

Leila- those pics are deceiving! Ha ha! The race ended on the oceanfront Boardwalk, so we had to walk about a mile back to the convention center, so by the time we got there, I wasn't huffing and puffing anymore. LOL about that outfit not exactly showcasing my super brain. Why do you say that?!? I swear to you all that I own one boobie shirt, and that is the one I happened to be wearing for my new hairdo picture the other day. I am pretty conservative, actually! Don't fret about not working out. Join me in my laziness. Misery loves company! do you rock the kettlebells? I have one and I stare at it every day, but it doesn't make me want to use it...lol.

Mottanai- hugs. I don't understand the binge phenomenon, but it sounds so frustrating and powerless! I hope you had an good time with the new church group! What did you think?

Kakers- phew! We just barely missed the craziness of Sandy here! Our area tends to always flood, but so far it hasn't gone too much into our yard. The wind and sideways rain are so annoying. Trapped inside with my children is not how I like to spend my days...lol.

Bayzee- hmmm...TOM is the usualm suspect for me. But I also can easily swing five pounds in one day. In an average week, I will weigh in between 124.5 and 128. It's annoying, but I just try to think of this as my norm. The scale is the devil...

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so....like I said, we are dry here, but just barely. Miserable weekend indoors. The only outing was to go to a birthday party. Yea! More children trapped indoors! Lol Hubby finally put in the closet doors in our mudroom, and started installing the closet system. The boys birthday party is in two weeks, so now I am in meltdown mode, constantly assessing every nook of my house. No one cares! But I do, so it will be super clean. I steam cleaned the upstairs carpets because it was about time anyway. I spent forever this morning with the kids cleaning out the playroom and making piles to donate, throw away and keep. We aren't pack rats by nature, but small toys always find their way in... With birthdays and Christmas coming up, we needed to make room. I can NOT handle clutter, especially in the playroom. My children will undoubtedly require serious therapy. No school or work today, and still no university open tomorrow. Blech!

Chickie Haha, I'm not judging, I have several boobie tops despite my lack of much boobage. This is where my good old friends gel and air filled come in (we go way back). Although generally my tops are probably higher, probably more to do with the weather than anything though.

I'm joining you with the laziness for sure (although you just ran a 10K, I think our definitions of lazy may differ haha), let's lay down and eat.. nom nom. Yeah some weeks I'm really motivated with my kettlebells. I did ok with them yesterday but then it got hard and I'm like 'ok 1 more'.. I suppose maybe it's because I'm always doing these things alone, maybe if I was in a gym setting I'd be all about showing off my butt.

I can't stand clutter either and my boyfriend is a clutter machine. I don't know how he does it... agh, I'm constantly picking things up because I'll walk into the living room and the table is just covered in crap. So I can sympathize for sure.

Turbo Yeah I posted at the bottom of a page a few pages back I think so I guess not everyone saw it.. damn, gotta get to the top haha :P
I also don't function very well in the mornings, agh, especially as you said with the seasonal depression. Our clocks just went back an hour so sunset is at 5 now .. not helping my lazyness. At least unemployment is good for something - sleepy mornings amirite?! Did you apply for that rep job in the end (sorry if I missed something)?

krampus Of course you'd be hungry! If you're bored at home maybe you could cook up something extra tasty (not a million calories) instead of boredom eating? I do that a lot, or just focus on a new recipe and really think about it. I eat a lot better these days whereas before bread and noodles would have been a fine dinner. Or dinner #1

Good that you're not affected by the hurricane anyway, I always forget that there's so much more to NY than just NYC.

sontaikle Hey! Hope you and your family are safe over there.

Joss Will vote now after this and get my boyfriend to vote as well.. fingers crossed!

Kakers I hope your in laws are ok! It all looks pretty crazy over there. Congrats on 154!

Bayzee Don't fret! If you know you ate well it's not 4lbs of fat.. you'll get a whoosh soon I'm sure. Also sometimes I've noticed the scale go up before a significant drop. Stick with it.

mottainai I hope you're doing ok! Binging is a difficult thing to overcome and deal with but whatever happens/happened you're making significant positive changes and developing healthier habits.

I also love that I ate a lot of vegetables growing up and like them now.. I know lots of people who pretty much never eat any vegetables. It's so strange to me.. they're the best!

I also don't go down the route of trying to weigh a certain amount by a certain date. I know that wouldn't work for me. Other people seem to do well though... different strokes and all that!

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Day 2 of not weighing. I feel really good actually, the scale was seriously stressing me out so it's like a weight (heh heh) off my shoulders. I'm thinking of weighing on Thursday or Friday. Not sure if twice a week or once a week for now, I suppose I'll just do it when I feel like it and see how that goes. I ate well yesterday and exercised which is great as I was worried that not weighing would mean I'd slide into over eating because I'll 'get away with it' if I'm not weighing daily. If anything like that starts to happen it's straight back onto the scale but for now I'm enjoying it. I want to be both mentally and physically healthy and it's hard to maintain either without the other.

Gotta run, have a great day everyone!

Chickie : The foot is feeling ok, thanx for asking. Feeling a little something (I pushed it a lot in the past 2 weeks to be some kind of ready for the race) but it is totally manageble. I'm giving it a 2 days rest though, being not at 100% yet. Staying indoor with two little guys full of energy might be hard! Are the birthdays of your boys super close? How cool is that!!!

LeilaJey : Naaah, I did not apply for the rep job. Like, as much as I want a job, I really do not want a sale rep job because... well, I CAN'T sell anything, even if it's the pharma field LOL We're changing the hour/time this weekend here! I don't think it will worsen my case, as I never EVER been a morning person

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Nothing huge to report, weight at 136.4, which is not that bad, I was up from water weight yesterday from eating fondue and stuff on Sunday and it is slowly going down. I'll try to focus on drinking a lot of water today to evacuate as much water as I can. I want to try to make it back to the 135's by the end of the week

Pictures from the photographers of the race are online, here's a few. The scenery on the background was just beautiful, with the mountains and everything. So lucky to have that 25 minutes ride from our place! I also realized that these baggy shorts make me look HUGE I'm obviously less talented at running AND being pretty at the same time compared to Chickie



Eyes close, but it was after the big omg-will-it-ever-ends hill.

Happy Tuesday! I am a bit relieved to see a bit of a drop today...120.4 but I have been in the teens for a while, so it really hurts to see 120 again
I was really hungry yesterday, especially after my workout. I fought it though, and didn't eat anything. I have been really hard on myself with this weight gain...trying to analyze everything I ate.

I'm eating a bit differently today...I cut out my 2 fruits. It's kind of interesting because by cutting out my fruit, I am already eating pretty closely to the RFL plan. I will try to do this for the next couple of days. But...I'm already craving some berries. I eat them everyday!

Joss...I voted for you too! Good luck!

Chickie...Glad to hear I'm not the only one with a range! It can be discouraging for sure to see fluctuations all over the place! I can honestly say though that 4 lbs is not a normal fluctuation for me.

Turbo...I envy anyone who can run long distance! Congrats on the race! I've tried so many times, but I am NOT a runner.

Montainai...Congrats on the better habits. Keep up the great work! My DH doesn't know I'm on the forum either! He doesn't always agree with me being obsessed with a "number on the scale".

Krampus...I think we similar eating syles. Strict during the week and let go on the weekends. I've seriously thought about picking up a new scale! LOL!

Leila...thanks for the words of encouragement! I cannot workout at home. I skip reps and take too many breaks! LOL! I have tons of equipment collecting dust.

Sorry if I missed anyone. I'm just on my lunch, but will check back later!

Gaa I'm getting so behind! Just a quick check-in... I'm off to go take a driver's exam (ugh, not looking forward to that) but I'll catch up with everyone tonight.
Wish me luck!

And a huge thank you for you guys that voted for me! I think you can vote each day (though I'm not sure) so keep hitting the button! haha

Hi everyone!!! Long time no post. I've been going through a lot - family wise and job wise and I am now about to be jobless/insuranceless till I get a new job. I had to leave...took me a long time to reach that decision.
Anyways, I just wanted to say Hello and hope that everyone is safe and sound! I took some Halloween pics- my first skinny Halloween on Sat night!! I'm up like 6 lbs right now cause I ummm boredom-ate during Sandy. But its cool.
I was a fairy

AAARG! I seriously just spent like 30 minutes writing a huge post to you all and it got deleted! Stupid laptop!

Cliff's notes;
Bayzee - hang in there... that weird gain will fall off!

Turbo - You rock and the pictures are an improvement from the last run!

Chickie - I didn't want rhinestones up my butt-crack, and I hate how my @ss looks in a thong! LOL Yeah, I'm still getting out of the service, just not sure if I'm going overseas again or not.

Pixelllate - Good to "see" you! Hot costume!

Leila - I'm glad you feel better after not weighing for a few days! It's good to change things up periodically.

Krampus - Halloweekend was nice and relaxing! I chose to keep it low key because the thought of dealing with all the silly army boys around here was so unappealing. It would be one thing if my husband were here, but without him I avoid the bar scene all together. How was yours?


AND thank you to EVERYONE who voted for me, and sorry to anyone I missed! I will try to be better about keeping up the next few days since I'm done studying (had to take a test today) and should be a bit less busy at work this week.

Oh, and HOLY CRAP... Its Halloween tomorrow and the last day of the month! Who else is ready for NOvember? LOL for me it's NO binges, NO excuses, NO guilt, NO wasted days and NO looking back!!

Quick drive by, I'm so behind I'm too overwhelmed to try and catch up.

Joss - Voted for you!

Pix - Great costume! You look totally hot!

That's all I could muster. Hugs to those who need them! Congrats to those who are doing great!

One of my kids is sick, has been since Friday mid-day, so I'm exhausted. Went to a Halloween party Saturday night after the kids were in bed, felt pretty good about myself, had fun, was home by 11 (posted a pic in the General Chatter section).

Been hovering between 153 and 154. The funny thing is, that is the exact weight I was from about Freshman year of high school when I stopped growing, until I was about 22. I guess it's one of those "happy weights" my body has. Not to say I've been working that hard to get below that, because I really haven't. Kind of in one of those places of just being sick of it all.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Hi everyone! Just quick check-ins today.

Joss- Totally voted for you. I hope you win! If you do I'll buy a copy, lol. Yes, November, I'm so with you!! No more of that crap, eh?

Lockitup- Sorry to hear your kid's sick. ): Sounds like you had a nice holiday! I saw your pic, very awesome!! I know well how you feel, I'd been stuck in one of those happy weight places for a while, though I feel like I'm finally getting out of it...

Pixelllate- Don't believe I've heard from you since I joined here. Sorry to hear about your job situation and such. Your pictures look awesome, as do you!

Bayzee- Good luck sticking to your plan! I was pretty disappointed when I binged myself up out of the one-teens a few weeks ago too. I'm sure you'll get back down again though, you sound so motivated!

Turbo- Love the pics! The scenary looks very nice there, I love mountains. I think the baggy shorts are cool, haha.

Leila- Glad to hear you're also a vegetable lover. I hope your experiment staying off the scale goes well!

Chickie- Sounds like you're so busy with all that cleaning, but really awesome job, makes me feel like I ought to be doing some of that too...

Krampus- Glad to hear you're not in the path of the storm! Congrats on 7 miles!

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Bad news, I totally binged today. No excuses either. I decided to do it in the morning and prepared for it and everything. I am not going to dwell on it though. I did some pre- and post- reflection, and now I'm just going to accept that I did it, admittedly enjoyed it during and physically felt like dying afterwards (my body is obviously way out of the habit after refraining for those 10 days, I felt so so so much crappier compared to I used to). So yeah, just back on plan from RIGHT NOW-- going to take it as a 5000 calorie mega-refeed, haha.

In other news, I had such a great time at my church small group yesterday. I'm so hopeful that I'll finally be able to make some friends here! I'm also more optimistic about my school project I've got to get done since I've started on it a bit.

Ooohhhh, and this: DH has started seriously considering us visiting Japan at the end of the year! I'm super excited as I've never been there, and I would love to see his family again, as I haven't since the wedding. The only problem is that that discussion kind of automatically spurred my usual "diet!! deadline!! must be skinny in Japan and lose xx kg in xx days!!!" And that leads to the fact that I'd have to absolutely not binge in order to make the goal, which naturally made me want to do it more. I really think that was a part of the problem this morning.

Finally, I'm including some progress pics of me fitting into those jeans! Pink shirt was this morning, compared to green shirt two weeks ago. My 25s are falling the heck off of me today!

http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/...1107/photo.jpg
http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4e4aa5f2.jpg

Thank you so much! I would love to win this but it's such a long shot. I appreciate each vote I get though, that's for sure.

Love your new avi by the way!

I too sort of feel 'sick of it all'. I'm in one of those places where I'm slowing down in an effort to keep myself on the right path versus trying REALLY hard and burning out. Instead of looking at the situation and saying "I want to be back to 115 pounds RIGHT NOW" I set myself a goal to weigh .8 pounds less on my next weigh in.

It's hard to go 'balls out' all the time... haha

Maybe this sounds weird, but I only consider it a 'binge' if you feel like you couldn't control it and didn't want to do it. I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with deciding to sit down and eat 5,000 calories if that's what you feel like doing! Obviously if you do it too often it's not going to help you stay in shape, but if you don't feel guilty about it, there is no need to feel guilty for NOT feeling guilty!

A lot of people regularly incorporate massive "treat days" (or whatever you want to call them) and don't beat themselves up over it or really hinder whatever their goals are. I know that I have had a bit of a harder time recently, but up until just recently that was me; I would plan out huge "cheat/treat" (whatever) days and look forward to them! Usually they are on special occasions and visits with my husband, but I know that the majority of the time I eat well and exercise and eating a ton of calories of really delicious food that I LOVE will not hurt me if I do it here and there.

I think part of the issue for you could be that you've been told that what you do is this horrible thing you should be ashamed of, but you've been able to maintain your weight and for the most part you enjoy having a huge increase in food on a somewhat regular occasion. Maybe you are one of those people that does okay with a planned "cheat day" every week or two. Have you ever thought about it that way? Maybe taking away the stigma and doing what works for you will make you feel less stressed out about it and result in you feeling more in control of it.

I don't know... just food for thought.