Carter - Glad you had time to dig up the Colon Blow gif. I loved that SNL commercial parody, and I'd forgotten about it. Yay for the scale finally returning to its senses, sort of. Good to see you back down in the 170s.

TooWicky - Oh, man. That's intense. Glad you caught it and got it treated, though. And I'm with Carter. (I feel like I say that a lot.) Focus on feeling better and recuperating. Calorie deficits are sometimes not ideal for recovery (though they might be). Just take care of yourself.

Jenni - Me too! I can eat the bars no problem, but the cereal was crazy. But I haven't stopped eating it, and have not had a repeat of the intestinal torture. An hour of exercise a day is great. So is half an hour. And if the half an hour is sufficiently intense, you could burn more calories than you could in a full hour. And you don't have to exercise to lose weight, so anything you do is really a bonus, right? ;-) I do like getting more fit, though. And yay on the single cookie! Victory!

Lyn - Love the new days! Always the new days! Or even the new moments. Just cuz I might have eaten a bit of frosting from the cake box this morning doesn't mean that I am going to have an out-of-control day. Right? ;-)

Mandy - Look at you with your super-exciting, super-cool elliptical bringing super-great challenges with it! And since it's at your house, you could (if you're so inclined) do three or four 10-minute sessions that would probably burn way more calories than a 40-minute session and give you a sustained metabolism boost all day. Oh, the possibilities! So glad you made the decision to purchase it.

Diane - Hooray for my strictness challenge buddy! With strictness and our gym attendance, we are totally going to rock the second half of January!

Kids are leaving on Thursday. I am having a terrible time wrapping things up here, but I am working steadily on it. My (current) boss just keeps dumping more stuff on me. I get it, but it's got to stop. I will be putting my foot down soon.

Just got word from my husband that the biggest loser pot has grown to $460. With that and my other challenge, I could raise about $600 for my honeymoon pool. (I really do want it there, but I'm secretly hoping that knowing that my weight loss will benefit him will motivate my husband to being less likely to sabotage my weight loss efforts. Does that make me devious or clever? Or both? But benignly devious, I hope.)

So much to do. So much resistance to doing the work at my current job. But you know what? I have so many days where I promise myself that if I just get to the gym and on the treadmill, I will only make myself do a mile. Then, that mile sometimes turns into 4, like it did yesterday.

Tackling things now.

Feelin the love y'all. Feelin the love.

TooWicky - Oh my gosh! Hope you feel better soon! I would not worry about plan or not and just focus on healing and getting better.

Laurie - I have not yet learned to be devious and sort of trick my husband into helping me when it's not in his brain to do so. I fail at wife. But I'll stand here and cheer for you through your challenge!

And for me... Woke up this morning to TOM and a wicked crazy craving for one of the massive apple cinnamon filled, cream cheese topped, freshly baked at the Amish shop down the road cinnamon rolls. These things have to weigh almost a pound and are about the size of my face. It's like the best apple pie you ever ate mated with the best cinnamon roll you ever ate and produced a perfectly delicious hybrid. Apple pie with a gooey chewy cinnamon roll crust. I've had one, and shared it with 3 other people.

BUT! I fought it off, and was good and had Greek yogurt and a fiber bar and a jug of water. And I'm feeling pretty good about that decision. Though I still want the apple pie/cinnamon roll love child. SIGH.

ANYWAY. I did pretty well with food yesterday. Was a little bit over (like 100 or so cals) because I had some toffee peanuts during the game, but I'm just happy I wasn't WAAAAY over. Getting back into the swing of things is going to take some time, and I know that. Not gonna beat myself up for it.

On the exercise front, I've decided that I'm going to keep with my Leslie schedule, just gonna add in a little bit of time on the elliptical as well, so I can continue to exercise, and eventually build up the endurance to tackle the beast in my basement.

I CAN DO THIS. (I really have to build myself up here, this is *exactly* when I gave up after losing 50+ a few years ago... 6 months of effort, off the rails during the holidays, couldn't get back into it after. NOT THIS TIME!)

Hi all. Went to Body Pump today. It was a good workout. I felt really good about how well I did, doing all of the reps, so I think I'm back on track with that class. I felt like I had missed too many in December and that kept it at a more difficult level than I wanted it to be. Spin tomorrow.

Doing better on the food plan. I was so tempted last night to cave in to some extras after dinner, but held strong. I've upped my water intake, and I think that helps some. It is ok to feel a little hungry sometimes.... just talking to myself here.

Mandy: Yum. That apple thing sounds really good. Proud of you that you could resist! Way to go on the elliptical, you'll get the best of it yet!

Laurie: Transitioning from one job to the other is such a pain. I feel for you! Glad you're staying strong with our strictness!

Jenni: You're doing just fine! One cookie is very good!

TooWicky: Wow! That sounds terrible. Hope you're feeling better now.

Carter: Overeating with protein isn't as bad as it could be! Thanks for sharing the picture. funny stuff!

Lyn77: Oil change and tire rotation... big times!!!

MANDY! I just recently found my way back myself. So glad to see you again!

Laurie - I know what you mean. I grabbed some fiber one lemon bars and was a little worried... I believe it's the Kellogg's Fiber Plus brand that I've had less than attractive experiences with in the past though.

Diane - I need to get back to following your workout example. Like for serious.

TooWicky - Oh noes! I certainly hope your recovery goes quickly!

Carter - Isn't it funny how the scale likes to do the most illogical of things sometimes?

Jenni - I'm glad to see you're still here, too. It makes me happy to see so many familiar faces still padding around this thread.

Laurie - It makes you both. And in a good way!


So the past two days of abnormal hunger seem to have subsided but the scale's showing the aftermath. Back up to 190 from 188. Well, give or take. I don't think the cold of my brother's house is playing nicely with the springs in my scale but what's a girl to do?

On the bright side, as I said before, the inches are still coming off. I've know for a while that I needed to get new pants for work - when you're size 16 work pants feel like they're falling down all the time (though not enough for other people to notice), it's time. So I forced myself to go by the store and get a new pair of pants. I also got two shirts. I tried one on in a size 12/14 but the cut was a bit tighter across my bust than I'd like so had to go with an XL. But the second shirt... Well, for the first time in like... ever, I fit into a 12/14 shirt and a size 14 pair of pants. And you know what? I was standing there staring at myself in the dressing room mirror trying not to grin like an idiot. Man, I've gotten tiny... I still have a long way to go to get to where I want to be, but daaaaaaaamn. I look good

I was doing some research into which 4-year University of Washington campus I want to transfer into after I've completed my 2 year, degree-transferable associate of arts program at SPSCC. Turns out both Seattle and Tacoma have Writing degrees. When I asked Josh for his opinion, I was informed of the following: "Tacoma with me. Seattle's too far away." Yeah, he's pretty adorable.

Well last night was a total bust! I ended up with sugar cravings so intense and caved. My binge was all of sugary grossness and I am paying for it today I think I may have a fast day just because I need to purge my system!

Oooh, I hope you don't do this, jenjenangel. That's how you start a binge/purge cycle which is a recipe for staying off plan for a long time: You overeat, and then fast or over-restrict (whether to "make up for it" or "purge your system" or however you formulate it) and then you just set yourself up to be hungry and uncomfortable which is a great place to be if you want to go off plan again.

I strongly recommend, when you slip up, to just get right back on plan. Don't try to make up for it. Don't try to shave calories for a few days to offset it. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go back to your plan.

It's great to think about why you overate sugary foods and how you can prevent it from happening again. Why did you have access to the things you binged on? Is there a way you can engineer your environment to make those things harder to come by?

I have binges too, I struggle with it a lot. So I know how frustrating it can be and what a waste of effort it feels like. Just go back to your plan today - I know you can do it.

Hey all! Just a quickie update right now. Possibly more later.

Not much going on here. Sticking to it and fighting the restart starving feeling. Which is really not easy when I'm also fighting TOM cravings. OY.

Once TOM is gone and I stop feeling SO VERY TIRED (worst part of TOM!) I'll get to my workouts again. Leslie is waiting for me!

I have a pretty good food plan for today, and I hope I can stick with it! It has me right where I need to be for calories and macros.

I hope you all are having a great day!

For the motivations.

Hi all! Went to spin class today. It was a tough one! I've also been changing things up by using a bike in the front row. In a way, it helps with distractions and most people up front aren't chatting. I don't want chatting! But then, today I was wondering how I looked from behind. Hmm. Scary thought. Tomorrow is body pump, and then on Friday, I'm not sure what I'll do, because I will miss the morning workout since my son is having minor surgery. I'll go in later in the day, but have to figure out what it will be.

Wasn't a great food day yesterday, but not too overly bad either. Today is going much better. I forgot my lunch at home, so I had to go out today, but my choices were pretty good.

Mandy: I had to laugh. You said that Leslie was waiting for you to get back to workouts, and I thought for a moment that you had named your elliptical "Leslie". But then it occurred to me.... Oh, Leslie Sansone!

Carter/Jenni: I have to agree with Carter on this one. If you have a bad day like that, I wouldn't try to make up for it. Just get back on track the next day, and don't punish yourself!! Each day is a clean slate in my book.

Suzuki: Glad you are getting back on track! It is so easy to go astray, I know! It amazes me that I ever let it happen, because I feel so much better when I'm doing the right things with food and exercise!

Lyn: Good for you! You can make it with 100% on plan! Not sure how you give up coffee. I haven't done that. I drink mine black, so it isn't horrible on calories. But I would be a bear without it now!

I love the Colon Blow post! I eat a soup like that, lentil soup by Primo. It's CRAZY high in fibre and crazy tasty, but I sure can't eat it on Zumba days!

I was down 1.5 lbs today. Hope it stays gone.

Just a quick reporting in.... I went to Body Pump today. Good workout, and it left me feeling awfully tired. It gets like that at the end of the week for me with workouts. Tomorrow, my son has a little surgery going on, and we have to be there by 6:00 am. So, I'll miss my spin class. I think they have some later in the day, so I'll try to do one of those. Otherwise, I'll be hitting the treadmill or elliptical. Maybe I can find one named "Leslie"! Ha!

ChrissyBean: Do you do Zumba often? I've thought about trying it. Kind of scary! Ha!

Lyn: Good job staying on plan!!!!!! Yay you!

Good morning folks

So, the last two days were marked by some poor choices escalating into a full-scale binge. I haven't done that in about ... more than a month, I'm pretty sure. Say since before Thanksgiving.

I'm not sure what happened, but, it's over now, and I'm back on plan as of the next bite of food.

Good morning!

I read, but I'm not going to comment.

My kids left for Russia after their 7-week visit. It was a great visit, and I'm going to miss them, but they'll be back in March. All three of the younger ones (17, 14, 11) want to move in with me beginning this summer. That's fantastic, and terrifying, largely because it will require new living arrangements. Either we will have to build an addition onto our current house, or find a new one. And I haven't talked to my husband about it yet. This, plus a new job. These are good changes, but I feel so ready at this point in my life to have a relatively steady few years. Same job, same marriage, same living arrangements.

And, of course, I went off plan. My husband said to me, "This is the last day here. Why can't you just relax and have fun?" And, possibly because of my overstretched emotions, I found that persuasive. Which is ridiculous. Alcoholics don't indulge so that they'll be "fun." Check it in the "yet another lesson learned" box.

Hey everyone. I've not had a chance to read and catch up yet (i will) but I just wanted to get of the mark with posting again since I'm back from vacation and back to real life again. I got back yesterday evening and today was a work day and busy and all over the place. I'm slightly jet-lagged but have made it to the end of the day. I NEEDED to post before leaving because if I don't, I mayn't get to it till Monday and I'm now in that slippery post-vacation slope that could see me putting off getting re-started till February and I don't really want to be about that life, so here I am.

Today was supposed to be a fast day but I've had crackers and chocolate and surprise, 300 and some calories in, I'm hungry... Because that's what refined carbs and sugar do. Sigh. What I'm going to do is brave the rush hour traffic, stop at the green grocers and get some fresh vegetables in. Then I will go home and cook said vegetables into something tasty... as tasty as carbs and salt and fat which is basically what I'm craving right now. What that awesome bowl of tastyness will be, I don't know yet but believe me, it WILL be tasty! #ThePowerOfPositiveThinking

I hope you guys are doing awesome and everything is going fabulous in 2015. I'll catch up to see all your doings this weekend. Wishing everyone a wonderful, blessed, on-plan weekend!!!

Quick post to say hello. On day 5 of recovery from emergency ventral hernia repair for a strangulated bowel... Feeling a tiny bit better every day. I got a lot of props from the nurses, surgeon, and anesthesiologist for having lost some weight. I'm determined not to ever be morbidly obese again!

Diet wise I have been making sure to eat bfast, lunch, snack, and dinner every day. My appetite is not all that great, although I have been hungry here and there. I'm thinking of food as medicine to help me heal. No idea of calories, just trying to eat somewhat healthily. My wonderful neighbors keep dropping off dinner for us at our door at 6pm every night so I've definitely been sampling my fair share of comfort food!

Upside: I'm in a mealtime routine, which I think will help when I get better and transition to focusing on weight loss.