oh and i wanted to add, i just saw the machinist - man was bale emaciated I would never ever want to do that to myself, he was absolutely nutters.

Hey guys, I just got back in town and let me tell you-I know now why Dallas is one of the fattest cities in the U.S.--there are places to eat everywhere you turn! And they all look so good. I did well keeping up my exercise at the hotel but eating wasn't so great. I made some good choices (chicken at lunch, soup, etc) and some bad (chocolate during the training, ice cream each day and granola on the way home) but now I am home and getting back on track as we head into the weekend. A group of people are going white water rafting but I haven't decided if I am going to join them yet. Kinda scared! We will see...

P.S. I actually found this place called I Can't Believe It's Yogurt that had amazing soft serve but the one in Dallas is the only one in the 5-state area so that won't be a frequent splurge for sure!

Good morning. and thnak god it is ffriday!!!!! MEGAN! You are back!! maintainer... how I cannot wait for those words to come out of my mouth!
Cookiemonster, you didnt fail. You did just fine. You were uncerain about some of those choises so you made a choice you were sure of..
Megan~ Sorry about the cluster F*&% I knowhow that i sI am having a semi week like that.
So last night, went and got my hair cut last night... I cried.. I asked for about 2 inches off, maybe three and about 7 came off. I had really long dark pretty hair and now Its short. Its not bad looking, but I have always been complmented on my long hair and how nice it was. just a lil upset. But whne I styled it this morning, I was semi excited because it looks kinda cute.
HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL FRIDAY!!

JustForUs, I am sure you look hot with your short hair! I got mine cut short for the first time in forever this year and it is really growing on me (no pun intended.) Plus look on the bright side those 7 inches must have weighed at least half a pound!

TGIF

THANK YOU!!! Lizzbabe, I never thought of it htat way.. <grins> TGIF is right...

Oh no, 2 Megan's! How confusing. It can't be worse than my high school lacrosse team. Of 17 players, there were 3 Megan's and 2 Meg's. Oy vey.

I actually got 8 hours of sleep after dive class last night (by accident - luckily my boss knows I'll make up that 45 minutes I was late this AM) and I've got my head screwed on a little better this morning. My profile is not right - I'm at about 142/3#. But I WILL get this under control.

Justforus, it's funny how something we think isn't a big deal like a few inches of hair can make such a difference. It will grow back. In the meantime enjoy the cool breeze around your neck for the rest of the summer, and those sassy hairstyles you can only get with short hair.

Jenna, you DID handle the situation very well. You didn't "fail" at all! At my next event like that I'm going to try and follow your example. It's a major accomplishment to realize that you would rather put something healthier in your body, to walk away from all that food, and actually do it. I hope you're patting yourself on the back right now.

It's been storming majorly here on the Gulf of Mexico for over a week now, but I'm hoping for at least one sunny day to go out and play this weekend. Does anyone have any fun plans?

~Megan

Megan - welcome back! That's awesome that you are a maintainer now!

Jenna - I don't think you were a failure at all. You didn't lose control of yourself at all, right? Isn't that a good thing? Maybe in time you will be able to eat small portions of food like that, but if right now you just need to not eat any at all then that's just what you have to do. You know how it is -- like with potato chips, you can't eat just one, so if you feel like eating one bite will lead to a binge, it's better not to take that one bite at all.

Other Megan - Sorry to hear you're stressed at work. It's great that you and the new bf are getting along so well though!

Bida - Great job stopping your overeating. That's what this site is for! LOL about China, I've been to China once before, but I went to Beijing that time and I'm going to Shanghai this time, so I bet there will be different food. Chances are that after this I will not be going to China again (at least not for a long time) so being a foodie like you I know I will be tempted to try all the delicacies! OTOH I will have to be careful too because I don't want to get food poisoning.

Liz - You should totally go white water rafting! I've never been, but I bet it would be awesome! That's funny about Dallas having so much food. LA has lots and lots of food everywhere too, but for some reason people are skinnier there (though it always seemed to me growing up that people in LA are either super-thin or really overweight, not much in between). Providence has a good amount of food, but not like LA . . . and I tend to not notice it for some reason. The restaurants are all grouped together, like there will be a street with a lot of restaurants, and no other restaurants anywhere near there. In LA there are restaurants all over.

JustForUs - I bet your new haircut looks great! If you don't like it, you can always grow your hair back, right? It is annoying when a stylist doesn't do what you want though. I end up paying quite a bit for my haircuts because I want a reliable stylist -- my favorite stylist, back home in LA, I could just say "I want it about an inch shorter, otherwise do whatever you want" and I would end up looking fabulous every time! My current stylist needs a little more guidance on how I want it to come out, but I think she is pretty trustworthy too. She did my hair curly last time (I never wear my hair curly, even though it is naturally kind of curly) and it looked great!

I am so glad it is Friday! Woohoo! I will have a hard time staying motivated to do my work today though, that's for sure. I am fantasizing about going to the bookstore down the street and spending the day flipping through the books there (last time I went I ended up buying Fitness for Dummies!). I am also fantasizing about all the restaurants on that street, but I have my peanut butter sandwich and an apricot to keep me on track. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up wandering out of here a little earlier than usual though (as a grad student, my hours aren't monitored, so as long as my advisor is happy with the progress I'm making, it doesn't matter if I spent 20 hours, 40 hours, or 60 hours working -- I usually spent about 30 ).

HAPPY FRIDAY GUYS!!! Well today is my last day of my summer internship and then I have a week and a half before I go back to school (kind of scary, I hope I can keep up my healthy lifestyle). I know in the beginning it may be tough because with no classes everyone is going out and drinking and having back to school restaurant feasts. I will do my best... I actually brought in Dunkin Donut munchkins for my department, but I ate breakfast before I got to work so I wouldn't munch on them and then when everyone asked me to have one I was able to say that I already ate 4 of them on my way over. I know I did not mess up at the luncheon because obviously I didn't eat, I just feel like that is disordered eating you know... that I get too nervous and can't handle myself. Still fighting for that balance....

Megan1982 your diving class sounds awesome. My whole family dives and LOVES IT, I unfortunately am a wuss and hate fish (looking at and eating them).

JustforUs that's awesome that you got your haircut. I am always tempted to do that, I actually just got 4 inches off which was a big step for me. Sometimes it's nice to have a whole new look you, boosts the self esteem.

Lizzbabe glad you had fun in Dallas. I remember hearing in that Supersize Me movie that Dallas was in fact the fattest city. Congrats on keeping up your exercise I NEVER work out on vacations so I am very impressed.

paperclippy i hear ya on work... my hour lunch break sometimes turns into an hour and a half, but i LOVE to read so usually i eat for 15 mins and read for the rest (a nice break from life).

Did anyone see that show Starved last nite on FX? What did you guys think....

Jenna - darnit, that Starved show was on last night!!! I meant to watch it - how was it. I love irreverancy, not to mention the show is right up my alley!

Hello to everyone - remember it's Friday for all those stressed. I've got a ton of homework this weekend, but I get to go home on Tuesday!!! I've got a whole week free - I'm going to Lake Tahoe and Reno with some girlfriends and spending a few days with my Oregon family & friends - I need it, I'm so excited.

Diving sounds like a blast - but I think I'm too much of a scaredy-cat!

To be honest I do not think I will be watching that show again. While there were a few parts that I thought were... well well written I guess... I thought it was a REALLY WEIRD spin on eating disorders and was more disgusted than entertained or informed.

That's too bad - I'll have to catch it some other time and see what I think... I thought it was interesting that they'd do a show on that in the first place!

I stayed up late last night watching a show on E! on how thin stars are getting. Pretty much showing the more thin you are the more work you get. So stars are doing all kinds of unhealthy things to stay thin, including colonics several times, diet pills, smoking, starving, purging, obsessive exercising! One trainer said that she has clients that will work out eight hours a day!!!!!
I know this has been going on for some time, but it's really out of control!

Mad props to women like Kate Winslet, Catherine Zeta, and Drew Berrymore for not being rail thin!

ok, that's my random input for the day!

Also, I live in Dallas, you know how they say everything is BIg in Texas, this is so true. I see and work with lots of obese people. The serving sizes here are huge, and people in Dallas eat out almost every meal!

Everyone have a great FRIDAY!

Although I don't know if you've seen Drew Barrymore's new film, but she is TRYING to get real thin.

that's to bad to hear..

Hey we have more posts on this thread then on our July Goals thread....

Wow, too bad they haven't installed laptops on the stationary bikes...we would be logging in lots of workout time/chatting time

Has anyone else tried the new treadmills? Not sure what they are called but tried them last night at my bf's gym. It like a seperate tread mill part for each foot to walk on, and those parts each can go up and down..does that make sense? I walked on it for only ten minutes and burned 100 calories! They are awesome! You can't run on them, but they are so challenging just to walk on...my heart rate was up to 157!

I saw a show on VH1 about a similar topic (the crazy stuff celebs do to stay thin). It's really depressing about how being thin gives you more work . . . Take, for example, Brittany Murphy. Anyone remember her in "Clueless" as the new girl who gets made over? I never even realized that the Brittany Murphy who is now in a zillion movies is the same girl. She looks like she must have lost SO much weight, and unfortunately, I guess becoming rail-thin and dying your hair blonde is a recipe for success in Hollywood.

Also the show on VH1 talked about how actresses are getting more and more modeling jobs, and so they are now under pressure to be as thin as models (who in the past have always been much skinnier than actresses). Look at Nicole Kidman -- she has been thin for years, but since becoming the spokeswoman for that Chanel perfume, she looks like skin and bones!

Some of the diets these people go on are crazy. I have to say, it looks to me like Madonna is the craziest of them all. Not only with her whole Kabbalah thing (I don't buy someone with a name like "Madonna" becoming a Jew, that's for sure, especially not if it is inspired by one branch of Jewish mysticism that most people don't even know about - I am Jewish, BTW), but apparently she does the macrobiotics diet which I think sounds a little weird. I guess the one diet that I cannot wrap my head around is the "raw" diet, where you can't eat anything that has had its temperature elevated above like 120 degrees F. No bread, rice, pasta, since that all has to be cooked. No meat unless you want to eat it raw (all the sashimi you can eat though, I suppose). No cooked vegetables! Seriously, and I thought the vegan diet was restrictive. The raw diet is the mostly likely, I think, to be accurately termed "rabbit food."

Okay, I should not rant about other people's diet methods. Philosophically, I love the idea of a raw diet. Practically, I think it's kind of crazy.

You know what's funny though is that people can gain weight on all sorts of diets. I have known plenty of vegans who gained weight. Vegetarians are supposed to be thin and healthy from eating so many vegetables, but I have known quite a few vegetarians whose staple foods are cheese pizza and chocolate bars.

Anyway, now I am just rambling to avoid having to do any real work. I am fascinated by the shows about the crazy stuff celebrities do (especially colonics, ew!) to stay thin. I wonder if they have a shorter life span because of it.