Thought I would start the new weekly chat since Rainbow hasnt yet

Everyone looks so awesome in their costumes! I can never be bothered to get dressed up but it lookslike lots of us had a good halloween

Linds- in times like that I just say "give up, move on", I mean you ate it and even if you could track it, that wouldnt change I think 1.25lb is do-able, but Im not entirely clear on when Thanksgiving is

JL- good luck with the b12! I've heard that it can give people a big boost when people are trying to lose weight, apart from all the other benefits of no longer being vitamin deficient

Rainbow- congrats on making it to your halloween goal! I agree, sometimes it is important to schedule in couple time, as unromantic as it sounds! We do that too so its not such a strange idea It means you guys can have your own seperate interests and friends but still spend time together and stay close. Win!

As for me, I am about ready to give up. On 63.7kg this morning, the scale hasnt moved now since June and I've lost a grand total of 3kg this year. I just dont know what is going on. Eating more doesnt help, eating less doesnt help. I might as well be sitting on my *** eating mars bars all day everyday for all the good eating fewer calories and exercising does I was actually looking forward to weigh in today because I had thought I had done really well, just to realise I hadnt made any progress at all. I'm tempted to either go to the doctor (which I dont want to do because last time I did they were like "hmm have you tried portion control?" ehfsn;fgbgaireanueo yeah i tried that about 20kg ago?!), going to the pharmacy and buying the biggest tub of diet pills i can find, talking to my Personal Trainer (although I dont really have much more i can tell them other than I've been following their programme and eating even less and it doesnt help), and giving up. Its just too hard today

Iconised - They do say the smaller you get the slower your weight goes down. I really have no advice it sounds to me as if you have done everything you can do ...I know you dont want to hear this but have you upped your exercise or changed your workouts? I'm sure once your over this plateau the weight will start coming off! Don't give up though because you have come along way!

...I gave in ladies and had a kitkat bar! I know I know I shouldn't stress out over a kitkat bar but it did skyrocket my fat grams and now I just feel like I ruint my diet even though thats the only time I have slipt up since September 11th. Since I have my chocolate out of my head now, hopefully I can get back on track and burn all them calories off with my last day of Level 2 of the 30DS and may a mile walk later on! I change my Thanksgiving goal to 170 because I lost 8 lbs during October and figured I can do again in November! I'm not much on Thanksgiving food so I don't think that will affect my diet that much. I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Onto a new month!

JL- i have just tried upping my run time from 45 mins to an hour and my speed from about 8km/hr to 9.5 so hopefully that will help. My weights programme is set by my PT so changes every few months so i shouldnt really be able to get used to it. The most frustrating thing is that after peeing etc this morning, before eating or anything, the scale said 63.7 but after running, breakfast, 2 large glasses of water it says 63.3. There is simply no pattern whatsoever to my weight any more. It doesnt help that i am so full of hayfever that it feels like at least half my weight is in my sinuses u_u

Trying to remember stuff from other thread I was going to reply to, so sorry if I forget anything!

krampus You look great in your Courtney Love costume! I am also rather enamoured with your friend's Rilakkuma (spelling..) one piece outfit! I would love one of those haha! I wouldn't worry too much about the over-indulging, I'm sure it won't make too much difference if you are back on track!

Linds Don't worry too much about a little bit of off-plan eating! If you had fun and enjoyed yourself I think that's just as important. 1.25 pounds per week by Thanksgiving is do-able I think! Perhaps just extra plan sticking to hehe.

JL A kitkat bar is not so bad! At least you just kept it to that one kit kat bar. And you sound like you're doing lots of exercise so it will probably all work out! I know what you mean about the fat grams though, mine were super high on Saturday and I was not entirely happy about it, but I have to keep telling myself that one day out of so many others is not going to ruin my efforts!

Icon I don't have any wise words, but don't give up! I was just thinking that maybe your body is happy at the weight you're at even if you're not at your goal? According to the dreaded BMI you're in the healthy weight range - but I get that that doesn't necessarily mean that you're where you want to be and I also get that it shouldn't prevent you from losing weight. I just wanted to say hang in there! Something must budge if you're doing everything right, maybe the upped exercise will have some effect?

krampus and IconThanks for the input on the "date night" thing - what kind of things do you guys do? I'm worried we're getting into a rut and we've been together over 2.5 years so it's something I want to work on because I don't want the relationship to dwindle and become boring! (and no, I'm not asking for sex tips haha, I'm meaning more activity type of things!) All we do is watch a dvd together sometimes. I mean I'm sure that's not all ALL, but at the moment it seems like it.

~I'm feeling pretty glad it's November for some reason. I feel like I need just the change of knowing it's another month to rev me up and kickstart my system again. I'm feeling really tired today. Even though I got home from being out on Saturday night at around 2am, I didn't get to sleep until after 4am and then had work on Sunday. I think I'm still needing to catch up on sleep from the weekend!
The owner of the store I work in went away for 3 months in the middle of July, just before I started my new lifestyle. She's been back for a couple of weeks but today was the first time she came into the store and therefore the first time she's seen me since being back - and it was really nice that she noticed my efforts and I didn't say anything at all. She's a nice lady and she told me I was looking amazing and said I'd lost weight - I kind of tried to downplay it and said that I'd lost a little, yeah, and she was like "how much!" and she's the type of person where I know she wasn't being intrusive so I told her, and she was so surprised and smiley and happy about it and said I look so much happier and healthier - I know some people would get upset about comments like this for some reason, but I really felt good about them because she's right. I am happier and healthier. And hearing I look amazing is always good hah!
I am trying to work my way through this day (woke up dreading coming to work) and hopefully get outside to see how my treadmill jogging compares to the real world!

Icon, don't give up! You've come too far to throw in the towel. If you really are doing everything right, you will lose. Have you been staying the same weight but also losing inches?

LindsB, I always forget my camera when I've been drinking too. Budgeting all week for a big night out - good girl! You can definitely lose that by Thanksgiving.

JLNichols, gimme a break (har har). One Kit Kat bar is NOTHING in the grand scheme of things, I can't believe you haven't cheated since September 11. Amazing.

rainbowstripe, "Date Night" (or "Date Day") can be anything really. All that matters is that you're together and not distracted by other things/people. Some things my bf and I have done recently...

-Packed sandwiches and sat in a park having a picnic lunch
-Gone out to dinner to new places
-Gone for a 10 km walk together
-Taken mini trips to somewhere local we just never bothered to visit before
-Went to see some local metal/visual-kei bands

That's great that your store owner noticed and gave you such positive feedback on your progress! Always feels good.

***

Thanks for the compliments, I always try for as tasteless as possible with Halloween costumes.

A few people at the party commented on my weight loss, including a cute guy that I see maybe 5 times a year if that. He simply said "Have you been working out? You look great!" and that boosted my ego x1000 more than the entire weekend of my boyfriend raving about how "slim and trim" I have become (which unless I reverse the 0.8 kg gain will be a distant and faded memory). Funny how compliments from people you don't know well always mean more.

I hope everyone had a good Halloween weekend.

I am not feeling well... I'm feeling very weak and achy. Not sure what is going on. I have had 3 days off from working out. This is the first time in a LONG time I've taken more than 2 days off in a week and I do not feel good about it. I'm hoping to get back on track tomorrow.

Rainbow--That's awesome that the owner complimented you. It's always great when people you haven't seen in forever notice that you've lost weight!

Krampus-- I agree with you 100% it feels more meaningful when people you don't know as well as your husband/boyfriend/family members know you, compliment you. Anytime my husband compliments me I feel as if he has too! lol. I don't take it seriousally because it's not like he's going to admit that I'm fat lol.

So I didn't get my walk in b/c by the time my hubby got home from work to watch the kids it was dark so blah! Fingers crossed that I get on the scale in the morning and have lost that would be a wonderful start to my November. I'm so glad I have ya'll ladies to discuss my weightloss with..anyone else feel like their family and friends get tired of hearing about it? I sure do. I also sometimes feel like I am overly obsessed about it too. I believe though if I'm not overly concerned I won't be concerned at all. Hope all yall have a wonderful night/day.

Casey--I hope you get feeling better!

Casey, get better! I know how it feels to miss workouts so I hope you can get back into the swing of things ASAP.

JLNichols, the only "real" people I feel comfortable discussing this with are people who already post on this site and my parents, haha. Everyone else just rolls their eyes and some will occasionally accuse me of having an eating disorder. But I doubt your husband compliments you out of obligation only. I'm sure he notices all the small changes in your body if you get what I'm saying. My boyfriend's compliments make me feel weird because he's SO THRILLED I've lost weight. I almost feel guilty for making him put up with heavier me since he's a bit of a fat-basher whose favorite thing about living in Japan is (in his own words) "the vending machines and the sluts." Sluts as in the multitudes of twiggy twentysomething Japanese chicks who wear super skimpy clothes.

krampus Thanks for the ideas! I guess things will pick up when he gets his thesis out of the way - that is definitely putting a damper on things as he either feels guilty when he takes time off it, or has a billion other things to do. It's hard to find the balance. You should not be feeling guilty at all about, as you put it, "making your boyfriend put up with a heavier you" - that is silly. I know it's easy enough to do, I feel similar issues of guilt minus the fat-basher boyfriend part. Is he really anti-excess-weight? I think you looked good in your before photos (seen them somewhere around I think). So I don't think you should be feeling guilty at all, and he should feel happy to be with someone like you!

casey That is not good to hear! Maybe you're coming down with something - I really hope not! I hope you feel better soon and are able to get back into exercising.

JL I totally feel you on enjoying coming here and being able to talk about weight loss efforts freely. I talk about it when I see my parents and I know they don't mind, but I'm sure my boyfriend would get annoyed if I talked about it too much - I'm surprised he puts up with it as much as he does, I do talk about it a lot - but then again I think he's just really impressed that I've managed to stick to my plan and get results. I know I can't talk to my sister about it, and that kind of makes me sad - with her its because she weighs a lot more than me and needs to lose weight, but has no interest in doing so (or so it seems) and I don't want to be the pushy sister who tries to flaunt my efforts and successes in her face, she's my best friend as well as my sister and I'd rather not strain things between us! I worry about being obsessive too, but I think I'm one of those people where I actually have to be thinking about what I'm eating and when I'm exercising really frequently otherwise I'll get too relaxed and undo it. I'm getting better at going out and doing things and relaxing and enjoying myself without stressing too much, but it's always there.

rainbowstripe, thanks! It's not so bad. I mean up until a couple months ago I was pretty guilty of fat-bashing too because I felt so insecure about my own fat. He likes thin women in principle but none of his girlfriends have been washboard-abs types so I've never been worried. It was kind of bad when we'd go out and he'd point out that some chick was fat and she was THE SAME SIZE AS ME. Bless him for deluding himself into viewing me in a separate light.

Fortunately I was in denial the entire time I was putting the weight back on over time, so I never really thought about it until after I'd lost it. Hindsight is 20/20 or even sharper, after all.

krampus I didn't mean to judge or make your boyfriend out to be bad in anyway, if that's what it seemed like I'm sorry! I only thought about it now that it may have come out wrong! I totally get what you mean - Sometimes when I see people bigger than myself I have to remember that I am just like them and they perhaps haven't realised that there is a healthier way to be - or maybe they are really healthy and just at that size as per nature. I dunno.

I worry my boyfriend thinks similar things, but he got together with me when I was bigger than I am now, I got bigger still in our first 4 months of dating and he's never said anything about my size unless I've asked him for constructive comments. He does (and his friends) however comment on people larger than me, and on occasion there has been times where I've been similarly sized to these people and worried/confused at why I'm any different or less worthy of being talked about due to my weight?

hey all, hope you have had a good halloween weekend! i've had a pretty awesome and crazy time in tokyo and will be posting a photo of my costume when i get home (although they're not full-body cuz i stupidly forgot to bring my camera and thus were taken with my cellphone....).

i haven't posted for a few days, and it was on purpose cuz i was kinda feeling like crap and my weight still hadn't gone down from that massive binge-weekend of last week and i just decided to give myself a break til november started. ironically, although i was planning to allow myself lots of crap this weekend, i ended up not eating much (although i drank a lot...) because i was too busy! this morning i weighed in and my weight had gone down to "normal" at 79.4. so that's my new starting weight. this month i want to kick it into gear and get serious. good eating, and exercise it. i got the 30DS dvd so i want to do it. i wanna be 76kg by christmas. do you think it's doable??

Hey Kawaii! I hope you're feeling less like crap now - and I wouldn't worry too much if your weight doesn't drop in one week. I just went through my daily planner to look at the weeks I lost and the weeks I didn't. Sometimes I was at the same weight for 2 or 3 weeks but I think it's the bigger picture that counts!
I definitely definitely think that 3ish kgs by Christmas is doable! If you really commit, you could lose more than that even I'm pretty sure.
I hope you find some exercise you enjoy and can stick with!

~Just wanted to quickly check in with you ladies because I made another achievement that I feel good about! I went outside to jog/walk again, and I figured that if I can jog for sustained periods of time on the treadmill, I should be able to outside as well! Well, I jogged the whole 1st kilometre of my 2.8km route. It was quite hilly and everything! Sure it was a slow pace, but I kept it up for the first km. I took a break to walk a bit and then jogged possibly another km! I felt really good and I went longer than my 2.5km route - not by much, but a little at a time is my motto for things like this.

hey rainbow! congrats on the jog! yeah, i feel better now. bf is still awol and i'm not happy about that but what can i do. i actually had a "date" with a boy i met on halloween night on sunday and it was super fun and it made me think i'm still hot stuff and i can replace him quick enough if he doesn't get his act together! haha... i really don't want to though... i hope he comes back... *sigh* anyways... i'm gonna try to do the 30DS tonight! maybe posting on here will make me feel too guilty to not do it! haha...

here are some photos from halloween. i'm sorry there aren't any full-body ones but i'd forgotten my camera so it's only purikura. i'm on the right