Thanks to my dear friend Amy reminding me, we have officially started our December feathers thread!!

I first want to give each and every one of us feathers kudos for trying to lose weight during the Holidays. Losing is hard enough, during the Holidays just makes it that much more challenging. So let's finish the year with a big WOOSH!

Happy Holidays feathers and cheers to an on plan successful month!

Hi Dianne and Feathers!

I totally agree--losing weight around this time of year is HARD. Especially when you feel like you're being rude by refusing to eat some baked goodies that someone has made you as a gift!

I'm hoping to reach goal by Christmas. I would love that as a gift

I saw a photo of myself taken on Thanksgiving (pre-feast haha) and...I'm not really sure how to say this without sounding conceited...but I actually think I look good in the photo! I haven't felt that way about myself in photos in a loooong, long long time. But it's weird because other days I still feel flabby. Hopefully the mental and the physical sides of me will reconcile eventually.

Okay okay, here is the photo:


Ok now that I've been staring at this for a while, I think I look bigger than I thought...guhhh.

Oh, LillyLover, I think you look very good. Give yourself credit where credit is due. I know it's hard, though - my body looks the same to me as it did when I was carrying around an extra 50 lbs, though I can see that I've lost weight in my face. You really do look good.

Woo! December!

Advent Calendar - it's nice having one treat which I know won't mean I'm craving the rest of the pack.

I weighed in at 121.6 this morning. So. Painfully. Close. I hope I don't mess it up at the last hurdle, like I did last time.

If you were around here in August you may remember me reaching 121.4. My lowest ever weight. But a day after I reached that I went away for my friend's long birthday weekend and came back 6 pounds heavier. Then I started a new job and bad eating habits meant I climbed another 5 pounds.

4 months later I'm worried that I might do it again, so I am going to be aggressively on plan until I can come back and say

GOAL

Hi! I'm trying to lose 8 pounds and tone. I am currently trying a new meal plan for 2 weeks to see how things go and I am also alternating Cardioke and No More Trouble Zones once a day.

Ahh Dora you're so close! I'm excited for you!

Yesterday I was all bells and whistles about hitting 125.2 and this morning I weighed in at...126.3. I ate about 1400 yesterday and did cardio, pushups and crunches. There are so many explanations about why my weight is up but it's still frustrating. Today I will try to eat under 1300 and run.

Lillylover -

You look fantastic! Thin and healthy with big boobs! We are the same height, I can't wait to get down to 130. I actually was at about 134 a year and a half ago and I thought i looked pretty good when I saw pictures too. In fact, I might just stop at 130...still not sure. The last time I was 125 was maybe in 2004? It's been awhile...I was 112-119 all though college and 3 years beyond and I honestly remember feeling too thin at that weight. I remember going to the Gap and having a size zero skirt fall right off me! And that was before vanity sizing got really bad!

But anyway...you look fantastic,way to go!

Lillylover, you look great! And it is not conceited at all to think or say so -- you should be proud of what you've worked to achieve! And hey, I'm just "up the street" from you, in Rockville.

Dora, ooooooooohhhhhh so close! Time to knuckle down and see that 120 on the scale!

I have discovered how to tell water weight from true weight. With water weight, if I have a nice on-plan day, not too many carbs, and a good run, bam! a pound or more gone the next day. When it's true weight, well, there it still is, the next day. Because now I actually have to earn it.

Happy Hanukkah to everyone out there celebrating -- and lay off the latkes! (a friend of mine was making baked latkes last night -- sounded delicious, wonder how they came out?)

Amy, that's how I tell water weight from true weight too!

LillyLover, you look fabulous. Enviable figure. You're 100% right in thinking you look good!

LillyLover you do look AbFab (as we say over here).

O. M. G. This morning I weighed in at 121 dead on. Which means if all goes well today (I'm just about to head off for lunch so I must bear this in mind) I might see 120.x

Aaaah, I am so excited. It can't come soon enough. In fact it's about 7 months overdue.

Feathers!!! Morning!!

Lillylover - Go ahead and glorify in your success!! I am an extremely modest person so I understand fully not feeling comfortable admitting to liking a picture, but girl you have WORKED hard for it and I feel you have all the rights to relish in it! You GO GIRL! You look amazing!! I like that outfit too

Dora - I remember back in August! You are SO close. Anytime you think of messing up, just remember over and over how close you are and that YOU DO have control of what you eat. Instead of slowing down or losing steam at the finish line, push yourself and give it that extra umph!!

Amy - I dont understand what you are saying about water weight (not enough coffee yet ). How do I tell if what I am losing is really water weight or true weight?

So now I am really wondering if I have lost true weight these past few days or water weight. I say this because yesterday I jumped up to 129.8 and today had a total woosh down to 128.4! Does this mean I was retaining water the past few days and the loss is finally showing or does this mean my scale is being funky? Regardless, I am super excited to see this number!

Hope everyone has a great day. Tomorrow is Friday!

You all are so sweet. Seriously!! The encouragement I've gotten here is priceless.

Pageta, thanks My face is probably the one place where I can actually see a difference myself.

Wildflower, the boobs are not all they're cracked up to be--I think they make me look big regardless of my size!! But I've grown to love them, haha.

Thesame7lbs, I used to live in Hyattsville--but that was a really long time ago. I also lived in Germantown for a few years. I'm away at school right now, but I really really can't wait to get back to the DC area! I love it so much more now that I'm not there all the time.

Krampus, nobody has EVER told me they envy my figure!! I'm Asian, so the figures I'm used to seeing are the super stick thin effortlessly skinny types. I wish I was a little taller, about your height! I am slowly learning to love my curves more, though. Based on your profile pic (and I think I've seen pics of you in the 20s forum, not to be a stalker haha) you look SO tiny. I'm jealous!

Dora, love the AbFab--that's definitely going to become a staple in my vocab!

Thanks, Dianne! It's an H&M dress. I have it in black too, it's so comfy! AND it's a size XS (crazy right?!). I'm going to ignore that it's probably vanity sizing. And congrats on the loss! Try not to read too much into it--any loss is good loss, right?

I'm at 128 flat again today, here's hoping for a little scale budge tomorrow! I do feel a little bad for my mom though, because she's starting to get worried about me, saying that I really don't need to lose anymore weight. But at the same time that kind of frustrates me because she's always told me that I could stand to lose a few pounds...hmm.

Have a great day, everyone! The week is almost over!

I don't think there's really any way to tell. I think when you see the scale go down, but then it bounces right back up (in spite of being on plan), maybe that's a sign you were a little dehydrated that one day. Or maybe your hormones are doing their thing. Or maybe you ate something high in sodium without realizing it. For me, I have to be at a weight for a few days and know I'm doing well with hydration to feel like I'm "really" that weight.

Likewise, when the scale bounces up, sometimes by sticking to plan and getting a good workout, I can make it go right back down again. That makes me think it was water. I mean, if I can lose 1.5 lbs in a day, I know that wasn't all fat. But now, I've been pretty on-plan for a few days and not budging, well, that's not just some extra water. I've put on some real pounds and it's going to take a few weeks on plan to really get rid of those.

Does that make any more sense?

Although, really, it's all a big unknown, isn't it? There are so many variables at work each and every day. My husband would think we are crazy discussing the possible causes of a blip on the scale.

Up to 57.6 this morning. With binge, constipation and whatnot, how could I not be? Sigh.

LillyLover, I totally thought you were Latina or Mediterranean or Israeli or something. Oops! We have been brainwashed with Angela Zhangs and So Nyeo Shi Daes and Koda Kumis so I think it can be much harder for us than for women of other races. I still think I'm "pudgy" because while I take up less physical space than a lot of white/brown/black women my height, I still have a lot of fluffiness. I wish I had cool curves like you sometimes, because I don't think I'll be satisfied until I'm a willowy bag of bones (zero hips, zero boobs here). Thanks for the compliment - let's do this.

DoraUK: Way to go! You're so close!

LillyLover: You look great in that photo! I just discovered the joys of H&M myself -- I really like their clothes. I don't think that they vanity size, at least not where I live!

Everybody else:

When I checked this morning, I was down to 131.4. Hopefully the losing trend will continue! My husband and I were in Vienna earlier this week and I went shopping for a few things... Got some jeans in European size 26... and I have some clothes I got from America a few years ago (before rampant vanity sizing) that are in size 2/3/4. Fitting back into size 0 and the Euro equivalent are my next goal, methinks.

I'm curious as to what my end goal will be. I suspect that I'll at least aim for 119.