Yay to all of you!

So I got up at 4 am yesterday to fly to Ohio. When I travel, I usually spend the day in a dark room reading medical records (not so stimulating) and by about noon I could have REALLY used some caffeine. Instead, I went to lunch, had avocado rolls and edamame beans, and splurged on a Vitamin Water (the kind with vitamin B). Did just the trick, and was only 3 points.

Yay, Stella! Great work! I wish I could say I have eaten things as healthy as that... I hate avacado and most beans. Oh well. At least I haven't had dessert in FIVE and a half days!

Great job, everyone. NO donuts, no bagels and no vending machines for me so far. Just a few days left and the temptations will be removed from my life. So will the stresses of finals.

Awww, stellarosa27, not ONLY did you make a completely awesome and healthy choice today, but you are also in OHIO?! (My home state! ) I'm sooo envious of you right now, hehe.

WTG Rowenna! Glad to see that you are doing awesomely as usual!

Wow, bodyisatemple, it must be hard to believe that there's only a few days of this challenge left--exciting, eh? You have made it so far already, and I KNOW you will see it through 'til the end! And I'm sure being done with finals is just the icing on the cake. In fact, that makes me waaay envious of you, too, since my school is on quarters and I won't be done until mid-June, yecchh. I'll probably have to start my own challenge during my school's finals week, cuz I definitely get tempted to snack on junk while I'm studying for finals--it's the whole attitude of "I'm overstressed and therefore I *deserve* this cookie, dammit!!!" LOL! But I think I'll be very inspired when I look back and remember that you were able to make it through your finals just fine without giving into temptation, so maybe I can do it, too!

Well, I was in Ohio. I came back on the 715pm flight into Baltimore from Cleveland. But I did enjoy my very short stay. CWRU is really pretty. That's about all I got to see. Where in Ohio are you from? I've been to Columbus as well (OSU) and I actually got to stay there for two days!

Wow! I have come across so many people from Maryland here! You too, Stella?

Also, Meredith, that means so much coming from you! You are a huge inspiration to me - you have come so far, and you always look so happy and healthy and glowing, and you're so supportive. I've been doing a consistent job at my weight loss, but what I really want is to feel great about myself. I am definitely getting there. Thanks for the encouragement!

Only two more days of this challenge. I can't decide if I want to treat myself to a dessert on the day it's over, or if I want to keep steering clear because I know I can. What are the rest of you going to do?

I think I should wait until there's a dessert that I really really like, instead of just grabbing whatever dessert is there on Friday. We'll see, though.

Good luck everyone! We're on the home stretch! You've come so far to get here, don't give up now!

I'm having the same dilemma, Rowenna. I did so well last week without it, and lost a bit of weight, I'm afraid that if I go back to it, I won't have such great results.

I'm not too far from Annapolis, or so I'm told. I've only been there once on my 26th birthday, and I wasn't sober I just remember the awesome BBQ place we ate at, but don't ask me what the name was. My MD experience is limited to Baltimore, Towson, Columbia and very slowly the DC/Silver Spring area. But if you want to know about northern NJ or NYC, I'm your girl

stellarosa27 - OMG, no fair!!! My hometown is a suburb of Cleveland--like ~30 mins away from the city! I know people who go to Case! You're not doing much to soothe my jealousy, LOL. Were you visiting a friend who's a student there, or what? Sounds like so much fun to me right now... I'm always yearning to spend a weekend at home, even though I was just home for Easter, heh.

Rowenna - Aww, shucks! It means a lot to me that you would say something so nice about little ol' me... Seriously! Thank you. As for making dessert plans once the challenge is over, I guess it could be interesting to see how long you can stay away from it, but there's also nothing wrong with giving yourself a little "reward" for sticking to the challenge for so long already! It's up to you, but either way I definitely definitely think that whenever you do choose to have dessert again, you should wait for something you really like... So you know you will really save it and make the calories count for something, you know? No sense in grabbing the first available thing just because you're "allowed" to have dessert again, hehe!

bodyisatemple, where are you, girl? I seem to remember you telling us to call you out if it seemed like you were disappearing, hehe, so here's a friendly reminder that we would love to hear from you today! I'm sure you're fine, but just in case...

Sorry! I only spent like 10 hours there, if it makes you feel better. I was there for work. Part of my job involves traveling to various hospitals and auditing medical records for patients in cancer trials. CWRU is one of our bigger centers, but I only had to do two patients, hence my really short visit. I got to take a very quick walk from the main hospital to one of the research buildings, but the most I saw of it was in the cab ride there and back. I will say, the med students there were very cute

Meredith, thanks for your advice and enthusiasm! I have exactly 9 days of school left where I will be tempted by the dessert zone! I think I might extend this and try to stay away from desserts for the rest of the year! But, if they have this one dessert (oreo cookie pie) which I absolutely love, I think as a reward I will let myself have a small slice. But the other desserts that are just so-so are not worth it. And no ice cream... that is the worst part! We'll see how it goes!

Congrats to everyone on making it this far!! I think today is the last day...!

stellarosa27 - Hehe, it's okay, I will hopefully be back there pretty soon anyways... But I'm glad that you had a nice trip! So many people that I meet at school (in Chicago) make fun of me for being from Ohio because they think it's all farms and countryfolk, and I'm like, "Pshh, I bet you've never even been there!" Some parts of it are really nice, and northern OH is nothing like the south--I am not a farmer!! Haha. Ooh, and cute med students sounds nice, too!

Rowenna - Wow, you only have 9 days of school left? That's so cool! My school is on quarters, so I still have a good 5 weeks left until I'm outta here (4 weeks of class + finals). It sucks! I keep seeing everyone's statuses on Facebook like "_____ has one exam left and then is DONE!! WHOO!!" and I'm like... FML. Hahaha. But I guess it's only fair, since my school year doesn't even start until late September, whereas some of my friends start in late August! Anyways, good luck getting through those last few days--if you're a stress eater like me, it's gonna be a challenge to get through your finals, but I know you can do it! And the Oreo pie sounds reeeeally yummy! Mmm, what a great reward! Hehe.

Oooh. Oreo Pie...

Meredith, I know EXACTLY what you mean, I'm from NJ. Everyone hates NJ, but most have never been there, or if they have been, they've driven on the turnpike and haven't seen anything else (and there's a lot more). That's everyone's favorite thing to do, make fun of my state and my accent.

Meredith, do you go to University of Chicago? I know they're on quarters... my brother (and my mom and my dad and the whole world) went to UC and he always went until mid-June, almost a month after i get out. He also got to start in late September, instead of August like me.

And yes, I'm ecstatic. Tomorrow is my last day of regular classes! Then we have a huge weekend long party, which is great, though presents a huge challenge to my good-eating and exercising.

Also, I could eat an entire oreo pie. No kidding. But after this dessert hiatus, I think that one slice will feel heavenly.

So, I didn't know if today was the last day or not, and I didn't get my coffee. I would have really liked one - but I kept thinking, okay you didn't have any last week, and you lost 4 lbs!! So I didn't get one. Tomorrow it might be a treat though. It is Friday

Hello everyone!!
I'm here, I'm here. Yesterday was super hectic - studying for my last final and trying to write a stupid paper, but I'm now done with my second year of law school. Yay!!!
I did end up buying oreos from the store yesterday and went a little over my calorie limit. I went to the gym for 40 mins to make up for it, but I was still over.
But, no bagels, no donuts and NO vending machines for me for the entire week. Awesome.
I will come back and write more for later, but for now, I just want to shut off the computer. I just have to update my shred thread as well.

Great job, everyone!!!