200+ Fryin' the Fat

hi Ladies!

So quickly while I remember from looking at this thread very fast:

Ashley, 40B is a similar problem. Luckily the sister size is a 38C which VS does carry and is usually fairly doable!

Lacey, if you go to Bruges, I'll be SO jealous. I went there in 2004 and it was seriously one of the prettiest places I've ever been to. We stayed at a little hotel that rented us bikes too so we were able to bike around town... too damn cute.

Allie, I saw your questions, so I'll answer them!

1. How do you cope with the urge to eat to suppress emotions?
Sometimes I still have an issue with this. If I have a really bad day, I want ice cream like wow. I think the trick (for me anyway) is to not have it in the house. Instead of ice cream, I have stupid little Flavor-ice bars that are 25 calories a stick, or pomegranate juice popsicles at 75 cals. Sure, they're not the same, but they're usually close enough to get me past the brooding.

2. What do you look forward to each day?
Coming home to my puppy and on most days my boyfriend and (TMI) the no-pants dance where I fling off the day's pants and wander around in a t-shirt at home. Of course, pants come back on if I go out. Unfortunately.

3. What is the most important change to weightloss you have made so far?
The biggest help for me I think has been bringing my meals to work. Before, I was going out every day. This was a killer on the calories AND the wallet.

4. What is one of your internal strengths that is supporting your weight loss journey?
Hmm, this is a hard one. I don't think I know, really. I go through phases where I'm really motivated, and then not so much. I'm trying to stay in the really motivated range this time. It's a super big bonus whenever my boyfriend tells me how sexy I look, or when I see old clothes fitting again... Not really an internal strength, but it's kinda my experience.

5. Who is the first person you will call when you meet your goal weight?
The Betsey Johnson store at the Houston Galleria to let them know I'm on my way.

So, as for me... It is HOT AS BALLS in Oxford/England right now. Yesterday was a warm 80-something, which is a break from Houston, but normally in Houston I'm inside basking in A/C and instead I was wandering around town for ages. Today it was a bit cooler, but was a trade for crazy humidity. Seriously, even my keratin treatment is suffering to keep up. The hotel is I guess more traditional, so no A/C here either. And the office today was crazy hot too! It's been a non-stop sweat-a-thon for me.

That being said, I've done a fairly decent job at eating well so far. For dinner yesterday and today I had a very basic fish with potatoes and veggies, so I'm proud of myself for that. Lunch today was a simple mac n' cheese with a salad, so that's not the best but not awful either. I've been informed though that Jamie Oliver has an Italian joint here in town so I'm going to be forced to give that a whirl tomorrow night I think!

Still, I love it here. London is one of my favorite places in the world, but I'd never really had a chance to go much outside it except for trips to the little town of Northampton to see my dad's cousin, so I'm really loving this trip to Oxford. Thursday night after the audit's over, I'll be taking a train to London to stay with the fam, and they've planned out a packed family related schedule for me, so that's nice too.

Hope everyone's doing well! Sorry I didn't have time to go through and do more individual responses.

:frown: I've been to Mexico, Grand Cayman and the Bahamas, but I've never been on a plane or to Europe or anywhere cool. I wanna go!!

Katie- I have the SAME PROBLEM about buying clothes. Especially since I'm not used to being smaller. It takes a lot longer to try on clothes and figure out what fits, whats too big and what can be a "goal" outfit.

I love that this group has so many world travelers! Please friend request me if you're planning on posting pictures of your travels; I want to be jealous.

Nava, I empathize -- when I went to England in 2003 they were having a heat wave...it really made me appreciate air conditioning! I loved it so much out there that it was the only bad part of my trip though. Have fun!

Lacey, a trip to Italy sounds awesome! Now THAT will be some great food. And you can't beat Oktoberfest in Germany!

Amy, yay for a productive day! I love that feeling. You must be crazy excited about Naples too!

Kerry, congratulations on being a P90X grad! Your pounds and inches lost are amazing, and really inspiring!

Kendal, I'm right there with ya about the man smell thing...my bf laughs when he notices me coming in to catch a whiff. :laugh:

Crystal, congrats on the good eating day! Hope Charlotte is feeling better.

Katie, that's great about the homemade pizza thing! That's great resolve. I broke down and had the real thing this weekend and felt guilty...but I did only have 2 slices, which is better than my usual 3 or sometimes 4, so that made me feel a little better....next time I should do what you did though.

Hallie, congrats on a good weigh-in! Hope everything works out with your diploma.


I had a total "case of the Mondays" today. It seems like almost every muscle has some amount of ache, I've got the Monday tiredness going on, and I was slammed at work. But here's the upside -- I did my run/walk tonight anyway AND I have moved up to being able to jog for 3 minutes straight! I know it's not much, but being able to advance my jogging on a day that I wasn't sure I could even get my butt on the treadmill felt good. Small victories.

Boy Legs and Back kicked my *kitten* tonight. I'm sure its because I haven't done it in three weeks now I think. I had no prob getting through the program before this. Yowza, I had to stop well before each move was up tonight! I was sweating up a storm. Will be interesting to see how many cals I burned when I hook up my BMF tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow I will reply to everyone. I am tired!


Oh - Kendal how did you go to all those places but not get on a plane? Do cruiseline laeve from NC? I So know nothing about the east coast.

Hey Kendal Bee! My weigh - in is : 257... 0 gain, 0 lost

Annette: I know that WE will care whether you succeed or not. And YOU care about you too (and if you don't, you really should). It's ok if you goal isn't as well articulated as you think it should be. Maybe your goal can be something unrelated to the scale (to be able to run a certain distance or to do a certain number of pushups) or something related to your health (to be a healthy BMI or have your cholesterol or blood pressure at a certain number). This journey we are on isn't necessarily about being a size 4 or seeing a particular number on the scale. It's about our health and quality of life and I am absolutely positive that your DH and daughter care about your health. Take it from someone whose health has been a constant battle, you want to stay healthy as long as you possibly can.

Sarah (wiggle): My Hubbs knows that my mood is directly linked to whether or not I got exercise that day. If, for some reason, exercise hasn't been had - it totally shows in my mood and he will make me do something for HIS sanity. I think it's super cool that yours took care of the house & kids while you were getting your work-out on!

Sarah: It's cool that your DH is baking again but I'm glad it's in your house and not mine. Baked goods like bread & pretzels are a downfall for me (I CANNOT have just one and be done). It calls to me until it's gone. I am proud of myself that when I made English Muffin bread a couple of weeks ago, I threw one of the loaves in the freezer rather than eat it and now that it's in the fridge, I can almost ignore it.

Pam: I hope Tuesday is better than Monday was for you.

Katie: I also had dizziness as a side effect of Topomax and though I didn't have trouble swallowing, I have heard that it can be a side effect of that drug. I'm sorry that your wife is going through all that. Maybe her doc can switch her to something else. Is she taking it for migraines or seizures? (the does for seizures is much higher than for migraines so she'd be more likely to have side effects)

Nava: The lack of A/C in Europe is a total pain in the butt for the short amount of time that it actually does get hot here (like right now, it's 85 and not even noon yet). Enjoy the rest of your trip!!!

Lacey: I would be ridiculously happy to see Belgium. I hear Brugges is absolutely gorgeous (everyone here says we simply MUST go see it - it's like a story book, but I haven't made it out there yet.) They also have some KILLER chocolate. I'm also down with anywhere you wanna go. I haven't been up to Berlin, it's been a LONG time since I hit Munich, I love anywhere in Austria or Switzerland and while France isn't at the top of my list, I still plan on getting there sometime before I leave. I've also been to Holland but not to Amsterdam so I'd be down with that too. Dude, wherever you end up, I'll meet you there. :happy:

I stayed up till 2 am on Skype with The Hubbs (I really hate when he's on shift work and is only awake when I should be asleep). Then, when I woke up it was already too hot to take my poor puppy for a walk (she's a Bernese Mountain dog so she's huge and has a double coat of fur - poor puppy - she doesn't do well with the heat) so me & The Kid went on a 45 minute bike ride. I think my booty is getting a tolerance to The Hubbs' bike seat as I thought I'd be in a bit of pain but I wasn't. Now I'm gearing up for my daily dose of Zumba! I peeked at the scale (stupid, I know as I am on my TOM) and it had pretty fan-freaking-tastic news for me. After WEEKS stuck somewhere in 197-limbo, i was 195.8 this morning. Now it's not an official weigh in day but it made me SOOO happy to see it that I HAD to share. Have a good one ladies!!!!

Katie: OMG, brain surgery is no small thing. I'm so sorry that your wife (and you) had to go through that. Maybe your wife should talk to her neurologist about whether the meds might be causing her symptoms. I KNOW nurses are really terrible patients; my SIL, my aunt and two cousins are ALL nurses (one is a nurse anesthetist). I really liked what you said to Annette about goals being able to be changed. I know that I sometimes forget that. It's nice to have the reminder. I hope you get your exercise in for the day, but don't kill yourself - make sure you get some sleep.

Today started out great and then kinda went downhill from there. My cat disappeared. I'm pretty sure he escaped last night from the balcony (it's a new trick of his to jump from the balcony to the garage but as he isn't on the garage, I guess he made it to the ground this time and took off). He is an indoor cat as he has no front claws but he didn't get the memo as he is always planning an escape. The reason we don't let him out is that during one of his escapades, he was gone for FOUR WEEKS and came back just after we had decided that he HAD to be dead. He came back with fur worn off his paws, suffering from dehydration and with ticks but he was otherwise ok. The Hubbs was beside himself the whole time the stupid cat was gone (he's really The Hubbs' cat - I like dogs), he would drive around the neighborhood looking for him and always had an ear out for a meow at the door. I'm concerned about the cat being gone too long this time as it is seriously HOT out there (92 degrees) and we live kind of in the middle of nowhere (right on the edge of town by a HUGE forest with wild animals and everything). Sigh. Stupid cat.

It gets worse- there was a nearly $900 charge taken out of one of our checking accounts that took us a while to figure out (AND gave me a HUGE heart attack in the process). It turns out The Hubbs accidentally checked into his hotel with the debit card for that account instead of his government travel card. So that was the bill for his hotel. It came out of our rent money. So I had to run to the bank to deposit enough to cover the rent that's coming out in 2 days via automatic payment. I'm just immensely thankful that I have enough money to cover a $900 oops on The Hubbs' part as that has not always been the case. Especially since we wont be getting that money back until after he gets back from his TDY and files the required paperwork (so..maybe we'll have it back by the end of July??)

Sigh.

ETA: Thou shalt spell-check

Lacey- The cruises were a lot of fun. Its hardly a relaxing vacation though cause there's so much to do. My fav was the first one because we had just gotten a lot of money and I didn't feel guilty about spending it. (it was our honeymoon...Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, Mexico) We went swimming on a sand bar with string rays out in the ocean. It was amazing. Also saw a sea turtle farm and Hell (the actual name of the place). As far as the cruise itself....yeah....I get motion sick (even sitting in a rocking chair can give me a headache). I never vomited but I had a constant headache the whole time. I found that if I kept just the right amount of alcohol in my, then I would trick my brain into thinking I was super drunk and it wasn't the boat rocking lol. Obviously the headache wasn't horrible enough for me not to go on 2 more cruises after the first one though. If I were to do another cruise, I'd like to do another cruise line. Not that Carinval is bad, just want to try something new....all their trips are VERY repetitive.

Congrats to last week's winners... which is everyone! haha,, we're all doing great! lets keep it up! last week altogether we lost over 40 lbs!!! (if i added in my head right lol)

well as for my goals, last week i started a few books. i cant read one book at a time lol.. i get bored, and the books i started i didnt start at the beginning either haha! but i felt a lot better! i still had some bad days, but i know it will take time to break the cycle of the things that are bothering me.
I also didn't take any one child out for a mommy date... but i took a few here and a few there on different occasions and it went really well! i am planning on going to the movies with my oldest tomorrow, so that will be my first date out!
i think i need to revise one of my goals... i dont think i'll be able to get down to running the 5k in 30 min. that might be a long term goal for me, but it won't happen in 6 weeks! so i've got it up to running it in 38! that'll be a big improvement on what i'm doing now, which is over 40... i thought it was at 40 but i miscalculated how far i was going

well i hope you all have had a great start to your week! i have been pretty busy that's why i havent written much
*feel free to add me on MFP! i think it'd be great to have y'all as friends on here :d