Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

Okay, I almost never post (because I'm lazy and it's more fun reading what other people have to say.

Rachel, your skating is so inspiring. Makes me want to go find the one skate rink I know of w/in 50 miles of where I live. If I do, I'm likely to break an ankle.

jdelroy, I totally agree about the spitting, if I thought it would work, I'd try it. You think spitting it out would work with infused vodka? (more on that later)... And I can think of a lot foods that I remember fondly that I go back and try and am disappointed (I wasted 740 calories on THAT?)
ngolden, LOVE the image.

All of you just amaze me. You're SO active. I'm totally a slug. Well, I have been lately. Caught something a few weeks ago, just before Halloween, missed Rocky Horror because of it. Went to the doctor after feeling horrible for 4 days, and sounding worse. People would call me at work and think they dialed the wrong number. Lots of meds. Went back a week later, more meds and "Oh, yeah, the cough, it'll probably stick around another 4-6 weeks." This is three weeks of coughing since he said that. Grr. Wonder if it 4-6 weeks since he said it or since the cough started? Sometimes I can walk but sometimes I can't. Have done a lot of nothing since.

I'm thankful Thanksgiving is over. My plan, have T-day lunch with my sis in law, drop in at the end of my cousin's dinner, deliver dessert (ie: remove it from MY house, put it somewhere that dervishes will devour it...did I say dervishes, sorry, my bad, should have said children), chat a bit, have a dessert go home after a couple hours. My sis in law and I are both on here, so I figured we would both be reasonable (and, we were, generally).

Lunch was nice. Hubby has no brakes where there's dessert, but hey, I almost never make dessert. I head to my cousin's. They've finished eating. We say no thanks to more food (but it all looks amazing). We hang out. Hubby watches football with her hubby and oldest kid, I hang with my aunt and cousin in the kitchen. And then she breaks out a bottle of Kinky Pink. So tasty. I think, hey I can handle this...one drink. No big. And I stick with one. We have dessert. I stick with a nice, healthy piece of apple cobbler (who am I kidding? I made the cobbler, I know how much sugar and butter went into it!). I was still okay on the calories. I was GOOD. Well, not bad. But then it's, hey, I made mulled cider. MMMM. It's terrible hanging out with people like yourself (you know, good cooks who go overboard and are food pushers). 600+ (totally worth it) calories and 4 1/2 hours later, we're heading home.

By this time I've offloaded 1.5 of the loaves of evil-wonderful cranberry bread (recipe makes 3 loaves! usually I only make half of the recipe), a jar of Cranberry-Blueberry Chutney, a jar of Cranberry-Pear-Orange Chutney, half a huge apple cobbler, a Mississippi Mud pie and a pumpkin pie. Mississippi Mud for those of you unfamiliar with the dessert has nothing to do with Mississippi or with mud and everything to do with Oreo cookies and chocolate. Understanding of the name eludes me. My version, and there are many, of this particular evil: Oreo cookie crust, layer of white chocolate pudding blended with cream cheese, layer of real whipped cream, layer of crushed Oreo cookies, layer of chocolate pudding blended with cream cheese, layer of crushed Oreos (usually there is another layer of whipped cream between the chocolate layer and the last layer of cookie but there wasn't space). See, told you I was a food pusher.

If you missed the subtext: I totally went overboard...on dessert and on the all things cranberry. Reason I don't generally make dessert or bake? This.

Of course, when we get home, there's the extras from my sis-in-law's house and my cousin added stuff to my cooler, too. So, while I came home with less, not as much less as I'd hoped. Glad we planned to have leftovers the next several days! Thus endeth Melanie's food porn.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

@janetay01 Yikes, what a day. I sure hope the rest of the week was better.

@wishfuljune Thanks, I am trying to remember. I think I did alright the rest of the week. How is your writing going? The new trainer?

@ngolden3320 Hope you are doing okay. Loved the Meme.

@melaniedscott Congrats on your loss and reaching your goal early! Good job. I also loved your post of your week so far.

I did great on Thanksgiving. I enjoyed the time with my family, won at spoons, and did not overeat. I was very proud of myself. Getting dressed for Thanksgiving was difficult. I couldn't find anything that fit right, or didn't show off my beautiful muffin top. (I swear I am not losing from this spot at all) Finally, found a shirt that looked pretty good on me. It used to be one of my least favorite shirts to wear. I also did pretty good the rest of the weekend. I challenged the BF to see who could lose the most weight by the end of the year. We are both competitive, so hopefully this will keep me motivated. I also did a Fitbit Challenge with my sister, BF and a few of her friends. I kicked butt, with over 30K steps. Woot.

I believe tonight the BF and I are finally going to join the gym. That will be awesome sauce. I love my walking, but it is starting to get really cold, and I can't seem to get my heart beat up high enough for it to be cardio.

I checked out the scale and it said I was down 1.5 lbs. I hope it stays that way for tomorrow's weigh in. If so, I will be down a total of 39.4 Pounds!

Have a good Monday everyone!

@melaniedscott Congrats on the loss! Great job keeping things in check, I loved your food porn lol

@wishfuljune .5lbs in a huge victory!!! I'm here to cheer you on into the 160s

@jdelaroy Amazing loss over the holiday! It is funny how clothes fit entirely different as our body shifts with weight loss

@gemwolf110 Gorgeous pie and coffee machine! Glad you had a wonderful holiday

I'm finally back and back on track. I seriously ate my way through the holiday week and I'm staying far, far away from the scale until the sodium bloat goes down. I stayed active, but it wasn't nearly as intense as I normally do. I have no control when it comes to my MIL's homecooked food or my Grandma's chocolate chip cookies. A week does not define my journey and I am committed to staying on track so that I can enter Dec. 24th in a good headspace. On the flip side, I had an absolute blast and I didn't binge eat so I'm counting those as victories.

@jdelaroy Avoiding treats is so hard when you're hungry! Great job still staying under calories

@gemwolf110 Great NSV on the elliptical. I bet the upswing is largely sodium from the holidays. Way to go on the early holiday shopping. For Christmas, I've starting doing experience presents which has made my holiday shopping way easier. I already found a play to take my Mom to for her Christmas present and my SO and I are planning our vacation in lieu of gifts this year.

I hit my 1 year mark yesterday! While I'm not at my "ideal" weight, I am darned close and feeling great at the weight that I am at. I feel so much more comfortable in my skin than a year ago. I knew after Thanksgiving last year that I needed to make a change and I did it!

Sounds like everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving! Lots of time with family, lots of yummy food, and good memories. Those pecan pies looked awesome!!! I love pie!! LOL

Gem and June - those spin classes are awesome, they are my absolute fav at my gym. Gem, you should try one! I'm signed up for one at 4:30 today after work. My instructors always say to the new people to just keep pedalling, if you can't go at the level we are at, put it lower and just keep moving your feet. So don't be nervous, just grab a friend and try it!

Rachel - Congrats on your one year anniversary. That is so funny, because Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, and I signed up for MFP right at Thanksgiving last year! Needed to make a change too. I lost me streak (more than a few times over the year+), but it feels good to look back on a year and see the changes. I am about half way there, still have a long ways to go, but I'm hanging in there.

Jen - good job on the loss! I like your competitiveness, we are very competitive in my family too. Especially with games! We were playing Dutch Blitz (card game) on the weekend and I kept winning, so everyone was getting their knickers in a twist accusing me of cheating! LOL!

I'm almost done the Christmas shopping... did some ordering online on Black Friday. We don't have as many sales here in Canada for Black Friday, but pretty much everything is free shipping and there were up to 60% off deals in some stuff, so it was good. We don't go too crazy on Christmas gifts (I'm a minimalist!). I told my hubs last night that I really want to enjoy December, have time to work out, read and relax etc. I want to visit with friends and go ice skating and stuff like that. Not be spending all my time wrapping gifts and running around shopping!

ShyCush6...your post made me laugh...it's like reading Bridgit Jones again. Honestly...mfp is a lot like that generally...

Thanks for the well wishes! They seem to be working, I'm definately on the mend. My weekend was worse on eating than the holiday. Go fig...

@rachel0778 Congratulations on your 1 Year, can we see before and now pics? If not, I understand.

@wishfuljune I want to check out spin classes. I think we will have them at the new gym.

@gemwolf110 Great job on not over eating. Nothing wrong with indulging in some high calorie food. Love getting experiences for gifts. I am thinking about doing the UFC fights for our family gift. Kind of like the white elephant gift exchange, except they have to be nice gifts.

@bluepoppies777 I wish we could do the minimalist thing for Christmas. I have two younger kids, and all my sisters, and grandparents spoil them rotten. In a good way though. I am glad they are so loved. BTW I have been seeing all your exercise posts lately. You are rocking:) Keep up the great work.

@shycush6 I clearly couldn't resist the apple pie, had it again last night. Luckily that finished it up. Good job maintaining. Sounds like you had a great holiday weekend.

@melaniedscott Sometimes weekends get the best of us. Shake it off, and keep kicking butt. You have a new goal to reach.

@janetay01 I love your Christmas shopping goals. Money has been so tight for me for the last 4-5 years, I don't get my shopping done until Christmas eve. I would love to be able to get things done early this year. I have only bought a couple of little gifts so far. Happy anniversary. I was married for 13 years and not once did we celebrate an anniversary. We didn't have a ceremony, were just common law, so no day to celebrate. Always bummed me out.

I had a decent day yesterday, stayed under calories, ate pie and ice cream. Turns out I won't be able to use my shiny new gym membership until Friday. Tonight is Christmas tree night, tomorrow the BF has to get his sore tooth fixed (won't be up for gym) so looks like Friday.

So I weigh myself everyday, but only count Tuesday weight for my weekly weigh in. Monday I was down to 211.4 from 213 last week, Tuesday I was up to 212.2, today I was at 211.0. I had to laugh, because had today been my weigh in day I could say I was 2/10th of a pound from having lost 40 pounds. Instead, I am at 38 pounds. Was still exciting to think I have almost lost 40 pounds. My eviction process is slowly working. Add in evil laugh. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

My younger sister has convinced me to do a 10K mud run/challenge thing with her this coming summer. Eek! I have no idea how to even prepare for one of those. Any ideas?

@bluepoppies777 - I like that idea of being a gift minimalist and spending time with friends and family doing activities and just being together! That's such a good idea.

@ShyCush6 - Congratulations on maintaining! That's always nice to see after you've gone off the rails a bit around the holidays. Sounds like you had a great time though with your friends and family, and that's what matters. Also, whisky is a great choice.

@janetay01 - Happy Anniversary to you and your husband! That sounds like a nice relaxing anniversary treat for the both of you to share. I'm assuming when you say -2 degrees you mean Celsius right?! That's still cold, but if it was in Fahrenheit, that's REALLY cold and I would never walk outside in that!

@jdelaroy - Congratulations on the 38lb loss! That's an amazing achievement! I agree with @Rachel0778 on recommendations for mud runs. I also did a lot of bodyweight training too when I did mine, but mine was just over a 5K (I think it was 6 miles overall). Normally, the trails are so packed with people that it can be sometimes hard to run to the next obstacle, so I sometimes "briskly walked" between the obstacles because there were so many people. It was fun. I'd also suggest wearing leggings to cover your knees, and maybe some gloves for your hands. My hands and knees were pretty bruised up/scraped after my obstacle course mud run.

@Rachel0778 - It's always hard this time of year when the sun sets at like 4PM. My motivation is my boyfriend. It's easier to go when you have a friend and you don't want to disappoint them too. He holds me accountable. I also try and tell myself it's only an hour to work out, and then I can get into my PJs as soon as I get home. xD

I did all my MFP challenge workouts yesterday (yay!) and was really happy to see I could do 30 push-ups without stopping. We have personal training tonight, and then I have yoga tomorrow night, so that'll be a nice change of pace. Friday, we'll probably do some weightlifting, and then Saturday morning I have another yoga session planned.

@rachel0778 Thanks for the tips. I can't even run for more than a minute. My goal is to run a 5k early in the spring summer. I had told myself once I reached 200 pounds I would start trying to run. I got sick of waiting and have started to slowly start running. Sad part is, I walk faster than I can run. I've worked up from about 15 seconds to a minute. I was having problems staying motivated, so I challenged my BF to a weight loss competition. This was motivating for a few days, but I get the feeling he isn't really trying. Maybe there is someone there you can make a challenge with. Or challenge yourself, and when you don't feel like you are doing what you are supposed to do you have to put money in a jar. The money can either be a reward for something down the road, or donated to a charity.

@wishfuljune Oh I like the idea of gloves! I will keep it in mind. 30 Push ups?! I am amazed. I can't even do 1 yet.

@gemwolf110 Great goals, and plans! Best of luck on reaching those goals. I would love to lose 10 more pounds before the end of the year. That would take me to just a hair over 200. I would love to be in the 190's by Valentine's day.

So, I made the mistake of buying Oreos covered in white fudge. So delicious, and addicting. I had 3 last night. Not too bad, except they are 100 calories each! I thought I had oatmeal at work for breakfast yesterday, turns out I ate the last pack the day before. I had no breakfast, so when I got home from work I was hungry and did lousy snacking on above mentioned cookies and pretzels. I barely made my minimum step goal, and didn't even try to go for my stretch goal. I really need to get focused on my eating if I want to get to 200 by the end of the year. Plus this morning I am feeling a little blue, and I just want to go back to bed. Sigh, instead I am going to try and find joy in the day, and to help here is a list of good things about the day so far: Woke up snuggling with the BF, who is like a furnace, I remembered to take stuff out for dinner, and grab more oatmeal, my car didn't overheat, and I was able to stay warm, I get to come see my friends on MFP. Well that helps a little. Thanks guys. Have a wonderful Thursday.