200+ Hot For Halloween!

Morning, gals!

I have no choice but to buy my bras at LB. They are the only place that sells my size. I like SOME of their tops, but I'm so busty that I have issues with shirt length. I hate when a shirt is too short and theirs seem to be that way most of the time. Forget the pants, I can never get them to fit me right. Avenue's clothes are generally the same way, but I LOVE their shoes/boots. Victoria makes a good point, too. I think Old Navy clothes run way big.

KiKi: You are probably right about the sodium being to blame. The pumpkin dip recipe is on the skinnytaste website I believe. It has pumpkin, cool whip, brown sugar, greek yogurt, vanilla, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. I've been dipping apples in it. Its totally delicious.

Sarah: So proud of you! How incredible! Sorry you puked and froze, but dang woman, you did it! Awesome!

Hosanna: What an amazing NSV!! Glad you had such a great weekend!

I didn't have class last night, as it is fall break. What a nice day. I still left work early. Went to the gym. Decided that even though I was only able to run 12.5 minutes straight I would just move on to week 7 of c25k. The whole week is a 25 minute run. Well I was feeling really inspired as a few people I know (including some of y'all) just ran half marathons. I started running and was so incredible sore. I wanted to quit. I started my signature self-bartering technique on the treadmill. "You know you can do 12.5 minutes, so lets just get to 13 minutes and take a walk break. Well, the more I bartered the more p i s s e d off I got at myself. I noticed that I was getting closer to the mile mark so I said, okay just run a full mile. Then I thought, but you walked .30 as your warmup, so just get to 1.3 miles so you can say you actually ran a full mile. I surpassed my 13 minute goal, then met my 1.3 mile goal. I decided if I can just push a little harder I could get to 20 minutes and making it 20 out of the 25 minutes would be a great accomplishment. A little over 17 minutes and I started to wheeze and cough (I"m still fighting off the chest/throat thing). So, I made it 17. Next time, I will do 20 minutes straight. I'm so proud of myself. I wanted to quit so bad. But, even worse than that I want to run a 5k sometime soon. I can do this.

So I mentioned being sore. Yeah. On Sunday I agreed to do YogaX with hubs. He's been doing the whole program and complained about the yoga. We only did 30 minutes out of the hour and a half. He wanted my help because I used to dance and am fairly flexible, he is not. So we were trucking along and I'm stretching and it feels great. But, I absolutely hate working out at home. I'm trying to do these moves, crane my neck to see the TV, ugh, it was awful. My feet were slipping on the mat and I felt so confined. So, I threw in the towel. Well the next day, it felt like someone took a baseball bat to my ribcage. I actually had trouble functioning yesterday lol. The heck with that p90x noise. I'll stick to running. That *kitten* is BANANAS!

After the gym, I went out to dinner with my grandma. She will only eat at one restaurant and the food sucks. I got seafood stuffed haddock. It was awful and I didn't eat much of it, but logged it all. Thankfully, they had buffalo chicken tenders as the hot item on the salad bar and I had two of those.

Feeling good today, ready to get back on the treadmill and run!

I didn't figure the collage thing out but I think I have the pictures figured out. These are old shots and some you may have seen before.

My before shot at my highest while taking a vacation in Hawaii


A weight close to where I am now... I'm 193 now and in the pic I'm 195. At least I have the same outfit on... I'm wearing size 14 at this weight... My fav pic is at my lowest when I weighed 182 but I won't post that again until I get back there...

Wow, Victoria, you look fantastic!! I love that you're wearing the same thing so that it makes the difference even more pronounced. Running home in the rain in your socks is quite the adventure!

Amy, happy happy birthday!! I hope you're feeling better today. You should know that you cross my mind regularly now (that's really not as creepy as it sounds) because I have been going crazy making all kinds of stuff from my Peas and Thank You cookbook. I can't say thank you enough for telling me about that! Tonight's Peas dinner is the baked penne with "sausage" and peppers. Yum!

Sarah (Wnt), congrats on the big loss this week, and on finishing a half marathon! The way you walked us through the whole thing was really cool too...sorry that the recovery was tough, but you did it! Plus you got to eat lots of food afterwards. Bikram Yoga is something I think I will never, ever, in 10 million years do. I sweat so easily and I am just about the crankiest person on the planet when I'm hot, not to mention that I get headaches, feel faint, etc. when I get way too hot. So bikram yoga holds absolutely no appeal for me, but I'm always thoroughly impressed when other people do it!

Hosanna, great NSV! Your hen party sounds like a blast.

Jessi, I'm sorry about Nerd's dad. :frown: Hopefully you guys will be able to move closer to his family soon.

Kiki, Mexican food almost always has a ton of sodium, so I wouldn't worry too much about your gain. You should be down again soon. We can make onderland by Christmas for sure!

Kerry, those cookies look soooooo good!!

Nava, I used to shop almost exclusively at LB because I just didn't know any other good places to buy stuff in my size (as dumb as that sounds), except I'd shop sometimes at Torrid or a place called Cato. The pants don't work for me either though, unless I get the short size. Now that I moved to WV and my closest LB is an hour and 20 min away in Pittsburgh, I've found other options. I still can't seem to find another place to buy bras that I like as much as LB's bras though!

Megan, I dated someone I worked with before (though we weren't as serious as you and your ex) and UGH, I know it's super hard to still have to see the person at work. When you break up with someone or they break up with you, they're really supposed to just drop off of the planet afterwards, you're not supposed to be forced to still see them! :grumble:


As for me, you all convinced me to take the boxing class no matter what time it was, so I called yesterday afternoon to make sure I could still get in and see how long the class was. Unfortunately when I called the lady told me that they'd gotten their marketing material out too late so no one had signed up for the class! She said she's going to talk to the trainer about pushing it back a few weeks and trying to get more people to sign up for it. So we'll see...if they do have the class next month I'll plan on signing up.

Even though the boxing class was cancelled, I got my butt up this morning and did Ripped in 30! Woohoo! Now if I can just keep it up...

Morning, folks! Not much to add today yet...

But Hosanna, awesome NSV! Love the pics!!!

Victoria, love those pics too! You look great!

Sarah, your half marathon story was inspiring and barftastic at the same time! So proud of you!

I've decided I wanted to take Friday off as we'll be going to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend so it won't be a very relaxing day... fun, but not relaxing. Going to use my Zoo membership for the first time since purchasing and check out the new elephant habitat on Friday with Joe. Is it the weekend yet? I'm ready!

Hello All. Sorry been absent for awhile - not such a good week but hey ho, life happens.

Amy - hope you had a grand birthday and everyone in you house is feeling better. Some time back yuio asked if you could join the diary checking with Lacey and I. I think that would be a great idea - I continue to need to be accountable - and if there were three of us if one was having a bad time and awol there would still be someone else there.....we could start now of get organised for the start of the next challenge?

Lacey: as above to Amy - what do you think?

Sarah: way to go on completing your race - your descriptive prose is wonderful to paint the picutre - you make me sile - thank you

Kerry: yeah for 13 miles and at such speed- you continue to be awaesome.

Victoria: love your before and after pictures - such a difference.

Kendal: love your halloween outfit and the boots look good!!!!! Oh and love the badge x

Jenn: how are you doing without dessert?

Kritina: thanks for maintaining chart - hope you come back to us with your own posting soon

Off to make dinner - slow cooker for me as going to circuits, main meal for daughter - who is hungry now. Hubby away so I suppose that means I don't need to make three meals!!!!

Fallen down abit on 100 day goal currently:: 20/24 - good food choices; 21/24 - reading and exercise and 18/24 productivity. Hope you don't mind me posting here but it is helping me keep a bit on track!!!

Keep well all xx

super busy crazy day. have to work till 10 tonight to make up for coming in at noon. (will take time between 5-7 to go home and have dinner) I had an appointment with the housing people. It looks like it's possible to be able to save the house.

Victoria - Way to go! You look amazing!

Kendal - Glad you might be able to save the house!

Everyone talking bras - I hate bra shopping. I'm a 16E (i know, different sizing is confusing...), and just about nothing comes in my size! I went to a store called Bras'n'Things and asked them about strapless bras in my size (for under my wedding dress) and they only had TWO styles that went up to my size. Luckily one of them fit perfectly. I've never been fitted for a strapless bra before and ohhhh lordy it makes such a difference. I could wear that thing all day every day. SO comfy!!

And thanks everyone for your excitement with the NSV... I'm pretty stoked!

Anyway. I was off sick yesterday. Blerch. And i start night shift today. So not stoked, but need the extra pay to make up for the sickie i had yesterday. Isaac and i were both off with different tummy things. It was a pretty miserable household, but at least we got a day together!

Anyway - after a week away with the man here alone, the laundry is full of dirty clothes, the fridge is full of beer, and i made isaac remedy the sink full of dirty dishes yesterday.

So, time to wash clothes and do some grocery.

I'm thinking i might go back to having meal replacement shakes a couple of times a day - they're so nice and easy, and i think my body could use another kickstart.

cheerio!

I guess I have some motivation and a goal to work towards now......I was asked (highly suggested) by one of our owners today if I would like to emcee our work christmas party this year. I will be in front of 200+ people (including the ex) delivering good cheer. I am honored they would ask me to do that, but I in no way look like I want to. So I have about 8 weeks or so to get these pounds off!!!

Also- I was wondering how katie (megruder?? I think is her screen name) is doing? She has usually popped her head back in by now.

Hey ladies! It's 11Pm here. I'm laying in bed and since it's been a whOle 10 minutes since i got in bed I am irritated I've not fallen asleep yet. Normally I fall asleep almost immediately. Work was crazy today and will be the rest of the week. I basically am stuck in the conference room all day learnin the new computer system. Ive not worked out since a week ago Monday either!! Hoping tomorrow I will get home and go at least for a walk. My eating is in hand though.

One thing id like us all to discuss... We had over 40 people at the beginning of this challenge and with the exception of about five lovely new women sticking with, they are gone. Normally this happens ea h challenge but it's getting to the extreme in regards tp how many people are signing up and then dropping. It's hard for Kristina to keep track and frankly it's so overwhelming trying to respond to everyone that I see some of us not popping in here as much and I don't like to see that.
I'm not sure what I'm proposing here, jut saying that it's a bit crazay up in hurr for the first Half of each challenge and I for one have a hard time with people who don't stick tho I know it's part of the game. I'm curious to see what everyone elses thoughts are on this? This is definitely a democracy so everyone gets a vote.

Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow. I will pop on here when I can and catch up with individual posts. Just know that I'm here and reading what y'all are writing and supporting you's!!!




Oh oh! Did you guys see where the original Sarah from canada said she was pregnant on her homepage today??

Okay got a lot to catch up on… and a lot to catch you up on… man this is going to be a long post… here it goes

Kerry – Awesome job on your time! Keep on inspiring us girl! And um… wow. Those cookies sound like heaven.

Kendal – WOW I LOVE you as Bat Girl – so cute! Rawr!

Jessi – I’m so sorry to hear about Nerd’s dad; Prayers to him and his family. I stress eat a lot too, but try to stave the cravings by drinking a glass of water, then another glass of water, then another. By the time I finally break down, at least I’m partially full on water so I don’t overdo it. I’ve tried to keep junk food out of the house too, and I make my husband hide any that he buys. . If I’m still craving, I try to take a walk and get some fresh air. However, sometimes I still end up giving up and walking to the neighborhood grocery for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. But at least then I’ve gotten a walk in. On a happier note, those pics of your brother are great! You have a great eye

Bobbie – That new trail sounds like a challenge but at least it won’t be boring! Yay for finding new ways to mix it up

Sheba – I seriously love Oktoberfest! Yay for the 180s woman! Wooohooo!

Hailie – hang in there chica!

WoWmama – Great job on 30DS!

Pam – Great loss and glad you got new shoes, I hope it helps your hip! Boxing sounds fun but I’m with you on the getting up super early part – it stinks! I already leave for work at 6am and even THAT is a struggle. Although Victoria makes a good point – if you’re paying for it that might make it easier to do I hope they reschedule it for you now that you’ve made up your mind

Lacey – Yay great loss! Praying for your heel/instep to feel better quick! On the “new people” issue… please don’t kick me out No but it seriously is a lot for Kristina to keep track of. (Thank you again Kristina – you’re awesome!) I think she spends so much time tracking us that she doesn’t get a chance to chat on here. You could turn this into a closed group, and cap it at 30 people? Or maybe take on only 5 new people per challenge? The downfalls of that would be the chances of missing out on really great additions to the group.

Sarah (WnT) – Wow great loss this week and awesome time on your race! I absolutely LOVED your recap! It sounds like it should scare me away from ever ever ever wanting to run but somehow it just inspires me instead! Glad you’re not cold anymore

Amy – Happy Birthday! I’m so sorry you were sick AND your pups Feel better soon girlie!

Rikki – Aaaah work eating and drunk eating are the worst! I was definitely guilty of that the other weekend; we just have to pick ourselves back up and get clean again But GREAT NSV – it’s stories like that which keep us motivated yay!

Victoria – First, your pictures looked amazing! Way to go you skinny Minnie! Second, I had to google that “Drinking Made Easy” show and it totally sounds like my kind of show! I’m curious to see where they went – Kauai isn’t exactly known for it’s nightlife I don’t think I get that channel though. Ah well, no time anyway haha. But yay for you and your unexpected half day! Hope you did something good with it On the sizing note, I believe that mainstream American retailers have indeed increased their sizes because they want their customers to feel better about being bigger. If you look at our sizing versus Euro or Asian sizing, there is a huge difference.

Megan – Boo for exes finally making the changes we wanted too late. You ARE worth it – don’t let him make you feel otherwise. Haha about his bad facial hair choice… F him indeed.

Sarah (rain) – Hehe as busy as I am, I think you still take the cake in schedule craziness! The fall WAS painful but I’m thankful to be alive And I’ve given it enough rest that I think I’m back to 100% now! Your treadmill self-bargaining story made me smile. Great job girl!

Nava – Hi! Your Joe time sounded fun, I’m glad you guys got some one on one time too LB sounds awful. Have you tried Lilyette bras before? I absolutely love their strapless bra style 929 – it stays up, gives you great shape and support, and is pretty seamless under your clothes. My store was number four in the western US for moderate bras, so I’ve got a ton of research from trying them all on Sizes run from 34B to 42DD. You can get them at Macy’s on sale; usually it’s a buy 2 get 1 free (you can mix and match).

Kiki – Yay for date night but boo for date night gain! Did the water work? You’ve been eating so well, I’m sure it’ll come right back off. I’m 5’4 and have pretty much just given up on having pants fit me correctly. Now I just size for the waist/hips/butt part, and get the bottom part hemmed. It’s more expensive but worth it when I can have more of a selection instead of searching and searching for the mystical “perfect fit.”

Hosanna – I’m so happy your weekend was a blast! Loved the pictures, loved the dress NSV, loved everything. I am so happy that YOU are so happy!

Whew!

Okay down to me. It’s going to be long one, I think. I just realized I have to lose 4 and a half pounds this week in order to make my Halloween goal – yikes! NOW I’m really kicking myself in the a s s for being so bad the last two weeks, even though I did have fun. I want to tell you guys about my weekend because I work so hard and am such an emotional mess, but I like to play hard too

So after being laid up and drinking a ton in Kauai, I have done hardly any exercise because of my foot, and was doing so much “catch up” from vacation that I haven’t been logging or posting regularly at all. TOM didn’t help, and hubby leaving for training made the emotional mess that is me even worse. He’s only gone for a few weeks, but it’s a precursor to his being gone most of next year that is totally messing with my head. I’ve been through 5 deployments now and we’ve lived a good portion of our relationship apart, you’d think I’d be used to this! Ugh.

Anyway, this past week I’ve been overly stressed because of the injury, increased work hours, midterms, hubby leaving, etc. There are two HUGE parties that I go to every year, my friends’ Oktoberfest and this amazingly awesome fundraiser called Crazy Sexy GHOUL. This year they fell on the same day, on a day which I had class from 7am til 6pm, and it’s the weekend before a huge accounting midterm. By last week, I realized that there was no way I could make either of them because there was so much to study for accounting, and I had already made plans weeks ago to go riding that Sunday afternoon (I have been trying to get out horseback riding with my friend for the last few months – I miss it so much and I just couldn’t stand to reschedule AGAIN) so there was more time taken out of my study time. So I didn’t even buy a costume, and I sent my regrets to both hosts. (Really, I buy 2-3 costumes every October so I planned on recycling for Halloween weekend anyway).

Well, at 5pm on Saturday, the professor decided that she would push our midterm back two weeks. I was ELATED, to say the least. My girlfriend FBed me from across the room – “No midterm?!!! PARTY TIME!” and we immediately coordinated how to make it to BOTH parties that night. I dragged my old beermaid costume out (a dainty dirndl is great for both Oktoberfest AND Crazy Sexy GHOUL costume party!) and we hightailed it. I don’t really use any photo hosting sites so I’ll just change my profile pic to my costume. Oktoberfest was awesome, Crazy Sexy Ghoul was awesome, and I think we were so amped to not be taking a test in a couple days that we completely overdid it. My girlfriends worked the Ciroq tent so we had free booze all night. I was so excited to be out in society again that I was just all over the place – such a hot mess. I’ve been so busy with school, work, volunteering, husband, and trying to save money that I hardly go out lately, and I got to see lots of pretty and handsome faces that I’d missed for awhile. And I felt pretty and sexy for the first time in quite a while too… I used to have amazing self confidence up until the last year or so even though I’ve been heavy for awhile, but lately not so much. I’d even had my old mantourage telling me how great I looked and one asked if I’d lost weight (we’re cool like that where that kind of question isn’t offensive) so that helped the ego a bit

Sunday I was feeling the effects and didn’t get ANY studying done in the morning like I’d planned, but still drove out to meet my girlfriend at the English school stables for a ride. I got to ride a gorgeous bay named Herbie, who was just feisty enough for us to get along great. He just came from the Big Island and had been trained western, which was great because I hate riding two-handed It was a lovely day (it had been raining a bit in Hawai’i, but man I really can’t complain too much about the weather here) and the trails were just the right mix of sunshine and shade. I was exhausted from the wild night, but made it back to school after my ride for a grueling study session. Thank goodness I have two more weeks to prepare. Although I’ll probably spend half of it prepping for my economic midterm, which is equally as hard haha.

Monday was a long day of work and kickball. We were up against the undefeated reigning league champs, who beat every team by huge amounts. This is the game I’ve been psyching myself out on for the entire season, and I spent HOURS trying to strategize field positions and kicking orders since two of my best guys were out of town for it. We put up a good fight, but ended up losing 6-9. Nothing like the bloodbath every other one of their games was. They were definitely cranky that the win didn’t come easy… but they got it and we didn’t I probably drowned my sorrows in a glass too many of beer.

I meant to work out today, I really did, but got sidetracked with schoolwork. Seeing the numbers on Kristina’s chart and recapping how I’ve been spending my time partying is an eye opener. I give in way too easily to calorie-laden fun. I’m back on the exercise wagon today, and will work out in between work and Junior League tonight. I’m actually pretty excited about tonight because my committee arranged the guest speaker. I was trying to get the youngest 4 time breast cancer survivor to speak for awareness month, but she has a huuuuge fear of public speaking and ended up finally declining. So we did the next best thing and asked our former governor to come by and talk about her scare. She’ll probably be our senator in about a year. Kind of a big coup for my committee to get her, so I’m proud and happy. Aaah see how easily I get sidetracked! I need more mean whip cracking and less happy happy fun if I’m ever going to get this weight off – yikes!

Okay going to bed so I can get up in a few hours... Aloha and happy hump day!

Just popping in to say Good Morning.

Tasha, you look so adorable in that costume! Sexy Mama!!

Maybe we can open the challenge up to a limited number of people (5 maybe) and see if they last. I don't know a solution, but I agree it gets overwhelming!

Starting my replies from where Kristina posted the chart....

Victoria: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I freakin' love you, you make believe all of this is possible!

Hosanna: Great NSV and I loved your pictures!

Megan: I agree about Katie. What do you do for work that you have to give good cheers for?

Lacey: Yeah, I saw on Sarah's homepage about being pregnant. That's so epic. I wonder why "true" members disappear after a while? I understand I am here for good and something shut into my shell too. Hahahha, heck yes on being a democracy. I agree with you. I am not a fan how people show up and then drop. Except for the few amazing ladies who do stick around here.

Tasha: Hi! Hahaha, I hate school too.

Kerry: I agree with you about having a closed group but also having mixed feelings. If this group was close I would of never been apart of this group. Did you know we are friends on MFP but some reason I can't see your homepage? Weirdsy.

Kendal: What you said. I usually hide at the start because it's too hard to respond to "everyone" who doesn't plan on sticking around.

Amy: Hope you had a great birthday! :flowerforyou:

Assssssssssss fffffffffoooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrr mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...................

Philosophy is going better. I have a C! Heck yes! Normally, I would cry over a C, however, this is a C, so I will take it!

My high school is stupid and it looks like I can't go to the U of M--AA anymore.

I "hate" when people say I am on a diet.

I think I found "real" friends but I am not sure if they genuinely care about me.

Guuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeessssssssssss who will be going to Atlanta the first week of January!?

Ummmm, what else is interesting about me lately?

I freakin' love personal training.

I am ready for summer because I need to be tan again. I am officially albino again. Boo.

Ummmmmmm, I am not ready for the holidays.

I hate how my cousin cried (who is 115 pounds) when she gained seven, yes, SEVEN freakin' pounds her freshman year of college. Hello Freshman 15. Hahahahhahahaha, it must feel nice to not be "pretty" anymore. Ok, that sounded super snarky but it helped me feel better.

Boys are stupid. I want to punch 'em where it hurts.

Group question: How do you ladies know when it is "time" to get new clothes?

Hallie - it's time to get new clothes when they fall off of you without undoing snaps or buttons. On elastic waisted clothes - time to go when you have to fold the top over for them to stay up. Garage sales and 2nd shops are easy/cheaper ways to get clothes when at a temporary weight or continuing to lose. Having to get new clothes made me feel better about myself.

Hallie- another bonus of getting new clothes that actually fit is that more people can "see" the weight you've lost since you are no longer hidden in cavernous clothes so you get more compliments

random thought that crossed my mind just now......


I want to be in a Winter ONEderland this year.





BAM!

take a moment and let the awesomeness of that statement sink in.

LOL