FMS denial is such a strong word! Maybe you just aren't remembering as accurately as you thought or aren't comparing with the right clothes. You need some real honest pants, you know the ones with no stretch and that don't change size in the dryer. I have a lot of clothes that seem to always fit because a little lycra can go a long way in helping things fit, but then some reaaal honest ones that indicate even the slightest change. Thanks for the clothing recommendations.

KPM just posts in the vow renewal thread. She and her FH don't live together and they each have 4 kids and she works shifts so I am surprised she has time to eat at all. I'll drop her a note over there to let her know she is missed. Maybe the other people are working out? I like to be an optimist.

hmm I don't about cleansing. Ew 15 pounds of poop! if you drop 15 pounds between now and next weigh in we will know exactly what was going on!

Ashleyanne YIPPEEE, you are done. I have to know how do you get 104% There are some wild number beings thrown around this thread today. You know Ashleyanne my mom flipping out like a child actually made it easier to leave. That might not sound very nice, but I was leaving to go to my calm, sane, emotionally balanced FH. The days before I left i had to move out of my condo, ship most stuff to US, fedex dress,(wedding was 6 days later) give some stuff to charity, settle all my finances, celebrate a birthday, say goodbyes and i spent the last two days in a hotel, with my mom so it was sssstttrrressful. I am happy to report my mom was perfectly behaved during the wedding weekend. She's a retired school teacher and I think she really misses being the center of attention so she does things to try and get that attention but the things she does are weird and make people want to run away instead. Make sense? You should consider starting your own group. If you were the starter you could specifically recruit people who also are in the same boat but are optomistic. I can't see you hanging out with poopy pants people.

Today i went to the gym for another 2.5 hours. Back/triceps/Abs/20 laps/20 minutes on the bike. The 20/20 combo seems to be working really well.

Ladies I received my wedding photos awhile back but today i got my wedding album and it is so cool. It will be printed on very very thick card board, the cover will be a photo but made out of metal and it will be bound with black leather so it should last forever. Here is the link. Sorry you have to copy and paste unfortunately because it won't link directly.

http://photography.coastalvideography.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&action=accessGallery

The password is tanisalbum

Thanks Ash! Getting up on step ladder, in stilletos, in front of people, in an emotional state made me really happy I include balance training in my workouts. Yay wobbleboard!

Hi Girls!

Tanis, your pics are GREAT! My favorite one is definitely the one of you on the golf cart turning around and smiling....that is so cute and such a happy moment!

Well girls just a quick check in, I don't have too much to report...had a busy work day today, and then I dragged myself to the gym even though it was POURING rain and freezing outside and I have to walk 1/2 a mile each way to the gym, AND I had to go grocery shopping, so one leg of that was dragging 4 bags of groceries home through the rain and up 4 flights of stairs!!! So I felt good about that. But then I went over my calories for the day, which I am annoyed about because I did yesterday too and today was supposed to be my balance-out day before the weekend. I only went over by 120 calories today, and my workout was 45 minutes of pretty intense cardio where I think I burned about 4 times that, so I won't sweat it too much...I am on my period after all, so I am craving things. Actually what I have mostly eaten today is lots and lots of roasted veggies cooked with olive oil, but then I also had ice cream twice today!!! It is this special wheat and dairy free cookie dough ice cream that FH buys me as a treat; it is made from coconut milk as the base with various other ingredients, mostly all natural. So it is pretty "healthy" for ice cream, and I did have two servings (after lunch and then after dinner) but I did make sure to keep each one to the 1/2 cup portion that is the serving size. I also had a mini chocolate bar from the selection of Irish christmas chocolate that FH's family sent over from Ireland. So all in all, considering the amount I indulged, I guess 120 calories over isn't too bad! I will just have to be more careful the next few days and make sure to hit the gym. Honestly we have so many parties and social events this weekend that will involve meals out and drinking, that my hope is to maintain for next week. If I just maintain I will be happy, especially since my loss this week was unexpectedly big.

Well ladies FH and I have to look at our budget again tonight (yuuuuuck) so I am off, but I will check in tomorrow! Hope everyone had good days and I will respond to everyone more specifically tomorrow! Keep up the good work girls :)

Also, I don't know if this will even work because I'm not sure I am doing it right, but after all our talk about hot holiday party dresses and showing off our progress in them this season, I decided I would post a few pics of the dress I am wearing to my friend's birthday/holiday party tomorrow night!!! It's being held at a swanky champagne lounge in NYC so it's kinda fancy, everybody is dressing up. I have had this dress for about 2 years but it's brand new in that I haven't ever had the confidence to wear it, but I think I am feelin' it now that my body has changed :) The necklace was given to me by FH's family as one of my birthday presents this year; he has a sister around my age who picks out great stuff for me. I happened to be trying the outfit on when I wrote my last post just now, so I figured what the hell, I'll show you girls! The funny thing is A) I have no digital camera, just my Mac's webcam, so I had to sort of take the shot in 3 stages to give the full picture, but it still doesn't show the slits up the sides! and B) You can tell I am still in my "just rolled out of bed" look aside from the outfit! Hehehe. So what do you guys think?

Sunshine- I think that even maintaining around the holidays is amazing. Keep up the good work, you should be proud. Remember muscle weighs more than fat, try some measurements!

I am currently in the middle of finals which are horrible, only worked out once this week because I have so much studying to do. I also have them all next week too. This week my nutrition goal was to cut out juice and I haven't had it once, or pop. Those ones were easy, but next week its the Starbucks, which I adore. I mean the barista knows my name. So no more frapps or whipped cream, just skinny lattes, tea, steamers. Next week will be hard, but the drinks I always get are like 500 calories. So soem changes must be made. I'm still eating whatever the heck I want, so its not so bad yet. Going slow is really good for me, I can do it!

Hey ladies. Thanks Sun! Our photographers followed us in their car and took dozens of photos of me on that cart. They all look the same - me laughing. It was so much fun and people were smiling and waving and yelling congratulations. All of you who are in the planning stages try and work some fun transportation in - golf cart, carriage, boat. Sun don't worry about the flip flop on the numbers maybe you were dehydrated at the last weigh in. you do work out pretty hard.

Chicochik knocking out 500 calorie drinks will give you results! Thats about 1/4 days calories in one drink. If you normally have one every day, don't have one for a week (and don't change your food) you will lose 1 pound just from that!

Ash its awesome that when you got bored the first thing you thought of was the gym. I hope you have fun at your party. I am sure you will look hot in your red dress.

Today I went to the gym and it was leg day. My squats are back up to 160 lb, leg press at 500 lb which I have only done once before, I've increased the weights on my step ups so now I use a 40 lb bar across my back, my inner thigh/hip abductors are holding at 290 lb but I won't be able to increase those because thats as high as the machine goes. I put the deadlifts back in at 120 lbs. I just did 10 laps for cardio, because for some reason even though I hate lunges and normally do 3 sets of 10 stationary lunges, today I decided I wanted to do an entire lap of lunges! 1/4 of the way through I realized I must be nuts, but I did it (not the corners though, just straight lines). holy crap I was so done, done, done after that. My butt better look better. And I mean tomorrow.

I am off to make cookies. They are hazelnut chocolate meringues with only 25 calories a piece. I think thats pretty good for a cookie. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Hey girls!

Tanis and Ashley, you guys are consistently so great with the working out. Tanis, sounds like you were really ON IT today!!! Go you. You are our strength training inspiration! Ash, sorry to hear you are bored, but happy for you too about the downtime because you earned it!

Also, I agree with both of you about my ill-advised weigh in. The flip flop could have been dehydration, or water retention, getting my period Wednesday night, or the big dinner I had last night with a lot of carbs. Could have been anything. Which is why I am just gonna wait and see what happens at next weigh in and whatever it is, I will trust that. I will be careful over the weekend though! Worst case scenario is that I am still just maintaining and I am ok with that.

So I figured out why the photo thing wasn't working. FH explained it to me. It isn't worth going into, it's just going to be easier if I upload any photos I want to share onto another site and then post a link here, like Tanis did. So for those who missed the discussion earlier (and for Ashley who was patient with my fumblings!) here is a link to a Flickr page I made to share things with you girls. Come the end of January, I can post wedding dress pics here and keep them secret from FH and other people! yay! For now, here are the pics of the hot little dress I plan to wear to my friend's birthday/holiday party tomorrow night!!! Now mind you I have no digital camera, just a Mac webcam, so they are kinda cropped :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33286601@N05/

Have a great night ladies!!! I have another friend's b-day party tonight...yikes! :)

Edited by: Sunshine80 on Dec 12, 2008 4:44 PM

HOLY CRAP SUN!!! Omg, you look so different now than you did at your e-party and you were HOT then! Seriously, you look SO SO SO good!!! Your shoulders look so good in a strapless! Holy moly...

Cuddly- way to stay up on those workouts and squeeze one in in between work and the party! Keep it up chica!

So... My party last night with the smashing red number went well =) I got so many compliments and there were even a couple strangers that asked me where I got it! And... today I went and tried on wedding dresses! I didn't find one and I wasn't expecting/wanting to just yet... We have anywhere from a year to 1.5 left (depending on our church and when we can pin down a date) so I just wanted to get an idea of my size now (and where I want to be) and what kind of things look good... so here's some photos!


so this was the first dress I tried on and the consultant had me put on a veil to get over the shock of actually being in a wedding dress, lol... Who knew I had a little waist??? lol, that dress made me look tiny... minus the back fat, lol

This one (below) made me realize that my girls are NOT comfortble in a sweetheart neckline... I looked down and thought I was looking at a butt crack... oh wait, it was my boobs. lol

I have a shape?! Who knew...

The lace and beading on the dress below is SO gorgeous. The dress was a little too small- she said the hip part would sit about an inch lower so my torso would still look longer and more hour-glassy. The back and train are amazing... if I bought one today, this one might have been it. I even cried and totally pictured myself walking down the aisle in it!!! I think it would be perfect with some spanx though, hehe




The best thing about dress shopping- I GOT OVER MY FEAR OF NOT BEING ABLE TO FIT INTO ANYTHING!!! I was not looking forward to dress shopping because I thought that I wouldn't be able to fit in the samples and I was the happiest person in that store when I tried on a couple dresses and she had to clip them because they were too big!!! The last dress is my favorite but unfortunately I look really awkward in the photo- it really did look better in person and without my body being all crooked, lol... Looking at the photos of the more fitted dresses though, I'm not too sure... I think something looser is probably more flattering. Next time I go, I'll bring my spanx and see if that's makes a difference!

Hope you ladies are all having a great day!
Edited by: Ashleyanne2010 on Dec 13, 2008 3:09 PM