And the pounds came back the very next day...

Frick n' frack. I am up two pounds. Delayed reaction from the extra food I've been shoveling in my mouth. I just figured out a plan to get rid of all the chocolate that has entered my house over Christmas...NO MORE! I haven't binged on it or anything, but a few pieces here and there do add up. Just having it around, I can feel myself gravitating towards it. And I have realized something interesting. If it is crap chocolate, I want to eat more of it, but if it's high-quality dark chocolate, one is usually enough. Makes sense I guess.

I am really happy with how much I've worked out these past weeks. I missed the 23rd and the 28th, that's it! I will work out tomorrow, and- barring any hangovers- the first as well. New Year's is my last day of potential excess. I am boozing it up...using diet soda, but still. At the party I am going to there's no dinner, but a bunch of appies instead. Eeep. It's so hard to keep track of how much I've eaten with appies!

Despite the two extra lbs on the scale, I am feeling pret-ty fine these days. I have noticed a general slimming down in the abdominal area from the lovely Shred. And dare I say...a small bit of definition at the top of my abs?!!? Yeep! There's still wayyy too much blubber there to see real abs, but it's getting better! I bought some clothes today with x-mas gift cards, and looking in the three-way I was like...is that really me??! I look...kinda thin! I've gone from a plus-size 16 top at this store to a regular 11. This is...four sizes! Neat. :) I was a plus- 14 bottom and now I can get into some 9s at this store. I will always be a larger size on top, thanks to "the girls."

I still want to lose some more though. Work on some of those "puffier" areas...lol.

I have to say a big THANK YOU to my lovely commenters. I have been a bit neglectful responding, as I usually like to do. Please don't stop even though I'm bein' bad! :) Your words of encouragement and praise mean so much to me and always put a smile on my face.

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year! XXOO

Monday...yeahhh

Today is weigh-in day. Can I get a hallelujah? Well, save it, bub 'cause there ain't no celebrating here. That's right, no loss for this week. SHOCKER. I didn't go crazy with the eating over the holidays, but I did eat more than usual. Plus, I already lost 6 lbs this month, so to expect much more is a bit...well...silly. I HAVE worked out every day since the 23rd. So that's...five days in a row. Take THAT turkey and stuffing!

Speaking of turkey, I may have overeaten today. I KNOW, and it's not even a friggin holiday! Fuuuuck. My breakfast was fine, and then I had some turkey on whole wheat for lunch, not bad except maybe I also added some yummy stuffing and a dab of low-fat mayo and a wee piece of cheese. Lol...yeah that was necessary. In my defence, I'd like to put forward that I added the cheese BEFORE I discovered the stuffing under a bunch of crap in the fridge. I didn't want to just chuck the cheese then. That would be wasteful! Then I was at my sister's and there's this HUGE platter of x-mas cookies on the counter. I am hungry, and dinner is a couple hours away, so I have three friggin stupid cookies. Now all these things may not add up to a bad day, but then I had dinner out for a friend's b-day, and I had a chicken sandwich and more fries than I should have (though there were still lots left on the plate), and then THEN there was ice cream cake! AHHHHH! The pieces were ginormo and even though mine was cut in half, it was still big. And I ate it. All. FUCK. So yeah, that's not great. It's 11 pm and I am STILL FULL from that dinner.

So my goal here is to get back to some normal eating, and try to up the workouts a bit. Today I did level 2 on the Biggest Loser Boot Camp. It's harder than level 1, I'll give ya that! The worst part was the tricep dips. The dude spends an eternity on triceps, and holy crapsticks are they sore now! I might do it again tomorrow after doing level 1, too. That would make a 35 min. work out, plus warm up and cool down for 45 min. Not bad.

When I was at the mall with my lovely niece, I found some new pants. It was quite hilarious 'cause I tried one pair on, and the girl said, oh you have to get those really small. They stretch. Oh, ok, so I think I'll try the 8. She said, oh no, you'd better get the 6. SIX?!?! Lol, yeah, so I bought the six. Pretty crazy. The other pair I bought was an 8. They are tight, but not crazily so. I tried on one pair of 10s that were too big, as well. Hmmm. Could it be that I am down another size? That would be SO COOL!

I think I could have done better this week, but I know I ate way less than I did last year. By this time last year, I had eaten at least one whole box of chocolates! I have had two of my chocolates so far. TWO. :)

Couple pics from my holidays...

Me at my mom's house Christmas day

Rewind to X-mas Eve...yum perfume. Beckham...go figure!

Hope you all had great holidays! Love ya peeps. :)

Aftermath...not so bad, actually!

Happy Boxing Day! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. :) The holiday season continues for me with a gathering at my MILs house. That means more food! Yayyy. Yesterday was actually pretty good for me. I went in determined not to snack my way into a ton of extra calories, and I think I succeeded. I did have a couple treats here and there, of course. I'm not insane! I had a small Nanaimo bar...mmmm. Then I tried an appie potsticker thing 'cause dinner was pushed back and I was so hungry. Pretty good. I had my dinner and tried to keep the portions normal. Piece of turkey, small blob of mashed potatoes, some carrots and corn. I had a small bun and some stuffing, too. Stuffing is my downfall. I luuuurve it. When I was done, I was a bit full, but not too bad. Dessert was Cherry Cream Cheese Cake- a family tradition. Had a small piece of that. Later I had a wee piece of fudge. I drank only water all night, too. Didn't eat any chips or cookies or any of the other stuff that was out. I did do the gum chewing thing. I think it helped.

The scale is up a teeny bit from two days ago, which isn't surprising. I did work out Christmas day, and I will work out later today as well. I got the Biggest Loser Bootcamp DVD from hubby. :) I liked the workout- well, level 1 at least. It seems a bit easy, but I did get out of breath, and felt my muscles got a workout. I may try level 2 today, or go back to Jillian.

I am going to continue my moderate approach to food today the the MILs. It's harder for this kind of function, since there will be no real meal served, just lots of appetizers. Eeep.

Still feeling good and strong here people! I almost forgot to mention...I received a ton of CHOCOLATE for Christmas. Poor hubby bought me some before I mentioned I didn't want to see any of it under the tree for me this year. Poor guy! He said he'd give it away to someone else. My MIL also gave me chocolate. Yikes. I am happy to say I have not eaten ONE piece. HA! Take that chocolate! I think I'll have Jason hide it on me and dole out one piece at a time. That should work. When faced with an open box of delicious chocolate, it's VERY hard to eat just one piece. I have to say though, right now I don't want anything really sugary. Hmmm. Weird. Must be that I've eaten more crap the last couple days than usual.

I'll let you know how today went tomorrow!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Hey y'all. :) I can't believe Christmas is nigh...so fast this day came! I've been trying to Shred my ass this whole month, but both Amber and I have realized that this was the stupidest month to pick for a challenge. Not to say I am not totally happy with the results so far, I loooove the new muscle and strength I have, not to mention I am a teeny tiny hair away from 170 right now! But, it's really hard to get a workout in EVERY day during social events and shopping and all the stuff that comes with the holidays. I didn't Shred yesterday. I was home for so little time the entire day, it just didn't happen. I did walk to the mall to get my haircut though. I've got some pics to show ya at the end here.

So yesterday was BUSY. Started with the hair, then off to visit my good friend Lara. She used me as guinea pig to try her low-fat spinach and artichoke dip. OMG...amazingly good. I had about 7 chips with it. I came home and started to get ready for my night out, then ate 1/2 a sandwich for dinner and had a couple drinks- rye and diet coke- for the road. I had one more drink at the bar. I hate the empty calories, but I rarely drink, so suck it. :P

My friend Trevor and I went to see my friend Ross play at a bar in downtown Vancouver. They were awesome, as usual. The whole bar was into them, and they got the dance floor filled pretty quickly. The next band, the headliners, were a bunch of douchebags, I hate to say. They just...sucked. Trev and I bailed pretty early. We decided since we parked at the River Rock Casino to take the SkyTrain, we might as well do some gambling! I am happy to say, I am no longer a roulette virgin. I KNOW. Can't believe I've never tried it! It was fun. I lost my $20, and Trevor was up $65 when we left. Damn him. :P

Ross and Trevor
Such great guys, these old pals o' mine. :)

The three of us. We go back 23 (Ross) and 30 (Trevor) years!

Thanks to Trevor for pointing out we've known each other since Kindygarten. Rosser didn't join us until Gr. 6, so not quite as long. These boys were seriously awesome in their Adidas (short!) shorts with the socks pulled up to the knees. Lol, I miss that look...NOT. Ross has certainly changed with the tattoos and heavy metal stuff. You can see his mask there around his neck. He had it made for the show. That's just the crazy-ass way he rolls!

I weighed myself this morning and was very happy to see 171 on the scale. This month has just rocked for me! Now, the trick is to keep it off for the rest of the damn month. I love the downward trend I am on right now. My weigh-in is Monday, and if I can't post the 171, I will be PISSED. At myself. Big time.

Ok, gonna go Shred now. I will also work out tomorrow (yes, Christmas)!And Boxing Day, and the next day! That's my plan, and I'm sticking to it.

And here's my new do ('cause I know you care).

Very lonnng bangs.

Here they are a bit more tidy.

Gotta try it with the glasses!

I don't know if I'll be able to blog tomorrow, so I will wish all you fabulous peeps in bloggerland a very, very Merry (healthy) Christmas! Love ya!