sorry…blah blah….busy…yada….etc.  </apology>

I have actually been doing pretty dang good and so has JP.  Work gets crazy, life gets nuts and it doesn’t get recorded here.  So sue us.

I’ve worked out 3 times this week already and plan to go again today.  JP joined up at my gym and is officially official, so she won’t have to drop $10 every week to join me at Funky Fit anymore.  I have been trying to integrate more protein into my life…and more interval training on the elliptical.

But I want you guys to be confident that we are still watching our waistlines and working on ourselves.  Sometimes life gets in the way or reporting to our adoring fans…but we’re doing well.  I know for a fact JP has dropped a few more pounds and I have to have, though I haven’t weighed myself in a few days.  I am feeling good though.  Sticking to the plan and getting more energy in the process.

Just stick with us…and we’ll do better with sticking with you.

The holidays are coming. Thanksgiving and Christmas (Hanukah, Kwanzaa, whatever you’re into) both are huge invitations to take those extra trips up to the buffet-style set-up your mom and aunt have in the kitchen. It’s a time where we all mix up the egg nog, sit around watching football and catching up with relatives we haven’t seen in far too long.

What can we do to stop, or at least minimize, the inevitable holiday weight-gain? How can we nip the tryptophan comas in the bud? One thing my mom and I do is put on the tennies and go for a walk in the morning or after our food has settled. Its a nice time to catch up with her, since she lives 1100 miles away in another time zone, and its a great way to not sit on the couch.

Another good tip is to think about all the ingredients that are going into your meals. If your stuffing requires canned creamed soups, consider low-sodium, low-fat versions. Try a little Splenda, vanilla and cinnamon in your sweet potatoes instead of all sugar.

Don’t forget your water either! Keep on chugging water while you’re cooking, while you’re sitting watching the game, and even have a bottle with you while you walk the mall for Black Friday deals.

what other ideas do you guys have about watching your holiday weight? Leave your ideas after the jump!

Jenn is absolutely right. We have seriously fallen off the wagon with sharing our stories…and taking this dieting thing seriously. Yeah, I watch what I eat a little but the weekends totally run my diet off the tracks. Yeah, I make it to the gym sometimes, but not nearly enough.

Life gets busy, time gets scarce…but we are given but only one body and we need to treat it the right way. I always use my stress level as an excuse for eating more/worse and not exercising. That is not a good habit to get into…and all the more reason to hit the gym and eat right.

I sat on the couch last night and looked over at my boyfriend. I looked down at myself. We are getting soft, I said. Not good. Today I have my workout bag and iPod in my car and will be taking full advantage of the gym at lunch. I hope to do some interval training to get my heart rate up and blast this fat off my gnarly body.

I’m getting really discouraged in my will power and disappointed in us for not taking this seriously. I laid in bed last night on my back and my saddle bags puffed out from underneath my legs. My soft belly muffined over my sleep shorts. Something has got to give. I need something to work towards, a reason to lose weight, other than, I look a little puffy naked.

This morning, I had a cup of coffee, some dried mangoes and some oatmeal. I’m doing everything in my power to save my Ravioli Lean Cuisine and carrot sticks for lunch time…not 10:15. I’ve been chugging water like a fiend too. I really hope this can be the start of a much longer stint of caring about my health.

I forgot to post yesterday with my menu. Sorry peeps. I got busy with things and didn’t finish out my day for you all.

I had 2 hard boiled eggs, an apple and peanut butter, popcorn, a Chicken Noodle Soup in one of those little cups by campbell’s, a coke zero and my coffee of course. That was my work day.

One my cute purchases last night. $2!

Yesterday evening, I met my friend Cara out at a smoothie and wrap place near us and had a strawberry/banana/papaya/yogurt smoothie and a hummus wrap. We did some hard shopping at Old Navy (almost all their stuff is either 50-75% off, or $2. It was NUTS) and when I got home I had a little tortilla chips and salsa and a glass of skim milk.

I ended the day at 63 grams of fat and 1834 calories. Not good, people….when I have been averaging about 1300 a day (the diet machine over at prevention.com suggested 1420ish). I did, however, work out at lunch per usual and that burned about 300 calories. Plus….DUDE. Shopping. Lots of exertion there. Seriously though, we’re all going to have days where a toe slips off the wagon. We need to just get our bearings again and get on with it.

TIP:  You can’t let yesterday bring today down.  You can’t take today into tomorrow.  With emotions, dieting, or anything like this.  Rollover minutes at AT&T work that way.  Not guilt.  Forgive yourself.  Every little bit adds up – good and bad.  So a little guilt, a little self-pity can snowball…just like 10 minutes walking, a few sit ups before bed.

At any rate, yesterday wasn’t a stellar performance by AshPash by a lot of criteria but there were bright notes. I did make it to my lunch gym sesh, but didn’t go afterwards with Cara. I had more fat grams than I wanted but I was at 92% of my daily suggested fiber (up from 37% the day before). Today I probably won’t get to it because the SM and I need to get to Dicks and get our gear for camping and surfing this weekend at the beach. It’s going to be cold as a witch’s tit, but we are going to bundle up and see what fun it brings. We can always make things fun.

All I know is that I have GOT to get outta Dodge for a day or two…this little one-tank trip down the Myrtle Beach should be just what the doctor ordered. Plus, paddling out to catch waves is a lot of hard work. Built in workout with my fun this weekend; stellar. Plus all the shivering we’ll be doing….that should tone us up, right? Here’s to Thursday being better than yesterday.

I can be really bad at food sometimes. I tend to eat whatever I want to eat, when I want to eat it, and forget to eat at times. Yesterday was one of those times.

I got up and walked at o-dark-thirty, as usual, and took off for work. Forgot to eat bfast. Ate a handful of almonds at my desk, along with my vitamin and two bottles o’ water. Lunch was a tuna salad spinach wrap – yummy…. Proceeded to work my tail off ’til I about fell over and and grabbed a little mini Coke (only 12 ozs). That was it – no other food for the day – completely distracted with the rest of life… ughhhh – this is a serious learning deficiency for me, and I’ve got to remember, at least, to snack….

Today’s been a bit better – walk in the AM, almonds and water & vitamin for bfast, hit up the Japanese place for lunch, but behaved myself with the steamed veggies, and only ate the grilled chicken & skrimps and a bite or two of rice. Not too bad, unless you count the TWO Dr. Peppers I drank. I was totally going for the sweet tea, but for some reason it wasn’t sweet and I had some seriously bitter beer face going on. Not sure what’s on the agenda for dinner as this is my late class night, but I will make a concerted effort to consume something appropriately dietary.

I’ll update you more manana – have a great one!

It has been one whole week since the inaugural post here at AOF and what have we got to show for it?  What have we learned?

1. Prevention.com has an amazing tracking tool to help you keep track of what you’re doing, what you’re doing wrong and what you’re doing right.
2. We need to eat less carbs and fat…and more protein.
3. Everyone has a different story.
4. This is harder than we thought.

Proud to have started such a personal, and popular blog that so many people can come to fir ideas, advice and support.  Here is to many more weeks.

Now enter 30-something, overweight female. Height range in the 5′7″ to 5′8″ region. Smoker. Suffers from Binge Eating Disorder. Maintains daily Prozac intake. Lives with anxiety and OCD. What a hot mess. Whilst the other authors on this blog are courageous to reveal their identity … I am protecting my anonymity on this one.

Pheeling the Phatness ….
I recall being 5 and in dance class. I did tap, jazz and ballet. I cried and begged my instructor to let me put shorts on over my leotard b/c I didn’t want my thighs out there for the world to see. Big ups to my Mom and Dad during this time for referring to my thighs as “Thunder Thighs” or “Shirley Temple Thighs”. I was NOT a fat kid. I had cute baby fat. I remember chubbing up again around 4th grade but then looking pretty fly in 5th grade. Yet I was nicknamed “Balloon” in 5th grade by some dumbass kid who ended up asking me to go “steady” over the phone during summer vacation. WTF-ever! Fast forward to the summer between 6th and 7th grade. I recall returning to school as a 7th grader and being dumped by my boyfriend b/c I gained “too much weight” over the summer. But again, I still wasn’t fat. I was average. I just wasn’t rail thin like my bitchy classmates. Now we move ahead to high school. Freshman year was just an awkward time. My hair, clothes, general style … I was transitioning from girl to young betch. It was a pretty gnarly time. But Freshman year is when I developed my first obsession w/ a guy. We shall call him “TB”. I loved TB for a good couple of years. And noticed the girls he’d end up “going out” w/, were skinnier than I was. I can’t remember my weight from this time, but I think I was wearing like a juniors size 11 or something? I don’t recall. I was more the tomboy, basketball-playing friend. By Junior year, the hips were getting curvy and I was feeling a little better about myself. Still just “average” weight wise, but I was getting my fair share of the male action. As much as you get in high school anyways. By the end of Senior year I had to be around, oh I dunno, 160? Less? And height wise, I doubt I’ve grown any since then.

My last “I don’t feel like a total heifer” memories lie in the year 2000. Probably where they will live forever.
I was a size 14/16. Technically “plus size” according to the fashion world. I felt pretty average though. I hated my legs, but I always have b/c I’m pear-shaped. But I was going out and partying all the time so I wasn’t eating that much and exercising off what I did eat by dancing and shaking my ass all the time. Plus my job at the time kept me on my feet and I was forced to stand and walk around. I was fitting into some really cute shit though and I was definitely scoring a lot of male action at the bar. And this time, grown up action, not lame ass high school stuff. I thought I was hot shit. And there’s still an outfit to this day I wish I would’ve kept to try and fit into again. By November of 2000, I found out I was pregnant. Shortly after, I tossed all of my cute clothes in a depressed “I’ll never fit into these again” fit of rage. When I gave birth to my child in 2001, I was approximately 270 lbs. (give or take). After squeezing this child from my loins, I was down to around 225 a few weeks later. Now we jump ahead to the present. October 2008. I was at the doctor recently (within the past 2 weeks) and I was at 296. It’s like as long as I don’t hit 300, then I’m not totally panicking, which is total bullshit!

Distorted Reality:
Anorexics look in the mirror and see fat. I look in the mirror and think “it’s not THAT bad” … that is, until I see myself in a photograph and scream in horror. I think b/c I can crop my body out of photos and that my face is still pretty cute in his semi-roundness that I’m not totally forsaken. Lately however, a more noticeable 2nd chin is growing in and I don’t like it!

My Last Diet:
… was a few months ago here at work. We had a competition to see who could lose the most. In 5 days, I had lost 6 lbs. and thought I had clenched the top loser position for that week. When I wasn’t, I was crushed and felt instantly defeated and stopped trying. I tend to be a quitter and hate that about myself.
I’ve contemplated Overeaters Anonymous meetings. But those are too religious for my agnostic tastes. I’m sorry but God has nothing to do w/ why I shove food in my face.

Recent Habits:
The binge eating has worsened. I dust ½ gallons of ice cream in one sitting. In the past week, I think I’ve had a total of 1 ½ gallons of ice cream alone. On top of any other nastiness I’ve consumed.

I’m just hoping I can get the balls to finally cut this shit out and get back to my hotness.

This prevention.com Health Tracker has been really helpful. Just today I figured out the ration of carbs to protein to fats to alcohol in my diet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessarily awesome news. This was the summation of my diet yesterday. Thankfully I made up for some bad decisions making with about two and a half hours at the gym. I ended up, all being said, eating the calories I should (1400-ish), without any exertion to lose weight, and tacking on an extra 1100 calories burned.

I am on a slightly better trajectory today with only 36 grams of fat. I can’t imagine eating another 26 before the end of the day (though I wouldn’t put anything beyond my awesome willpower). Sixty-two grams of fat yesterday. Jeez. But it says so long as I do about 1400 calories a day, I should get to my desired weight of 120 by mine and the SM’s 2 year anniversary, on St. Patrick’s Day, 2009. That’s not bad.

Point being:  Try to integrate more protein into your diet.  Its more filling and takes away time from eating carbs and fat.  Plus if you do have the time to work out, it helps with the building of muscle.  Protein is generally meat…so it makes sense to put more human meat on your bones, instead of fat, you should eat more protein.