Reader Suggestions Galore

Alrighty!

I got a ton of comments from you guys on my last post. Thanks so much for all your opinions, input and suggestions. I did notice, however, that nobody suggested the "Amputee Diet," and I'm a little disappointed. I really believed at least SOMEONE out there had tried chopping off a leg at some point. That's, like, a guaranteed way to lose at least 30 or 40 pounds or something. Okay, I have no idea how much a leg weighs, and I guess it depends on how much YOU weigh, but you get the idea.


Today I want to start by showing you guys how the weight loss thus far has changed my face. I can't explain how happy it makes me to see CHEEKBONES! Please excuse the terrible webcam photos. ;)

August 8th, 2009 to today:


December 2008 to today:



And now I realize that I SERIOUSLY need to pluck my eyebrows. This is just disgraceful:



I also know how easy it is to skim over and read quickly through blog entries. I do it myself (guiltyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!) so I'd like to point out a few things from my last entry that apparently went unnoticed by a few of you guys. :)

1. I have worked with a personal trainer.
2. I have eaten a very, very balanced diet with all the suggested things your body needs and wants to be a fat burning, fueled machine.
3. I have done cardio heavy workouts.
4. I have done cardio plus strength training.

Yeah, I have rocked the weights, and even tried this torture device, otherwise known as "Gravity.":


I will also add that I've done a TON, TON, TON of research on nutrition. I didn't go to school for it, and I haven't worked with a nutritionist, but I know a LOT about it. I've modified and adjusted my diet with great precision (crunched the numbers, worked the ratios, tracked, tracked, tracked) and tried each type of eating plan, giving it three to five months. Low carbohydrate just works best for my body. I believe (and many of you commented) that people are all different. I don't believe in a one plan fits all idea. I do think it would be interesting to go see a nutritionist, so I'll think about that one. :)

Also, it appears that a few of you guys might have gotten the impression that I'm looking for a quickfixinstantresults type of plan. Nope... I'm just really interested in all the crazy fads people have tried. And the Diet Coke and crackers just sounds hilarious. In all seriousness, I would try this one just to say I tried it. Nobody has given me these details. I'm about to go stuff myself with saltines just to try to figure it out on my own.

So! It's time for some Q&A:

Q: Is Zumba fun?
A: Hell yeah. It's like... if you ever won a bet or proved someone wrong and did a goofy dance, it's like that, but doing it for an hour. It's a total blast!

Q: Dear sweet baby J, how did you get that perky ass just by doing Atkins?! No squats or anything??!
A: I've always had a badunkadunk. I can't explain it, but I've totally got an apple bottom.

And now, I'm going to list some reader suggestions here. I'm not going to direct link, so copy and paste / look into it at your own risk. I'm condensing the info you could find by going through the comments, but don't take these as my personal recommendation. Okay, disclaimer over.

Tracking sites:
-Nutrimirror.com
-Sparkpeople.com
-Daily Plate on Livestrong.com (I've used this, it's great.)

Programs:
-Weight Watchers
-JillianMichaels.com
-South Beach
-Medifast
-Blood Type Diet
-Crossfit

Other suggestions:
-See a nutritionist.
-Read 'Eat To Live' by Joel Furhamn
-Do the treadmill for 1/2 hour a day.
-Walk for an hour a day.
-Eat a cottage cheese and asparagus lunch. (Love this... I always have fat free cottage cheese and asparagus in my fridge. I usually boil water, then put the asparagus (with the thick bottom end cut off) in the water and boil it for about 3-5 minutes, until it's tender and easily pierced with a fork. And I love the low fat string cheeses.)
-Cut what you eat in half to shrink your stomach.
-Hide your temptation food in the trunk of your car so you have to run out in public and risk looking like a crazy person each time you really, really need to eat it. (My favorite and the funniest suggestion.)

That's it for today. Tomorrow I'm going to do a post on The Biggest Loser and their crazy crazy craziness.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned I love you guys? 'Cause I do. **smooch!**

~Jenn

Shove a baguette in my pants.

A lot of people have asked about my weight loss... what I'm doing, eating, etc. I'll straight up tell you guys that I hate working out. I have a gym membership and I love Zumba, and I used to go twice a week. I will be full on honest and admit I haven't been to the gym in over six weeks. Part of that was because of a chest cold, and part of that was because I was traveling. But still, I haven't gone, and my $80/month membership is just laughing in my face because of it.

I tried the healthy balanced diet plus working out thing. I was losing around 1 pound a week or so. My diet was excellent, no more than 1600 calories a day, and I was working out for around an hour four times a week with aerobic exercise and weight training (I had a personal trainer.) I got sick and tired of putting in so much work and not seeing results.

See? This is me pretending to be all riled up about working out, but really my face just looks all pissed off:



I've tried lots of diets:

Cabbage soup (several times)
6 Week Body Makeover (really worked for my parents)
Atkins
Calorie restriction
Pineapple Diet (I have no idea, just heard pineapple burned calories and so I ate a ton of it.)
Raw Diet
Weight Watchers

I've always been too cheap to shell out cash for anything like Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig or Slimfast. I'm glad though... I probably wouldn't have had success with those either. I also haven't tried Kimkins or the Master Cleanse.

Sidenote: I've heard of some really crazy ones, and a reader once told me about the "Diet Coke and crackers" diet. I might be interested in that, 'cause I love both of those things. If you know what it is, I might be crazy enough to try it. Then I'll tell you guys how it goes. Seriously.


My recent weight loss (214-192 in 40 days) was pretty much strictly because of my eating plan. I did Zumba for the beginning of that timeframe, once or twice a week, but that was about it. My body reacts very specifically to what I eat. I lost 50 pounds the first go-round with Atkins. I didn't work out a single day at ALL, and I lost a load of weight:





My body hates carbs. I'll clarify by saying I LOVE carbs... as Sean said tonight on The Biggest Loser, I want to take a cupcake and rub it all over my body. Not so much cupcakes, actually, but I'd take a bath in pasta, pour fries on my head and shove a baguette in my pants. I love bread, potatoes and pasta so much that I didn't even notice I was ballooning up to 225 pounds because I was too busy making moon eyes at the bread sticks at Olive Garden. That's part of why I was so successful with the Atkins diet.

What I do now includes only eating bread related carbs in the morning. I do NOT eat potatoes, bread or pasta anymore during the day or evening. That means I eat:

Breakfast: Either a Nature's Valley granola bar, or a packet of oatmeal. With that I have a Dannon Light and Fit (or cheapo equivalent, as long as it's 80 calories) and coffee or Diet Coke.
Lunch: I do some kind of protein (usually a can of water packed tuna) with lots of veggies mixed in. Through the day I drink water, coffee, Diet Coke depending on the day. (Always around 50 oz water in the evenings faithfully.)
Dinner: Meat and veggies (ie: grilled kabobs with veggies and meat or spaghetti squash with canned tomatoes and a Parmesan cheese) or I'll just do a huge salad. And salad means leafy greens (not iceberg) with veggies and sometimes chicken with a light vinaigrette dressing. It does NOT mean croutons, ranch and a crapton of cheese.

There ya have it... that's my spiffyriffic weight loss plan, and it steadily drops 2-3 pounds a week for me. I've been slacking the last 30 days or so but I'm back on with a dirty vengeance and already can feel a huge difference!

So! Don't forget to tell me what the Diet Coke and Crackers diet is. I love all things cracker. Please, share the info.

Also if you have a favorite diet, or you've tried a crazy one, I wanna hear about that too.


~Jenn

Catfights, Lesbian Pr0n and BDSM.

I know, I know. You probably think this is a post all about what happened to me last night. It's actually not... I'll get to that in a minute.

This is actually about the most strange and hilarious thing I discovered on Twitter. Sometimes my blog entries get Tweeted by random people if there are bits of content in there that relate to them or what they do. For example, 411 Breast Cancer tweeted my most recent wedding because of the pink fountain for the Breast Cancer walk.

So, yesterday I saw that these three winners tweeted my last post about the movie "Disfigured."



I went back through the entry and obviously the thing they think relates to lesbian action has got to be my wanting to cover Miss Marilee with pudding. But I'm telling you, I seriously can't figure out where BDSM fits in to that entry. I'm pretty well learned on riding crops and ball gags, so If you have some otherworldly magical BDSM insight, please, let me know where I slipped that subliminal message in while I was talking about eating disorders. I am pretty sure I didn't mention candle wax or clamps.

Wait a second. ...Now that I think about it, the night I watched Disfigured, I also watched The Story of O.

Holy crap. I think the Dirty Twitterers are stalking me. YES!!!!!!

So, if that's the case, they clearly saw my night last night. Nothing too spectacular, we had a few friends over and did some grilling. I started with grilled chicken and asparagus, then had a Miller Light. I'll also own up to having eaten somewhere around six sour cream and onion lays potato chips, and then Dan made shish-kabobs with onion, green pepper, red pepper, mushroom, and some incredible steak. Yeah. I had two kabobs, and therefore had the equivalent of probably 1.5 ounces of red meat. (shriek!!!!!!!!!!) At least it wasn't ground beef, y'all. I couldn't say no... they were delicious.


But I'm avoiding the real subject here. The Wheat Thins. THE WHEAT THINS! I don't know about you all, but Wheat Thins are my weakness. I love them, they're amazing. Dan brought some home, and it's not because he was being a bastard (he's only a bastard when he brings home custard,) but because I ASKED him to buy some. Over the course of the night I probably ate 1/4 of that box. And it was the huge box. I just kept reaching down into this box without even really looking at it or thinking about it, and grabbing handfuls of these crackers. Granted I wasn't shoving them directly into my giant, ridiculous mouth (like I do with cereal on a moron-themed-binge) but it was basically the same idea.

Oh, wait. He did bring home chocolate mousse cake (his latest obsession,) and I had three forkfuls of it.

So, needless to say, I'm off to a rotten start for the Hot 100 Challenge. I've been drinking the water, but I don't know if I'm going to have lost 2 pounds the first week. I started strong today with a packet of oatmeal and some coffee. But that's because it was so freezing cold in my house today that I'm doubling up on sweats and booties.


Seriously, it's freezing in here. I'm wearing my boyfriend's Indianapolis hoodie. Please ignore my filthy bathroom mirror.:


Is this the proper technique for showing you my Old Navy booties? I suck at the MySpace-esque photo thing:


Maybe this is more appropriate:


And layered underneath the booties, the most awesome socks my Mom got me for Christmas. She's the best, and I can always count on adorable, cute, cheesy, kick butt socks from her all the time. And they're WARM! They have Cinderella on them, and they say, "I don't do windows.":



So anyway. Further updates on the 100 Day Challenge thing... I haven't had any pizza or Chinese food, but I guess I should have expanded that to include all forms of crap food. And I didn't eat a salad yesterday. Looks like I need to buckle down.

~J

Anorexic Lessons

I wanted to do a little blogadoodle about a movie I saw recently. Have any of you seen "Disfigured"? It's a movie about women and weight. I had not really heard about it until I decided to do a search on The Biggest Loser contestants and which ones had gained weight back, who decided to become a motivational speaker (Umm, all of them?) and so on. I found a bit of information about Ryan Benson who won the first season of The Biggest Loser. He was in this film, and so I decided to check it out. Any of you who have Netflix can watch it streaming for free, so you should do it.



Aside from the quality of the film (focus issues, production, etc...) it was pretty good. I think it was damn honest about women and the way they feel about their weight. It goes into a relationship between the main character (a fat girl) and an anorexic chick who tries to join a Fat Acceptance group the main character is in. The relationship between the two of them is really interesting, and made the movie hellainteresting.

Okay, I'm gonna spoil the plot a little bit here, because there is a part in the film I absolutely loved. If you don't want to know, just stop reading here. *Oh, and if you're sensitive about eating disorders, take it with a grain of salt because this is half in telling you about the movie, and half in me joking while fully understanding the severity of eating disorders in this country.

The fat girl sits down with the anorexic girl and asks her for "Anorexic Lessons." This is awesome. It's awesome because I've SO been there. If you've been overweight, I'm pretty sure you wished at some time in your life that you just didn't want to eat. Or that you had no interest in food, or that you had somehow painlessly burned your taste buds off. I personally wish food all tasted the same so I didn't care what I was eating. Then I could nosh down on a bag of iceberg lettuce and feel like I was eating chocolate cake, or something. So, check the movie out if this kind of thing interests you, or if you want an insight into the way weight affects women in their lives, whether they're visibly struggling with eating issues or not. (on a side note, you can also check out this blog: Every woman has an eating disorder.)


Oh! And the other thing I wanted to tell you about was my two new bestest friends. This blog thing has been so nuts (over 22,000 hits on my blog on Friday, much?) --- and it's afforded me the awesome opportunity to meet new and fabulous bloggers around the world.

Miss Marilee dedicated an entire blog entry to me. I almost died when I saw it, and now I want to cover her whole body in chocolate pudding and lick it off in a fit of happiness.

Lilu over at Live it, Love it is hilarious and makes me nearly pee myself every time I read her blog. Go read her stuff, NOW.

That's all for now, pumpkins. I have lotsa photo editing to get to, and rum and Diet Coke to drink. Hopefully I don't start selectively coloring every single photo in a fit of drunken rebellion. Must not screw up photo editing.

Oh, and if any of you:

1. Find out a way to burn off taste buds
2. Know where you can get Anorexic lessons
3. Or know where to find insta-thin machines, a-la-Steve Urkel...

...Let me know.

Watch from the 3:00 mark to see what that means:

Pink Feet.

Well, it could have resulted in pink feet, but this Bride and Groom were fearless. They jumped right in! The Milwaukee Art Museum is doing a Breast Cancer race tomorrow, and we just happened to go there for their off-site wedding shots. What a buncha troopers I had!

Best wedding day ever, people. Click here for more photos!

Mind blowing arm hair giveaway

You guys have all blown my mind over the last 24 hours. Seriously! Thank you so much for your comments, support, questions and general kickassness.

I have to give super kudos to Trooper Thorn for the best question comment of the day:

Congrats on the featured posting. But why did you bury the tidbit about you shaving your arms in the list of other characteristics. That is something that should be featured. Are you really that hairy? Or is it some weird fetish?

So, I'm not really that hairy. (Although, what qualifies as "that hairy"?) I don't have ape-arms, and my hair is light enough in color for it to not actually be a problem. And though I have several fetishes, shaving arm hair isn't one of them. It started one day with my looking down at these arms of mine (which were of course, thinner at the time...) and thinking "do girls even HAVE hair on their arms? Eww! I don't like having hair on my arms." Of course I had the images of models, actresses and so on in my mind, and I couldn't think of one single sexy lady who had hair on her arms. So I was in the shower and decided to shave 'em. I was probably around 17 at the time, and it's been going on ever since. So sometimes I have wicked smooth arms, and sometimes they're stubbly. That's just the way it goes. I guess it's just one more reason I'm like my gay friends.


And now it's time for some link love. I've simply got to share some kick-ass blogs that I love with you guys because you've all shared your blogs with me!

If you're a gay guy, gay girl, or like things gay, or like photos of hot guys, check out my friend Wes at Swish Embassy.

If you dig good writing, good humor, and general quirkiness, you should visit my new pal Sandra over at Right Out Loud Writing. She sorta reminds me of me, which means you might like her too.

My friend Rob has a great blog called Rob in Gallup, sharing his experiences in the small town of Gallup, NM. His writing is fantastic, and though his entries are not daily, the content is always thought provoking and high quality.

I'm not a Fat Rights Activist, but this chick is a brilliant writer.

I've noticed lots of new friends in the chubbosphere (I mean people with weighty issues who relate to the battle of the bulge,) so you need to check out all the links I have on the right hand side of my blog, over there in the column on the right. Go to the right. Do it. There are way too many awesome bloggers to mention all of them individually, so you just need to go through 'em. But, I'll have to give a spotlight to a few of my favorites:

The ever popular Jack Sh*t, Gettin' Fit for a regular dose of humor infused weight loss encouragement.

Fat Bridesmaid for her honesty and The Biggest Loser Liveblog, which is the best thing, ever. Well, next to Diet Coke, John Mayer and Orgasms. It's pretty close though.

My friend Monica over at Confessions of a + Sized Girl for her continuous and relentless support, and a fabulous super smily face every time you open up her blog.

The badass Bitch Cakes. Do I even need to explain why you need to go there, NOW?

Okay, seriously I could go on for awhile, so I'll stop now. And now for a big drumroll! Or... a Cinnamon Roll! (Oooh, cinnamon rolls...) I'm doing a little book giveaway! :)

The Ultimate Metabolism Diet

I did a review of this book HERE, so check that out if you're interested in finding out more about the book, what it is, etc. :)

You HAVE to fill out this little box thing to be entered!

*Sorry, US and Canada residents only!

Entering a comment on the blog does NOT enter you for the drawing. See, this nifty box thing keeps it completely random and chooses the winner in a computerized sort of way, instead of me choosing one personally. It keeps it nice and fair and happy. :)

The contest ends on 10/2/09 at 5pm.


Thanks again for stopping by and I hope to see you again real soon-like. :)

~Jenn

I almost just crapped myself.

I woke up to find a ton of comments from folks I didn't know, and a huge spike in my traffic. Reading through the notes, I come to see.... something faaaaaaaaaaabulous!

I can't believe it. I am Blogger's Blog of Note today!



I'd like to thank the Academy.
I'd like to thank Blogger for featuring me... Holy crap, thank you!
I'd like to thank all my new visitors and friends... hopefully you have as much fun as we do in the weightlossosphere.

Now, don't despair. I don't only talk about calories and fat pants. I'm a huge fan of John Mayer, I love food, travel, life, and The Office. I'm obsessed with music. I have a collection of stuffed pigs and I shave my arms. I think PETA is a bunch of assholes, and I am addicted to Diet Coke. I try to keep it interesting.


So! If you want to catch up, here are a few links for you to check out:

Photos depicting my near-high weight of 220, and my current loss photos down to 189.

More photos on my skinny ass as a kid, and my Ex Hotness.

A bit of a history on how this started.

A reminder of why I'm a lunatic, and how I got fat in the first second place.

My thoughts on Fat Acceptance, and why I generally think it's got to be a bunch of crap.

Oh! And click here to see my website, which will explain why you'll see lots of photography stuffs if you scroll through my entries. I'm a wedding photographer by day and a NINJA by night. (Okay, not a real ninja... I just wear all black to weddings.)

And I'll end this with a pretty photo I took roundabouts 3:30 this morning when I talked Dan (my boyfriend) into sneaking down to the train tracks with me when it was realllly foggy out. :)




Thank you all for stopping by... I'm overwhelmed. :)

~Jenn (Ex Hot Girl)

Progress Photos!

So, I thought as I've hit my 35 pounds lost mark, and am embarking on a new challenge (100 days!) that I should update everyone on some progress photos.

Remember my initial shots:


And here are my pre-lent shots:


And here is me today!


Side by side 24 pound loss (size 16 jeans, way too baggy now!):




Hopefully I have another set of cool before and afters come New Years! :)

The Hot 100 - Going out with a Bang!

I've decided that if I don't participate in this, I'm a losery-loser-pants. So I'm gonna do it. I also think I'm up a pound this morning so I really need to quit this looseygoosesy attitude I have. >:(

My goals are very numbers based. Whatever I have to do to reach the numbers (working out/eating right/etc) will naturally be encompassed in the numbers goals.

Goal #1: Lose 30 pounds by December 31st. This is just over 2 pounds per week, (roughly 14 weeks)
Goal #2: Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day.
Goal #3: NO pizza or chinese food for the rest of the year! (I tend to order this weekly, needs to stop even if it's steamed/veggied.)
Goal #4: Eat a salad for one meal EACH day.

Yeah, so I think I'd better stop there so it's at least somewhat reachable. If you guys are participating let me know in the comments here so I can come check out your goals! And don't forget to let Steve know so you can be entered in the contest! :)

Also I realize I need to update you all with some progress photos. I'll see what I can do about that... maybe tomorrow? :)

~Jenn

Halloween for Fatties.

I've begun the process of trying to find a suitable Halloween costume. As MANY of you ladies out there know, this usually sucks major balls when you're a fat chick. In years past, all I can remember being available to me was this:




Dan and I were looking at these and just laughing our asses off. Is this really the only option to plus size chicks? Wearing what's basically a modified version of a Snuggie? I've been there before, and honestly, that's why I've not dressed up or done anything for Halloween the last two years in a row.

But recently I've noticed a much higher availability of plus size costumes. And this year I've seen lots of really cool costumes for plus size girls. These ones aren't just MooMoo-Shmocks disguised as "costumes"... they're actually SEXY costumes. I went to Buycostumes.com today and found these:



Woo to the freakin' HOO! Now, I'm not sure if I have the balls to pull off a short skirt like these, but I'm really happy to know it's an option. If I'm not brave enough, there are middle of the road ones available too.

I'm just glad to know I won't be stuck wearing this:



If I really feel like wearing this:




SO! In addition to this, I wanted to give a little nod to my friend Hanlie over at Fertile Healthy for posting an entry about Steve's "Hot 100 (Going out with a Bang!)" Challenge.

Here’s the information you need to know:

1. You have to come up with some goals.
2. You have to publish those goals.
3. You have to give a status follow-up on those goals at least every ten days.

Oh! And if you participate, be sure to leave him a comment HERE so he knows to include you in the drawing.


So... I don't have mine fingered out yet, and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it, but I wanted to pass the info along to any of you fabulous folks who are being motivated by The Biggest Loser, or just feeling like you're in a little bit of a slump and would like some extra OOMPH! to push you toward your goals. The prize does sound wonderful, especially if you like some extra spice in your life. :)

I'll keep you all posted on my participation decision in a few days. I just need to come up with some realistic goals, and I think I just might do it. :)

~Jenn

Wicked Color.

Today I had a kick ass wedding in Neosho. Some of my favorite photos to date!

Click here to check it out, yo!

Blue, blue skies.......

Teresa and Jeff had a GORGEOUS wedding today!

Click here for all the photos! :)

I'll be back tomorrow with shots from tomorrow's wedding!

~Jenn

Couple in love...

I did a fun shoot with a handsome couple today. Check it out, yo!

Click here for more photos.

Tomorrow I have a wedding, and Saturday another wedding, then a week off! :)

Oh, and today's weigh in was 187.8. :)

~Jenn

Biggest Loser

Allllllrighty then! I watched the season premier of The Biggest Loser, Season 8 and I'm here to share my impressions/feelings/thoughts/whatevers with you guys.

If any of you guys were crying a lot during the show, you're not alone. The story Abby shared I have heard something like four times since the teasers for the season began, and every time I hear it I break down crying. What she went through is one of my biggest fears in life, and it just kills me. I DO think that it'll give her a very strong advantage when it comes to the voting off process.

Tracey seems like a bitch from what they showed of her at the beginning of the show. I feel kind of bad saying that now that she has been in the hospital, but that was the impression I got from her initially.

I'm really happy to see Daniel back... he's accomplished so much and I think he's going to be a huge inspiration and motivator to the rest of the contestants.

About twelve minutes in to the show, I realized that I have a huge crush on Sean. He has a nice personality and all, [though he's a youth pastor (holy roller as Carlos put it) and I couldn't actually be into someone who worked in the church...] I'll have you know my thing for him is totally shallow. It's purely based on his eyes, hair, mouth. LOVE his hair. Love it. LOVE LOVE LOVE it (not in this picture below so much, but far more when it falls over his forehead.) And it's weird for me, I've never been attracted to bigger guys. My boyfriend weighs all of 150 pounds. But Sean? He's adorable. :)




Now about the weigh-ins. I know The Biggest Loser has always had huge weight loss numbers each week, but I've don't remember drops like this... 18, 22, 28 pounds in a week? These weight loss numbers are INSANE!!! Is there even any way that's possible? Even WATER weight? Seriously, that's just mind boggling to me.

I'm curious though... what do you guys think abut the fact that the Black team was the team to be chosen/picked last (not counting the ones in the hospital) and that they fell below the yellow line? When she was voted off, Alexandra was gracious, which was nice. I think she was pissed as all hell. Have I mentioned she's gorgeous? And holy crap, has lost 60 pounds on her own. That's wonderful! And it really shows that the group made the right decision... she's done a good job.

I'm really looking forward to this season, you guys. I'm gonna love it.

Any other thoughts you all have?

~J

Crappy McCrapperson!!!!!!

So, I missed the season premier of The Biggest Loser. CRAP!!! I've been so excited for it and I totally forgot it was happening this week. I asked Dan to set up the DVR to start recording it, and thankfully it's sitting on my DVR waiting to be watched. I'll have to watch it tomorrow and post my thoughts. YAY!

Also as a reminder, Fat Bridesmaid has a liveblog every time the show is on, so if you're available and want to come on over to chat with all of us while the show is on, feel free! It's really nice because you don't feel like such a softie when the show makes you cry, or like such a mean person when you don't like a contestant, etc... because everyone talks about things as they happen. Plus it's a great spot for support, because during the show and especially during the commercials we can chat about our own weight struggles, challenges and accomplishments. :)

On another note, I'm rededicated to my weight loss today. I weighed in at the same 189 pounds this evening, so I'm thinking I might be down a tiny bit. The good news is that I haven't GAINED over the last week and a half, so I think I haven't derailed myself too much!

I have a busy end to the week... studio shoot tomorrow night, then a wedding Friday and a wedding Saturday. I'll keep you all posted with some photos as they come along! :)

Muah!
~Jenn

Cartoon of the Day

Via Swish Embassy

Wicked Awesome Wedding.

Come check out the wedding I did for Sonja and Patrick. They got married at Miller Park! :)





On another note: I ate a piece of pizza yesterday. I ate another one today. I wanna smack myself. I'm up about 1 pound as of this morning. I just have lost my super motivation. I seriously need someone to call me a fatass tomorrow.

<3 Jenn

Never Forget.

Get rid of my dead rats. I'll buy you McDonalds.

Quick update: Weigh in: 189. Sick check: Still phlegming and coughy.


So, on to the good stuff. I came across this gem of a post on Craigslist today. I am going to copy and paste it because I don't know if it'll be up much longer.

Had a rat problems and solved it by using the rat poison. The rats died somewhere in my bedroom wall and I can't find it but I can smell it it is not too good. I need some body who has experience finding where in wall the dead rats is and then taking them out it without breaking the walls. Maybe some guy who is poor they are more likely to have experience with the rats. Im not really able to pay too much for this would treat you to McDonald's it is close to my home. Besides, this is good experience for you if you are in the business. I would be willing to tell all your other customers what a great job you did with my rat. You could give them my cell number and as soon as my phone gets turned back on it would be like you have free advertising. I dispertly need some guys help right away cause my girlfriend won't sleep over anymore till I get rid of the smell and cleanup other things around my home and get a job soon. She used to go out with my brother and Im scared she will go back with him cause he don't have rats in his house. Dont worry if I dont answer you right away cause Im using my friends computer I dont have one. Give me your number and ill call you back and tell you where the house is. Thanks.

This is the funniest thing I've ever read on Craigslist. This is awesome. AWESOME. I salute whoever wrote it. Whether it's real (which I doubt) or fake (which is hilarious...) THANK YOU, OP.

This is the frame of mind people who ask for free work really must be in. It's how I feel when people ask me to take photos of them, help them build their "modeling portfolio," photograph their family, whatever for free. "I'll tell everyone how awesome you are!" Oh, that's how it works? Fabulous. Do me a favor, next time you need to get your car fixed, tell the same thing to the mechanic and see what he tells you, or where he tells you to stick your exhaust pipe. Mmmkay? Thanks.



No other news to report, just had to share this with you guys 'cause it is hilarious. Oh, and don't worry. I already nominated it for the Best of Craigslist. ;)

~Jenn

My mouth is open, shove some food in there.

Yeah. Garble, garble, snarfle face, Munchie McMuncherson, YARRRRRRRRRRNCH!!!!!!!!!

That's been me for the past few days. My weight has stayed the same, maybe one pound up. I'm right around 191 as of this morning (though to be honest I haven't weighed myself naked in the morning for at least a week). I have a problem, and I can't figure it out.

I can't stop eating.

And it's not about being ravenously hungry, you guys. It's not even about being moderately hungry. I'm just eating because "oh, why not, sure I'll whip up some eggs with mushrooms and a bit of avocado while you heat up your leftovers" or "Yeah, Olive Garden soup and salad sounds good, let's do it!" or, "Yeah, I'm gonna sit here and watch Dexter and shove my fist into this open box of Raisin Bran because it's sitting by the table."

I'm not eating unhealthy things, though I'm eating more bread than I should be... but calorie wise I'm still at weight loss numbers. It's not like six months ago where I found myself at Walgreens, buying ice cream and whatever the crap else junk food I could get my hands on to take home and shove in my face. But I'm eating when I'm not hungry, and that's really pissing me off.

I can't figure out what it is. I've never really been an "Am I eating because I'm bored?" kind of person. Sometimes I'll eat if I have an icky taste in my mouth - usually I like to drink Diet Coke when I do. But... hellooooo brainiac, brush your teeth! I should just brush my teeth more.

My other problem is that I've been tasting too much. I'll have a "taste" of cookies I bake for Dan, or a "taste" of cereal, or "just five crackers with margarine." But that's a huge problem for me. It only awakens my taste buds and makes me want more.

Here are some rules I really need to stick to if I'm gonna be successful with my eating to lose:

1. Don't taste.
2. Eat at least one big salad as a meal each day.
3. Don't eat carbs after breakfast. (SERIOUSLY.)
4. Drink lots of water.
5. Brush my teeth if I feel inclined to nibble.

The one thing I've really been good about is "No drinking." Now, it's not because I think drinking is bad or anything, in fact I QUITE enjoy it. But it's because:

1. Empty calories.
2. Lowers the inhibitions, which means I'm more likely to go to The Greasy Spoon for a bar close breakfast, or make biscuits and gravy or something.

Though I miss getting drunk once in awhile, I'll tell you that. I went home in August for my birthday and didn't get drunk once the entire time I was there, which for a week of socializing is a huge thing for me. I had 1/4 of a beer at my birthday and just put it down. Wasn't feelin' it. Lately I've been wanting to just have a night where I can enjoy the glorious effects of alcohol with some friends and let that be that. I might just want to do a night with a bottle of wine. I just need to let it wash over me and pass out so I don't hit the, "ooh, hungry for TOAST" phase. We'll see.

I just need to go back on the plan I was on a few months ago. I dropped a lot of weight, and it felt awesome. I just creep back into this frame of mind where my subconscious goes, "Yeah, you lost weight, your fat pants are too big for you, so you can cheat here and there."

Well, SCREW YOU, subconscious! I want THESE pants to be loose on me, and I do NOT do well with cheating. I can't have balance in my life. It just doesn't work for me.

;)

~J

Senior Photos

I love doing them. I haven't done one in awhile, and it's really nice to get back into it. Seniors just have this energy about them - excitement for life and their futures... it's energizing! :)

Click HERE to check out the images from my shoot with Mackenzie today. :)



~J

100 Followers!!!!!!!!!!!

I love all you guys so damn much.

Today I hit my 100th follower, so thank you 100in12 for being my 100th. You have a special spot in my blogging heart now. :)

It's happy dance time.



~J

Torrid - SUPER shopping deal.

I thought I'd let all my curvy sisters here know that Torrid is doing a big clearance sale.




Click here and get $10 off $10 or more, plus an additional 50% off of clearance items!

Clearance items have been marked down an extra 50%. Register on their site and use code BDAY09Y for $10 off $10 or more! :)

~J

Phlegm Burgers.

No, not a fancy new recipe for the deranged... just the way my head feels. The tickling throat turned into a cough, sore throat, phlegm carnival. It's disgusting and I hate it.

It's only September and I just bought some Nyquil cough syrup, gelcaps and Riiiiiiiicola cough drops. The flu/cold season is here way too soon.

No change in weight. I've been eating pretty much at maintenance so my body doesn't miss out on any nutrients that might help it fight off this cold. I don't agree with "dieting" when you're sick. I want to get better as fast as possible. Oh, unless I have the stomach flu, in which case, weight loss is inevitable and a pleasant side effect to a crappy situation. ;)

Other than that, nothing really new to report. I've had a few days off from shooting and I haven't even edited more than a small handful of photos. My body has been really sore (I really want to go get a massage...) and I just felt like I needed a break. I'll be back on the wagon of workin' tomorrow. Three weddings and a boudoir shoot to complete editing on before mid next week.

I've decided to take a trip to Richmond Virginia in October to see my good friend Mel. She's a pro photographer (really amazing, totally successful) - we're going to do a bit of shooting, some business analysis, revamp and marketing brainstorming. I hope to come back from the trip with lots of ideas and feeling really confident. Though compared to her work, I feel like a schlub. But, I've got something to work toward. ;)

I hope you all had a fabulous week. It's FRIDAY! Anyone have big plans for Labor Day weekend?

~J