Before the "Marriage 30." And about 2 weeks before Justin proposed in December 2002.

Early this week, the New York Times ran a fascinating piece on second-coming of the dreaded Freshman 15: The Marriage 30. Here is the awful truth:

A 2009 study published in Obesity surveyed 1,293 young adults between 18 and 27 years old who were married, living together or dating. The married couples were threefold more likely to both be obese, whereas the cohabiting couples had close to double the risk. (The dating people were the thinnest.)

And it totally makes sense. My first year of marriage I gained 15 pounds and have bounced back and forth ever since. Husband has had a similar fate. It’s nice to know we’re not alone, but still. How obnoxious that the attempt to “settle down” results in a beer gut and Friday nights spent on the couch.

So upcoming and current newly-weds, don’t suffer the same fate! Here are some helpful tips to get you back on track:

• Join a sports league: My husband actually came up with this idea yesterday, which I thought was quite adorable. Groups like the Austin Sports and Social Club (ASSC) have a variety of kickball, softball, volleyball leagues and more to accomodate every level. Make working out a social event. Because then it doesn’t feel like you are burning calories — and we all love that feeling.
• Take on an exercise activity together: A year-and-a-half ago, Justin and I (and Kristine!) realized we sucked at swimming (Justin actually saying he feared for my life when he saw me swim for the first time… haha), so we took swimming classes for a month. Now we regularly go swimming at our gym. Here’s one that just started through Rogue, and they also have other beginner classes too. I also recommend training for a 5K or 10K together. You’ll spend a lot of time together
• Go on group dates: About once a month, Justin and I get together with a “couple” friends of ours and we’ll watch Alias reruns together (where I dream of having a body like Jennifer Garner), cook dinner (usually healthy) and then play frisbee (or disc) golf – the group favorite.  I suck at disc golf and I have no idea how I’ve not already hurt myself or others, but it is so much fun, and a great way to burn 400-500 calories over two hours. Can’t beat that! But keep it simple — go to the Butler Park Pitch and Putt, rent some bikes, rent a canoe, go bowling (though that doesn’t burn very many calories). Point is, get out and do something active.

Those are just some of my suggestions on what Justin and I do to try and not re-gain the Marriage 30. So, what do you do with your better half to try and keep the weight down?

No, Justin didn't run the Austin Half Marathon 2010. But he did run the last .5 mile with me!

Wow.  Last week I  ate so much incredibly unhealthy food that I find myself craving fruits and veggies.  And I’m not talkin’ fruits and veggies cooked in oil and then doused in some creamy sauce.  I actually want RAW produce.

After going so long without really eating fried foods or consuming alcohol before SXSW, I’m hurting…and I don’t even want to know what kind of judgment the scale will impose upon me.  The bright light at the end of the tunnel is that I am now super inspired to get back on track and kick my butt back into gear.

I have been exiled from working out for the past month because of a lower back pull and a sinus infection that laid me up for 3 weeks.  Yeah, 3 weeks…FAIL!  This is not good for me physically or mentally.  I find myself moodier and I feel gross.  Considering that before this month of nothingness I was working out 5 days a week, this has been hard for me to take lying down…literally.  Ugh!

So here I go again.  Time to start fresh and get ready for our bikini picture that is less than two and a half months away.  That’s enough to scare anyone into healthy eating and obsessive working out!

If you find yourself in this end-of-Winter rut too, feel free to comment.  I would love to hear how you’re pulling yourself out of it.

Chicken n’ Waffles via @michaelcummings

I didn’t eat this, but the pic gives you an idea of what we were choosing from…

I think we’re all finding Round 2 flat out difficult. When you shift from weight-loss to maintenance (and the fear of a bikini shot seems months away) PLUS trying to keep weight off during the absolute worst time of the year, you’re bound to get frustrated. Which is where all four of us are at. In fact, as of yesterday’s weigh in, none of us are at or below our Round 1 weigh-in. FAIL.

So each week, as the FML’s, OMG’s and WTF’s fly furiously between us on Thursdays, I think it’s time we sit down and figure out exactly how much of us need to lose to avoid getting the dreaded bikini shot come January 14. For all of us, it isn’t about maintenace anymore — we need to go back into weight-loss mode. Remember, if we gain 2% or more of our weight back, we’ve got some pictures to post. So, um, here we go.

Ashley:

• Round 1 final-weigh-in: 153.4
• 1.99%  max threshold: 156.5
• Current weight: 155.0
• Status: Safe… for now…

Jenni:

• Round 1 final-weigh-in: 137.8
• 1.99%  max threshold: 140.5
• Current weight: 140.0
• Status: Safe… but way too close for comfort

Meredith:

• Round 1 final-weigh-in: 114.6
• 1.99%  max threshold: 116.9
• Current weight: 120.8 (needs to lose 3.9 pounds to avoid bikini)
• Status: Eek! Out of range.

Kristine:

• Round 1 final-weigh-in: 117.0
• 1.99%  max threshold: 119.3
• Current weight: 122.0 (needs to lose 2.7 pounds to avoid bikini)
• Status: Eek! Out of range.

I mainly posted this information as a reminder to ourselves that we need to stay accountable over the course of the next few weeks — with Christmas and New Year’s fast approaching (and Mere and I both have serious @fatroll fail work Christmas parties tonight), we must continue to be self-aware of our weight to avoid the dreaded bikini photo.

Wish us luck!

…And one step back. I guess the damage could have been worse, right? It was Labor Day weekend and all I did was eat crap and did absolutely no exercise. It’s like penance for fun or something.

I’m back in the game though — I’m just worried about the last weekend of September (a co-worker’s wedding at the Salt Lick) and then the dreaded ACL weekend (a.k.a. three straight days of music, booze and food).

But I do have a 10K I need to start prepping for at the end of the month, and should probably start training for the half-marathons I’m planning to do. Hopefully that will help. Plus, I feel great (and miserably sore) after my bootcamps twice a week. So I’m not too worried. I just would like to be in the 130’s (even barely)  by the end of the contest. It would be so sick if I lost 20 lbs (so 137 October 8 weight) by the end of this contest.

Wish me luck! I need it

You may recall a few weeks ago, I did an analysis on singer Kelly Clarkson and her recent (or not so recent) weight gain.

I guess a week or so after I wrote that, she was featured on the cover of Self Magazine looking skinnier than her Idol days, despite the fact she was photographed earlier that month at a Good Morning America concert looking much bigger.

What followed was a botched attempt at damage control by the Self editor-in-chief, Lucy Danziger on the Today Show and Self’s blog network (thanks @maryamelia28 for flagging this a few weeks ago for us).

For a magazine that “promotes” confidence and looking your best no matter what, trying to justify Photoshop is absolutely ridiculous AND the reason why young girls (and people like myself) have such unrealistic expectations about what they should look like.

Read this contradicting piece of information from the editor herself:

Did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best. Did we publish an act of fiction? No. Not unless you think all photos are that. But in the sense that Kelly is the picture of confidence, and she truly is, then I think this photo is the truest we have ever put out there on the newsstand. I love her spirit and her music and her personality that comes through in our interview in SELF. She is happy in her own skin, and she is confident in her music, her writing, her singing, her performing. That is what we all relate to. Whether she is up or down in pounds is irrelevant (and to set the record straight, she works out and does boot-camp-style training, so she is as fit as anyone else we have featured in SELF). Kelly says she doesn’t care what people think of her weight. So we say: That is the role model for the rest of us.

So, if she truly exudes confidence, works out just as hard as anyone else featured in the magazine AND she doesn’t care what people think of her weight, why on earth did you not publish the original photo as-is? The editor also claims that the silk blouse she was wearing on the cover was quite unforgiving… then put her in something else!! How insulting that her “personal best” isn’t even really her.

Point being, you have a responsibility to your readers to truly advocate what you preach in your articles. Instead, you look like a bunch of hypocrites. The editor goes so far to say that she had her marathon finisher photo re-touched because she didn’t like the way her hips look. You just ran 26.2 miles, idiot. No one looks particularly glamorous after that. BE HAPPY IN YOUR OWN SKIN.  Also, be sure read the comments in her blog post where the editor gets ripped a new one by readers. It’s awesome.

And I’m not buying Self again.

A magazine I will be purchasing moving forward? Glamour because of its awesome portrayal of what is now known as the Page 194 Girl. Late last week, a 3×3 inch photo of a woman named Lizzie Miller was on page 194 in this month’s issue of Glamour and it set the blogosphere abuzz. Dressed only in underwear, this woman looks NORMAL. I don’t think I’ve seen a portrait like this since nude posing in the 18^th century. She has a pooch, her thighs aren’t the size of a Barbie – it’s incredibly refreshing to see a real woman photographed. And she’s smiling and beautiful.

Better yet, compare the comments in the blog post by Glamour’s editor to Self’s. It’s clear that women (and men) have had enough of ridiculous expectations of female beauty. And her appearance on the Today show was awesome, calling her appearance in Glamour “a game changer” for the industry.

Even classic supermodels like Cindy Crawford and photographers like Peter Lindbergh are sick of airbrushing, photoshopping and the like. In the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar, Crawford, Amber Valletta, Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer are all photographed without any retouching. Dang. That is true beauty. And really good photography – which seems to be lost since the advent of Photoshop.

So what is the lesson in all of this? Be proud of your body and don’t let anyone else tell you differently. Yes, if you need to lose weight – do it to be healthy, not to adhere to the ridiculous standards set forth by advertisers/publishing industry. You’ll spend too much time being unhappy and not enough time treasuring the gorgeous you.

I guess let’s start with the good. I’m back down to the weight I was at prior to a three-day fat fest – a.k.a. new business pitch in Los Angeles. Being stressed, main bloated and having hordes of food in front of you at any given moment so you can remain focused on working (and with little to no time to workout), must be the ultimate @fatroll scenario for gaining weight. That doesn’t sound so good now that I read that back.

The “really” bad news then? After doing the math, for the past month I’ve been hovering around the same weight (give or take a pound). That is beyond frustrating. I suppose the only silver lining is friends and family saying they’re noticing a difference. They either read the blog or being nice, or they’re telling the truth.

But after recommitting to working out extra hard and eating right during the past two months, why is it becoming so difficult to lose the remaining 17-18 pounds to reach my goal weight? Yes I’ve lost nine pounds since I’ve started this – which is awesome and I’m proud of my hard work – but when am I going to see the results of this work in dresses falling off of me, jeans easily being pulled off without unbuttoning (cough cough… Ashley…), etc.? Is this that dreaded plateau people speak of? Should I label my self an “at-risk” @fatroll flunkout?

Or are more sinister plans at work? A quick Google of “gaining weight while working out” took me to a plethora of sites explaining what may be the cause of my woes. I ended up reading a great article on MSN written by Martica Heaner, who is a physiologist, nutritionist and fitness instructor (sheesh… over-achiever). Unfortunately, none of her great tips work for me. I am counting my calories and making sure I’m adding extra when I work out more. I’ve been tracking my weight for the past several weeks and weighing at the same time – so this isn’t necessarily a fluctuation issue. I wear a heart rate monitor so I know exactly how much I’m working out.

Grrr. So I ventured over to my favorite fitness magazine, Fitness Magazine J The search results for the term “weight gain” – a myriad of excuses, including thyroid disease, giving birth, your friends (!!), your guy (HAHA), job, and so on. Then I finally found something that made sense (on the fourth or fifth page of search options). Here’s what Barry Levin, a doctor and professor at the New Jersey Medical School in Newark:

When you first begin to shed pounds, your metabolic rate slows, your energy use becomes more efficient, and your brain starts sending SOS messages that you’re hungry. By the time you’re down to the last 10 pounds? Your body is fighting to recover and will hang on to every ounce tighter and tighter.

Another good pointer:

Another good way to gauge whether you’ve lost enough weight is to consider your body fat, says Dr. Levin. The simplest test is to see where it’s deposited. “If it’s in your stomach, you probably ought to keep trying, since abdominal fat poses a real health risk for everything from diabetes to breast cancer.” See “The Best Way to Beat Belly Flab.” But if the fat is in your hips and butt and your body-mass index is within the healthy range (18.5 to 24.9), Dr. Levin suggests rethinking your desire to lose those last 10 pounds. “They’re probably not medically harmful, and in trying to get rid of them, you’ll be triggering all of those protective mechanisms that in turn make it even harder to mobilize the fat,” he explains.

I hold most of my weight is in my stomach – and has been my whole life. So it sounds like I still need to keep going, and this is just the result of my brain over-thinking my actions. Hopefully in the next few weeks, that will change. But how? Here are some recommendations from the same article:

• Scrutinize the diet: For me, I’ve started imputing what I plan to eat for that day in the morning – usually keeping me from craving that cupcake down the street.
• Continue cutting additional calories: Luckily, my trusty LoseIt app does this automatically for me, but as you lose weight, your body doesn’t need as much – so be sure to reduce your intake every couple of weeks.
• Increase the number of calories you burn: I’ve started doing interval training at the gym on the elliptical, and I’m about to try some walk/sprint routines on my runs. My workouts will probably be the same length, but just different – and more intense, leading to greater calories burned (hopefully).
• Switch the workout to a different part of the day: I suppose the trick is to keep your body guessing. I’ll admit the last few weeks I’ve been doing the same routines the last few weeks. NO MORE! I’m switching it up, and trying some morning, noon and evening workouts to stay motivated.

Hopefully I’ll start seeing some results of this renewed diligence in the coming weeks – I’ve got a contest to win! (Only 70 more days to go!!)

I’m swapping out this week’s celebrity thoughts on weight loss for a harder look at my own struggles with weight loss (and gain). Don’t worry, I’ll be chatting about Kelly Clarkson next week if you only read the blog for my snarky thoughts on celebrities. But my guess is you don’t.

I’ll be the first to admit that back in high school, I definitely was borderline anorexic. A pint of milk, baked potato and a sugar cookie should never be considered a balanced meal – let alone that one meal accounting for three. But stupidly, I thought that having an eating disorder or being anorexic or bulimic meant that you didn’t eat at all or were a hard-core purger.

But according to a recent Self Magazine article, I didn’t have an eating disorder, I was/am a disordered eater.

Okay, so you may be thinking, WTF? It’s the same damn thing. I thought that too until I read the whole article.

According to this online survey – taken by more than 4,000 women across the U.S. – six out of 10 women are disordered eaters, meaning that you practice habits like eating little to no carbs, skipping meals (like breakfast or dinner) and are constantly dieting without the extremes that anorexia or bulimia can cause. But it still can mess up your emotional or physical well-being. And on top of that, an additional 10 percent of the women suffer from the actual disorders (anorexia, bulimia). So three out of four women are nursing a serious issue with the food they eat.

According to the Self Survey, disordered eaters are broken down into six categories:

• Calorie Prisoners: People who only eat a certain amount of calories because they are so scared to gain weight… cough, me and my LoseIt app that I’m addicted to
• Secret Eaters: Find ways to eat crap food where they won’t get caught… um, my recent sugar cookie incident
• Career Dieters: Constantly on a diet – and more than likely to be overweight or obese… drats, me too
• Purgers: Use laxatives and vomiting to get rid of calories
• Food addicts: Eat to deal with stress, celebrate events… um, every day of my life
• Extreme Exercisers: Work out to lose weight, and get upset if they miss a session… oh dear, me too

So it appears that I am easily in five of the six categories, which definitely puts me as a disordered eater. A lot of individuals (myself included) thought that this issue was mainly found in young girls (middle/high school/college), but the survey found that women in their 30s and 40s suffer from disordered eating at the same rates.

I remember a few years back, I decided to try out the South Beach diet. Two weeks without carbs caused me to go mentally crazy – seriously. I dropped serious balls at work, got into horrible fights with Justin for no reason – and was so unhappy (even though I lost 10 pounds – and quickly gained it back). They actually have a name for what I was suffering from – the Atkins Effect. A study in 2008 by Tufts University showed that:

When dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.

So, um, what do you do? Well, unfortunately, the article doesn’t say. It spends freaking four pages talking about these women and all their different struggles (which I can totally relate to all of them) and then at the last paragraph at the VERY END, they briefly interview someone who weighs 210 and recently lost 15 pounds and is perfectly happy the way she is. Then the reporter has the audacity to write “That’s a happy mind-set we can all aspire to.”

I’m happy for her, really. But let’s be honest. Self – and countless other magazines, blogs, weight loss programs, etc. – make their money off of people NOT being happy with themselves. And Self tries to come in and tell me, I just need to be happy with the way I am? While on the next page they tell me to try these weight loss techniques and/or new diet?

That’s just poor journalism at the end of the day. I mean, instead of including quotes from doctors saying how you can beat this mentality, they just vaguely include quotes like, “Imagine what women could accomplish if they spent that time and energy on things other than body issues.” How about you actually tell me HOW TO STOP THINKING ABOUT IT?! Duh, I know I need to not think of my diet 24/7. BUT HOW DO I STOP?!

So thanks Self. Thanks for telling me I have a problem. I suppose that’s half the battle. But shame on you for not sharing with other women how to stop disordered eating – instead, you continue feeding the flame the second the reader turns the page.

Ladies. Let’s be frank.

When that time of the month rolls around, a crabby mood is just the tip of the iceberg. What gets me – and I’m totally pre-empting what I assume will be a scale tip in the wrong direction – is the random weight gain.

I Googled PMS weight gain and was not surprised by the number of forums, health articles and general cries of frustration surrounding this awful phenomenon.

Perhaps you’re a guy reading this  and think “what’s the big deal?” – Well, you gain 3-8 lbs randomly every month and tell me how that feels.

When you’re weighing-in every week for the world to see, every little ounce counts. So when you step on the scale (which I mistakenly did earlier this week) and see the metrics sky rocket three-pounds, it’s easy to throw your arms up in disgust and reach for the chocolate bar. Really, why did I even try this week?

So here is where it really becomes mind over matter. The key is to remind yourself that it’s for the end-game and it’s not your fault. It’s nature’s.

A couple of tips to keep in mind during this time:

• Eat smaller frequent meals
• Stick with complex carbs (i.e. whole wheat pastas, rice, fruits and veggies)
• Avoid salt, caffeine and alcohol
• Take calcium and vitamin D replacements
• Drink lots and lots and lots and lots of fluids (H2O)
• STAY ACTIVE! Don’t skimp out on the exercise routine. Otherwise, you can consider that PMS weight gain, real-life weight gain.

As the scale unfortunately says, I’ve gained 0.8 lbs this week. Nothing like a good public shaming to give you a swift kick in the butt.

I personally don’t think that this shake substitution really helped. In fact, I was always super hungry and found myself overeating when I did get that one meal a day – hence the bad choices via Whip In.

Sure the shakes were tasty. But, they were definitely not filling. Coupled with the drastic drop of activity (it was a busy week at work and well, life), I was bound to gain back all 0.8 goodness.

F* these gimmick diets. I quit this column. 

Now to get through being in Dallas and celebrating my Dad’s birthday. I’ve already alluded one birthday cake (sorry Jen!). Can I honestly do it twice?!

SUCKAGE.

On a positive note, at least this serves as a great wake-up call and reminder that food is the biggest factor in this game. I’ll be damned before I come in last again.

As an avid watcher of the Biggest Loser (from my couch, eating junk food), I’ve learned several things about how to exercise, what to eat, etc.

And one thing I have definitely learned is that the second week of ANY diet totally sucks. Essentially, it is, as People and Entertainment Weekly deem it, “the dreaded second week.”

If you watch the show, you know that the first week, people lose crazy amounts of weight. It’s incredibly inspiring, really. I cry every time. While I stuff my face with more food.

But that second week… I’m shaking my head right now as I type this. That second week is when you really see them trying even harder, eating really healthy, because – no matter what – they don’t end up losing that much weight – most lose nothing and some even GAIN.

But why is this? Well, I don’t exactly know how accurate this is (so someone, feel free to “weigh” in), but if you are working out like you’ve never worked out before, and cutting a large amount of calories, your body has essentially gone into WTF mode. WTF mode means that your body thinks you’re being overworked and starved – and starts storing more fat in an attempt to help you.

This is also when people typically jump off the diet/exercise regimen. No results? Well, this must not be working. A few of us in the office have already noticed this during a test weigh-in on Monday. Many of us had gained a pound or two from the last week’s weigh-in.  A few things to keep in mind:

• This is for the long-haul. Don’t give up. That means avoiding places like Delish in downtown Austin, who are serving free cupcakes all day AND champagne and wine tomorrow from 6-8 p.m. We’ll probably still go though!
• Healthy weight loss is between 1-2 pounds a week. If you lost a lot a weight the first week (which we all did), then you’re still on the right track, even if you gain a little back during the second week.
• Your body will adjust starting the third and fourth week. That’s when you’ll really start seeing a difference. You just have to be committed to getting there.