Killing Christmas Cravings

One of the hardest things about Christmas time when you are trying to lose/maintain your weight is the once a year foods, and the food you have access too.





Fake Hunger


The first thing I am going to help you avoid is “fake hungry.” 


This is when you suddenly have an intense urge to eat, especially when the craving is for a specific food, such as eggnog, chocolate, or a Big Mac. 


This

Don't Wait until New Year's!

Wow... it’s 9 days until Christmas and 15 days until 2009 draws to a close!

Lots of people will make the resolution to get healthy in 2010.

But why wait 15 more days to start getting healthy?!

Why allow yourself to binge the next two weeks and then spend January working off the pounds you never needed to add!?

Holiday parties often have trays and trays of easy to pick up calorie dense treats.

Awesome For Hire!

I am now kicking my Bay Area job hunt into high gear!

http://hirejessicascott.blogspot.com/

I have started pounding the virtual pavement, and hope to be working by January!




When looking for a job it is important to take care of yourself.

When unemployeed some people let themselves go, this is the opposite of what you should do!

Staying active not only fights off feelings of depression and

Wait... How is 2009 almost over?!

I feel so bad because I have really neglected this site. :( I just have not had time to keep it up to date with all the changes taking place right now!I hope you are doing well! I plan to get back to blogging once we are settled in our new place.

Halloween Costume Contest!

The company where I got my leotards (www.welovecolors.com) to make my Cheetara costume is having a contest to see who made the BEST costume using their products.Please vote for my costume!Follow the link above, and click the little "Like" link.Note: You need to be logged in with your google id.There will also be voting on Facebook.Once that page is up, I will post that link as well.Thanks!I LOVE

I am a dork...

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I am a dork that really likes to keep tabs on things. I have a excel spreadsheet where I record my daily weight and chart it.Well since I got braces I have been taking a picture with my phone after each adjustment to see my progress. It is kinda neat to see how my teeth have gone from:To this:

Time Will Tell

I am still in a holding pattern waiting for the moment my future will become clear.Once I know which path to take I can start the ball rolling, but for now, I feel more like the marble on a roulette wheel.I am waiting for all this uncertainty to end. It may be as soon as a few weeks, or it may drag on for months.I feel lots of pressure, and look forward to the release.Aaron and I united in

On the Cusp of Change.

Aaron came back from CA, and has moved me into an apartment with a month-to-month lease on the east side of Madison. Most of our belongs are in boxes, only the essentials are out.We still have a lot of purging to do before the big move.We are in a holding pattern right now. It is hard not knowing how long it will be until the proverbial ship comes in.I am trying to stay positive but it's been a

3 weeks....

The lease is up on our current apartment this month, and the Manager asked if we would be willing to move out early (9/24/09). They want to put in new carpet for the next tenant, paint etc... She then said we could prorate our last months rent so we only pay for the days we are here! Sweet.Aaron has been in San Francisco since 8/8/09 and it has been really hard living without him.Aaron is still

Living alone...

As perfect as Aaron is, there was one thing on which we disagreed...To simplify it for a blog post: Aaron hates Wisconsin.He wants to live in a large urban area with lots of culture and good public transit system.He wants our kids to have opportunities to pursue their interests with a world class instructors.These are things you can't find in small town in rural Wisconsin, and Aaron refused to

Slimming Down

Aaron and I are moving to a new, much smaller, apartment soon and we need to slim down our personal belongings.Although spending a weekend carrying boxes full of books we've never read, or DVDs viewed only once to our new place would be great exercise... there just isn't going to be room for them!!We have been going through our collections, selecting only the "essentials."Piles of really nice

Changing to Simple Layout again

Surprise! I have changed my site back to a cleaner, simple layout again.My previous layout was pretty but not easy on the eyes.I wanted to change to a layout that was neat and inconspicuous if you are browsing it at work!I am still converting things, so be patient! :)Have a happy, healthy and safe weekend!-Jess :)

Changing Your "Spots"

I am loveable and deserve love!It's often said "a leopard cannot change his spots" when someone believes he cannot change.This saying goes all the way back to the bible: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?"(Jeremiah 13:23)I used to think that being a fat chick was who I was. Fat was me. My obesity was my leopard spots. I truly believed it was impossible for me to be

Caught up in Summer!

First off, let me apologise for the long span between posts. I got so caught up in enjoying the Summer - I never found the time to make a new post!I kept thinking, "Nothing to report! Life's great!"I hope you are preparing for a happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July weekend!Here is a funny video about getting healthy. I lost my weight just as they say by eating less (I made healthier choices,

Letting food go to waste or to waist

Have you ever had to “finish off” something? “It’s just a few more bites! I don’t want it to go to waste.”As a child I was trained to eat everything. I had to sit at the dinner table until my plate was clean. I was also denied dessert until I ate everything. When I’d complain - I was reminded about “the starving children of the world.” I learned that wasting food was bad and over-eating

About this blog

This "blog" originally started as a one-page tripod site that I would manually update. I would then send a link to my family and friends so I could share my weight loss achievements with them.While updating the page to read: "-75 pounds lost!" I complained to a friend that I wished I kept a record of all my previous updates.She suggested that I should use a "blog." I had never even heard of the

Two weeks vacation!

Right now I am in the middle of a two week vacation, and it feels wonderful. :)I used to get so paranoid about travel because restaurant meals are so caloric.But this time we booked a hotel with a mini fridge and a microwave in room, so I have been able to eat healthy most meals of the day. :)We plan to go to little Tokyo today. We'll most likely have sushi for lunch. I really hope to visit

Sudden Intense Craving

Today I was struck by a craving for a McDonald’s Cheeseburger. Instantly my mind vividly imagined the smooth warm bun, the minced onions, pickles, and ketchup in the warm melty plastic cheese. I could smell it, and feel it, and taste it...This really shocked me because I haven’t had a Mc Donald’s cheeseburger in over 10 years! This only lasted a few seconds and now I feel really

Mean and Shallow

Sorry I have not posted in a while, but I have been crazy busy trying to get my costumes ready for the Anime Central (ACen) 2009 convention in Rosemont, IL.I debuted my cosplay of The Diva Plavalaguna from the movie The Fifth Element on Friday, May 8th 2009 to rave reviews!Jess as The Diva Plavalaguna - "The stones are in me." I put about 5 months of work into the costume. (Click here

Clean Bill of Health

My doctor could not find any lumps or asymmetry to match the results of the mammogram, so I was given a clean bill of heath. What a relief that was!This month has been so hard for my weight loss - my breast cancer scare, stress at work, and the one year anniversary of my brother in-law's death have been wearing on my willpower.Even through all this stress, I have been able to keep my weight

"Suspicious Mass"

I am waiting to find out if a mass in my breast is cancerous.I am hoping for a "false positive." I just wish I knew if I had it or not! Not knowing is nightmarish.I see my doctor again on Friday, but that doesn't mean I will find out anything. She might order more tests, and I will just continue to not know...Anyway!I got up early today and ran for 32 minutes on the elliptical

Same Site, New Name

"Jessica's Weight Loss Blog" will now be known as "Less Jess - Over 100 lbs lost!"In the past auto-links to my site couldn't cope with the apostrophe and it looked like this:"Jessica's Weight Loss Blog"How ugly!"Less Jess" matches my site's address, and the "Over 100 lbs lost!" should draw in new readers.This morning I got up early and did some circuit training.I went through my MP3s and

The “Out-to-Get-Me’s”

I used to think Cadbury mini eggs must have crack-cocaine in their shells because they were so addicting, but now I know the drug in them that had me hooked was sugar. Sugar really is a drug. What it does to the body is just as extreme as any other drug (rots teeth, diabetes, obesity and all of it’s complications... ) but sugar is in nearly everything we eat! From the cereals that starts our

March Recap.

I lost a total 3.50 pounds in March! (6.50 down so far in 2009.)I've really got back in the groove. I hope to keep this trend going this April.My husband wrote me version of the Calorie Calculator for my Blackberry Curve!The following is an extra geeky paragraph you can skip:He used Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) which provides a robust, flexible environment for applications running on

A "Game Day" That Was Not a Calorie Train Wreck!

I have updated the code on all of my pages now.Things are still a bit buggy in IE, Opera, and Safari. I apologize for that and will be working hard to get my code to play nice with those browsers. Resizing the browser fixes the bug in IE... or having a wheel on your mouse to scroll.I do want to note: Everything seems to work fine in Firefox!Firefox rocks!So besides driving myself crazy tweaking

New Style Wins

The new look took 71% of the vote, so looks like I will be busy converting my pages! Please bare with me as I tweak the code to work in all browsers.I apologies in advance if your browsing is disrupted while I am making updates!Everything should be updated before April.Now on to the weight loss front!I am down a pound so far this month.I had lost almost 3, but but then my "Diva Days" puffed me

New Style for Before Pictures

I have updated the code on Before Pictures.Do you like the new look?Do you like it enough that I should change the rest of my pages to match?Or should I change it back to the way it was?I put a poll up over to the left so you can let me know what you think.Thanks,Jess :)UPDATE: The poll closed on 3-27-09 and was removed. The new style won!Here is what my pages used to look like:

Embrace that healthy feeling!

Last Friday, after a LONG stressful week at work, I felt totally drained. Aaron (my husband) suggested that I walk on the elliptical trainer to restore my vigor.I was crabby and whined that it was the last thing I wanted to do!!! I wanted to just lay on the couch and veg!But he was persistent and sweet-talked me to "just try it" for 10 minutes... and within a few minutes I felt my brain

Finite Willpower

I have switched back to working out in the morning. I found that when I put it off until later... I tend to put it off entirely!I just didn’t have any willpower to workout at the end of the day.Do you ever struggle with your willpower?Have you ever been "really good" all day, just to get home and eat everything you see?Over the years I have learned that weight loss is not about having tons of

Disabling Comments

About 80% of the comments submitted to me were just sugar-coated spam.I used to review and reject them, but I can’t take this anymore. :(I get all these seemingly wonderful posts... Comment: “You are soooooo amazing!!! I was going to go bulimic, but your site gives me hope!”But then it links to: “SUPER-DUPER WEIGHT LOSS PILLS! BUY NOW!”ARGH!!!!!!! I am so disgusted!!I find it despicable

Why did I do that?

As a treat today I had a 180 calorie 1/2 c. scoop of vanilla ice cream. (I measured it and everything!)I then planned to sprinkle it with some Godiva hot chocolate powder... (about a tablespoon) but the sprinkle turned into about 1/2 c. as it fell out in a lump from the canister into my bowl!A serving of the cocoa is 130 calories per 3 tablespoons. So one tablespoon would have been about 45

But I’m Sick!

I am just getting over a cold. I was really sick over the weekend and spent all day in bed Sunday.“But I’m sick!” was always a great excuse to avoid exercise. Now my motto is if I am well enough to go to work - I am well enough to work out! So what if my nose is stuffy? My legs still work!This Friday I fly down to Texas for work and “Aunt Flo” is due to join me. :-6Even though it will be “that

Tweaked My Code and January Check-In

As you may have noticed, I tweaked the layout of my blog over the weekend!I really like the horizontal navigation bar I added to the top of the page.It should make it much easier to get around my site!!!!Health Update!I have been consistently working out, 5 times a week on my elliptical trainer. (Mondays and Fridays are my rest days.) I also have been keeping tight track on my calories.So far

Knowing is Never Enough

I used to use food as my panacea.Anger, stress, grief, boredom, loneliness… I filled up the holes in my soul with food. I lived in a world where chocolate “cured” everything.Eating gave me the sensation of satisfaction that I was lacking elsewhere in my life - even though it was temporary…It took me years to realize that my troubles can’t be fixed with food, and even longer to stop rushing to the

Getting over your "X"

I hear from so many people who are desperate to lose weight - but "just can't" because of "X.""X" can be many things - bad back, bad knees (been there, done that) or "fat genes.""X" could also be lack of support.It is hard enough to live a healthy life, but to have everyone around saying, "You are fine the way you are, why bother?" makes getting healthy seem even more impossible!"X" is that

Now that the Novocain has worn off...

Over lunch today I had some oral surgery. Now that the Novocain is wearing off I am cursing myself for not reading the post-op paper that said "Take your pain med before it wears off."Drat!To make it even more fun my body suprised me with a "Diva Day" 2 days early! (Are you kidding me?!?! )350Ensure Plus - Creamy Chocolate160Quaker Simple Harvest Multigrain Hot Cereal - Maple brown sugar and

The Drink of Success

There are lots of diet shakes, diet teas, and diet juices on the market, but if you really want to drink something that will really help your body get healthier... drink water. Pure and simple.Water helps you feel full.Have you ever felt hungry even though you just ate? Many times when you think you are hungry, you are actually thirsty. The signal for thirst is often mistaken for hunger, which