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That's awesome! What I love most about the way in which you achieved your goal is that you did so without any of those "lose weight fast" schemes or any monumental changes to your lifestyle. I think I would have the most difficulty with losing out on the carbs as well. I'm one of those people who, when thinking of a restaurant to go to, always chooses the place with free bread. lol Weight training has been the hardest exercise regiment for me to maintain. I used to do free weights with the boys when I was in high school (I was the only female wrestler on our team), but even when I had access to the gym, it was more difficult for me to stay motivated when it came to weight training than to cardio. This is where I agree with rj16; gyms, especially the weight area, has always been intimidating to me (more so since I stopped weight training in high school). Although I do not have kids, I have trained a few mom-triathletes for swimming, and they have a very similar difficulty. Their kids are still small enough that they have running strollers they use, but one of their kids is old enough that he always wants to "run with mommy." It's adorable, but I can understand how it can be a concern!

It is really difficult to work out, especially with how busy school can be. There was a time last semester when I was student teaching and taking classes, and I swear I had fast-food at least three times a week. It was awful. And, worse than that, most of the dinner meals I had were at 10:00 p.m., which really destroys a person's metabolism. Healthy eating is especially difficult, I think. What has helped me is that I really enjoy cooking, and so I like to look up recipes and try out new varieties. There are a ton of ways to use spinach! lol Though less emphasis is often placed on having regular meals, that can sometimes be the greatest detriment. I know that I gained the most weight, actually, when I had a semester where I was skipping lunch every day due to school and work schedules. I would come home, cook dinner, and just eat everything. When you start working out, or even when you begin your healthy eating plan, I know that many people swear by the eating smaller meals more often during the day plan. I've started having a stock of granola bars or nuts that I keep in my purse/bag. The best of luck to you! You should update us on what types of food you're experimenting with or trying out.

Running has become my de-stresser as well! The weather, I've noticed, does play a major role in motivation, and though I love the treadmill, nothing beats a good outdoors run. Honestly, this is coming from someone who has recently come onto the running scene, but one thing that has really helped me is trying to keep a consistent schedule. A series of obstacle races called the Spartan Race had a 30-day training challenge, which is where I got started. I made an Excel spreadsheet (nerdy, I know) and committed to the challenge. What made it work, I think, is that it was manageable even on a tight work/school schedule. All the challenge asked was for you to log at least one mile each day. Most people can afford to spend the 9 to 20 minutes (or less for those better runners) it might take to run the mile, even if it's a bit colder outside. For the first two weeks, all I ran was the single mile each day, but I focused on trying to decrease my time and, in general, work on pacing myself enough that I felt better each time I ran the mile. I didn't have access to a treadmill, but I loaded on the layers and would go running. Some people say that if you dress for 20 degrees warmer than it is outside, you should have just the right amount of layers on to keep you warm enough that you don't feel like you're breathing in shards of ice, but not too warm to where you overheat. After those first few weeks, on a day that was warmer, I tried to run for longer. Now that we are finally moving out of the ice age around here, I have been able to run outside for longer and more frequently. It's always an easier motivator to have someone right next to you pushing you, but if you want to get back to it, I would be happy to help however I can! (Even if it means spamming your mailbox to see if you've run that day). The other important thing I have learned is to not get frustrated if you miss a day or get sick. Those types of things will happen, and getting frustrated only makes your motivation decrease. I'm trying to work on improving my upper body strength, and my ultimate goal is to be able to do pull ups. It's a small goal, and it seems silly I'm sure, but if you set those small goals and gradually work up to that goal, you'll have a great sense of accomplishment (such as we feel when we receive good news from grad schools, right?)

That's absolutely fantastic! It's amazing how much better overall a person can feel after that kind of substantial weight loss. If you don't mind me asking, did you meet your goal through standard diet and exercise? I know many women love hearing these types of success stories because they're achievable through hard work, especially since women typically have a much more difficult time losing and maintaining weight loss.

Whether you're still anxiously waiting for news, in the midst of making a tough decision, or you're in the state of post-rejection blues, it's easy to say we're all stressed. In addition, I have seen some struggling with stress-eating or failing to eat as a consequence of months of being in limbo about where next our lives will take us. I'm no trainer or nutritionist, but I have been a coach for several years and an athlete and motivator for a much longer time. I can only give so much advice, but I thought this would be a good place for people currently struggling to turn negativity and doubt into a positive experience. If you just want someone to talk to, if you want some advice on getting started on an exercise program, or if you need some support or someone to hold you accountable, I would be happy to help. We are all used to working out our brains, but let's work towards making both our minds and bodies strong.

I'm wondering who all has been accepted, plans on attending, or currently attends Auburn University for their English program. I've been offered a really good opportunity at Auburn, but with a few more offers yet to come, it's difficult to make any decisions yet.

I'm just wondering if anyone has been accepted, plans on attending, or currently attends UT Knoxville. I was accepted to their English M.A. program, but I have yet to hear about funding.

I can understand that sentiment. For me, it is less a worry about time constraints and more a worry about finances. I'd love to attend all of these conferences, but with plane tickets and hotel rooms, the costs just add up. I've heard from my professors that they're having to drop more of their own money on conferences each year, even though most of the time conference attendance/paper presentations are part of maintaining their jobs. One of my professors said that he on average drops about $1000 on a weekend conference; it makes it very difficult to have these opportunities for professional development!

My fiance's family is one of those good, country families who have farms and don't really put much stock in schooling. Each time we go home we get asked, "Where are you going to school next?" and we tell them, "We won't know for sure until April. When we know, you'll know." Then, the next time we are at home, they ask the same question, and we respond the same. WE WON'T MAKE A DECISION UNTIL APRIL. LEAVE US ALONE. WE DON'T NEED YOU REMINDING US EACH TIME WE SEE YOU THAT OUR LIVES ARE CURRENTLY SUSPENDED IN THIS APPLICATION HELL. On another note, I also like hearing from my family that the only school they want us to go to is the school that is closest to them. It's nice to be loved, and yes, being seven or eight hours away is a bit of a stretch, but can't you be happy when I hear I've been accepted to a school other than the one three hours away? lol

I got my rejection today from the lit program at Purdue. The letter said that due to a lowered numbered of TA positions available, they were only able to offer 10% to 4% acceptance to those who applied across all departments. I wish you all the best of luck!

The weather may have set them back a little, for sure. If offices are closed, then no one is there to make application decisions after all, right? It also depends on the size of the program and how many applications they received. From what I have heard, they usually send out PhD decisions first as they need to decide on how to distribute funding (and PhD students usually get priority for funding). However, I have also seen where people have posted that they received an acceptance letter after having been on a waitlist. It came as a surprise because they had not known they were even on a waitlist. lol The application deadline for Knoxville and Ohio were both January 15, but if what Ohio's website and what Eternal Optimist heard is true, they will be the first schools I will be hearing from. Meanwhile, I applied to some of my other schools, as you said, in November and December, and so far I haven't heard of anyone hearing from them. You never know! hamid4965, keep a positive attitude! The game is not over until it's over. I hope you hear good news soon!

Someone needs to apply some ointment to that burn!

As an English major, this speaks to my heart. Time to polish off my barista skills. University Of Tennessee Knoxville Poetry, MFA (F13) Rejected via E-mail on 16 Feb 2014 ♦ A 21 Feb 2014 Got a nice letter that said "due to the depressed job market for English graduates." Nice of them to remind you that not only have you been rejected, you also have no chance at jobs.

I know of several people who are in your interest area (English, at least) and have gone straight from B.A. to PhD (accepted, with funding/TA). Those people are few, and their backgrounds are pretty stellar. So, I would say it's entirely possible, that there is no reason to not go for it, especially if that's what you want to do. However, here's what I've seen/heard. You have to have kick-@ss credentials, most of the time. Stellar GRE scores, a great undergrad GPA, and, of course, convincing SOP and recommendation letters. But, don't you want that for any graduate school application? Of course, but going straight from a B.A. to a PhD and competing with those students who have already received their M.A. makes it extra difficult, unless you choose to go to smaller schools, not as highly ranked schools, and schools which, as a result, typically have less funding. As I said, people have done it, and these friends of mine are going to do amazing things, I'm sure. On the other hand, I applied to only English M.A. programs. However, I applied only to programs which explicitly stated that they have funding available for PhD and M.A. students. Now, the number of M.A. students admitted with funding is a pretty small margin, but no less of a margin than getting accepted into a PhD program. Granted, I haven't heard back from any of these programs yet, so I cannot attest to how successful this course of action will be. I know it has been successful in the past, however, with other people, and you don't have to necessarily be on the top of your game during the application process. Doing the M.A. first will give you some time to improve your credentials and maybe get some publishing/presentation experience. I think the most successful route, from what I have seen, is to apply to both M.A. and PhD. If you have the money to shell out for the recommended 8 to 15 applications (or more, depending on who you talk to), you can split the number of M.A. program and PhD program applications. This way, if you get a fully-funded offer for an M.A. but get turned away from all your PhD programs, you have a back-up plan, and you know that you can improve your applications through your M.A. for applying to a PhD program. If you get accepted to a PhD program but get no funding from M.A., then you can decide between the potential challenge that lies ahead for PhD and the debt that will incur if you turn away the PhD for an unfunded M.A. I hope this helps! If you have more detailed questions, feel free to ask!

I have not received an acceptance yet. I have not won the lottery yet. I have not had a puppy show up at my door yet. I have not had Bill Gates give me a free computer yet. I have not found the secret to having rock-solid abs without working out yet. I think that covers some bases at least.

Thank you so much for the update, Eternal Optimist! I cannot express how happy this makes me to finally hear some news! I was honestly starting to worry that somehow I had dreamed up the whole application process and never actually applied anywhere. 0.0 lol The very best of luck to you! I sincerely hope you hear great news!!! Keep me updated, and maybe we'll be lucky enough to both be potential students at any of those universities in Fall 2014. Also, as a side note, you are awesome for going into medieval! I love the early modern period, but I always thought medievalists were pretty boss. You have to be one smart cookie to be a medievalist!

It's funny how irony works. You know how I just responded that I had not received a heart attack via snail mail just four hours ago? Yeah. . . so. . . about that. Mom called saying that I had received a letter from one of my schools. At first I said, "No, no. Don't open it. Just wait until I get home. I don't want to know," but, finally, I told her to go ahead and open it, bad news or not. Yeah, it was a letter from the financial aid department saying that, as of February 26, I did not have confirmed admission to the school, so all my FASFA information was not viable yet. At least that tells me that, as of February 26, I had neither been rejected nor accepted lol.

You are most welcome, Dechunkis3! I've found a lot of great people on here willing to share their positive energy and their advice, so I think you've come to the right place! I'm not going into your program, and I haven't heard anything about those schools, but if I happen across some information, I will definitely keep you in mind! The best of luck to you! I don't know what you do to de-stress, but whether it's working out, reading a book, listening to music, or whatever, set aside your computer, turn off your phone, and do whatever it is that helps you for at least thirty minutes each day. It's amazing how much just that little amount of time will help, especially if you catch yourself refreshing your email inbox constantly. (I can say this with confidence because I am absolutely guilty as charged as an inbox and gradcafe results page-refresher).

University Of Western Ontario Media Studies, PhD (F14) Rejected via Website on 1 Mar 2014 1 Mar 2014 Smells funny. Oh well, several more to go. Rejection has a smell. . . and it apparently. . . smells funny.

I just thought it would be cool to have a post where everyone could say which conferences they're thinking of attending this year! (or where we can talk about those conferences we have already attended this year) I've been accepted to the New Jersey College English Association Conference, the North American Undergraduate Conference in Religion & Philosophy, and the Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature. I've applied to Wiscon and am currently procrastinating on sending in an abstract to the Rocky Mountain Modern Foreign Languages conference.

I haven't received any snail mail heart attacks, yet (though an image of a snail-ninja just popped into my head. Delirium? I think so). However, my roommate did receive a package the other day. It was on our front porch and had the word PERISHABLE stamped on the front. I asked her if it was a puppy. I had hoped it was a puppy. Puppy cuddles would make this application process better. Instead, it was girl scout cookies from her family. As if I need another outlet through which to get fat.

I still haven't heard back from any of my schools. I know, it really stinks to be met with silence. I was told the best thing to do is be as patient as possible and, if you still haven't heard back from a few schools by mid-March, give your departments a call. From what I've gathered, some schools actually do take that long (or longer) to make decisions, while others just don't get their notifications out in as timely a manner as others. Take a deep breath and try to relax. Be sure to check the results page, though. Although it doesn't always give you a good indication of when you'll hear from your schools, sometimes people post really important information next to their result (such as, check your Spam mailbox, or if they never received an email but had to check their website to find out). Also, I had to add this, but my professors have told me that hearing no news is better than bad news! lol It's hard to remain positive, but keep your chin up!

You're such a good virtual buddy! Virtual hugs for you! Seriously though, thank you for all the positive vibes. I really, really appreciate it. The waiting game is a hard one, and I've realized that for a group of people who generally are over-achievers (who else would want to go to grad school, right?), it's particularly difficult. In the same vein, it's even more difficult for a group of over-achievers to be rejected from anything. It's a difficult and emotional game to play. I wish everyone the best, but I also know that there will be disappointment and heartbreak. It's hard to remain positive during this process, and sometimes it's a struggle to remain happy for everyone else. (And this is going a bit off topic), but even though I'm new to the gradcafe, I think that's why this forum is, most of the time, a positive outlet compared to the results postings. The results postings are nice in that you can try and prepare yourself for news before you receive it and see how you "stack up," so to speak. But, there is a real deficit of fulfillment there, too. You see someone who says they were accepted at your dream school, with funding, via email, but your inbox remains empty. So, you post to the results page, "Hey person below me who was accepted at Kick-Awesome University, I need to know more!" Sometimes there is silence, sometimes you'll run across a response in the forum where that person has elaborated. Even still, you may be greeted by silence from the university's end, thus dashing your hopes and dreams. Though you are happy for the person who was accepted, you may be inferior or have a "why him/her and not me" moment. Long story short, the forum aspect of this site helps, more so than it hurts, I think, to provide closure to those refreshers of the results page. After all, you have the opportunity to talk to real people on a communicative level rather than a quantified level (comparing GRE stats, when the letter was received, etc.). That was a dreadfully long diversion but just something that's been on my mind. On another note, I chuckled the other day (really, it was closer to a guffaw, but I hate to commit to such an intense level of laughter) because, though I still have no word from graduate schools, I received another email about a different conference accepting one of my abstracts. I'm super excited and totally shocked, but it's almost like some great irony. "We really want you to present your ideas at professional gatherings among people who have graduate degrees, but we're still on the fence about whether we really want you to attend graduate school. It's a toss up, really." I will try to maintain that I have patience, though I've really been quite terrible at it lately. lol (Switching topics once more) I always love hearing about people's theses! It's a wonderful feeling being in the presence of someone when they're really passionate about their topic, and they have all of this knowledge just pouring out of their ears. It's at those times that I feel most human, and I am able to soak in how amazing it is that rationality exists. When it comes to really specific topics, like yours, I always want to ask, "How did you decide to write about that? What interested you in that?" but sometimes the answer is. . . well personal. But, I'd be happy to hear more about that (or anything, really) if you're willing to type it out! lol You're an interesting person, and I love listening to interesting people!

If I had a plus one to give, I'd give it to you, marsmat. I never would have taken into account punctuation amounts as an indication of a true application response. lol Related to email, but in a more tangible way, is the lovely mailbox. I just realized today that this is probably the most I have ever checked my mailbox. That's saying a lot, especially since I have a mom who still likes to send "treat boxes" while I'm away at college. Sorry, mom. <3