Jane somehow I clicked on the pics page and not the chat page and I saw your photos. Not sure if they were current but you look so good. Your waist is getting so small. Good for you.. You have come a long way and it's awesome that your still going and coming on here everyday. It really helps me I just want you to know that.

Betsy I hear ya on the bathroom part.. I am not sure what the deal is, but ever since I had my son my bladder has a mind of it's own it's seems like. Blah right.. Hope you feel better real soon!

Ramie, sorry about your loss. Wow I can't believe all the people who passed. Sorry to hear that. That is scary.

Ferris, I hate those kind of days. White bread is sweet for some reason. I have never really liked it.

mnem, You are so cute!! I love that dress. You look great in it!! Congrats! What a great feeling!!

Well, work is coming and I'm kind of happy about that. I had a rough week. No reason really I am just not in the right frame of mind. I should be losing more than this and I am just not focused enough. I am going to try and work on my weight loss smash book and get some inspiration before work and keep on keeping on ya know.
Hope you guys have a great Friday and Saturday. I probably won't be on tommorrow..

Mnem Love the dress! What a cute pattern

Sassy Why thank you! I couldn't keep going without this place. My friends love me, but they don't get it. And my boyfriend, well.... let's just say he's taking not giving a darn to a whole new level. I need to come somewhere where no one thinks I'm a crazy obsessive loon!

Ferris - haaaate those days, but I know how you can end up there, starving and trying to find something reasonable to eat! I don't think my body reacts badly to simple carbs the way yours does, but I DO know that our tastes change as we go through this process, for sure.

Heh, and yes, the bargains are they best. Most of the local stores have had big clearance sales getting rid of last season's stuff, and when any of it seems like it will work into spring I have bought it. This has spoiled me for 'real' clothing prices, I will basically now only buy great big bargains.

dgramie - so sorry to hear about your aunt, what a series of tragedies for you and your extended family. How very difficult. I will be thinking of you this weekend. On the other hand, I'm also glad you found a picture of yourself that you like! I think we are really highly self-critical and also, well, most people will have plenty of candids where they don't look good! After the Super Bowl Beyoncé's publicist asked magazines to take down some unflattering stills of her performance. Because she was dancing so much and so into it there were plenty of unflattering stills, even if she looked insanely good the whole time!

betsy2013 - ickiness is very hard to endure, I find. I hope you start feeling better soon, and am glad to hear that you are seeing progress!

sassyangies I think it is okay to give yourself a mental break sometimes. This is not a race, and you have your whole life to manage it? The most important thing is NOT how fast you lose, but that you keep off what you have lost, and then maybe lose more. And if you're a bit disappointed by your week, you can still get through it. Hopefully your smash book will help! Also, tacos are not the worst thing! Just stay away from the sour cream. I am having black bean / feta / salsa-coleslaw tacos for dinner tonight!

Jane - thank you! And hah, I know what you mean. I cannot share these challenges and triumphs with, uhm. Anyone excepting y'all here at 3FC. It is really, really helpful.

It is supposed to be super warm this weekend and I am looking forward to it. Thanks to the weight loss / calorie deficit, I have been cold all winter! I am also not scheduled to volunteer at all this weekend so I will have more time to myself. That will be brilliant.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

MEM ~ luv the dress; it's fun and cute, and looks great on you. Great bargoon there; I luv bargains too. When we went shopping, I managed to get some things I wanted: more under apparel, black everyday pants, some socks, and a pretty red/navy plaid shirt.

Today, we started with overcast and cloudy; but now it's :sunny: and the snow is melting ... yay! That may mean that spring is on its way here; sure hope so, cuz I'd luv to go for some walks to burn some cals. I have gained wait since the surgery and I'm concerned that I have way overeaten. My shape is still morfing and I have lost in some areas; and appear to have stretched in others.

It will be a battle to tweak to find out just how much of what I can eat to simply maintain my weight now that the tumor is out. I realize that it was using up some goodly amount of calories each day. Time to get out and walk for sure; and watch those snacks. I'm trying to watch that, but stress has gotten the best of me up until now.

Yesterday was't bad; hopefully one day this week will turn out really well. I am improving a little each day. :)

Good Morning.

Betsy I have to pee constantly it seems. I know where all the washrooms are in the places I frequent. :)

Mnem The dress looks fresh and cute.

I am going to my massage today and to pick up my fruit and veg for the week at the organic market. I also need to hit the bulk barn for organic brown rice, unbleached coffee filters and spices. Then one of my final WI's at WW.
Tomorrow DH and I head to an afternoon show of Blues music then a dumplings place for dinner.

What are everyone's weekend plans?

Im experiencing something I dont recall ever happening before. Im cold.

Now I usually start to sweat when I think about work. The past week Ive been walking around the house with fleece pullovers on, just to keep warm. Im more curious than anything, if anyone experienced getting cold to the bone like I am while losing weight?

Thank you all for wishes on getting over icky feeling......now it's down to just occasionally so who knows what's going on.

Just had a shock as the grands are spending the night and we'll be picking them up at Red Robin. Since it will be dinner time anyway and they like that restaurant (they're 5 and 2 1/2 so getting a restaurant they like is high on the priority list), we'll just eat there. Just went online to check out the menu and pre-select dinner. Good thing I did. I finally found what I consider to be a very basic grilled chicken salad and it's the lowest calorie item I could find and is still at 493 calories. Some of their salads came in at 700-800 calories. Didn't even look at the burgers.

I really admire the people who can diet without counting calories. I can't even pick out a meal yet without some help to let me know if it is a good or bad choice. Hhhhmmmmm -- may be a correlation there to why I'm dieting!

WI- down 2.6

Had a great day. I hope everyone else did as well.

SNICKERLESS ~ Yes, I found that at times I felt cold while losing weight; and I've heard others mention this as well. It may be becuz we are eating less carbs, fat, and calories overall. :)

well I ended up getting the stomach virus again. NO FUN!!! At least it was a mild case this time around.
Scales look amazing but I wont claim it for a few days.

Good morning all - would you like to see a monthly exercise accountability thread?

Mnem you're so sweet and super cute! Love the dress!

Betsy... I bought a 120 inch tape measure to do my original measurements in July. :hug:

July 26th my hips were 61 inches, and I had 39 inch thighs. My waist was 49 inches, and my bust was 55... My shoulders were 51 inches. I was the hourglass.

Today my hips are 47.5 inches, my thighs are 29.5 inches... My waist is 38 inches, and my bust is still 53 inches *snort*... My shoulders are down to 42 inches though. ;)

--------------------------------------------


So today I got into another girls pants. (Yes I am still giggling over this)

Any place outside of our community it sounds kind of naughty but here... I can say I have been waiting to get into other womens pants for 3 weeks and it sounds "typical".

So... Pics to go with...

October 17th (for some perspective):

http://images.obesityhelp.com/upload...9/DSC_9194.JPG

http://images.obesityhelp.com/upload...9/DSC_9195.JPG

Today (9 weeks out - tomorrow will be the start of week 10):

http://images.obesityhelp.com/upload...March11th1.jpg

http://images.obesityhelp.com/upload...March11th2.jpg

Add me to the list of those wearing 18's according to what I tried on in Additionelle and their size charts... Even if the Jeans I have on are not sized that way... LOL! I am so over what the tags say when I have clothing I am holding up to one another and one thing says 24 and one says 18. Yet they wonder why women start to fret over clothing! *grin*

All 2x are gone from my closet, and about 1/3rd of the 1x are gone... Some things I wear are 1x and some are xl... I'm due to remove things from the clothing collection but I was wicked sick on the weekend. *shrug* Not even going to whine about that though because it pushed me into the Jeans I wanted into.

Shell

Cuter Totally agree about being over the tags. I was stoked because I bought some 2XL tank tops at Warehouse one on Friday that fit. So when I went to the thrift shop with my mom, I grabbed a bunch of tops in that size range.... and none of them fit. even the one 3X was way too small. So frustrating!

I'm MOSTLY frustrated that I'm not losing anything from my gut. I tried on a pair of 26 pants on Saturday and I'm nowhere near buttoning them... I've been in 28's forever. It's annoying to lose 120 pounds and only one pant size!

Rosebud - hopefully the improving weather will help you get out and walk somehow. I think that the stress is understandable, really, and on some level I think that you probably want a bit extra (more than a deficit) when your body has to work around chemotherapy. If I recall, you also get steroids around the days you get the chemo, and of course steroids can be implicated in weight gain as well. but!!! getting to someplace where you are comfortable with your daily eating and your body is really importamnt.

PluckyPear - thank you! It feels sort of 70s, which I like. How was the Blues show? Man, I wish that we had a store that sold bulk spices and things like brown rice. Though I've not been eating rice much lately at alll. Congrats on the weigh-in, by the way!

Snickerless - yes. I have been in a calorie deficit for a long time and have lost a lot of weight. This winter in particular I have been VERY cold-intolerant. I am definitely most sensitive to the cold and I think it is a side-effect of being in a long-term calorie deficit. It can also be a symptom of thyroid problems, but I don't have thyroid problems and it has come on since I have been losing weight.

betsy - good job on the research! I mostly don't calorie count, but I'm calorie AWARE. I still go on the calorie counts of restaurants, though. Wow, that is pretty amazing, since most restaurants now have a menu of lower cal options. For the salads, I would totally look at the ingredient list and ask them to put the dressing on the side and leave off the bacon/eggs as I bet that's where alot of the calories are coming from. I don't use that much dressing so ...

Or maybe go for a sandwich but don't eat the bun, or eat half the bun? Alot of calories on burgers/sandwichs also come from sauces and mayo, so maybe you could get something like that and have them leave off the mayo!


But I think that that is true of most restaurant meals. It can be REALLY hard to guesstimate, and they through all this high-calorie stuff into the salads (and few vegetables) so you think you are being virutous while consuming ridiculous levels of calories.


dgramie - so sorry you got a stomach virus, how unfortunate! At least it was mild. I'm sure it is all those kids, they just keep exposing you to new and exciting viruses!

gggirls - I would enjoy that, I think!

Cuter - wow. That is AMAZING progress. I am looking forward to my hips being under 50". They are still a bit over that. And your waist! So tiny. As for your bust: uhm, my question is do you have a proper fitting bra? I am guessing you don't. Measure your underbust and get a proper fitting bra and your bust measurement might change. We are alot more dependent on undergarments for size there and if you are wearing somethign that is too big you won't see much progress in that top size.

Your progress pictures are so amazing, though. Congrats! I still have a long way to go to wear 18s (or xls!), but I am, hah, ALOT shorter than you.

Jane - that IS annoying. I am sure you will see a big drop soon, though. It has to happen. Oh, and yeah - plus size shops seem to have large 1/2/3x sizes than shops that just have those sizes as adjuncts. Like I said, Catherine's 2xs are way too big for me, but other places 2x is hit or miss right now. I refuse to buy any 3x on principle now, however!

--

I have a nice weekend, mostly domestic. Thoroughly cleaned the house, went out to dinner, did various... errands and such. My mom bought me some blouses from Catherine's in their 2x but they are too big. It was nice of her though. I will see if I can exchange for a 1x.

I made colcannon in honor of St. Patrick's Day, with a mix of potatoes and cauliflower for the white part of the mash, and used buttermilk instead of so much butter. Also made a pinto bean soup.

Jane that use to drive me nuts... Honestly when it starts to change it really starts to move. I found in the 26-28 range it took a long time (over 50lbs a size). Same with 22-24 (30-40lbs). Now... It is moving faster. 20 lbs counts for something in my clothing. Not sure how or why but it is... *gentle hugs* Really doesn't matter what the tags say though because I can hold up different things and read different sizes. :hug:

Mnem I am actually quite adept at fitting bras. *grin* I usually end up re-fitting people and helping them so I am giggling as I type the following: I am "cheating" with multiple layers presently.

All 40 and 42 bands had to be given away so I am rocking my 38 bands (37 inch ribs and anything over a 38 band my bewbs fall out below the cups :o ). Lefty being disproportionate (because she grew last January) is actually a British Standard L cup and an M in "that week". Righty is a J cup and a K in "that week". I am transitioning so fast and hope to see a decrease sooner or later so I am "making due" with generous H's (which I can purchase for 30$-50$+ tax instead of 180$+ tax because I can't justify the costs) for the interim sizing. Even if I get into a minimizing bra with serious compression... the lowest I have gotten the bust measurement is 50 inches and I can't breath properly in it. :?:

Presently there is 16 inches between my bust (except during that week and then it pushes to 18 inches), and my band. A B C D E F G GG H HH J JJ K KK L LL M - British Standard Sizing. The only reason they actually work in a couple H's are stretch lace cups, loosest hook on the band, tank top style compression garment to hide any spill over, OR balconette style with the tank to keep them "in".

And that's why I am slated for surgery 2 later within a year of surgery 1... And why I had a reduced functional reserve capacity when lefty grew from an H-HH-J-JJ-K in 13 days and then righty decided she was jealous and went from a GG-H-HH-J 2 months later also (silly things). 6 months of Dr's, tests, etc. and the consensus is Macromastia. I'm just that lucky that they shall continue to grow regardless.

Everyone keeps promising the bewbs will go... 13.5 inches off the hips... 9.5 inches off my thighs... 11 inches off my waist... 5.5 off my ribs... 9 inches off my shoulders... and only 2 off my very solid bust. :dizzy: