It's really happening! These days my mind is about 98% BERP. For the new folks, that stands for Big Entropy Reduction Project—a house-clearing and house-organizing endeavor on a major scale. I used to be a book reviewer, but in 2010, I rather suddenly became a full-time collage artist—old-fashioned paper, scissors & glue collage—so I have to collect paper. I also have a lot of art supplies. Not only that, but our house long ago hit its limit on how many books it can hold. We have full bookcases in every room in the house except the bathrooms, most of them floor-to-ceiling. We have books in stacks lining both the upstairs & downstairs hallways. We have books underneath some of the furniture. And we have boxes of books substituting for tables, crowding the kitchen & den & dining room, and taking up a lot of space in the basement.

So I'm working like a woman possessed to reduce the many piled-high stacks of magazines & catalogs to just clipped-out images I plan to use for collage, to square away all those clippings in my collage studio, to give away many hundreds of books, to organize & tidy up all the art supplies... basically to make it so we can see the floors!

My motivation is that we plan to be parents of cats again, after a long, sad, catless period since our last cat died on April 4th of last year. (We have no human children, by choice.) Our third consecutive pair of oriental shorthairs—like our last two pairs, a male & a female who are brother & sister, littermates—will be arriving in July. Orientals are very active, highly social with both people & each other, and as devoted to their human companions as dogs. And they are indoors-only cats: our breeder wouldn't sell them to us if we were ever going to let them outside. I want these new kittens to have lots of room to run & play & chase each other & climb & jump & generally get into trouble. =grin= They will not begin to slow down a bit and take occasional breaks as lap cats until they are at least two years old. Both my husband Bob and I are pushing 60, so being good parents to active animals won't be as easy as it was the last two times.

As for weight loss, it's taking place, slowly. I finally conquered my lifelong habit of binging (never purging) on sweets in late 2013, thanks to Kathryn Hansen's book, Brain Over Binge. I'm on a low-carb diet. I do half-an-hour of leg exercises every night. And now that winter is over, I'm trying to get myself into the habit of walking. We live very close to a lovely little park with a mile-and-a-half-long trail through woods, around a lake with mallard ducks & Canada geese. I feel so fortunate to have that trail, but in recent years I haven't been taking advantage of it as much as I should.

Restless— I want to add to the other voices saying that taking a medication like phen is not cheating. I have Bipolar Affective Disorder, for which I take a boatload of medications. You do what you have to do to be as healthy as you can be!

jacquelinerose— I'm impressed by how you're planning ahead, preparing yourself for the big journey. I've been on 3 Fat Chicks since the fall, and I think this thread is in fact an amazing support group. =smile=

Betsy— I'm so pleased to hear about how you're getting your mind on track, and congrats on your 9-pound loss!

Ubee— I really appreciate the gentle butt-kicking I got from you (& others) on your Tough Love thread. I'm afraid I won't have a lot of time to hang out there, though, not until around August or September. This will probably be my last long posting for a while on this thread, too. I have SO much to do! =pant pant=

Terra— Way to go on that walking, and you're really rolling on the weight loss front as well!

Sam— So sorry, girl, to hear about your painful experience with the ultrasound: I hope you hear what you want to hear, when the results come back. As for your workouts and your cardio, you are a rock star!

silentarctic— You haven't had a lot of luck with fending off infections these past several months, have you? But good for you that you're exercising all the same! Bob has a bad cold right now, so the viruses are out there making mischief, that's for sure.

sugar2go— Welcome to the thread! Does your handle mean you're going 100% sugar-free? That's what I'm doing, with rare dark chocolate treats spaced months apart. (My last one was for my birthday in February.) I'm astounded at how much more energy I have now that sugar is out of my life. Anyway, like Ubee said, don't be shy: tell us about yourself, when you're ready.

Jane, Dean, anyone else who hasn't posted recently— I hoping you're doin' well. If not, please telll us about it, and get some love from the group!

Betsy ~ Im glad to hear that Im everyone's champion when it comes to getting outside and get moving.

Jacqueline ~ Welcome to the forum and this thread

Fiona ~ Thanks for commenting on my weight loss and walking

I got two walks in today, Im gonna go for 3 tomorrow though.

Hi! I'm Dany and I'm 22. I'm a little hesitant to comment because I always end up giving up. I just can't hold myself accountable so I'm hoping I can find a couple buddies that can help whether it's on the forums, messages or texts. I want to be healthy, but I don't think I can do it alone.

I have psoriatic arthritis and I'm having the worst flare up today. I've never been so achy before. My hands, arms and ankles hurt so much. I took a walk to the store yesterday so I think that may be the reason for the flare up. I went from sitting at the computer every day to walking 30 minutes so I guess my body is in shock?

I don't even want to think about exercise at the moment, but I'm going to try to get in some lunges. Only twenty, but it's something.

Hi. I am new here and on day 2 of a calorie controlled Lite'n'Easy diet.
I am from Australia, so we measure in kgs not pounds, but the last time I weighed in, I was well over the 300 pound marker. It is so depressing.
I have joined this forum to meet some cool people to support and be supported by, who understand what it is like.
All of my RL friends are skinny and hot. They are supportive, but they don't get it.
So, hi! What kind of stuff do you guys/gals talk about in here?

Dany & Atalanta ~ Welcome to the thread

As soon as I feel wide awake Im gonna go walk for the 1st time today and then I'll walk again before we go shopping and then I'll walk again after dinner.

Morning all, so I'm a little cross with myself, I am up afew lbs , and back at my ticker weight (i was , i thought shifting closer to 290) but now it was 293.6 this AM which isn't acceptable. I had THOUGHT I did enough activity to counteract the sketchy food choices I had yesterday.

Ex I thought that fish and chips would be counteracted by a 2 hour hike...
And I thought if I only had 2 beers a night full of dancing would be okay. I also didn't snack at all.

Usually post alchohol consumption I am slightly dehydrated so to see the scale move UP more than 2lbs is a little disconcerting.

On the flip side, afew of my friends were hilarious last night and kept telling me how skinny I looked. It's just hilarious to me that a 300lb woman gets called "skinny" my friends are funny. I guess that outfit is a keeper. lol

Good morning all. It's a very overcast and soon to be rainy day here in the Northwest. Guess I have no excuse not to get the house work done some time today!

SilentArctic Oops! Sorry about the momentary (because I know you'll get it back off) upward swing. One of the hardest things to know is exactly how much exercise is necessary to even begin to counteract what we eat. I know the owner of our gym said that one should never believe what is posted on the various pieces of equipment as they are way, way too generous in their calorie burning assessments. It sounds like you had a good time with your friends and sometimes having a life that results in a pound or two is worth it. You've had such a tough time of it lately with feeling awful that I'm just glad to hear of you going out. And keep those friends......and that outfit!
Terra That's where I've been making my mistake with delaying walking -- I'm not waiting until I'm wide awake. OK, that's probably an excuse! Hope your walk was enjoyable.
Restless Glad you seem to be feeling more at ease with taking the Phen. And, you're right. Learning the difference between eating when you're hungry as opposed to just eating because it's time or habit is one of the hardest things to do. Glad you're monitoring the diabetes closely as well. You can do this. And since I'm a talker myself, we will fill up the thread with posts! :-))
Atalanta Welcome. You live in one of the countries that is definitely on my bucket list to visit. Please be sure to share some of Australia's customs and foods with us. And, yes, this is a great place to get support from a group that knows that this is going to be a LONG journey to get to a healthy weight. And, I think that we have some additional challenges in terms of changing our entire eating habits as well or else we wouldn't have reached this point. We're all very supportive and encouraging and even sometimes offer some great weight loss suggestions. Just share what you're comfortable with sharing.
Dany Welcome to you as well. Sorry about the psoriatic arthritis. I've got plain ol' arthritis that was definitely aggravated by my weight so I have some inkling of what you experience. Hope the pain eases for you.
Fi Not posting????!!!!! NO (that last was a loud and drawn out scream). I understand your desire to get on with BERP, but we need your insights and wisdom here. At least promise that you'll be posting pictures of the babies when they arrive and links to your latest collages. I already miss you!

I'm kicking myself this morning. After declaring yesterday that I had a much better grasp on why I get out of control on my eating, I lost control. Man, there must be an anti-smugness fairy floating around out there, because I definitely had an off plan day. So, I've now realized that I tend to lose control when I'm tired from exercising or working in the yard, when I'm bored or lonely, AND when I'm trying to avoid work that I really don't want to do. And when you're retired, that means that about 90% of one's day is dedicated to eating. Might explain the problem! So, I'm re-committing today. And I will get the house cleaned up in spite of not wanting to do it! Have a great rest of the weekend.

Just a buzz by! I'll be back to overly chatty tomorrow.

Betsy— Oh, you silly person, who failed to read what I said.... =smile= I didn't say I wasn't going to be posting: I said that it would be my last long posting for a while. I'll still be checking in, and of course I'll post pics of the kittens when they arrive! As for my collages, well, not all of them are funny or cheerful, so I'll stay selective about which ones I give y'all links to. It's awfully sweet of you to say you wanna see them. In case anyone wants to bookmark my whole collection, at the more viewer-friendly ipernity site, here it is. If you click on "Albums" on the horizontal grey bar, you'll see the different categories of stuff I have there, including one for "Cats" which has photos and paintings of our previous pairs of oriental shorthairs.

I have been gone from 3FC for quite a while. On April 13th I got a terrible case of the chills. I was shaking head to toe from being cold and every part of my body was in pain. I put an electric blanket over me turned to the highest setting. That did no good so I placed a second electric blanket over the first one and put it on high also. I was still shivering uncontrollably so I put a regular blanket over the two electric blankets and I continued to shake with cold chills. Strangely my temperature was normal for me 97.6. About four hours later I changed to a hot flash and dumped all the blankets. The next morning I was back to uncontrollable chills and asked DW to drive me to an Urgent Care Clinic. After an exam the doctor said I had pneumonia, he gave me antibiotics and a prescription for an x-ray. I was called by a nurse at the urgent care clinic later that day and was told the x-ray showed I did not have pneumonia but it showed "Chronic Fibrotic Scarring Changes to my Left Lung Base" A quick search on the Mayo Clinic web site indicated this was probably Pulmonary Fibrosis. If so the prognosis is not good. My father died of this at 54. I made an appointment with a pulmonologist and he is sending me for a breathing test this Monday before making a diagnosis. At this point my mind is racing with possibilities.

Larry - I hope you have better luck than you think you will. Truely sorry to hear you have not been well.

Ubee and Betsy - I am reporting in, you might think this if fun. Today for her "Clara's Big Ride" Clara Hughes did a short talk and photo op in our town. Since I don't believe you are Canadian, a little background... Clara is a multiple Olympic medal winner, she has won medals in both summer (Cycling) and winter olympics (Speed Skating) pretty legendary in Canada. She is doing a toure to raise awareness of mental health issues. With Bells "Let's Talk" campaign). If you are bored or curious google "Clara's Big Ride" there is a whole webside explaining it.

Anyways onto the ME of it all because I am apparently responsible for the entertainment in your lives... We got our nerdy on ...I eventually gave into a "podium" photo. We snuck it in while Clara was doing a wardrobe change, I was "gold" since I was tallest and then my friend who was avg heighted wore the silver and my more petite friend wore a bronze medal. And we stood as if we were a podium. Nerdy and I can't believe this photo exists of me now! And then got photos with Clara, stopped by a craft sale, ended up buying and taking lunch and eating it with another friend and then went into work.

Anyways major olympian passing through our town counts as excitement in this neck of the woods. Now I go to my dull night of cleaning (and more probably .... ) watching a movie by myself.

Thanks for the lovely welcome, everyone. Day 3 for me and going well so far. The diet I am on is called Lite N Easy, not sure if you have that in the USA. They provide all of my meals for me, so all I have to do is master the microwave (which I did years ago... thanks, pizza pockets). I am on the 1500 calories a day menu. I have been happily surprised by some of the meals - I even had bacon and eggs on toast this morning! Sure, it was the boring, non fat, part of the bacon and the addition of spinach was something I wouldn't have done in the past, but I really enjoyed it. Just had a chicken breast and salad wrap for lunch which I liked to (except I picked off the cucumber, ew).

One thing I was interested in knowing is if anyone else has paid much attention to the BMR mathematic equations, ie what is your BMR, how many calories a day does your body need, vs how many calories you eat. I was on a site earlier

www(dot)shape(dot)com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/ask-diet-doctor-how-many-calories-should-i-eat-lose-weight

And using the math, I burn 3034 calories a day, so eating 1500 should equate to a weight loss of 3 pounds a week. Geez, wouldn't that be nice.

Numbers help me, I think, so I need to find some scales that go up high enough - any recommendations?

Atlanta : I think nowadays you should just be able to go to walmart and get a scale (digital) that goes up over 300. Afew years ago I had trouble finding ones that went over 330 (i needed it to go to 350) but most of the ones I saw went up to 330. I think if you are willing to just look around the scale section of your stores it should be fine, I think I got mine at Canadian Tire (its like a sporting goods/car maintenance supply, all purpose kind of store... ). At least in canada 330 seems to be the 'standard' limit for most scales I've seen not sure about in your country though obviously. .

oh as for me up another two lbs that phillipino food was a BAD decision (salty and carb loaded). Need to eat clean today... just enjoying tea I will have my breakfast in a bit.

I put some adzuki beans, chickpeas and kidneys in water to soak, and a lb of lean ground beef out of the freezer to thaw. Now all I need is to get tomatoes from the store (and if I'm lucky cilantro but I'm not holding my breath). And I can make up a quick pot of chilli hopefully that will get me through part of the week.

I really need to get back on track and having meals pre-ready really helps with that.