WELCOME !!!

We are a group of individuals who weigh or have weighed 300+, or near there. This group was formed to provide a place for others like us to find support and hope. We are aware of the distinct problems that come with weighing over 300 lbs.

We want to invite everyone to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears.
We share what works for us and what doesn't.
We often use a "Topic of the Day" for discussion.

Motivational Monday
Tuesday Tips
Wednesday Wish List .. and What you are doing to obtain it.
Thankful Thursday
FUN Friday ... don't wait until you lose your weight.
Sit-up Saturdays - any physical activity
Share your Success Sunday

These are not required topics ...just ideas to share. We often find them very helpful. We also share heartaches and fears ... joys and celebrations.

We have several extra threads going on simutaneously such as Monthly Challenges, Weekly Weigh-ins, Recipes, Bios, and more. Please feel free to check them all out.

We have found this thread to be more than just a support group...
we have found it to become a home. We invite you to join us.

WELCOME!

I know you'll all agree that we are really thankful for the free services here at 3FC. The sisters offer all of this support and information with no charges to us. There are a couple of ways though that we can help out.

If you are thinking about buying anything at Amazon, why not help out 3FC at the same time? You can do this by clicking on the button for Amazon on any page in the forum, or by clicking on the button on the main 3FC page at www.3fatchicks.com . A portion of your purchase price will be given to 3FC by Amazon. It doesn't increase your price at all, but it does help out 3FC. You can use any of the Amazon.com links that you see on the site in order to help contribute to the site.

Also, BTW, in case you didn't know it, you can view the message boards "ad free" for a minimal charge. I think it's like $15 for 6 months. A very small investment to be rid of the annoying ads and make your pages load quicker.

There have been some concerns expressed by the powers that be about copyright infringement. So please, if you are directly quoting someone else or printing an article in whole or in part, please give credit where credit is due!!!!

Maria - What a great NSV!! To not be too tired to do something that would have worn you out only months ago! Fantastic! I have to admit, when you said she asked you about having another workout, my mind went straight to the gutter. I'm horrible! LOL

Brandnewme - Another GREAT NSV!!! Fitting INTO the bathing suit is one thing...but thinking you look good in it! THAT'S SO GREAT!!!!! Congrats! I recently bought a swimsuit as well...the first time in YEARS...and I'm just ITCHING for us to open up our pool for the season!

Big day tomorrow...will prove to be long. Off to sleepyland....

I find while I'm thinking what to type into my PM's that it sometimes takes time to do so.

I've had times where I've written quite a bit and then when I try to preview or submit I've run out of time somehow and than I have to login again and I've lost all that I have typed.

Can someone help me here?

HI everybody!!! Hope you all had a great day!

Ammi, yah I will probably be finding other stuff to do besides watching AI next week! But since my favorite guy is still there after tonight, I will be watching for the results. I really hope I don't get seasick too... I did buy a bottle of dramamine!!

LOL Kayley... deal on the weather! You can have your hot sunshine back. <G> Actually we do have a lot of hot sunny weather here in the summer and LOL even on our hot days we almost always have cool breezes and it gets really cool at night. I think the sunshine is pretty much here for the next few months!

Good Evening All, Boy it is so hot here in Northern Idaho. Whew. Lucky us, our first year of living here in the summer and there is record breaking heat!

I haven't been stopped on going to Curves to workout though. Not letting anything get in that way. I have missed so many posts that I may combine some.

Val: I hope you got to get back home. I know how much you want to be off the road. I am so proud of you for walking and doing some exercise. You are awesome. I know you are back on the right track.

Lori: Is there a Vacation Bible School around where you live? I bet your little kiddles would enjoy that. I taught at one a few summers ago and I had so much fun and the kids did too. It may keep you from going LOL.

Flady, Jillybean and Teahoney: Feel better soon.
Good job drinking so much water Flady. Teahoney & Jillybean. I wish I could pass a bit of my sudden and unexpected motivation on over to you. I can do it symbolically if that helps at all. Ok........ Here it is!

Excellent NSV's for: Brandnewme, Bryttani, MariaLucia, and anyone I may have missed.

A huge WAhoo! to Sharon on her -3, Misti on -2 and Lilion for getting back down. You guys rock.

Wyllenn: I love the "love" seat and sofa. Unfortunately the "love" seat isn't something we feel like testing out because it is sooo hot here and we are without AC. Whaaaaaa!

To all my other girls: Kayley, Nancy, Ammi, Crock, Patty, Elaine, Zelma, Julee and anyone I failed to mention by name. Big hugs to you and hope you are all being OP and are blessed.

Blessings,
Dogpal

Bad Morning All

No don't worry it's nothing serious. I just could not wait to find out who the finalists are on AI, so I went to the site and had a look. Am gutted that Katherine is through to the final, and I seriously am considering not watching the final now. I would like to see Taylor perform, and win, but if that boring Katherine was to win I would want to throw my TV out the window. Hmm, maybe I will just watch the performances and not the results lol. Poor Elliott, how could the voting public let him down at the last minute Xena did you vote a million times????

Ok enough AI talk

Kayley - I used to love to swim when I was younger and thinner We had an olympic sized pool not far from where I used to live in Australia and in the summer I practically lived there. I miss swimming now, but it's been so many years and I have put on so much weight I think I would only be able to do the doggy paddle

I love that you have gone in the lake fully clothed, when I was in Australia last I saw loads of people doing that. It was an Aussie winter, but an unusually warm day which caught people unaware, so they decided what the heck and they still went swimming

Thanks for telling me about your mum, I am glad she is doing SB with you, I bet it's a big help. It's so great that you think of your mum as your best friend. I think I am public enemy number one with my daughter. She is going through a rebellious stage but I hope when it passes that she will stop being so angry with me all the time

MariaLucia - sorry for hurting your eyes with the lime colour writing, is there any other colour you would prefer I didn't use?

That NSV was so brilliant, all that lifting and shifting and not being worn out, nor in pain, it's wonderful And your ex complimented you too, ha, she will be regretting that she wasn't a better GF to you I bet.

Patti - yes I guess focusing on just why you are exersising is the best way to keep your mind busy when you work out. Just picturing yourself doing the same exercise but 100 lbs lighter it must definitley motivate you to keep on moving.

Brandnewme - good to see you posting again. I am sorry to hear though that you are having problems getting your insurance to pay for your ER bills. America is a wonderful place but I have to say I don't think much of the way the health care system is run. I am also sad to hear that you are having more downs than ups with your hubby. I hope you get to sort things out, get things off your chest and then hopefully kiss and make up

Other than that though I am really happy to hear that you are feeling a lot better. I have been worried that you might have been away from here because you were too ill.

Flady - sounds like you made excellent food choices when you went out with your inlaws, even the banana pudding won't have been as bad as say a huge slice of chocolate cake.

I know what you mean about being good friends with your bathroom now It's amazing just how many times a day you have to go to the loo when you make sure you drink the right amount of water. It's worse for me because I tend to drink most of mine from 6 pm onwards, so I am running back and fore to the loo right up until midnight

Elaine - I am not 100% sure, and I can't check right now because I am logged in and don't want to lose all I have written But I think that when you log in, or perhaps on your user control panel there should be an option to choose how long you stay logged in for. One of the options is permanent. If you chose that, then you shouldn't get logged out when you least expect it.

Misti - I wish I was going to be on a cruise instead of watching Katherine maybe win AI. I don't want her to win, whine whine whine that's me whining not her

Good idea to take the sea sickness stuff with you just in case. Last summer we took the girls on a boat trip, it was a very small, very old steam boat, and the sea was very rough. Poor Caleigh spent the whole 2 hour journey in the toilets being sick, as did a lot of other people. At one point we got drenched when waves swamped the deck lol. I thought it was so funny. But just in case the journey back was bad I bought us all sea sickness tablets A lot of people must have had the same idea because the chemist said, 'going back on the Balmoral' as soon as I asked for the tablets,

Annie - I am so envious of you lovely hot weather. We had some last week, but it seems long gone for now. Should have seen my girls coming home yesterday, they were both drenched. Beth had been to an army day in school, and got wet through hanging around there. They didn't end up doing any activities because it was too wet, but there was no shelter, which sucked. Caleigh walked home from school, no coat, no umbrella, so she may as well have just gone swimming in her clothes. So yep, we could defo do with some nice sunshine.

I am going to get some breakfast now and sulk a bit more about Elliott Thank goodness BB is starting here tonight, that should help take my mind of it Bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

Dogpal, WOW!! you are doing so well. Kayley & Dolfingirl, wish we had the weather to go swimmming outside- most of the summer it rains, we get probably 4-6 weeks of warm/hot weather, so very few people bother with outdoor pools here. I have two bathing costumes but I'm so ashamed of my size I only go in water when we're abroad, as it's so hot you HAVE to go in the water or bake.
I have been very busy exercising to an old video, post baby, supposedly, the second segment is for when you are back to proper fitness, WOW, zillions of curl-ups, leg raises & stuff, I ache so much BUT its 'good' aching, I will have to alternate it with the salsa exercise video to give my tummy muscles a 'rest'! There is a lot of jumping about too, and weights, so its a 'total' workout and there are quite a few women in the vid who are pretty large, as well as the slim ones and they are all sweating loads during the workout, so its a relief that they are knackered too!!
Got to go & do more exercise now, I feel so much better when I do it, WHY do I decide not to some days? Stupid or what? The same goes for dieting, I get bored or feel like not doing it for a few days, how stupid and self defeating of me!
xxsharon
ps, Ammi I will be on msn 1-ish & 4-6pm so SWITCH IT ON!!!!! (if you are wanting a chat that is, lol)

hi all, hope no one minds me popping in and introducing myself(agian)/saying hi.
ive been here on and off...lose motivation..stop checking the forum...forget my user name/password and not care enough to retrieve it =/ ...im not much of an out going or talkative person usually, and tend to find it hard to respond to posts. hard to even type this .....need to lose at least 100...dunno exactly...dunno how much i even weigh...probley need to lose half my body weight lol. im not even 20 yet, so being around people in thier mid/late 20s. in thier 30s...40s..etc tends to make me nervous. children were always cruel when i was a kid, but adults were always crueler and dismissive. as such grew up pretty much a loner. have always been to some extent a loner, and will probley always be a bit of a loner ^^ i know im rambling. i guess what i just wanna say is i love the 3fc site and forum. 300+ board imparticular seeing as i can relate to it the most. just by reading through the forum is enough to remotivate me and make me feel....i dont know...renewed maybe? and thanks to everyone who posts and shares thier experience and journey.
alrighty, ill shush up before i sound even more lame (because i definitly could ramble on)

Hi, fluffy, just coz some of us are over 30 doesn't mean we're not sympathetic, it just means we've probably been fat longer than you! don't worry about rambling, lots of us do, and we moan/complain about other people upsetting us & other halves not understanding. But we also share our exercise/diet tips and sucesses and NSVs (Non-Scale Victories) like smaller clothes, people noticing & commenting on our diminishing size, less fat hanging from our tummies or other body parts, whatever shows us we're losing weight.
Jump on in, go on the user control panel & get a ticker/tracker, measure your arms, neck, thighs, bust & waist until you can get on some scales, it will really help.Tell us a bit more about yourself too......
xxxsharon

Good morning, all!! Happy Thursday! Yay my vacation starts tomorrow yippeeeeee (niece arrives tomorrow night, cruise leaves Sunday).

Dogpal I know what you mean about not letting anything stop you! I'm that way too. It has been hot here this week and I know our heat is wimpy compared to that in a lot of places (since I've LIVED in a lot of those places) but it still makes it hard to get out and walk on my lunch hour. I have slowed down my pace just a bit; I was getting 117-119 steps per minute on my aerobic steps, and the last couple days was 112-114 but that is still really good since 60 is aerobic. I have to force myself out there by reminding myself of just how badly I want this fat off! The fact that I have a bunch of cute clothes that I can "almost" wear is really keeping me going too! Some of my nice crop pants I can get into but it is hard to sit down LOL so need a few more pounds. After that I have quite a few clothes that get progressively smaller so I need to also!!!!

Ammi, I know what you mean about AI. If Taylor had been the one to go last night I would not bother to watch it next week either even if I had the chance on the cruise. But like you... if Katherine wins I would be ready to throw my TV set out the window. LOL maybe it's a good thing I won't be home for the sake of my TV set!!

Hi guys, well I'm newish here. And yep I'm 300+. I'm 22 and after my first major love and loss I've reacherd my alltime high. Which is also my all time low. SO I'm working my butt off, hopefully literally, to lose some weight! I am glad I found this place. It seems maybe I've found people who will truley be supportive and understand this struggle! So hello guys, my name is Dusty, I'm a girl (just to clarify hehe) and I was 325 pounds 3 weeks ago. But I've lost about 15 pounds now and I'm feeling great. I'm 22, I'm a college student at the University of Toledo Studying Creative writing, German and Mandarin Chinese. I've been heavy forever!! Someone get me outta this body ahhhh! It's nice to meet you all and I look forward to getting to know you all better!

Imnotfluffy, Kids and adults can be really cruel, I think we might have had the same type of childhood. However, Iv'e been lurking these boards for a whle now. When I do participate, all I get is positive, hopefull feedback from people who know what you are going through and they understand you. I've not been belittled or scoffed at once. And from what I can tell, the ladies and gents here are some of the nicest on the boards! So feel free to share and speak your mind and if you need some one to talk to, it is my experience that everyone is willing to lend a helpful and sympathetic ear! Including me!! So don't be shy or reserved ok! You are amongst friends.

~Dusty

Hello Dusty, and Glad you came out of lurksville! And yes, I agree... the folks in this support group are among the greatest!!

Unfortunately the only person who can get you out of that body is YOU. BUT we DO all understand and while we can't get you out of it we CAN support and encourage you along the way!!

Congratulations on the 15 pounds you have lost! You are already on the wagon so just grab on tight and stay right up here on it with us!!

Let me also encourage you to check out some of the challenge threads. The exercise ones are great and help to keep you motivated. LOL my walking buddies on the Coast to Coast have kept me moving so well that this next week I should hit my initial million steps walked! And the results are starting to show on this old fat body too LOL.

Stick around! You CAN do it. The rest of us are slowly chugging along to OneDerland (with some still having a jog through TwoDerville along the way) but we are getting there!!

Ammi shame on you for peaking ahead of time. I agree if Katherine wins i will be so mad!Poor Elliot he seems like such a sweet guy but he will have a good career i am sure. I am really hoping my guy Taylor wins. Well i overslept today so i got to go and get started on my treadmill this morning. have a good day!

Sharon - hi, I am just doing replies here and then am going to go make a start on WW Turkey shepherd's pie for tea. Once it's done and the veges are prepared I hope to get back online and catch you for a chat for half an hour or so.

Good for you for doing that old exercise video, sure does sound hard work for somebody who has just had a baby You sound like you well and truly have your motivation back, and I look forward to hearing how your WI goes tomorrow.

Imnotfluffy - hello and to the board. Sounds like you have had it tough over the years with kids and adults being cruel about your size. It's weird, I know a lot of people especially as adults have been ridiculed, or felt that people have been dismissive towards them, but fortunately I haven't had that happen to me. I think the most painful thing I ever get to hear is when young children ask their mums why is that lady so fat? That hurts because it's not meant for my ears, it's not said to be nasty, it's just an innocent child making an observation. I know I shouldn't let it upset me, but it does. Oh well, nobody will be able to hurt us again with their comments or reactions to our size because we are going to shift this extra weight and we are going to be looking and feeling great. You have come to the right place for all the support and motivation that you will ever need. I hope you will become a regular. Don't feel you have to reply to everybody, just pop on and tell us how you are doing, that's fine

Misti - glad I am not the only one prepared to do some damage to the TV if Katherine wins. Taylor has come this far now and I really hope that he will now go all the way. He has the x-factor, Katherine is just pretty and can sing (when she remembers the word lol). GO TAYLOR

Again let me wish you BON VOYAGE, hope you take lots of photos so we can see the ship and the places you visit. Take care.

Dusty - snap, I have lost 15 lbs in 3 weeks too, it's a great feeling to be losing weight instead of gaining it isn't it. We also started at nearly the same weight, I was 329. My first goal is to get into the 200s, so that's only 15 more lbs away.

Sounds like you are studying some great subjects at Uni, the creative writing and the Mandarin sounds very impressive. Sharon (voodoo) is doing a creative writing course too. Perhaps you could share tips

Patti - yes I know I am naughty, but I just had to know about Elliot. I still think he had the best voice in the competition, he just didn't have the personality to match whereas Taylor has a great voice and is such a character. I really do hope that he wins. I wouldn't have minded if he beat Elliott either, because I have always liked them both. I just don't want Katherine to win. I think I have made that clear before though,

It must be a day for sleeping today, you overslept and I went back to bed for 3 hours earlier on. I think the grey weather has a lot to do with it, it makes me sleepy. But I am up now, have had lunch, am posting here and then I am going to prepare tea for later. Never a dull moment these days when I am awake Hope your work outs on the treadmill have been good. Have you been staying off the scales, or have you just not been owning up to peaking

Okie dokie, time to go do some cooking. I will be back later.

Hugs,

Ammi

Ammi~ I am sorry that Elliot left and you are bumed out (truely) It was a good show last night, AND no I was not an Elliot fan, I still empathize with you..................