Weekly Chat ~ Mar 6 to Mar 12
 

Hello everyone

< 3 that's brilliant. I love Monk. that's a drama but I could rethink something like that as a sitcom. good thinking!

interesting story about your name. what does <3 mean on the net. is that like i love you???

Hi to everyone else...:carrot:

<3 is like a little sideways heart, lol. Tilt your head ;)

Good Morning :)

Well here we are, another Moanday lol.

How is everyone, did you all enjoy your weekend?

DH and I went to the cheese cake factory yesterday and I had asian lettuce wraps... boy were they good and a bit of my DD's cheesecake ;) hmmmm did I post this yesterday ? HAAAAAA I think I did... oh well.

Whats happening with you all this week? any plans?

Well, I have been naughty Saturday and Sunday, my Mom is partly to blame. On Saturday I went to the mall with her and got a 6 pack of chicken nuggets and a sprite at Chick fillet. Then my Mom got some Chinese food, shrimp fired rice and cashew chicken. She couldn't eat it all and I ate some of it. Then my mOm went and got a spinach and cheese calzone from S'baro's, and she halfed it with me. WHile we were driving home she stopped off at Publix and got some brownies from the bakery. I ate some of the brownies. On Sunday mOm fixed spaghetti, I ate spaghetti for lunch. Then when dinner time came I had some shredded parmesan cheese as a snack, I ate a chocolate South Beach diet meal replacement bar. What I did that was really bad was I got up in the middle of the night and ate some chocolate frosting. I really need to get back on my diet and exercise. I must lose weight, and I'm going to have to work hard to take off the pounds that my nauhgtiness put on me.

<3 ahhhh now i get it

Hey all. The weekend was bad, but I'm feeling better now. My kids went to my sister's for the day, so I get to clean! I have five hours to get five days worth of work done. Yikes. And I had insomnia last night, got about 3 hours of sleep. :dizzy: Sheesh. And for lunch? I had chips and salsa con queso.:p
Soooo, I guess that's enough procrastinating. Off to the laundry room!

haha sapphire. sounds like you had a lot of temptation

i adore brownies. i wouldn't pass them up either. in fact i feel a craving coming on...

Wow, brownies are rough. Real rough. I consider myself incredibly fortunate. I don't have such strong cravings for sweets anymore. If I do, my sugar-free chocolate pudding is always ready and waiting.

This afternoon I went with a friend to the mall. She tried on some prom dresses and we hung out. A friend gave us a call and told us about this acting scout who was in town so we checked it out. It was pretty lame. They of course said no to me because, well, I'm not big enough to be considered plus size and I'm most definately not small enough to be considered model-actress size. My friend got picked, which was cool, though.

I've been really proud of my self control lately. My parents can cook some of my favorite non-diet foods and I'm hardly tempted. My friends can take me to KFC and I can not order anything. I can go to the mall and order refried beans from Taco John's and eat only half of it rather than eating the whole thing plus a taco and potatoes. I really am enjoying this diet. I don't feel like I'm losing weight right now, though, thanks to an impending TOM that is making me bloaty, but after I'm finished menstrating I'll weigh myself and see if all my hard work is paying off or not.

hi all

I did nothing today. The rain hammered down. We seem to have long fine periods and then days of incredibly heavy rain. It’s subtropical weather. Horrid in summer but at least the long hot days are nice when we get them.

really tired so hopping into bed now. I do try to start things but I never seem to progress them. I guess I have to be tougher on myself because i'm not getting anything done. hopefully i will be able to kick my butt into gear tmrw

nite all

good morning gang :carrot:

ya know if being busy made you skinny I would be down to about 90 lbs by now ;)

yesterday was wild at work and then had a dr appt with oldest DS. He is almost off of the prozac that he has been on for 5 years and doing better than he has since all this stuff started. We have been reducing his dosage by 10 mgs every 7 to 10 days and he hasn't really dealt with any withdrawals except for fatigue, but that will get better once it is completely out of his system. It is a miracle to see him doing so well !!!!! His doc was thrilled to see him doing so well - and also pleasantly surprised - he just didn't think he would do well when we tried getting off the prozac but was more than agreeable to letting us take this time to give it a try.

Sweetpea - thanks for asking <3 about what "<3 on the net " meant - I didn't know and was feeling really old ;(

<3 - thanks for explaining - I can see the sideways heart now - and now I don't feel so OLD! ;) hehe

Hey Marcie - It's good to have you hear with us!

Hey Sapphire - I love your signature! so true! and nice to meet you!
I got up early this morning and got in 2 quick miles. :carrot:

Hey Leenie - I would definitely remember you talking about CHEESECAKE so it's the first time you mentioned it - unless I missed the post of course ;) how's work???

What's everyone up to today? and where is the rest of our gang?
tippy? cin? lindat? suemarie? whassssssssupppppp chickadees?

Hope everyone has a blessed day!
hugs,
Cathy

lol, I didn't mean to make anyone feel old!! But hey, now you know :)

I got so much done yesterday. Got my whole house clean, laundry done. Then had insomnia again. Oh well. I feel okay today. Glad to be here.

Morning everyone. Things are going pretty good. My long weekend is over and I'm back at work. I had a nice day off yesterday. I knitted and got a bit done. And I babysat DGS. He's an adorable baby. Very quiet. I also updated my website with more pictures of him. I guess I'm a proud grandma.

Well, I better get back to work. I'll check in later.
Marie

Good morning and :welcome: Marciet & Sapphireangle

Nothing much to write home about, I'm just trying to keep busy so I stay out of trouble :s:

Good to see you all.... have a lovely day.

I started the day quite well. Went for a 3.0km walk with the dogs. Stopped off for ice cream on the way back and found it very hard to get started again but we got home safe and sound so it was a good walk. I need to increase my fitness so I am up to dancing. Have to confess I am v tired now and ready for a nap but a friend from out of town is calling in soon so I will chat with her first and then have a lie down. Hope she doesn’t want coffee – there’s no milk in the house!

Cathy - i like it when i'm busy. sometimes it triggers my anxiety but it also stops me dwelling on things and getting maudlin. great that DS is weaning off prozac

marie - glad you had a good weekend

marcie - i love days when i get stuff done. when will you be seeing your doc to get assessed for bipolar and poss meds change?

hey there Leenie glad you're keeping out of trouble

Sweet pea-I have an appt on the 16th with my md. I really do want to change meds. The celexa isn't doing much at all for me. I get to have a root canal tomorrow. Yeehaw. I plan on doing NOTHING after that.

The Celaxa is not working for me either....

I hate Dentists good luck.... speaking of them my dad is going for a tooth out today!

I also love Monk, been tuning in during the afternoons on BBC1... well I need to do something seeing as I am not at work for the next couple of weeks....

celexa didn't work for me either. it does dampen the depression and stop suicidal urges but that's about it...

had a nap this arvo and that was my day

good morning gang :wave:

Just wanted to tell everyone a quick GOOD MORNING and hope that all is well.

Will get back in here when I get a minute.

hugs & blessings,
Cathy

Good Morning everyone :wave:

Sorry I haven't been around much, just can't seem to put two thoughts together that make any sense.

Had lots of wet snow last night and now its blowing out there. Thank goodness hubby was home this am to clear the driveway. And I'm glad I don't have to go out until after school as I've been listening to the scanner and the roads don't sound that great. A lot of buses were late this morning and had to chain up. Its my youngest DD's birthday today, so I have a cake to decorate for her. (she's now 14) I have an optometrist appt tomorrow and a dr appointment on Friday. Then thankgoodness its spring break. The only thing we have planned for springbreak is an optometrist appt for the three girls.

Just wanted to drop in and say "Hi" and that I'm still kicking.

Take care everyone,
K

hi everyone
buddly that weather doesn't sound much fun. i'll stop complaining about my rain - the snow sounds worse!!!

i got woken early by the neighbours playing eminem on the stereo. i'm thinking i might go back to bed

i have to do some soul searching. i really don't know what i want to do with my life, and i have yet another pill that isn't working for me. the effexor isn't stopping the anxiety or depression, and it is adding drowsiness and dizziness to the equation. i will have to think what to do next. i have tried pretty much all the ssri's so not sure what else can be done. i should probably make radical dietary changes but ahem i really can't get motivated to make long term changes. i am increasing my exercise and that's about all i feel like doing for now, even though i know i "should". ugh hate that word. also hate anything confining, and less or no sugar and junkfood is definitely confining...

okay i could argue it the other way. it could give me freedom through more energy BUT it's not guaranteed. in the past i've changed my diet and still been depressed and anxious so i think what's the point? hmmmm. interested in what others have to say.

Sweet Pea - I discovered after changing my diet and cutting out sweets and comfort foods that I loved before I felt a lot better. I'm beginning to look and feel thinner, too, which feels great. I hated how I felt when I was eating and sitting around all the time.

The past few days have been pretty bad for me. TOM. Need I say more? It's made me very hormonal and brought the anxiety that I hadn't felt in a week back again. I'm hoping things will get better. I've felt very tired and dizzy too, which I assume is the anemia the doctor said I'd get when I went on my period, hence my "borderline anemia". I uppped my dose of iron and I hope it works.

Not much else to say. I hope everyone else had a good day :)

Hmmm...I know I need to make those dietary changes too. It's REALLY hard. Esp. when you're depressed and do NOT feel like cooking.

Sweet Pea-I really hated the effexor. And going off of it I got pretty psychotic. Make sure the doc brings you down gently!

I have also tried all the ssri meds. Hoping the doc will have some ideas when I see her next week.

SweetPea and Marciet, you both mentioned the reasons I gave up on meds altogether - they stopped working. I'd tried Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, and Effexor. By last summer it dawned on me that they weren't helping and were making me fatter. So I gave up. I still struggle with depression mixed with periods of mania. I made a resolve when I cold turkeyed to exercise and use my light box. I believe both have helped make this past winter one of the best mood wise that I've had in decades. giving up was scary, though. The effexor withdrawal is tricky. I was light headed and weird, but nothing like the symptoms I read about online. I was one of the lucky ones. SweetPea, Marciet is right about going off slowly. Documented reports of horrible side effects are out there to read.

Buddly, your daughter and my DH share today as the birthday. I made a cake last night but still have to frost it. It will be yummy and bad for me. Too bad there are so few things that are yummy and good for you. Strawberries and Peaches are two of my favorite foods and they're good for me. Too bad they're only in season for a couple months. Cakes are in season forever. :)

Hi. Been missing for a few days, I hope everyone is doing well. I saw my dr on Monday. Got the go ahead to taper the effexor down to 225mg. So far so good. Originally had discussed adding Topamax to aide with weight loss but decided it wasn't a good idea. More than likely it wouldn't help me, and if it did, probably not for very long. I hated the thought of another med if that was all I was taking it for. Only have had some headaches and I hope that's the worst of it. Will keep reducing it to as low as possible provided I still feel in control. I am crossing my fingers that the weight will start to drop now!
I also got a boost in my ritalin rx, so hopefully I'll be all fixed up. :D

Marcie, hope the root canal went ok. I have to get in to get a crown done, but I am so chicken. I am afraid of the dentist! :o How long have you used Celexa? Are you going to wait to switch until you find out a diagnosis? There are so many out there, can make it frustrating. Good luck with that.

Sweetpea, how ya feeling? I'm sorry the Effexor doesnt seem to be working. Are you going to maybe check into other possible diagnosis? Maybe you've been on the wrong route with meds? Maybe you need something from a whole other family of drugs. So many possibilities, I'm sure your patience is wearing thin, I know mine is right now. I take my effexor at night because it makes me sleepy. Everything I take makes me sleepy, in fact!

Cathy, how ya doing little lady? :wave: Miss ya around here.

Buddly, so nice to see you. It's a bummer about the snow, I would never make it where you girls live in the cold. :dizzy: I am a wimp. I am freezing right now and it's like 60 outside. lol Wishing DD a very happy birthday! they do grow up fast, don't they?

lessthan, sorry to hear about the oogie's right now. TOM can be a real pain in the butt, can't it? I get super dizzy at that time too, so I know how you're feeling. Be kind to yourself right now and know that it will pass and things will readjust for you again once nasty TOM leaves.

Alrighty ladies, it's getting late and I've been putting off what I need to get done today long enough I suppose. As if folding laundry and making beds is so much fun! NOT. ;)
Have a great evening and I will see you all tomorrow. :wave:

hi everyone

made an important decision today...
I have come to the conclusion that I absolutely must get off this drug. The battle will come when I tell my doctor as she will want me to go back on cipramil. The trouble with that is it gives me nightmares (for several years!). You know what she said to me about that, “is it really that bad?”. Well YES nightmares every single night is living ****. But I know she thinks it’s not so bad and will try to get me to go back on them. Mind you this is also the doc that said to keep taking the pills that made my breasts lactate and stopped my periods. Took 5 mo for them to start again (well that was good) but it goes to show even when you stop taking pills they still interfere with your system. They can make permanent changes to your ‘wiring’.

Back to Ms Dizzy. I was grocery shopping and it was definitely a challenge. It was just so hard to manoeuvre around the aisles and find stuff and of course feeling rotten I bought all the healthy stuff but also threw in chocolate and other goodies. There is no way I can work or win speech comps or anything else if I continue on these drugs. It’s been close to 2 mths and although it is lessening the good parts aren’t sufficiently good to outweigh the side effects.

Danielle/Marie/Marcie
Yup coming off efexor is hard. it makes you dizzy and a whole pile of other side effects (even worse than what i've got now).

danielle there is an article on coming off efexor due to the extreme withdrawal symptoms it is hard. here is the link http://www.remedyfind.com/rem.asp?id=91

Marie - i have the same problem the meds don't work at least not completely. i do get suicidal when i go off ADs but i am depressed even when on them but it is low grade

So far i have been on:
AD-efexor, celexa, prozac, aropax (paroxetine). all SSRI and SSNI
mood-lithium, depakote, tegratol, carbenazapine
antipsychotics-risperdal, thioridazine, olanzepine, seroquel
anxiolitic-klonopin

i took some of these on their own and others in combination but still no joy

and none of them have made me "well" so this is a real uphill battle.

danielle - there are questions over the dx. originally they thought bipolar but as i have not responded to any of the meds for bipolar they are now considering that i have a personality disorder (narcissism), depression and generalised anxiety disorder. but noone really knows! that makes meds even more challenging. still i do like to be unique ;)

<3 was it the dietary changes that made you feel better or the meds?


Unbelievable. The neighbour came to tell me jazz was in her section. Next thing I know she leaps straight over a hedge more than 3’ high and 2’ wide. Easy peasy. No trouble at all and she’s only 9 mo old. That is a major problem. And expensive. When she’s full grown she’ll be over 6’ fences. ****’s teeth. Major hassle. Esp as I don’t know how long I plan to stay here. I don’t want to put in permanent fencing if I am leaving in under a year. And likely I will be hmmm. So far I have found her outside 3x. I have to keep rushing outside to check on her. Now it’s dark so hopefully she’ll stop trying to escape. Excellent. she;s inside on her bed. What a relief. I will have to tie her up now when I go out until I decide what to do to sort this out. It would be expensive to fence with 6' high fencing. darn i forgot about her for a moment and she was across the road. this is hopeless grrr.

good morning gang :wave:

Wanted to post a quick HELLO before the weather gets too bad around here today. We have a tornado watch until 1 and it's starting to look like bad weather outside.

Wonder where the rest of our gang is??? Seems like we lost some of our regular posters when we went from a daily thread to a weekly thread. I have no preferences - they are both fine to me - but perhaps others have an opinion one way or the other? Maybe some find it too overwhelming to try to go thru days of posts to post a message - I know lately I've had to just post a quick hello bec I just don't have time to read thru them - but I want to. ;-)

Any thoughts?

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

hugs,
Cathy

Good Morning everyone :wave:

Just a quick Hello as I have to get to town to get my eyes checked. Thankfully we are having a beautiful morning with sunshine and blue skies as my DD18 will have to drive after they put the drops in my eyes. "They" are calling for more snow and I saw on the forecast of the possibility of lows of -22C brrrr! I sure hope they are wrong on that one!

Marie, I hope your hubby had a nice birthday. Did you decorate the cake really fancy? My poor Colleen didn't get anything special this year as I was drawing a blank. My go lite is helping with my sleep, but I sure am in a funk right now. As for fruit, this time of year, I find that Costco has some great frozen strawberries and I stocked up on frozen blueberries from the local supermarket when they were on sale.

Danielle, I think our snow would be quite a shock to someone from Arizona. When I was a teen my grandmother would winter in Yuma and we would go down for six weeks over the Christmas break. Was that ever a nice break! All be it Santa in his winter suit and silver tinsel just doesn't look right when its blowing in the hot desert winds!

Sweetpea, sure hope you start to feel better soon. For you dog, can you put up a cable that runs the length of your yard so he can run back and forth, or is there not enough room? It gives them some freedom, but is a lot cheaper than a huge fence. We did the cable thing for our great dane as she just wouldn't learn to stay in the yard. Just a thought.

Cathy, tornados already :fr: Wow, batten down the hatches and stay safe!

Anyway everyone have a great day and take care of yourselves. I have to go and get ready.

Take care,
K

Morning everyone, everything is going good here. We had a nice dirthday party for DH last night. Basically it was nice and relaxed. buddly, I used to decorate cakes but my fingers would always go in the icing and I was getting fatter. So I stopped that hobby. I just made a Red Velvet cake with white icing. Very yummy and not as dangerous as making roses (when you make roses, there are bad ones and they must be destroyed by eating).

Cathy, I like the weekly thread better. More continuity in the chat. Only draw back is if you get behind it takes a while to catch up whereas I could fake it in the daily chats. :) My guess is the evolution of posters. I know when I'm really bad eating and exercising wise, I tend to avoid 3FC so that I don't feel even more guilty. Could be the same for others.

Well, time to work. I'll check in later.
Marie

hi everyone

i like the way marie puts that: the evolution of posters. actually it's really only this week that's been quiet, most people have been with us up until now. i find from having belonged to other diet sites that people come and go depending on how busy they are and how committed they're feeling to their diet. with a depression thread i can definitely see some people hiding away and cocooning for a while. i got totally lost on the daily thread. by the time i'd read everything it was a new day!

with the dog i tried tying her this morning. she jumped the fence so i tied her up on a long cable. at first she was ok. but then the other dog ran to the front to woof and jazz tried to follow. she didn't yelp she screamed. and she kept screaming. she kept trying to pull away and screaming. it was hideous. i should have guessed that would happen. she's awful on a lead. i'll have to lock her in the woodshed while i'm out. it's ventilated and locakable. i just hope she doesn't make any noise. probably too much to hope for. will leave her with a bone and a ball and water and a bed.

back later

Hey everyone :) I haven't been here long enough so I don't know about these daily chat threads :P

Today started out very rocky but I'm feeling much better now. A good nap and a bike ride really helped. I had to see the dentist today. Only one cavity!! I'm excited because I was sure it'd be worse. They said I should go back to the orthodontist since some of my teeth are moving again, though. I'll probably have to get a new retainer made. Mine doesn't fit anymore. At least I won't have to have braces ever again!! It's been probably five years now since I've had them off and I never want to go back.

SweetPea, I loved it. "She didn't yelp, she screamed... It was hideous." Geez, that's precious. Hideous. I love it. :D :D :D :D Ya just gotta love doggies. :D :D :D

I'm t minus 32 minutes from liftoff - in other words I get off of work in 32 minutes. :smug: :smug: :smug:

Well, back to work.

dogs sure know how to manipulate their mommy! haha glad you enjoyed it ;)

she seemed fine in the wood shed. it is covered but well ventilated with bricks in the side that have holes in the she can see through. her own bed and i threw a bone in there and a ball and water. we'll do that for a while until i get fencing organised or move

OOPS! better go see where she is

Hi Cathy so sweet of you to be looking for us........I am not enjoying the new format.......doesn't suit my habits.

I still think of you my 3fc friends..........it is certainly an evolution.....miss you!

L

hi all
i planned to go dancing tonight but was so tired i went to bed instead. i was so resolved to go too!!! but then i let the tiredness win. maybe better next time...

liz sorry it doesn't suit you to have a weekly thread, but glad some of us like it hehe. april i'm like you. being in NZ i am 20 hours ahead of most of you so the daily thread was confusing hehe

Hi All!!! It's FRIDAY!!!! Yeah!!! Work has a soap opera going on so I'm very happy to be leaving it in a few hours for three days. I'm taking Monday off. So TGIF!!!!

I don't have any plans this weekend. Knit, exercise and play with the baby and doggies. Sounds delightful to me. I plan to finish my sister's sweater so I can send it out early next week. That way she'll get it for her birthday. Right now she's vacationing in Hawaii so she doesn't need a sweater. But when she returns to Iowa, she probably will. Winter in Oregon hasn't lost it's grip. Yuck!!!

Talk to you later.
Marie

morning

lovely and sunny here. i plan to spend today:
- doing the washing
- some reading (mystery novel)
- writing
- chasing my escape artist dog
- mowing the lawns (pet hate)

hope everyone has fun.
ugh i am having sweetie cravings specifically chocolate. hmmm and i did say i'd try to eat healthily the next 2 weeks in the run up to my speech comp. decisions decisions...

Hey everybody :) I don't have much time, but just thought I'd stop by. Today I saw my therapist and my dermatologist, went to Perkins where I had only an egg and whole wheat toast, spent some time with my best friend, and rode bike with her. It's been such a beautiful spring day!! If we get a snowstorm I'm going to be soooo angry.

Gotta hit the sack. I have to visit my grandparents tomorrow. I'm a little nervous because they don't know about my depression/anxiety. My mom was worried that if she'd known about this that my grandma would worry herself into a heart attack or something ^^* I hope I don't accidently spill the beans. Heh. Have a good day! <3

Off to "sin city"..............have a great weekend.


Hugs to my friends here!

Liz