Hi Lily--

Your tummy shape is likely alot to do with loose skin. Can you get into a pool where you are? I've done some great abs workouts holding on to the edge or the ladder thingy. Just do crunches while hanging there by your arms, by pulling your legs up toward your abdomen. I also used to add biceps work by pulling myself up as well by the arms. Great for the core stability. Let me know if you want more details and I'll try and describe more accurately.

Your liver function as nothing to do with tummy shape, unless you're in full-blown liver failure with ascites. I doubt this very much, looking at your photo! Not an official medical opinion though... If think it's far more to do with the previous 47 inch waistline.

Well done though on your weight loss! Your hubby sounds like a great guy. Sounds like you deserve it.

I have checked with a gym that's 20 min's from my home and they require me to have a Dr.'s note saying that I can join. My Dr. refused and wants me to just walk. So, that is what I've been doing. I think a pool would help me. I'm sure my body could handle water exercises now. Maybe he will OK me joining a water aerobics class or something when I see him again next month.
A yr. ago my Dr. said that I did have Ascites and greatly enlarged liver and spleen but my recent CT scan showed that this has improved drastically. I think my waist does have loose skin and is larger due to the lack of abdominal exercise and the previous 47 inch waist. I actually think my problem was more FAT than Ascites. But, I'm not the doctor.
Does doing toe touches and this type of exercise help with the waist line? I'm willing to do these. I would love to get my waist to even 30 inches if it is possible.

Lillybelle, how about the gentle exercises they recmmend after a c-section. I think even kegels can tone the lower abdomen a little bit. It's a place to start gently anyway. I can't remember the others but you could probably google it. I've been just concsciously holding in my tummy at stop lights and such.

joy, thanks. I will google this and see if there's anything I can do. I am now doing toe touches and side bends to see if it will help any. I guess I shouldn't complain about my waist, it has went down 1 inch in the last 2 months. Funny that you should mention the Kegels. I used to do those all the time. I had a problem with incontinence when I was obese and don't have that problem any more. I wonder if others here had that problem when they had the extra weight.

My left ankle is improving daily. I can flex it up and down and to the sides now. I am considering walking on the treadmill tonite for the first time without a brace since the injury. If it starts to hurt, or feels too clumsy, I'll get off and put the brace back on. I am back on track with doing a mile everyday of walking now. I would like to eventually get back to my 3 miles a day that I did before.

Hi everyone! I need to post more regularly, especially since people asked after me! :o

Anyway, I has my second wrist surgery and went to a physical therapist, who gave me a bunch of exercises to do that I wish I had known about after my first surgery. My right wrist (the second one) is doing great -- still hurts when I twist it weirdly or use it too hard, but no pain doing the PT exercises (stuff like the "prayer stretch" where you put your palms together, fingers up, elbows on a table, and slide down so that your entire forearms are on the table). My left wrist, on the other hand, not so happy with the exercises, especially the weighted ones. But it is improving already and it's only been three days of exercises so far -- the therapist said it could take three months for a significant improvement.

I'm on a healthy eating kick right now since eating so much junk for Halloween. I got on the scale at the apartment complex gym Monday and it read 135 -- I know my scale at home (which reads 129) is broken, but when we moved in the gym scale said 133 (mine said 127). My fiance says "two pounds isn't much considering you lost 55," but I know if I don't lose those two pounds right now I'll be in trouble later. So, now that my bandages are off, I'm hitting the gym and cleaning up my act at home. Temporarily going back to Lean Cuisine for lunch at work, since it helps me control my portions. I don't want to do that long term though since it has so much sodium (OTOH we eat super low-sodium at home since my fiance has high blood pressure).

Now that I said all that about how good I have been the past week or so, I am going to forget about that tomorrow evening because we are going to a cake tasting with our wedding cake baker. The cake will probably end up being dinner so it's not so bad. Maybe I'll have a salad afterward (cake tasting is at 4:30).

In other news . . . added motivation for losing those two pounds is . . . my one year weight maintenance anniversary is coming up! I can't believe it's been that long already. I was filling out a form at the doctor's office and it asked if I had had any recent weight loss and I started to write yes, but then I was like, wait, I stopped losing weight a year ago. I intend to write an anniversary post but I've got 20 days to go and I'm hoping that's long enough to kick these two pounds (even though it took me a couple months to lose them the first time...).

I would write more, but I have to go to a meeting! I hope you are all doing well!

Hi all! I'm back from 8 days in nice warm Houston, TX to very COLD weather here. Brrrr. It was zero yesterday when I got up, and all of 5 this morning.! :eek: Way too early for this. Had a great time though, and while eating wasn't stellar, it was mostly only dinner, and I did do lots of walking. I'm waiting til I'm back at the gym tomorrow to weigh, as I'm always bloated a couple days after flying, even though I try to drink a lot of water. (BTW - you can't even take an empty bottle through security! Grrrrr. And of course the airport vendors are gouging passengers for water. I shopped around at the few places available and ended up with a 1/2 liter for $2.29 :eek: I'd pay maybe $1 here at home - if I bought bottled water, which I seldom do)

paperclippy, I'm glad to see you are on the mend. I also had a 2 lb. gain recently and am working to take it off. My DH says, "hun, 2 lbs. is nothing". To me it's a big deal especially with the holidays coming. Congratulations on your big 1 YR ANNIVERSARY of Maintenance. WTG.

Waterrat, It was 80 degrees here today. I had the doors and windows open.

It's supposed to be lovely here (again) today too. 15 C ... it's been like this all week. Yummy!

You know, it is hard to keep an eye on what you eat when you get emails twice a day with info like "leftover doughnuts/fruit/cheesecake brownies in the main break room - help yourself". It is so hard for me to resist dessert in general, especially free dessert! At least in this case the main breakroom is far enough from my cubicle that I can avoid seeing it.

My workplace is full of free food and it's driving me crazy. Bagels twice a week always, there's usually leftover pizza from meetings, leftover sandwiches, cookies, cakes, brownies, people do bake sales to raise money for charities, people bring in donuts and candy as bribes to get people to help them with software testing . . .

Next week we will have two people in from the Miami office for meetings for three days. I am positive we will be catering lunch for them and therefore for the rest of us in the meetings also. How to survive?? I haven't eaten any of the free food for a week (last week there was a "chili lunch") and I'm proud of it, but I want those cheesecake brownies!!!

I weighed this morning and have lost 1 of those 2 lbs. that I had gained. So my ticker is now correct again. Yeah. I'm glad that I kicked it in high gear and treated this gain with concern immediately. Of course, it would have been easier to have not gained, but we live and learn and life goes on. I may have stumbled but I got back up. My goal is to lose the other lb. by next Thursday and to exercise every single day until it's off. I can do this, I'm sure.

I was doing so good. I weighed in at 137 a week and a half ago, but didn't change my ticker because I didn't think it would stick. Then I got down to 136.5 and 137 the next day, so I thought, "ok, I'll change my ticker." Once that was done, I'm up to 139 (for 4 days now!). Grrrrr. My eating has been very good, so I'm not sure what's going on. I might be coming down with a slight cold (or allergies--it's hard to tell at this point).

paperclippy--I know what you're going through, although I don't have to deal with it any longer. I worked in a big hospital business office and someone always brought in food, or I had meetings with food. It's hard to stay away. I finally quit and now I work for DH. We have a fridge but no one shares food. It is great! Sure there are tempting things in the fridge, but they aren't mine so I can't have them!

Our weather has been a bit warm--mid 90's, but it should be cooler (low 70's) this weekend.

Have a great day everyone!

Ah, yes. I work in a library, and our "back room" has a small lunch area, and the table there is covered with Halloween candy, cookies and yesterday an apple pie! I have to walk by it to get to the fridge (where my lunch is), the coffee pot, and the microwave. Grrrr. The stuff knows my name! :lol: I'll be glad when the stuff is gone, gone, gone.

Hi Guys:

Seems like we are a busy group this month.

Lily glad you are doing better with the foot. Glad your husband appreciates all you are.
Paperclippy: Whens the wedding? Don't worry that two pounds will come off.

I am doing good on this end. Enjoying a spring day in NY. Weight is on the low end so I am happy. It's a little strange to not be struggling but I am enjoying it for now.
Be well

I finally got to a bookstore and bought the "Thin For Life" book. I'm on Chapter 3 and am enjoying it. If anyone else knows of any good, inspiring books please let me know. I think I'm going to start a book collection if there is anything out there helpful for me to read.

Lily, The Overfed Head by Rob Stevens is really interesting.....and different.

Gina, the wedding is next October. If I can maintain my weight and get more toned up like I used to be for it I will be happy! I was going to do that anyway so looking good for the wedding is just an added bonus.

I have been good the past few days but I am still up those two pounds. Today I'll weigh in at the gym again, but my scale still says 129/130. I know it hasn't been long enough to lose any weight since I am not really cutting calories much (I'm at about 1600/day instead of my usual 1850-2000) but hopefully there will be a change in the next week or two.

We went and had the cake tasting last night . . . (So much for 1600 calories, but at least I had the good sense to just have salad for dinner afterward). It was SO GOOD. We are going to have the bottom layer be yellow butter cake (with real butter, it's great, not like a lot of generic wedding cakes) with lemon chiffon and raspberry filling, and the top layer be chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and apricot filling, all with buttercream frosting (again, real butter)! Trying to decide on a design for it now . . . I'm planning on eating plenty of cake on my wedding day, but I've got almost a year to get my act cleaned up before that.

Lily, congrats on kicking that pound!

That cake sounds divine :T - thank heavens people have gotten away from the dreadful generic white cakes with white icing and roses that were de rigueur when I got married (back in the Dark Ages :p ) I hope you enjoy every last morsel on your special day. :)

Paperclippy, I think I just gained two pounds myself reading about that cake! :lol: But it does sound delicious.

That cake sounds so wonderful. Yummy.

I've pulled myself together. Eating on program and exercising daily. I'm reading the Thin For Life book, I'm on the chapter of lapse and relapse. I'm learning a lot. Last weekend, I had a lapse with that darn Birthday cake, but not a relapse. That is good to know. I'm handling it well and dealing with taking the extra 1 lb. off now. Last night I told my DH that I didn't feel like exercising and he said "but, you know you HAVE to". He was right. I did and it felt better once I went ahead and did it. Normally I wouldn't want him telling me what to do, but last night I needed that Kick in the Butt.

Originally Posted by lilybelle:
Last night I told my DH that I didn't feel like exercising and he said "but, you know you HAVE to". He was right. I did and it felt better once I went ahead and did it. Normally I wouldn't want him telling me what to do, but last night I needed that Kick in the Butt.

It's great that you have that extra voice to tell you that you HAVE to do it! I think that part of my downfall several years ago was this exact thing. I didn't want to exercise and my DH didn't make me do it, either. I rationalized in my mind that it was okay not to exercise (I had been very good about exercising at least 4 days per week). That one day without exercising turned into a week which turned into a month. My NordicTrak got dusty and I never got back on. This time around, I'm not going to allow myself to rationalize that I can keep the weight off without exercise! I still haven't started to exercise, but I'm counting the days until I can!

Exercise makes me feel like I'm more in the "groove" of things. I don't use it as an excuse to eat more. It seems to work the opposite for me. I'll think "that one mile on the treadmill only burns about 100 calories, so I don't want to eat extra and still create a big deficit". It is strange, but the exercise seems to make me even more conscious of making the right food choices if that makes any sense.

Originally Posted by lilybelle:
I finally got to a bookstore and bought the "Thin For Life" book. I'm on Chapter 3 and am enjoying it. If anyone else knows of any good, inspiring books please let me know. I think I'm going to start a book collection if there is anything out there helpful for me to read.

Lily, we have a list of books that the maintainers put together here:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50697

Meg, maybe we should sticky that one over in the Maintenance Library. I know I got a few good reads from other people's suggestions.

I'm reading 'YOU on a diet' now (along with the rest of the country, I think), and am getting Mindless Eating soon. I'll do some reviews when I get through them and get a couple minutes.

Anne

Good idea, Anne! I'll get my Scotch tape out and stick it right away. :lol: (sorry, I'm tired and feeling a little goofy :dizzy: )

BTW, I just got my copy of YOU also ... just paged through and was pleased that it has a section on excess skin after weight loss.

My mom is in town for her birthday, I hadn't seen her since Mother's Day. I'm already feeling out of control with food - talk me down! I don't think I ate TOO much today, but still feeling "too full" and guilty.

B - 1 whole wheat English muffin, pink grapefruit marmalade, 1/2 cup mixed fruit

L - naked chicken burrito from Qdoba - white rice, chicken, pico de gallo, lettuce, 1/2 serving of guacamole on the side

S - tall non fat latte

S - fruit and nut bar

D - fun dinner at Purple cafe and wine bar. Split goat cheese/honey/cracker appetizer four ways, 2 glasses of wine, salad with blackened salmon, avocado, blue cheese, chickpeas, dressing on side, 2 cups of coffe with cream, a few bites of creme brule, 1/2 huge piece of chocolate cake - ugh.

I know we are going to fancy place for her birthday Sunday night, I hope I can stay relatively "good" the rest of the time. Luckily, we'll be doing a lot of walking around Seattle tomorrow!

I'm usually pretty draconian with eating, but I find it so easy to justify eating more for "special occasions." I wouldn't mind too much if it were ONE birthday meal, but she's here until Monday and I know that I'll probably eat offplan the whole time :( We're going out for Moroccan food tomorrow night!

Glory, you have achieved awesome success with wt. loss and maintenance. You can handle this weekend. Hang in there. You had a decent day with a little extra at dinner. No biggie. Make sure to drink your water and fit exercise in your schedule for this weekend. Stick to your usual eating during the following days and try to make the best possible choices at the restaurants. If you partake of dessert, share it with someone. You'll come through this just fine. Enjoy the time with your mother, that is something that doesn't happen often and needs to be treasured without guilt over food choices. Try to remember that even if things get rough and your food isn't on program for you this weekend that it's impossible for you to gain much in 1 weekend and you can cut back or exercise more next week and "NIP it in the BUD". We didn't gain our excess lbs. in a weekend, we gained them over yrs.

We're off on a road trip today too. We're taking DS and her husband out to lunch for her birthday and we're taking neices (12 and 10) with us. I guess I'll do my best to be mindful.

Glory, sweetie, just take a deep breath. You're going to make it through the weekend just fine. Remember your birthday week? That ended up not even being a blip on your maintenance radar, though I remember that you were stressed out about that too. This is LIFE ... and we're doing this for life and life happens. :)

Looking at what you ate, clearly you weren't 'out of control'. Sure, you ate more than you usually do but that's OK every once in a while (back to my point that this is part of life). Most of the day was very much in control and I'm sure the majority of your weekend will be too.

You're one of the most sensible and level headed posters here at 3FC and I bet if someone else was posting this, you'd answer in your usual calm and thoughtful way ... that a few high calorie choices aren't going to make you gain all the weight back. It takes A LOT of bad decisions, day after day after day, to put the weight back on. Come Monday, do you have any doubt that you'll be right back on track? I don't! :D

Thanks, Meg...sometimes I just need to BREATHE. I may have had wine and dessert, but I still ordered a healthy entree with dressing on the side! I do have good habits :)

Glory, I wondered why you hadn't posted in a couple of days....you had mentioned being sick and I was worried that you had gotten worse. Good to hear that you're enjoying your time rather than being sick.

I agree with Meg. You are very level headed and once Monday comes you will go right back to your routine. I can't imagine you abandoning everything you've achieved so far after just a couple of meals! It's like I said about being moderate--you can have that dessert because you're only going to have one (not seconds or thirds). It's all a part of being moderate.

I had a friend years ago that had lost a tremendous amount of weight. His way of keeping it off was to eat healthy (lots of steamed veggies and whole wheat bread almost 100% of his meals), but that allowed him to eat a slice of pizza or two on pizza day without him feeling guilty. He knew that the next day he'd go right back to his veggies and ww bread.

Now for me: my parents arrive tomorrow for a 17 day stay. I intend to cook no differently than I have been for the past several months. But I had to buy some sweet breads for them for breakfast. I chose a low fat cranberry orange loaf from Trader Joes as well as some apple cranberry bran muffins. I figure I should allow them their usual breakfast (fruit and sweet bread and cereal) and I'll just have the fruit. I may give in for 1 slice of the cranberry orange loaf, though! Dinner tomorrow will be chicken, spelt and green beans. Monday will be halibut and orzo with spinach and tomatoes. Tuesday we have my DD's concert so we'll go out to eat. After that, who knows, but it will be healthy!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Originally Posted by Glory87:
Thanks, Meg...sometimes I just need to BREATHE. I may have had wine and dessert, but I still ordered a healthy entree with dressing on the side! I do have good habits :)

Glory, I think you just said what I was going to tell you. I doubt you will eat off plan the whole time your mother is here. It is obvious to me that you enjoy eating healthy and so I can't imagine you won't be back there every chance you get. Enjoy your time with your mother, and make the best choices you can for your life while she is here. Sometimes that means a comprise between rigidly healthy eating, and eating as a cultural and familial event. Not the same thing as eating cr@p all day every day at all.

Anne

Originally Posted by lilybelle:
Exercise makes me feel like I'm more in the "groove" of things. I don't use it as an excuse to eat more. It seems to work the opposite for me. I'll think "that one mile on the treadmill only burns about 100 calories, so I don't want to eat extra and still create a big deficit". It is strange, but the exercise seems to make me even more conscious of making the right food choices if that makes any sense.

Amen Lily! This is how it works for me, too. Exercise puts me in touch with my whole self. I love that feeling.

Had a narrow escape today ... we decided to go out for a late breakfast/early lunch, and had decided on a Cracker Barrel. I knew exactly what I was going to order. But when we got there, it was swamped, so we went to O'Charley's next door. I don't find O'Charley's a very good option for me, but they have a chicken breast sandwich, which is what I usually order.

But I was starving. I went to water aerobics this morning, and all I'd had was a protein shake beforehand. Well class, what do we know about being too hungry? It's a disaster in the making.

O'Charley's had a new menu item -- sliced chicken on what they called flatbread and what I'd call mediocre pita. Ordered all the sauces on the side, but I fell prey to those stupid rolls they serve beforehand. Result: lunch cost me 600 calories:eek:

However, when I got home I found myself thinking what I'd REALLY wanted at O'Charley's was a hamburger. So I looked it up in Calorie King. An O'Charley's hamburger (half a pound) IS MORE THAN 1,000 CALORIES. All of a sudden my 600-calorie :eek: actually looked like :goodvibes

Live and learn.

Tonight's dinner, thankfully, is grilled marlin steaks and green beans (I'm trying to copy a meal I had in a restaurant on Thursday).

Sounds like there are lots of family get togethers this weekend ... I hope you all have a wonderful time being with the ones you love because that, in the end, is the best gift of all.

Hugs to everyone.

I'm glad I came over here to read tonight. Like Glory, I feel like I've been having a few celebrations lately and my calories have been somewhat. At the same time, if I think about it, I've actually made decent choices for the most part, and have been mindful of what I've been doing.

It helps me to hear over and over that one meal won't necessarily become 20 and that I HAVE learned good habits and WON'T gain back over 100 pounds in a weekend.

After all, my husband doesn't get his dream job everyday, and that creme brulee was divine (and we split it!)

You ladies give me hope that I CAN do maintenance. Though I guess I should figure out a maintenance weight...

We had a wonderful day with our neices! I did have lunch but didn't have that in betweenie meal Dh and the girls had at McD's!:eek:
My calories are OK and I could correct my percentages some if I had the energy to make a shake.:yawn:
I think I'll do upper body in the morning.

Susan -- That sounds like a great NSV and a lovely day to boot!

It's funny, Heather, sometimes a maintenance weight just kind of finds YOU, rather than the other way around. Sometimes our bodies say 'that's it, that's enough and I'm just not going any lower'. Regardless of whatever number we may have set our hearts on, that's just where we end up maintaining.

The important thing is that the weight is healthy and sustainable. There's nothing wrong with living at a certain weight for a year (for example), practicing mainenance, and THEN going for a lower weight. :)

Congrats to DH on his dream job! And congrats to both of you for splitting dessert! :high:

Thanks, Meg!

I had kind of thought to stop at my current weight or maybe a few pounds lower. Reaching non-obesity (however defined) seemed like SUCH a far off goal back when and I couldn't see past it.

But we started working with a trainer in September and things are happening -- I feel like I'm moving to another level with exercise and I'm pretty sure that's going to result in more weight loss (and inches!) So, as much as a part of me would like to "merely" maintain what I've done, I am in a groove and am going to keep going!

I think you're right that a maintenance weight is going to find ME someday!

Well, something went terribly wrong with my lovely day yesterday. I was sick to my stomach. I never do that. DH says I'm too cheap to give up the food I've eaten :) Very suddenly, I just felt awful and had to run! When I finally got to sleep, I dreamed badly and am still weary this morning.
What do you suppose it means if you dream over and over that you can hardly do anything physical ... it's just sooo hard and you're so weak?

:hug: Susan ... I think it means you're not feeling well and need to take it easy today. :hug:

But I have people coming this afternoon and should go to church and the house is about knee-deep in clutter and I didn't do upper body yesterday .... oh is that my pillow calling?

Susan, this sounds like the perfect time to recall the words of the immortal Erma Bombeck: When you're having people over you only have to clean one room, the bathroom. Why? Because that's the only time your guests are by themselves and apt to notice anything amiss. The rest of the time they're involved in conversation, companionship and having a good time! Rest woman, rest.