Hello ladies, yes I found the thread. Haven't had much to post about lately. Weight going down slowly but steadily, busy busy busy time of year, but NO DRAMA! (This is a GOOD thing!)

good evening chicks! wow this thread is active, that is great!!

Welcome to saraphin! very glad to have you here, hope you can find some comraderie and happiness here very sorry to hear of your physical pains. And that you can find an activity to keep you from feeling bored.

IBelieveinMe - that is kewl (my word for cool) that you had an UP moment at the gym!! congrats on your treadmill progress! but how sad at your friend's loss, poor lady.

Fi, aw, thank you for the b-day wishes, yes, still a glow due to my coat and handbag purchases Very glad you got through the tough white-knuckling-state of getting through a craving. Yay you!

how sad it was to hear you speak of the peace of a dark room, to hide from your parents

i LOVE to talk about motorcycling My DH and I belong to United Motorcyclists of Vermont, I'm vice president in fact, and will prob be elected Prez this February, if I don't chicken out, lol. We raise money for scholarships, collect toys for the Shriners Hospitals, Visiting Nurses Assn, and other charitable organizations.

I ride to work almost every day from late April or early May, through November, my commute is almost 50 miles a day of beautiful Vermont countryside so that is pretty fun!

We have taken long trips to get to rallies in South Carolina, New York, and Ohio; and the farthest I've gone on a bike is to the Arch in St. Louis. You can't tell from looking at me, that I'm a biker chick , lol, except for the blond hair, no tats (yet) and I dress pretty conservative, until it's biker time then it's time to cut loose!

I'm afraid I don't know how to fix my own ride, I'm very happy letting my husband or the shop do it I would be so proud if I could, yet I don't really apply myself to learn.

thanks for asking about my passion

shr1nk1ngme - yay to no drama!!

lilturtle, that is scary to think of ending up in the hospital, sorry about that.

Hi to everyone else! I have off Wed. and Thursdays, and work weekends, so today was my Monday, ugh. Oh well!

i'm tickled pink to know you are caring enough to post real posts to little me, (no so little, really, but i am underneath!)
it's great to read your posts, so invigorating in a way.
yes, vermont mom, this thread is way active - i'm having trouble remembering everybody's name, and your individual stories. i know you are a biker chick. that's easy. and so kewl. LOL . wow and you ride a 1300 cc! how can you even pick it up? i love bikes but they're scary. my son rides a 500 suzi. he likes it. yellow. very cute. your red one sounds hot. i drive a corrolla! lol
ibelieveinmetoo your little pic's are so cute…how do you get those? do i have to wait a certain number of days for that also?
fiona, wellwell i LOVE your swap-bot idea! yes i do! i'm headed there soon thanx
hello to shrinkingme and lilturtle, greetings from oz.
hey everyone, choose to be HAPPY tonight (it's already saturday night here so you've got time to get happy lol)
i read recently about CHOOSING happiness, so i'm doing it.
my husband is so sane, also he makes it easy for me. he is pretty much happy all the time!!!!can you believe it? i feed off his mood a lot. he smiles at me ALL the time….lucky me!

we are about to settle down for a night in front of the telly as usual, which i'm perfectly HAPPY about. we never go out. i don't want to anyway. i've already been everywhere!. we used to go out all the time but now we find it SOOOOO comfortable at home!

um ibelieveinme, jp is junior primary. little ones, 5 - 8 years old, i teach at school. well i used to until i stopped haha. but i hated it in some ways anyhow. waaaaaay too much stresss. oh god it was dreadful for that. but i miss the children.

i LOVE being at home now with my dogs and house and garden though. and my husband quit his job far away to be close to me and to take care of me so he's here a lot too. he just does some casual work. it's so beautiful, us. i adore him and he loves me too. so that's us. we have a few friends and a great family…2 great families in fact.

tell me people, what is DH?

BFN, saraphin :dizzy

btw, thank you for your lovely welcome, vermontmom etc., i'm very happy to have found you. i'm just manoevring my way around this site so excuse me in advance if i make too many dumb blunders BAHAHAAA until later xxx

saraphin - thanks for your nice post telling us about yourself! what a lovely person your husband sounds like. And your home life sounds too comfortable to want to leave, also! In your garden, do you plant vegetables, or just flowers?

DH is "Dear Husband"...some people will also write "DD" "DS" for Dear Daughter, Dear Son; SIL is Sister In Law... In fact, here http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/anno...-acronyms.html is a whole long list of acronyms frequently used here and on the web.

It is OK not to know everyone's name, sometimes we have the time to study each person's post and write something personal; sometimes it is all we can do just to say "Hi to everyone" and that is OK too!

I applaud you for choosing happiness!! sometimes I know it is not possible but if one can, wow that is uplifting and I agree it is what I need to do many times to force myself into positive thinking.

Oh and my big bike...if it falls over, I just stand there looking helpless and usually some big strong person, usually a fellow biker, comes to help me I try very hard not to let that happen, though; last spring I tried to get my bike out of the garage but I got stuck in a mud puddle and couldnt even put the side stand down, so I sat on my bike for AN HOUR until my son came home to help me

The little pictures at the end of one's post, you do have to wait a certain number of days, being a 3FC member, before being able to post those.

Well, Hi to everyone I have to get some cookies together for a Christmas sale our Fire Dept. Auxiliary is doing this morning; I can't participate by attending because I will be at work, but I always make cookie bags for the sale. Yes and I eat them too, sigh! don't even want to talk about my diet which I am never on!
have a great day!

Hello Everyone! I am in a hurry to write because my hubby and I are taking off for an overnight to an out-of-town concert! I can't wait, except that I think we will miss the OSU Buckeyes -vs- Michigan State Big Ten Championship game, which is a major bummer! We are HUGE Buckeye fans!!! I am hoping the bar where the concert is has TVs, so we can catch part of the game, too. Either way, we will have a blast! We have a 17-y-o son and a 14-y-o daughter, and we rarely leave them, so this is much needed time alone! Anyway, I will check in again Sunday evening.....if I'm not too hungover!

shr1nk1ngme: So happy to hear from you and that you found the new thread!!! No drama is a good thing and slow but steady weight loss is better than where I am.....at NONE!

VermontMom: Great to hear from you! Your biker adventures sound so kewl and it sounds like you do some great work for charity. That is awesome! Thank you for welcoming saraphin so warmly and taking the time to write so much to all of us. You are a wonderful addition to our group!

saraphin: Looks like you figured out the little pics/smilies with your post! Aren't they so fun?!? You can use them when you hit "reply" but not if you click on "quick reply." Keep 'em coming! I love them! That is wonderful that your hubby is so good to you! Your relationship sounds a lot like mine with my hubby. We are very blessed! Please keep posting. You are a great addition to the group, too!

Fi: As VermontMom mentioned, that IS so heart-breaking about you finding peace in the dark as you hid from your parents as a child. I know what you mean, though, about the dark being peaceful, too. Even though I prefer the light, sometimes I love being in my home in the middle of the night........ where it is PEACEFUL and QUIET. You might have noticed that I have written some of my posts at that time. Not good for "adequate sleep," I know, but I do enjoy being up in the middle of the night ~ all by myself ~ at times.

Okay, ladies, I am off to pack my bag for my overnight and then we must get on the road. Until tomorrow night............... stay strong and positive everyone!

I probably shouldn't ever post in the afternoon, but I just gotta say this: my diurnal rhythm sucks. Even when I'm not depressed, I'm not good for much between about 1 PM and 6 PM—at least not predictably so—but when I'm depressed, as I have been for a few weeks now, afternoons are Misery City. In the past few days, since going back on a low dose of Effexor, I'm been great in the mornings, great in the evenings, but in so much damn pain in the afternoons, it just isn't funny.

And I can't trust anything I think in the afternoons, because my thoughts during that time period are just a long dreary parade of despair, corruption, ugliness, might as well crawl in a dark corner and die—you get the picture. For example, on the topic of my weight loss project, in the mornings I'll think, "Hey, it really looks like I'm making progress: staying on Atkins, feeling a little smaller, 15 days of no emotional eating, soon I'll increase how much exercise I'm doing—not bad!" But now, because it's the afternoon, I'm thinking, "The diet isn't working, I'm probably stalled, I'm horrible & fat & slothful, and I always will be, so what's the point?"

But I know for a fact that once the sun sets, I'll be back to, "Hey, doin' pretty good here, even stickin' to the diet during a depressed phase, let's turn on some music and dance!" Isn't that ridiculous? It's so frustrating, losing a whole third of my waking life, not being able to trust my own thoughts.

All right already: I'll stop this pity party. I'll go back to lying on the couch under a big thick quilt, moaning and hating myself.

Sorry, y'all. I love reading your postings, I really do. Thanks so much, IBelieveInMe2, for putting this thread together. I hope you enjoyed your concert. What band did you see? What kind of music? (Say, any chance you could give us a name to call you? It doesn't have to be your real name, of course. Names are so much more friendly than handles.)

hi everyone, just checking in!

fiona i read your thread and i am so sorry you are feeling so blue all afternoon. i sleep all afternoon so what's worse? yours i think. maybe some sunshine would help you? i kow that's the last thing you want to do but maybe if you just get up and drag your quilt to the letter-box , and just MAYBE you could sit out there for a bit?

sorry. do you even HAVE any sunshine? come over to oz. we've got sunshine going for free here! i hope you're smiling at that!

take care everyone, well done for posting, it's cathartic to let your feelings go - i'm here. :-)

oh, ps…thanx for welcoming me into your group. thanx also for the replies today and yesterday. answering a question ( i forget who asked me…maybe you, holly?) i grow vegetables AND flowers. tomatoes and petunias and impatiens and pelargoniums atm

also, ibelieveinme, we are blessed, too. and the little pic's are soo sute. they brighten up olur posts don't they?

Hi Everyone,

I am back from our little mini get-away. Although Ohio State lost their big game (we WERE able to watch it on tv at the bar), the concert was so much fun and we had a blast dancing and I even rode the mechanical bull at the bar! It was so nice to be with just my hubby for the evening and overnight!

Fi: I so wish there was something that could help you get through your afternoons better. We need to come up with some solutions! Have you asked your doctor about it? Could you take some med in the afternoons that would take the edge off of your pain and depression? I take Klonopin as needed for extreme anxiety (like when going to a large and/or difficult social event) and it just takes the edge off of my heightened feelings of anxiety. I wonder if something like that would help you in the afternoon. What you are describing sounds awful! Or, at least, is there something you could take to help your physical pain in the afternoons? Have you found anything that is helpful?

The musician we went to see was Phil Vassar. He is a piano playing country/pop guy. Super sweet guy and it turns out he was staying at the same hotel in the little town as we did. He walked in as we were waiting for a cab to pick us up to go to the concert! It was pretty funny. He is an awesome performer! Very talented! Much too talented to still be playing in the little bar where we saw him. I have seen him in concert lots of times and met him several times, too. He is one of my all-time favorite musicians! I play the piano, too, so I am an extra big fan of his!

saraphin: Great to see you continue posting! The smilies are a blast!!! So happy that you found us here!

to everyone else! Please post and let us know how you are doing!

hi everyone

thanx again for welcoming me, ibelieveinme and others!




as you can see, i use metric measurement. for imperial calculation, you simply multiply by 2.2 that easy. 2.2 pounds per kilo. i always remember that.

i'm doing ok, except for the pain i woke up with, but i took my med's early so it will abate soon enough.

i'll stay here at my i-mac for a while though, drinking way too much coffee.

bfn

Hi Believe-

Abstinence is the action of refraining from compulsive overeating and from foods that cause trouble, such as binge and trigger foods. A lot of people in OA have food plans/a plan of eating and OA suggests certain ones in the pamphlet Dignity of Choice. Some members see a dietitian/nutritionist and I am seeing one in a few weeks to help with the food plan and guidance. It's recommended that OA members have sponsors who are members that have a lot of recovery and have a lot of experience with overeating. I am currently working on having a healthier relationship with food, not overeating or under eating. I used to binge but I don't bring a lot of the unhealthy foods home, sometimes I do eat them outside which isn't good, I want to work on that.

Take care. OA has a website too: http://www.oa.org

HI to everyone else, I hope that others here are doing well!

Amy

I have a prn (Geodon) that takes a bit of the edge off. Had another very rough day: pain started around 10:30 AM and as of now, 8:30 PM, it has not yet stopped. I'm sorry to be such a lousy person on this thread. I see my shrink in person on Wednesday.

Hugs to you, Fiona. I hope that you have a better rest of the night. You're NOT a lousy person!

Amy

Amy: Thank you for the explanation of abstinence. It really helps me understand it better. I think I would try to be too all or nothing if I attempted "abstinence." Maybe that is just me misunderstanding the whole concept, though. My biggest problem is doing away with the binge and trigger foods. I do try to avoid them, but they are in the house sometimes for other family members. I know I should eliminate having them in my house at all, but I want to learn to deal with the temptation of them being here since that is the reality for our household long-term. I have been doing much better lately avoiding my trigger foods. I just feel more motivated at the moment, which is something you just can't force, so I am thankful for the extra motivation for now. I hope and pray that it lasts!

saraphin: Thank you for the conversion formula from metric weight to pounds. That always confuses me, so it is good to know the conversion. It is actually pretty simple............. IF I have a calculator around!

Fi: I sure hope and pray that by the time you read this post, your pain has subsided. It just sounds so agonizing and I wish there was some way to get you relief. Please discuss this with your doctor at your face to face appointment on Wednesday. You have GOT to get some help for the physical pain you are experiencing!!! (I know that is often easier said than done, but I am really worried about you.) Be persistent and specific about your needs. Does he know how much pain you are in? Listen here now missy, YOU ARE NOT A "LOUSY PERSON"...... on this thread or anywhere else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is just a negative thought from the big bad devil trying to get you to give up!!! Don't pay any bit of attention to those negative thoughts!!! That is called "stinkin' thinking" and you need to ignore it!!! You are a worthwhile person, and you have already helped me in many ways in my weight loss journey by what you have shared in this group! You matter and your contribution to this group matters. I named it Ups & Downs for the very reason that I want members to feel free to express how they are really feeling, rather than feeling like you have to always post positives. Any of us who are overweight know very well about all of the downs that we experience. Please keep posting and don't worry how often you are down. We are here to help each other right where each of us is NOW in the journey! Please hang in there and discuss all of your feelings and pains with your shrink on Wednesday! He has to know how much you are suffering in order to adequately help you. Please also keep in close touch with us during this difficult time. I think it will help! BIG HUGS to you!!!

Hello to VermontMom, shr1nk1ngme, lilturtle, CDubsGotGoats, and everyone else!!! Please post when you can with an update about yourselves. I am listening and I care.

BTW, Fi (and anyone else who wants to), you can call me Kathleen.