Good Morning, Seems we all still have a distorted body image. I don't want to get too comfortable, I know i'm always going to have to work at this, but it would be nice to really "see" it too. And sometimes I do, so it's getting better, I think.

Meg, Electricity back on yet?

Lisa, You have a beautiful baby and I know you will work hard at losing the wieght. Right now, just concentrate on what you have to do. Take care of your baby and yourself. You know what to do and how to do it, but let your body rest a bit, start easy. It just went through a lot!

Jessica, I find that if I don't eat enough during the day I try to empty the refrigerator at night too! I know a lot of you eat a light dinner, but if I don't eat enough I will be right back in there later. I do plan for a light snack before bed too. We all get to know our bodies and what works best for us. Hope you're feeling better. I have problem sinisus too, hey I live in Michigan, I think everyone here does!

Lilly, Missed you. Scarey news. I hope everything turns out well. Prayers going out that the next tests will be more positive. Not much time to think about diet when you're running around to Dr.'s all day, so stressful!

Goals, That's telling Him!! ha!! Feels good, huh? My grandson put his arms around me the other day and said "you're the skinneyest person I know". I'm not sure if that was a complement or not, but i took it!!

Barbara, I have issues with my stomach too. It always looks huge to me. But, thinking back, I had issues with my stomach when I was in high school and weighed 95 lb. I've come to the conclusion that it's me, not my stomach. now if my eyes and my brain would just connect... We're very differnt, exercise wise. I love lifting, not so much the cardio.

Mitchelle, Size 2? YOU ROCK!!!

Everyone, make it a good day, Freda

Hi everyone, I've been laying low this week...


Lilly, I hope the additional tests reveal better options.

Good luck Meg!

I started my BC pill this week...I take it lunch time-ish and then I get home and by about 7-8, I'm nauseaus. I haven't been able to eat more than a little bit of my dinner every night since Tuesday(I started it on Sunday, and didn't have any trouble the first couple of days). I did manage to eat a black bean burger last night, and thought it'd passed...but around 9:30, I was queasy. I'm also tired, which I think is because I haven't been eating very much! This morning I'm even a little queasy. My friend is a pharmacist/on the same pill and said it will just take a little time to get used to all the hormones. But I'm miserable.

I have managed to workout everyday since Sunday, even though yesterday was an easy 35 minutes split between the elliptical and bike. I'm contemplating taking today as a rest day, but I know tomorrow I won't work out b/c I'm staying with Boy and their gym is terrible. I do know I will be walking around a lot, so that may work.

Sorry to be such a downer. Have a great Friday!

Add me to the list of the skewed body images. Sometimes I feel slender and fit and sometimes I feel the same way I felt 50 pounds ago. Sometimes I try to figure it out and self-analyze, but I'm kind of to the point where I just focus on my behaviors and ignore the head games.

Lily, I am so sorry your daughter has to go through all of this.

Lisa, enjoy these days with the baby. Before you know it, he will be in kindergarten. I know that's what everyone says, but that's cause it is true.

GADawg, what pill are you on? One of my favorite parts of my job is tweaking birth control to minimize those side effects. If you are on a triphasic, you might want to change to a monophasic. I've seen more nausea with triphasics than monophasics. If you are on a monophasic, it might be worth looking at the type of progesterone and the dosages. I'm in love with the nuvaring, actually, cause it is a steady state release of hormones vs the rise and drop that people can get with pills. Some people can tolerate pills and others do better with getting hormones through a different, steady state route. But of course, some insurances cover nuvaring and some don't, and it can be a bit pricy even with insurance.

Hello all! Have a good Friday!

Lily - We missed you! I'm sorry to hear that the doctors think Lacy needs so much surgery. Hopefully this will be the last time she has to have surgery though.

DGA - when I started on BCP I had morning sickness for a couple weeks (mostly feeling nauseous, but I did throw up a couple times). It went away after those first couple weeks though and I have been on BC for eight years now with no problems (I've gone through three different BC types, now I use Nuvaring).

Exercise is just not happening for me lately. I need a kick in the pants.

Good morning and happy Friday everyone,

Temporary power was restored at 1:58 AM last night. I would guess the power company doesn't run the power lines under the bridge (where they would be much more protected) b/c this is a rural area and it costs a lot more $ to do that. I got up to shut the windows and turn on the AC, make sure my fish tank was ok, and at that point I was awake. At least I was productive - I took advantage of us all moving our food (to friends' working fridges) and cleaned out the empty really really gross fridge & freezer. I only had a few snacks (not from the gross fridge and freezer, lol). Tonight is game night at a friend's house, which will be fun, and I haven't decided what I'm going to do the rest of the weekend. Other than eat and exercise OP.

Talk about distorted body image. We have belly dancing class in a dance studio with a long mirrored wall and often pull up our shirts as it's important to see what your belly's doing and how your muscles are moving. I swear those are the fattest fat mirrors ever made! I wish I could just let go of these silly mind games! I suppose it will fade with time...

Jessica, GO EXERCISE!
(Was that good?)

DGA, sorry to hear you're feeling crummy. I hope the effects pass quickly. They do usually go away!

Barbara, you will definitely have to post a picture with your new smile! How dare your trainer go on vacation! Pfffff!

Lily, I hope the doctors in Kansas City can give you some less invasive options. Poor Lacy. Are her intestinal problems just something she was born with? I'm so glad you've been able to talk to Shane!

Lisa, you've taken on a Very Important Job - growing and nurturing little Henry! I'm confident that you'll clean up your eating and start running again as you get further away from his birth, but you are doing great and being a good mom, so don't stress about it!

What are everyone's plans for the weekend? Have a great day all!

Good morning everyone.

Lily~I hope everything goes well with Lacy and that a better alternative can be found. In any case my prayers are with you.

I have no plans this weekend. We're getting our carpets cleaned here at the office this afternoon so Sunday may have us come in and put things back in order. That shouldn't take too long. DD is collecting boxes and packing for college. She's using our guest bedroom for what I call her "staging area". What a mess! She has twice as much stuff as will fit in her car, but she's still thinking it will all fit. We'll see. She hasn't decided to have me come along to bring stuff or come back a week or so later for the things that don't fit. She is making a list of "musts" and "wants" and dividing things so she'll only take the "musts" with her on the first trip.

My trainer called me yesterday...while I was at the gym. I didn't see him there so perhaps there was a problem. In any case I've done quite well without him for 2 days. I only paid for 10 private sessions and would actually prefer only a couple days a week with him to make the sessions last. I doubt that at $60 a pop I'll sign up for more at this point.

Hugs to you Lily!
I pray that you find some less invasive options for Lacy. How scary. Thank God that medial treatments in the US are so amazing that options are available these days.

A question for those of you who use Calorie Count.....
I just started using it a few days ago and am really liking it so far. I have never counted calories before. I have done WW and I still go to the meetings weekly. I am not necessarily counting points now that I'm at maintenance; I am just trying to eat basically the way I did while I was losing with a few treats once in awhile. It has been working for me but I want to make sure I stay accountable....
But.... I have no idea how many calories I should be eating. Calorie count has set my daily goal at 2300 calories and I'm sure that is way too many for me to maintain. How do you know what to set yours at? Is it just trial and error? The past three days I have been tracking I have eaten 1100-1800 calories.
Any advice?

michele~IMO the "maintenance" calories that some websites show seem to be very high. 1800 sounds pretty reasonable. It's a lot of trial and error, though. Try to stick to 1800 for a week or so--if you maintain during that time stick at that count. If you go up, drop the calories by 100. For the most part a WW point equals about 50 calories. I tend to lose when I stick to 1200, anything over 1600 makes me gain. But everyone is different.

Megan: My gym has warped mirrors too! Sometimes I think they do it on purpose because if you are the right height and standing the right distance from the mirror, they make you look really thin. But if you are at the wrong height (say, doing doing squats or standing on a Bosu) or at the wrong distance, they have the opposite effect. Sometimes it's like being in a fun house!

Michelle: I'm not sure how to do it, but there is a way to figure out how many calories your WW points represented. Then you could start from there and add 100 calories every week to figure out your maintenance weight. In my experience, the online calculators can't be trusted. I also agree with alinnell that 1800 sounds pretty reasonable (I think it's about where I end up on maintenance, it's what my trainer recommends to me, and it seems like it's where a lot of 3FCers end up on maintenance), so the other way to figure it out would be to start there and see if you seem to be losing, gaining, or maintaining, and adjust as appropriate. Figuring out the right calories level is more art than science, with a lot of trial and error.

midwife: I definitely have days where I feel thin and days where I feel fat. And on my thin days, sometimes I'll even take my measurements thinking that they'll surely come in low, but they don't. I'm the same size as as on my fat days (when I sometimes take my measurements to calm myself down about it). How can that be?

DGA: I wouldn't put up with the nausea for too long. I'm not the expert that midwife is, but I do know that there are tons of options out there in terms of bc pills and there's sure to be one that works for you without nasty side effects. I'm currently using nuvaring as well and am a big fan of it.

the slim me: I had issues with my stomach in HS too, but it wasn't all in my head. My eating habits were pretty poor and my exercise was nonexistent back then. I wasn't that overweight, but what extra weight I did have, I carried in my stomach. I'm actually thinner now than I was back then (and in way better shape ). At least now there some question as to whether my stomach issues are real or in my head--so I guess I'm making progress.

HI,

lisa - what a fabulous cute l;ittle baby! enjoy!

Lily - sorry to hear the dr's opinion about the surgeries. The stuff sounds real scary. I think it is smart to double check if there are less invasive options, and also to ask what are the possible outcomes of these surgeries and in what terms they measure success.

hi to all the other maintainers.

Rabbit