Normally it would be ice cream or fried chicken. I settled for some air popped popcorn and some fiber 1 bars. As it turned out, I wasn't hungry for dinner, so I only went over 100 or so calories.

We take in young adults with fetal alcohol to try to help them transition to independence. We adopted one and he can be a handful at times.

Good Sunday Everyone!

I seem to be able to debloat a little early this week which hopefully means I will be able to get an accurate weigh in on Wednesday. If It's better to take it from tomorrow or Tuesday as the most accurate, then I will do so. Keeping it to the exact day each week just doesn't seem logical for me right now. I hit a new low this week after my weigh inn of 290.8 (which was almost my weekly target), but today I am back up at 292.3 (see what I am dealing with here). As long as my weekly weigh in shows a decrease of a pound or more, I am pretty happy about that.

Busy few days for me

The last few days have been a bit scary, My niece Ivy was born last July with Hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain) which means she has a Shunt (drain) in her head that allows the fluid to drain into her tummy area. She has been fine all year, and routinely gets checkups and CT scans. Well a couple of weeks ago she caught a tummy bug from nursery and gave it to everyone in the family. She then didn't seem to get better and lost a lot of weight. On Thursday night my brother called saying that he felt she was dizzy and just not herself. I told him to take her up to the children's hospital nearby. They did not know how to treat her, did not know what was wrong, and told him that they do not specialise in kids who are disabled (my niece, is a perfectly normal child who is hitting all of her growth targets). My brother and his partner decided to walk out of the hospital and drive further to the specialist hospital that she was born at in the city. Within 30 mins, the on-call neurosurgeon was called, she had a CT scan to show that the Shunt stopped working and within 2 hours she was having brain surgery.

Luckily, they caught it in time and within 24 hours she is completely herself eating banana and cookies and even some fish fingers for her dinner. She should get out tomorrow luckily, but for us it has been a good save. Always very scary when the patient is so young

Stress eating reply: I actually don't keep any treats in the house because I would eat them lol. When I have had a bad day or I have a huge craving to lick the commercials off of the TV. I have apples in the house and I have peanut butter, so I think that they are usually the first things I turn too. I cut up the apple and spoon some peanut butter onto them and eat them, as I wait on the kettle to boil and have a cup of 38 calorie hot chocolate. That is usually enough to sustain me.... If I am in a super market and having arguments back and forth in my head about cravings or stress eating. I will usually look for a desert to have after dinner, sometimes it is a good choice, sometimes it is bad. Either way the next day I try to make up for it with exercise.

Phae Well done for getting back under the 200's, I am in the same boat about being there before. My first 23lbs of the year was actually weight I had put on over last winter and I resented every lb I lost, because It shouldn't of been there. In 2010 I went on holiday with my best friend (and I thought I was really big then), I weighed in at 281 before I went, I am currently 290.8 after losing 32lbs. Until I get to there I feel like I cannot celebrate, because Its all stupid weight that appeared when I wasn't paying any attention. We can celebrate again soon! Well done again btw!

Scotsgal[B I know how you feel about resenting the weight. I had been holding fairly steady at 292 even though I didn't want to be there after being determined I wouldn't gain over 285. Then ... I was hoping not to go over my highest of 303. But, somehow, when I thought I was just "maintaining" and living ... it went past that to now 317. I now am way behind where I wanted to be. So ... I won't be happy about anything until I'm back closer to losing under 285.
*sigh*
I know I should be happy about every bit lost but it's hard.
How scary about that lil girl. I am so thankful it was caught in time.

nikkinicole Aww thank you, she got released from hospital today so everything is all good.

We are on the same page with the weight loss. I should feel great for losing it, everyone keeps complementing me, but until I get under 280 I will be angry at myself for not doing it sooner. I really wanted to be under 280 for Xmas, luckily I am right on track to hit that no problem. I started a challenge on one of the other pages on here to hit it by Halloween, but the last 2 weeks have been a little bit up and down. I suppose after 32lb loss I should expect that, but I really wanted to get that little bit xtra off before I go away in 2 weeks. Instead I am going to concentrate on having 3 days a week as low as 1100 calories, then do 19 different toning exercises per day. If I don't lose, I will at least be gaining muscle and hopefully losing some inches.

You will totally hit that goal! I believe in you.

Funny story: My major ultimate weight loss reward is a trip to the UK! I want to visit places in England, Ireland and Scotland!!! I fully intend on going so ... I fully intend on hitting the goals.

You can do this! We all can do this.

Hello All... I figured I would join a support group, because I have no one in my life who knows what it is like to be 300+ pounds..

robertscm83 - I feel the same way. I have all these people in my life who are a lot smaller. They don't understand how it feels. They don't know how their words affect or their actions. I am super stoked to have found a group of people who GET IT!!!

Robertscm83: Hello! I'm new too and everyone here is amazing and very encouraging.

Nikkinicole: haha first I'd like to mention that autocorrect tried to change your name to millionaire...wow that would be nice. I think a trip is a great reward. I'd love to goto the UK.

Scotsgal: I'm glad your niece is doing better. I'm not sure I would go to that first hospital ever again.

I've had a rough couple days. My daughter has her first cold. All household chores seem to keep piling up. I swear I wash dishes and vacuum everyday just to have everything be dirty by night time. All I want to do is sit in my chair and eat some ice cream or a block of cheese but I can't. It's just starting to get to me that everything I like is on the super high calorie list.

Ok sorry mini rant over. On the positive side I did go to the exercise class yesterday. It killed me. It was a 30 minute circuit and I almost didn't make it. I'm super sore today but I feel proud of myself. Now I have to force myself to do it again

I'm hungry. There, I said it. My lunch is on its way, but I have to run an errand prior to eating it. And, I'm hungry.

Thanks, Nikkinicole!

HAHA.. I know what you mean, I was sitting in a meeting and my stomach started growling, people just kept shifting in their seats and turning and looking back at me..

Had a bad lunch. I'm taking a trip this weekend somewhere I don't want to go. A week from Thursday I have a ceremony where it's formal and that makes me very uncomfortable. Then the Saturday after that I've got graduation. They had to special order my gown. My nerves are starting the get the better of me.

Hi guys,

I haven't posted because things in my life aren't doing so well right now and truthfully I have not been focused on my health the past couple of weeks. I'm trying to get back there but things are very stressful.

As you know 2 of my nieces lost their mother recently and I had to go to Denver to be with them. After getting back my mother and I find out that my other niece (who is 16 and will be graduating high school this year) and her mother have not been getting along. To the point where she has been a prisoner in her own home, never allowed to see friends or go anywhere and now it has come down to physical emotional and verbal abuse. My mother and I are trying our best to help her as she cannot leave until she turns 17. I worry about her safety and about 2 weeks ago she decided to run away from home because her mother took it way too far. She had to run to a neighbor's house to call my mother because she has no access to electronics at her home. My mother picked her up but after speaking with police she had to take her back home. That turned into an all out war with her mother and now she will not allow my mother to see her. Where I live there is a grandparents rights law so that grandparents can fight for visitation. My mother filed for that last week and also got in touch with social services. Now all we can do is wait. Her mother decided to have police charge her as a runaway although she was not even gone 2 hours so now she has to go to court for this and will have this on her record. Not only is this abuse happening but she is also sabotaging her school work to the point of tearing up homework and her grades are suffering. She is trying to ruin this girl's future so not only am I worried about her safety I am worried and furious about her mother doing this to her.

So as you can see this is why I have not been around. I'm hopeful to get to where I want to be again but need to find the balance with all of this.

Hoping everyone else is doing well, sorry I haven't been keeping up with you all <3

SamIAm- I'm so sorry this stuff has happened to your family. I'd like to say that this stuff is rare, but we take in young adults with fetal alcohol, and the homes they have grown up in would make great reality shows except they're sooner the top that no one would believe them. Our adopted son's family once kept him from attending a cadet ceremony where he was to receive a major award. They couldn't stand to see him do well.

Hopefully family services will keep her alive until she's 17. Make sure she has a lawyer for her hearing.