We are a group of individuals who weigh or have weighed 300+, or near there. This group was formed to provide a place for others like us to find support and hope. We are aware of the distinct problems that come with weighing over 300 lbs.

We want to invite everyone (roosters as well as chicks!) to join us in our journey. We share laughter and tears, heartaches and fears ... joys and celebrations. We also share what works for us and what doesn't.

We know the thread can move very quickly, and that people often make "personal" remarks and keep a number of conversations going. Please feel free to contribute even if you can't make personal comments all the time.

Finally, we also have several extra threads going on simutaneously such as Monthly Challenges, Weekly Weigh-ins, Recipes, Bios, Photos, Exercise, Info for Getting Started and more. Many of these threads are stickied at the top of the page. Please feel free to check them all out.

We have found this thread to be more than just a support group... we have found it to become a home. We invite you to join us.



I know you'll all agree that we are really thankful for the free services here at 3FC. The sisters offer all of this support and information with no charges to us. There are a couple of ways though that we can help out.

If you are thinking about buying anything at Amazon, why not help out 3FC at the same time? You can do this by clicking on the button for the Amazon "store" in the upper right hand corner of the screen on the PURPLE tool bar. A portion of your purchase price will be given to 3FC by Amazon. It doesn't increase your price at all, but it does help out 3FC. You can use any of the Amazon.com links that you see on the site in order to help contribute to the site.

Also, BTW, in case you didn't know it, you can view the message boards "ad free" for a minimal charge. I think it's $15 for 6 months. A very small investment to be rid of the annoying ads and make your pages load quicker.

There have been some concerns expressed by the powers that be about copyright infringement. So please, if you are directly quoting someone else or printing an article in whole or in part, please give credit where credit is due!!!!

I was going to start the new thread this morning, but after I mucked it up last week, I figured I'd best leave it to the expert

I hope all those who celebrated it had a great Easter, and to those who didn't, I hope you had a wonderfull weekend

Lisa, I know how you're feeling. I lost a chunk of weight a couple years back, and it wasn't until I had lost more than 40 pounds that anyone noticed/commented, and even then, I still hadn't gone down any clothing sizes. Don't let it get you down--you'll be blowing them all away in no time, and they will be seeing a thinner, healthier you for the rest of your life, so what's the hurry

As for me, I'm feeling much more focused. I can't say I've eaten perfectly every single day, but I have improved my choices and my feelings with food. We didn't get home until late last night, so I didn't have the time I thought I would have to prepare food for this week. I easily could have said screw it, I'm tired, I'll run out for something for lunch...but instead, I was in the kitchen at 5:30 this morning cooking chicken on my Foreman and mashing up avocados I ended up being able to make a substantial, healthy lunch for both Jeff and myself, plus I remembered to bring some other healthy foods I'd bought with me to work (Kashi oatmeal and granola bars, mainly).

Although I tried the Kashi vanilla oatmeal this morning, and I have to say it was quite bland. Maybe I'll mix in 1/2 a banana with it tomorrow.

Jill -- Please feel free to start the threads in the future! I would hate to have no one start it if I was late and snoozing in bed or something!

Good to hear you're getting on track.

Hi ladies!

Hope everyone had a decent weekend and holiday. Mine was ok, considering I was working. The girls I work with had an Easter lunch and I am proud to say, I avoided the double layer homemade chocolate cake like the plaque! Trust me it wasn’t easy. Chocolate is my fav!!!
MAMAB: im so happy for you doing so well on program. I agree with what you said about competition; even though I never felt competitive as far as wt loss, I guess in some ways I am as I did better in the “contest” than I expected.
SHARON: wow, you are doing great!! I know how hard it is to do a liquid diet, I have done that before. Congratulations!
XENA: thank you so much for your kind words. My wt loss journey has literally had its ups and downs (no pun intended, lol) but when I look back at some old pictures or think of the clothes and sizes I used to wear, I am very proud. I know you can do this. Just don’t give upJ
LISA: I am so sorry you had a rough day. As I said to sharon, I know h0w difficult the liquid diets are, you have my ultimate respect! As for people noticing, forget about them! As jill said, you are going to be the winner in the long run. I work with several b**Y chicks, who NEVER compliment or comment on things like that. My theory is this, when I was always the “big fat girl” it was ok to comment on 5 lbs loss, it was no threat. Now that my wt loss is considerable, and I am not way far off from their wt, I think it worries them that the “fat girl” may get close to their wt, lol. Anyway, your doing awesomeJ
TORRISTER: hope you had a nice weekend.
ERIKA: im sorry your having knee problems. Hope it gets better for you.
BRENDA: you too are doing well. don’t be so hard on yourself. I am the same way sometimes, I feel as if its “all or nothing” for me and If I slack off even a little I am very hard on myself.
HEATHER: hope your feeling better too!
JILL: have you tried the Special K protein bars? They are really good.
To all the missing ladies, we miss you!
As for me, I have a couple days off and I am going to use that time to do some things I need to do. I continue to do well with food/excersise, I need to officially weigh in this week. I have become something of a nuisance to my family. They just don’t understand how important my diet/excersise is to me. If I don’t go out to eat, they don’t understand. I am the type of person who can easily get distracted and if I do anything off course, it could be disastrous for meL anyway have a wonderful dayJ

Good Morning Ladies!

Well I made it through the big buffet...but not without some battle scars! I think my choices were ok...salad, shrimp w/a small amount of rice, small piece of grilled chicken cooked in a tomato type sauce, fruit... but the potatoes they had were amazing. Thank goodness I only took 1 spoonful, or I could have been in real trouble. Dessert wasn't that great...I took a sliver of carrot cake which I had 2 bites of and decided that I make a better one!! But there were these little dark chocolate cups w/mouse in it...I had 2, which is weird because I don't like dark chocolate or even mouse for that matter! I guess because everyone else was eating I felt I had to have something. At least I got some anti-oxidents for the heart! But the really weird thing was that when I looked at everyone else eating I was really kinda disgusted at how much food there was!!

Lisa: I know exactly how you feel. No one said anything except my BIL's mom, and she was so cute, because she is not the type to pry...but the rest of the family who are also big, nothing!! I have people at work who are aquaintances, and I don't regularly see, say things, but god forbid the family should notice!!!

Kymberly: Have you tried the Special K bites? They give you alot and they are REALLY hard and crunchy so they last a while for a small snack!

Have a great OP day!
Donna

Good morning!

Well, TOM is gone and I'm down 5.6 pounds, for a total of 23 pounds in the last month that I've been eating right and exercising - not too shabby!

We went camping this weekend here in Georgia, at a campsite in the foothills of the Appalachians (according to their website, hah). It was unusually cold, at least compared to what it's been the last few weeks (it got down into the 30s at night) so we spent a lot of time around the fire, haha. But at least it was sunny and a bit warmer during the day. The park has a network of hiking trails, so we went on a 4.5 mile hike the first day and a 1 mile hike the next day. It was such fun and it felt so good to be able to do that, something I couldn't have done a month ago. We managed to eat pretty well considering our cooking limitations and I didn't even miss not having any Easter candy!

The bad thing is I seem to have come away from the weekend with a head cold. Ugh!

Jill, I'm glad to hear you're feeling focused and ready to face the week. And wow! I'm totally impressed at you getting up at 5:30 to prepare meals - I don't think I would have done that!

Kymberly, chocolate is my weakness too and I bet that cake looked good, so kudos to you for resisting temptation!

Donna, a buffet could be a disaster zone for someone trying to eat right, so it good for you for keeping yourself in control and making some good choices.

I'm going to go back and read through last week's thread to see what I missed but right now I'm going to try and take a little nap since I didn't get much sleep last night.

I hope everyone's having a great day!

OMG!!! HELP!!! I just opened the fridge and there is some sort of cream pie and brownies!!! I was asleep when my son got home from his girlfriends house...he must have brought home her mom's leftovers! I need to go back to FLA to walk the pool again!!! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Thank you, Donna, Kymberly, and Jill! It helps to know that you have experienced the same thing. At least I know that I feel better physically and that my clothes are fitting better. I'll just keep plugging away!

Donna - OMG!!!!!!! That must have rocked your world when you found that stuff in your fridge! I am lucky because my dog, Henry, is my only roommate so I only keep dog food and water in the house - haven't eaten any dog food yet. Hang in there and try to resist the temptation! I can identify with how hard that is - yesterday, all the Easter food almost made me go postal!

Have a good week everyone!

Lisa

Good Morning All!

I've missed far too many posts to catch up...so I'll just start over and hope that all that everyone has had a very good past few days.

Starting with my DS birthday on Thurs and going thru my anniversary (7th) yesterday, food has been TERRIBLE! I have eaten SO many things that I shouldn't have. Sweets and fried and cream sauces and gravies and things like I used to eat on a regular basis. I told my MIL yesterday - I had lost 105 lbs, but I probably gained 20 over the weekend! I can't even call it a binge, because that indicates you are out of control...I conciously put every fattening bite in my mouth.

However, the plan is for - as of today - my DH and I to be back on track for real. It's been so much harder with him working nights. I mean, who wants to wake up and eat stir-fry or salad? So we end up scrounging for individual meals and that means not really cooking. He has regained back to 240 lbs. (a 10 lbs gain) When he told me that I had to surpress an evil giggle. I'm ashamed to admit it, but it felt so good for a minute there to know that I'm substantially lighter than my DH. But that's done now...I want to be thinner than him because we both are at healthy weights and his is higher than mine, not because he got fatter faster.

I did have a wonderful weekend. We went to St. Louis, stayed in a suite, went to the Funny Bone. We also went to Soulard's Farmer's Market - established in 1779 and still in operation. Made me wish I could shop there all the time. We got 8 quarts of strawberries for $2! Grapes for 50 cents a pound!!! It was wonderful! A bit disapointing so much was closed on Sunday, but we went to see 300, which we'd been looking forward too and the theaters in St. Louis are so nice compared to here.

So anyway, that's all I have for now. I'll try not to be such a stranger, but there's so much to do and little time to do it! Have a happy, healthy OP day ladies!

I used to have the 90-calo0rie Special K bars (I think I had cranberry flavor and strawberry flavor), but I stopped because they had some ingredients in them that I began trying to avoid. I don't just look for low-cal foods anymore--I try to keep things as nutritionally sound as possible, and the Kashi brand bars and such are much more natural and in line with what I'm trying to do for my body ("trying" being the key word--I know the Easter Reese's peanut butter eggs aren't exactly nutritionally sound, but that's life )
ha, not to start any false rumors here--I'm up at that time every weekday anyway. I get up at about 5 so I am out of the bathroom by 5:30 (when Jeff gets up for his shower), but then I typicall spend the next hour just responding to emails, checking the weather, planning my day, etc. I just decided to use my extra morning time for something different today

Lisa-I grew up in Oklahoma, and I understand that “pioneer mentality” about having to be self-reliant. I have found that also includes things like diets. To go on a diet, you are admitting to your family that there is something wrong with you that you can’t handle on your own. I got to the point where I wouldn’t tell them that I was on a diet, and refused to comment on why I was losing weight. I think my brothers especially were grateful for it because they just were incapable of knowing what to say, or more importantly, what not to say. I have avoided family gatherings for years because of it. Someday, I will go again, but right now, I’m just not strong enough or far enough along to do so.

Meta-I’m glad that you are finding it doable to eat intuitively. I certainly can’t, and know I will never be able to. Even after weighing and measuring everything I eat for over 5 years, when I stop doing so for even a week, my portions creep up like crazy. When I start measuring again, I am again stunned by the difference. My view of food is as permanently warped as an alcoholic’s view of booze. The difference is that alcoholics don’t have to drink everyday to live.

Emily-I so miss the beach. When I close my eyes, sometimes I can still feel the sun on my face, and smell the sea air. Then I open my eyes, and realize that smell of low tide is actually the smell of the goo that has been unearthed on the front lawn from the snow melt.

Shadie-You are going to be in the 3’s before you know it at the rate you are going.

Donna-I hope you didn’t get eaten up at the buffet, if you know what I mean. I can’t do buffets yet. Everytime we end up at one, I think I will be fine, and then just go nuts.

Xena-I don’t know if Kathleen is still on the air or not. We don’t have cable, and even when we did, we didn’t get that channel, so I haven’t seen it since I was in the states. They have her books in the library, and I sometimes check them out when I feel the need for a little re-enforcement.

Wyllenn-I doubt I will ever be able to do squats again, even if I ever make it to my goal weight. There is just so much my damaged knee can handle. It’s a good thing I am able to do stairs because they are everywhere here. All the buildings have basements, so the first floor is either half a flight up or half a flight down. Our building is the only one is our part of town that is roll in ground floor, and that is only because the designer/builder built it in the 70’s for his elderly mother and a bunch of her other retired friends. I never really thought about how big a change the ADA brought to the US. I just don’t see people here on scooters like they were in Florida. It may just be my prejudices, but the older people here just seem so much more mobile and ambulatory, probably because they have to be, or stay inside for 6 months of the year. It could also be that I don’t see scooters on the street here because people who need them can’t use them in the neighborhood because the buildings aren’t accessible and the sidewalks are covered in snow most of the time.

Donna-OMG, your fridge has a pie maker/dispenser. Mine doesn’t even make its own ice.

Lilion-I miss my farmer’s market back in Florida. The strawberries and tomato’s especially. Here the only fresh produce is grown in greenhouses, so it’s still not what you would call cheap. Canola is grown here, so you can get a gallon for about $3, and salmon is cheap, but everything else is shipped in by dogsled, so there is definitely a mark up.

As for myself, I am just exhausted from Easter still. We sang for a 5 hour long service. Then they had hospitality downstairs, with a cake to celebrate the newly baptized. I can’t remember the last time I ate cake at 1:30 in the morning. Fatigue is a killer for my diet. I spent most of the morning just sitting in a chair and staring into space. I actually put the turkey in the oven at 2am. I think we had it for breakfast. The whole house still smells like turkey. It is making me nauseous just thinking about eating any more of it, so I’m going to make soup with it.

Hello everyone. I have been a bit scarce mostly because I have been having back trouble the last few days making it difficult to sit at the computer. I left work early on Friday and now at the end of the day my lower back is in bad shape again. I think I may need to go find myself a chiropractor.

I did pretty well this weekend eating out with my parents twice, but no exercise due to the back trouble. I am going to try the gym today and see how I do. If it is too painful I will stop, but then again maybe it will help.

I met the "crazy" aunt this weekend, and while she was actually lovely and quite adorable, I am going to pass on living with her. It is actually more for her than me, because she deserves something long term, rather then getting used to me and then I move on. So, it is back to apartment hunting for me.

Hiya everyone. Thank you for all the compliments on my av. They're much appreciated!

Welcome to all the new ladies and welcome back to all of those who have come back! Congrats to all the losers and those who stick to it, despite not losing. Well wishes to everyone, and especially those who are ill or going through a hard time right now. And, of course, happy belated birthday to those of you who have celebrated a birthday since I last posted!

Drea - I really enjoyed Diets Don't Work and for a while, I incorporated it into what I was trying to do. It seemed to work, but then I fell off the wagon hardcore and things have spiralled down from there. Thanks again for suggesting reading it - it definitely gave me a lot to think about in the very least.

Zelma, how are things going now? Is it getting better dealing with the kids?

Jill, congrats on being more focused, and for getting your lunch ready so early this morning. I am an absolute bear until I wake up and I don't even want to be talked to, let alone have to have an actual task to accomplish :P

Ammi & Annie, hope you're both feeling better soon. We sure miss you!

Catherine, one of my favorite quotes from you is saved on my computer. Since you mentioned the relationship between food addiction and alcohol addiction, I thought I'd bring it back: "I'm convinced that natural weight loss is the simplest thing in the world, just horribly not easy. It's the same as telling an alcoholic to just not drink anymore, simple but hard. They can at least live without alcohol, we have to dance with our demon everyday for the rest of our lives, and sometimes we get our toes stepped on."

Nancy, I think it's great that you're choosing to not move in with your "crazy" aunt for her sake, rather than doing it just to benefit yourself. Many people do things solely for their own good and just don't think about the effect it will have on the others involved. You'll find an apartment that is right for you when the time is right.

Sharon & Lisa, I will most likely be going on a VLCD as well. I'll post more below in my update, but may have to 'use' you both as a resource at some point in the near future!

Lilion, that farmer's market sounds like heaven. Unfortunately we only have the farmer's market for one day a year, sometimes two if we're lucky. Pretty sad since I live in the middle of farming country!

For those of you who I didn't get a chance to respond to, please know that I did/do read everything, and my thoughts are with all of you as well.

As for me, I am likely officially done trying to lose weight on my own. It's just not working. After medication adjustments, more movement, less calories in (but still in a healthy range - no less than 1,800 and no more than 2,200), better calories vs refined foods, etc.. I am still up quite a bit. I hadn't wanted to admit it publicly, but it's time to face the music. I have ballooned up to 395lbs. The scale at work chimed in at 401.5lbs, but that was later than I normally weigh, I was clothed, and it was during TOM so I am officially taking my home scale number.

I feel the effects of my weight on a daily basis. It hurts just to walk from my desk to the restroom at work. My ankle is much worse than it has ever been, my knees constantly ache, and my back goes into an angry fit each time I try to do much of anything. I am very fearful that if I keep going, I will not be able to get around on my own. I nearly bought a cane the other day because my ankle just doesn't support me very well at all. I am at a loss as to what I can do. So, I am going to start seeing someone from the wellness and lifestyle management clinic. They see mainly bariatric patients, but they will a) provide me with the 6 months of manditory medical weight loss (because I've been seen for other things, but rarely for my actual weight issue), and b) eventually help me get insurance approval to have either the lapband or RNY done.

I hate that it's come to that, because I really thought I could do it on my own. I'm not now, nor have I ever knocked it for those who really need it, and in my heart I know it is likely the catalyst that will get me started towards saving my life, so I'm a bit depressed but feeling better about my decision. The other issue is going to be cost - because my insurance won't cover the lifestyle management 'classes' or appointments, which means I have to pay out of pocket for that portion. It will take some creative finagling and/or a few months to save up to afford it.

In the mean time, my family practice doctor has recommended a VLCD to try to "jumpstart" my loss. Liquids for breakfast and lunch, a snack (fruit) in the morning and in the evening (vegetable), and one actual meal with lean protein and veggies. The total will be an average of 800 calories/day. It won't be too hard at first, but that's only because I'm sick yet again. I imagine as I feel better, it will really mess with me for a while. We shall see..

Well I'm back and hopefully with a renewed sense of purpose as far as this crazy weight loss journey goes. I did so good for so long and in the last few months I've gained approximately 10 -15 lbs. It depends on the time of the month and whether or not it's the 10 or the 15 you know? So I'm going to HAVE to make myself come back here every day so that I can get that fire lit in me again. You know the one--the one that says it's okay to gain a little bit back but let's go already. I couldn't find a boot so the drill seargent will have to do. So here's my plan--catch up tonight with lots of reading so that I can actually post replies tomorrow after I've walked on my treadmill. I don't know why I can't get myself to use it every day--I love how good I feel afterwards, you know? So my plan is to walk 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes after work. I'll post my results tomorrow. I have been trying to do it myself for so long now and it's just NOT working. I am hoping that being here with all of you can straighten me out.

Oh yeah--Jill--I put your quotes on my MySpace page under my quote section. I hope you don't mind. ( www.myspace.com/dolfingirl2000 ) That's the address if anyone wants to see my page. Okay--I have to go. ((((Hugs)))) and good luck everyone.

Vicki