WELCOME !!!

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 to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears.
We share what works for us and what doesn't.
We often use a "Topic of the Day" for discussion.

Motivational Monday
Tuesday Tips
Wednesday Wish List .. and What you are doing to obtain it.
Thankful Thursday
FUN Friday ... don't wait until you lose your weight.
Sit-up Saturdays - any physical activity
Share your Success Sunday

These are not required topics ...just ideas to share. We often find them very helpful. We also share heartaches and fears ... joys and celebrations.

We have several extra threads going on simutaneously such as Monthly Challenges, Weekly Weigh-ins, Recipes, Bios, and more. 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.

WELCOME!

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 Amazon on any page in the forum, or by clicking on the button on the main 3FC page at www.3fatchicks.com . 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 like $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!!!!

Yay, unless somebody beats me to it while I am typing this, I am going to be the second to post on here

It's Saturday night, and I have had a productive day. I have washed and dried all my washing, and I have caught up with all me emails etc. I have been really good on my diet too. Saturday is usually my treat night, so I used to have a bottle of wine, a fattening meal, and a tub of Haagen Daaz icecream. Oh and a couple of bags of sweets. So from that I have gone to no wine, a WW home made meal, and half a tin of low fat rice pudding with a banana. It filled me, and it was delicious.

I hope everybody is doing ok and eating well.

Hugs,

Ammi

Hi,
I am glad to find you all here. I have been a member of these boards for three years and they have been a significant factor in my journey.

I am have been stuck at 199 lbs for 6 months and it is so frustrating. I think the resistance is more in my mind than in my diet. I had no idea how scary it would be to become a "thin" person.

On the other hand, there are so many exciting and wonderful things that have changed for me at this weight.

Karie

I haven't posted lately, but have been lurking and reading the past couple of weeks. My dad is out of the hospital and doing fine. I can't remember if I told you all I was going to have a physical and bloodwork done as well. That, suprisingly, all checked out OK. My fasting blood sugar was fine, blood pressure good (although a few points higher than I am used to seeing it), cholesterol was only slightly high (210). Basically what the doctor said was that I so far have dodged a bullet. She said many people wait for a bad medical diagnosis...diabetes, high BP, etc...before they ever start to do something about their weight. She said I should count myself lucky and do something now before the weight catches up with me, which it will. She was pretty supportive, esp. compared to some doctor horror stories I have heard. She basically said to make small gradual changes, and aim for small goals. Her suggestion was to aim to lose 3 pounds per month. Of course, I immediately think, "No way, that would take me 4 years to lose all the weight I need to lose." But, I realize her point is right. I need to make small, maintainable changes rather thinking I am going to lose all this weight in a year.

Ammi - Wow, what an article. That lady is incredible. I know I am currently overwhelmed by the amount of weight I have to lose. I have always struggles with my weight, gaining and losing many many many times over the years. (To quote the child of a friend of mine "Everytime I see you, you are a different weight"...Out of the mouths of babes!) Thanks for sharing this article. It will help to remember not to get overwhelmed. I have to focus on what I can do TODAY to be healthier and weigh less and not think ahead too much.

Welcome, Karie. Congratulations on your weight loss so far. I have lost to within 20-30 pounds of my goal weight before, started plateauing, and ended up gaining it back. I realize now that I was having a "mental" plateau rather than a true physical one. Many times we are told that physical plateaus are to be expected, that our bodies are adjusting to our new weight and we must give them time. But I think the same thing can happen with a "mental" plateau. We may get within a certain distance of our final goal and start to find ourselves feeling apprehensive, or scared, or tired of the process, or frustrated, or starting to sabotage ourselves, or whatever we are feeling. Maybe at these times we need to treat our "mental" plateaus the way we are told to treat our physical ones...with patience and understanding that we are going through a big adjustment and sometimes we are going to have a stall along the way. Being significanly overweight affects your mind, body, and soul. So we have to give our mind and soul, not just our body, time to adjust to the massive changes we have made. I am no expert at getting to goal, but I am an expert at almost getting there. My only advice would be to take it easy on yourself right now. Take time to work though why you are scared to "go all the way" or why you had the excess weight to start with. You might try a therapist or just try to write a journal or come out here and share with us who have your same struggle. And while doing that always remember that you have lost a significant amount of weight AND have maintained it. I had a wise WW leader once say, "You didn't just lose another pound this week. You lost a pound, and you maintained the X number of pounds you have already lost." You have done really great so far. Someone with the wherewithall to do what you have done can make it the rest of the way. Be patient with yourself. And keep coming back to post with us. Look forward to getting to know you!

Ammi: Great article. Very inspiring. Reminds me of our Catherine. Starting with flutter kicks and moving on to more exercise. GREAT job, Catherine AND Rosalie. What I found funny though was if you read the timeframe, Rosalie started her journey in 1988 and here it is 2005 and there's an article. And it's in YOUR papers and she's from here in the US. Interesting how news reports go.

Ammi sounds like you had a great Saturday!! Your new "treat night" sound delicious!! Great job!

I had a treat last night too. I bought lite/low fat ice cream and had 2 servings, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. I wanted to finsh the container as I used to do in the past, but stopped myself so now I have some for today!
Have a great day!
PJ

Hi Karie!!

HUGE CONGRATS on your 100 pounds gone forever! That is fantabulous!! I am sure that you will break that 199 barrier soon. Thanks for sharing yoru success!

PJ

Xena

Glad your dad is out of the hospital and doing fine! Now it is time to concentrate on yourself. Get healthy for you. Make small changes. Take one day at a time and one meal at a time. You will get there. Don't worry about the goal of 3 pounds per month. Set up a plan with room to "slip up" and try to stick to it. You can and will do this! Hang in there!

PJ

Hi Xena - glad you had good results at your physical. Your doctor sounds wonderful and aiming for 3 lbs a month loss sounds like a great idea. I aim for four, so if I weigh after a month and I have lost more than that, well great, if I just lose the four, then I am happy. I am only the second week into my diet so I have two weeks to go before I get on the scales. I am glad you liked the article, it definitely gives us something to think about doesn't it.

Thinthinker - yes it is amazing to think how long this lady's story took to come to print, AND that it was in a UK paper, not a US one. Richard Simmons is popular over there, so you would think the papers would have wanted to report about that woman's fabulous story.

PJ - good for you for saving enough of that low fat icecream so you could have some today. That's what I did with my rice pudding (low fat of course). I could have had the whole can, but I thought no, I would rather have half of it, put a banana with it and keep the other half for tonight. It really is delicious.

It's now Sunday, nearly midnight, and two weeks ago today at that time I weighed and decided to start my diet. So here I am two weeks on, and I have had a really good time of it. No slips, nothing. Woohoo, go me, lol.

Take care all, and have a great week,

Hugs,

Ammi

Ammi
AWESOME job on your 2 weeks to a HEALTHIER you!! COngrats! When and how often are you planning on weighing yourself? Just out of curiousity!! Keep at it!!

PJ

Ammi
Forgot to mention, yes I did have my low fat ice cream yesterday as a treat. I even shared it with my 5 year old! I had another container of low fat ice cream in the freezer and I was thinking of breaking into it last night, but didn't!! Now I can take it with me to my brother's house for dessert today along with the brownies I made! SO I can have some of the ice cream there!
PJ

Good Morning Everyone,

Happy Labor Day. Hopefully all of you have a vacation day today.

Well, I just finished reading all of the posts.... Whew. So nice to see so many people.

I want to thank everyone for all of the encouragment and love that you all sent my way. It sure does hlep to know that you have friends and that your friends really do care about you! You are all such a blessing.

Lori: Hi right back at ya girl! So very happy that you are back here and that your knee is heling. Happy 28th anniversary to you and Bob! Wonderful in this day and age when divorce is so easy to see another couple dedicated to staying married. Praise God!

Catherine: Thank you so much for all of your support. I just love you. How are things going with your new boyfriend? October is just around the corner! OOOH I can't wait to hear how it goes for you.

Brandnewme: Thanks for all of your support. Sweetie I'm so sorry that you have to go to court to testify against family members. How awful. You can't run away sweetie as tempting as it sounds, your problems will eventually follow you. Hang in there and be strong.

Jillybean: Thanks for the support. I've missed you too. Glad to see that you are almost at - 30 pounds. Wonderful! I was feeling sluggish too and I took our Catherine's advice and added Ginko to my vitamins and wow, zippy what a difference. You may want to give it a try. Worked for me.

Doxiemom: Hi girl. I have missed your smilling words and encouragement so much. I'm glad to see you still encouraging. Thank you so much for your support and prayers.

Ammii: Wow, you are so strong. You really pulled me right back onto the wagon. Thanks a bunch for that. I really am looking forward to the weight loss journey with you.

Sickntired: I think your prayer for the folks in the south was lovely and I add mine to it. Positivity doesn't ususally offend. It is when you single out and are negative that is when the offending begins. Stay positive and thank you for sharing your prayers with us.

Xena: I am so glad that your Dad is doing well. Wonderful. I am happy that your Dr. appointment went well too.

Kari: Congrats on loosing 100 pounds! What an inspiration you are. The rest will come off just keep on keeping on. You rock!

Well, no word on hubby's job offer yet. They did call and say that they are trying to get moving expenses approved by the owner. That would surely be a blessing. We do have one offer on our house and a back up offer for ten thousand dollars more that came in on Sunday. Folks from out of town came and loved our home and offered us $10,000 more than our asking price! Wow. The Lord is so awesome! I am going to go swim today no matter what. I haven't been exercising in soooo long and today I am back on the wagon, thanks to all of you. So, I will go soon.

Blessings my friends,
Dogpal

Dogpal-great to see you back. You guys are living proof of that "God closes a door, but opens a window" thing. I just got back from walking at the mall. The YMCA won't hold classes on holidays because they have to pay the instructors time and a half, so no water aerobics today. I wasn't about to sit on my behind all day. I hopped the bus to help conserve gas, and it put me outside Macy's. I normally don't shop there, but I do use an expensive perfume, one of my only luxuries that doesn’t come from Wal-Mart. I was trying to see if they had a trial size I could take on the trip. Himself really likes my perfume, and I didn’t want to have a $100 accident in my luggage. Macy’s is the only local store that carries my scent, but no trial sizes. I guess they figure if you need to try it out first, you can’t afford it. It was amazing though, not only did the clerk wait on me instead of ignore or cold shoulder, she was actually quite toadying. It is amazing what losing a couple of hundred pounds can do to bring up your esteem in the eyes of skinny shop girls. As for him, he actually sang to me on the phone last night. How are you supposed to deal with that? I couldn’t laugh for fear that his delicate ego would take a hit. I ended up practically hyperventilating, and he thought I was breathless from it. He sings like my father did, and that is not a compliment. It was however an amazing thing considering how timid he is. I had to send him some clipping last week he asked for, and was naughty and scented the envelope with my perfume. I’ve been told that he is carrying the envelope around and sticking it under the noses of his friends. He and his friends are such big nerds that he is probably the only one with a girlfriend, so I have visions of ending up being a frat house mom. I laugh, but I am counting the days until I leave. I still have a coat, and 3 pairs of pants to make, and a suit jacket to finish before I leave. I’m going to have to order long johns over the internet. They looked at me at Wal-Mart like I was nuts asking for some. I tried to find some boots at the mall. I have now lost 2 sizes on my feet. That is really weird. I never thought my feet were particularly fat. I couldn’t find what I wanted. I’d better get back to my sewing.