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!!!!

Hello All,

Well I was late going online tonight, and I am WAY behind on posts. Not a lot happening today, I was just really tired so slept a lot. Then when I got up I helped hubby take down all the Christmas decorations. The place always looks so bare when all the pretties are gone.

Nancy - I think my tape measure will just about make it around me, I am not sure though as I haven't measured myself in a while. If it doesn't, I will have to use the string idea and get hubby to help me. Do you have somebody who could help you, a fellow weight watcher perhaps?

Hippiemomma - hello and welcome. I am so very sorry to hear about your marriage breaking down. There is a never good time for that to happen, but while you are pregnant, well it's just heart breaking. I can understand your feelings about it all and commend you so much for putting your children first and staying civil with their dad for their sake. Many women use the children as weapons and it doesn't do any good for anybody. Try to stay strong. You are doing the right thing focusing on the future, making plans to go to college and losing weight too. Keeping busy will definitely help.

5 weeks until the baby is born, I hope the birth goes well and that you recover quickly from the C Section. Take care.

Andie - so you haven't decided on what diet you want to follow yet. I am sure you will get info on all the diets around on this very site. Personally I follow a Weight Watchers diet, I don't go to classes, but I have done, so I know how many points I have to use, and have a points calculator to figure out points in food. It works well for me in the past, it's just sticking to it that I have to learn how to do.

As for exercising, I don't do anything at the moment, but as most things hurt I tend to make my housework my exercise. I am aiming to try to do some of an exercise DVD come Monday when I start dieting again, and also in the summer I want to walk a lot.

Wyllen - sorry to hear that things have been hectic for you. I hope they will calm down soon and that you will be able to relax a bit.

Luan - how are you doing? Is the diet going well or are you too busy with working?

Kayley - I am so glad that you have a loving boyfriend who is helping you to realise that even overweight you are a beautiful person. When I was married for the first time, I wasn't as heavy as I am now and yet my husband made me feel so ugly. He even told me how I repulsed him. After all that you will be surprised to hear that it wasn't me that left him, he left me for some skinny girl. My husband now is amazing. Even the size I am, and with huge surgical scars, an Ileostomy and open wounds that he looks after for me, and still he makes me feel the most beautiful, sexy woman in the world. I have no worries about him seeing me naked, and even don't mind the lights on when we are intimate. It was lights out all the time with my last husband. I am so lucky he dumped me and now I have a real loving man who isn't shallow!!

Tashabelle - sorry to hear how unwell your husband was. What caused the tummy bug? I hope that you don't get it. You did so well not giving in and overeating because of stress. That's a real accomplishment.

AndreaS - so wonderful to see you posting, congrats on starting the nursing course. It's going to be hard work I am sure learning to nurse, and looking after the home and your hubby and son. But I am sure you will cope, AND you will be so busy you won't have time to think about overeating!!

Valerie - so glad that your ribs aren't broken, but sorry that you are still in so much pain. I think you are right that it's best not to take pain killers, pain happens for a reason, to make sure you know when to stop. I hope you will heal and be out of pain before too long.

Well done too on not buying that donut. I know people came in and you didn't want to be seen buying one, but you could have hung around til some of them left. You didn't though, and you got those lovely Special K bars. Well done!!

Catherine - WOW 10 days left til you are married, how exciting. I hope you get all the stuff from the FBI before you go so that you have one less thing to worry about.

Gee it gets cold in Edmonton, forget about what you said about hoping your hubby to be is worth all the paper work, he better be worth the freezing weather lol. Of course he is, but when you are sitting there with icicles hanging off your nose you can still blame him lol.

Good luck with it all. I am so happy for you.

Andrea (future hottie) - welcome to that boards. Wow we sure do have a lot of Andrea's now. At one time we had a lot of Sharons, now it's Andreas. I don't think we will ever have a lot of Ammi's, so I'm safe.

Well done on that first 4 lbs lost, keep up the losing, it's great to see tickers showing the numbers going down.

Sharon (voodoo) - didn't get chance to go online til late tonight, sorry. We will definitely get to talk soon. Are you still staying on track and feeling better for it.

Sharon (neurotica) - I got the email about sorting out the members on your website. I will pop on occasionally, but am ok about you cancelling my membership. I see you on Yahoo a lot, but you are always busy. One day I hope we get to chat.

Lori - the kids are back in school now, but are you still really busy? I hope you are keeping well. How is your friend Deb doing, must have been a difficult time for her over the holidays.

Ok it's gone midnight, I am going to post this and hope it works lol. Take care all and bye for now,

Hugs,

Ammi

While I was thinking about how they tape somebody's chest up when they have rib injuries, I remembered that I bought 2 of those O.S.B.H.'s from **** last fall. (Over the Shoulder Boulder Holders) You know, the corset type ones with 1000 hooks and underwires that push your hooters up so high you hardly even need a scarf to go outside? So, to help bind my ribs up I put one on... with some help from dh. As he struggled to get the last few hooks done he said "this thing HAS to be uncomfortable!" Yeah, no kidding? I hadn't noticed. Anyway, looking down at my chest, which was almost up to my chin at this point, I commented that at least it was nice to have my hooters high enuf for once that I didn't have to shout for them to hear me. Silly man he thought that was hysterical. The corset part really does help secure my ribs though. It makes it much easier to reach things on the floor or cough. I just wish they hadn't put all those wire things in there that poke 10 places every time I move.

But there's Good News. It's too bad we don't have a pat-self-on-head smiley, cuz I'm very proud of myself tonight and hope you don't mind me sharing - I didn't make it to work out tonight (I'd have probably wussed out anyway with these ribs,) but I DID go to the track again. New personal best: 2.5 miles and 52 minutes walking, and I even did some "sprints"... if you can call them that at the speed I chug along at ... but I kept my heart rate in a good place & I feel great. Bring on the little obscene guys!!

Also, I've decided to really buckle down and tell myself morning, noon and night that I AM going to lose 40 pounds by Easter! That's a really steep order for me. I usually set really doable goals, cuz I feel like such a failure when I don't make them. But it IS doable if I'm totally committed, so I'm going to give it all I've got until then... and if I don't make it, well, then I'll still be further down than I am now!

.....ya know, if the bird flu strikes over here, I'm gonna be in trouble. Right now I'm about living on with some to go along with it. No more for a while! (I stole some of dh's supreme the other night )

To ANDREA #4, it's GREAT to have you here. I promise you, I'm not ALWAYS this obnoxious, I'm just really on a high tonight!

Blessings, chickees! - val

Thank you for the warm welcome all! It will take me a while to get to know all of you, so I apologize in advance.

I got my husband to join me in this. He decided to do core, though. He doesn't want to do meetings and we can't afford 2 memberships, so he's piggybacking on my materials. I'm amazed he finally agreed to join me and it makes it easier when he's not pigging out on junk food all the time. I'm a little jealous on how much he can eat of some things, but points work better for me.

So far I've drank all my daily required water, which is really good for me. I'm running to the bathroom all the time, but so be it. I've remembered my daily vitamin and stayed within my points. I had one mini-binge on some leftover Xmas stocking candy, but I accounted for every one of them. Next I need to work on getting in my milks, oils, and fruits/veggies. *bleahs* This is hard work trying to fit all of this in!

I'm feeling under the weather so I'm going to ease into regular exercise when I feel less lightheaded. I've started wearing my pedometer (forgot today ) and will try to up my everyday activity.

I'm just going to cruise along at this point until I see how my body reacts. Last time I was only able to do WW for a month and lost 14 lbs. Let's hope I have another month like that! All I ask for is an average of 2 lbs a week. That will get me to my goal in about 2 years, although that's about the time we're going to start working on kid #2. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Announcement time!!!!

First: You might have noticed that sometimes your signature is appearing in your posts and sometimes it's not. With all of the new people that are bombarding the site this time of year, the server is getting bogged down by all the extra graphics, trackers, and people posting multiple times, etc. To fix this, your signature will only appear the first time you post on a page. If your thread is two pages long, it will appear once on each page.

Second: There are lots of great things going on at 3 Fat Chicks! The girls have been busy, putting in long hours to make the site even better. Here are a couple of links for some of the new releases.

Some new and exciting things from 3fc!

New resource, Food and Calorie Counts:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/food-calorie-counts/

New e-mail news letter:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/newsletter.php

New BOOK! written by none other than the 3 Fat Chicks,
release date 5/2/2006:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/amazon-preorder.php



CONGRATULATIONS, Suzanne, Jennifer and Amy!!!!

Good Evening all, too many posts for me to catch up on them all. I want to Welcome all of the new people or should I say all of the new "Andreas" Funny, I have not used my "real" name on this site much if at all but..... are you ready for this....... it is yep, you guesed it... Andrea! Funny. I've not been called that much. My family calls me Banana! Always Anna Banana or banana. If they use my name it is Annie. My mom who passed away in 1999 always called me ANDREA when she was angry and when she wasn't it became Andie. I liked seeing the other Andie because it brought back some good memories. Any who. just thought I would add to all the Andreas. You all can still know me as Dogpal!

So sorry for everyone who is ill. Catherine, I pm'd you but want to say yeah! I am so happy for you. You deserve the very best! Val, glad you are using your noodle and taking it kind of easy. You need to heal! Thinthinker, thank you for doing such a lovely job here for us. I really appreciate all of your updates and stuff! Ammi, glad to see you back regularly again.

I joined 24 Hour Fitness tonight and it comes with 4 sessions with a trainer... I'm so scared. I will meet with her whenever she calls me so, I'll let you all know how it goes. They have a super nice pool which I can't wait to get into.

BLessings to you all,
Dogpal

hey there everyone!

Ammi - im stalling as usual. i was really good over the holidays. i didnt stuff myself and only tasted some of the holiday goodies. i went to hanuakka with a friend (im not jewish) and her family is full of gourmet cooks. home made mereningue (sp) cookies and home made cheesecake. sometimes you just cant pass things up. i dont know why, but i never see you as online on yahoo. im ALWAYS online. and im usually up pretty late (or early in the morning depending on how you look at it) sometimes yahoo is funny and it doesnt show people as online. try messaging me anyway, and i will you too. i hope things are good for you and your DH. i know there was a lot of drama a few months ago and i mean it when i say that you have been in my thoughts and prayers

im working a lot. more things are gearing up tho. im shooting one day this weekend. im beginning casting on another movie. im also getting casting stuff up for an improv/sketch show that im working with. plus i start school on monday.

Tashabella - i had what your husband is experiancing back in september. it was HORRIBLE and to top it off i got it 2 days before my birthday. it was the sickest i have ever been. i didnt have to go to the doctor, but i definately thought i was going to die. it was terrible. my thoughts are with you and your husband. be ready for a raspy voice for a few days. other than that, he should be ok

NoLifeWithoutHorses - thanks for the well wishes. i have been going out of state to work a lot lately. i have tried to check in at least every few days

i signed up for the National Body Challenge today. anyone else doing this? i thought i saw that someone else was, but im not sure. it should be interesting. and besides, who cant use a 8 week free gym membership, right?
i picked the gym closest to my school because i have a 2 and a half hour break between my classes monday-thursday. thats a good time to eat lunch and go work out for an hour or so before i have a 5 hour class... i also bought a CUTE new lunch bag today so i can bring my lunch to school.

also... i found a trick that curbs my sweet tooth. i dont know why this works, but it totally does. im sure that some of you are familiar with the Serendipity III resturaunt in New York. they are famous for the Frozen hot chocolate. its called Serendipitous. well they have bottled the fragrance and it smells SO good. its Chocolate, vanilla and blood orange. just the smell alone curbs the sweet craving. also, ANGEL by Thierry Mugler. you can get small vials of either on EBAY for very cheap. i think i payed 4 bucks for Serendipitous. Well worth it when i think about the money and calories im saving.

Wow. I think we're full up on Andreas now. Anyone other Andreas want to join, maybe you should pick a new name!! I think Denise is available!

WELCOME to all of you!!!!

Jimoreta:

Welcome. If your hubby has any questions about Core, I have been on it since February and have lost about 86 lbs thus far. I have become the resident Core guru at work and have helped about 5 people get on it either on their own or through me and my info.

Hi howdy and welcome to everyone else. Things have been busy here...back to work and really buckling down with wedding plans. Jason's folks are having an engagement party/open house for us tomorrow so my friend is coming over in a bit to help me pick out just the right outfit...LOL.

In the meanwhile, my mother has made a plane reservation to come out here in April. The last time I saw her was 1997. We have not had a decent relationship in....ever? We have been talking a lot more lately since I got engaged...which has been interesting to say the least. I just always feel on my guard when I talk to her because there are a lot of trust issues there. This should be interesting.

Have a happy...I'm off to clean some more and get in the shower.

Hello all....
Glad to see so many new faces around here!
I haven't been this sick in a long time. And to top it off, I think I'm losing my voice. I'm going to attempt to get on the treadmill, and do my little hand weights for at least a little bit today...I have to keep going...that's how I am. I HATE BEING SICK!!!

I have packed my bags except for last minute things, I ended up having to fix one more box to mail for stuff that wouldn't fit. I'm filling out my visitor's health insurance forms, and am pretty sure that they will turn me down for coverage. Insurance companies would rather insure a middle aged man with high cholesterol, high stess, poor diet, no exercise, and one foot towards a heart attack than a fairly healthy overweight woman. If I can't get coverage, I'll just keep what I have here, and come back to Florida if something big comes up. I'm really starting to get nervous about the flight. I've never been really thrilled about flying, although those 4 1/2 days on a Greyhound bus one way should have cured me of any lingering fear of flying. I'm afraid that I won't fit in the seat. I'm afraid that I'll sit next to a griper who will complain about my hips. I'm afraid of missing my connecting flight in Phoenix. I'm afraid my bags will miss the connecting. I'm afraid I'll need to use the restroom, and won't fit in it. I'm especially afraid that immigration won't give me a visa. I have to convince them that I am a visitor, and will go back to Florida when my visa is up. I have no intention of overstaying my visa, but I do intend to apply for an extension with my immigration paperwork. If I can talk them into 2 months, I can stay so long as I can get insurance, or don't get sick. If they don't want to let me in the country, I'll have a heart attack right there in immigration and customs in the airport, and the wedding will be in a hospital room. I'm really starting to stress out. I could use all the prayers you girls can offer up.

Catherine -- I'm a big worrier too, so I know a bit about what you're going through. You've done all the things you had control over, so all that's left to worry about is the stuff you have no control over. So the worry isn't really useful (except maybe as a tool to come up with strategies if those problems arise). To the extent you can, try to relax. If stuff happens, it happens. And you will deal with it (like losing one pound at time, right? Can't think of the whole thing...)

Until then, keep your sweeties face and words in your heart, cause it will all be worth it!

*HUGS*

Catherine - I'm sure everything will go well for you. Everytime I've been to Canada, I've never had any trouble with customs. I know your wedding is just going to be perfect, and I'm sending loads of positive vibes your way!!!