Gen it's so good to hear from you. Been thinking about you and wondering how things are going. You have got so much going on in your life right now, so don't beat yourself up over gaining weight.

My achilles is on a very slow recovery - I have moments where I wish I had just had surgery and got it over and done with - but I am at the mercy of Bunnings and their insurance company. Pfft!

Amy I wouldn't worry too much about a couple of kilos - they will come off again.

I'm travelling OK. My book comes out in another month, and publicity starts soon - so I'm probably a bit anxious about that. Have to fly to Melbourne for the launch whenever the publisher gets it together.

Lindor how are you travelling matey?

Vonni I am up for a Wii-fit challenge. Must confess I spend most of my Wii time playing Tiger Woods golf .

Kel nice to see you back. Sounds like you have had a horror time, and I am glad they've found out what's wrong with you.

OK - off to work I go.

Ani, maybe we should meet up! I should be back in Melb in a week or two for the next ?? months.

I'm up for that Gen . I will let you know when I am going to be there as soon as I know.

Had a good day yesterday - although Mother Nature put on a spectacular show in the afternoon. You only need to check any Perth news websites to see what she did! But I ate 1650 calories, drank 2.4L of water and walked 15,000 steps - a small detail that will horrify my doctor when I tell her.

Considering that I am only working 4 hours/day at the moment, work has decided to slash rosters (read Budgets) so there were only two of us to look after almost 1/3 of our Bunnings … and it meant an awful lot of walking on a torn achilles. But do they care? Nope - the way they are treating me is more like punishment than rehabilitation.

Are you in a boot? Cast boot?

No. I can't describe it in medical terms but it's an interstitial tear that runs parallel to the muscle fibres for about four centimeters. The doctor and physio are both reasonably confident that we can manage it conservatively.

I had another good day yesterday. I ate 1590 calories, and drank 2L of water - so can't complain too much about that.

Today I am feeling pretty determined to do it all again. I have set myself some short-term goals and that seems to have helped.

But the only effective "conservative" treatment for achilles is rest, right? You can still walk around with a boot on but it stops the repetitive stress on those fibres. Did you go to a specialist or just your GP? It's something that can have such longterm problems, I would make sure I saw a specialist if I were you. Here I am, almost 4 years after screwing mine up, and it's still crap.

The problem is that I did it at work - so I am at the mercy of Bunnings doctors, insurance company and Return-to-work people. They are already trying to pressure me to "heal faster", and the only saving grace is that I have a doctor who is resisting their pressure.

My doctor and chiropractor both agree that the load Bunnings is making me put on my achilles is slowing my recovery - but my doctor refuses to allow me to work more than four hours/day until there is significant healing. So if they want to pay me a full-time salary for a 20 hour/week job, they'll just have to put up with that for as long as it takes.

I ate a little more than I planned to yesterday - almost 1900 calories, but that's still OK. It has been hard this week because they are making me work 11-3pm without a lunch break - but I am still well within my goals for the week.

Today's meals are planned, and I am still feeling really motivated to reach my goals.

It's official, am clinically a mystery!

All my results came back negative! Which is good news...except it doesn't explain why I am still getting headaches or why I am still coughing and producing excess mucousy secretions from my lungs when I am laying down.

So, they have taken more blood to run the serology tests again to confirm that 'negative' was really negative????? And at the same time they are working on killing my liver by advising me to take two Panadol every four hours for the next three or four days to get on top of my headaches! Next appointment is April 15...if I am still alive!

My apetite returned after completing my course of antibiotics...and it came back with a vengeance! Ugh!

I need to work out a strategy to starve myself...I am so over being fat!! I was embarrassed (despite being extremely unwell) when I was in ED a few weeks ago...the doctor struggled with the lumbar puncture because she couldn't feel my hips through my fat to find the appropriate space on my spine!!!

Good news...Mum has gone! YAY!

Otherwise...nothing much else happening here!


Well done Ani on jumping (limping?) back on the wagon! Sorry about the injury though.

Gen, good to see you here again, despite it being a dark time for you

Where is Julia????

I'm here, lurking in the background. Sounds like everyone's going through some pretty challenging times at the moment. I hope that all of you with medical issues are doing okay

I haven't been to the gym in about 2 months now and have been walking & running a bit but not as often as I should. Haven't been paying any attention to what I've been eating and have really lost my way in that regard.

Working on getting back into a routine with my exercise at the moment and will tackle food next.

Things have been hectic with working 2 jobs and doing 2 papers through uni and I've been very stressed. Finally decided to drop one paper and I'm really relieved that I've made that call.

I been wii ing lol. not often enough but must be enough for one of the girls at work to tell me today i look like I have lost weight (I havent seen her in a few weeks). I LOVE HER lol. the scales dont show me, but my undies are definately bigger.

Hmmmm its been 8 days since anyone posted on here, where is everybody?

I'm here! It does seem as if everyone has abandoned this board which is a real shame

I haven't been making any effort at all and got to the point where I realised that I had gained back all of the 10kg I worked so hard to lose and I need to do something about it.

Last week I decided to join Weight Watchers and I went to my first meeting on Thursday night. It's changed a bit since I first did it 10 years ago so I've found it interesting reading all of the literature and discovering new recipes.

Today is day four and I'm feeling really positive and am looking forward to attending my next meeting on Thursday.

I'm trying to get back into the gym too as I've been neglecting that and I'm looking forward to going tonight.

I hope everyone is well, please write if you're popping in and reading - it would be nice to know if anyone is going to come back or if it's time to move on.

I'm here - just been really preoccupied for the last couple of weeks. I would hate to see us lose touch, so I promise to make more of an effort to pop in and say hi.

I am slowly losing weight - but it's a lot harder to get my head in the right place than it used to be. I feel a bit disappointed in myself - but I'm not going to give up.

Lindor are you about? Anyone else?

What's a bariatric surgeon Gen? What's that all about?

I've had an awesome first week on weight watchers and am down 2.9kg

Looking forward to doing well in week 2. Hope you are all well.

Good luck Gen - I agree, you may as well get it done while you are here.

Julia I'm seriously thinking about joining WW too. I will let you know how it's going.

All OK here - a little drab and unmotivated. But I am going to keep prodding away until I find the thing that works.