Thread: Wonderful World of Cushie

Hey Noel! It is so good to see you under 300 again Huge hugs, girlfriend!

I had a friend who lost over 200 pounds (and has kept it off for over 10 years) give me a good "talking to" recently. Not preachy, but I was whining about not being able to break the 50 pound mark and it helped a lot.

We don't lose our will power. We just need to find the "want power" again. We all hit our personal rock bottom before we wanted to be thin more than we wanted to eat what we want. After losing a significant amount of weight (or feeling like the impending doom isn't looming so close anymore), we get lax about it. We don't "want" it quite so bad anymore. I just had to find the part of me that wanted to lose weight so bad, so that I could keep going again.

Your new pic looks terrific, and it is wonderful to see that big happy smile on your face! You are a beautiful woman.

You're right, Katie. I saw myself dying a fast death when I hit close to 400 and couldn't get up and down out of a chair without great pain in my knees. Now with no impending doom I've become lax. Especially becasue I'm great at telling myself that I'll never look great once I lose the weight anyhow so why try so hard. OK with clothes I'll look better but otherwise there's not a chance. Which really shouldn't matter. When I cut off all my hair I did it saying this is what I want, I'm not looking for approval from anyone and I definitely didn't care much that everyone says long hair looks best. Now I should think that I want to lose weight for the health and not appearances. But let's face it, appearance is probably going to be more motivating for me at this time to get me to WANT to lose again.

Noel, the older you get, the more you are motivated by health and less by appearance. Being able to function without daily pain killers is a real motivator. I'm never going to have slender hips, or a flat tummy, even if I lose 150 lbs! And I'll never have nice, thick hair that lays right, and I'll never, ever get rid of the big bags under my eyes. But if I can have enough energy to play with my grandkids, and not hurt all day long, then it's all the motivation I need. I don't want to look younger, I want to FEEL younger.

And Katie's right, you are a beautiful woman, right now, at this weight, and at this point in time. You were a beautiful woman at 400 lbs, too. Beauty has nothing to do with weight. It's genetics and attitude.

That fat girl's always gonna be there, just in a smaller body, eventually! I'm afraid that even if I get down to 150 lbs, there's still gonna be a fat grandma lurking around the corner, waiting to jump back into my skin! {shudder!}

Goodness, we all have issues of one sort or another, don't we? I guess that's why we're all in the position to need low carb.

Well, I'm proud of you for sticking to this woe. I'm not sure I could do it without my DH's support. Yes, I could, it would just be a tad harder.

I just deleted my ex from my yahoo messenger list and I put him on the ignore list. I wonder if he'll still be able to see me online...hmmm...don't know. Anyhow I have no use for him at all, he's not a father in any sense of the word so I may as well get him off my list so I don't have to see his name every time I log on to yahoo. If I had him around I'd never lose weight. He's a feeder. The worst kind of guy for someone trying to be healthy. Great if you just want to be a sloth.

Nita, you're right. Heck I'd haev had to lose weight eons ago to get the slim body without the loose skin. You can't be 311-350 pounds for 20 years and expect everything to snap back into place. And I do want to see my grandkids and be able to play with them in 30 years. Heck, I'm looking forward to being able to play with Xander more as he grows up.

I think I'm going to tell my Denver lc friend that we should challenge ourselves to eat only lc starting tomorrow for two weeks. I'm trying for the 54 days but two weeks is a good start. He needs it and so do I.

I asked my dh and he said that your ex won't be able to see you online now that he is on ignore and off your list permanately.

Thanks, Heather. I'm so obsessive about things I would have wondered about that until I found out.

I got a thing in the mail from 24 hour fitness. I can rejoin for the same price I left at which was the promotional price. That's good. I was desperately broke for a while and decided to let it go since I was being so lazy about it anyhow. Without any other fees I really must rejoin by the end of the month when the promotiono ends. Even if I would just go for a 30 minute eliptical ride after work that would be better than nothing. Plus I have like 4 training sessions I never used.

You sisters are preachin' to the choir now....about the sister/fat/competition thing. It's funny.....now that I've passed her on my way down.....size and weight are not such a big topic of interest when we talk....interesting....

LOL Maxi! I told my bestfriend how much I weigh now, and all she said was "Oh! You weigh less than me now.", then she changed the subject. She doesn't even want to talk about diet and weight loss now, and before she was the one who always brought it up.

Great offer from 24H Fitness, Noel! I hope nothing happens to make it so you can't afford to rejoin. We'll have a break from the heat in another month here, and I plan to start taking Austin to our little tiny city park then. I can walk around the whole park and still see him from everywhere while he plays, and since our town is so small, there is never anyone there at all.

You keep finding ways to work out, and the loose skin may not be as much of an issue as you think. It may take a full year after you hit goal to see where your skin actually ends up, but those little pauses that you've taken in your journey may end up being a really good thing since it's given your skin some time to catch up on the way!

I guess I'll be happy if I can look good with clothes on or at least settle for not bad :o

Yeah sometimes the people that were once smaller and now bigger than you never like to see us succeed it seems. Though my sister doesn't seem like she minds right now. I don't think she wants me to stay fatter I just think she's disgusted wtih herself for going from 10 to a 20.

Now my friend B will be horrified when I weigh less than him (which I hope will happen by the end of thisy year). His friend "Stella" was the one that thought she was so much smaller than me when we actually weighed the same and he actually thought the same as well. I would never tell someone elses weight to him becuase he would throw it in her face but I know what she weighs now and would love to say to him you were both WRONG, we weighed the same.

I finally lost a couple pounds after watching very carefully what I've put in my mouth over the last week. So I am down to 288, the weight I was at when I went off lc last fall. Now it's into a whole new territory, every pound lost will bring me to a new 10 year low.

TOM continues to be a problem. I thought it had gotten straight when I had a regular period for four days and then went without anything not even spotting for four days. But I am now on my 11th day of another full blown period and I am really feeling like a "stuck pig". I drop clots 8-10 times a day that are huge so I called Friday and made an appointment at the clinic for Wednesday. I know you don't usually lose a huge amount of blood during TOM but I am and I think its making me lethargic at times. My mind stays awake but my body isn't always so great. I've started taking a multivitamin with iron but that is bound to make me constipated, iron always does. Anyhow this will be addressed at last next week so that is good.

I had supper with an old friend from college and his significant other. They have been together since college but met after I knew him. It was a lot of fun. A little weird at first. I still feel like he's 19 because I hadn't talked to him for so long. We are planning a trip to the botanic gardens for next weekend. Xander doesnt do great inside but outside he's a joy so B's SO, S, said we should go for a picnic and we started talking about the botanic gardens and how they had a family pass to go and I have a pass for the zoo. S seems like a great guy and I am very happy B found him early on and they've stuck with each other. It's so nice to have a friend that I really loved back in my life.

You are doing so great Cushie! Congrats on entering new weightloss territory!

Noel, a good article about saggy skin was in a recent Carbwire.

http://www.carbwire.com/2006/07/11/i...ss_just_a_myth

A guy lost a lot of weight, but he continued to lose and his loose skin tightened up. It was a good article.

How exciting that you are in a new weight loss territory. I'm glad I can be a part of your journey. I love to see the little successes - they accumulate into BIG successes!

What a great article!! I was so excited that maybe my loose skin is going to get better. The guy mentioned that those who have lost a huge amount of weight and kept it off are pioneers in this area. He believes that doctors are taking advantage of those with loose skin knowing that all we need is time to have it go away. I'm down 162 from my highest and it really isn't as bad as I thought my skin would be. I'm working on it and going to give it my all. After a year on maintance, if the skin goes anything close to normal, I plan on posting my pics all over the place for encouragement in this area. I notice that those who have had plastic surgery could have lost another 15 pounds or more. Hmmmm....we'll see. I'm sure it is going to take time so good thing I'm a pretty patient person!

Sorry to have taken over your journal it was just a very exciting article!

That was interesting. My friend Nancy lost a great deal of weight as a teen and has kept it off but she does still have a lot of skin. ot hanging loose but she can stretch it WAY out. But I think some people are like that naturally as well. I'll be happy if I can hide my tummy skin under some nice clothes.

I'm so tired but I cannot nap. I still feel icky from this morning. Xander just went to sleep so hopefully I will be able to soon as well. I'll try in another twenty minutes.

Hi Noel! Well, it was bound to happen - I stumbled into a woman's journal and got icked out LOL I'm so sorry you are having, um, women's problems. My mom used to have problems like that. Because she seemed to share everything with me whether I wanted to know or not, I always knew when she would have problems with the clots, and she used to have problems with the loss making her feel lethargic as well. She had problems with irregular periods as well - so much so that she didn't realize she was pregnant with me until she was 5 months along and noticed she was putting on some weight and put two and two together. Before she got pregnant with my sister, she had a miscarriage and they found tumors in her uterus, and at her follow up visit to the dr he was preparing to tell her that she wouldn't have any more children, but after checking her again found that the tumors had disappeared. He said it was a miracle. She had a normal pregnancy at 42 and had my sister just fine, but then menopause at 47 threw her for a loop. Why am I telling you all this? Maybe it's the pain meds LOL If you have problems with iron in a multi vitamin you might try it through natural sources, such as eating some liver if you like it. Maybe that would help. Anyway, even though I'm a guy, I know what you're going through and I hope it gets better for you.

I'm glad your friend is back in your life. It sounds like he is very happy. We met a man last night who is a househusband. His partner works for AT&T, and they have foster children they are adopting, so he gets money from the state for their care so between the two income sources he is lucky enough to get to stay home with the children, and he loves it. He plans on doing it until the children are grown and out on their own. He seems very devoted to them. Who says we can't be wonderful parents?

Not me, Eddie!!! I asked S & B if they had any plans for kids in the future and they said not right now. Personally I couldn't give up my biological child but if they found an egg I'd be happy to brew up a baby for them. I loved being pregnant...of course the next time might not be as easy.

I had laproscopic surgery when I was younger because of the incredible pain I had with periods and they found nothing. My first prenancy ended in miscarriage. The baby never did develop after about 8 weeks (I miscarried at 13). After that I never had the cramps that had plagued me for years again. Then I got pregnant with Xander and everythign went great. I'm hoping it's just something hormonal but better to be safe than sorry. I know it's a rather icky topic, girls don't like it either but I'm hoping that this could be causing bloat too because then it would magically disappear. Wouldn't that be nice, a five pound whoosh.

I really do want to take a nap...but why can't I make myself. I guess I'm enjoying the quiet time with Xander sleeping too much and I can sleep tonight.