As I've said before, the chemo diet is fairly effective. It would be nice to hang onto some of this not caring about food while losing the rest of it. I definitely need to make myself eat more vegetables. Currently getting the mail is aerobic exercise, but I really should go back to doing some weights. My arms used to have muscles, but now they just have wobbly skin.

Andi, I'm hoping you can find a better doctor. When I lost 55 pounds (got down to 138, but it didn't stick) all mine told me was "great, your blood pressure is looking fantastic and don't expect to keep this much weight off, you'll probably settle in around 150 lbs." Which, honestly, at my age (57) is a great weight. Well, I'm a little over that, but, hey, the doctor said that was A-OK. She never says anything about my weight unless I bring it up first.

Between the restricted diet from having my tooth pulled (which is over now) and the restricted diet from the painful bladder syndrome (Basically no acid, nothing aged or fermented, no caffiene, no alcohol, no soy, nothing really high in potassium, nothng spicy) and moving from sitting at a desk and mindlessly eating and on to the sales floor where I walk at least 10,000 steps a day (usually more) and can't snack I've lost like 6 lbs.

Made it harder to find pants because I've lost the weight in my legs and I think rear but not my hips and thighs.

One of my goals for this year is to exercise one of the days I'm off. And by exercise I mean do the walking dvd I got that Teppy recommended in Bitches. I've been slowly adding foods into my diet that should be okay for me to eat, but so far it's stuff like mild cheese and mayo. Not the healthiest. But I can't eat black pepper right now so I try to get my flavors where I can.

I need to choose instead of being mindless.

*glances guiltily at the Pringles*

My weight has been an adventure the last few years. I get a thousand times more exercise than I used to (we have no car, so I walk or bike everywhere), but its like my body counts that as the new norm and doesn't reward me in any way. A couple years after I moved here, I started losing weight, slowly but steadily. It was alarming, because I was doing nothing different and it just kept coming off. I lost almost 35 pounds in about 14 months, eating the same stuff I always have! I was too thin, IMO. I looked boney. I had a bunch of medical tests done, but in the end they just said it was stress (I was, and continue to be, more homesick than I ever knew was possible). But once I started antidepressants, it started coming back slowly but surely. Right now I would be fine if I could just stop snacking in the evening! Its ridiculous.

Oh, wait, I came here for a reason. I wanted to tell you guys that my mom is home and I finally got to see her on video chat and she looks great! She'll be out of work for 4 weeks. My brother and SIL arrived last night and will be taking care of her the next 2 weeks.

Half my department is out to lunch (they won the wreath decorating contest in December and lunch is the prize) and it's basically the half that sits near me. It is spooky quiet.

ETA Glad your mom is doing well Calla!

I wish I felt as good about any part of my life as the ad lady, Jesse. I mean, I'm fine, but it must be fun to be psyched like that.

Changing your diet will result in more weight loss than adding exercise, but being sedentary is worse for your lifespan than being fat:

[link]

This is EXCELLENT news for me, because I walk everywhere and chase kids around and bike regularly and stuff, but I also eat basically whatever I want and probably too much of it.

Aw, yay, Callaluna; glad to hear the mom news.

Last year I did a 10 day elimination/purge thing, and the only thing I hung onto from it (it involved giving up caffeine--like that's gonna happen for good) is eating sugar mindfully. I still have chocolate, pie, or ice cream on occasion, especially on holidays. Sweet things taste delicious! But since I'm cooking at home for nearly all my meals, I'm almost inadvertently cutting out the random HFC and sugar that gets dumped into a lot of premade food. My sensitivity to sweet seems to have changed. I've stopped putting honey in my kefir smoothies because frozen blueberries make it sweet enough for me. I haven't noticed any major weight changes, but I figure it's unlikely to be bad for me. I've also been walking a lot: 1.5-3 miles a day, 5 days a week, which, again, hasn't made my jeans particularly loose, but is probably better for me than not walking.

I was youngish and slender for about 35 minutes in 2003. It didn't get me laid and I still sprained my ankles, so screw it.

I'm in the middle of The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts. So far it's been pretty good.

ETA: Yay, Callaluna!