Dawn, thanks for this tip also. :)

:iagree: :D :grouphug: BTW, really love your siggy quote. :)

Kimberly, I'm not very good at giving instructions. Hopefully others can chime in. 1. Go to your "User Control Panel" on the top left corner. 2. On the left corner, go to the option "Edit Avatar". 3. From there, you can either choose an image from your own computer - with size limitations, of course - some here know better how to give instructions as to cropping the size, etc. OR you can go to google and hit "images" for whatever image you choose. There are many options. Just play around with it. HTH and is not too confusing.

We are religious. We're Baha'is. I used to be flexible about curriculum - religious, etc. Now, we prefer secular.

Miriam, these were exacty my thoughts when I first heard about hcg. I was like, "500 Calories a day?!!! You have GOT to be kidding me!" But if done properly, muscle mass is not lost. Rigorous exercise is not recommended. Nothing overly strenuous. The key is to listen to your body. P2 is for 26 days, but most do it for 43. That's the 500 calorie phase. P3 and P4 are maintenance, etc. Thank you for sharing this very encouraging and helpful post. I wish that all the skeptics and discouraged people here would read this. Thank you for this. :grouphug: Melissa, congrats!!! :D Special occasions and dinners ... on my first round and when I was far more successful and disciplined, I tried to really avoid them. I barely did anything. This time around, I'm having a harder time since I have very little choice in the matter. That's what works for me ... avoidance. Others are more disciplined. I know myself and I'm not. :confused:

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree: Peela, my biggest problem when it comes to food is moderation. I so often have an unhealthy relationship with food. The funny thing about me is that when I have a love/hate relationship with food, I usually lose weight. But when I am more moderate, anti-fad diet, anti-any-diet, but just into more moderate and healthy approaches - I tend to not only maintain, but also gain. :confused: Trust me, I don't want to be this way. But I have learned that when for example, I'm on hcg or other strict approaches, I am more focused and disciplined. :confused: I wish that the moderate and healthier approaches worked better for me. My mom, for example, does great with that. She's soooo thin. She makes it all sound so easy. But what works for her never works for me. Melissa, so happy for you! :party: I'm also doing okay considering. Feeling quite content. I'm currently 10 pounds over my wedding-time weight. If I lose anywhere from 1-10 pounds, I'll be delighted. I'm very focused on waist measurement for overall health and I'm happy with that also. I really would like to read Gary Taubes's book ... along with a million other books that I'd love to read. ;)

Thanks ... For me, the key is to find the right shade. I don't usually wear make up. Used to wear lots and lots and lots ... ;) If I do, I don't want it to show at all.

The turmeric one is the latest beauty experiment that I'm working on :D. I've tried it and continue to use it in my weekly masks. The key is to not use too much turmeric and to not leave it on for too long. Otherwise, trust me, you'll end up looking like Fiona in Shrek, or at least I did, or, like an Oompa Loompa Yesterday, I did the almond oil and turmeric recipe and applied it all over. Felt soooo good. But I left it on for 20 minutes and used a bit too much turmeric. Moderation is NOT my forte :lol:. Luckily, I didn't have anywhere very important to go ... Next time, hopefully tomorrow or on Sunday, will try it with a bit less turmeric and leave it on for 10 minutes. :)

Same. :)

Miriam, I wish I had time, but if you do a search here and join the group, you'll see lots and lots of helpful info. hcg (homeopathic in particular) can be very helpful in losing 15-20 pounds. Any diet can work if you stick with it. hcg is very helpful to many. It has been to me.

:iagree: and have not yet had time to read any of the other posts. It is a parent's choice for sure. This is not the role of government, IMHO. The decision to have our ds circumcised was not religious for us, but cultural for sure, and definitely for hygienic reasons also.

I saw that also and love it. :D

“Overexercise—for a variety of reasons—actually makes it harder to lose weight. Overly strenuous exercise—especially combined with insufficient sleep, unrelenting stress, and poor eating habits—can push your body into survival mode, raising your level of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol’s job is to boost energy levels by any means necessary. If these levels stay high for too long, cortisol starts breaking down the cells in nerves, muscles, and bones, converting them into energy. In the short term, it’s a rush. In the long-term, it’s debilitating. Cortisol has another job: storing energy where the body can get at it quickly. And guess where that is? In the most accessible place, biologically—belly fat. Ongoing high levels of cortisol lead to weight gain, fatigue, nervousness, and possibly osteoporosis (loss of bone mass).†We all need to move more, yet this doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to stress our bodies at the gym. Our leisure-time physical activity (including things like golfing, gardening and walking) has decreased since the late 1980s, right around the time the gym boom really exploded. Very frequent, low-level physical activity — the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented — may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat. To burn calories, the muscle movements don't have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day – functional fitness such as housework, walking the dog, raking the leaves, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking while carrying groceries, walking instead of driving when possible, etc. It's how much you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight. You should exercise to improve your health, but be warned: fiery spurts of vigorous exercise could lead to weight gain. http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/articles/aerobicexercise.htm http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/27/earlyshow/health/main5269114.shtml http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/phys-ed-why-doesnt-exercise-lead-to-weight-loss/ Someone here posted that there’s a Gary Taubes video where he talks about how when we increase our exercise, our appetites naturally increase to adjust. Conversely, when we reduce our caloric intake, our bodies naturally reduce their energy output to adjust. The video is long, but definitely worth watching! He describes (in general layman's terms) the biochemistry of how weight gain and loss occurs, and it's very valuable information. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/event_details.php?webcastid=21216 Remember: Weight loss begins in the kitchen! In order for me to lose, I need to eat MUCH, MUCH less ... which is really, really hard for me to do. If I want to maintain, I need to eat about the same or slightly less and maintain the same level of workouts. A friend of mine wrote this: Just for a personal experiment, I did nothing but yoga for a week, cardio for another and weights the last (and I'm talking heavy weights) – there was NO change in my weight (not up or down). Meaning that it doesn't matter what type of exercise you do, as long as you do them, you will lose at the same rate, if that is your goal. I get so tired of hearing that you have to do cardio to lose weight. When I was doing HCG or any other diet that I was on, it didn't matter what I was doing, as long as I was eating less than I normally ate. When I did Body for Life, I was lifting the heaviest weights I had ever lifted (125lbs. was my 6 rep bench press and 195lbs. was my 6 rep squat) and I was smaller, tighter, and weighed the least amount I had weighed in a long time. I just wanted to get the point across that ANY exercise will benefit your weight loss goals. It's the controlled eating part that is most necessary to the weight loss effort. In Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes debunks the myth that exercise equals weight loss (and the old calories in, calories out myth). While exercise has many other benefits, to promote exercise as the solution to weight loss exclusively is doing people a great disservice. People who are more than a few pounds overweight, insulin resistant, or diabetic really need to concentrate on a permanent change to their diet -- and I mean severely reducing their carbohydrate intake. A nice long walk along and strength training are far more beneficial to this group of people than cardio. Wait to do cardio until you are thin, you are doing it for fun, and it is less stressful to your joints.

To burn sufficient calories to lose one pound of body fat, you might: Briskly walk a total of 35 miles Swim moderately fast for 6 hours Dance for 12 hours Play about 12.5 hours of golf, carrying your own clubs Jog for about 29 miles At the same time, you would need to monitor your eating habits to ensure that you are not increasing your calorie-intake in line with your increased exercise! And we all know that it’s much easier to eat 1000 calories than it is to burn 1000 calories! If you're looking to control your weight, exercise is the least efficient way to do it. You'd have to run for hours to keep the cookies you ate from adding to your waistline.

Exercise is important, but it may negatively affect your weight loss for three main reasons: 1. Exercise makes you hungrier, causing you to eat more – Maybe not immediately, but eventually. Burn more calories and the odds are very good that we’ll consume more as well. I know that when I exercise very intensely and for more than 45 minutes or so, my appetite can be insatiable. For lots of people, when exercise is bumped up considerably, appetite is also increased. "The most powerful determinant of your dietary intake is your energy expenditure," says Steven Gortmaker, who heads Harvard's Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. "If you're more physically active, you're going to get hungry and eat more." Gortmaker, who has studied childhood obesity, is even suspicious of the playgrounds at fast-food restaurants. "Why would they build those?" he asks. "I know it sounds kind of like conspiracy theory, but you have to think, if a kid plays five minutes and burns 50 calories, he might then go inside and consume 500 calories or even 1,000." Gortmaker and Sonneville found in their 18-month study of 538 students that when kids start to exercise, they end up eating more — not just a little more, but an average of 100 calories more than they had just burned. 2. Exercise causes feelings of entitlement. You may want to reward yourself because you worked out so hard at the gym. People may think they can eat more, because they exercised for 30 minutes. 3. Exercise does not burn that many calories. Couple that fact with being hungrier and you may eat more calories than you burned. Exercise does help burn calories -- you just can't eat more because of it. To demonstrate the calorie intake versus exercise principle: Elliptical training for 44 minutes/500 kcal burned = 1 Honey Bran Raisin Muffin from Dunkin Donuts Kickboxing for 25 minutes and 272 kcal burned = Grande Starbucks latte with whole milk Jogging for 60 minutes and 470 kcal burned = 1 slice (1/6 of cake) of Sara Lee Cheesecake, chocolate swirl NY style Pilates for 30 minutes and 119 kcal burned = 5 pieces of hard candy

Exercise is wonderful for preventing all sorts of diseases – heart disease, cancer, diabetes, protecting the bones, lifting one’s mood, boosting metabolism, and so on. But in general, for weight loss, exercise is not all it’s made out to be. Lots of research has shown this. In terms of weight loss, diet and aerobic exercise provide only a very marginal benefit when compared to diet alone. I have numbers to prove it - since I weigh and measure on a weekly basis - the times that I have lost the most weight are when I exercise moderately (not for an hour or more a day, like I used to) and eat MUCH, MUCH less. My body has changed. It's not the body I had in my teens, 20s, or early 30s. I used to be able to eat that slice of cheesecake AND run 4 miles the next morning AND not ever gain. I can’t do that anymore. I have more recently found that that when I exercise intensely for 45 minutes or more per day, my appetite increases. I get the most results from eating much less and exercising moderately – for about 30-45 minutes per day, or at least most days. That's just my experience. Again, I have numbers to prove it. For me, weight loss is pretty much 80% what I eat and 20% what I do. As with most things in life, the usual 80/20 Principle applies. My dh (and others have said this also), say that it may be more like 90% what I eat. I'm actually am agreeing with that more and more. When it comes to weight loss, intake is the major factor. When it comes to overall health and longevity, exercise is essential also. I no longer exercise for 90 minutes a day, and sometimes not even every day, since it’s not always possible. I tell myself to exercise for health not necessarily for weight loss. Exercise is not a weight loss solution.

A few years ago, I thought I was watching my intake and I was for the most part. Eating super-healthy, etc. I worked out furiously and for at least an hour daily - Jillian Michaels, Tae Bo stuff. I was as strong as an ox, but the pounds would barely come off and very, very slowly. I was very toned, however. Then I got swine flu and the pounds fell off. I'm talking about 10 pounds in less than a week or something like that. No workouts. Barely ate anything. I have realized that for me, weight loss is about 90% intake. There are lots of studies and articles on this. I can link them if anyone is interested. Exercise no longer helps me in the weight loss department. Great for overall health, but not for weight loss. I no longer workout as intensely as before. It seems that the more intensely I worked out and particularly when exercising for longer sessions (longer than 40 minutes or so), the more my appetite would increase. Not immediately, but shortly after. Your portions are probably less and your appetite may have gone down since you workout less. Just a possibility. Melissa, so proud of you! :party: The pounds that I have left to lose are also slowly coming off at last. I love hcg as you may recall from previous threads. :D No diet is perfect for all. Also, diets are only good as long as you stick to them, but this is what works for me and for now. I believe in this a lot. So often this really does apply to me. Decided to post my stuff in case anyone is interested ... or maybe not :lol:

Thank you so much for your helpful replies. :) Yes, I found this yesterday. Thanks so much. Off to go browsing.

:grouphug: Denise, you're so very, very kind. Thank you. :grouphug: I just have to say that I wish I could reply to all the comments, or at least most of them. Alas, pressed for time ... but you are all seriously making me laugh ... :smilielol5: :smilielol5: :smilielol5:

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :lol: :lol: :lol: I do so miss you. I know you're busy with all the above and more. :grouphug:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

I appreciate your kind words and honesty. :grouphug: I personally don't feel hurt (for the most part ;) :lol:) when I know for sure, or at least feel pretty certain, that I am on some ignore lists. That's life. I don't see it as them hating me. Maybe they do. Fine if they do. Can't please everyone anyway. Sometimes they might just find me annoying, especially with all my very long posts. I very seldom talk about anyone here behind their backs, except for one of the ones on my ignore list who really went all out on me and was very rude and insulting. And that has been with just a few close friends here. We're all too busy to be gossiping regularly. Seriously, I don't have time for it. Barely even have time to gossip IRL. :lol: Which is a fabulous thing. :) This is all part of life. It's part of the internet world today. I'm sure that the same thing happens on FB also. People hide friends on FB from their News Feed. The worst thing is when people remove friends on FB. Now that can be quite bad ... Glad to know that there are no hard feelings. Thank you for being kind and understanding.

Dawn, yes, it shows the quote ... :lol: A bit funny, actually. I hope I'm not on your ignore list :confused:. I like you too much and I do so appreciate your posts.

Thank you for saying it so well once again. I see the finger pointing at Tara and I as pure nit-picking. Brilliant. I was thinking along the same lines. We have lots and lots of those threads.

Yes, but I do sense some sarcasm. I hope that's not the case. Since I do have good intentions and am trying to be kind and polite. Yes, actually and quite honestly, I'm sorry to say that I did think that the fact that you only pointed the finger at me was bit rude and unfair to say the least. You did say, "None of which is very kind or polite." To me, "not polite" does mean rude. If you go back and read all the threads you will see that I was certainly not the first one doing the whole innuendo thing. So let's be fair. Funny, I never thought of this thread (and many threads actually) as a "useful discussion". I view this thread in the category of "just for fun". :D It is also most certainly NOT a gossipy discussion since no names are mentioned. No one has PM'd me. Worrying about that is a little unnecessary. I don't see this as a discussion about who is the rudest. Most don't know. Some do. But they already knew that anyway. It seems to me that some may just be annoyed because they really want to know and feel frustrated by that. Sort of like the thread "there's someone here ..." - the famous person thread. Knowing, not knowing ... what's the deal-i-o? No big deal whatsoever.