Thanks everyone!

[Guest guest]

Hey Mark, what a great job. I called my husband (who was dozing in front of the TV) and showed him your pics and we were both really impressed by your tremendous transformation. Please post your pics where we can all see them.

Hope you are the only Mark, what with all the Cheryls and s! Anyway, just wanted to say Congratulations on a really fantastic job! All the best, .

[Guest guest]

Hey Mark, what a great job. I called my husband (who was dozing in front of the TV) and showed him your pics and we were both really impressed by your tremendous transformation. Please post your pics where we can all see them.

Hope you are the only Mark, what with all the Cheryls and s! Anyway, just wanted to say Congratulations on a really fantastic job! All the best, .

[Guest guest]

Wow Mark!!!!! That's fantastic!!!! Keep up the great work.

> Hi there,

> I was moved by all of your support! I had actually meant to

send that

> note privately to a new member, but I didn't look closely enough at

the " to "

> I guess. I just wanted to add that I walked about 4.5 miles every

night for

> the first year or so and then joined the gym on May 1, 2000. I

had never

> even been inside of a gym until this day. I joined through work and

just

> walked in. Luckily I felt very comfortable and welcomed by the

other

> members...that really helped me in continuing to go.

> I decided since I posted my clothed photos, I might as well

scare you

> all with my May 2000 to Jan 2001 " lifting' photos...I will post

them in the

> files section rather than on the list. I am usually more modest

than these

> photos but I don't know any of you personally and doubt I will meet

you in

> person to be embarrassed anyway. hehe.. Have a great night! Mark

[Guest guest]

Hi Becky,

Good to hear your daughter is ok.... whiplash is bad. Was she the one

who got hit or was she the hitter? Get a good lawyer if she was the

one who got hit cause whiplash can last for years. My step mom was

rear ended 6 years ago and she still can't turn her head all the way

to the right like she used to.

Wish you lived closer to us there's an awsome looking car for sale not

too far from me for a great price and in really good shape. If we

didn't already have a car, truck and motorcycle we would be looking at

picking it up. Those are vehicals we have here.... if my hubby ever

makes it back to Ark. he has a Fiat... Ford truck...125 motorcycle and

enough makings for about 3 more cars all waiting for him to come get

them. lol

Take care

Terri

[Guest guest]

Becky-

First I'd like to say I hope your daughter is feeling better! Second, what did

you order from Brambleberry? Let us know in case it was different than what

some of us have!

Colleen

Country Meadow Creations

[Guest guest]

Well, , let me add my sincere congratulations along with the others'. You

made a wonderful transformation in one challenge! I am really impressed.

Thanks for sharing.

Park

Thanks everyone!

Thank you for all of the kind words. My goal now is to help as many

people as I can to have succuss so.....I will try to answer as many

and all questions that I can.

I am 5'7 1/2 " tall and weighed 153 at the beginning of my challeng. I

finished at 129.5 lbs. Right now I weigh about 135.

I did tweak the program a little. I added 10 minutes of extra cardio

to all three weekly cardio sessions. But those 10 minutes were only at

a level 7 or 8. The last 4 weeks of the program, I added cardio on

Sunday. Sunday was my cheat day. Yes I did cheat. In the beginging. I

would have Portillo's and any other food I wanted. Cookies, chips etc.

By the end though, I would only have a cheat meal or two on Sunday. I

just started to feel like glutny. (spelling is bad)

I did enter the challenge. I have to admit, I was a maniac during the

challenge. I was religious about eating my six meals and doing

everything exactly by the book. I figured, what do I have to loose and

Bill probably knows more about this than me since I have

never really lifted weights before. I promised myself that I would do

the 12 weeks, finish the 12 weeks and do it just like it says to. I

thought after that, if it doesn't work, I will move on the to next

weight loss program like usual. BUT IT WORKED!!!!!!

I never thought I could have the body that I have now after having

three kids. Granted right now I'm a little softer than I was in my

finish photo but I know I am only 3 to 4 weeks away from that. That's

what I want to work on now. I want to gain more muscle and be really

good before the Holiday season which is already upon us.

Good luck to everyone and I hope I can help you " cross the abyss "

Andr

[Guest guest]

---MUWAAAHAAAHAAAAAAA!!!! D@#$#@ betagen!!!!! that was funny..just the

way you said that..or wrote it for that matter! Sorry about your

pooter! I am glad you got to see the messages though! Good for you

Tink! You are standin up for yourself! OH and I saw your pic in your

profile! you are such a cuteness! You just be a little spitfire you

little tinkerbell you and you will kick some butt in that gym!

Kathi

WHELLOOOO from the world below!

In , Crystal <tinkerbell@c...>

wrote:

> Hi Girls!

>

> I just finished reading all 149 messages I had from the weekend. Half

> way through, my computer

> took a crap and died. When I rebooted I had lost ALL of my email and

> accounts etc.. ARGH!

> Some swearing insued...and some throwing. But I got a new client up

and

> running although I lost

> most of it. So I had to read the majority off of the groups website.

>

> I just wanted to thank you for your encouragement and support regarding

> the trainer thing. I figure

> once this weeks over, I can just take what I need, and the rest is

history.

>

> I will do my workouts how they are SUPPOSED to be like in the book, and

> I will take my damn

> Betagen and drink it, because I researched it, there is proof is helps

> and IT'S MY BODY.

>

> So yeah, I'm all pumped. Tommorow morning at 7:30am eastern I'll be in

> Gym ready to go..whoo!

> I may even stand up for myself and change it back BEFORE the week is

out.

>

> Oh and I am such a rebel! ohhh LMAO

>

> Tink

>

> P.S. Thanks for the links Batman! You are right, the info is there to

> prove it!

[Guest guest]

Hi Belle,

It's good that you feel welcome here. Just sort of wanted you to know

that the current topics ARE a bit odd and a bit out of the ordinary.

Any topics you want to bring up are welcome.

Also, remember to check the links section. There are other FAM Groups

available to you.

You will find that most Aspies seem to be on a similar plain of

thought and I can only imagine that this must be what it is like for

non-Aspies. Ever watch two strangers meet and within minutes they

seem to be able to get along perfectly with one another, but if YOU

try to get involved with them in some sort of discussion it is as

though they nothing you say makes sense to them? That is the way it

is for me anyway.

Yet when I come here, I can talk with anyone about just about

anything and everyone will respond in a friendly way. We are not

always in agreement on things, but we do seem to be able to get along

much better than any of us would by oursleves in the non-Aspie world.

Tom

Administrator

The warm welcome I have received from many of you means a bunch to me!

I went into work today in a really good mood just knowing that I

finally found a group of people who can genuinely relate to me and

vice versa.

-Belle

[Guest guest]

One OTHER thing woth mentioning for ALL the people who have joined

recently.

Another thing that makes FAM different is that we try to make this

place a haven for those who have been picked on on other message

boards. Our quirks and individual posting styles come out of course

in our postings, but in reading these posts, you can see that we are

all generally calm and rational and get along with each other.

Yet many of us have been banned from other boards simply because the

trolls ran us off, or because the admins were themselves trolls and

didn't want us on their boards.

I don't believe that trolling and hounding one another facilitates

anything but bad feelings all around, low self-worth among those

being hounded, and general discontent among board members. So we try

to squash that sort of thing here. The result is a board with

moderate activity, but with people who are loyal to it and

interesting to know.

Tom

Administrator

The warm welcome I have received from many of you means a bunch to me!

I went into work today in a really good mood just knowing that I

finally found a group of people who can genuinely relate to me and

vice versa.

-Belle

[Guest guest]

One OTHER thing woth mentioning for ALL the people who have joined

recently.

Another thing that makes FAM different is that we try to make this

place a haven for those who have been picked on on other message

boards. Our quirks and individual posting styles come out of course

in our postings, but in reading these posts, you can see that we are

all generally calm and rational and get along with each other.

Yet many of us have been banned from other boards simply because the

trolls ran us off, or because the admins were themselves trolls and

didn't want us on their boards.

I don't believe that trolling and hounding one another facilitates

anything but bad feelings all around, low self-worth among those

being hounded, and general discontent among board members. So we try

to squash that sort of thing here. The result is a board with

moderate activity, but with people who are loyal to it and

interesting to know.

Tom

Administrator

The warm welcome I have received from many of you means a bunch to me!

I went into work today in a really good mood just knowing that I

finally found a group of people who can genuinely relate to me and

vice versa.

-Belle

[Guest guest]

>

> " The warm welcome I have received from many of you means a bunch to

me!

> I went into work today in a really good mood just knowing that I

> finally found a group of people who can genuinely relate to me and

> vice versa.

>

> -Belle "

Hi, Belle, I'm glad.

>

[Guest guest]

dont' feel bad, we can always try again some other time. it was fun to be a bit creative but i was going for different goals before xmas and they jsut didn't fit the plan, plus to much cardio for me, starting to dread taht lOL kassiaDonna M-P <donna112520@...> wrote: I feel a bit bad about ditching the FIRM rotation, butI can always pick it up where I left off some othertime.You are all great!Donna

Cheap Talk? Check out Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates.

[Guest guest]

Thank you everyone! I am trying to heal but it's hard. It hurts everywhere! but I'm trying to hang in there and remember that it hasn't even been a week since my surgery. I will post more later, Jen nancydewolf <nancydewolf@...> wrote: It is so good to hear from you Jen!!! You've been in my prayers and I'm so glad to hear you're doing so well! Sounds like they removed a lot of nasty stuff, I hope it makes you feel SO much better as you heal. Welcome back!!! Hugs, P.S. Post abdominal surgery hint (been there after 2 c-sections and other stuff): hold a pillow over your incision area when you need to cough or laugh, it will make it less painful (push the pillow down). Try not to have anyone trying to cheer

you up with goofiness that makes you laugh for a little while too! :-) About me and my surgery Hi Everyone, The surgery took 3 hours instead of 2 hours as the Dr. originally expected but it went well. My Dr. showed me pictures of what was removed - she took out my uterus - it was the size of a 5 month pregnancy, my cervix, my left ovary - it had cysts

and was badly scarred, a small fibroid tumor that was on the back of my uterus just under the top layer - called a subserosal fibroid, and she removed a large fibroid (intramural fibroid) that was on top of my uterus down in the muscular layers of my uterine wall - it looks like the size of a child's head! I asked for copies of the pictures because it shows my Dr's hands near the fibroids and a ruler so that you can really see how big they were. Actually, another Dr. that was there during the surgery told me that the fibroids were bigger when they were inside my body because when they were removed they immediately began to shrink due to the loss of their blood supply. Most of the people at the hospital were very nice (I only disliked the pre-surgical nurse and the respiratory therapist guy,) everyone else was very nice. I love my Dr. and all of the other Drs

(residents) at that hospital. The hospital was really like a hotel. I could order room service almost any time of the day or night and they would bring it to my room. I was in the new wing of the hospital so I was able to watch tv (even cable) on a flat screen tv! I didn't sleep good there though even though I had the room to myself (no room-mates YEA!) My surgery was from 7:30 to 10:30am on Tuesday and I was groggy the rest of the day although I wasn't all the way out of it. I remember my friend Sonjia saying good-bye when she left and I remember my mom being there until visiting hours ended. Early Wednesday morning, I got a bad sinus headache because it was so hot and dry in the room and because the oxygen I was using dried out my nasal

cavity! Luckily the nurse told me that I didn't need the oxygen any more so I took that out. The room was hot but I was running a slight temperature so I'm sure that made me feel hotter. She also brought me hot wash rags to help with my sinus headache, and they did! I asked the nurse if I should get up and walk and she finally helped me to stand up and move my legs a bit at 3am. Then at 6am she had me walk to the door and back to my bed. At this point I still had a catheter in but later Wednesday morning the nurse took that out and boy did that feel GOOD! I also had a lot of visitors but I didn't mind that because it kept me from feeling nervous and lonely in the hospital. A few of my neighbors stopped by and brought get well cards, small gifts and flowers. Some of my Deaf friends came by too so that was

nice. My favorite Deaf professor (she taught me American Sign Language at Madonna Univ. in Livonia) Sharon came to see me along with another Deaf instructor (Debbie) at Madonna. Sharon brought me this cool keychain about being a committed professional and striving for success. They wrote in the card for me to hurry up and get well so that I can tutor their students again, they said they NEEEEEED me! Wednesday was also a milestone day because I was allowed to eat real food instead of a clear liquid diet because I "passed gas," gross but true. I didn't have any nasea or vomiting from the anesthesia because I got a shot of spinal morphine and that also kept me from feeling a lot of pain for the first 24 hours after surgery.....YEA! So anyway I ended up eating a "real" lunch and dinner that day. My Dr. told

me to walk around the hallway (with someone) 6 times that day and I did that. Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning was definately the WORST! I got horrible gas pains in my stomach!!! They weren't worse than any I've ever felt but they lasted longer, about 4 hours. Then on top of that I got a bad backache and a worse sinus headache! Ugh, I wanted to die. Luckily, my favorite RN was working (Jill.) She was so nice to me she went and made me some hot tea, brought me some crackers and even bought me a bottle of diet coke from the machine downstairs! You see before they (Doctors) will let you go home you have to have a bowel movement aka shit LOL so Jill asked me what usually helps me when I become constipated. EWWW I know too much information but you're my friends so that's what happens

hahaha! Anyway, about 4 hours later after I had had 3 cups of tea, crackers and 4 slices of toast I still didn't have a bowel movement but my gas pains went away! Early Thursday afternoon the senior resident (young woman) told me that I would have to have a suppository if I didn't go on my own by 7pm! YUCK, I didn't want that so I ordered 2 beef faijtas, chicken noodle soup, Italian ice, a diet coke and hoped for the best. I even said a prayer that I would have a bowel movement! LOL - Guess what? I was able to go to the bathroom on my own! My other favorite RN, Pat worked from 7am to 7pm on Thursday and she was so funny! She tormented/teased me and I tormented/teased her! Anyway, she

called the senior resident who called my Doctor and they said that I could go HOME! So I was released from the hospital on Thursday at 7pm! Pat also removed my staples and put tape over the suture line. The sutures/stitches will be removed by another Doctor in my Dr.'s office next Thursday. The ride home wasn't pleasant, I felt every bump! Remember when I said that I had a sinus headache on Wednesday/early Thursday? Well, it must have been a migraine because after I got home I saw flashing lights and colors which meant that I had a migraine....probably because of everything I've been through. Well, this email is long enough and I can't sit here any longer because it hurts too much. I will only be able to check my emails once a day for a while but I

hope that all of you will email me because it really helps to keep my spirits up! Take care, Jen

[Guest guest]

I'm still here plugging away and enjoying, no LOVING, LifeLift. It really is

wonderful and I do the " facelift " pressure points when I have a headache. Has

anyone else found that this helps? I think it's increasing blood flow to the

area...but who knows. All I know is 99% of the time it helps. Wow I can't

believe to hear from Rashelle too I feel lucky.