You've still done well, honey. Think about what you're eating. Plan a meal. Do a diary. Scrutinize every bite. Eat high volume, high fiber, low calorie, high fluid foods. Protein shakes, whole wheat toast or Triscuits, pears, salads without dressings. If they seem dry, sprinkle a little flavored vinigar cut with fresh fruit juice and water. Green veggies. Stay away from corn, carrots, apples, peaches, necarines, melons and exotic fruits. Very high in sugar. Eat 5 or 6 mini meals. Eat nuts, plain rice cakes with a thin scraping of super crunchy peanut butter and sugar free jam. Eat very little at each meal, but eat often. The weight will come off. I'm having the opposite problem. With my illness, I stuggle to keep it on. I can tolerate a small amount of sugar, so twice a week I treat myself to a Fluffer-Nutter. For those who don't know what that is, it's, for me, whole wheat bread, marshmellow Fluff, and super crunchy peanut butter as a sandwitch. Love the stuff. That, and Schwan's carb control Butter Pecan Ice Cream. It's made with Splenda, but it's not low fat, so I have to watch the amount or I get cramps, but a little bit I can handle. They keep me at about 130, or a size 4. I don't want to go any smaller. If they took off all my saggy skin, I'd be a 2. So I think this is small enough for my age. I have no body fat to fall back on if I get sick. I eat non stop. About every 2 hours I'm eating something. It's usually healthy because of my allergies, (dairy, preservatives, msg, etc) but I eat. I can eat a whole sandwitch and about 1/4 a pear. Or a whole pear and 1/4 a sandwitch. I go for the meat first, the whole grain next, then the fruit. Supper is usually meat and a veg. B-fast is usually 8th continent milk and organic cereal or oatmeal or something similar. I found PURE bars which were made for folks with Celiac's disease, or alleric to wheat gluten, but they're so yummy and high in fat, so I snack on them. But enough about me. You try my idea and let me know how it works for you. I lost 40lbs after 2.5 years post op. So maybe it'll work for you. If you want, I can write you up a daily menu and you can substitue the meat or veggie as long as you keep the portion and color of the veggie. Nona

Head back to the basics....your tool is in place. I started at 450 and went to 252...today I am at 258. My range is +/- 5 pounds from here. Darrol

I have a lawyer helping me through the process and I signed up for LTD at my work. If I don't get sick for a year, it'll pay for up to 5 years, including my health insurance. Or until SSI kicks in. That will be all I would need. But I have to stay healthy for at least 1 year. But I am feeling so much better since I'm sleeping. I am careful not to overdo it. I still have someone do my cleaning, and my Joe helps a lot, and I'm careful what I eat. So I'm doing ok. Yes, my daughter's photo was professionally done. Her boss did it. She's a professional photographer herself. She loves to do family and kids. But she does animals on the weekends for extra money. My boys, my grandsons, are the only ones I'll ever have. Neither girls can have any more, and my daughter in law can't have any, so they're it. Take care everyone. Nona

No, I didn't! It probably went into my SPAM. Try this one : [email protected] It's my work one and that's got so many firewalls and things it should go straight through. But it won't take .wmv or midi files, or things like that. I can't do IM either at work. I did upload a photo of me on my pictures on my site here on my album for all to see, as well as one of my daughter and grandson who live in S.C. Nona

I'm doing better with sleep. I'm on Ambien CR. The deep REM sleep is just what I needed. But I am still struggling to keep the weight up. I'm 128 and a loose size 4 on the bottom and loose 6/8 on top. My arm skin is that reason or I'd be a 4 there, too. I can't eat a whole lot. I eat like a person who has Celiac, or wheat allergy. I'm sensitive to so many preservatives, especially msg, so no Chinese food, which I love, no frozen diet dinners, can't eat pork as it is bad for any auto-immune disease, but especially CFS. So I eat a lot of wild caught only fish or seafood, white meat chicken dipped in honey mustard Ken's Lite dressing, so it'll go down, same with turkey, venison, Triscuits, and I found these products for people with Celiac, there called PURE bars. They are so GOOD. They have fruit, ground nuts and brown rice protein and nothing else. Nada. They are totally preservative free. I'm also dairy sensitive, so I drink 8th Continent soy milk. I think SILK tastes like skim milk with grass ground up in it. No wonder they use cows as the spokes person. Grass and cows are a perfect choice. 8th Continent tastes like skim milk with a little Cool Whip melted in it and you can get plain which is just fine, vanilla, which is great in tea, or chocolate. My veggies are either fresh or frozen. No canned. Same with fruit. No skins on the fruit. Toxins are a no-no. My hubby can pick me up with one arm. He calls me his tiny bag of bones. I went for a bra measurement and they did a body fat measurement, too, and they had to call the manager because the girl thought she was doing it wrong. The manager did it 4 times on 4 different parts of my waist. I have '0' body fat. None at all. Just loose skin. Not a good thing, if I really get sick. I can't eat any sugar, other than a tiny bit, then I have to be sure to have some kind of whole wheat toast or Triscuit and drink it out right away or 'pain' in the tummy comes real fast. Greasy foods make my IBS so bad I can't stand up straight. And now with Zelnorm off the market, I am having a real rough time going 'potty'. I use a lot of magnesium citrate and flax seed oil just to be able to go once a day. If I don't go once a day, I'm in pain by the night. I'm a mess. But, at least I get to sleep now. And that is making me feel a whole lot better. My grandson's are coming to visit, one over Memorial day weekend, the other, who lives in S.C., for 2 weeks in June. I know I'll be up to both now. I wasn't sure before. I'm going to send in new photos as soon as I can. I look different from the last ones I had done. I was 155 then, and I'm 128 now. Keep smilin' everyone! And enjoy what you have every day.