Swiss ball crunches are great, they let you really get the abs fully involved. Great job Michelle

Ok.. come to Baltimore and train me =) Sounds like fun!

Thanks!! Floor lockouts are done in the power rack. You basically are laying on the floor and only lifting the bar up a few inches. You use the pins closer to the floor and lay the bar across them at a height so that when you are lying on the floor you can reach up and press the bar up about 3-5 inches and hold it for about 6 seconds. It gets your body used to holding the heavy weight. Does that make sense? It would be sooo much easier for me to show you that to try to describe it!! Val

Thanks guys. That is actually an old picture from about 3 years ago. I was about 40lbs lighter. It was just before my husband came out to visit me for the first time from San Jose, CA. We had been talking online for about a year prior to that. I think I sent that to OH like 3 months ago. I guess they were back logged on updating pictures. I'll keep the sugar free koolaid in mind if I have to do liquid! Thanks for the tips.

It's funny that I've heard of several people who had to lose weight in order to have the surgery. My BMI was like 59 and I didn't have to lose any weight. I think it was because I had a lot of muscle which made my BMI higher and I didn't have very much fat around my abdomen. I had fat below my belly button, but not much above it. You could still feel most of my ribs and such. It's funny because I hate BMI and weight. In order for me to have a "normal" BMI, I would have to lose muscle. I'm 4'11" tall and I weigh 177 lbs. I had gotten down to 171 from 292 in the last two years, but gained about 6 lbs after getting pregnant. I know it hasn't been coming back off because I went through about a week of eating and sitting after I miscarried. When I go home today I'm back to my weights!! Back to what I was saying about BMI and weight. I will be doing my bodyfat on my Tanita scale tonight, but last I checked it's about 39%. My scale is pretty acurate because I've compared it with my Bodpod measurement and they were the same. Unless I lose muscle or get down to an extemely low bodyfat, I will never have a "normal" BMI. When are doctors going to get with the times and go by bodyfat instead??? Sorry to ramble on. I just get so frustrated with weight. If you tell someone that you weigh 177 lbs, they assume that you are huge and I wear a size 14 jeans. I know that's not small, but it's certainly not huge. Thanks for letting me vent! Sorry! Jennifer