We finally got internet - only six weeks after moving in. Customer service - when did it get so *bad*? Gah. But, yay for internet. Just in time for me to head back to uni. Heh.

Have only skimmed thread due to missing 1000 posts. Hope everyone doing well. I got a distinction on my first module result (which is based on the paper I was losing the plot over last month) - still waiting for the second result, but this bodes well for my PhD plans. We are planning both a 'wedding' and a blessing. Turns out this is complicated and tricky. Who knew? Kristin, best of luck with your venue planning!

It's a nerve-wracking enough situation when the relationship conforms to expected norms; when you step outside that box, be it cultural or societal or whatever, it just adds to the stress-factor. I remember being petrified at meeting Lewis' family because they were Jewish and I wasn't and had no intention of converting, nor did he want/expect me to. Worked out okay in the end, but it was initially rather scary for me.

Yup - the cultural difference thing is interesting. I think it helps that I'm Anglo-Irish, and used to some culture clash. It will help even more if I can learn Hebrew, but dear Lord that's a difficult language. I took a class and gave up as the letters were just impossible with my dyslexia. I plan to try again with a private tutor! Thanks for your advice and experience. Nice to know others have been in this situation.

I started the low-carb diet again last Wednesday, after seeing photos of myself from the F2F... lost four pounds already.

I'm on that diet at the moment. It is truly the only one that works for me. I lost four pounds and promptly put two back on, but it's a start.

The only diet that's had lasting success for me is the Weight Watchers plan. Quite simply, I think it's the measuring/looking up the calorie content/writing stuff down that keeps me on track. I can live with that kind or restriction. As in, I think I could keep that up indefinitely.

What I don't take too so well is having the types of food I can have restricted.

Right now, my big problem is getting my exercise back on track after being sidelined with the neuroma and the fibro flareup from hell.

I mean, who knew yellow onions were so evil? Did that twice in one month, and I might as well eat three big muffins every day for all the weight I can expect to lose.

What makes yellow onions so bad? (I have virtually no onion knowledge, since I try to avoid all of them.)

Priceline, baybee! Or, you know, stay with friends. But Priceline should get you under $100.

I've never used Priceline. Reviews please.

Welcome back, Seska. hugs internets - can't live without

DH is on low carb again. I should try it again. After being so thin for many decades I seem to now fail at finding a way to diet successfully. In my case it is a combo of eating too much, not exercising enough, being 55 and well past menopause. Stupid uncooperative body. Want to eat pizza and sit with my laptop and stay thin.

What makes yellow onions so bad? (I have virtually no onion knowledge, since I try to avoid all of them.)

I have absolutely no idea. I think, in reality, they are probably a smidge sweeter than red onions, but not actually truly evil. But I did not lose the promised weight on that diet, in spite of following it quite rigorously, aside from a couple instances of forgetting about the onion restrictions when eating out. The doctor's response to the lack of results was a very cheerful, "Well, that's ok!" Um, no, no it's not ok with me. It took me a couple years to realize the reason he thought it was so ok is that he was assuming I had cheated quite a bit, but hey, if the fat chick stuck to the diet enough to lose anything, that's ok.

It is a steampunk PARADISE

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

Of course, I'm assuming that somewhere there is an EVEN MORE AWESOMELY STEAMPUNK competing venue called The Tesla.

What makes yellow onions so bad? (I have virtually no onion knowledge, since I try to avoid all of them.)

I have absolutely no idea. I think, in reality, they are probably a smidge sweeter than red onions, but not actually truly evil. But I did not lose the promised weight on that diet, in spite of following it quite rigorously, aside from a couple instances of forgetting about the onion restrictions when eating out.

I'm very dubious that accidentally eating yellow onions would make a diet fail. I realize everyone's metabolism and reaction to different foods is going to vary, but -- onions???

That reminds me of a post I read (maybe on Shapely Prose) about a woman on WW who, when she had her weekly weigh-in, either lost no weight or possibly gained a little. The WW leader went over the woman's food diary with her, and upon seeing that the woman stuck to the plan diligently, EXCEPT for sucking on cough drops because she was sick, declared that it was the cough drops that made her not lose/gain weight that week.

Seriously. Cough drops. How freaking many would an adult human need to consume to affect weight? About a billion.

I think that losing weight is very difficult for a lot of people, and calling out things like "you ate the wrong color onion" or "well, you sucked on cough drops" as reasons for diet failure is really ridiculous. Plus it makes the person trying to lose weight feel like shit, like they just didn't try hard enough -- if they REALLY wanted to lose weight, they would know that cough drops are forbidden.

Seriously?

It's not the cough drops, and it's not the onions. Losing weight is just plain difficult.

It took me a couple years to realize the reason he thought it was so ok is that he was assuming I had cheated quite a bit, but hey, if the fat chick stuck to the diet enough to lose anything, that's ok.

Oh... that makes me seriously rageful. What a douchenozzle.

That's pretty annoying, WindSparrow. The idea that overweight people can stick to a diet or sensible food/exercise plan and still not lose weight shouldn't be that foreign to medical personnel. If it was easy to lose unwanted pounds, almost everyone would do it.

There's a blog for people who are heavier than the current standard, and how that can negatively affect their medical treatment here.

The reason most diets work is that when you are on a diet, you are paying more attention to what you eat, which leads to eating less. The specific rules of the actual diet in question are almost entirely irrelevant.

(Which is to say, you could go on an "all cough drops and yellow onions diet" and lose weight just as easily as a "no cough drops or yellow onions diet." The point is that people on diets think more about their food than people not on diets.)

[eta: Though, just in my personal opinion, I do not recommend anyone go on the all-cough-drops-and-yellow-onions diet. Leaving aside all nutritional concerns, I shudder to imagine what that would do to one's breathe.]