Whereas my FiL barely ever gets out of his chair, doesn't go out of the house except for trips to the grocery store, the bank, or the doctor's office, and is declining every day.

Add four herniated disks, crippling social anxiety, and moderately-advanced dementia, and that's my mother.

My mother's trying to balance a white blood cell count so low she can't have chemo with getting out and staying involved. I sense there is tension brewing at the ! household. My father's definitely pro-house arrest, and my mother wants to go out and teach, just not get near any students.

That's so hard, Consuela. My FiL is just terminally cranky and doesn't really like other human beings.

He will *putter* occasionally when the weather's nice, walking around the yard pulling a weed or two, or taking a paintbrush to the house for touch-ups, but that's it. In all the years we lived up there, he went to *two* of the boys' baseball games, and one dance recital of Sara's. Never wanted to do the Grandparents Luncheon at school or anything. It's sad.

my mother wants to go out and teach, just not get near any students.

I think she should, as long as she's careful and using anti-bac soap, and resting a little extra in between.

My healthy diet is: eat anything I like in moderation. Put raw spinach into a lot of dishes. Drink lots of decaf tea with shittons with lemon juice. 2 cups of coffee a day with whole milk. Go crazy with fruit and veg in the summer.

And um, I fit into a pair of size 10 jeans yesterday. Gave me cameltoe, but the waist was loose. I have been struggling to lose weight for...my whole life, and to have it just fall off without trying is seriously insanovision to me. So I guess I have to add: have a hysterectomy and quit doing work that stresses you out.

OK, I have to admit: I got curious, and just took my meaurements. I am OFFICIALLY a perfect hourglass now -- 41-31-41. I've gone down a cup size to 38D, but I can live with that.

Sorry for the overshare, but after 25 years of trying to lose weight and feeling like shit because I was fat (my highest weight was 215) this is just...awesome. I won't lie.

Which, I suspect, means that at 82 I'll be doing three miles on a holographic treadmill while watching reruns of the inevitable Farscape remake, in which none of the characters are played by human actors...

I want a holographic treadmill where I can run through Moya.

OMG, that would be so cool. Except for the running part.

Holographic yoga in SPACE!

Elliptical machine in IRELAND!

Jessica, me too--that would be awesome.

I have been struggling to lose weight for...my whole life, and to have it just fall off without trying is seriously insanovision to me. So I guess I have to add: have a hysterectomy and quit doing work that stresses you out.

Erin, that's great. Did you read the long piece in the NYT Magazine a few weeks ago about weight loss? It is in many ways a depressing article, because in the studies they cited, very few people were able to keep the weight off. Seems like the trauma of speedy weight-loss affects the body and hormone levels in such a way that it insists on returning to the previous weight.

But the one thing the article didn't discuss, because it's hard to really study it in a controlled way, is slow weight loss as a result of gradual healthy lifestyle changes. People can and do lose weight more gradually, and because it's so slow, the body doesn't think it's being starved and insist on seizing onto every calorie with a death-grip.

Which is something I try to remind myself when I get on the scale and bitch about putting on a few pounds over the holidays. Losing it fast is not the answer.

Yeah, I put on 7 pounds over the holidays, and then I just went back to my new-normal eating habits, and it's gone already.

I truly think that the oophrectomy and then hysterectomy was the turning point for me, though, and then other life-change circumstances aided and abetted it.

Erin, I'm glad you're losing weight and feeling better about yourself.

I've been really struggling with my weight and most of my weight gain is a side effect of Seroquel and I'm going off of it and trying Lithium because I just hate being this way and not having control over it. My heaviest was over 250 lbs and last time I weighed I was 246. I won't actually go off the Seroquel until spring and there's no guarantee I'll lose the weight automatically, but at least I won't be gaining more weight from it.