I have been packing for my ski trip this weekend when I suddenly realized I don’t know Jeremy, Jane or Jack Schitt about skiing. I know you’re supposed to go down the mountain. I know you’re supposed to avoid trees. I know I will fall on my ass many times. And that is it.

So dear readers, what else do I need to know about skiing? Please give me your secret snow skiing tips. I have my long underwear. I have my winter coat. I have my gloves and scarf and hat. Am I missing anything vital I was supposed to pack that I cannot rent for affordable prices?

I am also finally starting to get excited about this trip, which is a nice change from the general malaise towards life I have felt lately. I’m crossing my fingers the plane does not go down in flames and prove my optimism wrong.

PS – They are doing work on the web servers sometime in the next 24 hours (or they might have already done it). If anything goes [...]

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I was wondering what weight chart did you use when determining what you should weigh? – Liz

Asking this question is like asking “How many guys do I have to sleep with before I’m a slut?” It depends. One person’s answer is not necessarily going to be the same as another’s. Just like your sluttiness, you goal weight is subjective.

I had been fat my entire adult life, so setting a goal weight was tricky. I didn’t have a frame of reference for my ideal body weight. People who have been skinny before can refer to the weight they liked their body at best, whereas I was just making my best guess at what weight would be good for me. Plus, I couldn’t exactly go up to people I thought looked good and say, “How much do you weigh?” (Not until I took a self-defense course first.)

Instead, I took a look at the BMI (body mass index) chart to determine the range of weight that was recommended for someone of my height. The body mass index [...]

• Continue reading "Ask a loser: What should my goal weight be?"

Thank you everyone for all your well wishes and support. I appreciate it very much. If good thoughts could cure headaches I would be well by now!

However, I have learned it’s best not to wallow (or to try not to wallow anyway), so I’m going to continue on blogging about other stuff. So, don’t act too weirded out when I start talking about how to set your goal weight and things like that. I could whine about my headache all the time, but that would get old for all of us very quickly.

ETA: Oh, yesterday some people were getting a 500 error after they left a comment. I don’t know for sure why this was happening, but I would guess it was due to high traffic because it is weight loss resolution season. If it happens to you, just hit the “Back” button and try submitting your comment again and it should hopefully work. I will delete any duplicate comments…someday.

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As you can probably tell by yesterday evening’s entry, I have been going through a very difficult time lately. It has, in fact, been the most difficult time of my life, worse than the days when I was a 372-pound recluse living alone in a studio apartment.

People always said life is hard and I would nod and agree, but I did not understand. Weight loss is hard and college is hard and finding a job is hard. All those things are hard, indeed, and I’ve done all those things. I thought I understood when people said life was hard, but I didn’t, because you cannot understand suffering until you have suffered.

I have been suffering lately. I have been suffering since the evening of February 17th, 2008 when I got a headache that has never gone away. Some of you probably laugh a little and think, “Ha, that’s weird. But it’s just a headache. How bad can it be?”

It is bad. It is very, very bad.

It has made me cry so badly that my wailing has [...]

• Continue reading "My half life"

Oh. My. God.

Please do not put your name or URL in the body of your comments.

I did not make this policy clear until a week ago. Those of you who did this before then, I forgive. You did not know any better.

I recently put this policy in bold in the comment disclaimer at the bottom of every page, right below the “Submit” button. Yet, people still left their names and URLs in the body of comments. I privately emailed them and asked them to stop doing this. They apologized and I forgave them.

Tonight, I added another disclaimer, right above the body section of the comment, just in case people didn’t scroll down all the way to see the other disclaimer. And yet again, someone just left their name in the body of the comment.

So now, I am writing this post, and I am asking you, for the love of all that is holy or unholy in this universe, DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME OR URL IN THE BODY OF YOUR COMMENTS. There are fields for [...]

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