If any of my old friends here notice the activity on this diary and look in - I hope that you consider joining the challenge that I have just suggested in the "Challenges" section.

I am having a few teething problems with maintenance and decided that a old fashioned challenge is just what I need. Something similar to the ones that Kimberly used to run before May took over her world.

I havent got Kimberly's level of imagination - but the big differentiator with my challenge is that it will give points for weight loss (for most of us), maintenance (where we state the zone up front) or controlled gain (with pregnant women in mind where they work really hard knowing that they will be heavier in two months time).

Whether we go for teams or individuals kind of depends on how many people express an interest.

Well - the powers that be have zeroised all the rep and I miss mine.

It represented a whole lot of people saying things like "thank you" or "congratulations" over a period of nearly two years. We only get to see the nice comments for a short time and then they disappear off the bottom of the list - and now the numbers have gone too.

Someone new will quickly have more rep than people who have helped others a thousand times if they make friends with the right gang.

I do not see how this move is meant to motivate anyone. It has not motivated me at all!

Ha! I just tried to rep you but it said I had to spread it around first.

Anyway, thanks for running this challenge. It's been great so far, and if you really want to get even with me for making you count your calories, you can do the same to me.

I miss my rep so much that others must be too!

I have decided that I am going to use the rep button a lot more than I have been because it is nice to spread a little joy. This move could well work against them if others feel the same way. I can envisage everyone repping every inspiring or joy giving post that they see for a while (and it is not something that I have given much thought to).

I am pleased that you are enjoying the challenge. I can easily see how you do not have time to run any yourself - because they do take a lot of time.

I am toying with having people count calories later in the day. One thing is for sure - with an incremental bonus - I am not going to consider counting calories until pretty late in the day...

You set so many valuable bonuses in your challenges that you are going to start getting deja vu feelings just about every bonus from here on in... It really would be remiss of me not to set those concepts though - as many people involved in this challenge were not in your great challenges and may not be tightening up their nutrition in what we would consider to be key areas.

I have some other independant ideas - but I just dont think that there are enough weeks to get my new ideas and your ideas - so the value of them wins the day. I will therefore be crowned "Queen Copycat".

Wow, I didn't realize the rep had been zeroed until you and Relly mentioned it on FB. So, what were the reasons? I agree with you in that it was a nice reminder of all the nice comments I've received the past (almost) three years. Wow, it's hard to believe I've been a member that long!

Sorry I haven't been by your diary in a really long time, it stopped showing up on my subscriptions page so I assumed you weren't posting. Besides, I just read your updates on FB.

Congrats on keeping the weight off, I'm jealous.

And thanks for the rep!

Amy - If only we all had your reason - everyone on the forum would be happy to gain weight - and you have done astoundingly well to keep your gain in the 18 to 20 pound range at your stage of pregnancy.

I must admit that I had pretty much abandoned my diary. There are only so many hours in the day and I have been hanging out in FB (as you know) and over in the challenges section. I havent been round any diaries much at all - not even my own.

Frankly I only really came here because I wanted to vent and it seemed the most appropriate place. I felt sorry that I had lost the rep reminder of all the nice comments that people had left through the years and I didnt want to send everyone on my challenge on a downer.

Part of the joy of PCOS is that (being hormonal) when I am happy I am very very happy - and when I am not happy I get very down. I have compared it to living on an emotional knife-edge. One long emotional roller coaster ride!...

You are welcome to the rep. You deserve it for doing so damned well with your weight. I am going to start coming into the forum to give rep - even if I see the rep-able comment in facebook. Thanks for the rep that you gave me.

The only mention of rep being zeroised was after the event in the news section there is a thread called something like "reputation". If you see the last couple of pages.

Since they zeroised it I have been asking about the little stars. I started asking a year ago as to how I could set it for friends. I never got any sort of satisfactory answer. It appears to be some functionality that only mods can set - and of current users there is only a few people plus a crowd of mods who have it set. Millions of people from years gone by have it set. It would have been much more appropriate to deal with that - one way or another - than mess around with rep. Korrie is currently looking into it for me.

In many ways it doesnt matter too much as my diary is pretty much abandoned and would not be appropriate for getting stars - and it has no bearing on what goes on in FB. Once the challenge that I am running is over I may well be spending less time here again. Quite a lot of us are over there now.

Yeah, I have been abandoning my diary the past few months too. I just recently updated it and am trying to more often. I have been here so long that it's hard not to at least check up on everybody else each day. I find it easier to post weight issues and exercise on here since many of my friends on FB are friends of my husband from work. I am very social but also very detached from everyone and it's easier to post here than there when it comes to weight challenges. I like my "alone time" and let very few people get close. That's why I'm so thrilled with the friends I've made here the past few years. I feel I am closer to them than many who I see often. LOL!

I'll go check out the thread about the reputation. I wanna see what's going on with that.

As for your PCOS, I have suffered from it for about 12 years. I was diagnosed when I was 15 when I had to have my right ovary removed. What kind of hormonal treatments have you tried? It's a never-ending battle and I'm sorry you have to deal with it too. Estrogen therapy worked really well for me until I got pregnant. The thyroid issues have complicated things and make it difficult to treat both and keep everything working efficiently. I am hoping to get all this under control after baby is born. Or at least somewhere near "under control".

Have a great day!

Amy

They used dianette when they tried to restart me ovulating. Then they dared to be surprised when I refused to be on it permanently. As far as I am concerned I am not going permanently on a version of the pill until I hit menopause. The chances may be so solidly stacked up against me it is silly - but I am not going to take any action that reduces things even further.

It has been a total nightmare one way and another. They never offered me anything but dianette.

You are so lucky to have been able to get pregnant and carry your daughter to term. Take extra care since I am sure that you know that there are additional risks.

Gosh - PCOS and pregnant - I'll bet that life is an emotional roller coaster for you!!!!

I was on Ovral 28 (which is a strong BC pill) PLUS another estrogen treatment (can't remember the name) for years and they seemed to work pretty well. I haven't been on anything since my first pregnancy b/c the doc wanted to treat the thyroid issue before adding more hormones to the mix. I just had to have checkups more often. Without any hormone treatment I only ovulate 2-3 times a year. My doc is baffled as to how I got pregnant TWICE. LOL!

I don't blame you for waiting til menopause. I hear that PCOS makes it much worse.

Yes the emotional roller coaster is rough but I've managed to cope with it. It was the worst at first but over the years it has gotten easier. The emotions aren't as bad with this pregnancy as they were with the last. My husband says I was crazy then. Hah!

Hi there...

Sorry to hear you aren't "down with" the rep change.

The problem is, there's a flip side to everything and some people abused the rep feature. They made it about seeing who can get the highest for not doing anything in particular.

I know b/c I've seen it first hand, as mods have the ability to read rep comments.

You're right, it's nice to see words of thanks and encouragement in reps. That's why I suggested if the rep feature is going to be misused, why not do away with it. The PM feature works fine for giving thanks and encouragement in private.

Just as some people enjoyed the rep, others despised it. We met somewhere in the middle... we didn't do away with it completely yet we evened the playing field to erase the abuse.

And you speak of "the powers that be" as if we're a united force. I can assure you we're very rarely united, lol... but that's another story.

We didn't deal with the rep issue instead of the star issue. The rep issue has been in question for years, believe it or not. And I know there's a question out to the admin whether or not the star feature is turned on for everyone. It should be...

Or turn it off completely since I know none of the mods use it.

I do hope you're able to look past the rep issue. As far as I know, we haven't had many complaints about the reset.

So, on a different note, your challenge seems pretty cool. Are there a lot of people in it?

A real enhancement for me would be to be able to see all the nice messages that I have had over the years. Really lovely messages from people saying that I had helped them or congratulating me on weight loss milestones that I liked to celebrate that few long term severely morbidly obese people would feel possible. Things like halving my start weight, getting to goal - stuff like that...

Sure I have had some silly messages from friends over the time too - but I am sure that everyone has....

The number just reminded me that the messages had all happened - they get lost so quickly. I wouldnt even mind if I was the only person to see it...

I suppose that the problem with the PM feature is that 50 messages is not a great deal of messages. I am sure that you can tell that I permanently have an almost full mailbox. As soon as I decide to delete something - another comes in that for one reason or another I decide that I want to keep.

Unfortunately it means that people who have helped or inspired others have the same apparent rep as someone who turned up a few days ago.

I cannot comment on how united the mods are - or arent since I do not have the power to read your correspondence... You always appear to be pretty united...

I have never been able to give stars. There have been threads that I considered every bit as worthy as those currently with stars and I would have happily rated as such. I could not find out how to do so - and when I was told the method was quickly able to identify that the screen format for me is not of that nature.

I am sure that you will have the ability to log on as me - go ahead and see for yourself....

Although all the diaries which are in current use which sport stars are of merit - there are a number of others which I would happily rate similarly. I have no personal axe to grind since my own diary is abandoned and I have no intention of starting a new one. I just decided that it was the best place for me to vent when feeling sad.

Clicking on the rating column brings many abandoned diaries to the fore - some of which are frankly of little or no merit...

While some people may complain - others may merely grumble without sending in an official complaint - or simply be less than happy. The iceberg principle is well known whereby few actually take the time to complain but their feelings are shared by many more. Some people will not care. The fact is that whether you like it or not a lot of people appreciate rep - if this was not the case it would not be incorporated in forum software.

Thank you for your positive comment about my challenge. There are a reasonable number of people actively taking part. I am disappointed that a few people who I know are struggling and said that they would take part - either here or on facebook - are currently not taking part. I have left the door open for them to join in at any time.

I thought that it was about time the forum ran a challenge whereby you didnt actually have to be trying to lose weight - just work really hard to be healthy. Every other challenge has always been all about losing weight which is no real use if you are trying to maintain... The fact is that I work as hard or harder to maintain than many people do that are trying to lose weight!

You are so lucky getting pregnant twice.

I dont know quite how the menopause is going to go for me - or when. Things got whereby they couldnt be sure if I had finally restarted ovulating or not - having definitely stopped at age 27 - so I refused to continue to be on the pill (dianette) in case I was. They only decided that I was definitely ovulating as I turned 49 - when my regular hormone tests came back improved - having lost the weight - but the age of my eggs are such that nothing is really likely. Rod and I always wanted children so I am not going onto the pill now just the same. I am not sure about putting strong medication into my body anyway if I can get round it by natural means.

From what they have said about my hormones - the menopause seems quite a long way away - despite me turning 50 later this month.

One thing that I would say to you is that if you are inclined to be hairy (as many PCOS ladies are) - then get lasered while you are young. It is very difficult to find any laser clinics that have equipment which theoretically deals with white or grey hair.

No we dont....

What thread are you trying to rate - take a screen shot of it and show where the rate the thread isn't there - it might nto be there on all forums but it's not disabled on aperson by person basis

Yea that...

Oh wow, you have definitely had a rougher time than I with the PCOS. I agree with you on not putting strong medication in your body. I have switched over to an organic diet due to the effects it has on hormones and I try to find natural alternatives to medications. For example, I take Armour Thyroid which is derived from pigs but have to take Synthroid as well to obtain the best results.

How did you feel on the dianette? Sean and I have discussed it quite a bit lately and have decided that we "may" want to start back on the hormone therapy after the birth of this baby. I was told with Bella that I'd never be able to breastfeed due to the PCOS but we've been talking to the doc about the possibility of using hormones to help in that area. My levels plummeted after Bella's birth and I was unable to produce milk. We are still researching it and have yet to come to a concrete decision. As you know, dealing with hormones is a tricky area and you could really complicate things further if the correct path of treatment is no taken.

I am sorry you were never able to become pregnant. That's a situation no one could fully understand unless they were in your shoes. I'm lucky in that I have the same specialist I've had since being diagnosed and he's the best in the state. He's the only reason I am now a mother. The doctor that removed my ovary wanted to perform a complete hysterectomy, and I was only 15! Becoming a mother has been the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I have ever done and it breaks my heart to know others cannot experience it.