Posts by nassira

Oops! Sorry, wasn't trying to lecture or condescend re: binding, and I'm sorry if it came out that way! (One of my jobs involves working with trans/GQ/allied college students, and I guess sometimes I get a little mother-hen-ish.  *blush*)

Like dkenworthy, I weigh daily (or daily-ish) precisely *because* of fluctuations.  If I weigh myself weekly, and one week my weigh-in happens to be on a "down" day, while the next is on an "up" day, then I have no way of knowing what was going on in between those points - and it's easier to gain actual weight in a week than in a day, so there's no way to tell the difference between real weight and fluctuations.

With daily weigh-ins, on the other hand, the little blips average out, the pattern is evident, and I know that if my weight keeps rising steadily over the course of a full week or two (rather than zigzagging slightly as it would with water weight), I should consider re-evaluating what I'm doing.

Maybe I'm just a big geek, but I firmly believe that more data points make for better data.  ;c)

I didn't have my first date until I was 20 (and a half, actually, if we're getting technical ).  Didn't have my first relationship until 21 (lasted 5 months, until I moved away for grad school).

The next person I dated ... well, we've been together almost four years, and we don't plan on stopping any time soon.  *g*

Hmm, so.  To get back on-topic:

To say that you're bi is, as Robyn Ochs puts it, to "acknowledge that [you] have in [yourself] the potential to be attracted -- romantically and/or sexually -- to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree." So, the moment you realize that you have this potential, whatever you plan to do with it or do about it, it makes sense to me to consider identifying as bi.  This could be as early as your very first experiences of romantic attraction.

What's more, it seems like it's easier to know for sure that you're bi earlier than you know for sure that you're gay or straight.  After all, claiming either of those labels means saying that you're reasonably certain that you'll never be attracted to anyone outside of one gender - and it seems like that takes a pretty high standard of proof, no?

Re: ketogenic diets, I just want to point out that ketones in one's urine are usually a sign you should be going to the hospital, not a wedding.

Tealpenguin - you say you've already got a pretty mature body, which I take to mean that you have post-pubescent curves.  Ok, good.  Myself, I was a C-cup by the time I started high school.  I understand completely.

What you probably don't have, as many of the other commenters have pointed out, is adult bone structure, which typically develops *after* adolescent fat redistribution.  Take hips, for example: the way archaeologists tell a female skeleton from a male skeleton is the widening of the pelvis/how far the hips are spread apart (wide enough, that is, for a baby to fit through).  This pretty much sets in, if your body progresses normally, after you have enough body fat/breast tissue that you'd be able to carry a baby to term and feed it afterwards. (Not to mention after you've started ovulating.)  Developmentally, it wouldn't make sense for us to be scheduled to have our hips widen *before* we'd gotten set up for baby-making in other ways first.

What this means in non-evolutionary-bio terms is that you don't have to "let yourself go" to gain a pants size (for example) in high school; in fact, it's a sign that you're developing normally.  Besides, you're talking half a dress size here, not four or five sizes up; what if you have a choir performance during TTOM and you're too bloated to fit into a dress that's sized smaller than your normal measurements?

Sealion -

I wanna try the chili chocolate tea though, where do you get that brand?? Also, is B=bigelow...because I couldn't find that valentine tea :(

If you click on the links, both of those are available online.  (I got the chili chocolate as a Valentine, though. )

First of all, with enough layers of tights, you can wear skirts in almost any weather.  Trust me - I live in Chicago and almost never wear pants. 

Second, to the OP, I don't have the magic answer to your underlying question (the "why am I doing this?" question), but may I make a suggestion?  Next time you feel the urge to buy a "treat" meal that you don't actually want and know you'll feel grumpy about later, what if you figured out the price and put half of it aside toward a gorgeous new pair of pants?  (Use the other half to buy yourself a little, immediate, healthier treat.)  That way, you'll have two things to feel proud of: not getting in your own way food-wise, and (soon) a new, flattering wardrobe.  (Possibly three, if you're the sort of person who sees budgeting as an accomplishment... I see it as an irritant and a necessaryish evil, so that doesn't help me!)

Just a thought... :c)

Well, not that I can top Lala's always-fabulous advice, but my perspective as a fellow under-five-footer: you definitely don't look chubby in the slightest.  In fact, there's a little "buffer room" there, where you could still gain more weight and look slender.

For comparison, in my picture, I'm 4'11" and about 140.  (I'm also super-round-faced at any weight - thanks genetics! - and posing in a way that makes my coat not fit quite right.)  I'm trying to get down to 120-125, though honestly, I'm pretty happy with the way I look now at 133. 

So the moral of the story is that you have quite a long way to go before you could be *remotely* considered chubby, let alone grossly overweight.  The other moral of the story, of course, is that Team CC is rooting for you! 

Less a hummus recipe than a hummus manifesto ... but it's so, so true:

http://www.hanneblank.com/blog/2008/07/15/hot -weather-cookery-virtuous-hummus/

(and, yes, she does actually talk about how to make it )

(edit: fixed link)

PG - Woohoo!!  Congratulations on the thesis!! 

Brag - I got my first journal article accepted for publication a couple of weeks ago; a few truly minor revisions, and my name (and ideas!) will actually be in print!

Desire - to survive midterms week?  ;c)  (Tons of grading, which I'm currently avoiding, plus office hours, plus my *own* midterm papers to write!)

Gratitude - my kind, silly, and drop-dead gorgeous sweetheart.

Btw, when I say "extended" and "over a long period of time" and "consistent," I don't mean "cosplaying occasionally."  I'm thinking 18-24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for years. 

Let's put it this way: I was a child actress, and since I developed *very* early, I bound (with ace bandages, gah!) to look younger.  I kept this up, maybe a couple hours a day, up to 4 days a week, for about 2 years... and I'm a very perky D-cup at the age of 25.  Make of that what you will.  ;c)

In addition to what clw said about saran-wrap, tape/ace bandages are especially bad because they get progressively tighter as you move - which may sound great if you're thinking about the effect it'll have on your flesh, but is actually a Very Bad Thing for your ribs/lungs.  (I mean, it's bad for your flesh, too... but most of the people I know who bind actually *want* tissue breakdown, so that's not a really persuasive argument.)

Where to find *healthy* (or healthier) flatteners:

- Title Nine Sports: their primary market (for bras) is female athletes who want to reduce jiggle, but they do a nice sideline business with FTM trans people and drag kings.  They rate their bras on a "barbell scale": more barbells=more compression.  Most folks I know use the "Frog Bra," which gives you a good deal of compression without taking your breath away, and without the "speedbump" or "uniboob" effect that you get with ace bandages (another downside).

- Underworks: caters to a large and varied clientele, but the products you're looking for are the ones for men with gynecomastia (essentially, the technical term for man-boobs).  This link unfortunately takes you to their whole product range, but keep an eye out for the "Concealer Series" and the "Power Series."  Again, these products are also quite popular with transmasculine folks - the advantage here is that they give a smoother line than bras (which stop right below your chest), and in some cases may offer more compression.  For some people, it's also nice to use a product that feels less ... girly ... than a bra.  YMMV.

Keep in mind that no method of binding/compression is completely risk-free.  If you do it consistently and long-term, any method is going to lead to tissue breakdown - basically, sagging.  They won't turn into funny-shaped bonsai-kittens, but if you do by any chance intend to exploit them for the perky-roundness factor at any point later in life, binding now will make that harder to do.  If, on the other hand, that's the farthest thing from your mind... well, you still want to keep your ribs, lungs, and chest tissue safe. 

If your binder raises welts ... it's too tight.  If it bruises you ... it's too tight.  If it requires someone else's help to put on ... it's too tight.  If it prevents you from catching your breath when performing physical activity ... it's too tight.  Seriously.  It doesn't matter how good it looks - there are other ways to camouflage a protruding chest even if you can't bind it as flat as you like (sweatshirts, for starters), so safety should be a priority.

(Do I sound like a really subculturally-informed version of someone's overprotective grandma?  Probably.   But believe it or not, this is kind of my world.)

It also depends how much you weighed before, and how tall you are.  A couple people started noticing after I'd lost my first 10 pounds or so, but I'm under 5 feet tall and I was going from 165 to 155 - so proportionally, it was a *big* difference!
I peeked at some of your other posts, and it looks like you're in a similar boat height-wise, and approaching a similar weight, so I'm not surprised the folks closest to you have started noticing.

I'm sure the more you lose, the more they'll get over the "we see her every day" effect that nosillassim mentioned - and I bet casual acquaintances are already starting to notice that something is up, they just can't put their finger on it.  Be prepared for people to feel awkward complimenting you, though... there's just no socially-good way to do it.  ;c)

I'm TAing on Halloween, so I'll probably come to class in a dorky linguistics-themed costume (so far, I've come as a bound morpheme and as "The King of France is bald"; this year, I'm thinking "spectral envelope"...). 

For the evening, I'm not sure; I've just moved into a new building, so I'll have to check with a neighbor to see whether it's common practice for people to bring their kids trick-or-treating - if so, I'll be on candy duty.  ;c)