My heart goes out to your daughter. I've felt the same things too. It sounds like your daughter has the beginning of Anorexia Nervosa. Distorted body image, the perception that you are fat and ugly when you are not, is a hallmark of the mental illness. Something is literally wrong in her brain, as was in mine. The brain is not functioning properly. This is what was going on with me. I thought I was fat and ugly and horrible looking when in fact I was skinny and pretty. It was a mental illness that had taken over my life. May I suggest Zinc supplements? This is what changed my life. When I took it, the thoughts and feelings and behaviors (it sounds like your daughter has not yet taken action to lose weight, that is very good) were gone. The body image distortion was gone. I looked in the mirror and saw someone thin who needed to gain weight. I looked in the mirror and saw someone pretty. Let me show you the research on Zinc. It's worth a shot. "Features of the illness: Physiological: ...Abnornalities of mineral and electrolyte levels in the body, Zinc deficiency" Studies have been done that show Zinc has been effective in reducing or eliminating the self-image distortion of Anorexia for Anorexics. "The release also cites a Journal For Medical Research article by Dr. Alex Schauss, which reported studies at Stanford University, the University of Kentucky, and the University of California at Davis which found most anorexics and bulimics were zinc-deficient. According to the release, a five-year study showed an 85% remission rate for anorexia patients given zinc supplements. According to Dr. Barbara Levine, Director of the Nutrition Information Center at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, zinc-rich foods include red meat, seafood, cheese, and nuts." "These findings have led some scientists to suggest that zinc deficiency may actually play a role in the causation of anorexia nervosa. The role between zinc and eating behaviour may be connected to a brain chemical known as neuropeptide Y (NPY), the main function of which is to stimulate eating. Generally speaking, restriction of food causes an increase in NPY levels. Animal research has discovered, however, that zinc deficiency blunts the increase in NPY in response to food restriction. The results of this research suggest that zinc deficiency may quell the normal urge to eat more should food be rationed." "...there is at least some evidence that disordered physiology may play a role in the development of the condition too. In particular, research has suggested that anorexia may be related to a deficiency in the mineral zinc. Zinc deficiency has been found to be a common feature in anorexics, and it has been noted that zinc deficiency and anorexia nervosa have symptoms in common which include poor appetite, weight loss, nausea and cessation of periods (amenorrhea)." "People who don't consume zinc may become seriously anorexic, with little desire and even a repulsion for eating. For many young, weight-conscious women, and often the elderly, not eating becomes a state of mind and is considered a serious psychiatric disorder. "...For people trying to recover from anorexia, or those who are having trouble holding onto body weight, I believe our work strengthens earlier findings that recommend the use of zinc supplements," Shay said. "Another lab has shown that zinc supplements have led to greater recovery rates." " The use of zinc in the treatment of anorexia nervosa has been advocated since # by Bakan." "Insufficient zinc has been linked to anorexia, which responds well to zinc replacement treatment." "Zinc deficiency has also been detected in people with anorexia or bulimia in most,nineeen, twenty though not all, twenty one studies. In addition, some of the manifestations of zinc deficiency, such as reduced appetite, taste, and smell, are similar to symptoms observed in some cases of anorexia or bulimia." "A # study (Birmingham and Gritzner) reports that low zinc levels create dynamics in the brain that are similar to those seen with anorexia nervosa. The study found that giving zinc to a group of persons with anorexia produced asignificant improvement in body mass index compared to a group of anorexic persons not receiving zinc. Birmingham and Gritzner suggest that zinc deficiencies make neurotransmitters less effective. When this problem is corrected with zinc therapy in those with anorexia, they conclude, the resulting improvement in brain functioning creates an improvement in anorexia symptoms...." "What is interesting is that such an inexpensive and widely-available mineral shows promise, by itself, in establishing better brain functioning in this group." "If you have anorexia, [take] fifity mg a day of this essential mineral, along with one to three mg per day of copper." "It's important to check with your doctor before beginning a course of zinc therapy, however, because too much zinccan result in other problems in brain functioning (Flinn et al., #). Medical assistance will help regulate zinc at the proper level for you." Love, Amy

I always wondered: if you have low self-esteem, how in the world do you **fix** that? The media tells us we need to volunteer in a soup kitchen, or build a log house shed in the backyard to "develop" our self esteem...to see how others have it worse than us, or be able to have something to show for our work. Somehow, that doesn't seem like the right medicine for the problem. Most people with low self-esteem (excluding those who were horribly physically abused, molested etc. which of course would generate esteem issues) are people who were usually verbally put down all the time as kids. They then became super sensitive to any type of even vaguely negative criticism. I have seen people who are at the top of their game at work & who have great self-esteem about their capabilites, absolutely **crumble** with self doubt about thier looks, social skills/climbing abilities, etc. And what about that nagging self doubt about parenting: Are you a good enough parent? Are you doing it right? or is YOUR kid gonna be the one who comes home (SURPRISE!)with a baby or a meth habit at age 12? Self esteem isn't like a foundation to our spiritual house...it's just an offshoot of our morality, character, resiliance, and knowledge of our hidden super powers!! LOL. Yes, there is a certain mourning of a loss of Girl Power as our looks fade. You either get over it and find value in things other than your ass or face, or get stuck in only valueing your physical attractiveness. Which leads to odd looking face and breast lifts and hot-pants at age 55. Having a normal weight body is like money in the bank. It allows you to do so many things with that health equity! Being limited in what you can do physically (can you fit in the bumper cars at the carnival? How about the Ferris wheel ride?) will EAT YOUR SELF ESTEEM AWAY in huge gulps. No morbidly obese person is gonna be able do the exciting physical things (white water rafting? horse back riding?) that a normal weight person can do without some serious modifications and cash-up-front, if at all. It is THOSE wild physical, adrenaline making experiences missed out on that don't re-generate the spirit and the self-esteem! 350 pound people don't have the energy to build a stage set for the local high school play! Sure, they can "get value" from reading books to toddlers at the library, but that won't give them the bang for their buck they need. When your self esteem is seriously low, the body needs reinvigoration by doing strong, physical activities to get the spirit up & sailing again. So, it's like an endless circle: how to grow self-esteem when the vibrant activites needed are pretty much off limits?? No one wants to keel over digging a community garden! You can drive to a high mountaintop to take in the breath-taking views, but there is not the same self esteem growth that would have come from the challenge of doing the hike UP the mountain to see that view as the reward for the climb. Until I magically become less sensitive to what people say, I limit my visits and chats with others. (No one can figure out how to be less sensitive, either.) I still expect people to see the Godliness in each other, and when that doesn't happen, I still am amazed. I go out, do my thing, but with family and few friends who I know are kind and don't make sarcastic, negative, passive/aggressive comments. I protect my heart and what little self esteem I have home-grown myself. It is easier (and calmer) to stay away from those people who want to hoe-out my tiny shoots of self esteem with a snotty comment or thoughtless chide. It is so easy for others to be mean. They have no clue how it nibbles at our own self concept. "Well, you need to be less sensitive, then!" some would say. Well, no. I don't. I like being sensitive and introspective and logical. "If you can in this life help others, if you can't don't hurt them". -H.K. happyhappy

RG- Sorry for spreading the "only time will tell" bug. Good comments regarding the VF pump. Having the ability to adjust to a precise flow and maintain that flow probably has some value for some customers and installers, but this is a niche market. For all the other applications, Ive always been an advocate of applying the right size pump/filter for the application and applying proper piping to the system for the flow desired with routine maintenance on the filter to avoid system inefficiency. The fact remains that VF will increase speed and power to overcome these system shortfalls and this will cost the homeowner money. At what point does the homeowner get a warning that the system needs maintenance. With a non-variable flow pump, the answer is system pressure. With a variable flow pump, when is the signal sent to the homeowner that something is wrong and how much money has this cost the homeowner due to a system that is not operating efficiently. If the answer is system pressure also, then what is the value of having a variable flow technology when a variable speed (VS or 2-speed) or even a 1 speed will do the same for the homeowner. Kelly- Although the goal of achieving 2 speed pricing with improved efficiency sounds good, the reality of variable speed technology cost will prevent this from happening. Rare earth permanent magnet motors coupled with variable frequency drives is an expensive combination. To cut costs, the rare earth magnets will have to go and then we are back to the good ole PSC technology which is what we have in 2 speed pumps today. There may be some cost opportunity on the drive side of the design, as the current drive is a Cadillac when a Yugo will do for these pool applications, unless the VF market takes off, which will require the Cadillac drive and require the higher cost as a result. My guess is this will remain a niche market. The reality is variable speed technology is expensive and from my HVAC experience, has always fallen short on value offered vs. price. On the other hand, there may be market for a de-featured multi-speed pump with a "yugo" variable speed drive and a high efficiency PSC motor that will fall at the same price point of todays 2 speed, with the advantage of having more than 2 speeds. I could see this being a very real product in the near future with recent technology advances in drives. But, todays VF and VS offerings cost too much and fall short on the value they offer over a 2 speed, in my opinion. Kinda related..I have not been able to find anything from Jandy on their variable speed product. Have you seen anything yet? Maybe their offering has the lower price point (less expensive drive) and better efficiency at higher rpm with the Jandy impeller. Just curious, because obviously Jandy is not spending much money on advertising or marketing for their variable speed product. Tres- Good idea on comparisons between VS/VF and 2-speed/1-speed. This type of testing would have to be done on the same pool system to take piping size and hydraulics out of the equation and look at true power consumption differences between the technologies. Then on top of that, you will find that each technology will have a sweet spot on efficiency. The 1 speeds and 2 speeds will perform better at higher flow applications, the variable speeds with permanent magnet motors will perform better at low flow applications. So the results would have to be reported at different daily duty cycles.example, daily power consumed at X hours of high flow and Y hours of low flow, high flow only applications, low flow only applications, etc. Maybe this is the data that RG is referring to..I hope so and will be waiting to see this comparison data also. I have not seen a significant increase in my electricity bill either with my two 2 speed pumps and two 1 speed pumps, but as you indicate, all other appliances and loads on those appliances mask the true energy consumed by just the pool itself. I have 3 AC units that are running a lot during these dog days of summer along with the pool pumps getting a lot more daily use this time of year (especially the 3HP slide pump), so it really becomes convoluted. During the winter, our electricy bills are very low, less than $40/month. This is because the two one speed pumps are winterized and the two 2-speeds only run a few hours a day at low speed. We have gas heat so the only electricity demand for HVAC is the small indoor fan motors. We really like our winter electricity bills! Subl1002- Right on.apples to oranges comparisons that are misleading. I think Pentair should do themselves a favor and take their energy calculator off their site or at least give an option for a 2 speed comparison. Also, think the energy companies should focus on proper plumbing and pipe size standards for the pool industry rather than focusing on the pump efficiency. The pump will only consume as much power at the system demands, so why not focus on ways to minimize the demand. Im really surprised what RG said related to oversizing pumps in California. I would have thought they would have been early adopters of properly sizing pumps, filters and piping before any one elseoh well.so much for logic. This is the problem with power companies and government officials.they dont always see the big picture and always go to the component suppliers and burden them with improved efficiency but at a higher price. Case in point, in 2006, all AC units had to have 13 SEER minimum efficiency level. The HVAC industry lobbied hard for 12 SEER (which is slightly lower efficiency but at a much better cost) but our government with heavy California CEC influence passed the higher effiency 13 SEER requirement. Well, guess what.now consumers are buying a lot more window units due to cost of the 13 SEER equipment which is now burdening the power companies with higher demand because these window units are terribly inefficient. We showed this trend data to CEC officials recently and they said "Oh my.this is not what we intended at all".yep and thats what happens when you dont balance cost vs value and lose sight of the big picture. In the case of pool pumps, if the CEC ever mandates the Pentair pumps then the power companies will see a higher power demand as a result because these pumps are so inefficient at higher speeds. Hopefully the power companies realize this and are working with the CEC to mold their policies. Colt 357- YeahI thought the same thing.180K units sold per year..thats a lot. I am very surpised that your price point was lowered considering copper, steel and aluminum commodities have increased by 50% just in the last year. This is having a major impact on our HVAC pricing these days and there is a lot of copper, steel and aluminum in these pool pumps also. I dont think this version of variable speed is the future. I do, however think that a low cost variation of this technology with a few speed options will do well. This whole VF value story is not very sound in my opinion and the current VS pump is technology overkill for most pools in my opinion with the only value being replacing multiple pumps with one pump that will save some initial investment. Whew.I need to go rest my typing fingers and do some beverage curling at poolside now.

It's all been well said, Zuzu, but I would add that by the time someone decides to consult a professional for this sort of thing, they really, really want help, & they really, really WANT your feedback & insight & won't feel you're pushing anything on them. You are obviously a very sensitive, thoughtful person, & you don't need to fear coming across in an arrogant fashion, but also remember that generally people consulting you will feel quite eager to hear what you have to say & will find it interesting & useful. I've been able to offer helpful suggestions to people in my life regarding decor that were appreciated. However, when it comes to my own place, I'm mystified! I agonize over decisions I've made, money I've spent & wonder what is salvagable, what is not. Almost daily I ponder over the mess I feel I've made! My point is, if I was in your area & called you to come help me... listen, I'm so ready to hear what you have to say! Don't feel trepidation, just give me what you've got, girl! If something you suggest doesn't feel right, I'll tell ya! It's give & take, yes? There will be a sharing of ideas, yes? But in the end, I'll have a different perspective on things & you possibly will have solved a very vexing problem for me & maybe I can relax in my home instead of stressing over it. See what you could do for people? Get out there. ..you have so much to offer!