donali

Hey Girl - No sympathy from me. Buck UP!! So you have a little ouchie - get over it, already! Sheez. With all your whining and caterwauling one would think you'd been having some kind of problem or other since May of 2004 or something!! :dead Seriously, you know I'm wishing you all the best. :sleep This is a horrible thing to wish on anybody!! :tired Although today I was only 25 pounds above my low... Sigh. I wish I were more like my Mom, who wasted away during her 3 month courtship with my Dad - he kept her so entertained during their dates that she hardly ate anything, and he would always finish off her portion... lol Maybe I just need a more entertaining S.O.? JUST KIDDING, My Love! Boy, am I full of vinegar this morning? Waiter, more caffeine, please!! Lis - you know I love you to bits, and think about you everyday. Hugs, kisses, and some major flirting thrown your way!! :devious

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I'm game - please remove spaces. donali @ myrealbox .com Thanks!

Congrats, Sue!!! But... Is Mr. Sue okay with this? lol Even if I wanted a reduction, I don't think Mr. Donali would allow it... lol Perhaps the docs could take the extra from all their reductions and make them into surrogate breasts for all those guys out there who just can't get enough (Greg, Ryan, Jack, Tall Guy... ).

Don't be TOO committed to getting in your water! lol Are you SURE, though, that your headache is gone? I could walk you through another feminine remedy... :devious

Depression is a common side-effect of anesthesia, so don't worry, you'll get over it! I'm with you - the Mexican pain-killers did NADA for me. I just lay like a lump on the couch whenever I wasn't working and tried not to move. After two weeks I was a new woman... lol Hang in there! It DOES get better. Just don't try to do too much too soon. And if you're a singer, I recommend waiting AT LEAST four weeks before doing any singing. The diaphragm sits right on top of the band, and that deep breathing is murder if you do it too soon... Try liquid Tylenol - that really helped my pain level when I tore my port sutures.

Hi Aubrey! Have you joined the San Diego Bandster Yahoo! group? They're having a meeting this Sunday, and are a great bunch of people if you're interested. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/SanDiegoBandsters/

food was the furthest thing from my mind after I joined this thread... lol :devious I'm cured!! :banana The bad news is... Sweetie doesn't get back until 1/16... "Flying Solo" takes on a whole different meaning sometimes... :guess I did NOT just say that! :rolleyes I guess I'm going to have to add a disclaimer to my sig line like DeLarla has... What's "said" at LBT, STAYS at LBT! ROTFLMAO :speechles

lol I have to write something else - apparently, messages less than 10 characters can't be posted, and quoted text doesn't count... lol Now THAT's a good joke!!

How's that headache, Whip? lol

I'm stressed and want to eat, too. My problem is I can... lol Luckily I have scientific chores to complete tonight, so I can be listed as a co-author on my sweetie's next paper. Ryan, time to resort to the feminine ways of relieving stress... I know you're hanging on every word now... Run yourself a tub full of hot Water and put in some bubble bath or soaking salts or something, and lean back for a nice long soak. You may want to try a little moisturizer massaged onto your face, paying particular attention to your temples. Use that slow, sensuous, hypnotizing touch I for some reason KNOW you have... Maybe even light some scented candles and put on some soothing music. Sigh... Wow, I feel better already... Thanks for the psychic sandwich, Jack! Yum.... I'll take a bath with you guys anytime... lol :devious

Lynn - The spasms you describe are quite common - I experienced them myself. Try drinking a hot beverage before your meal to help relax things down there, take one bite, and then get up and do something for 5-10 minutes. I found that usually primed me, and I could finish my meal pain free. Eventually the spasms went away, so having them now doesn't mean you'll have them forever. If you are as active as you say, your caloric intake is WAAAAY below your basal metabolism - go to www.fitday.com (free) and see what they recommend your minimum caloric intake is for your height and weight and activity level. It is my understanding that you never want to go less calories than your basal metabolism, and you want to eat enough calories that your deficit each day is reasonable. A gal on another board who was very into this kind of stuff had stopped losing, sounding basically very much like you. Her personal trainer told her she wasn't eating enough, so she took her faith in both hands and decided to be an honest experiment. She increased her calories, and lo and behold, the weight started dropping off again. I know that 43 pounds does not meet your expectations, but 43 pounds is MUCH better than 0 pounds, or gaining, so big congrats to you. Bear in mind that in order to lose weight permanently, you have to make permanent changes. If your current lifestyle is not liveable for the rest of your life then you are going to have difficulty maintaining your loss. I don't mean to sound depressing, but this is the whole key to NOT dieting - this is "forever" - so whatever you do, remember that this is how it must be always. Be good to yourself, don't deprive yourself, and focus on the healthy permanent changes you are making. I know that losing weight was the number one thing on your mind, but don't lose sight of the fact that the REAL reason you were banded was to maintain your health. It sounds as though you are living a very healthy lifestyle, so you are succeeding!! If you try upping your caloric intake, please report back and let us know how you fared! Best wishes -

Ouchy is right. I've had problems along those lines myself. Prune juice, and Benefiber (doesn't bulk up) are my suggestions. Please, people, I wouldn't try the bulking fiber like Metamucil unless you can chug a couple of glasses of Water one after another. That stuff expands, and gels up. Not a good thing for someone with restriction.

Hi Everybody!!! Boy, have I missed you guys! Thanks for the "Where's Donali" thread a few weeks back. I check in occasionally, but I confess that it has be impossible to keep up over here. I am so proud of all of you as you meet your journeys with courage and strength, even when you think you are not up to the challenge of what your life entails, YOU ARE DOING IT!! YOU ARE A SUCCESS!! Because you are HERE, and kicking, and breathing. First, let me give all of you who are struggling with one thing or another a great big hug - hopefully your current trial/tribulation will be short-lived and that life will get better and easier very quickly. For those of you rejoicing in goals met and dreams come true, whoooo hooo!! Congratulations!! I rejoice with each and every one of you. Well, my beloved LBT family, a quick update. I am SO in love!!! lol :knockedou :banana lol Yes, those are stars in my eyes... :knockedou Life just keeps on getting better with my beloved S.O. - he's in Germany for a couple weeks, so I have a little down time on my hands which is a nice balance for our whirlwind of activities when he's here. He's a paleontologist, so we go on field trips almost every weekend. This may sound a little crazy, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE road trips, digging in the dirt, and looking for stuff on the ground. As a self-confessed packrat, I am in seventh-heaven collecting stuff that actually gets approval!! I don't care what it is, as long as I get to collect and hoard. heheh So on our 10 day road trip to the Dallas, TX area, no one was prouder than I that we came back with 350 POUNDS of fossilized sea creatures and various mineral bearing rocks. When we're not digging in the ground, we're at the beach, collecting shells. My current obsession is the wavy turban - a snail shell that can get up to over 4 inches wide across the base. I won't even try and tell you how many we have now, in various sizes. Suffice it to say that on ONE day of collecting we came home with over 30 of them.... Multiply that by five or six times, and... lol No, we can never have company over again! The only little cloud on my horizon of happiness has been the creeping up of my weight. I know exactly what I need to do to arrest the trend, and maybe even start it back downward... It's just, well... Doing it. :guess I know you ALL understand exactly what I mean! But I'm happy and healthy, and hopeful. And isn't that the main goal of life, anyway? So in a way, I'm AT goal - in the big picture, at least. I still have some mini-things to work on, like my weakness for free food... :ermm My aversion to exercise... I just need to dig out my plan for success posted back in 7/04, and reacquaint myself with the "plan". I love you guys - you truly are a second family to me. Hopefully I can drop by more often, but even when I'm not here, please know that I'm pulling for each and every one of you! Oh, and if you want to contact me privately, would you mind sending me an email? I have 69 messages in my PM, and we only get 100, and I hate to delete any of them... I know, true pack rat to the core. FlyLady would not be proud... lol Hugs, Sunshine, Happiness, Joy, and Love!!! xxoo

Alex - Truly fantastic! Congrats! Happy New You! I mean, New Year...

Ryan - Hope Patty is home by now, and that all is well. Such small words, but the wishes for health and happiness for the both of you run to the core of my being. **hugs**

AND the slutty red glove?!?!?! Have I died and gone to heaven????

Oh, YAY!!! The bra post is baaaack!!! :banana lol

The weight has been creeping back up the past few weeks in the "honeymoon" period with BF due to eating out a lot and eating more in general. Ghost band has been missing for the most part, but showed up again gently tonight at dinner. I'm keeping a close eye on things. I'm concerned, but not yet panicked. I am not following my plan for success too closely, but am cutting myself a little slack in respect for my recent life altering event. I started cooking last week, so am hoping things start returning back to some semblancy of normal, and that BF and I will start getting more exercise soon... Thanks for asking...

Every once in a while I get overwhelmed by smoke smell - in places where there is NO smoke. Like in my car. Or in my house. I can barely breathe it is at times so intense. I always attributed it to a ghostly visit from my Dad, who was a heavy smoker. He passed 12/00. However, I'm sure there is a more scientific explanation...

Whoo hooo!!! Bongo has a boa! So glad it found a good home, and can be out in the light to be seen and adored. It gave me great joy to be able to pass along something that I held so dear for so long - a relief to not have to give it up to a stranger. Thanks, Penni, for adopting my boa and giving it a good home.

Love and healing thoughts to you and your family, Penni... My condolences. Love,

He was in Mannheim. I like this new format, for the most part, but I'm missing a bizillion threads, I'm afraid... It's like the new posts are being automatically marked read before I get to them, and I miss the "Get New Posts" buttons that linked to recent posts whether they'd been read or not... Learning curves - I hate 'em... I had to do a search to find this one.

Leatha - This is still making me laugh, and I've read it several times over the last couple of days... lol

Gina - So sorry... I personally don't think it matters whether you cut your hair or leave it long, as far as the shedding is concerned, unless you're just trying to minimize the length of hairs being shed... I have read many posts on this subject, and the general concensus seems to be that there is nothing to be done for it but to wait it out. So might as well leave your locks long, even if it seems messier. You won't go bald, honest - it will just seem like it. **hugs**