SassySenior

Hi all,Did you all get the success story I sent out the other day. No one has mentioned it.If you did get it, what did you think of it? Of the way she lost the weight and her resulting success?Personally, I was wowed -- not only by her success -- but by her determination and nose to the grindstone mentality. Plus she wrote a really great piece. Hmm. Wonder if she's a writer like me ... well, she should be!I want to hear your reactions.

Just wanted to add a note to our daily discussion. I just talked with my original surgeon's office today. And they will only operate on me if I repeat everything I did in the last month (diet, class, pre-op visit) & lose 10-15 lbs. Oh, joy, I was hoping I could repeat that 2 week starvation diet again. And I'm sure my friend, Martha, will be thrilled to learn we will have to make 2 additional trips to Denton (40 miles away) to arrive at the crack of dawn. Hopefully, I'll have something better sked after my visit Friday when I go to another seminar. I would love for this dr. to do it, but not sure he can accept my previous 3 mo. Medicare diet. As I vaguely recall, there was a problem with getting the info on 1 or 2 of my visits. Oh well, things will hopefully work out for the best. Wish me luck. Call on all your contacts in the spirit world to pray for the best outcome for me.

I don't think I could ride a bike for more than 15 sec. since both my knees are trashed, altho only the left one hurts. That is so impressive, Faye. I want to start weight training soon as well. I read that if you don't have muscle strength or mass (or both) that slows down your metabolism and you won't lose weight as fast. I'm gonna have to call you Lady Weightlifter from now on.

Exactly. You have totally captured their essence. I don't know any of them personally ... only professionally ... but every one of them is skinny and has no experience in being overweight. It's so easy for them to pull a few facts from memory/college classes and tell us what we should be doing. But they cannot really empathize or even relate to us ... since they've never been there. And don't they always seem like "holy rollers" to you?

Cheryl and Faye, It's good to know that my doctor is not the only jerk out there. Personally, Cheryl, I would drop that nutty nut like a hot potato. You don't need that sh*t. You've worked hard, you deserve praise and support, not criticism. What a jerk! As to your hubby, I don't even know what to say except he better watch his P's and Q's or he's gonna see his ever-growing beautiful wife in the arms of someone else who sees her for the beautiful person she is ... in all areas. Faye is a happy newlywed, of sorts, even tho she's been married 5 years. She fixed her picker the second time around, and has a great partner in her hubby, Tony. I'm glad you took that comment from your nut with the respect it deserved: NONE! Sorry to say I've never met a Nut I liked. First of all they look anorexic, like they've never had a good meal. They usually have a zero personality and certainly cannot relate to or know how to encourage us to do well.

Hooray! We're posting! Good job Coco and Cheryl. Now all we need to do is put these posts under the Boomer Chat Room so we can all go to 1 place to read them. Not everyone thinks of looking at comments. But I'm sure glad you did ... me, too, so I could read what you guys wrote. More later. I'm gonna take a li'l nap and get ready for 2 great programs. 1) The Voice on NBC at 8 CST, and 2) followed by Blacklist with James Spader - really terrific new show!

Every trainer I ever worked with showed me each machine and how to use it, then stayed while I did it. I've never heard of just sending an email with instructions. Heck, I could do that. Hmm. Maybe a second career for me. LOL I'd give serious thought to getting a real "personal" non-email, live trainer. That's the whole point!

Way to go, Jean! Good idea to "tell your story" so everyone can catch up to where you are. Congrats on your near 40 lb. weight loss! You are a true inspiration to others as to how to have a pain-free, easy going time of it. Why do you think that is? Is there anything you can pinpoint as something you did ... or a way that you thought ... that made things go so smoothly for you. Only a treasured few have that kind of success. So give us a clue, Jean. Have you remembered to click "Follow this topic" at the top of this column and all others? Since you're retired and have no real job, I'm gonna assign you one. I can do that 'cause I own this group! LOL. We need everyone to post something about themselves or their journey, like you did. We also need to amp up the interest in this group by urging members to RESPOND TO EVERY POST. The only way this fledging group will work is if we all contribute to it. Write about ourselves AND SUPPORT OTHERS WHO WRITE. Often, we forget how important it is to get feedback after we've posted something. So, I'm gonna show you what I mean. I'm gonna send everyone a message from FB on this issue, urging everyone to read what's been posted and respond to every post. When you think about it, it's not really that hard to do. But we all tend to just think about what's on our mind and write about that. In order for this group to work, everyone should reply to every post! And visit this site daily, look down the LEFT COLUMN for LATEST POSTS, and reply to each. Since you replied to a "News" item, I'm not sure that notice of your reply will appear. I'm glad you did, but from now on we need to put all our posts in the Boomer Chat Room. So, my friend, will you be the Supervisor of Content? And keep kicking ... err nudging ... people to reply to each new post? Right now, I've written a couple of posts today and so has Faye (SouthernSoul). So your mission today, if you accept it LOL, is to write 2 replies and check the page daily to see if others are replying as well. I hope that's not too much to ask.

Hi Faye, Congratulations of your success!! I bet you feel terrific. Congrats, also, on joining a gym. How's that working out? What are you and Tony doing? Has he dropped lbs. and inches? 65 lbs. gone forever. Yay! I'm no expert, but it would seem to me that you should be able to eat just about anything, including salads, etc. The best advice I've gotten is to kinda learn with your new stomach. Try a little bite, see how it goes, try a little more. You know ... slow and steady wins the race. Good to hear from you! Hang around ... we're gonna get this group up and running again. I'm sure of it. Sassy p.s. I don't know if you're subscribed to these or not, but I just read a fantastic success story. I'm gonna repost it. Probably under a new group discussion.

Coco, As you can see, our friend Jean is now a member. Write something! Jean, so post already!

Okay ... I'm trying to work the kinks out so we can get our post-Baby Boomer Chat Room back up and running for the few of us that will be using it. So here's the deal, I wrote a post for the thread we're all going to use (like FB). It's the Boomer Chat Room. Look down the left column and you will see a section called "Latest Posts." That's where you'll find out who posted last. I hope you all check in and find it.To make sure you get email notifications on this thread, click "Follow this topic" at the top of Boomer Chat Room column. Be sure you've set up your settings to receive notifications by email.

Okay ... what's the deal? I see that Jean checked in Friday night, may or may not have read my message. She didn't, however, post anything. I'm trying to work the kinks out so we can get our post-Baby Boomer Chat Room back up and running for the few of us that will be using it. So here's the deal, I'm posting this here, and I hope you all check in and find it. To make sure you get email notifications on this thread, click "Follow this topic" at the top of this column. Be sure you've set up your settings to receive notifications by email. Who will be the next to post? Will it be Jean? Cheryl? CoCo? C'mon, gals, there's just a couple of us now. I'm gonna invite a friend I haven't talked to in awhile. I call her Mrs. Hawaii cause she lives in Hawaii and got married recently. She's a fun and funny Boomer.

HELLO FRIENDS - This is the first post of our new reborn Chat Room. In here, we can keep up with each other. We won't have to write a new post for other groups or send PMs to each other. We can put all that communication in here for all to read. I know this format will work and make it easier on us. So to kick things off, I have copied my latest message to Cheryl. Feel free to jump in and say Hi or whatever. Love, Sassy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi Cheryl, Always good to hear from you. Believe it or not, no date yet. I'm pretty sure I will have one in a week. It's kinda a long story, but I'm waiting on a couple of things, which hopefully will straighten themselves out by then Other than that, nothing much else. Oh, I will be scoring the SAT next month. I do the writing portion. I had to study really hard to get good enof to pass the qualifications. Just to give you an idea of how hard it is ... they give us 3-5 days to learn it each time. It takes awhile to get in the right mindset to do "holistic scoring." I've gotta start studying again any day now as the session starts Oct. 10. I'm thinking about lighting the fuse again under this group. There's a couple of gals I talk to on Facebook, but it would be nice to get us all together in one place. I'm in a couple of groups on Facebook, but there's really no moderation, so people say whatever. Since I am not one to shy away from controversy without having my say, I find that I am getting into cyber battles with strangers. No fun, really. So, I'm gonna tell my 2 friends, Coco and Jean, to join us here. Let's keep it going! How about you? How's the relationship with hubs? One of the gals on fb is having a prob with her hubs. He's keeping her at arms length for the past 3 months. Enof for now. Your turn. Sassy

I never got the chance to say thank you for all the Protein info. You know how we can be at times: so self-consumed that we don't think of anyone else. You definitely answered my question, and I appreciate it. Sounds like you're doing great. As I recall you're an athlete but I forgot what sport.

Saying that people guess high, makes it more difficult to guess right. Some people get carded in their 40s. You have a young looking face. My guess is you could be as young as 20 or as old as 32.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that how to do it is not the problem. It's why to do it. When you're fat, the reason is obvious. With a 100+ weight loss, the reason is less obvious. One thing you might try is this: Find a site on the web where you can enter information about yourself and then find out how long you have left to live. Do this 1st for your current situation, then do it again for where you want to be. Just a guess, but chances are you'll probably add 5-10 years to your life. That may turn the tide for you.

When you're on your computer, go to Your Name and click the down arrow. Choose “My Settings”. Once there, look at the column on the left and select "Notification Options." This is the 2nd from last item on the list. When setting your options, choose to be notified of any from the Community Administrator. Next, under Topic & Posts, choose to receive notifications in a "Daily Digest." That should clear up the problem, and you will only get one email a day. I also select “Notification List,” which corresponds to an icon online, located next to the message icon. When you get a notification, it will show up on your computer in your Notification List. Click the icon, and you’ll see the notifications for quick online reference.

More the question is do you need to take a laxative? I would guess this will pass just like before. Laxatives take awhile to work, so you probably wouldn't see results right away. Also, eating chicken is not much of a slip. Many doctors say we can eat one real meal a day of lean meat.

Counseling can be a real boon to a relationship, when both parties commit to examination and change. I'm sad to hear your wife has changed her attitude and reaction to you. I'm sure the reasons are complicated and doubt either one of you can figure it out. This is where counseling comes in. The fact that she's eating ice cream and consuming things that may be bad for her, is a definite sign that something is wrong with ... her. She probably wants you to join in so she'll feel less guilty. After all, if you were eating ice cream, maybe you'd be heavier and she'd be happier. I once dated a guy 10 years younger than me. It wasn't a big deal for me, so I didn't come up right away. When it did, though, he told me the same thing. We broke up a short time later ... not because of that, but it was telling.

Hey all, I just read about stalls and how to fool your body out of one. It's called Carb Cycling and it's the technique used by Chris Powell on the Biggest Loser. Makes sense to me. Basically, you do low carbs one day and high carbs the next day. It's all explained in his book "Choose to Lose: The 7-Day Carb Cycle Solution," which you can read about on his website. http://chrispowell.com/carb-cycling-the-classic-cycle/

I'm sneaking in here on a hope and a prayer. I don't have my date yet, but I am hoping it will be end of October. Hope that's OK.

Like Cerenatee above, I also read horror stories, albeit reluctantly. I am still pre-op but I have a mountain of information behind me about the procedure. I researched any doctor I was considering as well. There are good surgeons and there are idiots. Bariatric surgery attracts some M.D.'s with minimal qualifications. But the overwhelming majority are good surgeons and good doctors. I am a high risk patient, and for this reason, I took a deep look into the surgery and those who perform it. I was 425 lbs. when I started and 65 years old with a previous heart attack. Even though I'm 381 now, M.D.s still say I'm high risk. I figure my best bet is with the best surgeon I could find. I searched for 2 years and found 2 imminently qualified surgeons. While it is nice to have a friendly staff, my only real concern is the guy with the scalpel. What's his track record? How many surgeries has he performed? Do daily? You don't want someone who treats surgeries with an assembly line mentality, rushing them through as fast as he can. It does take time and effort, but you can find the best surgeon if you do your homework. My life is worth doing due diligence. I have an enormous pile of information I've copied from posts people have made, online info, doctor's articles and comments ... you name it. I now know all of the important questions to ask ... and there are quite a few. This, to me, is the least I need to do ... and think others need to do also ... to go through the surgery successfully. I am disliked by some people because I have a low tolerance for stupidity. When someone, usually who's already sleeved, starts asking questions they should know the answer to, it bothers me. If they don't know the answers to the simplest things about bariatric surgery, I doubt they did any kind of due diligence or know nada about their surgeon. It's hard for me to keep my opinions to myself, especially when I read about someone who weighs 200 lbs. and is having this surgery. Boy, that's a big call about a smallish problem. I need to lose over 200 lbs. I considered all the different types of surgeries and their implications, and decided the sleeve was the safest for me with the best potential outcome. Sista's Sistah had a horrific experience, and my heart goes out to both sisters and their family. I only hope that medical science will pull a miracle out of this disaster and give her back her life. If you want to be scared off this surgery, there are a number of groups you can join. We're obviously a pro-surgery site full of intelligent people who have done their homework, intend to follow the guidelines and live a life without many of the goodies we used to eat. I am not a saint ... actually far from it ... but I figure this surgery will reduce my hunger quite a bit, and that alone will result in my losing weight. I’m worried about my surgery … who wouldn’t be … but I know that I can no longer continue the way I am now. Wish me luck, and I’ll do the same for you.

Oh, I can relate. I just cancelled myself 2 days before surgery. In my case, few doctors take my insurance. I did find another one who is very good and does take it, but like you he insists I go to his seminar on Oct. 4th. I'm not sure what I'll do. Some of my hoops I jumped thru will be a year old in Oct. If I wait much longer, I may have to redo them. I don't want to do that so I'm seriously thinking of going with my original surgeon. In my case, my surgeon is the best around, but he and his P.A. are troublesome. In your case is everyone in his office nasty or is it just one person? What's the surgeon like? Can you talk to him about this? If it's just one person, then you won't have to deal with her much, if at all, after surgery. If possible, I would talk to the surgeon even if it means scheduling another visit. See how he reacts to the news.

I'm sorry if my comments were misunderstood. Asking questions about hair loss is perfectly natural and expected. My comments were directed toward those who get bent out of shape and complain about something that is totally expected ... or should be ... and in the greater scheme of things ... no big deal. I, too, make no apologies for my position of one who faced a near death tragedy, which included hair loss, versus those who wig out over the side effects of an elective surgical procedure. In the greater scheme of things this is nothing more than a speed bump on the highway to permanent weight loss.

Yes, a lot of people get upset by the hair loss. It always surprises me because I've read post after post about it -- around what month it usually begins ... and when it stops. Isn't this common knowledge? I'm a cancer survivor, and when I did chemo, I went completely bald. I knew it would happen, and I didn't get upset about it. I was too busy saving my live. Same for this hair loss ... I am still pre-op, but I know losing my hair will not bother me. It's just one more step on the way to my new thin life. Since it's common knowledge to expect hair loss: when it will start and when it will stop, why get bent out of shape about it? It's part of the scenario, and it will reverse itself. I had to buy a wig during chemo (where you go bald during treatment) because I was not ready to be bald to the rest of the world. But I am now cancer free ... just like I'll be fat free by this procedure. Hair loss is just a speed bump to our svelte self!