dylanmiles23

Another step for her (and your) freedom. It a a step up in maturity when mom can't run on over and instantly help.
Love my boys. .... However I don't want to live with them !

I love reading these posts. We have to meet up...I want to spend a weekend with you gals, I really do.

Ah...what I wouldn't give for a nice hot bath right now!!! My little body is all aches and pains. To my chagrin I fell going UP the marble stair case yesterday!! OUCH my legs and arm are various colors of the rainbow today and if it was summer people would think I was either hit by a truck or a battered wife! (Hahaha as if Ken would say cause he'd be a dead man and I'd be posting this from a prison cell)
To top it all off I have the gym tonight with the trainer...maybe I'll get lucky and hubby will draw me a nice hot bath to fold myself into when I get home. Can someone send him a little bird message for me...tweet tweet... Nope I didn't hit my head

Love these posts! Arlene, let's go dancing! Gay clubs were such a a great dance outlet for me in the eighties. Fun times. In the last year we made friends with people who host monthly dance parties in a town not far from here. We've been to two and that's another NSV for me: dancing! We are definitely then oldest people but I can still tear it up. Thanks to my band and losing the two cinder blocks worth of fat.......

I still get hell from my sons for things I post on FB. One day they will all do it to their kids. My sons have kids.
my sons loved Madrid and Barcelona. My youngest BFF went to school in Barcelona for his semester away and ended up living there for around 10 years teaching English and making huge money for a large company. He worked around 2 hours a day. He is now a DJ in gay night clubs in NYC.

you'll be fine and she will be great. My cousin has twins. One left for England and the other Italy for their semester. When my youngest was in HS his friend's family always hosted a child from Spain. They treated that child during their junior year awful. He almost lived at my house. Then a few years later my 2 sons went to Spain and his parents couldn't thank my family enough for treating him so nicely. They are still friends and my sons are 36 & 40.
These days with Skype and other means you can talk for free.
Have a great day .
Arlene

I still get hell from my sons for things I post on FB. One day they will all do it to their kids. My sons have kids.
my sons loved Madrid and Barcelona. My youngest BFF went to school in Barcelona for his semester away and ended up living there for around 10 years teaching English and making huge money for a large company. He worked around 2 hours a day. He is now a DJ in gay night clubs in NYC.

you'll be fine and she will be great. My cousin has twins. One left for England and the other Italy for their semester. When my youngest was in HS his friend's family always hosted a child from Spain. They treated that child during their junior year awful. He almost lived at my house. Then a few years later my 2 sons went to Spain and his parents couldn't thank my family enough for treating him so nicely. They are still friends and my sons are 36 & 40.
These days with Skype and other means you can talk for free.
Have a great day .
Arlene

I still get hell from my sons for things I post on FB. One day they will all do it to their kids. My sons have kids.
my sons loved Madrid and Barcelona. My youngest BFF went to school in Barcelona for his semester away and ended up living there for around 10 years teaching English and making huge money for a large company. He worked around 2 hours a day. He is now a DJ in gay night clubs in NYC.

Thanks, Arlene. I was afraid I wouldn't hear from her, but at 4am my time, I was already getting text messages from her demanding j remove the Facebook photos I posted of her kissing me goodbye. "Delete those photos NOW! I look awful!"
That's my girl. All is well. I miss her already.

you'll be fine and she will be great. My cousin has twins. One left for England and the other Italy for their semester. When my youngest was in HS his friend's family always hosted a child from Spain. They treated that child during their junior year awful. He almost lived at my house. Then a few years later my 2 sons went to Spain and his parents couldn't thank my family enough for treating him so nicely. They are still friends and my sons are 36 & 40.
These days with Skype and other means you can talk for free.
Have a great day .
Arlene

Okay, it's midday in Madrid and she's at her host home, safe and sound! One down, one to go!

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Cheryl Ann Borne hit a high weight of 285 pounds, and got the gastric bypass surgery in 2003. She maintained her weight loss, but the extra skin didn’t go away on its own. In 2013 she began a series of plastic surgeries including a Tummy Tuck, total body contouring, and facial surgery, and is now a size 2.


Cheryl is an obesity health activist who writes as My Bariatric Life on Health Central and PM360 Online. She recently launched her new site, My Bariatric Life, and you can follow her on social media, including on Twitter @MyBariatricLife and on Google+.
Weight Gain, Gastric Bypass Surgery, and Lasting Weight Loss
Cheryl was an active teen, but she went from “fit to fat” as she turned to processed food. At 5’7”, she got up to a weight of 285 pounds and a size 24W. Cheryl got the gastric bypass surgery in 2003. She had diabetes, celiac disease, depression, acid reflux, asthma, and hypertension. She lost over 100 pounds, managed to get off of 9 of her 10 prescription drugs, and does not have chronic back pain anymore. You can see before and after pictures documenting her transformation by watching this video.
A Typical Day in Cheryl’s Life
As proof that you can follow a diet without red meat and stick to a high-protein weight loss surgery diet, here is a sample day’s diet in Cheryl’s life. The following day has 1,789 calories, 165 grams of Protein, and 79 grams of carbohydrates.
Breakfast
2-egg omelet with homemade creamed spinach (dairy-free) and turkey bacon
Snack
coffee with coconut milk, roasted coconut juice, and egg white Protein Powder
Mineral Water
Vitamins/supplements
Scivation Xtend intraworkout drink with branched chain amino acids
Lunch
tuna salad
Baby spring mix and grape tomatoes with lemon vinaigrette
Terra Real vegetable chips
Dinner
Smoked turkey leg, no skin
1 cup turnip greens
Snack
Egg white protein powder in water
Getting Rid of the Traces of Obesity
After losing over 100 pounds after the gastric bypass surgery in 2003, Cheryl had a lot of extra skin. In 2006, she met a plastic surgeon whom she really liked. In 2013, she decided to get a tummy tuck. The extra skin hadn’t gone away after weight loss surgery, and she wanted to get rid of it. As she describes below, she was delighted with her surgeon and the results of the tummy tuck, and decided to go further.
I went from a size 14 jeans being tight to a perfect size 8 in just 4-months. I was so thrilled with the transformation that I decided to do "all of me." In October 2013, Dr. Joseph F. Capella revised the tummy tuck to a lower body lift, and performed a medial thigh lift, extended arm lift, and breast lift. Dr. Capella removed 11 pounds of skin and one liter of fat, and this enabled me to get active in ways that I was unable to with my hanging pannis and inner thighs that rubbed together. I ran my first 3k with my daughter and granddaughter and eventually I was running 5k. What's more, the muscle plication from the tummy tuck placed renewed constriction on my pouch so I am full with less food, as well, I tightened up on my diet by doing Whole30 [a strict 30-day low-carb diet] and going Paleo. In total, I lost 50 inches and 50 pounds after my body contouring plastic surgery. Today I am a size 2, down from a 24W before my gastric bypass surgery.
You can go to HealthCentral to read about Cheryl’s decision to get total body contouring after her tummy tuck. She describes the emotional rollercoaster of the experience, the surgery, and her long road to recovery. She is still dealing with complications from her brachioplasty, but stresses the end goal and her luck in finding a fantastic surgeon who cares about her.
She didn’t stop there, and instead decided “to reach for the stars” and see a facial plastic surgeon.
In one surgery, Dr. Catherine Winslow took about 15 years off my face, restoring the once pretty face that I had when I was thin. I had a total of 10 procedures: deep plane face lift, neck lift, upper eye lid lift, SMAS (superficial muscular aponeurotic system) to tear troughs and lips, lip lift, chin implant, 35% TCA peel, Botox and filler. I go back from time to time to Nurse Triste at Dr. Winslow's practice for filler and Botox. I look at this maintenance routine along the same vein as maintaining my hair cut and color.
Destined to Be a Healer
Do you believe in fate? When Cheryl visited Guatemala in May of 2011, a Mayan shaman told her her Mayan symbols showed she was a healer. She could, he said, heal herself and others. As Cheryl tells it below, she wasn’t so sure at first. Then she figured it out.
I visited a Mayan Shaman when I was in Guatemala back in May 2011. He said my Mayan symbols told that I am a healer. I can heal myself and I can heal others. He said that I needed to heal others, to not keep this gift to myself, or else I would experience sickness or pain and that this was the only way to cure my chronic back pain, which I had suffered with for years. The Shaman said that I need to realize my true self. The Shaman also said the symbols revealed that I am creative — that I knew for sure, but I wondered was he right about me being a healer?
So I tried to heal my beloved mother who was stricken with a rare disease. And I tried to heal my beloved boxer dog, Cindi Lu, who was stricken with an aggressive cancer. But I could not save them and felt that I had failed my destiny.
Then in 2012 during a personal development training, I discussed this matter with the instructor. And he replied that maybe I was meant to heal people with my words. I did not give much thought to it after that until one night in 2013, I bolted up from my bed and realized that both the shaman and the instructor were right!
Healing with Words
Cheryl’s work has exploded. She describes the growth of her writing and advocacy career since finding her voice.
I began writing as My Bariatric Life for the HealthCentral Obesity vertical in March 2011, nearly eight years after my gastric bypass. I started out writing just a few articles per month as a health guide -- a patient who would share her real world experience in defeating obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and GERD. My work grew legs. I now write 18 articles and develop two recipes per month for HealthCentral where I have a following of roughly 75,000 unique monthly readers. I also write a quarterly patient advocacy column for PM360 Magazine under my name, Cheryl Ann Borne, and I am a long-standing member of their editorial advisory board.
Cheryl also makes her voice heard by posting as My Bariatric Life on social media, including Flickr, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. She is active on BariatricPal and a site for cosmetic procedure patients called RealSelf. Her goal is to provide fair and trustworthy reviews.
And this month I will begin writing a monthly opinion piece as My Bariatric Life for BariatricPal. I also am exploring opportunities with the Obesity Action Coalition, and in the past have partnered with Obesity PPM and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). !
Daring Move to a New Career as a Digital Health Strategy Consultant
Cheryl has been in the health industry since before her surgery. She explains her career as a digital health strategy consultant.
My career has been as a promotions strategist, writer, and designer in the healthcare space with the last 12-yrs in digital marketing. I’ve worked with pharmaceutical and biotech companies and digital health ad agencies and non-CME medical education agencies. I help them to understand the evolving digital health ecosystem and, based on their unique market circumstances, specifically how to communicate with patients and physicians in meaningful ways via digital channels and to ultimately achieve better health outcomes.
Cheryl is determined to help people improve their lives.
Transforming healthcare is important to me. It's is all about the patient. I want to make a difference; I want to help people live healthier lives.
When her company cut her position in 2013, she took a positive approach and decided to focus her energy on fighting obesity. She developed a business plan as a digital health strategy consultant with an emphasis on growing My Bariatric Life, her obesity health activist brand.
Paleo Follower and Recipe Developer
Cheryl believes in the benefits of the Paleolithic Diet. It is a high-protein diet that you can follow after weight loss surgery. It emphasizes meat, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds, and oils. It forbids grains, processed foods, dairy products, and potatoes. She plans to help others follow this way of eating.
One aspect of my business plan is to launch the brand Borne Appétit in order to teach healthy eating habits and show busy families/couples/singles that it is easy to prepare real food, real simple, and break the cycle of time starvation and over reliance on convenience/processed foods and obesity. To truly understand what it means to eat healthy and break this cycle was something I had to achieve in my own life, and I want to share with people what I have learned through years of experience and experiment. I find the Paleolitihic Diet works best for me…and I enjoy the art of creating delicious recipes within those constraints. I also eat no red meat, only fish and fowl, so this adds an extra level of complexity, which I find stimulating to develop recipes that are not mundane or repetitious.
Valuable Life Lessons
You can be sure Cheryl has learned a lot of valuable lessons from her weight loss surgery and plastic surgery experiences. She knows the value of maintaining her results, living life fully, and challenging herself to live a life she loves. She also recognizes she has gained freedom and an ability to grow.
Beyond the physical transformation are (very unexpected) emotional and spiritual transformations. I’ve returned to some of my roots: ideals and philosophies around the nature of existence that I had walled off (or perhaps ate to insulate myself against) when the emotional pain became too much for my sensitive nature. Plastic surgery was very freeing for me; it freed my jailed spirit. I’ve never been a wallflower but when it came to my body I was timid because I lacked body confidence. And this trickled over into other areas of my life. There were parts of my life that I hid, or situations in which I could not share my feelings, because I was inhibited by the fear of being rejected or judged. And that’s no longer true. I am now able to be my true self, comfortable in my nakedness both physically and emotionally. I am still learning and growing in these areas, particularly in understanding soul relationships and the expression of real love.
We are here to play and experience as much as we possibly can. We are here to grow. Often it is through times of adversity that we grow the most because these times force us to get out of our comfort zones. I have come to understand that there are only two emotions. We are either acting out of love or we are acting out of fear, which is the opposite of love. All other emotions are a derivative of love (compassion, forgiveness, self-sacrifice) or a derivative of fear (selfishness, retaliation, deceit). From now on I choose always to act out of love. Do I let go of control and trust my intuition and follow my heart even when it defies my rational faculties or can’t be proven? If I am to act out of love, then yes. Otherwise I return to acting out of fear. As well, I have learned that I need to protect myself from the negative energies of toxic people — those emotional vampires who can turn my love into fear.
An Exciting Year to Come
Cheryl is expecting a big 2015 in addition to growing her presence as My Bariatric Life and working on Borne Appétit. At the Pharma Marketing Summit in Palm Beach in May, she will be presenting as My Bariatric Life and sharing her story of defeating obesity and its co-morbidities.
Also new for this year, I'll finally launch my websites, a dream I've had for a couple of years. I've already launched MyBariatricLife.org for transformative information on defeating obesity and co-morbid diseases. I'll also launch my healthy recipe site BorneAppetit.com and my eating healthy on-the-road travel site BorneVoyage.com. These sites will help a lot of people.
It definitely looks as though the Mayan shaman was right when he said Cheryl is a healer. She has come a long way toward healing herself through weight loss surgery, plastic surgery, and healthy living, and she is dedicated to helping others become healthier. Don’t forget to follow Cheryl on social media and through her channel on HealthCentral, and watch for her new monthly opinion piece to be published on BariatricPal!
Please click here to read My Bariatric Life's articles in BariatricPal's Weight Loss Surgery Magazine.

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Many years ago I was called for jury duty. I knew one of the people and the judge still made me stay until 4pm. Weird.
Also called for federal grand and got off because i have ADD. I was thrilled because the case went on for almost 1 month.
This cold sucks!!
Went for Japanese hibachi dinner tonight. I was carrying the left overs in and tilted the container. My pants, winter jacket and mail all got it. Dumb move. It was my very old ski jacket from over 20 years ago and not my new white coat.
Tomorrow I have to take my MIL to the eye specialist and with the wind chill around 0 and she is almost 92. I think she should cancel but you can;t tell her shit.
Stay warm everyone and cover up.
Arlene

Beautiful pics. But looks cold!❄️⛄️
Glad you are doing your civic duty. Many don't. I want good people if I ever need a jury??!?! Let us hope not
But I'm 60 now. I could get crazy

Hi friends. Jury duty today so I took a couple of pics of the courthouse. For those Law & Order fans, you'll probably recognize it. Enjoy.

Hi Bandsters,
Just checking in and freezing here in Chicagoland. I've got my boots on and a fleece jacket over my clothes at work. Sitting in my ice cubicle.
It's been a wild week for me emotionally, but I'm happy to say the food has been pretty level. I'm glad for that. I'm sure my 12-step meetings have a lot to do with that.
My girls leave for college this weekend. One off to Spain. Missing them already.
I surprised myself at lunch when I stopped eating meatloaf after a soft stop signal and without getting stuck. Sounds simple, but after the Christmas holidays food-for-all, it's a practice I thought I forgot how to do.
Anyway, I love my band and my Bandsters. How's everyone doing?

I think this fill has made me too tight. I feel like an idiot! Am also experiencing some anxiety which could be related to my work, but also could be the red zone. Hard to sort it all out! Vagus nerve, so interesting....to think a year or so ago I had never heard of it. Need to decide whether to go for an unfill or ride this out a bit. No trouble drinking, etc., no spitting up but this whir of anxiety and feeling that it's too tight. And gurgling, my goodness. Think I may have some reflux going on but not sure. Ugh. Like everyone I want the best possible adjustment.

It's Monday!!! Back to reality!! I have to be honest I really enjoyed these holidays. The time off from work was awesome. 2 weeks of 4 day weekends plus some extra time off. I have to tell you I am spoiled and I was getting used to it!!! TOO used to it and now it's time to get back into the groove again of getting work done and focusing on my goals.
Here are a few fun photo's of Ken and I on NYE.