DeLarla

I thought 160 was pre-printed on all the Drivers Licenses at the DMV? That's what mine has said since the 80s. My fishing license says 103. When the clerk asked my weight, I looked him dead in the eye and said, "103." He didn't even flinch when he added it to my license. I like the way it looks.

Blossom, that's the kind of hypocricy that started all the arguments in other threads. If you didn't want to participate in this topic, you wouldn't have read or RESPONDED to it. For your information, this board was prescribed to me by my Band surgeonS, who agree that it's an excellent source of therapy. "Therapy" does not mean you have to lay on a couch and talk to some person with lots of capital letters after there name, it comes in many forms - one being message boards. Where on LBT does it say that this board is for informational purposes only? From my computer, I see a whole lotta therapy going on.

Daisy, the pen is mightier than the sword... I don't air dirty laundry in public! Well, unless I'm drunk, but I'm a happy drunk so you have nothing to fear.

If you are looking for other threads, don't waste your time reading this one. Once again, if you don't like it, move to the next thread. By adding negative comments you'll only perpetuate further discord. If you re-read this thread carefully, you'll see that it's all about healing and therapy, which is the essence of any support group. This isn't about this week or last week or select individuals - please don't read between the lines because there aren't any (though you can find them in lots of other threads.) This type of thing happens around LBT from time to time and will happen again in the future; the timing was right, and the topic is open for discussion, not insults.

"Therapist have never worked for me. I'm way more analytical then most of them." Paula, bingo! Several of the therapists I've seen cock their head in amazement at me. They don't know how to handle me. My mom's therapist kicked her out of his office. We are a special breed! Are you a Libra? Alex.... can you start a new thread with the right title, then transfer all this there, then delete the bad one? Did that make sense? Would that fix the title? Is that too much work?

Alex, good point, so I changed "wars" to "cat fights." But then I looked around and didn't see any cats. Better now? Marie, I'm not feeling bad at all so I'm not sure how you got that out of my post. Thanks though. Clara, no, no, no, nobody is kicking anybody out of here, it was just a hypothetical. But I disagree - this place is the best place I've ever been for venting and crying... and tons and tons of laughing, too. And most of the tears are huge, sappy happy ones. I appreciate your knowledge and credentials, but so many of us have spent our entire lives in therapy that we are one great big shrinky-dink with lots of capital letter behind our collective screen names! Maybe you could hold weekly chats though so we have a professional passing out the virtual nerf bats?

Pea & the Pea, I stayed around the store waiting for the manager to drag the guy out by his ear, but the manager was very professional and would not let anyone see what went on behind closed doors. Damn.

Okay, I can agree with having a new band placed! I just didn't think of that. I just don't want you to give in to a Bandless life.

It's like this, a lot of therapists give you Nerf baseball bats so you can take out your agressions. Does this mean we want to beat the hell out of the people we love most? Hell yes! But do we want to kill them or hurt them? No way. It's just a form of therapy. See, now I'm taking offense that Shelly is telling us to grow up. I would have preferred if she let those of us who need this thread discuss it like adults. I don't think it's a ridiculous topic. But I'm not going to get mad at her or hit her with my Nerf bat cause she's too cute. If you don't like the the thread, move on to the next one.

Nykee, you are too funny! I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at me! I used to worry because I never had a PB either. I thought something was wrong for months. Trust me on this one, you WILL eventually PB and you'll wish you hadn't. My first one happened out of the blue, and it was horrible. It's a painful experience that puts strain on your band. The Band is a very fickle tool and will suprise you when you least expect it. I'm still laughing at myself because I wanted to PB so bad, and now when it happens all that goes through my head is, "be careful what you wish for."

Nykee, good for you! Now you better not be puking with that fancy new band! Nice to see you here.

Most scales differ by a few pounds. Just weigh yourself at the same time and on the same scale each time. Your clothes can add a couple pounds. A pair of my old 28 jeans probably weighed 10 pounds! I weigh myself every day, but I only write my weight down once a month.

FIGHT IT BABY! I've had SIX surgeries on my port incision so far! I've had TWO ports removed myself. I'm currently portless. My doctor said he'll put a third port in me in a few months, but I won't have the money, so I'll be portless for years. Oh, and you should see how deformed my belly is! I have a huge hole that I have to pack with gauze every single day. There are pictures posted on this thread of my wound, but they might make you barf. Do like me and get a new doctor. My problems were doctor errors. Good luck to you. Buck up and be a strong little soldier! Don't let them have your band!

Kim, I hear ya! Friends make it the hardest. I'm the only fat one in my inner circle, but still, everything revolves around food. Sometimes when talking doesn't help, I bread down and cry and beg for their help. Maybe you can muster up some big, sad, tearfilled eyes, look at your closest heavy friend in the face, and ask her, "do you think we can start sharing an entre' because I'm scared to death that I might hurt my band?" Maybe she'll actually see a wet sparkle in your eyes that will inspire her to share a meal, which will benefit you both? Just remember not to point fingers at them, point them at yourself so they don't feel blamed.

SORRY, but that's damn funny! I'm honestly LOL over here!

But back to Penni's original question, I don't think she was talking about certain foods, I think she's talking about the type of situations that hamper our weight loss. For me, Anger is the best diet pill. It's about the only emotion that prevents me from eating. All the other emotions - sadness, loneliness, anxiety - they all make me eat. I think this thread is the result of nonsense happening in other threads, and I feel I've been verbally attacked, too. Lucky for the board, I was so busy that I didn't have time to fight, but I "dealt with" the situation late last night via PMs so nobody else had to hear the ugliness. I might have responded to this thread a lot stronger yesterday, but I'm not in PMS mode yet. If I got this question closer to my montly cycle, I probaly would have typed it in huge red fonts! As far as hampering my weight loss, yes, yes, yes, I do allow outside forces to control my urges.... wait, Donali, I change that to "I can't help but allow outside forces" cuz I'm one sick broad! xo

When I die, please contain my ashes in an ice cream container.

Mother, sister, cousins, grandmother on father's side - all obese. A couple of our guys struggle with weight, but not one morbidly obese guy in the whole bunch, just women. Every 5-10 years all the cousins get together, and nobody every weighs the same as the last time. You never know who the fat one will be this year, or who the super skinny one will be. This year, my sister is the super skinny one and I'm the one that lost the most, while my cousin who stayed slender all these years is the chunky monkey. A great big familial yo-yo.

But Teresa, help me out here because you are touching on points I've been trying to make all along. You have a lifetime of obesity due to hereditary reason, depo shots, etc. (which is like saying I was lonely, I was abused, it's raining, etc.) I'm not calling them excuses, I'm calling them reasons, because I have a list of my own. But suddenly you've lost an enormous amount of weight by reducing your food intake, which proves that our obesity boils down to the simple fact that we consume more food than we burn, regardless of the reason. It's chemical, therefore it's physical, and it's also mental. So we have Chemiphysimental Disorder. There, I came up with a name for it!

If I had the mental ability to simply make better choices and get more exercise, then I wouldn't have needed the Band. Like I said, there are a lot of different reasons for obesity, so I started a new thread, "Why are you fat." But still, I personally feel that anybody who goes to the drastic extreme of surgical intervetion for weight loss has got to be sick. One way or another, we aren't a well group (or we weren't before losing weight, I should say.)

Geeze, Megan, you might want to come to Vegas a whole week early. We've got some talking to do! Whoosh, that's intense. This thread is so interesting because so far, we are all overweight for different reasons, although Megan seems to be the only one so far with my problem. This is too much for me to digest now since I'm at work, but I'll be studying this thread a lot.

Uht oh, I'm Lilac Brodderick. That's pretty scary since Betty Brodderick remind me of my insane mother.

Oops, when I said, "Donali's post" I meant the article you shared, not your post. Sorry 'bout that. And I don't necessarily disagree with it, I just think it needs a lot more work. Yes, I have a disease, I'm just not sure that the disease is Morbid Obesity. I think the obesity part is a symptom of the disease. I call mine OCOD (Obsessive Compulsive Overeating Disorder.) So I am in agreement to a certain degree, I just think the subject needs a lot more research into categories. "The fact that the band turned off a lot of that "eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat..." chatter seemed evidence to me that at least part of my problem is physical." I am completely different, because the Band did not turn off the chatter. The chatter won't shut up, it never does. It starts after work and gets louder and louder till I finally fall asleep, which is why the problem isn't physical for me. For me it's 100% mental. One thing we can agree on is that we are sick, that's not debatable.

So what your saying is that I don't have to start counting calories till after you leave? Woo hoo!

Nancy, thanks for the comment from your dietician that said it takes a "good year" to get healthy eating habits under control. I hurt my band this week (ate the most since banding.) I hope I didn't do any damage, but I don't have my eating under control yet. While I don't completely agree with Donali's post about "MO being a disease" I can agree that whatever is wrong with us controls me (just me, I'm not talking for anyone else.) I have zero control over my thoughts at night. Sometimes I have moments when I fight the thoughts, but most of the time the thoughts are stronger than I'll ever be. I personally think there are several categories of morbidly obese people. Many people here were thin growing up, so their mind has been programed as a thin person in the past. I don't think it's fair to lump them in with someone like me who weighed 175 as a child. I've been fat my entire life. I can't agree with Donali about the Band helping me overcome my condition, either, since my hunger is hardly ever in my belly - it comes from the voices in my head that tell me to eat regardless of PBs, golfballs in my throat or fear of stretching my pouch. Donali never got full without the Band, but I would be stuffed to the gills, barely breathing. So I think there's lots of different categories, and until each category is broken down, there's really no way to determine the cause or diagnosis. I do agree with a lot of that very big and colorful post about our disease, but I can't grasp it entirely because MY personal eating disorder is not physical whatsoever, it's all in my head. When I eat decent meals and feel satisfied, I lose weight, and I'm never physically hungry. I could eat pizza for Breakfast, tacos for dinner and loaded nachos for dinner and a cup of Ben & Jerry's for a snack at night and wear size 12, but I can't control my portions cuz my head tells me to eat 4 times the amount.