gmanbat

Bite is a mild word for what the fire ants do. It's more like they inject you with fire. Their "bites" leave welts that take a long time to heal. Their mounds are pretty big, when you mess with it with a stick like brat boy me likes to do, they come piling out and swarm around looking for the idiot that took them on. They really are amazing creatures. When I lived in Louisiana, my yard got flooded and I noticed a red mound out in the Water. I waded out to see what it was. It was a mound of fire ants. They had made a raft out of their bodies, piled on the rest of the ants, the eggs, and the queen and were floating around. I thought of getting some lighter Fluid and lighting them up but I was so impressed by their teamwork that I let them live.

Smart doctor. Slow trains still get to where they are going. Have a deadline? Hefner's coming in two months for a centerfold shot? If not, be happy, you're on the right train.

When I lived in the frozen north in my pre-surgery-vain-fat-fight-days, my family doctor used to tell me that winter adds weight. He accounted it to some primeval instinct to eat more and an invisible bodily reaction that puts fat on to survive the cold and deprivation. That was a good enough excuse for me to justify my large cast shadow. Now I think that I could have stayed warm by exercising more rather than taxing my heart with the fat equivalent of an extra body to provide for.

I knew it was a calorie burner when I lived up there. It can kill you, too. Cold air constricts blood vessels and makes it dangerous. It does in lots of older folks very year. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/risks-snow-shoveling-stressed-study/story?id=12590482 Snowblowers help.

I have mixed emotions. I feel bad for you having been raised in Iowa and spent years in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio. I have also lived in Alabama, Louisiana, and now am living in Florida and can truthfully say I prefer the south. Apart from family attachments and job situations I couldn't come up with one valid reason to put up with winter any more. I brought my family with me and retired so there I was. So my mixed emotions are feeling bad and empathising with you yanks, but sitting down here in 80 degree weather, sipping coffee on my lanai, and feeling good. I guess when the hurricanes hit things could reverse, (except I am quite a bit inland). I will say.... be safe! Don't push hard shovelling snow! It almost killed me a couple of times.

I am happy that it is going well for you! The problem in your wrist, from the IV's?

WVbuslover, Welcome!! Louisiana to Alaska, what a switch! I lived in Lafayette, La. for a couple years, in Florida now. Never been to Alaska but have friends there. Make yourself at home!

Loud applause for you!!!! You are going to kick overweightness out the door!!!!

I had to keep clicking back and forth on your before and after pics to make sure it was the same person. It crossed my mind that this was a prank. But, yup, you did it! Congratulations! My scale goes up and down in about a 3-5 pound range all the time. It has all through my weight loss. The range kept moving down though and now is centered around my goal weight. I am involved in intense exercise now and that can put the pounds on. I have found that in the long run though, it drives things down.

The first week was tough but I expected it to be. I've had many more worse things in my life. Everything slowly and steadily got better. When you are forced to buy new clothing you will know how worth it the hardship was.

I have personal friends who have gone 40 days on nothing but Water with no ill effects. They tell me the body does not begin starving until after the 40 days. Your stomach just got cut apart and stapled shut. It needs time to heal. As it heals you will be able to eat more. I could take in only pill cups of water for quite a while. It gets better.

You know, now I'm curious. If I understand this operation correctly, the stomach muscles were not really cut., or were they? Maybe cut at belly button area to insert the scissors/stapler and at some points to insert the gas and camera thingy? Where are the main places that exercise could cause trouble after a laparoscopic surgery?

My doc and nurse gave the impression that after a couple months exercise was ok. They did not specify which exercises. Like you said, listening to the body is a good skill to have. We are learning it as we live with the sleeve and it's "messages" to us. I already had it in my mind that I had a lot of time to get into shape: the rest of my life. I wasn't about to put a huge delay on and go through a great deal of pain because i pushed my old abs too far, too fast.

I am over a year out and just the other day did my first full body push up. Before it was too painful, I only did off the knees push ups. If I sense that there is too much strain on my abdomen muscles I don't push it. The risk of hernia is far more important than an exercise. Many folks who work out don't do ab stuff at all thinking it is covered by other exercises like push ups, knee bends, walking, running, etc. I don't do laying down crunches or sit-ups but use my abs when working out with the kettlebell. Ab exercises will make your six-pack look a bit better if you have a thin layer of skin over your gut. I am a long distance from having a thin layer of skin there, I may never have one. Working and building the large muscles in your legs, back, and chest is what takes the fat off.

I have been taught that lesson many times, hopefully I have learned it, time will tell. I have noticed that how you tell folks has much to do with how they perceive it. Tell them like it's something you are trying to hide and they will sense your weakness and join you in looking down at you. Tell them like it's a real accomplishment and something you are proud of like getting a new Jaguar and they will resist putting you down knowing that you probably have a good defense.

The sleeve: Restricts the amount you can comfortably eat at one sitting. Possibly cuts down your hunger. The sleeve does not: Make food choices for you. Tell you when and how much to eat. Automatically and magically remove fat. Make you exercise, drink Water, take Vitamins. Give you motivation. Keep you from getting discouraged because the fat is not coming off fast enough for you.. Keep you from stalling. Keep you from eating enough small Snacks to maintain your fat and even gain weight.

I read laura-ven's "offensive" posts on the doctor thread. Not. Just referring rdoactive back to Alex, the administrator. Laura-ven is a great lady. I saw her jump out on the tracks and save a puppy from a train! She broke a nail doing it! OK, I might have made that up. But outside of making my wife look at shirtless chefs on YouTube she is OK.

Thanks for putting me on to this, PDX man. I will keep an eye on this and adjust myself accordingly. I think I will discontinue the 5 hour energys. My diet and multivitamin supplement should suffice.

Like SoS said, that 28 is a good number. I am 64 and over a year out. I only lost 111 pounds but the loose skin lurks about my belly area. I loofah it and lotion it and tell it to tighten up and hope that it will. But I have spent 0 hours awake worrying about it. I like wearing clothing and I look pretty good in it and my wife is not unduly repulsed by me with my shirt off.

http://www.usingvita...2-overdose.html I tested high for B12 during my first check-up after surgery. They were surprised but not alarmed saying that I was getting too much but that it was harmless. My levels were high but not crazy high. Most post up check-up folks test low. I was taking sub-lingual plus a 5 hour energy about every other day. It has 500 mcg, (.5 mg). I am no longer taking sub-lingual but I do hit a 5 hour energy ever so often. I haven't been checked for B12 for quite a while, I no longer have health insurance. I will be on Medicare by this time next year. The troubling part is that mega-doses of B12 may be related to increased risk of prostate cancer. I don't need to go down that road again. > http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15499634 http://ods.od.nih.go...thProfessional/ Health Risks from Excessive Vitamin B12 The IOM did not establish a UL for vitamin B12 because of its low potential for toxicity. In Dietary Reference Intakes: Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline, the IOM states that "no adverse effects have been associated with excess vitamin B12 intake from food and supplements in healthy individuals" [5]. Findings from intervention trials support these conclusions. In the NORVIT and HOPE 2 trials, vitamin B12 supplementation (in combination with folic acid and vitamin B6) did not cause any serious adverse events when administered at doses of 0.4 mg for 40 months (NORVIT trial) and 1.0 mg for 5 years (HOPE 2 trial) [62,63].

My levels were way high. I was taking sublinguals and occasional 5 hour energys which are loaded with 12. They told me having very high levels do not cause harm but I'm wasting money. I assumed that I am ok, you are saying that I need to continue monitoring it?

This surgery is a test...for you having the guts to get it and for those who know about it: how they are going to deal with you? Ignorance of this operation is a given unless they have extensive medical training or have had experience personally or with someone they are involved with. Ignorance is easily forgiven and remedied. Cruelty and outright disrespect are another thing. Sometimes something like this surfaces what has been hidden all along. Having you along leveraged their ego, made them feel superior. Now you are looking better than them, (in their neurotic mind), and their tool is broken. They've switched places and don't like it. Apparently the affection that you thought they had for you was phony. It was only skin plus a fat layer deep. If you have friends that rode this out with you and still love you...you have real friends.

You never know what will hit you wrong. How far out are you?

Dang! I sent her to the video and left the room. When I came back she said, "Can I have that every morning?"

wow-chicka-wow-wow..chicka-wow-wow