gmanbat

Sorry about your loss. It is great that you got to be with her. Belly fat acts like it can't be beaten. Reminds me of Clubber Lang in the Rocky movies. Down he went and down goes belly fat..8,9,10....Yo, Adrian...I did it!

Go get em!

I see it too! Way to go, Crissy!

You haven't been. You're a good one, Beladonna723. I'd like to hear the story about that forum name. Means pretty woman in Italian and it is also a drug used for GI spasms>>>LOL From Wikipedia about belladonna: The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include scopolamine and hyoscyamine, which cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations, That fits in with pretty woman...speaking for myself the delirium part anyway.

You haven't been. You're a good one, Belladonna723. I'd like to hear the story about that forum name.

We have had many, many threads like this..the net result was...zero. This is a public forum with thousands of members. Some don't speak well or write well but are most welcome. Some can't express themselves well but we don't audition folks before they are admitted. What we are concerned about are purposefully malicious people. Please try and see the intention of people who post. Are they trying to help? Are they just misunderstanding? I read the posts. None of them seemed malicious. But that is my opinion. I have been on forums with real mean people. No guesswork...hate and direct slander coming hot and heavy. This isn't that kind of place. If it were it would be sans the gman. I am choosy who I hang out with. We have people who have been verbally abused and are sensitive to what others say. Some even read insults into innocent conversation. They are welcome too as long as they don't turn vicious themselves. Abuse is not tolerated. So, everyone be nice and be kind to one another. Don't make me stop this car!

I live in Randolph, my sons are in Braintree and Hingham. Where do you live? You yanks keep typing, keep the blood moving.

Well, in my opinion.... ...dagnabit!

Acting! Thank you! There are many threads on here about whether to tell or who to tell about the surgery. This is not one of them. This is advice concerning how to tell. Actors have methods to pull up emotions and mannerisms from within to give authenticity to their expressions. Using the power of imagination they can put themselves into identities and then speak from them. Most of what they come up with is what is already in them, we all have the potential of being like others however different they are from you in real life. We share humanity and common emotions. The advice is this: speak from true conviction even if you have to act. Act as though you are someone who just did the smartest and noblest thing in the world even if you have doubts about it. Play the part of a genius and someone who knows what they are doing. Don't act ashamed, act proud. Why? The way you say things and behave has more of an impact than what you say and do. Politicians prove it every day. People pick up on weakness, self doubt, and feed it back to you. They also sense power and conviction and jump behind it. You can control reactions to a great degree by acting. Is acting lying? Lying is living out untruth. Is there a possibility that you did the right thing and should be proud? Act on that, it could be true. Humans are complex. We have the capacity to train ourselves like a gardener trains a vine to go up a trellis. We can act and speak on what we want to be and make it what we are over time. Not lying, self programming. It all is within us, it is our choice what we bring out. Ignore the doubts and phony shame and act like you deserve respect. Who has the authority to say that you don't?

The phrase, "easy way out" as used implies shame in getting an operation for something which could be accomplished some other more "natural" way. It implies cowardice, sloth, and weakness of fortitude. It basically runs down the person it's addressed to and relegates them to the island of broken toys. Especially egregious is this statement directed to those who have already had the operation. The operation has moved into the realm of things that cannot be changed. Any degradation now makes a malicious bigot out of those launching the nonsense. Humans have intelligence regardless of the behavior of those that spew this crappola. Innate in that intelligence is the tendency to look for that which is both efficient and easier. If it weren't so most of the inventions we enjoy would not exist. Humans weigh out alternatives. We balance risks and possible benefits. Most of us tried many times to lose the fat the " hard way". Some of us spent much of our lives in mortal combat with it. Obesity was killing me, I could not kill it. I considered it easier to get an operation than die. Diets didn't work, this did. I'm human and did a human thing. If pompous asses consider that worthy of downcast gazes I will happily jump into the ship to the island of shame in their minds. I do not care to work for their acceptance, it can remain as perceived. I surround myself with those who value me and understand things, I need not make room for mental midgets. My advice for those who have no choice, ( family, coworkers ), wait it out. Light comes slowly sometimes, give their eyes time to adjust. You take care of you. Show them.

Wow! Stay safe! If you have any wind the drifts are going to be monstrous! When I was a kid I remember walking on a tall ice crusted drift which gave way and left me looking at the hole over my head and thinking I was trapped. Not for long, hollering for mommy got action from my neighbors and soon mom was hauling her baby boy out of his frozen prison. As long as I can avoid sink holes here I'll be good.

I spent some months years ago in the southern part of South Africa. The humidity was oppressive, so much so that I fantasized about diving into a vat of talcum powder. There was no air conditioning where I was, bathing only helped for a few minutes then the stickiness came back and the skin irritation. Either Florida is not that bad or I've become used to it. At least here I know AC is right around the corner. My grandparents were life-long Iowa natives. When my grandfather retired they moved to Arizona after selling their house. 6 months later they came back. My grandmother hated the dryness, the sand, the people, the heat, ... everything. They eventually got back into their old house and lived out their days. If I moved there I know I would love it but I have travelled all of my life and never was that much in love with any one place including Iowa. Me and Florida have a thing going on now..but we are not married. Moving is not for everybody. You have to almost like adjusting, not everyone can live with change even if they think they can.

Ya, when larger finances come my way I want to move to a coast, can't decide which one yet, like them both. Punta Gorda looks good but we like Coco Beach. We don't necessarily have to life in an old folks area like we do now in Zephyrhills but we need convenience and low crime. Orlando is lots of fun if you can live with the traffic. Universal Studios is my favorite place on the whole earth. I live that phony fun stuff! Probably the thespian in me.

Wow, we were neighbors! We lived in Bowling Green for 25 years. I liked spring because it was kicking out the winter, fall not so much because it was bringing in the winter. Winter felt like a bully that kept coming back to town to kick my butt for months. I've had the pretty leaves all my life and consider them a fair price to pay. Ideal for many people is the snowbird life. Stay in the north through spring, summer an fall and hit Florida for more summer. I'm one of the odd ones who likes the intense heat of Florida's steam bath. I worked out in it, what doesn't make you faint makes you stronger.

Is that Jacksonville, Linda? Beautiful view. I've been out boat riding in the Gulf near Sarasota..so awesome! I want to do some Everglades Air boat riding as soon as I can swing it. Some Gulf fishing would suit me too. My wife has been on 3 cruises...me..nada. She goes on them with her sisters, I sit home and mumble to myself.

Sleeving was like burning a bridge behind me. On the other side was endless failed dieting and certain premature death. The decision was drastic and not without risks but staying there presented greater risks in my mind. I am glad I burned the bridge. The land I live in now is my new adopted country. The rules are real here, the sleeve is a constant reminder of the laws of the land. On the other side, however, were tyrannical dictators... compulsive hunger and a stretched out stomach... that kept me in chains. The bridge is burned, but can I ever go back? Yes. If I rebel here I can swim back over the river and end up in the same prison as before even though I have a smaller stomach. It would be difficult but it is possible. The thing is, I absolutely adore my life now! Listening to my sleeve is a small requirement and a huge advantage. My sleeve's restrictions are a tiny price to pay for the sweet freedom I now experience in every aspect of my life. My wife burned a bridge too, but with gastric bypass matches.

You have a great summer coming up but nothing like the next one! Congratulations!

Egg drop soup?

Carol, please let us know how it goes.Start a new thread if you want to.

We gotta get more celebrities sleeved. Remember nose jobs? hair transplants? Face lifts? Expensive orthodontics? They became status symbols because the "beautiful people" did them. Maybe someday we can flaunt our scars and be "cool". I do it already because I am my own fan club.

That'd do it for me...outa there!

Sounds all too familiar. I was born in Iowa, I have lived in Pennsylvania and Ohio and traveled by car to many northern states in the winter. I had to walk to school in -20 degrees temps because of the education fanatics that ruled then. School was called off when the plows got stuck. I have been frozen, fallen many times on ice, and often taxed my cardioid-vascular system to near death shoveling snow in the winters I've seen. I somehow feel like I've earned Florida heat and reprieve from Frosty's pounding. I don't know why I needle folks that are still in it's clutches. I still feel like I'm getting away with something because I haven't paid my yearly torture dues for the few months of spring and summer. Or maybe I still haven't grasped that I am here and I'm using you poor saps to help me get it in my head.

Cheating? CHEATING?... Where's the freaking rule book and who enforces it?! It's stuff like this that made me into a meany at times. When I get a question about the surgery from somebody with an attitude I go into "livid detail mode". "Well, they pumped my abdomen area up with gas, ran a camera probe in, robotically controlled a combination stapler/cutter which they probably got at Office Max and lopped off a great part of my stomach and stapled what remained. Then they dragged my severed stomach out a slit by my belly button. They drained the excess blood out through a tube that was stuck in my side for a couple days, yanked out the tube and took out the catheter. Darn good fun to be such a cheater!"

When I was a sailor on liberty in Tijuana, free White Russians given by a bartender which a friend of mine knew put me and my buddies on the sidewalk trying to help each other back up to the vertical world. Happily, we managed to remain un-robbed and not arrested. A few months ago I tried to recreate the powerful but easy to go down drink. Alas, it has lost all previous charm. It just burned and did little to my hard head. I shall never be drunk again. I can't drink enough and I don't like it. I'll have to make a fool out of myself without chemical help.

Yes, many here have had setbacks in surgery approvals and dates. Hang in there and welcome!