gmanbat

Your lips are scary. They bring back childhood traumas of when I was a cute kid and my large aunties would come at me and put those disgusting wet puckers all over my poor freckled face before they suffocated me with a hug into their endless airbag bellies.. But other than that you have certainly earned an honored place among the vets. We love ya, LL!

Emathy: it can be VERY diifficult to quit. It is indeed a strong addiction. Admonition: you must quit. Smoking greatly increases you chance of complications. My surgeon would NOT operate if he had the slightest indication of smoking still being entertained. His only complication...a near death...was smoking related. Encouragement: you can quit, for good. Sleeving is hard as you are coming to know, it is a drastic change. Throw all your drastic changes in together. Be an all out warrior for your health. Eat well, exercise like an athlete, breath clean air. You are more powerful than burning paper and leaves. Freedom!

http://www.klove.com/blog/post/2012/07/23/Talking-with-Bart-Millard.aspx Bart talks about his weight loss surgery. There are conflicting reports of whether it was RNY or the sleeve.

When I was my fattest any big anger or the stress of worrisome things would put me in a dangerous place heartwise. I avoided them like the plague and learned to divert myself into other thoughts and activities. Basically I would just pray about things and then forget them using what I call applied apathy. I have found that not caring about things beyond your power to change is a blessing. I throw the load on to Someone who has the ways and means. Now that my heart has a better environment to beat in I have kept what I learned back in Fatville. Letting people live their lives and not being responsible for controlling them or for the consequences of their bad choices is a protection to my own emotional well being. I still dispense my wisdom but once it is out it is on its own and depends on hearing ears.

I am very glad it went well for you! Way to go!

I will be 65 in December. I was sleeved just a couple of weeks after I turned 64. I do not think I would have lived this long without the surgery. I am as strong as I was in my 20's. If I had a more resilient spine I would be unstoppable,

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shedding-the-old-me-my-200lb-weight-loss-journey This page contains a video of Jordan's journey. Very inspiring!

http://www.viralnova.com/mans-transformation/ This guy fought hard and kicked butt. Although he did not have bariatric surgery he shed the fat by extremely hard work. His whole life story is here in pictures. Note the last picture which shows his totally toned body with the layer of loose skin on it. He is seeking help for reconstructive surgery.

You'se guys is my people! Wisenheimers!

To entertain myself I thought up bad answers to frequently asked questions posed to WLS people: "Is the food OK?" (asked because you ate so little) Oh, yes, I haven't had food this good since the Turkish prison. "Isn't weight loss surgery the easy way out?" Yes, it is. I was going to shoot everyone smaller than me to make myself look average but there is an ammo shortage. "How did you get so fat in the first place?" I was stranded on an island with a group of sumo wrestlers. I had the only gun. A year later I was the only one left. "How could you afford this operation?" Well, I got this e-mail from a Nigerian widow... "How could you do this to yourself?' I originally wanted to do it to you but couldn't get a Brazilian visa. "How did you lose so much weight?" I sent myself in a suitcase on American Airlines. They lost it. "How did you get those scars on your belly?" Picked up by a Pterodactyl. You wise guys got any?

I don't know. I posted it before I read it. I saw cheesecake and that was it.

Lots of recipes including....cheesecake! http://www.proteinpow.com

I used to explain in response to quizzical looks why a big man like me is eating so small. Now I just act like it is a non-issue and say nothing. I get very few questions. Most folks have enough sense to mind their own business. The obnoxious ones who have the policy, "The fact that thoughts appeared in my head grants me permission to verbalize them", get standard non-answers..."Don't have any room for more....not that hungry...the food sucks" Forget that last one.

After I graduated from my small town Iowa grade school I was bussed to the big city Junior High. I was shocked by the low expectation level of the teachers and also the ambivalent attitude of the students toward their education. My grade school teachers were education tyrants and demanded learning the basics. The Junior High teachers were seemingly interested in getting a paycheck. But beyond the negatives it was a beautiful time to get to know people who were alien to my culture. That time was as valuable as the academics. I live with a gastric bypass cutie and get along famously, we had the same goals, took different paths, ended up in the same place. Every immersion into a new scope of personalities and viewing angles opens the possibility of misunderstanding due to the differences in our frames of reference. We can all learn from one another and it will be an overall positive experience if we take it easy on each other. And things will go much more smoothly if everyone just agrees with all that I say.

I really like these visuals. They are both disturbing ang charming. It must be fun being you. But that is my opinion and I am stranger than any stranger that you don't know. :ph34r:

Everyone has feelings and ideas about this surgery and how they wish to relate it to the outside world. All are valid, they are yours and you have a right to them. My personal feeling about this surgery is that I am extremely proud of myself for coming out fighting. I was suffering extreme weight gain, the after effects of prostate cancer treatment. Steroids, lupron,( a testosterone killer), radiation, chemo, all took a toll on me. I was told I would never lose the weight gain and would die in a couple years, that was 2009. My urologist didn't like the surgery saying it was too hard on the body but signed off on it. My other doctors were on board. I knew I was dying, I felt like a heart attack or stroke would get me before the cancer would. I couldn't breath, I had no energy, aches and pains by the multitude. It was a fierce act. I was fully aware of the possible consequences. I prayed about it. I felt God's smile on me about it. I don't understand everything but I know I am loved by Him. I feel really good about what I did. It is a very personal thing but my dramatic change invites many questions. Truth is easy to remember, it is always the same. I chose not to hide it from anyone who asks. If you chose to, more power to you, you have my respect.

It is useless to justify lying...no one would believe you .

It seems work schedules are not a primary concern among those of the medical community. Their work schedule is. I guess the load would be lopsided to before 8 and after 5 if they catered to predominant to times when folks are off of work.

Your stomach is sill mad at you. Doc is right, it will come around. The protein and water quota is in an ideal world. Your angry tummy does not think the world a happy place at this juncture and is oppositional defiant. It will soon come to grips with reality and embrace the fact that sleeveworld is the new normal.

Interesting. Could be the size=power phenomenon. There was a thread awhile back about guys worrying that their reduced size would lessen their intimidation factor, kind of like the fat gangster scariness. No reason that the same weirdness wouldn't apply to women and power among those around you that are weak in deductive power and are prone to knee-jerkedness. On the other hand, your new hotness could be the cause of more intimidation. Now you are a threat to their position.

That's the ketosis smell. The dastardly condition causes your two ends to match in that regard.

High protein diets and fasting are blessed by this. When I fasted in the old days I was very peaceful partially because folks stayed away from me with their hassles. When you add more carbs further down the line when your capacity enlarges it should clear up. I get lots of kisses now.

Way to go, Kathy! You showed em, kid!

I like it when folks answer their own questions. You brought up some possibilities. Exercise? The check up folks will no doubt have ideas. Actually, your 20 pound loss is not all that bad. I've been on 6 week diets that did worse. Many of them. Also remember, that is 20 pounds that is quite unlikely to come back. Like a friend of mine used to say, "I've lost 80 pounds this year.....it was the same 10 pounds over and over.."

Well said! Folks, check the join date on Cheri's post...Dec. 2009! You want a long range viewpoint? How about 4 years?