gmanbat

I've awakened in disappointment due to my happy dreams: flying, finding money, talking with my deceased father, saving people from a burning house, performing miracles. I've awakened with a feeling of relief after dreaming about tornadoes, nuclear war, being crushed in a collapsing house, appearing in high school in my underwear, forgetting my locker combination, falling from tall trees. My food dreams occasionally woke me up with cravings but were easily overcome after coffee engaged my full brain.

I don't want to sound perverted but I've had a hard time keeping my hands off myself since the fat came off. No, not in a sexual way. You know when you had a tooth pulled out and your tongue kept going into the empty space? It seems the brain needs to get used to rapid changes in body image. It seems to want to map the areas over and over until it gets the picture. I have found myself feeling the sunk in area around my collar bone, my protruding ribs, my sinewy shoulders, my smaller wrists, my thin legs when I wasn't even aware I was doing it. Decades with a fat body leaves an impression. I think my brain is trying to erase it. Anyone else having to adjust to the empty spaces?

Very good observation!

Grrrrrr... She was too busy or something...call again on Monday or show up at the office. Be nice up to a point

Are you losing inches? It is a better indicator of FAT loss. During my year and a half of weight loss I stalled, went up, and went down so many times I got bored and quit paying attention to it. If you are an earthling the fat will come off if you do the core things: Water, Protein first, exercise, Fiber, rest, Vitamins. If you are not an earthling, welcome!

I am 64 and I am only saggy in the lower belly area. I had a big pot gut. I went from 340 to 212. I think my sagging is getting better. I am a year and a half out. I was in the hospital 2 days. I had a dream that I was besieged by a flock of bluebirds. They were quite annoying and would not leave me alone. I woke up and realized that my computer alarm program was going off, set to the "birds" setting. I want a "fawning super-model" setting.

I lost my eyebrows on chemo but they grew back. I did not lose them after the sleeve and my hair just got a bit thinner. But I am now 64 and my uncles were billiard balls, could be genetics.

http://www.doctoroz....ake?page=3#copy Dr. Oz, not a big time bodybuilder, but the article was interesting. The part that caught my eye: What are the actual results seen in research? The largest review of trials with HGH demonstrate that long-term use of growth hormone caused an average 2.3 kilogram (about 5 lbs) loss of weight, 2.6 kg (5.6 lbs) loss of fat, 1.4 kg (3 lbs) increase in lean body mass, and no consistent change in bone density. Patients feel generally better, as seen in quality of life scores. Sounds great. Shouldn’t everyone take it? There are significant potential side effects to HGH therapy. Known side effects include increased swelling, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, insulin resistance and increased risk of diabetes. The potential effect of HGH to promote cancer growth remains controversial. People who purchase HGH illegally may be getting tainted or impure products, which are potentially dangerous. Seems a pretty big risk for a few pounds. At he end it tells who it is best for: Who should use human growth hormone? Human growth hormone is approved for children with HGH deficiency or who have diseases that cause short stature (such as Turner’s syndrome), and adult patients with proven HGH deficiency, muscle wasting due to HIV, or short-bowel syndrome. Abnormal foreheads? Permanent Klingon?

I hate to diverge from the crowd but my psych eval was unfair. I told the guy I was a hippy...in 1968 and 1969. I've been clean ever since. The insurance company turned me down for drug abuse and behavior problems. My angry surgeon sent off a nasty fax. I was approved..but after the first of the year and the new copay kicked in. You get the picture. The psych worked for the insurance company (but not officially.) My advice is do not volunteer a lot of information that they don't need to know. Some psychs are realistic and fair, some are just weeders for the insurance companies, (with probable kickbacks).

My prayers are with you.

At 3 days post op all sorts of discomforts make themselves known. All of these are mentioned in posts here frequently. As always, your docs are experts we are just far separated observers. Water drinking was very difficult for me for the first 2 weeks. I still feel like things stick in my throat at a year and a half out. I don't know what that is. When I get to a doc I will have him/her look at it. On the positive side I have lost oodles of fat, am as healthy as a race horse, and get pinched by my wife.

The yogurt is loaded with bacteria, supposedly the good guys. I don't think honey has anything harmful but I am not a scientist although I could have been if had I stayed in school and not had my mind on partying....stop rambling Gman....ok.

Think of all the endorsements that celebrities do. Oh, yeah, I look like a walking dream because I use Dove Beauty Bar. Not mentioned is the $150. an hour make-up artist on call night and day.

You look beautiful, youngster! Good work!

2009, 340 pounds, getting chemo July, 2013, 212 pounds Bruce Lee, (no relation)

Just tell them what you are doing but leave out the surgery part. You can call it the "Eat like you've had bariatric surgery" diet. If they ask you how you lost your weight and you want to put them on a bit tell them you haven't lost any weight, you are just testing out a prototype of a partial cloaking device.

Try at least once a year....Oh...you're not 64..never mind.

Well, I tried to end it anyway. Atheists are determined campaigners. They are passionate about saving you from yourself and a non-existent God so you can live your life free from religious restraint and look forward to an eternity of oblivion. Either that or they are trying to convince themselves against their own conscience. Since our lives have no eternal meaning and we are but conglomerations of chemicals why bother? Why not leave everyone alone? There is no such thing as moral superiority since morals are but electrochemical responses. Mass murder is no more abhorrent than squashing a fly hence the 100+ million executions under it's influence. Atheism offers a world of nothingness and futility. Live, die, rot, forgotten, oblivion. If all of that is true, so be it. It is not. I did not create God. I met Him. I talk to Him, He talks to me. From the depths of my being I know Him, enjoy Him, and feel His joy toward me. I am either nuts or greatly blessed. I am not ashamed. He is real. Atheists love to stand aloof and tell us about Christianity. They love quoting the bible they don't believe in. It is a book that requires a guide, The Holy Spirit. Rejecting Him, they go it on their own, never getting the picture. They wrest the scriptures to their own destruction. God hides Himself from smart asses. I no longer have the patience that I used to have. I am sorry. Now, my contribution to this exercise in futilty is over. I have unfollowed this topic. Release the war dogs. Let time get the final word.

C'mon. Laura, keep up with the twists and turns. If you can't stay awake get off of the Autobahn!

For me to keep from plowing on in a debate is much like turning away from Peanut Butter pie would have been in the old days. I guess sleeving has taught me to weigh the consequences and consider the cost of my actions, to myself and others. I am glad you have learned, so have I. Ya, I'm thick skinned AND big boned...in fact, I probably didn't need this operation at all.

Great lists. All 3 of these things happened for wife an I. It is great being drug and breather free!

BCA, TapSnap, and other worthy and esteemed opponents, I move that we curtail our debate and shake hands. Our dialog is causing too much pain to other forumites. Beside that, conflict makes me hungry, (had to bring it back to WLS somehow).

To imply that Stalin's slaughter of millions was under the influence of Christianity is quite a stretch. What one once was does not explain what one does. What you are at the time of your action is a better explanation. Atheism cannot be blamed for the Christian classic, Mere Christianity by former atheist C.S. Lewis, neither my actions as a former atheist now commending the life that I once despised. Christianity cannot be blamed for the mass suicide at Jonestown although it was the lure in the beginning. Marxist doctrine was pumped night and day to the group in the end. It is well known that those that claim atheism or Christianity do not necessarily cast a favorable light on the set of beliefs or non-beliefs. Indeed, I have endured greater hardships at the hands of those that claim Christ than those who reject Him. None of this proves or disproves the validity of the prevailing philosophy, the threads of thought run through the frame of fallible humanity.

Commendable.

I will not allow my wife to get onto Tae Bo. She is scary enough already. I am more of a strength training kind of guy. When I do my push-ups, knee bends, cable stretching, and weight lifting without much time in between sets the aerobic aspect is covered, at least in my mind. My pulse is kept up and my breathing is accelerated for at least 30 minutes. I know that I have six-pack abs....underneath the sheath of cascading loose skin that I maintain for modesty's sake.