Pinky Green

Yay! Finally, I got a call from my doctor's coordinator and they sent it in and got disapproved and then they fixed something and after they sent it back in it was approved in about a week. Now I am waiting for the call to get my preop and surgery scheduled. They changed my doctor though because apparently Dr. Scarborough is out of network and Dr. Yu is in network so he will be doing the surgery.

I used to work at a restaurant that charged a "plate fee" when someone split a meal. All the waitresses hated it. It pretty much guaranteed that we didn't get a tip. You really should have tipped the waitress. Most likely they didn't get any of the split fee . And if we didn't charge it and the manager found out we would have been fired. Not only that most of the times waitresses are paid minimum wage for tipped employees, which is much less than tipped employees. When the I was working tables the minimum wage was $5.25 but the minimum wage for tipped employees was $2.01.

Almond milk only has one gram of Protein per serving.

I used to work at a restaurant that charged a "plate fee" when someone split a meal. All the waitresses hated it. It pretty much guaranteed that we didn't get a tip. You really should have tipped the waitress. Most likely they didn't get any of the split fee . And if we didn't charge it and the manager found out we would have been fired. Not only that most of the times waitresses are paid minimum wage for tipped employees, which is much less than tipped employees. When the I was working tables the minimum wage was $5.25 but the minimum wage for tipped employees was $2.01.

I used to work at a restaurant that charged a "plate fee" when someone split a meal. All the waitresses hated it. It pretty much guaranteed that we didn't get a tip. You really should have tipped the waitress. Most likely they didn't get any of the split fee . And if we didn't charge it and the manager found out we would have been fired. Not only that most of the times waitresses are paid minimum wage for tipped employees, which is much less than tipped employees. When the I was working tables the minimum wage was $5.25 but the minimum wage for tipped employees was $2.01.

I weighted 242 pounds and lost down to 175... and then gained it back in less than 6 months. Stress I guess. I noticed that it was getting harder and harder to walk and then my knee started to hurt all of a sudden. Really bad.
I went to a doctor someone recommended. He did a CAT scan and said it was a bone bruise and it would get better. I went the next month and he still said the same thing even though it wasn't getting better. Finally I asked him to give me something for pain and he gave me a prescription for darvocet for one month. My friends said he wasn't doing anything for me and I should go to another doctor. I went to another doctor who acted like I was some kind of drug addict for changing doctors. But he gave me another prescription for darvocet. A few days later I forgot to take the darvocet and went to work and couldn't get up from my chair to go to the bathroom. I called my doctor and he was on vacation. I went to his backup doctor who actually diagnosed my arthritis but gave me arthritis medicine, how about that, a brace and a steroid shot. He told me if I didn't lose weight I would need knee replacement surgery in 5 years.
Now, I had a doctor recommend WLS for me years before. But that was when most of the people you heard about getting WLS were over 300 lbs and I only weighed about 220. But now smaller people were getting it and I was facing a choice of knee replacement surgery or WLS. And then the wife of a friend of mine had gastric bypass surgery and lost 170 pounds. My friend kept at
me to get it before it was too late.
Then in April of last year, I met my beautiful new granddaughter Desiray. And I want to take her to the park and the beach - museums and festivals. Bike riding and swimming. And I want to move to Central America when I retire and be another grandma doing zip lines in Costa Rica with my granddaughter.
Plus, the process has gotten me diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, sleep Apnea and something called Hypertension-Related Heart Disease, without Heart Failure

The NUT at my doctor says that they go by the weight you were when you came in. She said they have even had a few that lost all but about 20 lbs and still had surgery. It isn't that we can't lose weight, it's that we can't keep it off. I've lost 50 lbs several times, they found me again -and brought their friends.

See, I don't see having chocolate as a bad thing.. but for me it's not any kind of trigger food. I like to get a big bar of 70% Cacoa Chocolate and put it in the freezer and eat one small square a day and savor it. Dark chocolate is really good for you, not so much sugar and full of antioxidants. As long as you don't go crazy with it, I say eat a little chocolate.

The NUT at my doctor says that they go by the weight you were when you came in. She said they have even had a few that lost all but about 20 lbs and still had surgery. It isn't that we can't lose weight, it's that we can't keep it off. I've lost 50 lbs several times, they found me again -and brought their friends.

The NUT at my doctor says that they go by the weight you were when you came in. She said they have even had a few that lost all but about 20 lbs and still had surgery. It isn't that we can't lose weight, it's that we can't keep it off. I've lost 50 lbs several times, they found me again -and brought their friends.

The NUT at my doctor says that they go by the weight you were when you came in. She said they have even had a few that lost all but about 20 lbs and still had surgery. It isn't that we can't lose weight, it's that we can't keep it off. I've lost 50 lbs several times, they found me again -and brought their friends.

The NUT at my doctor says that they go by the weight you were when you came in. She said they have even had a few that lost all but about 20 lbs and still had surgery. It isn't that we can't lose weight, it's that we can't keep it off. I've lost 50 lbs several times, they found me again -and brought their friends.

I think a lot of that is fueled by others. My mother never let me wear a bikini when I was a kid. She said I was too fat - I weighed about 110 lbs and was 5'. Sure, I didn't have a flat stomach even at that weigh but how many times have you seen someone who was maybe 20 or 30 lbs overweight wearing a bikini and not caring what everyone else thought.

You might consider the group TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly - http://www.tops.org/default.aspx). They are nonprofit and each group runs itself. They collect dues like Weight Watchers but not near as much (they have national dues which were like $20 a years and club dues which are voted on by the members). They use the dues to give awards to people who lose weight and to do things. And to make it fair, they have categories - by sex, weight category and they even have a category for people who have had weight loss surgery.
I used to go but quit. I might go again. The reason I quit is because I didn't feel like I fit in with that particular group - there were a lot of really old people in my group. But I went to one of their conventions and there were groups with much younger members.

I've been a second-hand shopper since I was a kid with my mom at The Blue Bird Circle Shop and Catholic Charity Guild in Houston.

Not sure of my date yet. Have to do 3 NUT and and did my first one June 25th, second will be July 23. My 3rd should be around Aug. 20. Maybe it could be late August or early September.

And I want to be able to find cute clothes in the resale shop again! All the really cute things are in the small sizes.

1. Take my grandaughter (15 months now) to the zoo, the Museum of Natural Science and other places to take grandchildren.
2. So I can go to festivals with friends again.
3. So I can go to places like IKEA that don't have the little cars you can ride around on.
4. Take more trips like the trip I took to Guatemala 5 years ago before my knees started hurting
5. Dancing again

My mother seems to be supportive. I talked to her over the phone once and she said that if I feel like that's what I need to do then go for it but that she had known at least one person besides Carnie Wilson who had had weigh loss surgery and gained all the weight back so to do everything the doctor said and I said yes, that's what I'm going to do. My problem isn't eating bad food so much - except going out to eat - my problem is mostly eating too much food - good and bad. I used to do Weight Watcher's and would fix a dinner that said it was for 4 and then my skinny boyfriend would eat one serving and I would end up eating 3 servings - like of stir fried vegetables, brown rice and chicken. I'm hoping this is going to help this problem.
My friends are a mixed bag, mostly supportive. One friend has been urging me to do it since his wife did it and lost about 170 lbs. Another friend is worried and says I should have Medifast or something else first, but I've done WW like 5 times and sometimes I would lose and gain it back and sometimes not lose at all. And I did Nutrisystem and lost about 40 lbs and then gained it back and then some. She is just worried that I might die or that I'll be restricted too much in what I am able to eat. Bless her for worrying about me but I'm not afraid to die. But I was not looking forward to knee replacement surgery or living like a disabled person like I'm doing now. I can't go to festivals or shopping with this friend like I used to and I miss' that. It's been about 3 years since I've been able to enjoy going shopping. I go but my knees hurt and forget about enjoying shopping for clothes because nothing fits right. I am 5'0" and weigh 238 and if it takes surgery to help me get below 150 lbs so that clothes fit right and I can walk around without hurting then that's what I'm going to do.

I haven't been to Mexico but I've been to Guatemala and I think you have to look at your specific situation and not the general situation. Here's what I mean, most of the bad things, the killings etc are drug related. You didn't come to Mexico to buy drugs, so the chances of you getting killed are much lower than someone who comes to buy drugs.
Also certain parts of the city may be dangerous and others not so much. Same as in Detroit or Houston. I wouldn't go to some parts of Houston if my car might die. Also pay attention to what your wearing and how you look. Don't look like Thurston Howell III or Lovey (rich people from Gilligan's Island for you young people who might never have seen it). Try to look more like a traveling-on-a-shoestring type of person instead. Don't flash money around.
Check out Mexico Mike's website about safety:
http://www.mexicomike.com/safety/safety-UsStateDepartment.html
http://www.mexicomike.com/safety/safety-in-mexico.html
I remember looking at the State Department Advisory for Guatemala and it said that in the last year 6 people had been abducted at the airport and held for ransom.. I thought to myself ' 6 people? Is that all? What were they wearing and why were they kidnapped". It seems like more crime than that occurs in Houston in 6 months than that.