Carlene

Yeah, just look at Arnold S, Ronald Reagan, and Jesse Ventura. Those guys had some major qualifications, didn't they? Did any of them even finish college? You can be forgiven for that.

A reporter asked Jimmy Carter's mom if she planned to vote for him and she said, "I don't know. It depends on who else is running."

Better dead than red! (Although I live in a red state that was BLUE for many, many years.)

Kelly Ann... We have almost exactly the same story, you and I - except that I got to within 10 pounds of my goal weight. I am 2 years post-op today and down 97 pounds. I've been over-filled twice...once to the point of reflux and aspiration pneumonia. (You want to be careful that doesn't happen to you. It makes you VERY sick and you end up in the hospital and they unfill your band.) My personal take on it is that the last few pounds are just a bitch to lose. It takes discipline, as far as food choices AND exercise. Unfortunately, I have been too lazy to apply those principles to my own lifestyle, so my extra 10 pounds are still hanging around (literally). I guess we just need to get our butts to the gym, girlfriend! And back away from the Cheetos!

It'll happen. My youngest son was visiting us one evening and when I walked into the room, he just stopped in the middle of a conversation with my DH and said, "Mom, you are so thin. I hope you aren't trying to lose more weight." I told him he was my favorite child. I'm rewriting the will and cutting out everyone else...LOL.

Which airline? Southwest is the worst one for making you buy a second ticket.

I have heard that, too. But I don't think getting arrested would be a good thing for someone dealing with Cancer. Come to think of it....I don't think getting arrested would be a good thing for ANYONE. I'm all for avoiding the jailhouse, myself.

Are you too tight? Sounds like you need an unfill, but if that's not the case, you should still eat your "good" food (or as good as it gets for you) before you allow yourself carbs, sweets, etc. How about chunky Soups (give them a go in the blender first if they are too chunky). Tomato or tomato bisque Soup. Chili. Eat 1 to 1 1/2 cups of any of those first and see if you don't have little room left for carbs. Eat 5 times a day if you are hungry, but always eat the Protein first. If you are living on mashed potatoes, you are going to have nutritional issues after a while. Your hair is going to fall out. At least drink some skim milk with Protein powder added. What does your doctor/nutritionist say about all this? PS....I can't eat fruit, many veggies, salad, etc myself. chicken is a sometimes thing, too. But Cheetos go down just fine. So well in fact that I had to stop buying them. I am helpless in the presence of a bag of crunchy Cheetos.

PJ... This Forum - "Rants and Raves" - is for threads that are NOT necessarily WLS related. It's for blowing off steam, expressing yourself, crying, whining, gathering advice, etc. Some people love it....some hate it. That's okay. No one has to participate if they don't want to. As long as they allow the rest of us to vent our spleen. In the nicest possible way, of course.

Lap-Band Talk Rants and Raves Gripe, complain, moan, fight, rant and rave. Enter at your own risk! The above was cut and pasted from the Forums list. Just so we are clear on this.... THIS IS THE RANTS AND RAVES FORUM. Discussion is allowed here on ANY topic whatsoever. That means politics, religion, social justice, welfare, race, sex (gay or straight), matrimony, morality, quantum physics, or any other damn thing we can think of. We are NOT being rude, insensitive, or offensive by posting about these things. This Forum was made for this purpose. If you do not wish to participate in the discussion, DO NOT CLICK ON THE THREAD. But don't criticize us for talking about something besides WLS. And don't call us names, either. Thank you....and have a nice day.

Probably....but it was bnorth who initiated the name-calling - something that I take great exception to, as well. If you can't take it, don't dish it out. That's my motto. And it has nothing to do with whether someone agrees with my views or not. Unless bnorth is under the age of, oh, 10 or so....he/she should know better than to call people names. It's rude. It's childish. It's uncalled for. Being a new member is not an excuse for behaving badly.

They are absolutely NOT one and the same. I respect and support our troops worldwide. I know that they are doing the job they were ordered to do. I know that they had nothing to do with the decision to invade Iraq. I pray for their safe return. I have been on flights with men/women in uniform since the war began and cheered and clapped louder than anyone else on the plane. My son was in Iraq twice and I know how HARD it is to have your child on the other side of the world, in harm's way. It isn't us bring-'em-home types who have no regard for the troops, hon....it's BUSH. His "honor" is on the line and he won't back down, no matter how many young men and women die as a result of his horrific error in judgment. I want to keep them alive - each and every one of them....how much more supportive can you get? [=itsuptome;337176]I vote in every election, not as a rep/dem or ind. but for the individual that has the same beliefs as me (or as close as possible) i base my decision on specifics not on tv hype, biased articals etc. simply on the issues. Personally, I think invading a country under false pretenses - a country that had not made one single hostile, overt move in our direction - could be considered "specific". I think lining the pockets of drug manufacturing companies at the expense of the elderly by not allowing Medicare Part D to negotiate for lower wholesale drug prices is pretty "specific". I think blowing through the national surplus that he inherited from Clinton and putting us billions and billions of dollars in debt is very "specific". Or not....maybe I'm just too broad minded to be a Republican.

"Rants and Raves" is a forum for just that - ranting and raving about stuff/life in general. It is not a Lap Band forum. We are all very conscientious about keeping non-band topics off the band forums. Please respect our right to post appropriate (that means ANYTHING) views in this section of LB Talk. And don't be calling us "ignorant". Name-calling is against the rules, in ANY forum.

Can you at least do this....force yourself to eat your hard Protein first, then allow yourself to eat the other stuff. I promise you will eat much less of it than pre-band, or what you eat of it on an empty pouch/stomach. This does not require will power - just a minimal amount of discipline.

To thine own self be true. He will get used to it, believe me. If he really hates your skinny butt, you can always put it back on. As we all know, that won't be a problem!

Skin Cancer is usually treatable. Liver Cancer is usually not, but it's not one of the horrifically painful types of Cancer, either. It often creates an uncomfortable condition called asides, which is a large collection of fluid in the abdomen - like 40 pounds of fluid. This can be drained off, but it comes back pretty quickly. You can't live without a liver, so when it gets really sick from the Cancer, the body's systems begin to shut down, one after the other. At the end the patient goes into a coma. I would contact Hospice. They are dedicated to end-of-life comfort, rather than treatment. You don't have to be at death's door to participate in Hospice. Be there for your friend. Be a strong arm to lean on, and a soft shoulder to cry on. She will need you more now than she ever has.

My brother-in-law has worked at the Pentagon for over 30 years. His nomination for worst ever President of the US is George W Bush.

Today is my two year anniversary. I have lost 97 pounds.

Cingular has a feature you can activate for $5.00 (for a month) that will give you calls to/from Mexico at no extra charge. Otherwise, it's 99 cents per minute.

Between us, we have 5 children, 5 children in-law, and 14 grandchildren. Don't ask how much Christmas costs around our house. My take on it is that Christmas presents are for children. Everyone else might just as well trade money.

I made sweet potato stuffing. It is more moist than bread stuffing and more nutritious.

You read that right. Put a whole chicken in your crockpot and cook on low all night. It will make its own juice and be so tender and moist, you won't believe it.

I cut and pasted this from Craig's List. Too funny! "Dear Red States..." A Letter From The Blue! Date: 2005-06-24, 11:54AM PDT Dear Red States... We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California. To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire. With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh Water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties. By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico. Peace out, Blue States

Friends & fellow Bandsters, We have reservations to gather for Holiday Bandster Dinner: Date: Thursday 14 Dec 2006 Time: 6:30 PM til- - - - - - - - - Location: Mercado Juarez Mexican Restaurant Address: 1901 W. Northwest Highway next door to Sam's Club We have a private room reserved and will have it to ourselves. A couple of other additions to the gatherings We will need a pretty close tally of attendees for the restaurant so please send an RSVP to Carlene and I will forward it to the host. Please join us for this final gathering for 2006 to Celebrate our banding, weight loss, better health and the wonderful year to come.

I belong to DFW Bandsters and attend the support dinner in Arlington on the third Thursday of each month (at Mercado Juarez). It's a great group of people. There have been a few get-togethers out my way (North Richland Hills/Grapevine), but none on a regular basis. If there were enough people interested, I would host one, though.