Wheetsin

It's mad for those games. My DH wanted one (it's just the two of us, and we have 2 "old" xboxs already... how ridiculous will the menfolk get?) but I've already given up. I know several people who pre-ordered a year ago, when you could first get on the list, who were told they still didn't have enough and they might not get one before xmas. Pre-ordering a YEAR in advance, and STILL not having one for xmas - that's just crazy! HarleyNana - I think your best bet is going to be ebay. There are a lot of them for sale there, from what I've been told.

100+ lbs in 7 mos?!?! WOW! Great job!

I've been higher than that at my highest, but came into this year around 290. However, that was on Atkins which I stopped in Feb and I know I've packed the pounds back on since stopping. I'm at the point where I need to get my physical done, but I'm procrastinating b/c my PCP's scale tops out at 350 and there's a really good chance I'm over that, even if only by a few pounds. But I REALLY want to get this done before the holidays hit, I'm certainly not getting any skinnier... There's a humiliation factor, but also my insurance company requires an accurate current weight to be submitted, and if I'm more than the scale can weigh - then I need to find a bigger scale! I've sent an email to the bariatric center I've been working with asking them for their recommendations on a doctor. I can go anywhere in-network so I'm not held to my current doc (whom I've only gone to twice for ear issues anyway). How else can I find a "fat friendly" doctor who would have a scale that would work?

I guess I should have started! 1. What does your handle mean? It's a nickname my father had for me growing up, derived from my own interpretation (as a child) of what it sounded like when he whistled. He does that whistle between his teeth, and I would try to do it, couldn't, and would fake it by saying "wheetsin" when my teeth clenched together. 2. What book are you currently reading, or did you last read? Currently re-reading "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." School restarts in Jan so I need to get the leisure reading in while I can. 3. What do you do for a living? I'm an adult learning consultant for a major F500 company - it's my job to make things easier to learn, or to make people better performers. Instructioanl design, performance consulting, instructional technologist, multimedia developer, all rolled up into one. There's a huge science behind doing that, and no one will want me to get into the details of it. 4. For what in your life are you most grateful? Many things. The most probably has to be for parents who were always willing to let me be my own person, even if I made choices that disagreed with their personal beliefs or caused conflict in their relationship. They always let me find my own way instead of forcing their own way on me when I was too young to know any better or make a decision for myself. "Roots" and "wings", you know? 5. What's one thing about you that you think would surprise other people? B/C I'm obese (I assume that's why... could also be because I live in an oceanless state) people are usually surprised to learn that I'm an advanced open Water diver with deep diving and night diving specialities, and I have participated in recovery dives. Also, people take one look at my pasty skin & red hair and assume I'm Irish. No one believes I'm half Greek, and the classical Greek of dark hair & olive skin, at that. 6. One word to describe yourself? Observant... or ambitious... or direct. One of the three. 7. One word others use to describe you? Probably "bitchy"... or "logical". 8. Would you rather play a game with someone better or worse at it than you? Better, or there's no challenge and no opportunity to grow. 9. Favorite movie? Favorite show? Favorite movie... too many...The Professional, Donnie Darko, Last of the Mohicans, Edward Scissorhands... TV show has to be HBO's Carnivale. Lately I've been watching Dirty Jobs too, and I've been hooked for years on Real World/Road Rules. 10. Something unusual about yourself? At one time I was the youngest survivor of spinal meningitis contracted through Streptococcal bacteria.

We have some well-endowed ladies around here! Me and my B/C's are happy and pain-free.

Mentally I never saw the difference, whether I weighed 360 or 205. It's very hard to shake off the "fat" image of myself I've developed since gaining the weight. And likewise, there are still times when I put something on and my mental image of me wearing it is still skinny me, and I'm truly shocked when I look in the mirror. That's why with each weightloss effort I've kept a photo diary, pics taken every 2 weeks in the same place and in the same outfit as long as possible. For me it takes that side-by-side to ever really see the difference (and then I question things like camera angle, wishful thinking...) As for phsyically, about 20# is a size for me. When I was at my highest it took nearly 40# before I could tell any difference in clothes, and then it was slight. At about 50# I had suddenly dropped 2 sizes, and I saw a smaller size for every 20 or so subsequent sizes. That's true down to about 210, which is the lowest I've been in about 10 years (that's a 16/18 for me).

I was going to take off this semester but decided against. Fortunately I have the option of attending my prgoram in person or virtually, so if needed I'll be able to sit in a nice recliner and do everything I need to do.

I've lost drastic amounts of weight many times and it has never bothered the girls. My guess is that it's more related to your hormones. Fat holds estrogen, and as you lose weight your bosy has to constantly adjust its hormone levels to accomodate (e.g. often when people gain weight, their skill will break out). A lot of women have sore or tender boobs before or during their period (or, as already pointed out, pregnancy).

ladysplenda - we were chatting the other night, how are you? A 22 - 14 is extremely attainable. I would guess you'd see that difference inside of 100 lbs. It's going to vary by build, but for me, once I hit around a 26, about 20 lbs will be a size. Good luck and you'll need some cute tops and shoes to go with those small jeans too! Your feet are going to get smaller!

When I've lost significant weight before I've had to get ring squeezies (was never trusting enough my weight would stay off to get a full resize), tighten my watches, and I've had my shoe size go down as much as 2 sizes and fron Wide to Normal.

Butt naked first thing in the morning. And I like to weight about 2 hours later, too, because I'm about 4# lighter then.

I haven't seen gender discrimination (most of my bosses have been female - my only male boss ended up one of my best friends to date), but I have seen age discrimination. I'm in a field full of older people and I'm automatically discredited because I'm usually 20 years younger than most of my department, but I've never not gotten the job because of it. It's just that once I'm in the job, I have to really fight to establish myself. I love it when I end up teaching them new things. I've also seen discrimination based on citizienship status. DH is not a citizen, but he's a permanent resident alien. He cannot vote but he pays taxes, has a driver's license, SSN - the whole nine yards. He fits the American majority demographic and lost his accent shortly after moving here so people don't know he's foreign unless they ask or see paperwork. He was offered a job once and was fortunately in the process of declining the offer when he received a rescindment with no reason other than "We've decided to continue to look." Shortly after he learned from someone he knew who worked at the same place that they had run his background and saw that he wasn't a citizen, and didn't want to have to worry about incurring any visa fees. Dumb butts didn't even know that residents don't need visas.

PinkMary - similar boats! We had our 8 year anniv last weekend. FOr the first 5 or 6 years neither of us wanted kids, but that changed - almost over night. I'm 29, DH is 32.

BTW - nice to meet you. My origingal master's was in psychology. 2nd is in a branch of cognitive psychology - IPT/HPT.

Hmm - I don't think I've ever been discriminated against for a job. I decided to look for a different job in June and got offered the first job I applied for. Prior to that I'd been with the same company for 6 years but had applied for 5 promotions and received 4 of them. I've been in a hiring position before and I don't see anything in your experiences that indicates discrimination. Being qualified doesn't mean you're the best candidate, and rehiring doesn't mean they automatically go back to the same candidate pool. Why are you sure it's weight-related?

Hmm - I've been considering the same thing. I have UHC Midwest, I believe it's an EPO. I know my doctor-to-be has had RNY procedures covered by my insurer but I don't know about LapBand. And sorry - I don't know anything about Definity.

Good question! I made DH go back to using condoms this month to specifically avoid any chance, even though we quit using contraceptives 2 years ago when we decided we wanted a baby (we never started "trying", just "trying to stop it"). I figure - in the big scheme of things, what's a year? With a baby it's a year, and that makes me a year older, a year before I can enjoy it, and a year older before it's out of the house! With surgery it's weight loss, significantly reducing the risk of complications, better chances of conceiving, better overall baby health, potentially easier healing... I always said if I had a baby I would do it by the time I was 30. When I tell 30 in Feb and that gives me 1 year and 3 mos to conceive. Hehe. I weighed out the options and decided the health for me & baby was worth it! That's one of my reasons for wanting to get this. A smaller reason. 2 years and no baby yet - hoping weightloss will help that. Plus I don't want to cary a baby overweight and put it & myself at greater risk for complications.

I see people refer to "the other board". In searching for message boards, this was the only place I could find. Not that it isn't great - don't get me wrong, but could someone post or PM or email me with the URL to the other board people refer to? IME different boards usually carry different perspectives and I'd like to get as much information as possible. I don't see any retail here or anything, so I'm assuming there is no issue with asking for other support places...

Ooh, I can actually answer a question here! A lot of people think scars heal quickly, but it's not unusal for it to take months - maybe years. The scars themselves actually don't itch - they have no nerve endings. Unless they're oozing, inflamed, streaked -- it's just the surrounding nerves getting stimulated (weight loss and the resulting shrinking of the surrounding skin would be one type of stimulation - healing would be another). A lot of people complain that even years after surgery, their scars will itch when the weather changes. And wounds that leave/require scars aren't really considered healed (medically) for 12 - 24 months.

Don't forget the risk of the doctor getting scared by my great pasty belly sticking out from the surgical drape.

Mine would be: 1. Oranges (sweet) 2. Strawberries (ripe) 3. Extremely sharp cheddar cheese 4. Reese's anything 5. Key lime pie 6. Dill pickles, preferably sour dills 7. Boneless chicken tenders 8. Marie's brand Super Chunky blue cheese dressing 9. Pacific Rose apples 10. Cashews (Wait -- does sex count as a food group???)

My husband and I run 2 boards so I completely understanding having to lock & delete. I know of some weight loss places that prohibit "soliciting" (aka anything that mentions) other boards, but those usually have some money-making incentive such as a retail store or a membership fee. I hoped it would be ok to ask my question here, and from my experiences on this site so far I have no reason to think I'm doing anything contrary. Support is support, regardless of where it comes from right?

Just keep tolerating my weird and slightly spastic questions. That's all I can ask.

I have had a Curves membership for 2 years. I plan to swtich soon, just for a little more variety, but it's a great workout if you're just starting an exercise program. I pay $29 a month (I think), which the automatically deduct from my account. If you choose not to have them automatically deduct it, it's a little more expensive, about $35. I did not pay anything up front and have never paid any fees outside of my monthly fee. I go 3x week and do a double routing, so an hour. It is a good workout, but IMO the atmosphere is a little annoying. Their facility and products are heavily marketed and there's a lot of "rah rah" that goes on which I pesronally find annoying, but a lot of people there do seem to thrive on it. Ig you join, just go in knowing what you want out of it.

The doctor I've spoken with about this had a good perspective. He said there are hands-down reasons for each surgery, as well as against, but when discussing options with his patients he looks at it mainly from the standpoints of 1) where is the highest potential for the person to fail at the lifestyle and 2) overall weight loss needed to be healthy.