NanaRenan

Because the scales are creeping the WRONG way and I'm ticked. Also, I went for my post-op and the doctor was held up in surgery (I can't complain, since I was an extra-long surgery two weeks ago!) but since I didn't see him and blabbed to the dietician that I'd gained a few pounds back, she told me to stay on liquids ANOTHER week/half until I DO see him. ARGH!!!! So I'm not only 'on plan' but I'm a journaling fool, too!

Since I don't have to worry about shopping much -- I have many bins of clothes saved from my last great weightloss in 2002 and shouldn't need much of anything until I'm well below 250, I've picked travel as my reward! My first goal is to hit 275. DH and I will take off for a weekend in San Antonio when I hit 275. After that, we'll pick a destination and start planning for the next trip -- when I hit 250. So, my goal is to make it to SA before Halloween!

I'm with ya....SICK of Protein shakes, BORED with Soups and freaked cause I'd been told Lap-Band patients did NOT lose their hair!!! **sigh** Oh, well. I'm on the wagon NOW, may as well enjoy the ride!

I had that burping thing, too, for a while, but it passes. I bought some Underwood Deviled Chicken, grated a boiled egg really fine, added a touch of mayo and made a pretty tasty little chicken salad. Set mine aside and then added a little dill relish for DH. We bough enjoyed that!

Even with all the activity revolving around my surgery this month, I can't help but notice it's BACK TO SCHOOL time. I'm a little pouty because I didn't get to go with my GrandDoll shopping for uniforms and supplies....but WAIT'LL NEXT YEAR!!!! So, today's “GET TO KNOW ME” is designed to take us back!! MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WAS CALLED: Pleasant Hill Elementary I GOT PICKED ON FOR: being skinny!!! Having freckles, too! MY FAVORITE TEACHER WAS: Mrs. Harry (4th grade), because I was her pet and she wouldn't tolerate anyone picking on me! :heh: Every morning about 10 AM she would send me on a errand -- go to the cafeteria and purchase her two yeast rolls right out of the oven. She'd give me three nickels and I could eat the third roll on the way back to the class. :whoo: MY WORST TEACHER WAS: Miss Kiel (6th grade), she taught math by putting problems on the board, sending people up to work them and paddling you if you got them wrong. :omg: I was terrified of her, but made great grades in Math that year! MY BEST MEMORY IS: One fall I was playing on the bike racks and lost my brand new birthstone ring in the dirt and leaves. I cried because I'd begged for it for so long and was so proud of it. My friends and teachers helped, we searched for days. A few months later, the fall leaves had all blown away and I was just standing there kicking my toe in the dirt when I glimpsed something. Sure enough, it was my ruby ring!! Everyone -- even people who'd not helped in the search --remembered it and were happy for me. MY JUNIOR HIGH EXPERIENCE: Was not the best, not the worst. Biggest shock was that some people who were very good friends in elementary, were suddenly in a different social strata and acted like they didn't know me. I still hate that to this day and try to be the same with people whereever we are or whoever we're with. MY FAVORITE TEACHER WAS: Mr. Causey, because he was a Science teacher at heart, stuck teaching Math and it was SO easy to ask him a question and get him to lecturing for the whole hour and guess what, no math! MY FIRST CRUSH: There were too many to count!! MY MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Pretty much the whole thing was one long embarrassment!:car: Isn't that par for the course? MY BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Editor of the newspaper in 8th grade. THE DUMBEST THING I EVER DID WAS: I skipped a LOT of school. I mean A WHOLE LOT! Never got caught, although I did have to stoop to forgery on the attendance portion of my report cards. Once we skipped and went down to the river -- had a hard time explaining a sunburn to my mom, but I managed. "Well, we had to run laps, and, like, she made us do it one at a time, so we were standing in the hot sun waiting for everyone to get done...." LAME, huh? MY HIGH SCHOOL WAS: Bogalusa High School -- More of the same. SCHOOL COLORS:Black and Gold SCHOOL MASCOT: Lumberjacks (always the buffest guy with a full beard willing to wear flannel shirts year round! LOL) MY BEST SUBJECT: Made straight A's in Typing and Shorthand MY WORST SUBJECT: Geometry!!! Only class I ever legitimately failed! I still don't get it! Algebra either. I've diagnosed myself with borderline dyscalculia -- that's my story and I'm sticking to it! MY CLIQUE: A handful of other "on-the-fringes" -- just not quite cute/smart/rich/popular/hot enough to be with the IN crowd. Plus my school had all these sort of Greek "service" clubs with initials -- there was pledge week and the more popular you were the more pledge badges you wore -- nothing like having other popular kids FIGHT over you! (I woulda KILLED for one of those stupid paper cutouts pinned to my sweater!:tired) MY MUSIC: Strictly Top 40s -- Aerosmith, Boston, Kansas, Gary Wright ("Dream weavah..."), some disco, some r&B, etc. JUST NOOOOOO country! Wasn't into albums much -- I was the queen of the 99 cent 45, tho! EXTRACURRICULARS INCLUDED: I took piano for many years -- never was good, just consistent. Didn't really do anything else...no sports. Just rode my bike for hour upon hour. Friday and Saturday nights we 'rode around' -- made the circuit which started at one end of town in the Hardee's parking lot and looped through the Sonic Drive-in on the other end. Whole trip took about a half hour, going slow enough to see and be seen, y'know. Then of course there were those trips out to the company pasture....tsk, tsk, all those windy little roads to get lost on! LOL PROM WAS: Non-existant -- it'd been a big racial issue in the '60s and was discontinued until long after I was out of school. MOST MEMORABLE EVENT: There is a popular recording studio near my home town and we were called into an unannounced assembly in the auditorium one day and treated to a live, impropmtu Stevie Wonder concert. FOR KICKS WE: Skipped P.E. every day because our teacher -- the head football coach -- never came out of the field house. So we'd go eat lunch, come back for 4th period, then go have another lunch!!! I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THAT I: Didn't finish!! I got married at the end of my Junior year and moved to TX. I fully intended to go back to school, but the level of education was significantly higher and I was terrified of failing something and being humiliated in front of my husband and his family. I got my GED a few months later. And even squeezed in a few semesters of community college in my late 20s. MY GRADUATION MEMORY: See question above! TO COLLEGE OR NOT TO COLLEGE: See question above!

Thanks for replying, you guys. I didn't think anyone was going to...EVER!

Now THAT sounds like FUN!!! Count me in! I loved my NCL cruise this summer!!!

Okay -- count me in. I'll do walking -- 21 days of mindful exercise. School has started so I'll be picking up and dropping off my GrandDoll some, I'm going to go right now and put the umbrella stroller in the van so GrandBuddy and I can go for a walk on one of the trips. Thanks for getting me motivated. (I did spend Saturday cleaning out the garage!! Does that count for something?)

I think I might've hit HELL already, too. The scales were dropping daily, but went back up a couple of pounds and have stuck there for three days now. Oh, well. I know I'm only putting super good stuff in. Probably just my metabolism adjusting to the fact I've been hanging around the house too much. Guess I need to get out and get moving more!

I've been doing that, too. Not Fritos, but fish, broccoli, a shrimp here, a bite of mashed potatoes here. I've not been cleared to go to 'mushies' yet, but time I get through chewing, chewing, chewing it with a teeny sip of something, it's SOUP consistency. But, the scales have stopped moving down -- so I hope I haven't hurried myself into Bandster Hell even earlier than to be expected. Still---my portions are WAY, WAY down. So, they'll start moving again, I just know it. But I have these momentary panics -- like when I'm in the closet picking out what to wear -- I have this overwhelming feeling that nothing will ever change, that I'll be wearing the same sizes forever and that I'm just seriously deluded to think otherwise. I've already lined up a counselor. I had a real reality check last Thursday -- I don't think I've posted about it yet..... I found myself in a frustrating position where I was pretty much at the mercy of others and couldn't do anything to change the outcome --cryptic, I know, but not worth the typing it would take to lay it all out. I called my husband to unload on him and he took it well -- appropriately parrotting pre-approved responses...."Yes, that IS awful." "I'm sorry you're going through that." "People are so inconsiderate." (Do I have him trained well or what? Its only taken 28 years!) And finally ending with "Is there anything I can do to make it better?" "No," I told him, "I just needed to rant. Thanks." And I hung up and my first thought -- I was across town -- was, when they're done in that office, we should just go get something to eat!!! OR, I'll just wait and have him take me out alone when he gets home. That set off a whole new rant and flood of tears, only this one directed at ME!! I realized, I don't know another coping skill -- another SOOTHING technique for when I'm coming down from a high-stress moment. This has GOT to change, because my highly-sanguine and uber-chaotic family is FULL of high-stress moments. We shed them like dandruff!!!! Anyhow -- sorry to sidetrack a thread....

I've been doing really good -- 'cept I'm sitting here watching the clock (doctor's orders are to eat every 2 - 2.5 hours) and I can't think of anything I WANT bad enough to truck on in there and get it. chicken broth Cream of Chicken Cream of Potato (blended) Protein shakes Pudding/Jello Popsicles With three weeks total of that stuff, I'm really bored with it. I'm eyeing a can of Bean and Bacon Soup and thinking of adding extra Water, blending it to pulp and then straining it....but its "not on my list". :cry Yeah, ya caught Nana doin' a full on pout!

....:car: Okay, by now ya'll know I go for the dramatic titles. LOL I am curious to know -- from those who are months or more post-op, can you take pills/tablets/capsules/caplets/gelcaps. I'm by no means a junkie, and expect to be taking fewer and fewer prescriptions the more I lose. But just HATE those liquid Vitamins, etc. and want to know if and when I'll be able to handle something else. I mean -- HEY!! it got me off meds quickly -- if I was popping pain pills, I'd probably be still having a few and just spending some of this stage a little stoned....:eyebrows: But that disgusting syrup -- I really have to be hurting to be willing to take a dose of THAT gak. So let me know where you are post-op/fill and what size pill you can handle. Baby aspirin Regular aspirin Regular capsule Horse pills!

LOL And I was enjoying all your answers when I got to this!!!! We always want what someone else has, don't we?? Thanks for playing along!!!

Melody, I'd be more concernd if you WEREN'T scared to go under anesthesia!! It's a knock on the door of your primal survival urges. You'll be fine.

Congrats and welcome to LBT. Not from VA, but you're welcome to join the Crazy Ates!!! 8/07 bandsters!

Hi, jetti I think the main thing they're looking for in a psych eval is to be sure you realize that the band is not a magic bullet that's going to MAKE you lose weight. It is merely a tool - albeit a mighty serious and expensive one! -- to help keep you from going too far astray....but it's not going to MAKE you choose grilled fish instead of fried fish and fries....etc. You still have that work to do yourself.

ROFLMAO!! That reminds me of a LONG, LONG list of things I read one time of things people do before weighing in at WW. They included clipping nails, leaving off cologne, even shaving their legs and removing belly button lint!!! And so much more. I LOL til I cried! I was guilty of not washing my hair for 24 hours before a weigh-in, because I have a lot of hair and its very porous -- didn't want that affecting the outcome.

Fat is a complicated issue. I don't think it's the 'forbidden fruit' factor here as much as something else. Being EXTREMELY paleskinned, I've learned that prior to the end of WW2, fair-complectedness was desirable and women wore hats and bonnets and gloves to protect their skin. Why? Because being tanned was equated with poverty...having to work out of doors for a living. It wasn't until the post-war affluence, combining affordable air travel and paid vacations, that tan became to be a symbol of wealth and leisure -- a complete paradigm flip. I think 'fat' as a status symbol is the same way. From prehistoric times and, to this day in poor countries, women with a little meat on their bones were seen as affluent and healthier. They had wealth/a good provider so food was plentiful and they weren't going to expire at the first famine or plague like someone with little body fat might. Scientifically, men are programmed to like curves because it implies health and that translates into better childbearing odds. Today, I think it has become a distorted image of wealth, You can be as frail as you want -- if you're wealthy enough to hire someone to do your work for you. Then, you can pay to have some one train you to work out, so you can fight time and gravity and keep your adolescent figure. Bearing children is no longer thought to be every woman's EXPECTED role and celebrities get MORE attention for the babies they DON"T carry themselves -- Angelina and Madonna. And she's had at least two pregnancies since that's shows been on the air. I think she's probably just high energy and drew a lucky hand genetically.

Ahhh -- SISTERS!!! You gotta love 'em....there's no where to hide the bodies! My sister was overweight since childhood -- sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. I was very skinny as a child and teen, but started to creep up as I got older and had kids. But WHEN I WAS pregnany -- WHOA, Nellie did I spread out. Anyhow, 18 years ago we had to travel to my aunt's funeral -- arriving late in the evening. As soon as we arrived where the wake was being held, my sister grabbed me and took me back to the kitchen area where lots of cousins I hadn't seen in over 10 years were at. We couldn't both fit in the room, so she shoved me in, hollering over my shoulder, "See, I told you she was bigger than me!" I WAS 8 MONTHS PREGNANT!!!! Eventually I did end up being bigger than her (still am, for a few months longer!!) and she's revelled in it. Especially since my gray hair and Nana-status has people now asking, "Now which one is older?" SHE IS, by 11 years!

Man, did I drop a stink bomb with this one, or what?? Nobody's biting. Guess I'll put on the old thinking cap and try something different.

Small world, huh?? My husband worked in Odessa, but we lived in Midland. He loved it more than I did and would move back -- I hear about this mostly when we're stuck in traffic! But I like rain and cloudy days, so in that way I'm happier here in Houston now.

LOL I was teasing you about the name. I knew what you meant because my oldest daughter has been "mad" about frogs for a long time!

Hey, Nilsa -- I'm right there with ya, Hon!!! Trust me. I'm wanting to pick -- I've not done anything that required real chewing yet, but some pasty things that I could work around in my mouth until they pretty much dissolve to nothing. I figure its partly the quantity, but it's largely the FLAVOR and the process -- the longer I take to eat something, the less of it I actually consume. So I'm focusing on only eating things I REALLY love and enjoy and that taste great! I expect to do a LOT MORE homecooking now!

Right there with ya, Kacee and RagDoll -- buck naked and light in the bladder. But, I'm very familiar with fluctuations, I just don't let them bother me. I'm a "the truth is rarely as scary as my imagination" sort of person. So if I go a long period without weighing, I can think, "Man, I feel like I'm putting on weight! I may as well have another slice of pizza...." But if I know I'm doing good -- even if it's just maintaining, I think it helps me in the long run. 30+ years ago when I was a skinny little teenager the new pastor's wife was my Sunday School teacher. I was somewhat amazed that she was my mother's age, yet still had a figure as nice as her daughters....unlike almost every other middle-aged woman I knew. So I asked her.... She told me she weighed every day and if she saw a jump up, she knew to make very smart choices when she ate.

I notice a little less restriction each day, but the scale are still moving, so I can't call it "hell" at all. I'm following Alex's example tho'......I'm only gonna put in the really, REALLY good stuff. I mean it's all about the real estate, right? If you own an acre of land in lower Manhattan, you're NOT going to put in a bait and tackle shop! (I know, weird analogy -- shrug -- I AM the queen after all!) But I've eaten a couple of things out of reflex and just thought, "Hmmm, why did I waste my time with THAT when I could've had THIS!" Guess I'll be getting to know my local Whole Foods soon. But I'll have help -- my two oldest and their SOs have all worked there at one time or another -- they can steer me in the right directions.