LittleBill

That's where I was at the beginning, right at 6.6. It was a little bit of a shock, since the last time I had been checked, everything was normal. So I am glad it is going back in the right direction. Thank you for your kind words. You are making me blush.

I tried the search function for advice on posting images, and all I got was one post that is 10 years old, or will be in two months. Reading through it, it seems things have changed somewhat. Every time I try to use the image button, I get a box with a question mark in it, or a notice that tells me I'm not allowed to do that. I can attach images, but that doesn't always work the way I would like it to work. I get a result, but not the one I am after. So is there anyone out there with an idea as to how this actually is supposed to work? It appears to be different than any other forum I have ever been on, and I've been on lots.

Pretty soon you'll be able to hide behind a light pole! Congratulations!

@@Dknal2 Hey, I thought you were a blonde! My moment came when I had closed in to less than 20 lbs away from weighing 500 lbs. I had tried all sorts of things, but I was having no real success. Getting into the program got my head reset and focused more than I had been in years. I was in very good health except for being overweight, or so I thought. Almost everything was good, but I had crept up to the low end of diabetic. BP was normal, cholesterol was 142, triglycerides were 90, but I had crossed that threshold where really bad things were going to start happening with my blood sugar. Currently I am down to 364, and my H1ac just came back at 5.7, almost a full point down from when I started. BP actually runs a bit low, and I suspect my other numbers are still very good. My original goal was to hit 325, but I am aiming for 300 now. We'll see how that goes. I've only been at this for a little more than six months.

@@Lynkaosgood Thank you! You might want someone like High functioning fat man to help you with your vehicles though. I am good with wood, but I am a hacker with vehicles. I pretty much exhausted my current store of knowledge to get this done. Good luck with it. I can relate to riding around with no heat at all. Been there, done that. And I needed more than a T shirt!

Search functions can work, and sometimes they don't. Add in that people are lazy, think they're unique, or want personal attention for the same issue 158 other people have written about in the past two weeks. Finish off with the fact that most people don't really read what is posted anyway, and respond to what they think they read or what they want it to mean. Now you have an internet discussion forum.

Thank you!

I had some of the same concerns. The surgery is less risky than driving down the road in your car, what with all the morons on the road these days.

I was going to write the exact same words!

Well, yeah! The chocolate doesn't have to stop to change color!

HAHAHAHA!!! I can relate. I can parallel park my truck in a spot that is about 2' longer than it is. Our middle daughter took her driver's test in the Suburban. The cop told her he could not wait to bust on the people who complained they could not park their subcompacts after that. Here are some examples of my woodworking. I'm not exactly a carpenter. That is another skill set.

Way back in 1997, I drove my K3500 down to Ft. Lauderdale. It was right at the end of February, going into March, so it was as cold as could be up here, and hot down there. About 200 miles north of my destination, the AC crapped out. I was seriously bummed. I made it down to where I was going to be staying, and called the local dealership. Apparently they had stacks of AC units lying around, because of the climate. They fixed my truck right up, but when I came to pick it up, the service writer was laughing. He said the guys in the shop wanted to know who drove these kinds of trucks! It was a 4WD crew cab with an 8' bed. He said, "Boys, this man is from Pennsylvania. This is the family car up there!" I told him he was closer than he knew. It was indeed the family "car". I was running a woodworking business on the second shift, so to speak, and home schooling our daughters during the day. Mrs. LittleBill was driving a sedan to work that would not even fit all of us if we had to. A year later, we were able to step into a Suburban for her. We got a lot of looks when we told people our Suburban was the little vehicle.

See, you sound like two of my sons-in-laws. They are both mechanics by trade, and that is what they do - buy older vehicles, and then either maintain them for themselves or fix them up and flip them. I am not a mechanic. I can work on vehicles, and when we were young and poor, there was many a time I was laying underneath a car or truck with a wrench in one hand and a Chilton's manual in the other. I did stuff that most people said you shouldn't be able to do, just because I didn't know any better to not try. Give me woodworking tools, or a house to renovate, and I am happy. But I want my vehicles to just work, or have someone else do the work. The main reason I even replaced this bulb is because I have some night driving to do in the next couple days, and it can't wait for inspection on Tuesday. If I ever buy another truck, I want a heavier duty one for pulling a bigger trailer. I've owned a couple of 3500's (well, one was a 350 it was so old) but I would be happy with a diesel 2500 and 4WD. But I ain't ready to spend on a new one for that!

@ I sure hope mine lasts that long. The price of a new one is more than twice what we paid for our first house. And yeah, sort of like that, only more vertical.

Close. It is an '09, and yes, passenger side low beam. The good news is, the low beam is on the top. Otherwise Mrs. LittleBill might be posting a picture of me stuck inside upside down with my legs waving around in the air! This thing is pushing 160,000 miles.

We all have those NSV moments. Sometimes they are mixed. I don't really WANT my hands to get smaller, although if I could let the air out of them a little bit once in a while so they would fit places better, that might work. On the plus side (or should that be the minus side?), I have lost enough weight that it is much easier to drape myself over the side of my truck so I can better see where I can't fit my hands to work on things that need worked on. Today was "change the headlight day". I've been changing headlights since the days of "sealed beams", where you had to re-aim the light every time you changed it. I was thrilled when plug in halogen bulbs came into being. But now, They (with a capital T) have decided to cram even more stuff in and around them to make it virtually impossible to do with any sort of efficiency. I do not care for the engineers who design machinery which has to be worked on by normal human beings. I think they are still angry for the way they were treated in school by their fellows, and this is one way of getting revenge. To get to the offending bulb, I had to remove this thing called the air box. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the wise men who designed this thing decided it would be a good idea to use two different types of fasteners to hold the bottom of the air box onto the frame in the truck. One type is molded into the box itself, while the other (of which there is only one) is a soft rubber protrusion, which is designed to compress and not pop back into place when one attempts to reinstall the air box. That was eventually solved by the judicious (and forceful) application of some pliers, gripping that pliable part and pulling it out about two inches before it snapped back. I managed to get the box off the truck and expose the base of the lamp. These same worthies designed a bayonet mount. That's a good idea. They designed it though, to twist TOWARDS the wall of the truck instead of the other way! Who thought that was a good idea!?! I could hear snickering coming over a cubicle wall from somewhere in Detroit. And of course, there was some metal frame welded around the whole thing designed to make anyone with an XXXL sized hand cringe with frustration while trying to insert it into the available space and actually TURN the bulb in its mount. I finally got the bulb in, and decided it would be a good idea to make sure it was working properly before I buttoned everything back up. I did not want to go through all that only to discover I had to take it all apart again because something didn't seat properly. It was then that I discovered that the air box is important for the engine running, not for the air in the cabin. At first I thought I had done something hideously wrong. It made horrendous gasping noises, like a fat person who had just run up several flights of stairs. I could see the dollars flying out of my wallet to make it right again. But I just clenched my teeth, and resolved not to panic until I got it all back together for another test. I got it all together except for the last bolt. That was the one I dropped earlier, and which Mrs. LittleBill retrieved for me. She is a big help for me when I do this stuff, because her hands will fit into places I could never get mine. And this was one of those cases. Of course, there is a huge downside to this. It never fails. Mrs. LittleBill will step in to help me complete a task that is a physical impossibility for me. This is usually reaching in someplace just like this. Of course, this is ALSO when one of the neighbors will drive by, and see her leaning into the engine compartment with me standing there handing her tools, or worse, just watching. How embarrassing is that!?! Finally, I tested the whole thing out one more time to make sure the lights worked, AND the engine was back to purring the way it is supposed to. It was then I noticed the notice on the dash computer. If you can't make it out in the picture, it is warning me that the hood is open. I am glad for that, because you know, I might never have noticed. I was just about ready to drive away.

Thank you. I have read the ingredients, but I haven't been eating them long enough to notice any changes. I know about the artificial sweeteners, but I am going to do some more reading on that.

Taste is subjective of course, but I have had opportunity to sample the unsweetened iced tea at both McDonalds and Taco Bell since my surgery, and in both cases, it tasted awful. I drank cold tea by the gallon, sweetened and unsweetened, before my surgery, but usually in the summer months. I will have to wait and see how it goes. I've had some home made stuff at a good friend's home, and his tasted pretty good. That keeps me optimistic.

@@Djmohr I haven't had much of an urge to try ice cream yet. It has been "break your ears off cold" here up until the last couple of days. I have experimented with a couple of sugary things (mainly at Thanksgiving) and found that they do not sit easily upon my sleeve. That's fine with me. I don't need them to survive, or even be happy. Now beef... If I were to develop problems with tolerating beef, that would be an issue for me. I know I am still in the early stages, but so far, so good with that.

I just tell people my stomach is bigger on the outside than it is on the inside. I have been doing that for years, and it always works. It is even more true now. I also assure the person asking that if I had not liked it, they would have had no doubt in their mind.

I'm almost 2 1/2 months out from surgery, and my experience was pretty much the same as yours. The surgeon visiting my room expressed surprise that I was moving around as easily as I was. Nothing hurt. I stopped my pain medicine and my anti nausea medicine on my first full day home, which was my second day after surgery. As far as I am concerned, that smooth recovery made it even more imperative that I follow directions closely. I didn't have other reminders to keep me in line.

I did not know this about the stall bit. Do you have some information on that I could read? I have them in my truck for when I am out. I haven't quite stalled, but I have slowed to the point of might as well be. The plan is to replace them with Jerky. Soon.

To be truthful, I have not struggled much with temptation. I have been doing some experimenting with very small amounts of various things I used to like "before". Most of the bad stuff has had very little appeal, and even less satisfaction. I would be a liar if I said I was 100% converted mentally, but I have had no real struggles post surgery. I do like to joke around about things though. I will tell you this. If going past the DQ WERE a problem, I would take a different route. I am that committed to making this happen.

I don't think my skeleton could get into single digit sized pants. But I agree with the sentiment. My eating habits have changed tremendously, and all for the better. Stuff I used to really enjoy is now "eh" at best.

Today was one of those days that I had all planned out, and then everything took a left turn, and we ended up doing something completely different. There are many stories, too many to tell. But there is one which some of you may be able to relate to. We were driving down the road to our destination, with a handful of protein bars stuffed in our pockets against the possibility of being out longer than we expected. We were, and well beyond even that. I need even MORE protein bars stored in my truck after today! But anyway, as we were driving along, we passed one of my favorite haunts from the old days - the Dairy Queen. I loved stopping in there for a malted chocolate milkshake. I said to Mrs. LittleBill as we drove by, "I should pull in there and get me a chocolate malt!" "You can't have one anymore!" she replied. "Sure I can! It would just take me four days to drink it!" And so it goes. I will be making up a Gold Standard Extreme Chocolate Milk protein shake later on. I wonder if they make one with malt flavoring?