LittleBill

I made this post within a few minutes of yours, so I am just going to link it here. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/384715-i-did-all-the-bad-things/

I had no idea there were so many gun toters on this site! We both carry everywhere it is legal to do so. If a bad guy forced his way in the door, it would be a very short confrontation. If a bad guy showed up on the property, he would be very surprised. Like I wrote. We carry everywhere.

My program was similar to the one @@blizair09 mentions. We did not have to lose any specific amount, but they did expect us to lose something to demonstrate dedication to the concepts surrounding the surgery. Surgery is a tool, and only one of several needed to make this a success. They also said the more you lose, the quicker recovery would most likely be. I lost 67 lbs in the four months leading up to my surgery. As far as I am concerned, that was a huge contributing factor to my very rapid and painless recovery. It also showed me, myself, that I was successfully incorporating the other components of the program into my life to make this effort successful. It is not necessarily the amount of weight you lose though. I think it is the attitude displayed that is more important. I have seen people treat this like a cure all. It is not. It is just one part. Without the others, it will fail.

@@genn Gee, except for the generator part, that sounds a lot like our house. My oldest daughter even gave me a big sign that says, "If you can read this, you're in range".

Good luck with it. Around here, the first storm brings out a lot of stupid in people.

@@LipstickLady I did consider a glass of wine, but Mrs LittleBill was acting as taster for me on the punch. I do agree, something bottled and not homemade is more of a known quantity. They were waving beer bottles around as well, but I figured I was pushing enough in the way of limits for one day. I did not want to barf right in the middle of everything!

@@Redmaxx So are you going to get even more? We home schooled our kids, so they never got snow days. And, they had to help shovel out. But when I was a kid, I lived for snow days. Sometimes I had to pray for one, on account of homework not getting done, or tests not studied for.

We're supposed to get as much as 3" here tonight. That's nothing, and the ground isn't frozen, so it won't stay. Here's a picture of last year's blizzard. The drifts were up past my hips. I took this from the seat of my mighty steed after about three hours of work to clear the parking space.

Hey, I waited probably 12 years longer than I should have. I'm practically a geezer now. The waiting stinks once you decide to do it, but it will be here before you know it. Just focus on one day at a time and you'll get through it.

I had to face my grandsons and their constant desire to wrestle with me about six weeks out. They are small, but energetic and determined. And, there were three of them. I did fine with it, but I think three weeks would have been pushing it. The thing is, while your incisions may be sealed up on the surface, there is deeper healing that needs to take place. At least, that is what they told me at my program.

At first I thought maybe you lost your license, but then I saw you are still on vacation. That's great news, and I am glad to see you are having such a good time.

Just to lighten things up a bit before we have a second Boxer Rebellion...

The people in my program have been real big on no liquids 30 minutes before or after eating. The rationale is that the liquid will wash the food down into your intestine before it is digested properly, and cause dumping. This seems to be a holdover from RNY practice, and a number of people here contend this is not an issue for sleeves. I am still working on that, but I did push the limit with no negative consequences.

Well, and I can revise my statement a bit, too. This past summer, at just shy of 2 years post op, my daughter's in laws were visiting from England. Being the ever so cordial hostess, we were having dinner and some wine out on my back patio and having a gay old time chatting it up getting to know each other. Keep in mind I literally can count on two hands how many times I've drank post op. A couple hours later, I had managed to polish off a whole bottle of red wine by myself and completely blacked out. I would say I that's the definition of a 'bad' thing You know what they say on the internet. "Pics, or it didn't happen!"

@@Babbs, thank you, and that was my point. I like to use humor to get serious points across as well. As long as it isn't an addiction problem, I think it is a good idea to get used to the fact that, just as you describe, we can indulge in small ways from time to time. It is indulging all the time in every way which is bad.

I think the big question here is, How many grams of protein is in one serving of your average cat?

I've got about two tons of it out by the outdoor furnace. And my parents, jokers that they are, put black licorice coal in our stocking several times when we were kids. I am used to the threats.

Thank you. I had a pretty in depth discussion with the psychologist at our program about how to handle stuff like this. He is firmly of the opinion (and I agree) that making something forbidden is the best way to make it more desirable, and cutting it out completely is not always a good thing. Now, if it were an addiction problem, then yeah, a little is as bad as a lot, and can cause someone to fall off the wagon. Going in with a plan really helped too. There were lots of old familiar smells and sights. I skipped the cookie and candy dishes completely. I didn't even go close to them. I figured I could probably get away with eating a little, but they would just get in the way of my Protein, and I am working real hard at keeping that up. So even though I put a little humor into this, I hope the real message that comes through is that planning ahead can be very effective in not going overboard and causing physical as well as emotional problems.

It seems like progress is never what we would like it to be, but it sounds like she is continuing to move in the right direction, albeit slowly.

Wow, that sounds like a big change! We have been of the opinion that smaller is better when it comes to decorating. My mother-in-law used to go completely wild. It would take the whole month of November to get everything up, and the whole month of January to take it back down again. We get it done in about an hour or two. As far as moving goes, I hope to be carried out of here in a box. There is way too much stuff to have to pack up. I was really surprised when she came in with that ornament. I kept looking at that little block, thinking I should just toss it, but knowing as soon as I did, the rest of the piece would surface. I am amazed I was able to find it, to tell the truth. Usually I see something like that every day, and then when I need it, it is gone!

Well, maybe not all of them. And it was more like I bent the rules instead of trashing them and behaving like an unrestrained hedonist. Mrs. LittleBill and I were invited to the 60th birthday party of one of our neighbors. Today was the big event. This neighbor lives in the swanky development that was built on the rest of the farmland from which our little slice of heaven was parceled off. Any of the parties back there are guaranteed to be overflowing with all sorts of food and booze. This one promised to be no different. I knew I had a challenge in front of me, so I planned out my actions ahead of time, keeping in mind the 80/20 rule advocated by the people in my program. We started off with some good stuff. We can see their house from our back porch. It is about 250 yards away. Going straight there is out of the question though, as it involves negotiating some steep hills, and a fencerow with brambles, sticky burr bushes, an old wire fence designed to catch the unaware, and various wild animals that often don't take kindly to being disturbed. So we opted to walk the road, making the trip about 500 yards or so. It is not all that long, but any walking is good walking. I joked with Mrs. LittleBill that we could drink as much as we wanted since we weren't driving. The walk back might be longer, but the cops would not get us. Of course, we do not drink like that. It is too far for one of us to drag the other, and besides, it is not good for our livers. But going in, I knew I needed a plan ahead of time to be successful. As soon as we entered, we were offered drinks. We both opted for the punch bowl, which was some sort of sangria concoction. This had the advantage of being weak, and in this case it was not too sugary, so that was good. I filled my glass about halfway up and proceeded to nurse it very slowly. So Bad Thing No. 1 was drinking alcohol, but I had already tried it with the blessing of my CRNP, and I knew what I could do. I merely write "bad" because it is one of the favorite things for people to wag their fingers about. I reconnoitered the food tables to see what was there that would be relatively safe to eat. They had a big ole pot of meatballs in a very light juice that looked promising. There was also some sort of wraps that looked like mostly carbs, so they were off the list immediately. The ham and cheese sandwiches with the big fluffy rolls were out. Next to those, though, were some very tasty looking crab cakes. The breading looked to be very thin, so they went on the maybe list. In the other room there was a huge bowl of peeled shrimp and a bowl of cocktail sauce next to it. That went on the definite list. After taking some very small sips of my drink, I combined a couple of things into Bad Thing No. 2. I violated the do not eat within 30 minutes rule to sample some of the delicacies mentioned above. I probably went with 10 minutes. The shrimp went down very well with just the smallest taste of cocktail sauce. The meatballs were mostly meat, and the juice was indeed light, with just a hint of sweetness. I let most of that drip off. The crab was excellent, and as I surmised, the breading was very light indeed. I am sure there was some filler, but it was also minimal. Bad Thing No. 3 was a very small - and I mean minuscule - piece of birthday cake. This was the kind of party where there were about 60 people present, and one sheet cake. I simply asked for a teeny tiny piece that was not a corner. Sweet things have been something of a challenge for me since surgery. It is not that I crave them. In fact, I have not craved them at all, and I was a 2-3 pack junkie of Tastykakes every day before I started my program. Since I started this journey back in June, cake has been on the "Do not eat" list. The challenge for me since surgery is the sugar tends to upset my stomach. So I nibbled at my tiny piece very slowly, while talking with a group of neighbors. It is easy to eat slowly when you are telling stories. We spent about four hours there, and I was able to eat stuff that wasn't quite ideal, but not off the reservation. I sipped a bit of booze, and had a tiny bit of sugar. I am sitting here at home now, with no ill effects, and pounding down some Water to get myself back to my regular Spartan practice. It was an enjoyable time, and most satisfying was being able to camouflage myself in a way that no one suspected I had an odd eating pattern or requirement. One neighbor did notice I lost weight, and it was another guy. But he is happily married, so I don't have to worry about him hitting on me or anything. I was actually surprised he noticed. We wave at each other when he drives by, but we only come face to face about once a year. We had not seen each other up close and personal since October of '15. At the end, we made our way home in the near apocalypse snow flurries without incident. We'll see if we actually get the 1-3" they are forecasting.

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're different.

We have that saying. "Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you." We take that literally, you know.

Thanks, Dub. It sure sounds great doesn't it? Of course, there are all those things that give rise to a good story you know. Adventure is someone else far away in deep $#*t, right?