KartMan

A couple of days ago I passed another Mini-Goal. This one was real important to me. It was passing the lowest weight I had ever previously attained on a diet. For me, that weight was 212lbs. The last time I was there was after about 10 months on Nutrisystem, it was a real struggle to attain at the time and obviously one I was not able to maintain. My second lowest dieting weight was 215 and that was a few years ago while doing Atkins. Again it was about 8-10 months to get there and didn’t last long. This journey on LapBand and taken me about 4.5 months and feels so much better than anything before. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been a cakewalk – but it has certainly been a more rewarding program day to day. Next Mini-Goal is to get under 200, then its just 15lbs to get to my main goal of 185 and a normal BMI.

That would be 6lbs a week, pretty tough even on a liquid diet.

Yeah, but he’s fat too. Heck, for that matter, it seems most of are fat these days. I always knew I ate too much and that was the main reason for my weight. But I honestly never believed I could eat as little as I do now and feel ok from an energy perspective. I eat like I friggen bird now and I feel more energetic than ever.

I mentioned my weight loss to a friend the other day and he said in jest, “yeah but you cheated”. I know he was kinda joking and he struggles with weight too. But why is it considered cheating? How is what we did different than what everyone else does? I mean everybody needs to do something right? Some people get lipo, others use drugs, a personal trainer is just the ticket for others. Some lucky people are able to do it by themselves with strict control of their diet. It seems to me almost everybody needs some sort of tool or trick, ours is the band, I just don’t see how it is cheating.

Jacqui, I agree with you, its not stressful for me because the overall trend is down. I have been doing pretty well on the program, and I think it is partly because I watch my weight (via the scale) very closely. Like you, a slight uptick does not send me into a bout of depression but it does give me the kick in the pants to correct any errant behavior.

I’m sure that on that day we all just be smitten from above right where we are standing j/k:wink2:

I have travelled several times and never had a problem with metal detectors and all the literature I have read says it is not a problem. A little secret I have learned though, Air Sick bags make great PB bags. I grab a handful from the plane every time I fly.

Good question. We have the power to vote people out, yet incumbents get reelected the vast majority of the time. The governing bodies ought to do a better job of policing themselves but they don’t and we keep reelecting them – I don’t get it. I don’t take a liberal or conservative side on this topic either. It seems to me there are crooks wearing both hats and they should get treated the same. When I have a choice, if somebody on ballot is considered “dirty” I vote for the other guy – regardless of party.

Sorry Patty, you know that answer is not enough for me. For me, there has to be legitimacy in what we do beyond what is said in the Bible.

It’s not a problem I’m trying to fix, so no need to hide the scale. I just can’t figure out the physics of it (I’m and engineer at heart).

The only way I can reconcile it is that I think he was some sort of savant or that he was way out of touch with reality. I’ve watched a couple of interviews that he gave on the subject, he just didn’t get it. I’m not apologizing for him, I think what he did was wrong and I think society thinks what he did was wrong – but I’m not sure he knew it. Who really knows what went on inside his head anyway? He had a bizarre upbringing; most probably suffered abuse himself, and then surrounded himself with enablers as an adult. He did pay a price, if not legally then with fame and fortune. It’s no surprise that his popularity started to wane right about the time all this stuff started coming out in the open.

You are being facetious. You don’t have be a “great person” to get the attention of the media or for people to be fascinated with you. I never said he was a great person. He did some great things (philanthropy, “We are the World”, Aid for Africa, etc.), he was a great entertainer (the numbers and the fans prove that), but a great person – no I don’t think so. He clearly had a lot of issues, frankly we will probably never really know the extent of those issues. I personally can separate what he did as an entertainer and what he may or may not have done in his private life (while still acknowledging that both are true). I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, he had a huge impact on my generation form a musical perspective. As I said, he was deeply troubled and had some serious problems later in life and I certainly don’t apologize for any of that. The media is coin operated. They will run with a story like this until it stops making them money. To some extent they will say what people want to hear so that they will stay tuned in and they will make more money. Like it or not, people are fascinated by Jackson, the media senses that and is riding the wave. I don’t buy into the “don’t bash the dead” theory though. Both aspects of his life are truths that should be looked at together and to separate one from the other would be disingenuous. It is a fact that he was an entertainment phenomenon, it’s also true he was an eccentric weirdo.

Was he a total freak? Yes, but so are a lot of other celebrities. I don’t know if he ever molested young boys, but he certainly had inappropriate behavior with them. Having said all that, he was still one of the greatest entertainers of all time. He was a key figure in so many music genres. He personified Motown in the late 60s, disco wasn’t our greatest era musically – but his stuff was phenomenal at the time, he led the R&B era, we was certainly the King of Pop, him and Madonna made MTV what it was, he was every bit as a great a dancer as he was a songwriter and singer. I think he was a deeply troubled man, he lived an odd life since childhood and he probably needed mental help. It is unfortunate that the people around him were not able to help him. Bottom line, phenomenal artist and a man with deep issues all rolled up in one. It’s not his fault the media is focusing so much on him right now. They chase the story. They did the same thing with OJ, Princess Di, Anna Nicole Smith, and every other celebrity. It is more with him because of his stature and his oddities. Can you imagine (no pun intended) what the media would have been like if John Lennon died today instead of 30 years ago?

Not being the biggest person in the room - check Wearing size L shirts and 34 pants – almost there Comfortably riding rides at the fair – check Not being winded from crushing my belly while tying my shoes – check Not being Obese – check Not being Overweight – not quite Not ordering two meals at fast food – check Looking better in pictures – check (sort of) I’m thinner but still don’t look like Brad Pitt

I had a lot of reasons, but one that comes to mind was that I was reaching the upper limit in “normal” clothes sizes. This was more true in shirts than pants. I was up to a size XXXL in shirts and 44 in pants. There are some XXXL shirts on the rack, but a very limited selection. I couldn’t bring myself to go to the Big-n-Tall store.

He should do what Elliot Spitzer did and resign. I don’t say that because he had an affair, but how he handled his absence. Affairs in my opinion are a personal thing, that is between him and his wife. Leaving the state (and the country) for 6 days without informing his staff and the rest of his government is the real issue here. It shows a complete lack of judgment on his part. There are things in state government that only the Governor can do, and he left without putting measures in place in the event an emergency happened. Sorry bud, you don’t qualify to be Governor when you screw up like that.

Ok, so I am hooked on my scale, sorry it’s one of my few vices. I’ve seen a weird phenomenon though that I can’t explain and I’m wondering if anybody has an answer to it. I weigh myself every morning after I go to the bathroom and before I drink or eat, that is the number I use for my calculation. I weigh myself at different times of the day too, just to see what it says. Oddly, sometimes right after I urinate the scale may actually be 0.4 to 0.8 lbs higher than before I went. How is that possible:confused:? I just watched all that urine get flushed away, yet I gained half a pound:cursing:? Usually about half an hour to hour later I’m back to pre-pee weight or a little less. Maybe I need a hobby:lol:

So we should support them because the bible says so? Even while they don’t make the best efforts towards peace with the Palestinians and while they continue to expand illegal settlements into the West Bank? It seems to me that our Foreign Policy should be based more on what is right and just, not a scripture form the bible.

I am. Do I think he’s perfect? No, of course not he is a politician after all. Do I agree with the direction and focus of his policies? Yes I do.

I just turned on the news to see if Middle East peace had been solved or if the North Koreans gave up their nukes. The answer was no on both of those, but with you two agreeing on something I think even those are possible:wink2:.

I didn’t say that Jesus and Allah were the same, I said Allah and God are the same. Moslems do not believe in the trinity, nor do they believe that Jesus is the son of God. When they refer to God, they are referring to the God of Abraham, the one that you refer to as Jesus’ father. Moslems do believe that Jesus existed, but they believe that he was a prophet and not the son of God. You are sort of missing the point. I am not necessarily talking about facts here, I am talking about beliefs. I personally am not saying that God and Allah are the same, I cannot say that because I don’t share either of those belief systems. What I am saying is that Moslems themselves believe that the God they refer to as Allah is the same God that you refer to as the father of Jesus. It is a subtle point, but important in that you are both referring to the same God. The difference in the religions is not the personage of God, but in the teachings of God via the Bible or the Quran.

This is one of those things that makes the skeptics doubt so much that the bible is the word of God and not the ramblings of men. It’s interesting that Islam uses a similar approach. In Islam, believers are taught that Muhammad transcribed the words of Allah into the Quran with the help of the angel Gabriel. To further the belief that he did not insert his own thoughts into the writings, it is believed that Muhammad was illiterate and therefore incapable of writing anything other than what the angel prescribed. Another interpretation is that Muhammad recited (and committed to memory) all of the versus that Gabriel gave him and that literate followers of Muhammad later wrote them into the Quran exactly as Muhammad said them so as not to put their own words in.

You left out another whole possibility. The God that greats you may be slightly different than what you expect, kinda like the one that Bjean describes. He may see your rigidness and judgmental ways to not be in the spirit he intended for his followers. Or you could be way off base and the God in heaven may be more like Allah in Islam or Yahweh in Judaism (which whether you believe it or not are the same God that you refer to as God). Or you may find a supreme being that is really the embodiment of some aspect of all the religions that man has devised. You have faith that you are right and that is good for you, I’m happy for you that you have that. I for one will not say you are wrong, but for me, I have to have an open mind that any and all of the possibilities are there and I have not seen enough evidence that any one of them is more likely than any other.

Seriously Patty, do you even look or do just a tiny bit of research before you post? This is probably the lamest rebuttal you’ve made so far. Israel is a Jewish state because they call themselves that, Netanyahu just demanded the Palestinians refer to them as a “Jewish State” and the Star of David is on their flag. Israel does not have a constitution so it is not determined by that. It is not determined by the number of Jews in the country. Iran is officially called the “Islamic Republic of Iran”. Nowhere does our constitution say that we are a Christian nation, nor do we refer to ourselves as the Christian United States of America.

BJean, I was wondering when you were going to join this party. Better late than never:thumbup: