OH Juli

TX, Where you been, girl?

Sue Your stats are impressive. You must be very motivated indeed! I'm looking at trying to get to 190 by my band anniversary which is a stretch goal, considering that's 17 pounds in 6 weeks!!! But I've been hanging out at this weight for a while so I'm going to focus and get it done. Also, I'm hoping seeing the renewed success on the scales will help me feel better about the skin issue. Thanks everyone for your kind words.

My periods have always been rather simple affairs however they were not regular. Now they happen with clock work. My sex drive is out of control. It's always been pretty strong, but now it's even more so.

I have to second the "don't worry about what other people think" thread. Ms. Manners would say they were out of line to question you regardless of what you eat and order. And the reality of it is most people don't give a fig about what other people eat, do, think. But it that doesn't work, just push your food around, make conversations, pick at your taco with a fork. But going back to not letting people comment....a coworker has a saying, it's a bit crass but it has come in handy a few times and now I just need to say the last bit... "What I eat, you don't shit, so don't worry about what's on my plate." And that's usually reserved for my SO who can't stand the sight of me eating eggs over easy all squished up. "don't worry about it" shuts off the commentary.

I cycle long distances pretty regularly. I am not one who has my band adjusted super tightly...but it's reasonable to assume he'll be able to eat between 1000-1500 calories a day. He probably burns 2000-2500...that's how one loses the weight, the differences between the two. However, there's plenty of stored energy in his body if he is 150 overweight. I do eat more on the days I exercise heavily, but that's a few hundred calories more, not a thousand more. Good luck to you and your family.

Thanks Laura, That's really what I need to do. Eye on the prize and not allowing momentary imagery get in the way of my long term goals. My insurance will cover the paniculectomy (sp) but the rest is going to be paid by me. It's only money or some such thing. Thanks,

That pot is going to break off the wall. I'd let someone know. If not on you it will break on someone else and that's not good.

Hi, I'm not a chef but I've been a small restaurant/bakery manager, baker, cook and now I run a cafeteria. When I made excuses for being heavy it was because I work with food. But then I have a heavy friend who can't fry and egg and she manages to find food to eat. So the issue became not proximity to food but how I deal with it. I love to cook stuff for others that I'd never cook for myself, but the beauty part of the band is you can have a taste and be okay with that. You can't gorge yourself and if you are mindful you're not going to make poor choice after choice. The upside of being in the industry is you already have a head start in understanding nutrition and how to cook foods that meet the requirements and won't taste horrible. I'm not a fancy cook, but I have transitioned to better quality foods and even started learning all about wines. It's a shift in focus but fills that need to experience food deeply. I don't know if that makes sense, but now a glass of wine does what appetizers, salad and dessert did...but that's more about going out to eat. BTW, I'm in school to get my MBA and I'm sure I'll be in the food biz as I've been at it for 19 years. My goal however is to get out of the kitchen where food is served and more into the inner business, manufacturing workings. Because even with everything I said above there are still times where I have to chant the mantra, "don't eat the cookie, don't eat the cookie, don't eat the damn cookie." There are some challenges but they are surmountable.

Good attitude BG. and great yous of missppelled wordz. JC, sorry to hear that you are chomping at the bit to be get moving, but you know you need to follow doctor's orders.

you know and I'm amazed that I've not been flamed. But I try to stay out of that mess. Makes me think of that prolific poster... Any you are a loser. A weight loser! Who's the dork?

ZZ Look at you! What great cheek bones you have! You look fantastic. BG, You'll knock em dead. You know you will. And how the hell did I get to the point of having over 2000 posts on this site?

Tell her that her having opnions about your medical health is inappropriate and you will thank her to keep them to herself. Only when you pay her for her professional medical advice can she give it and since she's not a doctor it's not going to happen. Then go to her supervisor and say she's off the mark and you're going to pursue legal action if you don't get an apology. She's creating a hostile work environment and that's not acceptable. It's discriminatory to boot.

That's amazing!!!!!!!!!!! It's on my list for 08! You're my hero.

Hi people. I'm closer to goal than not, but I have an issue that I'm hoping your combined experiences can help me with. It's about my skin. I need to make peace with the sagging, drooping skin that I'm living in and which is only going to get worse until I get to goal and have plastic surgery. The thing is as a SMO woman weighing in at over 300+ I could strut nude in front of the One I Love but as someone who has lost over 100 pounds the I can no longer strut. It's like I'm focusing on the negative (so far the only one) of losing weight and not the positives. But it's huge and I know I need to make peace with it because I'm a solid year or more away from PS. And this discontent has me making really poor, deliberately bad choices. At least I've been able to make that connection. Any way, any help you give, tips or ideas about living happily in this body while I become thinner and healthier would be appreciated. TIA.

It's my body and my God. God can decide where if I go to hell or heaven. In the mean time don't tell me what I may or may not do.

that's a bummer. Look for the silver lining if you can. Maybe he'll like the new job better? Sorry.

This could get depressing. I had my PCP tell me that she had a personal bias against heavy people and smokers. Awe shucks, that's for owning that, but gee whiz, that really doesn't instill a great amount of trust in you. Mind you she's all grins and rah rahing my weight loss, when she really wasn't all the keen on me having the surgery initially. Yeah, and who's the idiot in this picture? She's still my doc.

I just love you guys. So Gwen about the 100 pound marker. I'll tell you, I was really psyched to get there. Not scared, not nervous. But now I'm losing so slowly I wonder if I'm resting on the, "I've lost 100 pounds" laurel. Which isn't going to get me to goal. The biggest shift in my thinking, when I'm being positive, is that I'm not really counting what I've lost but of what I have left. Like I've already beat down 60%, I can knock off the other 40. I'm pretty good at meting out tasks to meet goals and so forth. So breaking things down like that gives me comfort. You know, my reach goal is to see 190 by my surgery anniversary. Which is pretty rigorous. It's 2.57 pounds a week between now and then. I'm lucky to see one a week now. Maybe I'll get inspired to knock my calories down to 800-900 a day...it's the only way it will happen...

Short of telling you to google interviewing tips here goes. Situational interviewing is where you’re asked to tell stories about your past experience. Like, “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your supervisor and how was it resolved.” Or what is your strength/weakness. What’s most important IMHO is that you turn your weaknesses into strengths and strengths into ways to enhance the organization. Like for me, I’d answer the weakness question: A weakness of mine is that I’m quick to react so I sometimes don’t consider all the possible outcomes of my actions. I’ve learned to either say, “Let me think about that before giving an answer” or more recently I’ve identified a co-worker who is opposite of me, nearly frustrating in her ability to consider all possibilities before being conclusive, so I go to her with my situation and get her take. I take her strength and put it with my weakness and come up with a better solution than if I had shot immediately from the hip. The upside of my quickness to respond is that I do typically come up with a good short term solution. And I fully expect that after the crisis is over a team will probably reexamining the situation for a better long term solution. So BG, take all your faults –both of them- and look for an upside and how that will benefit the company if they were to hire you. Also, couch your language as best you can about how you would contribute to them, not how appealing working there would be for you. Like don’t say, “I went to school specifically to work with this population. Being at XYZ would be a dream come true.” Say, “I did some extensive (and do it) research on XYZ and am thrilled at how many areas my skills and knowledge specifically feed into how you help the population. Those being 1, 2 and 3.” Want more? I’ll talk to you about stuff if you want to call me. I sent this to BG's email but I thought maybe B might be able to add more. You know he's Ivy League as opposed to my tiny business college.

Way to go Jeni!!!!

Sigh I denied I was as big as I was. How else can you account for being super morbidly obese? I think I'm bigger than I am now which is the opposite thing. I do look at myself in the mirror more and with clothing on I think I look okay. But nakkit I can't stand the way my skin hangs. There is PS in my future. But before a full bodied 310 woman would walk around nude with more confidence than my 207 hanging skinned does. I just told my SO it's sex with the lights off until I get to goal and get the skin taken care of. And that's just not my typical attitude. Weird stuff going on in my head for certain. I just assume it will pass eventually. Good Luck.

enell is a great brand and titlenine has some fantastic bras, depending on what size you are at. I found Target and Walmart run small and have very few 2X. I struggled when I was bigger than that, but Juonia, and Avenue came through in a pinch. Keep up the good work!

"Now pissing excellence from beatuiful sububan Detroit is non other than LBT's own BabyGirl. Not to be missed is a special appearance by Left Butt formerly from the super huge duo of "Was a Big Girl's Ass" with her twin Right Butt. Left Butt takes up less room than she did in past, she is firmer and tighter but still the hottest thing in town... Please give it up....."

I'll see if Zoe wants to bring her bellydance outfit. No shit, the ex's GF is a bellydancer in a troop and Zoe's been a hanger on...just in love with the sparkles and scarves. Well someone made her a complete outfit with jingling belt and everything...Zoe LOVES makeup. Too cute. We tried tap and ballet and she just wasn't interested. No my kid wants to be a belly dancer/life guard. It sounds promissing, like you're going to meet us at the pool :biggrin: That's happiness making.

I was done at OSU with Dr. Mikami and it ws a fantastic experience. :biggrin: