green

When I started builing aircraft I was a lot thinner and so did not get any crap on this score. My "embiggening" has been due to being post-menopausal, a raft of "fattening" drugs which are used to treat depression, and my deep love of carbs and cheese. I was initially treated badly on the floor because I am a woman and because it was suspected that I am Jewish; thus I got the old one-two of sexist and racist discrimination and life on the shop floor was bad, very bad, for the first 2-3 years. But the job paid extremely well and I was able to stick it out and prove myself, to boot. (I did all my crying at home of course.) And I couldn't complain about the harrassment to anyone; my life really would have been a living hell! I am surprised to hear that your wife doesn't like dogs,T.O.M. The Brits are often quite fond of animals, lavishing on them all the physical affection that they can't lavish on their fellow human beings. Look at the Queen and her corgis.

I read somewhere on the main site that drinking anything with gas was bad for our new smaller stomachs. Gassy drinks can stretch the stomach. This has been why I have been drinking my daily couple of shot glasses of beer after they have gone flat. Oh yah, can't resist the beer when my mate brings home a can or two. I have also had chips over the weekend. I have been chewing them into a mush though. The truth is that I have been all out of tzatziki and I am really missing salt. This is why I chewed up some cold bacon today. Apart from these misdemeanors I have been sticking to the soup and yogurt diet. I don't know how one qualifies as a therapist, Kimmason, but now you've got me curious. And yep, I am still off work due to depression. I am thinking about early retirement now that I am starting to come out of 3.5 years of really deep depression. At the worst of it I couldn't even move! My mother died last year and left me some money which will provide a bit of an income, I am 57, and I am thinking that there are other things that I might like to do. I am kinda artsy. I paint and I like writing and I like the computer even though I am totally blonde! The mate is used to having me at home. So I am thinking retirement and taking courses in various things as well as getting back into the gym once I heal from the banding. I still haven't decided yet because I will be giving up a very good gig but I am leaning in the direction of early retirement. I think I want to learn knew stuff now that I am less depressed. (Maybe I can help Cloe with her lambing next time the sheepies are having babies. I've never done anything like that before.) Good luck on your fill and liquids for the first day after, eh.

Sometimes it seems as though fat is the final frontier, doesn't it? I feel badly that your/our concern got such short schrift in the corporate diversity class, wavy, especially as much more is known about this issue of weight now. We know, for instance, that it has to do with the luck of the genetic deck as much as anything else, and we know that the entire industrialised world is getting fatter. It was discriminatory and therefore wrong for your issue to be ignored in that class. Perhaps you may wish to write them a letter or a manifesto at some future point. I myself am always annoyed at the lack of decent clothing choices once a grrl hits size big and bitch about this routinely on my own blog and elsewhere. As for being brought up British, it sure has presented me with problems over the years. My discomfort when anyone infringes the 3-foot no-fly zone extends to everyone except my mate. This means that I am always exceedingly uncomfortable around tiny children who naturally think that every lap is theirs to sit on. And I remember my horror when I was small and adults wanted to pick me up and give me a kiss! How I detested this in much the same way that I hate it now when folks insist that their children kiss me. I am more physically friendly now but this has been learned behaviour on my part. I think to myself must touch arm or pat shoulder! I guess I show my affection for people through my conversation and my letters....

I think that you should try discussing how much fill with your fill 'er up specialist. I was reading on the main site that too much fill can be worse than too little. It hurts and for some reason ? you don't lose weight. The TLBC has me scheduled for 3 fills starting mid-Oct and ending mid-Nov. This means that I will be getting one fill every two weeks. Yuck! I am kinda dreading the fills. Good thing I have lotsa demerol left over. I hate needles.

LOL! You and I are built back to front. When someone throws themselves into my arms I find myself gingerly tapping them on the back with my fingertips. It's the way I was brought up.

Yah, It's true. A gay friend of mine who has been around (what gay guy hasn't?) told me that they are petite.

Congratulations, Swanny, you, like me, are a September bandster. I was banded two Thursdays ago so the memory is pretty fresh. I spent Friday, Saturday, and much of Sunday in bed and I slept a lot. By Monday the only real pain issues I was having was with gas. I certainly didn't need the demerol though I took it at night to help me get to sleep and I still had to sleep on my back. I was able to walk around, goof on the computer, have a bath, and do a little bit of laundry. I felt pretty good but I tired easily. From that Monday life just got better and better! Then you get to eat soups and that is a total rush! I hope hearing my experiences helps you a bit.

I am lucky that I never acquired a taste for pop. Like beer, though, and that's a problem.

Aw shucks, t'weren't nothin'.....

I do think that we have the same rights as anyone else to exclude a potential lover on the basis of his looks, though we do not have a right to exclude a potential friend. When we go hunting for a house we have a set of criteria that we want met for we are searching for our ideal home. When it comes down to the practice we all find ourselves making compromises. We may opt for fewer bathrooms in order to get that dream kitchen for example. But one thing we all have in common is this: nobody is going to buy an ugly house. It is fortunate that your idea of looks is different from mine and so most of us go away from our hunting experiences (for a house or a mate) relatively content. We not only live in a lookist society, we are lookist ourselves. It is just a simple fact of nature. We are all initially attracted to that which looks beautiful. This is why industrial zones are never featured on travel brochures. This is why Hollywood puts their thin beautiful actors into the fat suits or spends 4 hours before a shoot putting their ugly make-up on. This is why you want your home to look pretty and why you have had the lapband operation. My ideal of male beauty was influenced by my father who was short, dark, thin and very, very handsome. This is what turns my crank. Most of the guys I have been involved with have been tall and thin and there has been one or two blondies in the mix. (For some reason they are often younger than I am, too. Go figure.) But I had a 7-year relationship with a fat guy who was one of the best looking guys I had ever seen - from the neck up. Initially I was too freaked out to look at his body and so we spent the first 4 months of our relationship in the dark but, man, I have never felt as petite and protected and feminine as when I was cuddled up against him in bed. I grew to love his bulk. There is nothing wrong with being a lookist. There is something wrong with being rigid and inflexible.

I am suddenly drawing a blank on what the initials PB stand for but what it means is you got yourself a burp with cargo. LOL Oh yah, productive burp. Somewhere on the main site someone has posted a sheet of information that they received from their doctor about fills. It is very interesting. It advises doing a liquid diet the day before, not eating after midnight in order that the stomach be empty. While you can drink lots of water, and should in order to be well hydrated, the water should be room temperature. Cold water can alter the shape of stomach temporarily and thus the fill won't be as accurate or as effective. They suggest that after the fill you do a liquid diet for 24 hours in order to help your stomach out. I found this post interesting as it all made sense to me. As for fruit, I guess bananas are the one fruit that is easy to chew up and digest. They are also supposed to be one of the healthiest things to eat on the planet. Too bad I can't stand 'em. Haha. Remember that you can also take juice boxes with you along with bottles of water. It's not exactly fine dining is it? Wah.

It's funny (and annoying) how that whole sizing thing works. It even works with shoes. I take anywhere from a 10 to an 11 depending on the shoe and who made it. If it was made in China then Green can fuggedaboutit. They make the smallest size 11 I have ever tried to squash my foot in. I would never dare order pants out of a catelogue. I have to try those on.

Sure, I'd be delighted to. Argon, I think a better cracker with the baba ghanoush would be a water cracker or a Finn crisp. Breton's are a little too flakey and salty to really high light the contrast. The stuff is traditionally eaten with pita.

Yah, I've just been banded and I am a little freaked out about this hair loss thing that I've been reading about. Does it happen to everyone? I have always had such thick hair that it's a torment in the summer. It would be very weird to lose it at my age. What's the deal with the hair loss? When does it happen? And I've always been a fan of aspirin. Is this it for the stuff? My doctor never told me any of this stuff (not that it would have mattered).

That's a compelling image, Jack. It would make for a pretty good screen saver, especially if you could get those shorts dancing.

I take 2 chewable adult vitamins per day, some chewable calcium, and I crush the rest of the meds I am supposed to take. Right after I had my operation I had my husband buy a pill crusher at the local pharmacy. It's been a good investment.

Better to be too busy than not busy enough, sez Green. This will help distract you from your depression and from your desire to eat. Or at least that is how it works in theory, isn't it? One of the best forms of exercise is walking and that main campus is a big one. You will certainly be getting some workout just by being there. And as for the food issue, you may wish to pack some of those boxes of apple juice, the ones that I am coming to hate, as these will give you the vita C and the fruit sugars will give ya a little boost. Along with these you could carry some packs of yogurt and some bananas. This crap is boring, I know, but it is healthy and easy to digest. This means that you won't PB. Pre-lapband I would have told anyone who suggested such a diet to me to F**k off! :puke: In fact, I myself am one of those fat people who has almost no sweet tooth at all. I hate fruit but love vegetables bathed in such things as butter, cheese and olive oil. But now we are lapbanders and serious folk and so this morning I started the day with a box of apple juice and a bunch of crushed up pharmaceuticals. Now I am drinking skim milk and planning on my nuked soup lunch. Anyhow, do keep writing, eh. I love reading yer posts.

Thank you, Cloe, for those really kind words. It is true that although I have two serious limitations - the most dysfunctional kitchen in the world and I am lazy - I do like to eat well. I have always figured that I wanted every ounce of my fat to be high quality on the pleasure scale! No wasted calories, eh grrls! Nothin' but the best for greedy Green! This is why I am fussy about the quality of the cheese and bread I buy. When I make myself a grilled cheese sandwhich I want extra-old cheddar on a really gorgeous bread - I am nuts about good bread - that has been nicely toasted and is crunchy. Instead of wolfing down a big barrel of Chapman's icecream I will wolf down a small tub of Haagen Daaz. When the icecream is gone, it's gone. The H.D. is just as fattening and it tastes better. I have also never, ever used margarine in my life. Butter tastes better. I guess I have always been a taste freak. Hahaha. Maybe that is why I am size fat! I am also a cheese freak. I love the stuff and I have the cholesterol to prove it. I put cheese in salads, pasta, casseroles and soups. I eat a lot of vegies, in giant fattening salads (yep, mine are fattening), pasta, and stir fries. I think that I am fat because I sure love carbs and I sure love dairy and I sure love to eat a lot. I also like eating lamb but only when it is cooked rare and with care. The French, Greeks, and the Italians do brilliant things with lamb. My mum, who came from England, used to kill the poor beast all over again when she was cooking it. In the middle east they do really brilliant things with ground lamb and spices that I learned about from eating in ethnic restaurants, etc. I guess I learned a lot of my present likes and dislikes after I became an adult. Toronto is such a multi-cultural joint and there is no shortage of interesting and cheap restaurants for a greedy grrl like myself to investigate. :hungry:

I hope you enjoy yourself in Toronto. I grew up here and so I really love it. The shopping is good and there is lots of variety. Unfortunately there is a lot more variety for thin people with small - size 9 or less - feet. It is a difficult city to get lost in when you are in the core because it is built on a grid. Good luck on the surgery, too.

Wow! I am hoping to get to an Argon state of mind.

You would be surprised. I was when I first tried it. The eggplant is baked before it is mashed and it doesn't have the same texture at all. It isn't slimy. The mixture is delicious and tastes like hummus. It has a lighter texture though.

My family comes from England. We were always very formal with people and never touched except in times of great emotion. I am still somewhat uncomfortable with hugging people unless I have been drinking. When I was living in France I had to learn a new trick. Folks over there give each other air kisses on both cheeks when they greet each other and again when they say good bye. Though I lived there for 3 years I never really got comfortable with that. I was raised that kissing someone was a sign of the great affection you felt for them. Remember, I have trouble even hugging folks. In France I was routinely kissed by individuals whom I knew personally loathed me. Of course it is just a custom there but one which I never learned to like. Still, one of the interesting things about being around different people is exactly that, their differences. I learn a lot about people and even more about myself.:puke:

My ideal man used to be short and very thin, built like a gymnast, and brunette. This is because this was how my father looked. Most of the men I have been involved with have been tall and thin and as I have gotten older they have gotten much better looking. I did have a plump significant other once and we were together for seven years. He was a very intelligent, very good looking man but he was big and though I liked him a lot it took me months to go to bed with him with the lights on. LOL! And yet I never felt more at home, nor more feminine than when I was lying against his body. I love my husband but he is the one man that I still think of with love and affection out of all my exes. And as for the men, my husband didn't want me to have the lap band. He was afraid that I would get too thin. I know a few men who do prefer a fleshier woman.

Baba ghanoush is very similar to hummus except that it is made with roasted eggplant that has then been mashed. The same flavours go into it as go into hummus.

When I had a job where I had to deal with people, a long, long time ago, I would just say "can I help you?" This is entirely neutral. What bothers me are individuals who wish to sell me something and open up contact by asking me, a complete stranger, how I am. On the phone or at my front door they will do this even before identifying who they are. I remember when I was very young a salesperson would say, "Hello. My name is (fill in the blanks) and I represent the so and so company and I would like to interest you in (fill in the blanks)." Very brief and to the point. Now they say "how are you?" How are you going to reply to that? None of your biz. Ya really wanna know?? Fine, and yourself (not that I am interested because you are a stranger). Fine, thanx, is what I say and then I say "so what do you want to sell me?" That always shocks them.