green

I guess you got trapped by people who love to talk about themselves. Too much information, eh! :rolleyes You have my condolences. :ranger:

While I often find the comments concerning my weight loss disconcerting and kind of tedious I am inclined to put up with them. Weight issues loom large in modern society. The media are full of reports on the growing numbers of people who are obese and most people these days are either battling the problem themselves or know people who are. When they see someone who has been successful in losing a lot of weight it is understandable that they will want to talk about this; they want to find out how this was done and they also genuinely do feel that they are being nice by noticing and handing out compliments. They are unthinking, perhaps, and do not realise that we have become burnt out by having already received a boatload of these compliments and questions. And as for us, it can become unpleasant to find ourselves defined in other people's eyes pretty much solely by our body size. :tired Still, in the early stages of our weight loss journeys most of us are waiting to hear this kind of positive feedback. I was at a bandster luncheon yesterday, and when one of the gang walked in she was showered with compliments. She later told a few of us how happy she was to hear them; she had lost a substantial amount of weight but had been getting zero feedback from outside. Although getting your master's is a much more substantial achievement in your eyes it seems that it is your weight loss which most people can relate to. This is definitely a drag but understandable given the values of this society: it is a society that values sports, money, and looks over intellectual achievement. And perhaps most people feel that although they could never get a master's degree, they might be able to lose weight someday. We sure do live in populist times. :phanvan Anyhow, I myself am inclined to accept the compliments and deal with the questions evasively. A very big congratulations from Green on receiving your master's degree. This is something which I once had dreams of doing but I married a bum instead. :think This was a dumb move on my part.

*sigh* I know a whole lot of straight guys who want to be Lesbians.... LOL

From one green to another greene, welcome, eh. It was great meeting you at lunch yesterday. You will have great results with the band. Men do tend to lose weight more quickly than we women do. If you haven't already done so do look at the before and after photos which Gaffer, another Canuck, has posted on this site. The weight which he has lost in 6 months is amazing.

Ooops! I thought I had posted my appreciation of the event yesterday right after I came home but now I don't see it. I must have hit the wrong button or something.... Anyhow, I want to say that I had tons of fun. It really was great to meet fellow banded folk and fun to meet the faces behind the cyber-names. :biggrin1: A very big thank you, Donna D, for arranging this for us. I sure am looking forward to the next meeting of the banded ones. :Banane20: Be sure to bring your daughter, Donna D. She is a lovely person. Lianna, you will be part of the clan and on mushies, I guess, by the time the next luncheon takes place. Good luck on your operation day. I hope that you will have very little gas. (Remember you can walk it off, eh. I forgot and spent the first 3 days in bed enjoying the lovely drugs instead. A dumb move on my part. I went through a lot of Gas-X! :omg: ) I also want to say thank you to my new friend who gave me very valuable advice on acid reflux. :Banane20: And a huge appreciation goes to my friend, Lisa in TO. She gives me lifts to these affairs. We two are the city folk and I have never learned how to drive. :phanvan

I, oh, so hear ya about the tweezers! LOL I often wonder, now that I am 58, if all those old time bearded circus ladies were just yer regular post-menopausal grrls, ones who had decided not to pluck. There was a time when there weren't a lot of career avenues open to women....

What's the weather in Houston like?

Dump the dude. You deserve better. You will never, ever have an interesting and adventure-filled life with this clown around. Nor will you ever feel happy, relaxed and content. You will always feel nervous and scared, wondering what he is going to do with the money you both need for food, rent, etc. He is far too jealous and controlling to allow you out to meet people, to learn about other options in life, to have a little fun on your own, and to have your own friends. With this guy you will always remain poor, you will never own a house, you will never have the emotional support of a gang of friends, you will never own nice things, you will never travel, and your kids won't have access to good health care and education. You may love him but this is a bad habit, like loving drinking, smoking, over-eating, or dope. It is not doing you any good at all. There are a whole lot of people out there, very nice people who could make you much, much happier and healthier. His mouth may tell you that he loves you but his actions say something entirely different. The truth is this guy is only into himself and his own desires. You can do a lot better.

And, oh yah, I have always given away a lot of my clothes to friends and charity during my trip to fatville and now that I am moving to normoland. It is just that I cannot bear to relinquish the linen stuff....

I bought two long sleeved Ts in an extra large yesterday instead of the triple X which I have been wearing and they looked good and weren't too tight! I am going to wear 'em with my baggy pants. This way one section of my body will look normo. Sometime soon I am going to be a decent bra. Right now I only wear jog bras. These don't lift and separate. They smash 'em down flat. I also bought a pair of skinny cropped jeans in a size 12. The 10s fit but they gave me muffin top. Muffin top looks real sad on a 58 year old woman, eh. blehhh!

I feel for you. I started getting TOM when I turned 10. I always had horrible cramps and bad psychological side effects. I always turned into an emotional monster, so much so that my men would figure out that TOM was involved when I was in the middle of a full-blown freak-out. This would always stop me cold. I would think about it, do a little calculating, and then say "oh, my gawd! You are so right! And I am so sorry!" Weird, eh.....? Grrlie hormones are kinda cruel, I think. There is probably some powerful genetic reason for this but, nevertheless, we are still swept up, aren't we? Ugh! That's grrl life, I guess.

This is an interesting question. I have heard that a number of Dr. Yau's patients have had ports which have flipped. I was banded by him Sept 2006 and my port is placed dead centre on my torso and about 2 inches below my bra strap. It hasn't flipped but I hear that he is placing ports in different regions of the torso now. Perhaps these areas are less stable for anchoring a port???

:cool:Smoking dope is very fattening.... I remember having those blind munchies! :hungry:

Although I am very much pro-choice I must agree with Gadget on this point. I believe that those individuals who believe that abortion should only be made available under extreme circumstances must be considered to be in the anti-abortion camp; they are certainly not in favour of allowing a woman the freedom to make her own choice. And the solution is an obvious one. Those who are anti-abortion can choose to avoid getting one. Those who are pro-choice can continue on making their choices. I really don't see what the big fuss is all about. The current legislation accomodates both groups, does it not? :tired

From what I've been reading on this site TOM can leave you feeling super restricted. I hated TOM. Lots of pain and I turned into a nutbar. One of the few good things about getting old is no more TOM. :woot: You have my condolences.

I've continued wearing them and I really ought to cut it out. The pants make me look like I haven't lost much weight. The thing is that many of my old pants are made of linen and I love linen. Maybe if I got some smaller tops I could continue to wear the baggy pants. I guess it's time to go shopping again.......

I've read everyone of the books which you have mentioned except for The Life of Pi and Bone People, and enjoyed them all. I absolutely adored Satanic Verses, and am planning to reread this soon. I am in the midst of doing a lot of reading on the history of Islam at the moment and I figure that once I get all of this knowledge under my hood I will reread the Verses. I have two texts on Islam, one I bought some years ago which I found to be a tough read for someone who knew as little as I do and I recently bought another, a more beginner-friendly text. Once I finish Islam for western dummies, I will dig up the other book and have another stab at it. A wonderful writer who has been translated into English is the Egyptian writer, Naguib Mahfouz. He has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and justly so in my opinion. The Australians, Peter Carey and Eliot Perlman, are also splendid. And you must read Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. I will shut up now on this biz of books. As for your mum, it is too bad that she is bored. Does she like music? Perhaps an iPod? Does she have any computer skills? She might find the internet of interest. My mum was planning to learn at the age of 87; it was sad that she died without having had the fun. She sure would have loved it! What about a dictating machine? She could then tell the story of your family, and of her life and times. I am sure that many people would be fascinated to learn how household chores were done in those days, how long they took, what things cost, what people ate, how people travelled and why - in brief, the minutiae of her existance. It would be interesting to learn how she felt about the Depression, the wars, the hippies, etc., and when she got her first TV. I guess I find myself suggesting this to you because I myself am still wanting to ask my mother or my father these sorts of questions but cannot.

Oops! I hadn't thought of that. Good point! :confused: LOL

Two possible reasons: either they love talking about themselves, people do, you know, or they are lying. :heh: When people are lying they tend to present way too much information in order to support their lies. Because they are young I suspect that they are lying. Young people don't normally like to dwell on bowel movements and crap like that. They have probably been off having fun somewhere. :confused:

And they get elected! :omg:

Jack has given you solid advice for it does seem to me like you are currently caught up in a self-destructive cycle of over-eating and then despising yourself. Forcing yourself to PB is likely part of the punishment which you force upon yourself for your so-called bad behaviour. Do as Jack has said: focus on your achievements to date. You have been successful in losing a lot of weight. And remember that we are all bandsters because we all have problems with food choices and with portion control. We all feel your pain and we have all worn the same T-shirt. Do try to avoid PBing because this can be bad for your band and your esophagus. If you do feel that you are in a period of your life where you will be prone to overeating for emotional reasons, get a defill; by doing this you will avoid stretching your pouch or causing your band to slip. You can always return to your journey later. And by the way, eating 8-10 ounces of roast beef is a much healthier choice than finishing an entire pizza. You might want to print out Jack's inspirational post and keep it where you can reread it from time to time. You have hit a rocky patch but I believe that you will do just fine. You have already lost an impressive amount of weight.

But you are eating fewer of 'em now that you have been banded, eh? I heard that they are rich in saturated fats.... This is not good for you, Derick.

Hurray for you! This is great news indeed!! Congratulations from Green.

Yah! I miss you all as well. Now I got no more reason to live.

I eat a lot more eggs now than I used to. You can make a really healthy and delicious fritatta/omelet with eggs and fresh vegetables. An egg has approximately 70 cals and yet is loaded with vita Bs and as well as containing other vitamins and several minerals.