ser123

I just moved from Ohio, where you couldn't smoke in bars or restaurants. I miss it so much! I am in Virginia now and Big Tobacco is pretty entrenched here so I don't think that the laws will get here anytime soon.

This thread is really cute. Everyone is so creative. I am an OSU fan but the Ohio State University variety... GO BUCKS!!

I knew about the shrinking liver part but didn't know they had to lift my liver up. That is kind of scary but it makes sense. When I told my patient coordinator I didn't think I could do the liquid diet for a week, he was ADAMENT about it and said I had to or I was risking serious complications. Which of course seemed overblown to me. Since I want to minimize the seriousness of what I am actually doing. Not anymore. Definitely want my delicate liver to remain unscathed. Thanks guys. This thread has been an eye opener for me.

Hi Becky, I am Susan. My online ID is supergenius because I like Wile E. Coyote and he refers to himself as not just a mere genius, but a supergenius. That cracks me up. Plus every time I get a big head it seems I get run over by an ACME rocket sled, just like Wile. And 8.18 is my birthday.

This thread has been really good and here is my .02: First, I loved the poster who blamed the scars on a knifing accident. And I loved the poster who blamed her PBing on her date's driving!!! Very funny you two... As for telling a date about my band... I can say I probably won't say anything about my band until I get to know someone. That is just my personal preference for now. I had liposuction about 10 years ago and I don't remember the last boyfriend I told that. As for physical attraction, my theory is that if someone asks me out then they must be attracted to me. Most guys aren't going to ask someone out if he thinks she is ugly. Add that to my observation that most guys are ready to have sex with you ASAP. So if a man asks me out then I am not worried about whether or not he thinks I am attractive (after all, I am not a rich heiress that he would date to gain access to my millions). In terms of online dating, be it Match.com or Eharmony... I usually meet someone for the first time for coffee. If it lasts less than 30 minutes it is usually because either I, or he, is not interested. If it is going great then it can last a long time and I assume the guy is going to be calling me again soon. Coffee isn't that big of a commitment... so if I don't like him I don't feel bad for him spending $5 to meet me, and if he doesn't like me then it wasn't like I spent a whole dinner getting all emotionally invested in him. To me, dating is a numbers game. I will meet almost anyone I think I may possibly have a mutual interest in for coffee. And for those dry spells or when all I have been doing is drinking a lot of coffee, I always make sure I have batteries....

Hi everyone... I am going to be banded January 5th so I am not really in a place to re-evaluate. I have gained and lost weight and regained it so many times that I have a little bit of perspective. For me, I always have a couple of goals... what I want and what I can live with. I have previously weighed 150 lbs as an adult and I was able to stay at that weight for a relatively long time. For a brief moment I was 145 but it was SOOO much more work than being 150. I could live with the amount of work 150 lbs took... but not the amount of work 145 lbs took. I have also gotten down to a size 12 and thought I looked decent. I LOVED it when I got down to a size 8, but I could definitely live with how I looked at size 12. Of course, right now I can kick myself for not being happy when I was a size 16. One of my goals now is that I want to really enjoy every single weight loss milestone I have. I am hoping that the band combined with me exercising will produce a weight I can live with without constantly trying and obsessing. It seems my whole life has been about trying not to eat this or that, or obsessively counting calories. Or trying yet another diet or obsessively eating huge amounts of food. I hope this makes sense...

I am getting banded January 5th. I KNOW I am going to be on that scale every 2 minutes, at least initially. For me, I am going to have to not just measure my progress by the scale. I can live with a size 12, and would LOVE to be a size 8. I can live with weighing 175 lbs, but would LOVE to weigh less than 150lbs. I have other goals also. I would like to be able to cross my legs like a girl instead of like a guy. I would like to be comfortable in airplane seats and stadium seats. I would like to wear shorts and not have them get eaten by my crotch as I walk. Psychological things are... I would like to not constantly be thinking about food. I would like to not be embarrassed about what I am buying when I go to the grocery store. I would like to not want to or be able to eat an entire pizza by myself. I think I will make a list of things that will be signs of progress besides what the scale shows...

If I had a snapshot of me now, at 35, obese and unmarried, sitting on my couch in my pajamas with my dogs... I think initially I would think this was A TERRIBLE and PATHETIC FATE. I would see that picture as all of the things I am NOT. When I was 18 I thought that my worth was measured only by my accomplishments. If I didn't acheive a goal, I felt like an unworthy failure. I have definitely learned since the age of 18 that my worth depends on a whole lot of other factors other than accomplishments. I have also learned that a glimpse rarely tells the whole story. At 35, I am a complex, hopeful, accomplished woman with faith in God, myself and the people in my life. And certainly worthy. If I could communicate that to my 18 year old self, I think that would give my 18 year old self an overwhelming sense of RELIEF.