Why is it that when people have been successful at something ie: losing weight with the band, they become the judge and jury of any person who is now coming up behind them. They seem to self proclaim themselves as 'better' than the 'others', in an elite group and in some instances more virtuous than the rest of us. What makes succeeding in weight loss the holy grail, and thus the people who achieve it more perfect, more intelligent and more entitled to an opinion? In my opinion it appears to have made people more obnoxious and self rightious,not to mention condescending.

But as I have not yet attained the 'holy-weight-loss-I-am-without-fault-and-know-everything' badge my opinion probably doesn't count.:faint:

No! That's horrible. I hate green. Yuk.

What time is it there down under? I have no idea how much of a time change there is between us? Just curious........

7.05 pm. Kids are watching Futurama. We've just had steamed mini dim sims and vege fried rice (brown) for dinner. I'm about to pour a wine and Doug will be home soon so its the end of my computer time.

So is it tomorrow there? It's tuesday night here. Are you ahead of us? I would think you wouldn't be only 5 hours behind us.

It's 6.05pm Wednesday evening, in sunny Queensland.

That amazes me for some reason. Thank God someone invented the internet!

Here ya go!

perfect siggy!!!

This is going to be my new motto......hmmmmm......I think I'll go do some crunches or something...

Thanks, you guys keep me laughing

klpdbl - apparently all you need to do is lie in bed think about doing them ... :car:

Is this better?

oh good god no, NEON green??? ick.

it is the busiest day of the month for me at work today and what am i doing?? :rolleyes this is bad ...

I'm the same, nowhere near as scary and opinionated in real life as I come across in writing.

I belong to an online group that I've been with for five years, we all got together through a public forum during pregnancies, and its basically become real life friends. We had our first national meet a few years ago, in Sydney and afterwards we were discussing it and people had literally been scared to meet me and were so relieved I wasnt a loud mouthed pushy bitch in real life, lol. We used to have a lot of debates over politics, welfare, childcare, all those *safe* topics. Lord knows how we survived that and got to be lifelong friends.

I have read scores of your posts before/after being banded in July07... I DO appreciate your comments and advise.

I hope all the "oldtimers" never go away, and I hope one day to be 'one' of them....

:whoo:

I'm the same, nowhere near as scary and opinionated in real life as I come across in writing.

The me here is the me IRL - as some of the bandsters who have met me IRL would attest to (remembering a discuss at Chili's about religion)

Oh - and superior oldies? Hah! I'm superior, period. Doesn't matter if I'm old or new.

:heh:

klpdbl - apparently all you need to do is lie in bed think about doing them ... :car:

Even better......uh oh...does that mean I really ate that deep fried cranberry sauce :hungry:........better think about doing something a little more vigorous than crunches..... (he he)

:heh:

Why is it that when people have been successful at something ie: losing weight with the band, they become the judge and jury of any person who is now coming up behind them. They seem to self proclaim themselves as 'better' than the 'others', in an elite group and in some instances more virtuous than the rest of us. What makes succeeding in weight loss the holy grail, and thus the people who achieve it more perfect, more intelligent and more entitled to an opinion? In my opinion it appears to have made people more obnoxious and self rightious,not to mention condescending.

But as I have not yet attained the 'holy-weight-loss-I-am-without-fault-and-know-everything' badge my opinion probably doesn't count.:faint:

I am in kind of a weird position whenever it comes to these discussions. I figure that I am now an old timer, I was banded Sept 7, 2006, and I reached goal about 9-10 months after I was banded. Since then I have lost another 5 lbs. Now, it is true that I was one of the lower BMI gang and so I only had about 50 lbs to lose but on the other hand the lower BMI gang often don't experience the same dramatic weight losses and we older, post-menopausal types can find ourselves handicapped when it comes to losing weight....

Anyhow, what I want to say is that I always find myself deeply conflicted whenever we LBT folk engage on these discussions as to what it is going to take in order to lose weight once we have had our lapbands installed. It is certain that some of us old farts have been fabulously successful and that part of this has been because we have chosen to engage on many levels in this project of weight loss: this means that we have been meticulous about watching what we eat and about following a strict exercise regime.

Well, I must go on record as saying that my weight loss was not due to any of this. I am by temperament a real slacker and this is why I knew that I needed the band. I have never had a problem with sweets but I sure did like to eat a lot of food. The band cut my appetite way back and my job, as I figured it, was to make sure that I avoided the carbs and spent my time on protein and on vegies.

To tell you all the truth, I am a lazy, self-indulgent grrl but I did - kinda accidently - manage to achieve goal within 10 months. This was such a thrill for me! I figure that I was very f...ing lucky. You should remember that most bariatric surgeons view the post surgery weight loss journey as being a journey which will last 2 years. Two years! This means that each and everyone of us who manages to get to goal under this time should be considered as exceptional. (Hah! First time that Green has ever been ever considered exceptional for all the right reasons, eh. LOL)

Your weight loss journey is your weight loss journey. It belongs to you. There are virtuous old farts who have knocked their nuts off working to get to goal and they are very proud of themselves; and who can blame them, you know that they have worked hard. And then there are folks like myself, folks lost weight easily, but who are terrified that they are going to lose it just as easily that they got it. (Honest! I keep thinking that I am going to wake up fat!! ) There are also people who set more or less demanding weight loss goals for themselves. Your experiences will be personal to yourselves.

My advice to you is to ignore all of the preachy and the judgemental stuff which you feel does not apply to you, to keep on asking questions, and to enjoy the best that this site has to offer. Remember, you will become old farts if you stick around long enough......:heh: And that is what LBT does need, more old farts.

Well said, Green!

No matter how long ago I got my band, I will never feel superior.

I feel like an idiot most of the time. I am just happy that they invented the band.

I am just like you. I keep thinking something is going to go wrong, and it will all be taken away from me. I have boxes and boxes of clothes that I am afraid to get rid of. I probably never will. I need them to remind where I came from .

Green, I can so identify with being an old fart. I think we need to form our own "Old Fart Club". We can have great big glitter siggies that say 'Old Fart and Damn Proud". All like minded old farts are welcome.

Chickie, I have just checked out your home page. You are truelly inspirational. I hope this is in the right place as I am new to this.

Saleel

:heh:

I am in kind of a weird position whenever it comes to these discussions. I figure that I am now an old timer, I was banded Sept 7, 2006, and I reached goal about 9-10 months after I was banded. Since then I have lost another 5 lbs. Now, it is true that I was one of the lower BMI gang and so I only had about 50 lbs to lose but on the other hand the lower BMI gang often don't experience the same dramatic weight losses and we older, post-menopausal types can find ourselves handicapped when it comes to losing weight....

Anyhow, what I want to say is that I always find myself deeply conflicted whenever we LBT folk engage on these discussions as to what it is going to take in order to lose weight once we have had our lapbands installed. It is certain that some of us old farts have been fabulously successful and that part of this has been because we have chosen to engage on many levels in this project of weight loss: this means that we have been meticulous about watching what we eat and about following a strict exercise regime.

Well, I must go on record as saying that my weight loss was not due to any of this. I am by temperament a real slacker and this is why I knew that I needed the band. I have never had a problem with sweets but I sure did like to eat a lot of food. The band cut my appetite way back and my job, as I figured it, was to make sure that I avoided the carbs and spent my time on protein and on vegies.

To tell you all the truth, I am a lazy, self-indulgent grrl but I did - kinda accidently - manage to achieve goal within 10 months. This was such a thrill for me! I figure that I was very f...ing lucky. You should remember that most bariatric surgeons view the post surgery weight loss journey as being a journey which will last 2 years. Two years! This means that each and everyone of us who manages to get to goal under this time should be considered as exceptional. (Hah! First time that Green has ever been ever considered exceptional for all the right reasons, eh. LOL)

Your weight loss journey is your weight loss journey. It belongs to you. There are virtuous old farts who have knocked their nuts off working to get to goal and they are very proud of themselves; and who can blame them, you know that they have worked hard. And then there are folks like myself, folks lost weight easily, but who are terrified that they are going to lose it just as easily that they got it. (Honest! I keep thinking that I am going to wake up fat!! ) There are also people who set more or less demanding weight loss goals for themselves. Your experiences will be personal to yourselves.

My advice to you is to ignore all of the preachy and the judgemental stuff which you feel does not apply to you, to keep on asking questions, and to enjoy the best that this site has to offer. Remember, you will become old farts if you stick around long enough......:heh: And that is what LBT does need, more old farts.

I must say that this is the BEST post I have read in response to my original post. Everything you said made sense and there was no pissyness underneath

(even if my post was posted with a pissy under tone). This post is the first one I have seen that has started to change how I view some of the more experienced ones and now can see where some of them are coming from.

Then there are just some of the other replys that well.....maturity isn't that first word that springs to mind.

I dont quite get you. You post a rather inflammatory question and then you say that you meant superior in terms of newbies not being allowed to view the R&R but the way you're talking definitely makes it sound like you mean exactly what I initially thought you meant and reacted to- that you're fed up with oldies who've lost all their weight thinking they're all that.

Actually, there's quite a few points in Green's post that I can identify with. I've not been a perfect bandster by any stretch of the imagination and I've often said the first six months were so easy, I lost so much weight without even having to try, it just fell off. Since then I've had to battle. But I've never dieted, I dont count calories, I dont count protein, I eat what I want when I want and its just, well, worked. I run lots becuase I bloody love running, not because I've got superior willpower and determination. I've never said otherwise. I've been really lucky becuase I"ve lost weight on about 1500 calories a day, so its certainly been easier for me than it has for others.

I've certainly learned a few things along the way and I've shared them. But I can think of about a thousand posts where I've mentioned my pretty slack and easygoing approach to weightloss and where I've told people that a binge is just that, and that you can simply get back on the wagon, but dont waste time beating yourself up over it.

I just dont really understand what it is you're getting at. So you think oldies do think they're superior and that gets up your nose? Or you dont? If you do, I really dont think you've read enough of this forum.