I like my new ticker tape of kitties. It shows me how far I've come- more than half way to goal. The last ten pounds or so have come off slow thanks to my love affair with sweets. Oddly enough I was never much of a "sweetie" prior to LB surgery, though I could eat my share of the coconut cream pie at Thanksgiving. I was more of a "salty" personality. But on those days when my band just doesn't seem interested in cooperating with the program and tightens up like a boa constrictor, sweets like ice cream and milk shakes just slide down beautifully. Then the band returns to normal and I'm back in the habit of sweets.

I know what to do, of course, and I'm not asking for advice; it is just nice to have a place to write this stuff down knowing there are people out there that have been and are still going through the same thing.

My weight loss has not been dramatic- no thirty pound months for me!- but I am pleased both with the loss and with my usually cheerful attitude about it all. Last time I was at this weight, I thought I was the size of a box car, but when I compare it to where I was 53 pounds ago, I smile. Heck, thirty years ago I thought I was a whale at 5'7" and 145 pounds. If nothing else, I have a better sense of my own proportions than I used to.

Life is good, even with ice cream and even though it takes me almost six months to lose ten pounds. 186 and headed down, albeit slowly.