crabcake

Merry Christmas everyone! I've been off for a while and haven't been on the board. Welcome to all you newcomers. The more the merrier! Indio, your before and after pictures are great! You look fab girl! Congratulations! I've been ok during the holidays...well, not too bad I guess I should say and I've finally started exercising some. I'm doing the treadmill for a half hour every day and have to say I'm enjoying it even though it is tough sometimes. I'd rather be swimming though. I wish you all happy holidays! :hippie:

That's great!!! :high5:

What are you eating? Sounds like not even good carbs? (except the apple!)

We'll be on Christmas break soon. I want to lose 10 pounds by Jan 3rd. Our family time is Thanksgiving, so if I'm good about not bringing home any sweets (I usually am...it's the dh I worry about), watch my bad carbs and use the treadmill regularly, I'm hoping I'll make it. But at our age...my metabolism has never been stellar, so we'll have to see.

Congrats Southerngal! The port was the most painful for me as well. The next few days may get a little bumpy (some folks are more fortunate than others though and have an easier recovery!), but it is soooo worth it! Hope you're one of the lucky ones and have a pain free recovery! :gluck:

Denise, there's nothing wrong w/ you that isn't wrong w/ many of the rest of us! Like some others have said, it's the sugar (hey, you know...alcohol is sugar too come to think of it! maybe that has a lot to do w/ that type of addiction as well). I agree, the more you cut out, the less you want. Unfortunately, my sugar addiction is stronger than my desire to be thin. As for getting on the scale, maybe you should stay off of it a couple of days until you've been *good* for a while. I do that when I know I'm going to get angry w/ myself about the numbers and even though they're usually not where I want them to be, they're not as bad as I anticipated. Be kind to yourself!!! I went for a fill yesterday...only got .25 and the nurse said I shouldn't come back for 6 weeks and even then may want to call and reschedule it. I have good restriction and have had for the past several weeks. Fortunately, it's been during Thanksgiving, our family's big get together time, and although the scales have gone up a tiny bit, they've come back down a lot quicker. The nurse also fussed at me about exercising. I just hate it...I'm such a slug!!! I got on the treadmill the other day and it died, so I'm hoping Santa will bring me a new one as well as the desire to use it! Even w/ the ups and downs this time of the year brings, I'm happy to say I'm finally in Onederland! I haven't been this weight in just years and years! I still have about 60 pounds to go, but am going to try and get really serious over Christmas break (I work at a college) and start the year out right. Luvsrocks, you asked us if we'd do it again...my answer is a definite YES! Even though I still struggle, I finally feel like I am overcoming donkey's years of poor eating habits. Yes, it's a slow process, but w/ the band, I feel like I'll make it. Happy holidays to you all and hang tough! :hippie::high5:

WOW!!! :whoo: That's great! I'm glad you posted Jill. You'll inspire someone else to get banded. Congratulations on your weight loss! :clap2:

Ok, my DH won a cruise (it's not as cool as you'd think...we've already spent 3 times as much as the tickets cost just on the little extras!). I have NO clothes. I wasn't planning on buying any until I reached 'the size'! Now I look at clothes online and I'm looking at at least $500 worth of clothes just for this itty bitty cruise! Neither one of us is terribly excited about this (although, I'd happily go if I could just show up in my jeans and dirty t-shirt, book and dh in tow!). We're just not the cruise kind of folks if you know what I mean! Well, to top it off, I've picked out enough clothes for the 4 days (4 days!!!!), but when I took my measurements to make sure I was ordering the right size, it's a whole lot bigger than what I've been buying lately. I've been wearing an 18 from Orvis (in case you haven't realized it yet, I NEVER go out shopping in retail stores - yuck!), but I'm ordering clothes from the Woman Within (what a STUPID name! my woman within wears a size 8!!!) which I think used to be Lane Bryant. My question is...has anyone purchased clothes from WW? Do they run large, or true to size? I seriously don't want to buy these things in the first place, but I definitely don't want to have to return them. The cruise is Dec 13-16. I'd love to just forget the whole thing!!! Oh, we looked into giving the tickets away...you can give one away, but not two!!! What do they really care????? If someone WANTS to go on the cruise, they'd probably spend more on board than those of us who don't want to!!! Oh, please...would I be stupid to just cancel the whole thing and tell them to keep the change??? Thanks girls. Not everyone would understand my dilemma!

Yeah, my brother-in-law who is retired AF said in a lot of places in Europe that he went to they served muesli...not like the boxed cereal, but big containers of granola and raisins and nuts and oats, etc and that you just take a bit of this and that and mix your own. I thought that was cool. Of course some places in Europe let you take your dogs into restaurants which I think is super cool :eek:...it's not like the dog's in the kitchen or anything! And the Brits eat kippers, which are dried fish I believe, for breakfast. Interesting the habits different cultures have. In my next life I'd like to be a cultural anthropologist for at least one of my careers! :bandit Here in the South, we like to take off as much as we can 'cause it's so bleepin' hot a lot of the time! I'm a firm believer of letting ''the merchandise gallop!" (I think that's from the movie Pete and Tillie btw. )

ok, i'll be the dumb-dirty American...what's w/ taking off your bras and shoes w/ your coffee? :eek:

You deserve something nice to happen to you! You've had (and are still having!) a rough time lately. Congrats!!! :whoo:

I was lucky enough to do mine on a Sunday and drop it off Monday morning for that very reason! The nurse asked me 'do you work?' and when I told her yes, she said 'well, you'd hate for the boss to get into this!'

Ice 'T'! Ugh! You're lucky...the bottle was clear when I did it and wouldn't you know, I saw some man I know from work sitting in the waiting room! I ran right past ('T' was in a brown paper bag of course!!!) and left it on the counter in the lab. (My name was on the bag.) I passed the Tech on my way out and told her I'd left a 'little something'! Wow, you be careful w/ those bp meds and keep us posted on your blood work. I'd be interested to hear what the results are.

When my doc weened me off my HBP meds, she told me if my bp dropped below 110, to discontinue taking another med. Are you still on bp meds? 'Cause I wouldn't be taking them right now if I were you (I'm sure your dr. told you this already, I'm just stating the obvious!). Labs *do* make mistakes, so hopefully that's what has happened w/ you. (Aren't those 24 hour urine test fun? Wait till you have to take that jug of 'T' into the doctor's office! )