AshevilleEddie

I've been studying keto a lot too and discussed it with my doctor. I'm not going to do true keto. I did very low carb, moderate protein for a long time. I lost 132 lbs, reversed my diabetes and sleep apnea and got my labs to normal. The only thing I'm going to do differently this time is increase my fat intake a bit. Nothing substantial (definitely not LCHF) and the fats I'm going to add are good ones like coconut, avocado, some olive and I'm adding in more fatty fish like tuna and salmon. I want to keep my Omega 3/6/9 ratios in balance. And like I said, my doctor is on board. I stopped the fad diets a long time ago.

Thanks! I'm up about 8 lbs but I'm getting ready to start keto (my husband finally agreed to do it with me!) so it should come back off pretty quickly. Plus I kicked the Coke (the brown liquid, not the white powder LOL) habit I let sneak in on me. Back to my water.

Hi Bruno! Sounds like everything went great! Nausea and gas is completely normal so no worries there. I was in the hospital for 6 days, but I had an erratic heartbeat that was completely unrelated to the surgery (it happened with any bodily trauma for a couple of years but has since resolved). I was up and walking in the hallway a few hours after surgery so if my heart hadn't acted up, I would have gone home the next morning. The worst pain I had felt like a pulled muscle. I think I only needed one dose of pain medication and that was when I first woke up post-op. Glad to hear you're doing so well!! Eddie

If I did my math correctly, it's now 12:30 and you head to hospital in an hour and a half, surgery in 3 1/2 hours. Please let me know how it went when you feel up to it. And when you're ready, my brain is yours for the picking! Good luck later today! Eddie

Hi Bruno! I'm six years out and maintaining for a while now. I'd be happy to mentor you if you'd like. I'm attaching a few pics. The first one is pre-op, about 325 lbs I think (I'm not sure, I stopped weighing myself because I didn't want to know how bad it was!), then early September and the far right is late September at Arches National Park in Utah. My husband and I had done a 3 mile hike in Bryce Canyon and a 10 mile hike along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon earlier in the week. Eddie

This is pre-op, sometime in 2011, early September and late September in Arches National Park.

Hi! I'm not really active in here much anymore but I still get notifications. I totally get what you're saying about being overweight and gay. I really lucked out. My husband always had a thing for twinks (we all tend to have a "type" I think; mine was bears and he isn't) but kept his mind and heart open to love however it presented itself. So when we met it was no big deal for either of us. Don't give up yet! But getting the weight off has been a literal lifesaver for me. No more diabetes, no more sleep apnea, labs are normal and I actually have energy. I was NOT overweight and active like you. So you have a good head start. Keep us posted about approval and surgery!!

Depends how long. We moved up from FL 5 years ago but now that we're here, I'm not going anywhere.

I live in the Appalachians, the Blue Ridge to be exact in Asheville, NC. Good luck with your sleeve! My only regret is not doing it years sooner than I did.

Hahaha!! I can make a pretty mean chai. Protein & nut milk (more protein and less carbs than milk and besides, I'm lactose intolerant now), black tea, spices and stevia. You'll have to come to the mountains for it though...

Yes you did. I wasn't trying to beat a dead horse. Now I'm the one who gets to apologize. I'm sorry.

Still not appropriate. Way off topic.

I've been spending a lot of time in Rants & Raves since I joined LBT, partly because it's fun, but also because for the most part it's very GLBT friendly. Unless I haven't looked in the right place, I don't think there's a support thread for us, so I decided to start one! A little about me. I'm Eddie & I'm a 42-year-old Gay man. I have a partner of just over nine years (henceforth referred to as DH), a 17-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. DH and I are stupid. Don't believe me, just ask our kids. DH has hypothyroidism and had not been able to lose any weight after his thyroid "went nuts" several years ago. I've just been overweight all my life. He was banded on 2/21/07 and I'm getting mine next Wednesday (5/16). I can't wait! Anyway, I would love to hear from all the GLBT folks out there. Hopefully this can be a place for us to freely discuss our unique issues and get support we may not be able to get elsewhere.

Hello all, I'm back! I've been in Bandster Hell for about 15 months and am trying to get back on track. I was apparently over-restricted because I could barely eat anything. Then last year was just the year from hell. In February, one of our cats died right in front of me, then a week and a half later my sister-in-law died suddenly. About three weeks after that a former co-worker/close friend died, also suddenly. Then another dear friend was (mis)diagnosed with lupus; turns out she has Stage 4 uterine cancer. This was all by the end of April. Nothing else quite as tragic for the rest of the year, but it remained overall quite shitty. And as many of the "old-timers" in this thread know, I'm a stress eater. So combine that with being too tight and it's just not good. I've only regained 20 pounds, but because I haven't been able to eat much Protein (and I HATE shakes) my hair is thinning horribly. So, I went back to my surgeon last week. He thought I may have had a slippage and sent me for an upper GI. I had that done today (yum yum, radioactive chalk shake!) and fortunately all is well with my band. Dr. Webb did do a complete unfill last week though, so I can eat. He wants to let my stomach rest for a couple of weeks, then he'll start doing fills again. He compared it to rebooting a computer. Anyways, Who all is still lurking around here? I would love to chat with all my old buddies and make some new ones. And of course it's always good to venture out into the other threads and stir up shit. Just kidding, I don't intentionally go looking for it, but I also don't back down. Hope to hear from someone soon....

Ok, I went to my PCP for pre-op check-up and medical clearance. Well, earlier in the morning (10:00) I had gone in for my Upper GI. When I called the hospital's scheduling department, I asked them how long it would take as I was leaving work in the middle of the day. I was told "about an hour." Based on that info, I also scheduled a loan closing for 12:00. Well, three hours later I finally left the hospital. I had to call my client and postpone the closing, plus I felt like had thrown my employees under the bus after being gone for so long. Sooo, I get back to work about 2:30, only to have to leave and be at the Dr's office by 4:00 for my appointment. The MT checks my vitals and lo and behold, my blood pressure is something like 196/103! Given that I have a history of high blood pressure, the fact that I was still extremely upset over the events of the day didn't deter my PCP from refusing to sign my clearance paperwork. He added another BP med to the two I'm already taking (and maxed out on) and told me to come back on Monday. If the BP is down to a more normal level, he'll clear me for surgery. So here's my question. What are some safe ways I can lower my BP before I go in on Monday afternoon? I don't want to do anything that would be "deceitful" as going into surgery with BP that high would be dangerous. But I do want it to be low enough to be cleared, then I can concentrate on keeping it down for surgery. Any suggestions? :help:

Hi family! Everyone can stop worrying now, I'm back! You can't get rid of me that easily! We've been on vacation and just got home last night. When I was checking my e-mail this morning (159 of them BTW!) and had a PM from Jo, I realized I didn't let you guys know I wasn't going to be posting for a while. I'm sorry!! Anyway, after Christmas we went to North Carolina for vacay. Nine days in the mountains - yeah, it really sucked...NOT! We rented a cabin outside Maggie Valley and most of Sean's family met us there, so it was also a family reunion of sorts. Our kids each took a friend too, so we had a houseful of teenagers in addition to everyone else. There were 14 of us in all. We stopped in South Carolina on the way up and boght fireworks for New Year's eve. And of course there was lots of food and liquor (ya think?). The funny thing was that we did most of the drinking on the 30th, not the 31st! :cocktail: I actually had a little too much and wound up tripping on the railroad ties around the hot tub and whacking my shins pretty good. Hey, it was dark and I couldn't see them! :guess At any rate, I didn't get into the hot tub after that - I just went upstairs and went to sleep. I wound up not drinking anything on New Year's eve! The best part of the whole week? It started snowing on Tuesday night and we wound up with about 4" by Wednesday morning! Our daughter's best friend had never seen snow before (mountains either, actually) so she was pretty excited. Our son and his friend went snowboarding on Wednesday and we all went snow tubing on Friday. What a blast! We also had a photographer come to the cabin and take a lot of pictures, so once Sean gets them up on our website, I'll post a link. I haven't gone and weighed yet, but I think a gained a few pounds back. No worries though - I have a fill scheduled for the 28th so it's back to normal. I see we have several new additions to our family! How cool is that!? Welcome to you all! I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. Happy New Year!!

Get up and move. Not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure, but it will help dissipate the gas. At any rate, welcome! I love newbies!!

Newbies! Yay! Welcome, fellow bear! You do realize after we get down to goal we can't call ourselves bears anymore, right? We will be some mighty fine otters though! BTW, my DH was banded in February, so we have something in common. Wow, Juli was right - you are a hottie! Too bad I'm not single and a couple of decades younger. At any rate, it great to have you aboard. Damn boy! Talk about your hotties! I may have to dump Sean and move south! You're looking mighty fine there Edd. (I have to admit, I am curious as to what other components of the Santa suit you may or may not have been wearing when that pic was taken :heh:). Don't worry about the weigh-ins. I went through a phase of weighing every day and would get very frustrated when I hadn't lost something. Now I weigh whenever I think about it. I'm still at a plateau, but trying to get my restriction right. I went for a fill last Thursday and only got 1 cc. Now I'm too tight again so I'm going back in on Monday to have .5 cc taken back out.:tired I'm very sensitive to fills apparently. That one cc was the difference between feeling like I could eat anything in sight and not being able to keep hardly any solids down. Oh well, I knew coming into this that it was a process. No worries. :Banane48:

I'm getting one on Thursday. I'm hoping it moves the scale for me too. I've been stuck for weeks. So, who's done with their holiday shopping?? :heh:

Well, I guess I'm probably a 5.9. There was that little hetero marriage thing, but that was definitely not because of any sexual attraction. Everything happens for a reason, though. I wouldn't have my kids otherwise. How was everyone's Thanksgiving? I did eat a little too much, but that's certainly relative now. Overeating these days means two bites too much, not two plates too much!! The only bad part is that I couldn't fill up on turkey and just nibble at the sides like I had planned (my sister did the turkey and it was pretty dry so I couldn't eat it - thank goodness she doesn't ever visit this site!).

:bump2: We were almost to the bottom of the page again. Can't have that, can we?

Hey fam, Sounds like everyone is gearing up for Thursday. Several years ago, my family of origin started rotating hosting Thanksgiving. This year we're at my sister's house (mother of the nephew involved in the accident) so all we have to do is make a couple of dishes and show up. No major cleanup! Yay! Of course, next year it's here at our house... :rolleyes Lucy, congrats on reaching Onederland! That is totally awesome! I've been stress eating the last couple of weeks (can't imagine why) and I'm stuck, so I'm really happy for you - and a tad jealous, I admit. Many thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers over the past week or so. I appreciate you guys so much, and can't imagine my life now without a single one of you in it. Hmm, something to be thankful for, huh? I hope everyone has a safe and happy Turkey Day (well, except you Mark - since there's no Thanksgiving Down Under, you'll just have to have a happy Thursday :heh:).

Oh, shit! I didn't think anything could be as funny as Wheet's post but OMG, that is hilarious!!

Hi family. Sorry I haven't posted for a while. It's been a bitch of a last couple of weeks. Kaitie's accident was last Tuesday morning. Last Thursday night my 24-year-old nephew who is in the Army and home on leave before he's deployed to Iraq was driving home to my sister's house after being out with friends. There was a 15-year-old girl whose mother had hit a dog and stopped to check on it. The girl was out in the middle of the road kneeling over the dog when Chris came down the road. It was dark and a neighbor was in his lane with a flashlight pointed in his direction. Chris swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid hitting the neighbor and didn't see the girl with the dog. She (and the dog) were killed instantly. Very, very sad. Chris was not speeding, nor was he in any way impaired. There was just no avoiding what happened. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the facts. Now the Army has extended his leave so he can undergo some intensive counseling, plus they will send him for four more weeks when he gets back. They have also delayed his deployment indefinitely. So that was two weeks ago. On top of everything else, Sean's working a lot again so we've had several fights about it. Needless to say, the stress level in our house has been through the roof. In fact, Sean's working right now and won't be home until probably 9:00 or so tonight. AARRGGHH!!! So, now that I've vented, welcome to all the newbies! If I didn't scare you off, hopefully you'll stick around and be a part of our little family. And we love our Str8 folks! In fact, most of the time I forget who's Gay and and who's not (except for Pamela, who looks like a Lesbian - hehehe).