gmanbat

I went to a movie with wife, daughter, and granddaughters. It was an amazing animated feature that promptly put me too sleep. I woke up to go to the bathroom and in my groggy state noticed that some slick gal in skinny jeans and long boots was sitting right next to my granddaughter with plenty of empty seats around! The silverback gorilla in me rose up and I was about to let her have it when a light went on in my head. Yup, it was grandma. She looked at me funny and I took my red face down to the restroom.

Your closet changing will happen several times over the coming year. Don't buy expensive clothes on the way down unless you're loaded. I suggest putting a bag in your closet and dropping the too bigs in one at a time as they make themselves known. Look at them and remember when you bought them, it's like time travel. Also, save a few pieces of your biggest stuff, they make for interesting "before and after" pics.

Some people are highly unchangeable. Trying to help them change is an exercise in futility. When I encounter such people that I want to change but cannot... I change myself. I can change how I react. I decide what reaction would be the best one that would maintain my dignity and peace and still not be malicious to the antagonist. I write the screenplay. Then I turn on the actor in me and react that way. Sometimes I channel Cary Grant or John Wayne, (without the speech mannerisms ). Enough times in performance and the doofus toxin no longer affects me. Acting is not lying. It is calling up another phase of your personality or tapping into influences that have formed it.

Smoking and sleeving are quite incompatible. My surgeon, one of the best in the nation, is a tyrant about it. He has dealt with smoking related complications, his only near fatality was smoking related. I feel your pain. Even now after all these years smoke-free I still get an urge when I smell it when someone is smoking around me. That's when I kick in my logical mind and squash the urge. It's like having an ex-lover who did you wrong. You find a new love that treats you like a king but when you see the ex you still have feelings. Then you think of their dirty deeds and compare them to what you have now and the feeling passes like so much gas.

I see veins I haven't seen in many years. I was a hard stick too. They had to keep going up the ranks to the more experienced nurses until one finally got it. It should be pretty easy now.

It's how you present yourself. I have a default insane look that eliminates any conversation before it starts. :ph34r:

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/forum-306/announcement-16-the-big-book-on-the-gastric-sleeve-has-arrived/ Yup, The Big Book on the Gastric Sleeve by our very own Alex!

It was a certainty that I was soon to die if I didn't deal with the fat...and quickly. I did it. The odds of complications seemed an acceptable risk given the circumstances. I won.

Varies with the individual. I am 64 and I have loose skin under arms, between legs but most prominently, at the belly. It is gradually getting better but I expect I will never look like a 20 year old again. I don't care. It does me no physical harm and I am not interested in trying to convince anyone but my wife that I am desirable...and she already knows that. My Bruce Lee pose: Enter The Sleever...

I have relatives that visit and which I visit who are from a different part of the country. When they come here to Florida their emphasis is not on the multitude of activities and fun stuff available here but....restaurants. When I visit them the main activity is....yup...restaurants. food..in the center..special places that serve food, exotic food...great views while you have food...designer food...status symbol food...on and on. Wife and I eat 10 bites and are done. The rest of the time we watch it go down their necks and limit our conversation so as not to get food spat at us. When they have sufficiently stretched their bellies the lethargy sets in and we have to deal with their groggy responses. As such I once was. Be grateful that you've retired from the trough.

Neat kid and cool bike! Nice area, too. Glad you are getting strong!

After initially getting over the surgery I moved more and more safely as I could. I determined before the surgery that exercise was a permanent fixture for the rest of my life, like bathing or brushing teeth. I went from walking to walking with weights to running with weights to running up a hill with weight repeatedly. I also did push ups, squats, and worked out with a kettlebell. My energy steadily increased. After a year I went to work with my nephew in his dock building business here in Florida, I shovel dirt and wheelbarrow for hours in the hot Florida heat. This from a guy who puffed like an old steam engine after climbing the stairs to the bedroom. I am 64 years old as well. Determined, deliberate, consistent, well thought out exercise coupled with this operation and a proper diet is a combination that will most likely yield a doubling or tripling of your energy.

Down you go...looking good! Yay for sure!!!

Wow, you better wear a name tag wherever you go! Good work!!!!

Your body does things in order. It is unfathomably complex and many departments have to do their thing before the scale moves. Sometimes a sluggard in one department fails to read the memo about hurrying from the brain and takes a nap. Eventually the calorie deficit comes in and kicks his butt into action. It is impossible to eat what you are eating and hold on to your fat stores unless you have been diagnosed with some rare condition.

Ya, you get the sleeve, the weight slides off, and in 6 months you look like Justin Timberlake or Katie Perry. Not in the real world. But people in pain want the pain to stop.....now. If you have ever had a gall bladder attack you know what I mean. Time stands still. Obesity is a world of pain. If you've ever been in prison and had 3 days left....longest days in your life. You have great hope of something wonderful ahead and you're like a kid saying,"Are we there yet?" Stalls are frustrating, I understand the thousands of threads that get posted concerning them. They never bothered me but I am not like normal people, at least my wife says so.

Nurses in recovery were my target. "Breathe, Gary, Breathe!" one of them said. "Ok", says I, "but tell me..was it a boy or a girl?" No laugh,...tough room.

I am out nearly a year and 8 months. My fat ghost is fading. He doesn't haunt me much and when he does he is easily dismissed. Casper be gone!!!

I had to move my wedding ring to a different finger and it is still loose.

I have been at goal for months and still forget sometimes that I am not fat anymore. I watched a Lipozene commercial and thought about getting some and then had to remind myself that I didn't need it. I am trying to think of myself as having returned to the skinny kid I was in my teens before food caught up with me.

Wish they could put the bloody thing in reverse and suck the gas out when they're done! Like a medical Foodsaver.

Granddaughters had to push grampa around the theme park in a wheelchair and he was too fat to fit in rides. Now we can run to rides and ride until we puke.

$1,000.. The insurance company tried to get out of paying for my anesthesia. It took months to resolve it. Silly me thought when you are approved for an operation it includes the anesthetic. Maybe it's my blasted reputation for being a tough guy..didn't think I needed it I guess.

Those are tough. Good work!