phyllser

You're off to a FANTASTIC start!!

I'm kind of enjoying having my clothes feel baggy right now. I've given up a few things, but keeping the ones that aren't yet falling off for a little while longer.

:hungry: Find out if your community does a Thanksgiving Dinner for homeless or indigent people. You can do your thing by helping with the cooking and serving and get a real blessing at the same time. Or if there is a college near you, there are always kids who can't or don't go home for Thanksgiving and probably someone at the college could help get you in touch. One community we lived in had a lot of foreign students attending and people from our church would invite them for Thanksgiving/Christmas festivities. Just some ideas for you to think about. :hungry:

Cheating! That's ridiculous. Taking desparate measures, maybe! Or just taking advantage of the best in medical/surgical technology available to improve our quality of life, our health, our life span, etc.! How can you call that cheating??! So, let's see..... does that mean maybe something like using a CPAP machine is cheating?? Cuz you're using artificial means to keep breathing while you're sleeping??? And then maybe using crutches when your leg is broken would be cheating, too! Get my drift?? Ridiculous to say we're cheating!

I tried changing one letter of my name to get something better, but it only got worse! LOL I tried Phyl, Phyll and Phyllis and went back to Phyl..... Violent Beauty! What does THAT mean????

That is frustrating! I know I went about a whole month with very little loss... August, I think. Then I started losing again, then stalled again for a few weeks, now I'm losing again. i've had two fills and go back two weeks from tomorrow for a possible third. I have a fair amount of restriction, but it fluctuates from day to day and even hour to hour. I am very restricted in the morning and sometimes all day. Other days I can eat more at lunch and/or dinner. Have you had one or two fills?? The scale can be a curse! I like to get weighed each morning before my shower, but it would probably be better to weigh once a week! It's great encouragement when the scale is moving, but very discouraging when it's not!

Wow! that's a really good point, Marilyn! I've told everyone! And the ones I didn't tell, my DH did! My friends and family have been extremely supportive and I haven't detected any negative feelings at all, so I guess I'm quite fortunate!

When our daughter brought me candy from Hawaii... Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts... my DH hid them.. He was doling them out to me one at a time every few days. But I only had two or three before he told me they were gone!! He was apparently eating a few every time he gave me one, and in between!! I was mad when I found out they were gone, but better in him than in me!!

violent beauty

Wow! You're doing great with your pre-op loss. I think some have posted on these threads that certain doctors and/or insurance companies have age restrictions, such as none over 60, others 65, and some have restrictions as to BMI. My doctor was very reluctant to do surgery if BMI was over 60. Then, coupled with my age, I was on shaky ground with him. But then I got my BMI down to under 60 prior to surgery and he was much more comfortable with the risk factors. I have heard of people in their 70's having this surgery, though.

:welcomeB: Cherlita, Congratulations on your surgery date! You'll sail through the process! Don't stress over it. You've got a great attitude towards it and you'll do fine. I had a starting BMI of 63.5, now down to about 55. My doctor required a pre-op diet, but I was on my own as far as what that would be. So I did a very low calorie diet having a protein drink in the morning, and lots of veggies with very little meat the rest of the day. I bought a big bag of E.A.S. chocolate protein at Costco and had that every morning. I also got a can of unflavored Whey protein that I could add to other things to get more protein in. Often I'd have a salad with maybe an ounce or two of tuna or shrimp in it. Small piece of meat with vegetables at dinner time. I lost about 20-25 lb. prior to surgery and got my BMI under 60. I can't do much in the way of exercise because my knees are bad. But that's an important component, too. We go south for the winter, so I'm looking forward to getting to CA where we stay in an RV park with nice warm pools and I do water aerobics all winter. You'll find lots of help here. Keep us posted on your progress.

:welcomeB: Yes, I was nearing that cut off age, too, and getting desparate to get rid of this excess weight. I have similar problems with my knees, in fact, I use an electric scooter much of the time. I've had a partial replacement on the right knee and the left knee is badly in need, as well. I had my surgery July 20th and I'm down over 40 lb. Welcome to this site.

We were babysitting our three youngest grandchildren this afternoon and evening. A little before bedtime, Grandpa took them in to the kitchen for a snack of milk and cookies.... home made chocolate chip cookies!! So he brings me one little tidbit of a cookie. It wasn't even enough to call a "bite" of a cookie. I savored it for a few minutes and then I hollered in to the kitchen, "Hey! Couldn't I have like maybe one HALF of a cookie???" Before my DH could answer, our 5 yr old granddaughter chimed in with "Don't you know you're not supposed to have any sweets??!! You're trying to lose FAT!" My DH came back in the living room, trying hard to suppress his laughter, and gave me another nibble of a cookie!

Great NSV...... I was out to lunch with some friends today and when I went to pay my bill, I pulled out my driver's license. Guess what?? The weight is wrong!! But now its wrong in the right direction!! I'm almost 20 lb LESS than what it says!! :whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo:

:welcomeB: Linda, No membership requirements here! We're happy to have you join us. This is my major source of encouragement, education, inspiration! If you go up to "Thread Tools" you'll see an option to subscribe to this thread. Click on that if you haven't already figured that out, and you should get an email every time there is a new post. :welcome:

Two senior citizens were lamenting one day about getting old.The first one says, "My neck hurts so much I have a hard time turning my head left or right". The second one says, "My eyes are so bad with cataracts I can barely see four feet away". The first senior pipes in, "Yes, and my arthritis in my hands is so bad somedays I can't grip anything". The second senior replies, "My hearing is shot, couldn't hear a train coming if it was right in front of me". Then the first senior says, "But at least we still got our driver's license". As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on I95. P As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on I95. Please be careful!" "Hell," said Herman, "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"lease be careful!" "Hell," said Herman, "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"

Yes, I remember now. Sydney. How very sad. Will keep the family in my prayers and pray God will comfort their hearts. Our son was diagnosed about 4 yrs ago, Choroidal Melanoma. that was treated with radiation and tumor was pretty much dried up and shrunken. Then just after Thanksgiving last year another tumor was discovered right next to the old one. Three days later he was in surgery. There was no choice but to take the eye since the radiation had failed. Now we just continue to pray that it doesn't show up somewhere else. He's doing very well. Has an artificial eye and you'd never notice it if you didn't know. The Navy is letting him stay in, but no combat duty, and the FAA gave him his private pilot license back, too. I can hardly believe it, but he's been in the Navy almost 21 years now!! They all still seem like "kids" to me and I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that two have already celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary and a third one next year!! And we have a grandson who will Celebrate his 19th birthday this month!! Time FLIES!! Wonder why I'm not getting old!! :faint: I seem to have quite a bit more restriction than I did after the first fill. I haven't had Breakfast yet, so I'm really hungry right now, but I know one or two bites and I'll start to feel full! This is the first I've really HAD TO eat slowly and concentrate on chewing. I'm taking longer to eat. If I eat too fast, I'm not able to eat more than a few bites. And I'm definitely staying satisfied for much longer and eating much less. I'm down 4 lb. since Monday! So I'm pleased at this point, and hoping it stays this way. I have another appointment for the 29th and the doctor is planning to give me another "tweak", but we'll see. If nothing changes by then, I don't see being able to tolerate more than about another 1/2 cc. I will be so happy to get to our RV park in Dec and be able to start Water aerobics again!

So sorry to hear about your friend's daughter. You posted her web site once, didn't you? Or was that someone else? I remember looking at one and being really touched. Such a young girl. We do have to trust God in these situation, don't we? We were devastated when our son lost an eye to cancer last year, but he's a career Navy officer and guess what? It kept him from going to Iraq this summer. So, who knows?? Only God can see the "big picture". So are you saying that you lost some of the fluid that was in your band? My doctor said he put in 3cc last month but when he withdrew it this week there was only 2cc. His explanation was "air bubbles", but I don't really understand how that would account for the missing 1cc?? anyway, he put back the 2cc and added one more, so I am again at 3cc. But I definitely see a difference in the amount of restriction since Monday.

EXCELLENT!! That's great!

Hi, Carol, Glad you found some good doctors on that site. Glad to be able to help. Some others on this board have used that Muscle Milk and like it a lot. Protein count, etc. sound good. To build your weight loss ticker go to this site: Weight Loss - Diet Ticker

Jenifer, Your recipes sound yummy!! I love Salmon and I love balsamic vinegar. I'll have to try that. I think it was on another thread someone was wanting to make a Pumpkin Spice shake. Any ideas on that?? That probably wouldn't be a favorite of mine but lots of folks like pumpkin spice treats at this time of year.

I am on Medicare/Disability and had very little trouble having my surgery done. My doctor's office handled everything and I didn't have to jump through a lot of the hoops some have had to.. psych consult, etc. No sleep study because I was already diagnosed with sleep apnea and using a CPAP machine. I had a dietary consult required by my surgeon but Medicare probably isn't going to pay for that or for one post-op consult. Those charges are still being processed. I did have to pay $200 of the surgeon's fee. So far I have not had one bit of paperwork on my hospital bill, which is making me a little nervous. I had a cardiac workup within a year of my surgery, so I didn't have to have that either. My first appointment with my surgeon was May 5th. He wanted me to lose 10% of my body weight. So I went on a pre-op diet and when I was down almost 20# I started bugging them for a surgery date. At first they kept putting me off, but I was persistent because I wanted to have the surgery in the summer since we go south for the winter. I wanted to be well "adjusted" before we left. So they finally gave me a 7/20 surgery date. So, only 2 1/2 months from my first appointment to my surgery date.

Yeah, we retired early so we are YOUNG Snowbirds! We drive like normal people.... pretty much!! By the time I went and took my shower this morning, I made it to the 40# mark!! Hooray!! Restriction is great with my 2nd fill!! DH made me a one egg omelet with eggbeaters this morning, a few fresh spinach leaves, tiny bit of sliced onions and one sliced mushroom... I made it halfway through that before I had to quit. It was Dini who started calling me Auntie Phyl and she's hardly ever here anymore, so I dropped the "Auntie".

Oh, my goodness!! You ARE still among the living!! Don't be TOO BUSY for us!! We've missed you! I'm from Buffalo NY originally. My sisters and my daughter have all been to NYC this past summer and stayed in a hotel that was reasonably priced. I will ask them which one it was. Nov.24th will be Thanksgiving weekend here, so you may find prices higher because it is a holiday weekend.