ReneBean

Woo Hoo!! scale Victories are nice, too!!. Keep up the good work!

I don't waste the calories for only 5 grams of Protein. I use a different liquid Protein and make my own version of "protein water". I take a propel - throw it into a 1 litre bottle. Add 1 tube of IDS New whey with 42 grams of protein. Add tap Water to fill the bottle. Yeah - it's got some calories - but the carb count in the Protein is really low - so you could make this using some low carb flavored water instead and really reduce the carb count. The protein has 176 calories and like 2 carbs or something like that. By the time you add the propel, it has more calories - but for about the same calorie count as the Special K water, I get more than twice the protein - and half the carbs. PLUS - one tube is only $2.50 USD. At my local grocery, it would cost me $16 bucks in Special K water to get the same protein count. Just a thought. I get mine at DPS nutrition web-site. It was the cheapest I could find them. Be sure to get the newest 42 gram of protein version, vs the old 25 gram one. http://www.dpsnutrition.net/get_by_79.htm Orange flavor is the best - although I have only tried the Orange and the Fruit Punch flavors. :]

Yes - Relax for a bit. Focus on maintaining. Focus on adjusting to your new body. "let it ride" for a bit. Later on, you can get motivated and try again to break the plateau. Great job on the 70 lbs! I long to be as small as 238! Hugs! :]

Hi Guys Even though I am leaving early today, I have to take a lunch... I am working more (30 minutes!) than 5 hours, so it's the law. So, I am checking in before my appointment. Aw Dianne - I am so sorry your life is such a hell pit right now. All I can say is that I am sending the very best Low Drama vibes your way. I would have crumbled into a little pile of stress by now - so it isn't surprising that you are having PB issues on top of everything else. At least until you have a little less stress, you might want to either stick to mushies, or adjust your fill. Stress makes everything swell up...at least it does for me. As much as I have never truly wished anyone dead, I am hoping Bambi passes in her sleep - the poor thing! FIL will have to deal with it - it will be awful - but no worse for you than having to take care of both of them. Hopefully DH & DS will recover quickly and be able to help you a little bit. I am sending you a Cyber Massage and HUGE hugs - and congrats on the 5 foot club. xo Pretty pictures, Darcy. That's the ONLY way I want to see snow until next winter, thank you very much! Sherry - You new fairy will be beautiful, I am sure. And BITTER only begins to describe the cold y'all have had up there. BRRRRR. I hope it warms up a little bit if I end up in NY in March. Betty - I will let you know if there is anything interesting involved in the "Aftercare". I am hoping it will be more than I am expecting... Kat - Hugs! You supermom's are an incredible group. xo Mandy - glad to hear you are at least feeling a LITTLE bit more human today. sleeping truly is the key. It all seems so much worse if you can't rest. Hope the newest meds help out. Well, it's a short lunch today cause I am leaving early Have to get back to it. Hugs and Love to All!!

MMMMM those salads sounds good. I love that crunchy broccoli & raisin thing - if the broccoli pieces are small enough. OK - Pat is back among us (sort of) so now all we need to do is find the rest of our gals. Send the Monkeys out to span the nation..... Eileenie!! We must have been posting at the same time. I hope you feel a little better. I hate that head-cold stuff. Hugs! Cindy - I am going to go full speed ahead with the whole Teacher Certification thing after my vacation next week. I will probably be giving you a call for that insider information. I have a very odd feeling right now. I am used to being an expert in my field. Now I am going to be doing something completely new and different. It's weird to be a rookie again... I guess I'll get over it.... :] Kat - I do low carb with a cheat day. I could NOT go for the rest of my life, or even for more than a week, without my beloved carbs. Besides, the cheat day keeps my body guessing - and I think that is a good thing. We have been enjoying the Spring Thing, here, too. I LOVE SUNSHINE!! Mandy - Geez - if it ain't one thing, it's another. Enjoy the muscle relaxants... :] Betty - I can't say for sure which one of those recipe's sounds better - but I like yours cause it seems less complicated. I am a complete idiot in the kitchen. The less ingredients, the less chance for me to screw up! Plus, I love the sunflower seeds & raisins in with the broccoli. Steaming the broccoli is a great idea. Nothing worse than tough brocolli... Maybe I will try the recipe with some crunchy Kolrabi. I bet that would be FAB. Well, I just thought I would stop in here before I escaped for the day. I am getting out of here, now. I may not have time to stop by tomorrow - as I am working a short day and going to the infamous "Aftercare" program. I will let you know how it goes... if they have released my thumbs from the screws... :] TTL Hugs and Love!

Hi All. Another glorious day in Mortgage Lending is well underway... *yippee skippy* I am eating Turkey roll-ups and fresh veggies with dip. Turkey roll-up are just that shaved lunch meat with Laughing Cow Light cheese inside. It's easy to carry, easy to count carbs/calories and pretty darned tasty. My exotic veggie of the day is Kolrabi (sp?). It's a root like a turnip with the stems and the greens attached. DH made a lovely curry dish last night with some of the root and lots of the greens. Today I am eating the root with some lovely dip. It tastes somewhere between broccoli and radishes. It's very crispy/crunchy - very nice. I love finding new veggies. Variety is important. Dianne - I hope you are feeling better. Keep that doc's appointment just to be sure you are ok. Was the fruit stuck? Or did you just have a bad heartburn reaction? If it was dried, it might have just swollen up in your pouch. HUGS!! Eileenie - I'm no carb nazi - I eat lots of green veggies - I consider any green veggie to be an "unlimited food". Preparation is the key. When I did the low carb thing with my sis, we cooked on Sunday and ate for the rest of the week on our cooking. Now-a-days I mostly buy pre-packaged stuff, like the lunch meat & cheese to take to work. Sherry - add some batwings and a hanging panni to that model, I will believe it... until then, I can only hope that I will look as good as that after PS. :] I really have to say that I am very spoiled. My DH cooks "meat heavy" meals and I eat the meat. He might eat rice with his, but I don't. All I have to worry about is lunches - and I mostly eat leftovers from dinner, or the lunch meat & cheese thing. I throw veggies in for variety and Fiber. For me, Low carb is about avoiding sugar, potatoes, rice, bread and tortillas. I don't really count too much - but I do read the labels when I buy things. Carbs hide in the most unlikely places.... Honey cured lunch meats for instance. Once I get the right stuff into the house, I don't worry too much about what I eat, when. Betty - I haven't exactly been stellar on the exercise, either. We only went to the gym once this weekend - and right after that we went to CiCi's for pizza. (It was my cheat day). The cheat day is the only way I can make it through the week. I know that on Saturday, I can have pizza or nachos or whatever, so I am more able to resist during the rest of the week. Kat - yeah, the trips to NY are nice - but I don't expect they will last too long, anyway. I am thinking high school, or Junior High at the youngest. My college advisors told me years ago that I wasn't suited to the younger kids. I believed them then, and I still believe it now. I would have been a teacher all along, if I hadn't been afraid of teaching high school. I was only 22 yrs old. I couldn't imagine teaching kids only a few years younger than I was... glad to hear you survived the party. :] Darcy - we love the WW Pasta at my house. When we eat pasta, we eat that. I can't quite get over to the WW tortilla, though. And no matter how much fun frolicking in the snow with a puppy sounds, I am NOT going to like snow... at least not until Noveber of next year! I am thinking good thoughts for your FIL. Hugs! Mandy - I checked the count on Spaghetti Squash - it ranks right up there with zuccini - less than 7 grams per 100 gram serving size. If all your carbs are coming from Spaghetti Squash - you will be just A-ok. Hugs! Hope your doc can figure out what the heck is wrong with you and fix it! Cindy - yep - if you are going to do the job, you might as well get paid for it. I know that "this is inevitable" kind of feeling. That usually works out well for me. ***Somehow I knew your retirement wouldn't last... Guess I will have to put that Cane I was whittling off to the side until you are really ready to settle down. :] Well - Back to the old grind. I e-mailed Collin County Community College about the certification program. Their's isn't really very accelerated - it takes about a year - but it is very conveniently located (at Allen high school practically across the street from my house) and the classes are all evening/weekend ones. I can keep working for as long as possible while I get certified. I also want to look into a faster way, so I will probably be checking out more information on the website. In the mean time, I am signed up for an information session on March 31 and I will be taking the skills test prior to that. So long as I can stay employed at my present salary range, I would be insane to leave the mtg industry - but if I were to suddenly find myself unemployed - I would go over to teaching as fast as I could get a job doing it. I don't have enough math credits on my transcripts to teach math - so I might have to get some additional math credits in. I really feel like I could explain the basic concepts - algebra, geometry - to high school kids in a non-scary way. And I think I could make it more interesting than any of MY teachers ever did. Anyway - I am WAY over my lunch time. Gotta run! hugs and love!

I don't think so. You would have experienced pain if anything were wrong at this point. So long as you rest for a minute or two between half cup increments, you should be just fine. Liquid runs through really fast. No worries!

Another glorious FRIDAY!!! LOVE them. Really, really LOVE Fridays. Well, so far, the Low Carb thing is a "go". I was good all day yesterday - and I have a good start on today, too. The hardest part is that "after dinner" time... &*^% commercials. But, it's easier to be good if you know that you can eat whatever you want on Saturday. I am going to have to stop and get some cheetos or something on the way home, tonight. Now, I stayed so late at the office last night (gossiping with my supervisor) that I did NOT go to the gym. So, I am holding at 9 days for February. I am bad. Tonight, for sure. I have decided to start work on getting a Teacher's Certificate. That is how uncertain the ol' job is at the moment. I have thought about it - and I figure teaching is the closest I can come to the income I make now in a profession that I am qualified for and would be good at doing. Rather than wait for the actual lay-off, I am going to see what it takes to get certified around here. I might have to hire out my house boy (DH) to make up the difference in income... He's a prime cook - but a lousy housekeeper. Any takers? This would be strictly a day-gig for him. I am keeping his other skills to myself! Other than the constant looming concern over continued employment - there just isn't much going on around here. Tuesday I go for my first installment of "Aftercare" at AIGB. I have mixed feelings on that particular issue. They are going to want me to be all "Gung Ho" about eating right and stuff. I have just NOT been there in a while, now. Low carb is about the best effort that I can muster at the moment - and I am NOT worrying about fat grams or sodium or anything else. Right now it seems like a huge effort to just skip the bread, crackers and Pasta. I don't even want to think about eating veggies with no dip, or worse, yet, FF cheese (**shudder**). I guess we will see how that whole thing goes next week. Eileenie - LOL! That's a good funny. No word on another trip to NY. I will keep you posted. Betty - instead of harassing YOU about exercise, I guess I am going to harass myself. *sigh* Enjoy the day! Sherry - HUGS! I hope you feel better, soon. I hate having to work when I feel poorly. Have fun with your vision board. Mandy - I am starting to worry. I hope this latest round of Antibiotics helps. And I hope you and your DH get a chance to spend a little time together this weekend. It seems like he has been working an awful lot. What does he do? Have I missed that? Kat - I always have veggies and dip. Come on over! I don't get behind the big bash for the little baby. It's not like she will even remember it when she grows up... if she were 5 or 6, sure - but 1? *sigh* I hope this isn't an indicator for the rest of the childs life. Your DS will be BROKE all the time. Hope all that cleaning isn't too much of a trial. Hugs! Well - I have to get back to work. Yee stinkin' Haw. Only a few more hours... then I can escape. :]

Jess - Hugs! For me - weeks 4-6 were the very hardest. I have the big VG band - and once that swelling went down and everything was healed up - BAM - I was hungry just like before I got the band. This is very normal - but very hard. Just try to be philosophical about it. Right now you are just finishing up the healing from the initial surgery - and it won't do anything for you until you start getting fills. Don't panic, and don't worry if you don't lose, or even if you gain. When I went in for that first fill, I had gained a half a pound... grrr. As for you BF trying to "help" you - ask him nicely to stop. There is a huge difference between not throwing food at you every five minutes, and harping on what you have chosen to eat. Remind him sweetly that you have done this for yourself, and you will have to do it by yourself, as well. While you appreciate his support and concern, your food choices will have to be just that - YOUR choices - and his comments could be viewed as nagging, rather than his intention to support. Good Luck with all of it. It will get lots better after that first fill. Hugs!

For me, the WHOLE point of getting the band is that it will be there after I hit goal to help with Maintenance. I know it will take me LOTS longer to form good habits than to re-learn the bad ones, so I am clinging to my Band like a life vest in the ocean!

Yay!! Congrats on getting your band date!! If you like the EAS pre-mixed drinks - you will probably like Atkins shakes, too. If you are going to mix your own, I suggest Six Star powder (available at walmart) in any flavors. If you mix your own, you can get creative with adding broth, fruit, extracts and such. I made a really great shake with coffee, cinnamon, milk & vanilla Protein powder. You can see the possibilities for keeping yourself from going insane with boredom if you mix your own. Pre-mix is convenient for travel or work - and I use them all the time, now... but in the beginning while you are sitting at home with nothing to do and you can't eat any real food, having the flavor options can save your sanity. Good Luck! (and don't forget the Gas-Ex!) :]

Hey All I am just sitting here eating my hamburger patty in Salsa Verde. I have decided to try low carb for a bit. DH fixed these patties with chopped onion, red bell pepper and mushroom bits all mixed up in the lean hamburger meat for dinner last night - and he made a spare for me to bring for lunch. I used the last of the homemade green salsa to pour over the patty for moisture in re-heating. I have to say, it isn't bad for a low carb/low fat delight. As of today, I am up to 9 days of exercise for the month of Feb - give or take 18 miles. I already surpassed my January total - so I don't feel too bad. We are going again tonight. I, too, have decided that I have got to do a little work if I intend to lose any weight. It's too easy to fall into BAD habits and travelling is a pretty weak excuse. Even if exercise is problematic on the road, there is no excuse for the food Porn eating. So, back on plan. Eileenie - I still have a whole bag of Necco Sweethearts. I got enough boxes to give them to my co-workers - but my trip got moved to the week of Valentines and I forgot to give them out the Friday before. All I can say is, thank GOD it isn't chocolate. I would have a much harder time resisting that. I figure I can eat a box of sweethearts on my carb cheat day (Saturday) and be ok. They are only 110 calories a box. Kudos to you for getting all that out of the house. Cass - don't worry about being sporadic. We are happy to see you whenever you drop in. Congrats on the scale movement! Clearly, you are doing a better job at eating properly than I am. :] Good Luck with the Boss. Chrispy - Jewelry after only 2 weeks? And Flowers? This all sounds very promising. Good Luck! Dianne - Hugs, Hugs and More Hugs!! I am thinking the best possible thoughts for a little sanity in your life. Congrats on the underwear! :] Kat - Just consider your figure to be "Lush" or maybe "Posh". The gods were generous in the chest department. I have been so glad of that myself, since with a butt as huge as mine, I would have looked like a freak all these years if my chest didn't balance me out. Sorry about the PB. Hugs to you and Kinzie. Sherry - Hugs and Love! Hormones suck. :] Betty - Ahhhhh. Spring, at last. I can't go outside at lunch. I am so unmotivated to work right now, I really wouldn't be able to force myself to come back inside. I am just enjoying the sunshine in the morning and the warm evenings. We'll have to keep each other honest. You harass me about eating right, and I will harass you about exercise. :] Mary - HUGS! I hope your computer is treating you better. Sorry about your Aunt. I will think good thoughts for an Auto miracle for you. Well, I have to get back to my oh-so-exciting job, now. The only good news is that they will be paying me for the 20 hours I spent at the airport last weekend. In the past, they have only paid us for the actual time spent on the plane. Which is crazy - since you have to be at the airport 2 hours before you depart..... Anyway - back to the old grind. Everybody think good thoughts for my resisting the lure of Carbs for the next few days. xo

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged Woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/ There are other sites linked as well that you can click too. One for the animals, the rainforest, and literacy. I figure better that you see this here on LBT than get another e-mail. :]

Neal Your discipline and hard work have paid off big time!! Congrats on reaching your goal. Good luck in the Maintenance phase of life. Enjoy!

Howdy! Well, I was able to avoid the whole Cake thing just by not going into the break room... but I did succumb to the Valentines Day candy my boss left on my desk while I was in NY. *sigh*. It was just sitting there, LOOKING at me. And by 4:45 - I was hungry. Today should be better. I ate all the candy yesterday (a little gift bag with a handful of kisses & bite-sized bars) and I had lunch a little later today. Hopefully, I will be able to make it through until dinner. If I can't - all I have is a harmless little Protein shake, anyway. :] I haven't gone to the gym since that one short visit in NY. I am going to have to go back and count the days... I have lost track. I think I am at 8 days/16 miles - but it could be 9. DH and I are supposed to go back on plan tonight. Well - I have to run, AGAIN - still catching up from last week. Love you guys!!

I am sorry you are having problems, Marisa. Definitely check in with your doc and see if you can figure out what is really causing the problem. Gall stones can happen when you lose weight - so you might be right about that. I think this is the time when you have to stand your ground. You got the band for a reason - and unless you think you have a handle on your food issues, you probably still need it. The best thing you can do is try to follow the rules and avoid PB's as much as you can. If your folks don't see you in constant distress, they may ease off a little. Remind them that you love them - but you have to do what is right for you. Hugs and good luck!

Hi All. Who needs Mondays, when Tuesdays can be like this? ICK. My lovely co-worker is in NY this week - and I am cleaning up the mess she left behind. Otherwise, all is well. Right this very minute they are serving King Cake in the break rooms... after my week in NY, I am trying to avoid that whole fiasco. I need cake about the same way I need a kick in the head. I am running behind, so I will just send my love and well wishes to everybody - particularly sick babies and Father-in-Laws. Hugs and Love. I will check in later.

Wow. There is nothing like travelling to make you truly appreciate the joys of home. After a 3 hour nap at the hotel, we headed back to the airport at 4 am. We figured if we had any change to get on a flight at all, it would have to be the flight at 6am. That flight had 80 people on the standby list. We had been bumped BACK to 49-50 range. It was looking pretty bad for us to get home. We had already called ALL the airlines at ALL the airports. Nobody had any flights out. But after two flights went by with oversold or only 2 standby people getting on, we tried again. This time we were able to get confirmed seats on a flight from Raleigh (yes, Raleigh) to Dallas. We booked those and tried to get standby on a flight to Raleigh. Since it was only 9:00 when we booked the seats, we figured we had a shot at making it to Raleigh by the 5:30 pm flight. So, we didn't get on the 9am flight, we didn't get the 10:30 flight and we were starting to despair, when they called us up the the desk. They had opened up a completely NEW flight to Raleigh connecting thru Dulles in DC, and we would get there in time for our flight~!!! If you had told me last week that I would be DANCING over a flight home with 2 layovers, I would have LAUGHED IN YOUR FACE. I am soooooo glad to be home. There is nothing like a shower with water pressure... lounging in the WARM sun of my garden room and drinking coffee with my most beloved DH. *sigh*. Dianne - Hi Hon! Good to see you. Don't stress about catching up. Just start today and move forward. If FIL is shaky and purple, that fight is one you HAVE To win. Get that man to a Dr. asap. MAYBE it's nothing - but it hardly sounds that way. HUGS! Betty - THANK YOU! I am realling loving 65 degrees this morning. I hope your neck feels better soon. I can recommend chiropractic help for this. I remember the sports medicine people being life savers when I had whiplash. Chrispy - Tattoos are OK! My DH has a couple and he has always wanted one of those sleeves. Trust me, there ain't one thing wrong with tattoo'd bad boys. Mmmm. Not one thing. Did I mention it is GOOD to me home? Mandy - My DH is pretty sweet, too. You never would have guessed from looking when I met him. He had tattoos, earrings and an overall MEAN look. I only dated him cause I wanted to have a wild fling with someone COMEPLETLY different from the mamby pamby white bread boy I had just been dumped by. I guess you could say I have been having a wild fling for about 18 yrs now. :guess Sherry - DH talks about more tattoos once in a while - but at 51, he really doesn't care as much as he used to. I still think about getting one myself - but I haven't seen one, or thought of one I would want to have on me forever. My problem is I would want it to be unique - and I have no imagination. LOL! Darcy - I really could have used my PA on Friday!! Maybe we would have made it to the airport 15 minutes earlier! Sounds like it's time to put old Bess out to pasture and get yourself a new ride. Alas, parting is such sweet sorrow... Well, my Dearest Ones... I am off again today! We are going North to the Indian Casino today. We are trying WinStar which is just up the road from our Cindy. My DH and I are going with SIL & BIL to check it out. Thank goodness, we are taking the car. I have never had any trouble securing a seat in a car! :] Love and Hugs to All... Oh - and where the hell are those monkeys? I am still not seeing Pat or Patty.... :cry

Well. Looks like I get to spend MY 3 day weekend hanging around at the airport. Yup. Traffic was so sucky that we missed our plane - and there isn't another one that we can book until SUNDAY or MONDAY. You can't get out of New York, right now. We waited to try standby on the next flight after the one we missed - but there were FIFTY FIVE people in line. That storm on Wednesday has everything so screwed up there is just no fixing it. So, in a very few hours - we will sojourn back to La Guardia to standby for the 6am flight. Yippee, Skippy. We would have flown any airline, to Dallas by way of any destination - but there ARE NO FLIGHTS. They are all booked full - and only IDIOTS like us miss their planes... Our only hope is that not all of the 51 people remaining on the standby list will show up at 6am. Everybody think good thoughts. I really want to get home to my DH and my cats. Love you guys!

Well, there is some medical testing that is required as part of the process to get your pre-certification letter from the insurance company. It varies a bit from doc to doc and how long it takes depends on what your doc requires and how available medical services are in your area. In a larger city, you can probably get everything done and submitted to the insurance company withing 2-4 weeks. Then they can take 30 days before they make a determination of medical necessity. If you have to appeal - it takes time to prepare and time for them to review... So, basically, it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months or so... assuming you don't need to fill some "medically supervised diet" condition. For me, it was the 4 month thing. I had to fight tooth and nail to get insurance approval - but the State Insurance Board saw it my way. Others on this board have gotten their test, submitted everthing and been laid out on the table within 3 weeks. There is just no telling. Prepare for the worst - but hope for the best. Good Luck!!

Johni What sorts of things are you eating? Keep in mind that just because you have 9cc in the 10cc band, you STILL might need a bit more fill - but if you have discomfort when eating - that isn't good either. If you are eating good solid foods like chicken Beef, Pork or Fish - you should at least feel like you are no longer ravenously hungry anymore... Maybe you should throw out that concept of trying to feel "full" and just stop eating when your body stops screaming at you. Trust me, I know it's easier said than done. I also understand that "drop in the bucket" feeling. That is why I never succeeded at dieting before. The task was simply too great to undertake all at once. BUT, now I can take a little break and then get back on track without instantly gaining every ounce I lost and then some. That's the very best thing about the band. Please tell what sorts of things you are eating. 9cc should be doing SOMETHING - even if it isn't great or perfect, you should have some restriction. Keep the faith.

OK The place we went to is called the Spice MARKET - it's on 14th not too far in from the Hudson Parkway. It was FABULOUS! Six of us went and they put us into a little private room. It was like a harem, or something like that - benches all the way around the walls with big pillows along the back and a table in the middle. There were little iron-grill windows - very mediteranian feel. The food was Asian at it's finest. Really flavorful, all different and all delicious. I can heartily recommend the Spiced chicken Samosas and the Snap Peas with Shitake Mushrooms. The Duck was divine and let's not even get started on the dessert! The food was served family style - They just started bringing dishes to the table and everybody got a bite or a piece and then they would bring the next thing. It was really fun and really good. Oh, and the Tamarind Rum Punch was pretty good, too! It was great to go out and do something different. That place was so fabulous we are planning on trying another one of the owner's places. He has several restaurants around. If the rest of them are anywhere near as cool as the Spice Market - we will have to try them all. I think you have to have a pretty good sized group to get a pillow room - but the tables didn't look too bad, either. Well - that is the end of my travelogue for this month. With any luck, I will be back next month to try out some more new places. I missed seeing my Eileenie this trip - but with any luck, we will hook up again next month. Darcy - Hang tough honey. I am cheating enough for both of us. I know, eating vicariously through me just isn't that fabulous - but I will shut up now and stop talking about food. Mandy - Coolness about getting that deal on the total gym. Geez - $35 buck is the cost of dinner! And of course you feel like crap. All that housework has to be bad for you! Get some rest, Hon. Feel better! Mary - size 16? I can't even IMAGINE that right now. Shake it, Sister! Flaunt that tiny little booty to the world! :] Anne - Hi~ Hope you are enjoying your return to the working world. We eagerly await your report! Betty - Hugs! You get that place all warmed up for me. I am coming home, and Mama needs some Warm Weather! Brrr. I am SO over snow and cold. Cindy - Darling, retirement is what you make of it. Somehow I don't see you slowing down anytime soon! Did you sell all the cookies? It makes my head spin to hear about the last few of your days. Hope you had fun with the newsletter. I used to do one for the Association of Professional Mortgage Women back in the day. It was pretty fun - and I really enjoyed the experience of finishing a thing. Maybe I should have been a carpenter or something. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of that final tangible product. **Try and squeeze us into your busy schedule. We missed you! Well Hugs and Love to All - Keep in mind that the purpose of the Flying Monkeys is to go out and capture Pat and bring her back. I want to see those damned Monkeys right now - with Pat squirming in their fuzzy little arms! And Patty, too! xo

Well My Darlings... Tonight is our last night in town and we have decided to forego the Chart House for this trip and go to the Spice Garden instead. So, off we go to downtown, again. I LOVE Asian food, so I can't wait. Overall, it has been a slow week here, so far - which is sorta good. It means the investors are taking most of our loans instead of throwing them back. Hopefully our luck will hold. Sadly, it means we will probably have less people here next month (if the budget will allow anyone to come here). Hopefully I will get another shot at lunch with Eileenie next month. Keep your fingers crossed. Well, I have to run. We have reservations... **Mandy - on the elliptical, 25 minutes at a moderate pace is over 1.5 miles. I don't do the treadmill thing anymore... Darcy might know. TTL

DANG it's cold! When that wind blows it sucks the life right out of you! Tonight Robert & I ditched Lois & Wanda (they wanted to stay home and vegetate) to go downtown. We had drinks and appetizers at Bubba Gump and then we went to see Spamalot. It was FABULOUS - totally hysterical. Robert knew about a place that sells half price tickets TKTS or something like that. We got good seats (not a bad one in the Schubert Theater) for half price and got to see a great show. All we had to do was get to the TKTS booth at 46th & Broadway early enough to get seats - which was absolutely NO problem in this lovely weather. Clearly, LOTS of people wanted to stay home and vegetate. The show was great - the cast was having a lot of fun with it - and that always makes for a great show. It was far superior to the movie version, IMHO... The Monty Python stuff goes over SO much better live than on film. I totally loved it! Love you guys! I'll check in tomorrow. ... Always look on the Bright Side of Life.... (whistling)

Really, Folks It starts to get better after the first fill and it gets a little better with each consecutive fill. Hopefully, your band docs will be agressive - or you will get filled under flouro - which might help you get good restriction sooner. Right now, particularly if you have the big Vanguard band, it isn't doing a thing for you. It's the rare lucky soul who gets restriction right out of the box. The rest of us just have to slog through that 2-3 weeks of pre-op type starvation until we start getting fills. So long as you don't go completely insane and start eating EVERYTHING you can reach, you should be ok. You are still healing - so try to take it easy, and definitely DON'T eat till you're stuffed - but if you eat more than a cup or whatever fantasy serving size your doc gave you - don't panic. It will be ok. Let it ride until you start getting fills - and keep demanding fills until you get restriction. ***WATER is important. The only way I get close to enough is to drink in the car on my way to and from work. I try to drink a litre bottle each way and drink addl water throughout the day. Sip, Sip, Sip. The only downside to great restriction is that you really can't guzzle water anymore. You have to sip and pause, sip and pause. Good Luck!!!