ReneBean

Ah, Heather Feel the Power! You can amp it up or tone it down. You can use it for good or evil. Revel in it. Love it. Love yourself. Radiate!! Take the compliments as your due. You are a goddess, a queen. You have now begun to experience the Power of Woman. All of us have it - some of us just don't know it (deep down) yet. Wear it well. :]

Lisa - you amazon goddess, you!! You are so HOT. Love the feathered mask idea. Have a great time at the party!!!

Hey Terri. Start now. Get up right now and go find the treadmill. My big ol' size nine is waiting to connect with your butt if I don't hear about a half hour of treadmill, TODAY!! Sarge? Where are you... We need you on this thread.... Terri - seriously. Put down the milkshake. Change into your exercise togs and get to it. Nobody can do it for you. And you KNOW that you want to... Hugs! :]

Hi Folks! How goes the battle? It's another exotic and exciting day... Not much going on here. Just starting to feel some pre-op anxiety. I mean, Geesh - what was I thinking to get my surgery the day after the Superbowl... My Doc will probably still be hung over... lol! Yeah - that's the kind of crazy-assed thought that is running through my head right now. I can only hope that it doesn't get too much worse between now and next Monday. I am in a lovely state of Ketosis right now, so I hope my little liver is throwing out fat cells with abandon. Obsessed? Uh - YEAH. So sue me. Yesterday at the gym - I made it to 12 on the full body crunch machine. That's a record for me... Not much else to report. Sherry - two weeks is still pretty far off! :] Eat those burgers now - cause my understanding is that it's Bunless All The Way after the big surgery. I feel ya on the Sunday thing. About half the time, I can't focus on Sunday cause I am worrying about Monday. Wish I knew how to break that.... Betty - Working on a Sunday? I haven't had to do that in a long time... Hope things even out for you, soon. I still have everything crossed til you hear from your job interviews. Eileenie - yep, carry the sub. If the Doc tries to say "no" again, threaten him with the cousins... Patty - Oh sure... We are all sitting here DYING from curiosity - and you are out whooping it up with your new co-worker... What's That all about? (LOL!) But seriously - good for you that you are going out. I know you love your boys - but you need some grown-up time, too. Cindy - we are all going to concentrate on you getting well. Come on, Folks, everybody concentrate on a Healthy, Un-medicated Cindy. Don't feel too badly about that top weight... That number is actually below my first Medium-Goal!!! You are doing great, and I am sure your Doc will tell you so. Well, I haven't made it to the new Walmart today - but maybe I will scoot out of here early... I realized that I am going to need one other key piece of equipment on my weightloss journey... I still don't have a scale! I am a little hesitant to get one, knowing my own capacity for obsession... but I don't know if I will be able to STAND waiting between doc visits to know how I am doing. Hmmm... I will have to think, some more on that. Maybe I will get one after my fills begin... Did I mention I was obsessing? Catch Y'All Later!! Irene

If they will approve you for By-Pass - then you can fight them for the LapBand procedure. I had to go all the way to the State Insurance Board for Independent Medical Review - but I won... PM me your e-mail if you want to see my appeal letters. Good Luck!!

Gosh, I have been so sporadic.... But I had another NSV - at least I think it was an NSV. A co-worker asked me if I had lost weight. Basically, I have cheekbones again - which she noticed. :]

Hey Jen Jen! Welcome to LBT! I will be having my surgery with Dr. Fox at the Surgery Center of Richardson on Monday of next week! Can't Wait!!! Hope you're all healed up and feeling fabulous!! Maybe I'll see ya there sometime when we are both getting fills... :]

Hey Max! Welcome and congrats on your upcoming surgery. :]

As a woman who recently got winded and fatigued dancing ONE SONG, I can truly understand your joy!! Congrats - that really is a Wow!! You and Katrinka kick ass!!

Go, Celeste! Go!! LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!!! :]

Congratulations and Felicitations!!' Welcome to LBT! :]

Congrats, Dee Welcome to LBT! :]

Yep - Water is the only cure for water retention due to salt... Happy to hear you have your ankles back. Congrats on your new Band! :]

Fairy Wings are good. Have you got a wand? I could send one... Hang in there until the docs get back to you. Remember, we all love you and that is pretty powerful. Hugs and White Light, Good Thoughts & Fairy Dust.

Happy Sunday, Folks... Betty - Three weeks seems like an eternity. I am so much an instant gratification kind of girl! I feel for you. And don't worry - I won't be buying much of anything for post op that I won't use later. Dianne, Honey.... I'm sorry about the leaks! That sucks big time - but at least you are getting it fixed. BAND leakage seems odd. Was it defective? Or did your doc stab it during surgery? Geez - how does that happen?!? HUGE hugs. I hope that we can all get together in March and compare scars or something. :] Eileenie - I agree, the Divine Miss G was worth the wait. What a doll! Gosh, your plans for the day are almost as exciting as mine - but I am going to the gym, too... :] Patty - Thank goodness for my doting husband! He is making the low carb diet totally do-able with his lovely stir-fry veggies and things. And my Doc says liquidy potatoes on like day 3 or 4... Like I said, he seems really reasonable about the whole diet thing. I will just take it nice and slow. Oh - you FORGOT about the mystery box?? I never could have forgotten about that... geez! I would have been forced to torment or blackmail until DexH told me what was in it... Or I might have taken it to the airport to be x-rayed... LOL. Do tell when you find out. Anne - Thanks!! I would love to try the Unjury powder - and I would even love some of the 998 boulion cubes... Or rather, DH would. He cooks with that stuff once in a while... I will PM my address. And Thanks for the tip on The Matador. I love dark comedy - and I love Pierce Brosnan... Shery - Hi! Hope all is well with you. Cindy - Ooooooo, San Antonio. I have never been. You will have to give us the play by play. And no sweat on the name thing. I have been called every name between Irene and Ivan (misspellings, mispronunciations, bad handwriting) and besides, Renee is on of my Alter Egos... I have several. (shhhhh, you weren't supposed to tell! Shut up Renee! Reina, grab her and shut her up!) Anyhow, I hope you feel better and can lay off the Benadryl, soon. Pat - I just wanted something a little different for the Avatar. Now that I have a digital camera to play with, I can change it as often as I like... Maybe next week I will get a full face shot that I like - but for now, the eyes have it. Hope you are feeling better after that day of PB. I am so NOT looking forward to that little Bandster experience! Good luck on the training. At least with training, you can stop after a while... If you just do it all yourself, you have to go on and on and on.... Hope the new gal is great! Well, Darlings, Thanks for all the suggestions. I have decided that I need to grab a couple of things that I didn't get: Ice Pops Heating Pad Juice (gosh, how did I forget to grab juice?!?) I guess I will have to check out the brand spanking new Walmart store near my job. It opened about 10 days ago - and I just haven't taken the time to go in. Hope to hear from the folks who haven't posted, soon. Hugs for everybody!

I understand your reluctance to tell - I really do. However, if this woman is MO and she is genuinely seeking assistance, you have to tell her. Not telling her reinforces the concepts that: WLS is wrong, is the "easy way out", is for the weak. If you don't offer your real solution, you will be accepting these ideas. Are you truly ashamed that you had surgery? Do you think it was wrong? I don't. I think you just realistically assessed your ability (and most other people's ability) to maintain a healthy weight without help, and then you got yourself the tool that you need to be successful. You were strong enough to take the risks of surgery for the benefit to your health. Strong enough to change your life dramatically in order to do what is best for you and your family. If your friend is MO - then you really need to tell her. 2/3rds of the population of the US is overweight - and the number of MO people has sky-rocketed. The world we live in does NOT promote healthy eating, the computer society does NOT promote exercise and the media points out to us everday that we are inadequate if we don't have the ability to lose weight "without drugs or surgery". To tell your friend that you are doing it by strength of will alone will only make her more miserable when she fails (as we all have, repeatedly) to lose, or to keep the weight off. If she is MO, and she is genuinely seeking help - please tell her. If she is just asking from curiosity - then keep your secret. I'll bet if she is MO and you tell her the truth - she won't spread it around.

Yeah, Lisa. Let's see you IN the dress... We want dress rehearsal shots, NOW. None of that 'waiting for the event' crap, ok? But it's real purty - talk about motivation to stay on plan... :]

Go, Jess, Go!! Work that size 12!! Congrats!

Prejudiced agains skinny people? Yeah, I admit it. But, I try to look at the skinny person and not judge soley on body size. Plus, I don't get that instant recoil unless they are that NATURALLY thin, beautiful person. Regular sized chicks don't bother me. (you know, size 12-14-16). I guess my ENVY manifests itsself in a very judgemental way. Of course, a Witch is a Witch at any size - and I have met my share of the skinny & the fat. And I just have an instant dislike of anyone, male or female, that has skated through life SOLEY on their natural perfect beauty. Open your mind to the skinny people... some of them are really sweet. I had an assistant who was cute, blonde, petite, a perfect size 2 or 4. My knee-jerk reaction was that I just KNEW why they hired her... But I pushed that down and gave her a chance. She's a great gal. I love her to death. But I had to get past that initial prejudice before I could know that. Besides, I am working through that response. Now-a-days I think of MuffinBirdie/Mae - who was once a big girl - but is now a perfect, petite, cute size 4. She didn't have any natural advantage - she had to work for it. Nothing to be jealous or hateful about, there. Admiration... But if I met her without knowing that she had once been big, I might assume (you know the old saying) that her cutie size 4 perfection was entirely natural. It would be sad if I never gave her a chance. Besides, I have this secret fantasy that some day, maybe I will wear a size 8. Wouldn't it be stupid to hate skinny chicks, if I became one?? And how can we successfully become what despise? Yep. I am working on that whole prejudice thing...

Hey Sky! Welcome to LBT!!! I think we have a couple of people that have been re-banded. Hopefully they will hook up with you. Good luck with the new band!! :]

My Mama always says: God helps those who help themselves. Another Favorite at our house is: You don't ask - you don't get. Simple - and yet so hard.... so long as you know that sometimes the answer will be no - there's no harm in ASKING. :]

*Not sure if they will want 5 yrs of medically supervise diet history - or just the last 5 yrs of medical records. BCBS of CA wanted 5 yrs medical records - but only 6-12 months of doc supervised diet history. Also - I had to write out my diet history - but it certainly wasn't all doc supervised... Take heart! I had to fight them all the way to the state insurance board - but I won. Good Luck!!

So, I am sitting here looking at my chewable aspirin, my chewable calcium supplements, my chewable Gas-X and my Benefiber. I went shopping yesterday for some of the things I know I will need. I am currently a functioning Carb Nazi - I stive to erradicate carbs from the face of the earth. So far, I am doing well on that - but having just a smidge of trouble with the fat thing. South Beach is harder for me than Atkins was. On Atkins, I would eat all the cheese I wanted. I was good a finding delicious low-carb cheese that I could eat plenty of and stay within my 20 gram carb limit. This fat monitoring business is a pain the ass. I can live without sour cream. I can live with less Mayo (I mean if you can't make sandwiches, it has limited usage, doesn't it?) but the cheese thing is rough. So I am already breaking the diet... sort of. I guess I am doing Atkins instead of South Beach. SB allows Beans and stuff - It's way more complicated than Atkins. You have to think about it too much - so I just won't, I guess. I will just do a lower fat version of Atkins - Ketosis is ok, for right now. I mean, the point is to get the liver to suck all the fat out of itsself, right? After the surgery, I will eat "normally" again eventually - and ketosis can't be any harder on my liver than anything else I have done to it, over the years of eating every rich creamy delicious thing that brought me to weigh well over 300 lbs... :mad: Can you say "Total lack of self control?" Sure y' can... DH surprised me yesterday. We were talking about him studying the doc's info so he could prepare appropriate meals and he said maybe if he were going to get the surgery, he would read up on the stuff. In one sense, it just means his ass is too lazy to read the stuff, (he wants me to just tell him what to cook) but in another sense, it means that somewhere in the depths of his psyche - he has actually considered doing it. That is good news. DH also tops 300 lbs - and although he is much taller than me - and weighs LESS - he is still MO and Diabetic. I am hoping that if I do well and have few complications, he might actually consider it in his conscious mind. He is ten years older than me - and I worry about him almost as much as I have worried about myself. How cool would it be if the surgery did for his Diabetes what it has done for others. I guess I will just have to be a model bandster, a rabbit, and make it look easy while I am doing it. (um, yeah. sure. whatever.):paranoid I am in that Obsession phase of my weight loss journey. That's good. But that is also a standard pattern for me. Here's the pattern: 1) Irene freaks out about being MO and decides it's time to finally do something (for about the 50th time - but we won't go into that now). 2) Irene finds the diet du-jour and begins to follow it with fervor - the model, nay the very icon of the plan (whatever it is). Obsessing over every calorie, carb and fat gram, exercising, and actually losing weight. 3) After two-three months (MAX) Irene get's bored? Gets tired? Get's afraid of being thin? I still don't know exactly what it is that causes it - but that is when I start to lose it. Maybe that's when my natural OCD tendencies have just run their course? It just seems like so much WORK to keep it up. Of course, that's usually when the weight loss slows down - so maybe it's a reward issue. Once the rate of weightloss gets dramatically lower, what is the pay-off for all this work? Hmmm. My hope is that with the band - this cycle will be changed. Well, it will practically have to change. My own fervor will carry me through the liquid phase and all the healing. By the time I start to get discouraged, it should be time for my fills to begin - and Doctor Fox seems like he won't be shy about giving them. Besides - I won't be able to eat the volumes that I have eaten with the band. It's not like I will be able to suck down half a pizza in a sitting. (Like I can EASILY do now...) Besides I will have all the LBT folk to keep me sane. I really will have NO excuse for becoming a drama queen about all this stuff. I have absorbed a whole boatload of info over the last several months. I know I will suffer some post op depression, I know that I will have food mourning issues, I know all that stuff - But I suppose knowing it won't make it any easier. :rolleyes Of course, my biggest fear is that I will slip or erode or something. I guess it's just the luck of the draw on that stuff. I am going to have to just suck it up and count on the Luck o' the Irene that has carried me this far. Good Karma pays off. I guess I had better get out there and spread some more good vibes. I will need them back, say in about 3 months! 8 days to lift off.....

So, I am sitting here looking at my chewable aspirin, my chewable calcium supplements, my chewable Gas-X and my Benefiber. I went shopping yesterday for some of the things I know I will need. I am currently a functioning Carb Nazi - I stive to erradicate carbs from the face of the earth. So far, I am doing well on that - but having just a smidge of trouble with the fat thing. South Beach is harder for me than Atkins was. On Atkins, I would eat all the cheese I wanted. I was good a finding delicious low-carb cheese that I could eat plenty of and stay within my 20 gram carb limit. This fat monitoring business is a pain the ass. I can live without sour cream. I can live with less Mayo (I mean if you can't make sandwiches, it has limited usage, doesn't it?) but the cheese thing is rough. So I am already breaking the diet... sort of. I guess I am doing Atkins instead of South Beach. SB allows Beans and stuff - It's way more complicated than Atkins. You have to think about it too much - so I just won't, I guess. I will just do a lower fat version of Atkins - Ketosis is ok, for right now. I mean, the point is to get the liver to suck all the fat out of itsself, right? After the surgery, I will eat "normally" again eventually - and ketosis can't be any harder on my liver than anything else I have done to it, over the years of eating every rich creamy delicious thing that brought me to weigh well over 300 lbs... Can you say "Total lack of self control?" Sure y' can... DH surprised me yesterday. We were talking about him studying the doc's info so he could prepare appropriate meals and he said maybe if he were going to get the surgery, he would read up on the stuff. In one sense, it just means his ass is too lazy to read the stuff, (he wants me to just tell him what to cook) but in another sense, it means that somewhere in the depths of his psyche - he has actually considered doing it. That is good news. DH also tops 300 lbs - and although he is much taller than me - and weighs LESS - he is still MO and Diabetic. I am hoping that if I do well and have few complications, he might actually consider it in his conscious mind. He is ten years older than me - and I worry about him almost as much as I have worried about myself. How cool would it be if the surgery did for his Diabetes what it has done for others. I guess I will just have to be a model bandster, a rabbit, and make it look easy while I am doing it. (um, yeah. sure. whatever.):paranoid I am in that Obsession phase of my weight loss journey. That's good. But that is also a standard pattern for me. Here's the pattern: 1) Irene freaks out about being MO and decides it's time to finally do something (for about the 50th time - but we won't go into that now). 2) Irene finds the diet du-jour and begins to follow it with fervor - the model, nay the very icon of the plan (whatever it is). Obsessing over every calorie, carb and fat gram, exercising, and actually losing weight. 3) After two-three months (MAX) Irene get's bored? Gets tired? Get's afraid of being thin? I still don't know exactly what it is that causes it - but that is when I start to lose it. Maybe that's when my natural OCD tendencies have just run their course? It just seems like so much WORK to keep it up. Of course, that's usually when the weight loss slows down - so maybe it's a reward issue. Once the rate of weightloss gets dramatically lower, what is the pay-off for all this work? Hmmm. My hope is that with the band - this cycle will be changed. Well, it will practically have to change. My own fervor will carry me through the liquid phase and all the healing. By the time I start to get discouraged, it should be time for my fills to begin - and Doctor Fox seems like he won't be shy about giving them. Besides - I won't be able to eat the volumes that I have eaten with the band. It's not like I will be able to suck down half a pizza in a sitting. (Like I can EASILY do now...) Besides I will have all the LBT folk to keep me sane. I really will have NO excuse for becoming a drama queen about all this stuff. I have absorbed a whole boatload of info over the last several months. I know I will suffer some post op depression, I know that I will have food mourning issues, I know all that stuff - But I suppose knowing it won't make it any easier. :rolleyes Of course, my biggest fear is that I will slip or erode or something. I guess it's just the luck of the draw on that stuff. I am going to have to just suck it up and count on the Luck o' the Irene that has carried me this far. Good Karma pays off. I guess I had better get out there and spread some more good vibes. I will need them back, say in about 3 months! 8 days to lift off.....

Roving packs of Teenagers... That's pretty much all that scares me. I guess it's better since I moved to TX - the kids are all so clean cut - but DANG. In Portland I used to fear for my life... Lloyd Center was terrifying... Spiders - If they leave me alone they get to live in peace. They eat other bugs. This is good, in my book. Cows - ugly, stupid, by not scary. Never really pondered the head in the toilette problem... It hasn't come up. And sharks haven't been a real concern since the 70's... :]