Swampdoggie

@@CanyonBaby thinking about you praying for you owe you a note, extremely busy at work and stress eating -so mad at me but almost over, can't wait til next next week. Just wanted you to know I'm thinking of you both! D.

@@stephh can you take me off this one? Things a r e crazy at work and I don't have time to check in. Ill join the next one. Thanks so much!!

Sorry for the delay. I was 208 on Monday. bleh.

Some days are diamonds...today seems like a stone.

@@amy.taylor8414 I'm a ditto to @@jeanniereenie

@@Queen of Crop just bought your book, excited to read it. I visited Amsterdam a few years ago and loved it. Was in town for a conference and rented a flat rather than staying in a hotel and had an absolutely glorious time. Congrats on your book!

@@Stevehud ha ha, that is funny. And cool.

@@TiredOfMyself My husband and I met in grad school (I was actually engaged to someone else) and have been together almost 28 years, married for 25, have gone thru thick and thin (well, thin and thick). I think you are asking a very important question, and I think the folks who've weighed in have it right. If you have a solid foundation to work with, it can get better and better. If things were rocky already, this might cause a rupture. In my case, he's very self confident (and trim and handsome) and doesn't worry about other guys so no jealousy issues. But, I think there are considerations other than weight loss, and you have to work on how you'll approach them. For example, I didn't expect my family to have to eat what I am eating. However, my husband agreed that he'd cook (he's a terrible cook, but can make tacos) for the fam while I was in the liquids stage. At the same time (around Christmas) I sucked it up and went to family events where I was the only one drinking premier Protein - even in restaurants, but for the most part, when we can make the choices, we pick a restaurant where I'll have options. We play poker with M&M chips and I had to be prepared to participate because its a big deal in our family. He didn't attend any info or support stuff with me and though it would have been nice, I know him and this was not something he'd be comfortable with. But he made sure I could attend whatever I needed to - worked out his schedule for me - and did/does laundry and shopping and dishes etc as much as I do, particularly when I was less able (surgery and recovery). He never said word one about the weight; just that he wanted me to be happy and healthy. He's so happy I can do more stuff with the family again and so am I! I always tell our kids, pick someone you find funny, who finds you funny - who GETS you - and build on that (and make sure they can laugh at themselves). God Bless the man, on the few occasions when we've seen a couple with an older guy and a hot young lady he has wondered aloud what they talk about. (Even if he doesn't mean it, having said it wins him husband points).

In Jr high my girlfriend and I would go to the little mini grocery up the steet and then down the block to the cemetery where we could stuff our faces in peace behind big oaks and quiet tombstones. Twinkies, potato chips, licorice, Suzy qs, and chocolate milk. Partying with the dead. Bad juju.

ANOTHER excellent addition!

@JustWatchMe Perfect!!

@@Babbs back atcha baby! I do know what I need to do. And I really have wanted to do so much of this for health reasons (not just because I badgered my husband into agreeing I could have an RV when I lose 80 lbs). I DO know how much better I feel when I'm eating healthy. And I know sugar in all its forms makes those blasted lyme beasties happy so anything I can do to thwart those vile critters is a priority. My surgery is on July 6. THANKS!

Backstory - felt crappy most of May, nausea, barfing, rainbow poops, etc. Felt better with carbs. Got my meds re-arranged and now feeling much better (and gallbladder coming out soon) but haven't changed my wicked ways. I am quickly sliding down a slippery slope of increasing naughtiness and I need a poke. Somebody please tell me the following: 1. LOG your food. 2. Healthy Protein first. 3. Get your liquids in. 4. Stuff you eat with your fingers and not a fork still COUNTS. 5. WALK around for Pete's sake. 6. Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD. 7. No more soft KITTY warm kitty. Let me hear you!

I've made enough excuses in the last couple of weeks. No more. I've had slips that turned into years long free-falls. I'm the only one who can turn me around. So, I AM EATING HEALTHFULLY today.

Hi @@stephh i'm at 204 today.

@@Eli Alexander wow, that's great!! I'm proud of us all!

I moved my vitamins last week when I was cleaning and have forgotten to take them every day since! Thanks for the good reminders. Keep up the good work everyone!

thank you! I can't wait to be in Onederland :> With the band, I would be as hungry as ever, eat, get stuck, barf, and then be hungry again. I barfed a LOT (and usually at business dinners, ugh!). I never learned how to work with it. Never was able to gauge how much to eat and the physics of it is just plain wrong. The sleeve feels like what I hoped the band would be like - less hunger, less able to eat big amounts even when hungry, and have built enough good habits to be mostly on the right track re "good" and "bad" foods. I have an unrelated illness for which I take a lot of meds and it throws me off sometimes - nausea, vomiting, other gastro issues (so to speak) and sometimes I can't tell if its the sleeve acting up or the other meds. It also means I cant exercise the way I should, or would like to. But overall this has been a relatively easy journey so far for me (though I have a ways to go yet). I have no regrets, no complaints. In general, just I feel SO MUCH better, and more "normal". I was telling my mom recently that this is how "normal" people must feel in their relationship with food (my family are all regular size - I'm the crazy outlier). I mean, I can WALK AWAY from donuts, booze, chips, etc. They just don't have the pull they used to. THANK GOD!! Best of luck on your journey too!

@ hi Kate, welcome! I've actually been on this site since 2007 but only active since December 2014. I really enjoy it, have gotten a lot of great ideas and counsel, some laughs and I feel a lot of affect tion for a goodly number of the folks who participate. The exchanges bring home to me how human we all are, with our struggles and joys,our sames and differents. I rarely go a day without checking in. I'm 50, married forever with a 28 yo and a 16 yo. From the Midwest cornfields but live near wash DC now. Had a band, revised to sleeve in January and LOVE it. I love to camp and travel. Have been to 16 countries and 48 states (missing Mississippi and new Hampshire oddly). That's about the size of it. :-D

Hmm. There are folks who will advise to abandon the scale. I use my scale but i try not o get too hung up on it because the body does indeed fluctuate and sometimes in a big way. So At home we have a big old physician scale with the weights and slides etc. But at work I have a little eat smart scale (which weighs lower than the one at home) and measures fat content water percent muscle percent and bone mass. I know it sounds crazy to have 2 scales but it actually helps me because I can see positive changes even when the weight itself might not be giving me news I want.

@@CanyonBaby you and Dave are so awesome, brave, inspirational. What a grace filled approach. As you know, I have Lyme and reading about your issues with your insurance is so similar to the crap my insurance has pulled has got me all steamed and up in arms just reading your text. I do not get what in the world goes thru their minds! But I need to take a page from your book and trust it will work out Stay your strong joyful selves. People like you make the world better just for being in it.