LittleBill

Hop on the board here for those slow times. There is almost always someone here to "talk you down" from eating that doughnut.

@@swimbikerun But...but... paying for a gym membership is DOING something! And then, there's a new bag to buy, and matching workout clothes, new sneakers, and of course, new ear buds, Water bottle, etc. why a person can lose substantial weight just by lightening their wallet! I look like some homeless person at the gym with my baggy old t shirts and cheap shorts and shoes. I did it exactly as you describe. I started out walking around my neighborhood, doing more back and forth on the property, and working my way up from the first day after surgery. It was a month before I was cleared to join the gym and start heavier workouts. It was another month before they cleared me to resume my work. I am back to pre-op lifting capacity now, and increasing my endurance every day now.

If I may wax serious for a moment. I am probably one of the most out of shape people there at the gym right now. I am working very hard at changing that. I started in a little over a month ago. I thought about waiting until the holidays were over, but I wanted to get started, and I did NOT want to be lumped in with the resolution crowd. This is my first experience with a gym post high school. I got my muscles the old fashioned way - with hard physical labor. For many years I worked my fat off by working harder and converting flab to muscle. As I grew older though, it all caught up with me, passed me, and left me in the dust. So now I go to the gym. I think it is a great solution for the long term. It is where people who are out of shape need to go. I also think that New Year's resolutions are a farce, an artificial construct foisted on us by calendar and culture. Today is the day to start making changes, regardless of what the date on the calendar is. I took that attitude when I started my WLS journey. I did not wait for a special date, or to be told by someone to start making changes. I started researching and started changing things in my life immediately. I am not looking forward to the next few weeks for several reasons. I do not like crowds. In fact, I detest them. I do not care for self important people, and I expect to see a lot of them shortly. I do my best to be considerate and respectful of others, but I do not see a lot of that in my fellow man (or woman). Yeah, they are out there, but selfish, inconsiderate people outnumber the rest by a vast amount. And those who are going to show up and expect to reverse years of bad behavior in days or weeks are usually among the worst.

It is not the surgery, it is the mindset. You have the tools, and you have already been successful, so you know what you need to do. The questions is, do you have the resolve to do it? You've already described the issue in your post. Yeah, it can be hard. It will be hard. And it is not a bad thing to be accountable to someone to help you along the way. But a different surgery will not change your mental attitude. There's where you need to focus your efforts.

^^^^^ This. Follow your plan. I was told to go completely decaf prior to surgery. So I did. Once I was post-op, they said it was fine to go back to caffeine coffee if I wanted. I drink a couple of cups in the morning, and often several cups of decaf throughout the day.

There are a couple of things going on here. One is the response you receive to your prayers, and two is how you interpret that response. God usually works in our lives through opened and closed doors. What might be no for now may not always be no. It might be "wait". Keep praying and let things take their course. The hardest part is being patient. You've mentioned you've been given many other blessings. Focus on those things for now and don't let this get you down. There may be things that need to happen about which you know nothing before the time is right.

@@jimmc77 Happy New Year to you too, Jim!

Apparently it was a brand new thing, as the pay phone at the end of the hall just wasn't working out. This was way back in 1976. I had to go look up bunny boiler. That's funny. I remember watching the movie, but not the scene. I had to wonder because I ate a rabbit in a fancy restaurant the night I met my in-laws. That is a whole 'nother story, so I won't derail the thread here.

Well I am so old I can remember back to when we had a rotary dial phone in our dorm room, and answering machines had not yet been invented. Loneliness is hard. And it hits most of us at some time or another. College was particularly rough for me in some ways. I remember spending my 21st birthday completely alone because no one was interested in even having a legal drink with me. You can turn it around, but it will take you some time to develop meaningful relationships. As has been mentioned, get involved in some outside activities. Volunteer your time to charity work. Present yourself as a kind and thoughtful person, and become a good listener. You will soon have more people flocking to you than you will know what to do with. Been there, done that. It works.

I was very lightheaded for a while, but it is getting better. My BP went from normal before surgery to low after surgery. I've been getting plenty of Water, but it seems like it might be related to quick weight loss as well. In any case, there were a number of times I thought I was going to black out completely, and many many more where I just fuzzed out a little, but they have been getting less and less. I will be three months post op on 1/11.

I will take up a collection and send it to you if you promise not to post video. How are you getting him in a little black dress? I will be staying home with Mrs. LittleBill and reveling in the quiet. This is something we do every NYE since we became empty nesters. We will probably be in bed by 9:30 PM. We're old.

When I was a kid, I used to like licorice. But then, it worked so hard on my bowels that I got to the point where even the smell made me nauseous. My parents, being the jokesters they are, always made sure I had a bag of black jelly beans at Easter, even as an adult. They knew I couldn't stand the stuff, so it was a natural. They never forced me to eat it of course, but it was just their perverse way of having some fun with me.

Oh, yeah, if I had tried to eat the bun, I wouldn't have gotten even half of it down, and I would have filled my tiny belly with empty carbs. As it was I ended up with 46 grams of protein, plus some good carbs from the cole slaw. They put some sugar in their dressing, but that was minimal for the size serving it was. It was more of a garnish than anything else.

@@81Kellogram I was able to eat the whole thing. They advertise them as 1/3 lb, which is before cooking. I'll call it 5 1/2 ounces to be generous. By the time it has been fried, it is easily down to between 4-5 ounces of meat. Through careful experimentation, I also know that my sleeve will easily hold 3/4 cup of food. Even so, when I am out like this, my policy has been to eat very slowly (even slower than usual) and chew very well (gristle in cheap diner food, you know) and stop when I am getting close to that full feeling. I spent close to half an hour chewing that thing up, but it all went down with no discomfort. I was also able to eat the tiny cup of cole slaw, tiny defined as about the size of a silver dollar and an inch high. The bun, I left on the plate.

Did someone say cheese? I like cheese. I love it. Sometimes it is hard to find though...

I put Benefiber in my coffee in the morning now.

@@Who'sThere Let's just say that when he was young, and before he got respectable, Little LittleBill got around. Then Mrs LittleBill came along.

Suits in an office who don't understand how the world really works. Some bean counter with soft hands who never did a day of real work convinced a bunch of other people that they can find people who will do more work for less money just because.

@ Before I quit my corporate job and went out on my own, I used to manage a warehouse for a retail company. We were ALWAYS under staff. And I had to outwork men almost half my age to show them who was who. I know what it is like.

It's a solar powered sex machine! I will say that I was surprised to be losing hair... EVERYWHERE!!! Even in those special places. I am a little worried with people reporting that is has come back thicker. I have a "normal" amount of hair now and I don't want to look like a hedgehog later! I could stand to do a hair transplant from my back...

Okay, I have a bit of a story to tell. This does not involve the OR, but it does involve post op, and people I had never met before. One of the side effects of anesthesia is your bladder stops working. I did not learn about this until I was in my hospital room long after my surgery. I felt the urge to pee, and... nothing. I stood there, thinking all the right thoughts, and making all the right motions, but produced exactly nothing. Okay, I thought, I will try again in a little while. A little while later, I got the exact same results. I called for a nurse. The nurse, a very attractive young lady, came into the room, and I explained my problem. She in turn explained the phenomena of anesthesia on bladders, and promised to return forthwith with an ultrasound machine to determine how full my bladder really was. A few minutes later, we determined that I had an ENTIRE FREAKING HALF LITER inside my bladder waiting to come out. She said, "I will go get John, so we can insert a catheter." At this point, I didn't care if she brought in the local "News At 6" team. All i wanted was to be drained, and as quickly as possible. "Why do we need John!?! Is that so he can hold me down!?!?" "No! Haha! We just like to have another man in the room." "I DON'T CARE WHO IS IN THE ROOM RIGHT NOW!!!!! LET"S JUST GET THIS DONE!!!!" So yeah, I was naked as a jaybird, and John, and the very attractive lady nurse who was young enough to be my daughter handled my winky, and stuck a tube down it in a very painful way. It was the first time since I had been married that another woman saw Little LitteBill not standing at attention. But in the end, I did not care. Relief was way more important than dignity.

It's a solar powered sex machine!

I will qualify this a bit, since I have a sleeve, and not the RNY. But I was just in my appointment yesterday, and the CRNP told me that I did not have to worry about stretching my sleeve in one episode. It takes time over several instances. I would suspect that even if it were easier with an RNY pouch, you don't have to worry about a single episode where you stretched it out like a balloon you blew up too far.

Haha, I had forgotten about the wipes! I remember now, wiping myself down like I had just crawled out of the sewer. At least no one was around to watch. And I don't remember a thing from the point where they got done shaving my belly to where I woke up all of a sudden thinking something must have gone wrong, with everyone rushing around in the OR. After thinking about it some, I realized I was the last person of the day, and they were just in a hurry to clean up and get out of there.

I haven't overlooked anything. Every single post you make is a reflection of your character. You have a real way of shining through with what kind of person you really are on the inside.