LittleBill

I have been getting away from commercial Protein bars for a couple of reasons. The artificial sweeteners play havoc with my system, and it seems to be getting worse. But the way things go around here, I often find myself needing portable food, sometimes on a moment's notice. I have been looking around on the interweb for Protein Bar recipes, and even did a search here (without much in the way of results). so I am asking... Does anyone here make their own bars? Would you be willing to share a link or recipe? I am looking for something low carb, high protein. I am not too concerned about fat content. It does not have to be ultra simple, but I don't want to have to spend an entire day making them either.

This might help.

Today, I was reunited with Mrs. LittleBill after a long week of separation. Actually, it was a seven day week just like any other. It just seemed longer. But anyway, I got to spend some time with four of my grandchildren, all boys and all 7 years and younger. The initial contact for as long as I can handle it, is tag team wrestling. And there is ventriloquism involved when various stuffed animals appear. There is lots of carrying on. It wears old people like me out. So I resurrected a game from when their mother was small, called the Quiet Game. The rules are simple. Whoever stays quiet the longest wins a quarter. All four of them will sit on the couch with their lips sealed and hands folded. Someone breaks eventually, and the others follow, but it is not unusual to get as many as 15 minutes of blissful silence, and for the low low price of 25 cents. It's almost evil. But I'll take it.

There are so many potential jokes here that if I wrote even a few of them, you would all get together and get a gag order against me. So I will stop here, and just post the link for your own perusal. http://twentytwowords.com/scientific-study-reveals-something-very-interesting-about-women-with-big-butts/?utm_source=socialmob&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=article-or-quiz-name&utm_content=2023

Today marks three months since I had my sleeve surgery on October 11 - Yom Kippur Day, and my personal day of atonement. I've come a long way since then, and since I began this effort in June of last year. I do not mind saying I started out with a considerable amount of trepidation, even fear of the surgery and the possible complications or side effects which could result. I am grateful to my Lord and God that none of that arose. It has been an exceptionally smooth process and recovery. As of this writing, I am down 125 lbs (I checked this morning), putting me at a svelte 356 lbs. When I lose another 9 lbs post surgery loss will equal pre surgery loss, and I am excited about that. Just last night I made my first professional presentation to a crowd since surgery, and that went extremely well. The attached picture was taken last night by a long time friend of mine (24 years) whose shop I was in for that presentation. I still have a ways to go, but I am well past the halfway point of the entire journey.

On every other forum I have ever been on in the past 20 years, private messages have been inviolate. If they were shared by one of the parties to the message, that is one thing. To have someone not party to a discussion reading it without permission smacks of intrusion which has been considered abhorrent by virtually every generation preceding ours.

@@Aggiemae Interesting. I am about as conservative as one can get in some ways, and a classic liberal in others. I describe myself as a conservative libertarian. I have a number of friends from across the political spectrum. The same goes for religious and social spectrums. The main requirement is that they are thinking people. We don't always agree, but we do stay informed, and we are usually pretty good at articuling why we think and believe as we do. I have never come across conservatives who did not know the ACA was Obamacare, in my personal associations or otherwise.

This is uncharted territory, this WLS stuff, when it comes to most people in my family. So far with one notable exception, it has all been good. But dealing with my grandsons has been a bit challenging. "Why aren't you eating very much food, Papaw?" "How come there's no bread for your ham and cheese?" Then when snack time came, and they started circling me like jackals on the Serengeti, I told them it was my special food. They wanted to know if the doctor told me I had to eat it. Then they wanted to know if my peanuts were made of Peanut Butter. Simple answers are working well, with the occasional outrageous one thrown in for spice. At one point when they were all determined to wrestle with me, I told them I had to sit quietly and "digest". The oldest, who is seven, disappeared, and returned shortly thereafter with a drawing he had made. He said it was my stomach and the food going down. It took me aback somewhat, but if he doesn't end up as a mechanic (like his father) he just might become a surgeon.

You know, there are a lot of us rednecks who are really very intellectual. We just like boots, jeans, John Deere hats and guns. Excuse me. I missed my Oxford comma.

I pushed the eject button on a number of idiots who are incapable of intelligent/civil/polite discourse. You cannot have an intelligent exchange with an idealogue. It is like trying to dig a hole in water.

Haha, it's not what you might be thinking. I am a visual kind of person. I scan for avatars even before names, and usually recognize a poster for their picture. It is bad enough with those of you who choose anonymity (and I do not blame you). But it seems a number of you ladies have chosen a beautiful tropical scene, with bright sandy beaches, palm trees, so on and so forth. You're straining my poor old eyes, not to mention my memory, trying to keep you all straight. So I have to work a little harder. That is all. Carry on. Well, don't "carry on". It's Sunday. Behave yourselves.

@@Aggiemae I installed one of these on my machine. It is a big help.

I am trying to explain how insurance works to the billing people. I am getting bills for stuff "not in network" even though everyone I have seen has practically been in the same $&@%# building, not to mention the same network. I am being billed for stuff the insurance has already paid, and of course I have to submit copies to the people in the office. Apparently they aren't able to locate any of it. I am glad to see someone just added a zero, although I can well imagine your panic.

To a certain extent the feeling is going to be subjective. Different people will notice it different ways. For me, I can tell by a bit of pressure, and a feeling like there is food or liquid in my esophagus. My philosophy is that it is better to eat a little less than you think you can/should, and build up very slowly from there. When you get to feeling uncomfortable, back it off for the next time and that should serve as your measurement.

Is he Jewish, maybe? That would do it.

What a surprise. Thanks. You saved me some time.

I grumbled about this a while ago. The funny thing is, apparently every now and then I eat enough that it thinks I'm okay for the day. But most days I get the finger wagging "you're not eating enough!" Maybe if we organized a write in campaign, they would create a Bariatric solution. I tried Baritastic, but it was very cumbersome and frustrating, so I just put up with the warnings. I thought about Bufflehead's idea of fooling it, but then I wondered about the accuracy. So I just use it to keep track for the day itself. I never was much of a record keeper.

It's not dumb at all. I remember tossing my seat belt extender. It was one of my first NSVs. Congratulations on your progress!

@@50yearoldme A good marriage is not one that never has problems, but one where the two people work those problems out successfully. It took me many years to get to the point of surgery because Mrs. LittleBill was adamantly against it. We had two friends die as a result of surgery, or complications, years ago. When I finally approached her with it, she wasn't completely sold, but was determined to support me. At some point, I don't remember exactly when, she came over completely and is now very enthusiastic. You've got the power of prayer and what sounds like a strong marriage both working for you. That combination will serve both of you well in the days to come. I hope things go well for your surgery, and will remember you in my own prayers.

@@shedo82773 This brings back memories! Way back in 1991 we planned a trip from PA to WV to visit my grandparents. The morning we were to leave, our younger daughter (No. 3 hadn't been born yet) got sick. We didn't want to expose my grandparents to any viruses, so Mrs. LittleBill stayed home with the sick one, while I took off with our older daughter. Now this is an old expression some of the young'uns might not understand, but our oldest daughter is what we would say was vaccinated with a phonograph needle. She talked CONSTANTLY. You would think she had a hole in the back of her neck so she didn't have to stop to breathe. She talked nonstop for 6 1/2 hours into a 7 hour trip. I was ready to put her in the trunk. I was tempted to drive around aimlessly after she FINALLY fell asleep. @@LipstickLady This brought back memories back too. We would start the game, and then our oldest would yell "TIMES!" Then she would make a few comments, try to amend the rules, and then say, "Okay, 3,2,1, Goodbye!"

And here I thought I invented it! I guess this is common to all parents.

My actual sign that I needed to do this was when I got too tired out to play with my grandchildren. I want to do a lot of things with them for a long time to come.

And even more importantly, who is the idiot who thought it would be a good idea to buy? I was canvassing the house looking for a small cooler. I need to be able to transport a couple of meals of refrigerated items from time to time, and I knew we had something somewhere. I queried Mrs. LittleBill through the modern miracle of texting. She replied that she was pretty sure we had a soft sided one down in the laundry room. I found it. It was some sort of corporate gift, as evidenced by the company name proudly emblazoned on the top. And, it looked like it would probably be a serviceable, if not ideal cooler. But then I pulled it off the shelf. Some mental giant designed the thing with two CUP HOLDERS in the top. Now, on the face of it, that might seem like a great idea. Cup holders on your cooler. It evokes images of happy people sitting around on the ground, or even a bench somewhere, quaffing their drinks, which are ready to hand at a convenient location, because their soft sided cooler has cup holders in the top! But let's think about this for just a moment. Soft sided coolers, by definition, are SOFT! They have no real structural rigidity of their own. While they may be very good at containing items, they really aren't designed to HOLD THINGS UP. They can't even hold THEMSELVES up! You have to stuff them FULL of something to get that. But wait! When you stuff your soft sided cooler FULL, where are the cup holders going to go!?!?! Do you make two little holes in your food, ice, and extra drinks? How do you close the thing up? Maybe you wiggle your cup slowly and gently every time you push it into the holder, so whatever is inside is pushed to the sides as the holder extends itself into the interior of the cooler. One thing is for sure. You ain't a gonna put an opened drink into that cup holder while the flap of a lid is open, and then slam it down to close it. :P In the whole scheme of things, this really isn't that important. But I am sitting here with not a whole lot to do at the moment, and I felt like venting my spleen where it concerns the wiz bang brain trusts of the corporate world. On the plus side, I found a rigid Little Playmate that cleaned up real nice. It has no cup holders, but I can make do. What it DOES have, is a bullet hole decal someone put on it years ago. At the least, it will help me establish my redneck credentials without any effort on my part. And the way things are around here, this is as close as I am getting to anything that is described by the term Playmate.

Thank you, ladies!

Things have gone from bad to nurse!