Northernsun

Congrats! You have taken the hardest step just deciding to quit in the first place. I had my 1 yr smoke free anniversary at the end oif July and I will not lie to you and say there haven't been times that I really wanted a cigarette- generally at times of great stress but the first few weeks were so not fun that i do not want to repeat them. Hang in there! You can do it! Now the smell makes me ill - and my DH and DD still smokes but not in the house or car.

the v stands for victory! Cherish every single one- you have earned it!

Nice to know it is not just me! i am always cold- my DH's thermostat is always the other way. I am huddled in a blanket and he is in shorts and a sleeveless t shirt. Makes for a really long winter when it feels like I can never warm up, but on the other hand, he did suffer with the heat this summer more then I did. Excuse me while I grab my sweater.....

Thanks Everyone! Now i am really excited to loose the next 25 lbs and be retested. I had it really bad- a 7 setting would just tickle! I am at 16.5- yes, can blow the paint right off the walls! But is sure did help and I don't regret it- the cpap probably saved my life. Congrats to everyone who was able to dump their machines!

I tried walmart and Target- some walmart clothes are ok but most are just ugly. I just cleaned out my closet and found I have not much left for winter to work in so have been trying to find inexpensive clothes that will work till I drop another size. I shop Roamans, Just my size, silouettes, and the lane bryant catalogue which has no affiliation with the stores and in my opinion has better clothes at better prices. Last yr at this time I was hunting up clothes bigger then I had in the closet as I was going up again and was buying 3x's and size 30 jeans. I bought a pr of jeans from the lane bryant outlet this week - a size 24- talk about a high!! I do buy mens sweats from walmart tho- great fro gardening and walking the dog in the fall and winter - last yrs were a 3x and my dh won't let me wear them out of the house now. Just bought a pr of xlg - no more $2 more for the lg sizes!! Sizes are so different where ever you go and vary so much by the brands that I really try to not get upset when something I like is a bigger size then something I already have but that is hard to do sometomes. Actually found a really nice womans leather jacket at savers for $20- real leather in great shape!

These are the kind of things that stick with you a life time. They don't help with a persons self image, the don't make that person run home and tell their parents they want to diet and eat right, it justs makes things worse. I am 53 yrs old and I can still remember how i felt when we were doing a room decoration for a parents day when i was in 3rd grade. It was a mural going around the room of the circus. I can still hear the teacher announcing my name as being responsible for making the fat lady and all the kids laughing. You do not forget these things and I was hoping that with a new awareness of being "politically correct" this would not be a problem with the people in charge of our children. I guess I was wrong.....

We had a mastiff/ st bernard cross that in his prime was about 150 lbs. As he slowly went down hill around 11 yrs old we asked the vet what was his life range and was told -about 2 yrs ago. The bigger the dog the less time you have with them but every dog and every situation is different. If I knew then how long we had with him I would still do it all over again. It has been 3 yrs and we still talk about him and remember but we are really careful to make no comparisons with our current dog. Like comparing apples to oranges. Our currant American Bulldog at 90 lbs should be a 15 yr dog but who knows?? For the love and companionship, and the pure joy of having him around I will take what I can get.

I also weigh everyday- too much of a habit not to. Get up, pee, weigh, grin or swear. What I eat is pretty consistant and I know most of the weight difference is water due to the time of the month. I do not have a weight , I have a range. I celebrate my losses when the upper end of my range is lower then it was before. I can tell pretty much how Iam doing by how my rings fit! If they are falling off I had better be at the lower end of my range or I need to look at what I need to change or what I have been doing.

I was lo carb for so long that the thought of bread makes me cringe so we replaced it with the lo carb tortillas. We are so used to them now -i even make hamburgers by just cutting the lb of burger into strips that will fit in a rolled tortilla. Never had a problem with them unless I forget to chew well or eat too fast.

I am waiting to resize. I wear 8 rings and only 2 can be resized. Now I have one of those soft ring sizers on the wedding rings but lost one of my fav silver rings under a counter at the grocery store and had to move 4 cases of oranges to get under the counter and find it. People must have thought I was really picky! I really did not have much to loose from my fingers. Why couldn't more of it come off my butt!

I am 6 months into my journey and i can definately say this would have been a lot harder if not for all I have learned from this forum. Who knew what a PB was????!!! When I finally had one i knew what it was and did not panic - swore a bit - but no panic! I have learned that no matter how different we all are, we all have had some of the same experiences and it is nice to know that someone else is experiencing the same things as you. I have lost a bit of hair, plateaued, PB'd, have trouble sometimes with chicken, have had some of the same ( and different ) NSV's ( have i told you about the pr of capris I bought in Apr and could not pull over my butt that I am wearing to work today?!:clap2: ) and try to stick to 1200 calories a day using Fitday ( which I learned of here) when I remember. So, consider this a personal thank you to everyone for paving the way for everyone by sharing your experiences! Gayle

Spiders! eewww - not my favorite! Remind me never to complain about living in a climate where it can get to be 30 below zero!

Went through one of those myself a few yrs ago and you never forget it. They really do make a freight train sound! Glad everyone was ok

I used my own machine while in the hospital but my oxygen levels did the same thing - the nurses kept coming into my room at night to see if i was alive! Once the anethesia was out of my system and I was home all was back to normal.

Food was my comfort when I quit smoking a year and 6 days ago ( but who's counting!). Now that I am not eatting as much I find myself wanting a cigarette again- not for the taste or anything to do with smoking but because I am not eatting. Does that make any sense?!! I can't and won't start again so no worry there. (at least till I am 90 and then I may take it up again!) I find myself reading more also and doing more around the house and spending more time in the garden. And I have also developed an addiction to Crystal lite. When I really really have to have a treat or some comfort, I have a rice cake or rye crisp. After almost 5 yrs on atkins, that feels like cheating to me! Luckily I am not a sweets person, my tastes run to salty.

I used to be a day care provider and had a todler as fair as they come. My neighbors had grape vines and i took some of the grapes and made juice for the kids. They loved it of course. The next day when I changed the diaper on my fair haired boy his butt was black and blue and I was sure his single parent father had finally lost it. When he came to pick up the child we spent a couple very uncomfortable minutes talking to each other because he was sure i had beat him! His butt stayed purple for almost a week! No more grape juice! ( my own daughter turned out not to like the juice and gave it to the fair haired one to drink!)

We have been married for 31 yrs and I know neither of us has ever cheated. There may have been a bit of dreaming on both sides - especially during the indifferent years but besides being married we are best friends, fishing buddies, and confidants. I would know if he was cheating. With the way our schedules work and always seem to have worked he would have had to step into a different dimension to find time! As we slow down some, the love and respect grows even more and neither can imaging life without the other - which is one reason why I had the surgery.

I am 53 and was banded 2-7-06. I am down 68 lbs and am loosing slowly ( for me!- fine for my dr.!) but steady. I stop for a wk or so and then start loosing again but the big point is I keep going down. I know I could go quicker if I worked out more - currently i power walk daily ( my dog never had stroll programmed into him!) for a mile or 2. I think after haveing 50 some years of bad eatting habits it may take a bit longer to retrain. I know if I don't think about it every minute when I am eatting, I will eat too fast and pay for it by PBing. I am learning....

Nothing anyone can say will make this decision easier. When my big guy had to go - st bernard mastiff cross @ 145 lbs - my vet came to the house. He could no longer stand and we knew it was time. He always like the Doc and as soon as he came in the house Chester got up and went to him and my first thoughts were 'he's ok and we don't have to do this now" then reality took over as he layed back down. Doc let me cry all over his shoulder and wet his clean white shirt and told me to leave while his helpers picked up the body and took it away. After almost 3 yrs and even with another wonderful dog, we still remember and talk about Chester. Just like our human loved ones, we can always keep them alive in our memories and hearts.

Hi There and Welcome! I had clots in both my lungs and also am on warfarin for life. I chose the this surgery over RNY basically because the risks are less, but now I am really glad i chose this way. This is a less invasive surgery - go off thinners for a week before and do the shots of lovenox for a few days after till the blood thinners start working again and expect to have INRs at least weekly for awhile. The new way of eatting and the different foods will more then likely screw with the INR results for awhile. I had surgery in Feb and after my test at the end of June I am finally able to go back to testing 1x a month instead of weekly, then biweekly as i was doing. Eatting high protein can increase your need for warfarin as can eatting lots of green vegis and especially broccoli- cut the amounts down and the INR results go way up. Good Luck!

I also had bilateral pulmanary embolii and am on warfaran for the rest of my life. I needed to start the shots when I first started blood thinners and I was sure i would never be able to give them to myself. I have never liked to depend on other people so, after the first one done by the nurse I bit the bullet and stabbed my stomach. The needles are so fine you don't really feel much- especially if you let the alcohol DRY after swabbing. Learned that the hard way! After surgery I was back on the shots for a few days and it was old hat. It is amazing what we can get used too! I was getting so good at it I only bruised a couple times!

Hello All! Good to see all the minnesotans! I was banded in Feb at Fairview - Dr Lederer - and have nothing but good things to say about the program. Other health problems made me decide on Lap band over rny and i am glad i did. Weight loss is slow and steady - I am down about 65 lbs and even when i plateau my clothes still seem to get bigger and the pile of unwearables on the closet floor is growing. Other then the occasional PB which is all my fault- chew chew chew! Sometime i will learn!:girl_hug: It has been a very positive experience and i would do it again.

I have no answers for you. There is no right or wrong answer to this- it is really a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. Writing as a 53 year old mother who has always had a problem accepting gifts- especially big ones- I see where she is at. As a daughter who has lost her mom 5 yrs ago, I see where you are at. With all the other things you have written, the only thing I can say is to go slowly. Be an example for the surgery so Mom can see it really can work and talk about your experiences and NSV's and how happy you are with the whole process slowly a little bit at a time for a long while. This may take time but after she sees you and hears you, slowly she may come around. I would not try to push it or just present it to her- sometimes we can all be like little kids and automatically run the other direction!! Good Luck!

Best advice - have blood work done first. And eat banannas! I had them bad when I was low carb and couldn't eat banannas so I started taking potassium everyday and started having irregular heart beats. had to wear a monitor for a few days and the dr said to stop the potassium. When I did the heart problems stopped and I started eatting almonds and the leg cramps gradually went away. Warning! Almonds are addicting!!!

I first heard it a few yrs ago only it was hiking in the mountains of Colorado, wyoming or Montana and the animal was a bear. Ever wonder if we taste as good to the alligator and alligator tastes to us?