KartMan

Patty, This is just a sweeping generalization and not even close to being true. I’ve been pretty clear on my views (slightly left leaning, shoot me), and I would never say the opposite of that. In fact, in numerous posts I have condemned the windbags from the Left (mostly on MSNBC) right along with the whackos on the Right (mostly on Fox).

Don’t panic, you have some options. First off, let me say that you were tremendously successful with losing the weight – not everyone is, so be very proud of that and take comfort in it. My thoughts are that are even if you have a setback, you can get back on track again because you know you have success in you. Now to the issue, I don’t know much about band complications so I am no expert, but I have heard plenty of people on here that have successfully dealt with an infection. Hopefully you have a good doctor and he is diligently working on it, if not, don’t be afraid to switch doctors. Your health and your continued success are too important to idle with a mediocre doctor. If it goes horribly bad and you do lose the band, I wouldn’t count on willpower and the new lifestyle to keep you thin. I know it wouldn’t be enough for me. I need the assistance the band provides to me. But even if that happens, don’t give up. There are a lot of people on here that have had the band removed for complications and then were able to put it back after healing – you did it once, you can do it again. Also, you should seriously start considering revising to the sleeve or some other WLS in the event the band is completely unavailable to you. I’m not one of those that feels emotional about the band or the sleeve, the only thing I am emotional about is my fierce determination to stay thin. If that means another band or getting a sleeve, sign me up – I will never be fat again.

The talking point from the Right in the last few days is all about whether or not Illegal Aliens will be covered the Health Care plan. The fact is that the bill specifically says that illegals are not covered. Here is what the HR Bill says H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States. Now that sounds pretty clear to me. The folks on the Right are now aware of this clause (I guess THEY finally read the bill), so now they are in an uproar that even though it says that, there is no clause for enforcement so the nasty illegals will still find a way to take advantage of our healthcare. You know something interesting? Somebody has thought of this “needy service” before. The House Oversight committee looked into several of these existing verification components and found that they spent $8.3 Million and caught a total of 8 illegal aliens. Hmmmm, $1M per illegal – sounds a little pricey but well worth it I’m sure:wink2:

Or what if all of the religions are just a little right? Maybe there is a God and he has been interpreted slightly differently be each of the religions (this would be the same God BTW). In this scenario, none of them would be completely wrong and certainly none would be completely right. I would argue that if God does exist, and he is as omnipotent as we assume him to be, then certainly we would not be able to comprehend all there is to know about him and we would most likely confuse a few facts. Oh, and please don’t give me the BS about the Bible (or the Torah, or the Quran) being the true word of God – I really don’t believe that to be the case at all. I think this approach is just as likely as being right as any other. Or, maybe they are all just completely wrong and there is no God at all. Me? I’m indifferent to it. But as I have said before, I do find the topic to be fascinating.

I have chosen to strive to do all of those things all the while not believing in God, Satan, Heaven or Hell. I can’t believe in those things, I am not capable. I am too skeptical (not cynical, skeptical). If I said that I did believe, it would be a lie to me and the supposed God I was trying to believe in. I’m not being “good” as a means to get into heaven, I do it because it is the right thing to do. Nothing any person can say or do will change my views on this. Unless the heavens open up an Jesus shows himself to me (even then I would be skeptical), I will go to my grave feeling this way. As a Christian, I would prefer that you not tell me the “truth about Hell and Heaven” because frankly, I don’t think you are telling me “truth”. You are telling me what you “believe” to be the truth. That may be a subtle difference to you, but to me it is a huge chasm. Crap, did I just get back in this debate?

We ARE buds BJean.

Yeah, like Patty and I gonna work on the Glen Beck for President Campaign together (and I really have no hidden agenda there:sneaky:)

Killing each other for any reason is inexcusable. I don’t care how heated the exchange gets or how opposed you are to the other side, violence is not the answer and murder is the extreme non-answer. Having said that, I’m not sure you can really equate this whack-job with the nut that killed the abortion doctor a while back. This guy on Friday was a guy on a killing rampage. He killed the pro-life protestor, then a gravel pit owner for completely different reasons, and was on his way to kill somebody else when they caught him. He was a nut on a killing spree, not a pro-choice activist killing a pro-life activist. Regardless, he should rot in jail for the rest of his unnatural life.

Ummm, nope – not this time. I’ think I’ll stick to the healthcare discussion. Religious discussions are fun, but endless. The last time I got wrapped up in this one I lost a week of my life.

Don't do it Kartman Step away from the thread

Time for another update. I went in for another dunk test today and was very happy to hear that I dropped another 1.9% in Body Fat, I’m currently at 19.3% At this rate, I need to lose another 9.5lbs of fat to get to my elusive goal of 15% Body Fat. Unfortunately, when we lose we don’t lose just fat, we lose some lean as well. Having said that, I calculate I need to lose a total of 14lbs in order to hit my goal. Keith, you will be happy to know that it is possible to bend the curve on fat/lean loss. You will recall that last time I said my total loss consisted of 55% fat loss versus 45% lean loss. This time I was able to improve those numbers a bit, the new ratio is 76% fat loss versus 24 % lean loss. I think the trick here is that I have tried very hard to get my protein intake up to around 150 grams per day and am doing weight training at least 3 days a week.

I think they say the 50% thing as a CYA. They don’t want to get your hopes up and for you to be frustrated if you don’t reach that stretch goal. The historical data may show that to be the case, but the procedure and the community has changed a lot since the early days of WLS. Now there are so many more people doing this and such a better support system in place, I would have to guess the success rates are climbing. It would be interesting to see what it is looking just a few years back. In any event, I think you have a much better chance of taking off a higher percentage of excess weight and keeping it off if you actively work on it. Again, that is the reason I started this thread. I feel like the band is a tremendous tool, but I have to keep working on it to have success. For me, that means being conscious of the calories I consume (all of them), trying to balance my meals with appropriate vitamins and proteins, sticking to an exercise regimen, and generally just not slacking off. I can tell you from experience though, that 50% is certainly not the limit and I don’t think anyone should set that as a goal. I started at 285lbs, which is exactly 100lbs over a normal BMI for a 6’ tall male. As of today, about 7.5 months out, I am down over 95lbs – which means I have dropped 95% of my excess weight. I must admit that the loss has slowed a bit in the last month, but I attribute that to the muscle mass that I am building from working out and lifting weights (I am trying to get to 15% Body Fat). Some of my favorite tickers on here read something like this “The biggest risk with setting your goals too low is that you will achieve them.” Set your goals high, and then give yourself a stretch goal even a little past that. Then, as you start to achieve success (or slowdown), reevaluate your goals. Not reaching a goal may not constitute failure, it may just mean that the reality of the situation has changed. I have started to blow past many of my early goals and am now past any historical reference for me. With that in mind, my new goals are into uncharted territory. For some of them, I don’t even know if my body can get there – but I will set them anyway and strive to achieve them.

You can put lipstick on an idiot, but at the end of the day she’s still an idiot.

Really? Me too:thumbup: In fact, I think he is so great that rather than settle for Press Secretary, he should just run for President himself. C’mon Patty, lets me and you start a “Draft Glen Beck 2012” campaign:drool:

While some comments like this are based on jealousy, these ones in particular were not. The ones I had in mind were by people that they really knew to have slipped backwards in some way. As I said, I don’t know the particulars of the WLS or the reasons they slipped, just that after some success they ended up that way. The fact that we can and sometimes do fail inspired me to start this post. I want to make myself vigilant so that I never end up in that category. Jachut, you are an inspiration. Several years out and still thriving… I can only hope the rest of us “age” as gracefully as you when we are 4 years old and beyond.

And Glen Beck as Press Secretary.

To hell with BMI, and to hell with people telling you that you’ve gone far enough. When I got close to goal, I started to realize that BMI wasn’t accurate enough for me. I’m 6’ tall so a 24.9 BMI would put me at 184lbs. I’m pretty close to that now and still have some flab around the belly. I decided to try to be more accurate, so I got a Hydrostatic Dunk test to check my actual body fat. The first time I went (about 2 months ago) I was at 22% which is Average, 3 weeks ago I improved to 21% and I go in tomorrow for another test. Even though 21% is average (and a good stopping point for some), I am not satisfied with that. I think I can lose the additional 10-15lbs of fat (while building muscle) to get to 15%, which is considered Ideal in terms of Body Fat.

Ok so I’m still getting used to the idea of buying M shirts and 32 pants – I’ve NEVER been there before. But today I got a real shocker. I ordered a costume online for a party I’m going to this weekend, I plan to wear the costume for Halloween as well. In the bad old days I would have been worried about bursting out of an off the shelf costume (one size fits all, yeah right:cursing:). Well, I put the thing on today and it drapes on me. The shoulders are saggy, I got no a$$, and the belt falls off. That was the happiest I ever felt about not fitting in a costume:thumbup:

Do I hear Palin/Wilson 2012? Bring it:lol:

I think you and I agree on this one, it’s not the Republicans that are in the way. They are opposed to it because they see that this may be a way to defeat Obama, I get that. I don’t like it, I think they are morally wrong to oppose Health Care, but I get it. It’s the Democrats I can’t forgive. I hate to give Bush credit for anything, but he would have had this thing in the bag already. He would have gone to his party leaders and said “look here fellas, it’s time to put up or shut up”. Anybody that didn’t support him would have found some well funded Republican competition at the next Primary. Ok, so maybe the Democrats don’t want to emulate Bush. I can respect that. But how about taking a look at another Texas President that was pretty successful at getting the tough things done, LBJ? Now that guy knew how to flex some muscle. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Statesman in Obama, but sometimes you just gotta take the gloves off. PS Thanks for the kudos, I feel really good about the progress.

Why are we even worried about the Republicans? They won’t vote for this no matter how much we water it down. I am angry at the President and the leadership for not first starting from the position of Single Payer then negotiating down to Public Option. Since we are here though, there is no going back – we’ll never get Single Payer. But it has to stop here, we can’t lose the Public Option, and this fight is not even with the Republicans. It’s time the Democrats (especially the Blue Dogs) heard the voice of the people that put them there and not the whiners of the town halls. The progressives in this country want the Public Option and we have the electoral momentum and strength on our side. If any in Democrat in the 111th congress votes against the Public Option they should be primaried out in 2010/2012.

You should get the one that will work for you.:blushing: I wish it was that easy, unfortunately people just don’t know what will work (or not work) until they have it done themselves. It’s easy to get a bunch of band cheerleaders on here and I’m sure you can find an RNY friendly site that will tout all the glory of that WLS. I agree with the Monkey though, if you are fat because you are a portion eater, then the band may be the tool for you. That was the story for me. I never had much of a sweet tooth and I rarely snacked. I never (ever) missed a meal though. And my meals were big (I mean freakin’ BIG). For example… 5-6 egg omelets for breakfast. 2 fast food combos for lunch. I would start out with a big plate for diner, and always go back for seconds. If I went to a buffet, I always had 2-3 big plates plus dessert. Now, well let’s just say I don’t eat much. I still never miss a meal, but I eat like a bird. In fact, my 7 year old daughter eats more than me. I would estimate that I used to eat 4000-6000 calories a day pre-band, now I am at 900-1500 per day. What happens when you reduce your calories that much? Well, for me it meant dropping about 95lbs in 7 months. People refer to me as thin. Shirts dropped from XXXL to M, pants down from size 44 to size 34. Oh, and did I mention people call me thin:cool:? Best of luck, there are no easy answers and no guarantees (and don’t think it’s a cakewalk – you gotta want it, and you gotta work).

About 7 months out and down about 95lbs. I’ve had 3 fills and 1 unfill and currently at my sweet spot. I lost weight pretty steadily at about 1-3 lbs per week right from the beginning. I didn’t exercise at all the first five months. Didn’t really feel the urge because the weight was coming off fine on it’s own. I went in for a hydrostatic dunk test about 2 months ago and was pleasantly surprised to find out that my Body Fat (this is not BMI) was about 22%, which is Average for a guy of my age. I was inspired though to get my Body Fat down to 15%, which is considered Ideal. However, to get down to 15% I would not only need to lose another 10-20 lbs, I would have to do it while gaining muscle. Well, I like a good challenge – especially one I feel I can make. I have been hitting the gym since and it is working. I went back for another dunk test a few weeks ago and I dropped down to 21%. At this point, I think I am about 10 lbs away from attaining that 15%.