BJean

Ya know green, you have a point there. She is tough in the way that a person would need to be tough if she were president. There are a lot of people who detest Bill Clinton though and they can't stand the sight of Hillary or Bill. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who still love Bill, in spite of his short comings (pardon), and they have a lot of respect for Hillary. So if she is the nominee, it certainly will be interesting.

Hey Sunshine, congratulations for figuring out how to put up your cartoon. Gross as it is. :rolleyes2: Hits way too close to home, doncha know! And frankly, you should be proud of your accomplishment. I completely ignored trying to post my stats because I'm so computer illiterate. I don't figure anyone really cares anyway. I really do feel a loss over T.O.M.'s departure. The last post of his that I read he mentioned going for some additional medical tests. It has left me very sad. I don't know if he's sick or has found a site that is more fun or where his input is appreciated more. He caught a lot of flack here. I envision him duking it out with the big guns over on some hairy political site. Carlene was preoccupied with her daughter coming home after having problems with an abusive husband (or significant other). She was always great for providing some good research to back up one side or the other (usually my side) so I sure enjoyed that and I miss her. Fortunately we have Derick and Marjon. If you guys every drop off without telling us what happened, I'll never forgive you! Derick, you're way too conservative but you keep it funny and I absolutely love and appreciate that. I miss reading more Wheetsin input. We had some great little debates going sometimes, didn't we? We're also lucky to have the likes of green and laurend. What would I do without you two? :tt1:

Condi Rice, huh? Now that is a scary thought. It would be like reelecting Dubya. Except she doesn't sport a silly grin as often. I honestly do not think that Barack Obama can get elected. There are a lot of people who are being very quiet on the opposing side, just hoping against hope that he is the Democratic nominee. There is a much better chance that Hillary can be elected than Obama. In my humble opinion, of course. We might see a Clinton/Obama ticket and I'm not sure what would happen in that case - I believe they might be able to win. But I absolutely do not believe that Obama can win the presidency at this juncture. I used to like John McCain. I thought I would be able to support him if he got the nomination. But alas, he has over time shown his true colors. He, like most, says what he thinks the people want to hear. But he is so blasted conservative that I just cannot fathom another stint of that ultra-right, blinders-on focus. I am surprised that so many people are rabidly against Edwards. He has proven himself to be a very eloquent man who has what I consider to be a good track record. Do you think he suffers discrimination because of his successful career? If you do, have you really studied what all he fought for? Frankly Mitt is for the birds, along with Huckabee. The Demos hope that one of them or Guliani will be the Republican choice. Then we'd be talking about a really interesting race.

Well a funny thing happened to me on the way to a posting. I wrote the first one above and got called away from my desk. I didn't think that I had posted it so I wrote the second one and just sent it. Now I find that I posted twice saying the same thing. I'm a doofus. Senility is not pretty. The GhOst: I think the issues you all have about housework are very normal and everyone I know has those. One thing that DH and I have finally figured out is that he is never going to think I'm doing enough and I'm never going to think he's doing enough. So rather than criticize each other and fight all the time, we just live with each others' messes sometimes and wait for each other to clean up our own stuff. Of course when your kids are small, you have to clean up their messes from time to time. But you can get everybody involved without everyone getting angry and having a bad day over it. I'm no expert at this, but I've seen friends who make a game out of it. One thing I know for sure is that feeling like you're a slave to your house only makes you want to escape. And that's a bad thing. Btw, I don't care much for donuts or bread things (especially now that I have the band) but my DH loves them. I have actually brought home donuts when I know no one should eat them because I want to make him happy. That is not cool. I think your DH should be spanked for bringing home the pie, but only in a good way.

TheGhOst: It has to do with power. He did a good thing by encouraging you, but then he treated you like he's your parent or counselor. Like it's his place to correct you or like you need his input to gauge your success. No one likes to feel that they are being controlled or managed. Not when they're an adult too and supposedly in a 50-50 marital relationship. (It's never 50-50 in both partner's minds.) I have had similar incidents and it makes you really want to freak out. You know, intellectually, that it is stupid to let someone else have such an impact on your weight loss, but emotionally it hurts and you want to prove that you can make your own decisions when it comes to your own body. I wish I had a good answer to give you. I've even gotten on the scale and found that I had a good loss, only to go out and eat a hot fudge sundae afterwards. Now if that isn't self-destructive behavior, what is? Because when we let our friends or family or spouse dictate what is success for us, we might learn that we're not really doing this for ourselves

TheGhOst: I believe that the answer is control or loss of control issues. First of all, if we allow our friends, family or spouse dictate what is successful weight loss behavior for us, we might just begin to realize that we may not actually be losing weight for ourselves. If we aren't losing for ourselves, anything and I mean anything, can throw us a curve. I have even weighed myself and discovered a nice loss only to go out and eat a hot fudge sundae afterwards. Now that is self-destructive behavior in anyone's books. So why would I do that if I truly cared about myself and truly wanted to lose weight? I might do it if I really didn't care about myself and didn't really want to lose weight. Or if I was angry at something my spouse or a friend told me about my weight and I bought into it. That is a really lousy feeling - to face the fact that I am undermining myself or allowing someone else undermine me by rebelling when I don't like what they say to me. Especially if the rebellion takes the form of eating something I shouldn't be eating if I want to lose weight. If someone has a brilliant answer to deal with this sort of behavior, please let us know!

Tracey it has to do with control. When you have people pushing at you, it is easy to quietly rebel and do something that makes you feel that you have control. I've been known to do it too. Sometimes I believe that suicidal people choose to commit suicide to prove to themselves that they can control their destiny. No, I don't think there's anything healthy about it, but having the feeling that you are controlled by others is very frustrating.

I know you've been a great proponent of the Body Bugg and I've heard from others that it is a really worthwhile tool. I got a scale that I figured would give me similar information but it didn't work very well for me. I think that the Body Bugg is something I should definitely consider. No one that I've talked to that has one has been disappointed in the Body Bugg. I just signed up with my DH for Medifast. Gotta do something. I really have to get off this high spot I'm stalled on. Plus, he needs something to get him healthier as well. It will be good that we're doing this together. I am pretty psyched about it. Maybe our next investment will be the Bugg. I appreciate your input, karey! Thanks.

luluc: You qualify as a Texan more than most Texans. You're no dude, dude! Jump in here with all fours!

I may be wrong, it may have come up previously, but I think I may have been the one who used the term "oxymoron" - just to let Jack off the hook a little. Regarding your latest post, what's your point, Jack? Obviously if some politico does "good" (as I would interpret it) why would I be disappointed? I guess if they did something with which I didn't agree, I wouldn't consider it "good". Nobody can please all of the people all of the time. That's the trouble with campaigns, politicians try to please all of the people. I find the term "rabid" pretty hilarious when referencing Democrats and Republicans. Those who think they are voting for "the man" always like to characterize people who call themselves Democrats or Republicans "rabid." Ha, ha, ha *with an hysterical lilt in her voice* It always makes me wonder just exactly how people can divorce the man from his politics?

Jodie congratulations on your healthy pregnancy. It is thrilling to read that you are happier and more mature, stronger and more confident than you've ever been. I am sure that all of us here at LBT wish you an easy and short delivery! It really is great to hear back from you after a while - I'm sure everyone has been wondering how you're doing. I'm really glad that you took the time to post here. I am sorry that your friend is having problems. It must be hard for her to have to face you with you making the opposite decision and being so incredibly happy about it at about the same time she had to make her decision. I hope she is has found someone good to counsel with and that she able to deal with everything in a healthy and healing way. Btw, I don't know of anyone here who believes that abortion is the only good solution to an unwanted pregnancy. What we're discussing here is whether or not you and your friend should be able to continue to have the opportunity that you had to make the decisions you made without interference from the government.

Jack I wish I weren't speaking tongue in cheek above. Alas, I haven't believed in the completely honest and above board poliltician in many years. However I do believe that there are people in elected positions who have good hearts and who actually do care about the country and about Americans. Nope, they're not perfect. But yes, they can sometimes still do good work on the issues I'm concerned about. Sometimes you really do have to just vote for the better candidate even though they may not be the kind of person you want to bring home to mama. It would be great if we were able to fix the system by getting rid of lobbyists and campaign contributions and trading votes in Congress. If you have a good alternative, bring it on. Unfortunately even if it were genius, Congress would have to vote it in, so here we are, in the very unlikely position that it will ever change. P.S. I miss T.O.M. He used to add a lot to these discussions. I didn't always agree with him but he always had an interesting perspective. P.S.S. To answer your question, no I haven't been voting for the past 50 years. I am not old enough to have been voting for the past 50 years. But thanks for the compliment.

reif78: heck yeah that makes sense. I can't tell you how many times I wished I preferred alcohol or coke instead of food. At least with those things your dysfunction isn't so readily apparent. I'm actually not kidding which tells you a lot about why I'm fat. JSOTO: congratulations! You sound great and like you really have your head on right! It helps people like me read things like that from people like you!

There is more than one way to get some exercise!!!

I'm reading a book that says many of us who may have been abused in some way when we were children, use the rage we've felt over it, against ourselves by being self-destructive instead of directing the anger at someone or something else. My dietician keeps telling me that I am way too hard on myself. I'm beginning to think there must be something to these things I'm learning. ceradad my heart goes out to you. People know you love food so they give you food because they want you to love them. I do that sometimes with my DH - even sometimes leaving something really good on my plate so that I can offer it to him in an effort to prove I love him. It's a backasswards way of showing someone you love them, but once we recognize what's happening, we need to catch ourselves and stop the insanity.

Are you a true Texan and pack a pistol? Or are you just a New Yorker, passin'? If you're a liberal, in any case, you will be quite welcome by me. Right now I'm way, way outnumbered. Not that I'm a liberal. Nuh uh, I'm just someone who always votes for the man, if he is a good person, has high morals, and is totally honest. Because we all know that only the super honest people who run for public office deserve our votes. Wait a minute isn't politician/honest an oxymoron?

Unfortunately I don't have anyone in my corner encouraging me to use... how you say... diplomacy... that word doesn't readily roll off my keyboard. I am glad you reminded me and I will look it up in my dictonary and do my best to keep it in mind. Maybe I'm the one who should have a dog avatar.

Ok, ok transformer... I get it already. You are really trying to get us to believe that you're not concerned about anything Bush has done because there's no chance that by voting for a conservative Republican again we might get a continuation of the past 7 years. And that you are just concerned about what Bill did because we're not actually presented with a vote for Hillary as much as we would be voting to reinstate the morally corrupt Bill Clinton. That's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? You guys are great. You can solve all of your own problems and you aren't concerned with anyone else's which means that voting for a Democrat would mean that you'd be trying to solve all the world's ills - with big government - higher taxes - right? Less government is going to take care of everything, I get it. Like under the Republican administration that we've had. They gave us a practically insignificant tax cut at one point, so woo, hoo! The government has grown since they've been in control. We've spent billions on a rag tag ill-conceived war and huge sums on taking care of the men and women who have died because of that war. We have another trillion dollar deficit - like we had the last time we had a Republican president. And we're staring a very nasty recession down the barrel. But hey, voting Republican means less government and more of our own earnings in our pockets. It'll mean that we can focus more on our own personal problems and less on the country's (other people's) problems. Yep, and I have some nice ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you.

Exercise???!!!! Take it easy, girl. Those long muscles in your abdomen need some TLC for quite a while. I'm doing all right. I haven't lost one more pound than what I had lost by last summer. I'm still reporting in, getting weighed and counseled, regularly. I've gained a few and lost a few, gained a few and lost a few. It is very frustrating, but I have talked my DH into getting onto a Medifast plan. He starts next week and I have no doubt that with the two of us doing better at the same time, I will get back on track. Thanks for asking!

Yeah, put 'em up, put 'em up... as Bugs Bunny used to say. I seldom watch the news anymore because I was constantly walking around with a knot in my stomach from worrying about the shocking horrors they reported, one after another. I think most of daytime TV sux eggs. And I read somewhere that you burn fewer calories reading or sleeping than you do when you're watching TV. Yikes! Having said that, I find myself drawn to Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. Strictly for the comedy factor, you understand. And I always turn away when they do close-ups of heart transplants, lung surgery and trauma treatments. I'm a wuss big time.

For the record I have almost rabid feelings about this issue. I do not have rabid feelings toward people who disagree with me. I do argue for all I'm worth, but I try to not carry it over to any other non-related threads. I too believe that Marjon9 and kagoscuba have summed it up pretty well and luluc and I probably share many of the same beliefs. green and I don't communicate in the same way (she's so eloquent) but we agree on most things. It's very comforting to find people who agree with me. But I'm sure I learn a whole lot from people with differing viewpoints from mine. Even though sometimes I find myself tearing my hair out. Thank goodness for Biotin.

ash congratulations on your weight loss. Keep up the great work! I have enjoyed reading the past several posts. Logic and passion and thinking things through are all inspired by discussions such as this. And that's a good thing.

I don't watch Oprah much either. But who can argue with the fact that she is an extremely powerful and successful woman. In fact, I can't think of a more powerful or influencial woman - in the world. All Oprah has to do is mention a book or a product, movie, whatever... it is an instant success and whoever is involved then also becomes very successful. She has been brilliant in business. She has several beautiful homes in fabulous locations. She loves life, and makes no apologies for it. She's invited to all the most important functions, social as well as philanthropic. Everyone who has an opportunity sings her praises. She's a BILLIONAIRE. She gives away millions. Which are probably tax right offs of course, but she actually contributes to the guality of life for many people, and not only for those little girls in Africa. She may enjoy the publicity that has provided but I believe she genuinely is trying to make a difference in the world. There are undoubtedly other women who are more popular and more beautiful than Oprah, but you can't argue with her ability to succeed. When you think of her background and the disadvantages she was up against, it makes the rest of us look like slackers.

Welllllll, let me think.... yeah, sure, you can clap all you want. I'd never stand in the way of applause for anyone, unless it is Dubya. He doesn't deserve applause, he deserves a spanking. :tt1:

kareyquilts: Haven't been here in quite some time. Your photo is fantastic. You look awesome! No wonder you have been so supportive of everyone else - you've done so well yourself! My DIL had that surgery last year. It took her at least 6 weeks to be pretty mobile. She is one of those folks who almost never feels or gives into pain so she was surprised that she wasn't vacuuming and carrying loads of laundry before then. Her progress for healing has been great otherwise. She looks absolutely fantastic. She's lost more lbs. since the swelling has completely gone away. But it has been quite a long haul getting to feel normal again. As for the trip, I'd hate for you to miss it. My suggestion is first of all to clear it with your doctor. Second, get some of those hose that keep you from getting clots and wear them on the flights. Third, spray on tan. Have someone do it for you professionally and you will blend in with all the other super-tanned folks instead of getting lost on a white towel. I know it was a girl from the U.K. who complained about her lack of tan, but I figure this time of year most of us are pretty peak-ed. Congratulations on your fabulous success. I am very proud of you and very happy for you! I know your surgery will go well and you will be very happy to be rid of that all that stuff you don't need.