BJean

I can totally identify. We went on vacation too so that we wouldn't do the usual Thanksgiving pig out. I've been fighting it the past couple of weeks because I have no restriction. I was holding on pretty well, still losing a little. Then we went on this trip. Since Thanksgiving I have had all kinds of food that I thought I was seriously THROUGH WITH! I still want to be thin as much as I ever have, but having been exposed to my favorite foods day after day with no restriction, I just lost it. I am certain I have gained although I am too afraid to get on the scale. Tomorrow is weigh in for September Bandsters who are participating in a Christmas challenge to lose 25 lbs. so I will have to face the music. I am hoping that I can get another fill on Tuesday when I go to see the dietician. People keep talking about finding your "sweet spot" where you can't eat as much and don't really care that much about eating anyway. That would be glorious!

My doc doesn't require Optifast, just a reasonable, mostly Protein diet for 3 weeks. It wasn't all that difficult. However quite a few years ago I saw a Endocrinologist and he put me on a 9 week Optifast diet. I lasted about 6 weeks. It was the hardest and most unpleasant thing I've ever tried to do. If you're having to go through something similar now, even for just 3 weeks, my heart goes out to you!

Whoa! I haven't read anything about the "human drano" and would really appreciate directions on where to go to find out about it. I do not have the restriction you're talking about, but after Tuesday I hope I will. Thanksgiving and the weekend at a resort were hell for me. I could eat any and everything that I desired. I seriously hope I can find the "sweet spot."

I hope you don't think is this completely off the wall, but have any of you tried acupuncture? Unfortunately it takes an acupuncturist who is not only trained in the Chinese methods of acupuncture, but they need to be a medical doctor as well. If you can find one of those you would be much better off getting treatments from them than from most surgical procedures. MUCH better off. Yeah, I know. Sounds ridiculous. But honestly it isn't. Once you have a lot of back surgery their efforts are not usually as effective because of the nerve blockage from scarring. But if your back is still in pretty good shape, you would be amazed and mystified at the relief you could enjoy. I could tell you countless stories here of people who have received miraculous results from acupuncture, but please just let my case be an example and check into it. I suffered so much I couldn't move in the mornings and it would take hours for me to gingerly move around enough to finally be able to walk. It was from arthritis and a narrowing of the spine. I was slated for surgery by a top-notch orthopedic surgeon. I was scared to death of the surgery. I had a friend, much older than I, who had achieved good results from acupuncture. I decided I had nothing to lose and went ahead and made an appointment with his medical/acupuncture doctor. This doctor was an Asian man who had received his acupuncture training in China and his medical degree in the U.S.A. I saw him for about 8 months. Almost every penny was paid for by insurance. I haven't had any problems since then - seriously! - and it has been 8 years since I had those acupuncture treatments. BTW, when I asked my orthopedic surgeon about acupuncture, he said that if I was interested in it that I should try it. He said he had seen many people who had been helped by it and he said I had nothing to lose because my surgery would be very tough. For what it's worth...

I didn't know anyone named Pingleton while I was in Tahlequah. I do remember that when I was there it was a good pre-med school.

SLHarrison: OMG I really feel for you! I know that pain but haven't had it for such an extended period of time. I hope it all smooths out for you real soon. I hope it makes you feel better to know how very frustrated I am right now. I honestly wish I had the kind of restriction that you're experiencing. I don't envy the pain, but I do want so very badly to have the kind of incentive not to eat that you do. Right now the "tool" is not doing anything at all for me. It's as if I never had the band put in. And here comes Thanksgiving... I hope you can somehow enjoy Thanksgiving. And thank your lucky stars that you have no doubt that you will get through it without putting on a bunch of pounds. Hang in there, darlin'!

Victoriana: Is that you? I didn't recognize you with that funny artificial nose. I don't do PMs. Generally speaking, that is. I figure he'll show up when he wants to reveal himself.

sandranoelle: That was such an enjoyable read!! We used to live near the Mexican border and we learned so much about what can happen in Mexico that I won't even go there anymore. I would have been petrified if I had received a phone call like that from my son! Why do boys have so much fun messing with their Mom's heads? Doncha just love 'em!! I'll bet your house is wonderful when they're all home for the holidays. I have the same problem with making soup or stew (which we love). My DH accuses me of making enough for 25 people. I never recovered from the quantities that my family had to make to satisfy all six of us at the dinner table. I freeze it, it gathers a deep layer of ice and then I throw it out. Mom always told us about the starving children in China, but I still mess up the quantity of those 2 dishes.

On one trip that we made to Germany and Paris I was shocked at the nudity and "games" that were shown on regular TV. Oh yeah, I remember that I was fairly shocked when I lived in Montreal at the daytime shows that revealed a fair amount of nudity. They were nothing compared to the shows in Germany though. Those were more like what we'd call porn. Saw some things I hadn't ever seen before. Quite educational. But shocking. The beautiful German women that we've known over the years have been very open sexually and with regard to nudity. I was always too hung up to relate in a personal way. Looked like fun though. Most Bible Belt Americans that I've grown up with have so much guilt when it comes to their own sexuality that they aren't really sure what is all right and healthy and what is verboten. So they don't explore much and in fact have trouble sometimes with just the basics. Skinny dipping, for instance, can only happen if one has some help with some uninhibiting drug or other.

Mayhaps he is vacationing over the Thanksgiving Holiday and isn't living in cyberspace right now. Come back, Tom, wherever you are.

Mom: Down l lb. I'm like someone else who posted that they only seem to be losing 1 lb. a week. Slow going. I'm still on a Quest to find my "sweet spot" where I fall in love with my band.

I thought it was Fort Hoocheekoochee. At least that's what everyone called it when we lived in Sierra Vista and DH worked on post. We spent 5.5 years in that burg and it was my first foray into the world of selling real estate. A prime spot for that, I must say, because back then many Army folks were still moving every 2 years or so. Fond memories of the high desert. And some not so fond ones. It was beautiful and weather was ideal, but it was considered remote and it WAS. I spent just over an hour in the backseat of our car in hard labor with my DD on our way to the hospital in Tucson. Not one of the fondest memories. A small point of interest that just popped into my head... When we were at Armed Forces Staff College, living on the Naval Base at Norfolk, we met lots of officers and their wives from all over the world and all different branches of the military and government. We were talking one night at a party to a group of doctors and pilots, etc., and I recounted the time in Ft. Huachuca when all the men we knew and our sons became ill with an intestinal flu of some sort. They had to shut down the base. They were sick as dogs with extremely high temperatures. Women were unaffected. One of the Naval doctors spoke up and said that he was very familiar with the event. He had read up on it in some military medical journals. The Army (I guess) had done a test on a biological (potential) weapon. Yeah, so you don't have to be a military person all signed up and official to be a guinea pig.

Poor Green. But then, poor BJean (yes, you can use my initials if you deem them appropriate, BJ). I'm not anti-smut either. Bring it on! Anyway, I didn't hit the Scotch this weekend. I never hit the Scotch. But for the first time in YEARS (yep, YEARS) I decided to entertain my dinner guests by imbibing in too many glasses of Champagne laced with a little Chambourd. I'm so much funnier on my alcohol of choice. In my mind. Some of us may have even jumped into the hot tub buck naked. After guests' departure, of course. The neighbors can't see over the fence (I hope). But I NEVER run naked in the backyard for the entertainment of anyone because even in my stupor I know that isn't entertainment, just a frightful display of a chubby woman gone amuck. I have strange bruises on my inner arms. And just in case you're accusing my wrongly of having a bad hangover - I was tired but didn't have so much as a headache on Sunday. Hence champagne being my drink of choice. Green's picturesque walk in the woods and kicking of frozen leaves made BJ misty for Canada and white winters.

I miss Tom too. Where the heck is he? I wanted to tell him that as skeptical as I was upon hearing that a wife influenced the contract for Morton Thiokol O rings, I asked DH about it and he said that it was definitely a story that made the rounds and that it could have happened. Sometimes DH likes to think what he does is a big secret. After it comes out as a program on TV or something he knows it's fair game to tell his closest blabbermouth.

Hopeworks: I'm in the same boat as you! Not losing, eating too much, no restriction, disappointment and frustration. I'm scheduled to go back right after Thanksgiving though. But I feel like I'm wasting some time without help from the band. Guess we gotta get through this until we find our "sweet spot". Grrrr.

P.S. BTW, if the attackers have declared that they will "attack everywhere", how are we supposed to get the job done if we're busy butting heads and chasing our tails in Iraq? Doesn't that just deplete our forces and make us weaker - which would certainly make us more vulnerable if we need to be somewhere else? I say kick the bastards, do what it takes to put them out of commission, but what we're doing in Iraq is futile and that's certainly nothing to brag about to our children.

You didn't address me, Gail, but I thought I'd ask the obvious question: What in the world makes you think that the 69% of Americans who are opposed to the war in Iraq are against us fighting them anywhere? We can go "there" just so long as we know that they're there, and that "they" are the Jihadists, who are out to get us. If I may be so bold, what gave us the right to put innocent men, women and children in harm's way just because we thought there was a chance that there was a connection to Osama? Isn't it prudent (as W.'s Dad used to say) to get the intelligence prior to declaring war? Or do you think, like George W. Bush thinks, that he and the Republicans have divine guidance, and the rest of us be damned.

Ok Jack, so our presence in Iraq, the way we have been proceeding, has helped stem the aggression of Jihadists exactly HOW? You think they're afraid of us? You think that the sad, poor way we've approached the task in Iraq has made us look stronger to them? Are they just waiting for us to continue to deplete our forces and resources before they take over the world? If you were able, would you be willing to go over there and do the work that you think we need to be doing? What exactly would you propose to do once you were there without the proper support from your homeland, which I assume is America?

Oh so Green, you're a "working girl"?

Jack, I appreciate your thoughtful approach. However I do take exception to your characterization "faint of heart" to discribe people rising up against the actions of BushCo". Please don't mistake the fact that some of us believe that our President has us in one hellofa mess, with the fact that we are all for a strong national defense - at least I am. There is however a difference between aggression and defense. And there is another term that too many Republicans scoff at. It's diplomacy. What the heck do they have against it? It may not work all the time, but it sure won't work if you don't try it.

Do people really think that our being in Iraq is a deterrent to terrorist attacks in America? Bush isn't really claiming that today. Since it has been revealed that Saddam did not have the capability to attack us with massively destructive weapons, and we are not able to deter terrorists by being there, it seems that people are saying that our worthy goal for sending American troops to Iraq has been to help the Iraqis stop being slaughtered by Saddam and to bring democracy to the region. We can all agree that Saddam isn't slaughtering them anymore. But they are still being killed in large numbers every day. We've been impotent when it comes to stopping the killing in Iraq. Why do we continue to sacrifice American men and women when we do not seem to be able to achieve any of the goals that Bush says he set out to achieve? Peace has not been achieved, a true democracy has not been achieved, killing has not stopped AND Americans are losing their lives every day! Why did we choose Iraq to save? Why aren't we saving the millions (!) who are being slaughtered in South Africa? Why aren't we working toward peace in the Middle East all over the Middle East, not just Iraq? Especially since many of the other countries in the Middle East are known to have hotbeds of terrorist support. While some Americans believe that we are in Iraq to deter terrorism, others know that the only possible way to assist in some kind of civility there, is to use our brains, not our brawn. It is understandable that Americans who have relatives in Iraq desparately need to know that there is a tangible, worthwhile reason for their family member to be exposed to injury and death in Iraq. It is comforting to wave the American flag and boast that their relative in Iraq is safeguarding Americans' freedom. But it is reminicent of Viet Nam in that no good is ever going to come of Americans losing their lives there. It would be more sensible if families would join in the fight to GET US OUT!

karey: Have a great time on your trip to Mexico! Don't let those margaritas get the better of you. I'll try to do the same. We'll be in San Antonio for a few days next week, taking our granddaughter to Sea World. Hope you have a fun and Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I don't blame anyone with an opposing opinion for backing away from this forum. What can one possibly say to defend the actions of the man holding the highest position in the most powerful nation on earth? Somebody's been listening to all the talking heads' spin and have bought it hook, line and sinker.

Now if someone accuses laurend of being personally insulting, I will have a bone to pick with them. Well said, laurend!

P.S. Hurrah for your Mom, the trooper!