green

I didn't PB for the first 3 and one half months. Since I have been banded - Sept 7, 2006 - I have PB-ed twice.

Sounds like an excellent NSV to me, Angel Bear. I love the idea of your bathing suit being in free fall.:omg: Teehee.:mad: Here is my latest NSV: I went to the dentist today and got loads of compliments on my skinnier self. And my jeans which used to be too tight really are very baggy.:mad:

Yep, there are the good Christians and then there are those who are self-righteous Christians and they aren't going to get it, are they?

I am so happy with my band. I have just come back from the dentist and while I was there I received big compliments for my smaller body. I do think that banding can be a wise move for us older women. I know that I started to gain weight after I hit menopause. This happened to me when I was 41! The weight gain happened slowly and at first I was kinda relaxed about it. A year or so ago I woke up and realised that I had become quite large and that this was a one-way street going in the wrong direction. Indeed it was! The following year I continued to gain weight. I was giving away pants that I had recently bought and I was truly in despair over my body. Joining a gym did not help me lose weight and I had heard that diets could have long term negative effects. (Believe it or not, I have only once in my life been on a diet and that was in my early 20s. I put myself on this egg and grapefruit diet and lost weight off my boobs. lol) I had been fantasizing about massive liposuction when a friend of mine heard about the lap band on a local television morning show. She told me about this procedure and told me how to access a local website. My concern was that I wasn't heavy enough even though in Canada we usually are required to self-pay. I met with the surgical team and was approved pending the results of my physical tests. I cleared those and the rest is history. There were a number of things that I found reassuring about this approach to weight loss. I liked the fact that the surgery is minimally invasive compared to many of the options out there. It is day surgery and the recovery time is quick. I also liked the fact that it is reversible. I am one of those people who tend to see the glass as half empty. I know that if I should have a serious illness and need my appetite back, I can get it. Weight gain is a side effect of ageing. The lap band is a tool which can help us fight this.

Yup, that would be him: tall, good lookin' and a beer drinker....:girl_hug: *Heh heh* Because of the beer we had to go home in a taxi. The cabby drove the way cabbies do, breaking suddenly, accelerating, and weaving in and out of traffic. It was not a calm ride. I was so stoned from the wonderful drugs that I was flopping about and by the time we got home I was bleeding profusely. It was a helluva day!:omg: :phanvan That night he was like a mother hen with her chick, however..... And I was so stoned that I was kinda relaxed about the situation. It's okay, Cloe, you can laugh.

I am 57 and started off with a relatively low BMI but I did lose about a pound per week during the first 16 weeks after surgery (which took place in early September). I don't know how I have been doing since then - what with Christmas and all. I haven't gone in for an official weigh in and I don't own a scale. I look a lot thinner and I am eating a lot less than before. I am also thinking more about what I put in my mouth. The band makes you do that and that's a very good thing. The band seems to have changed something, that's for sure. Before I had the band I was active but the weight wasn't budging.

My resolution is to get myself invited to Bitter's house now that she is cooking French cuisine. That pork dish sounds brilliant and I love scalloped spuds and garlic is good with everything savory.:hungry:

Yeh, but why? Don't leave us hanging, eh.:girl_hug:

Well, Cheney is a pretty good shot.....:heh:

And what about Hans Blix and his report concerning the weapons of mass destruction? After the Gulf War a U.N.-sponsored international team was placed in Iraq. Its mission was to search out all weapons of mass destruction in order that these might be destroyed. This team remained there for some years and was headed up by Hans Blix, a former Swedish Dipomat. Though this effort was disbanded in the late 1990s Blix was recalled under the auspices of the U.N. after 9/11 to make a further search for weapons of mass destruction. He reported to congress that none had been found before Bush chose to invade Iraq claiming that Saddam did in fact have WMDs. As we now all know, none were found.

Thursday, Sept 7, 2006. I hope he wasn't behaving too, too badly.......:party:

A PB or Productive Burp happens when what you have just swallowed gets stuck in your upper G.I. tract and will not budge. At first you feel as though you have just swallowed a golf ball. The object hurts and it simply will not move. Then you begin to drool or "slime" and sometimes you find that you are unable to swallow this drool because everything feels so tight. Then you sick up what you have swallowed and everything is more or less okay. It is different from puking. The offending object simply bounces up and out. This happens when the band is tight or when you have swallowed a big bit of something. Lap bands are often much tighter in the morning or when you are feeling some degree of stress.

It is always good to hear from you, Vines.

BJean: Green is still looking forward to the day when her knickers continue to sit when she stands up. That will be one helluva NSV! Happy New Year to everyone!

I had my second PB on the morning of the 31st. I lost my morning meds and vitamin D while I was at the computer. Good thing that I have a garbage basket in the vicinity! bleh!!! And to add to this annoyance I lost all restriction by dinner time and ate too much food at the Chinese restaurant. Damn!

I am another Bettie Page

Mouse, some of us like discussing contentious topics. :biggrin1: This keeps us away from the fridge.:party: By the way, I would like to congratulate you on your ticker! You have lost a lot of weight. Bravo, girl!:clap2: And Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

Air lock is a good name for it. I began to suffer from it awhile after I was first banded. It would affect me after I had eaten and while I was lying down watching TV in the evening. The gas pain was localised and quite severe. You will be glad to know that this does go away. I haven't had it for months now.

Some inroads were made on the swamp that Green calls home.:faint: Her cat bit her.:help: She had her second PB ever right after swallowing her morning meds. Oops!:party: Her restriction vanished before dinner time and she was able to eat far too much Chinese food at the local restaurant where she invited a girlfriend out for dinner. Oops! Now she is home alone and waiting for her mate to safely arrive. It is raining outside.:cry She can't blame the dirty house or the lap band follies on George W, you know........ This is how Green spent the final days of 2006. On the plus side, her pants are a lot looser.:clap2: :clap2: :clap2:

Aw, that's so sweet to hear, kiddo. I just got a phone call from my husband who is up north in cottage country with his family. There is less than an inch of snow on the ground and the lake is not frozen at all. His sister and her kids are over here for the Christmas holidays. They usually live in the south of France. The kids are kinda bored. They can't go toboganning because there isn't enough snow. They can't go skating: there is no ice. Everyone is stuck inside the cottage. This is why I chose to stay down in the city. :heh: I should probably clean the pigsty up. I told him that I would.

I too agree with Becca77 with regards to her complaint about the current administration's claim that they have helped a country rid itself of a ruthless dictator and that therefore they are a force for the moral good in this world. Cowboys in white hats. There are so many countries that are oppressed by violent and cruel dictators and these are ignored by the men in white cowboy hats. Of course these are countries which do not contain vast reserves of oil or have a major canal running through it. Post colonial Africa is, by and large, a blood soaked mess and yet it is ignored. Afghanistan and northern Pakistan are where the Taliban are. It is also considered to be a breeding ground for al Qaeda and is, of course, where Osama bin Laden was last seen. There are Canadian soldiers deployed in the south of Afghanistan. This is where all the fighting is and this is where the Americans used to be until the start of the Iraqi war. The other NATO forces are all deployed in the peaceful north. Although Canada has requested assistance in the war zone she has been turned down. As for Iraq, I have been reading interesting reports in the Canadian media. Though many Iraqis are glad that Saddam is gone many are beginning to regret his deposal. You see, although he was violent and cruel, he did bring stability to the country. Folks who hated him and saw family members suffer under his regime do say that they miss the stability. I was interested to read that much the same kind of thought is prevalent in southern Afghanistan. It seems that many of the folk who initially viewed the western forces as their liberators have grown so exhausted by this dirty and interminable war that they now long for the peaceful days of the Taliban. All of this is terribly sad. And then we have another country that is broken and divided: America. I view the activities of this administration as being in the realm of bizarre. Indeed, the word hubris springs to mind. The American people will be left on the financial hook for billions,...trillions of dollars thanks to the actions of these arrogant cowboys. And because this Iraq business was engaged in without international agreement, America has lost face in the global arena. It is always understood by those governments which are more sophisticated and less arrogant that these issues of foreign affairs and international diplomacy must be carefully worked out. There are both cultural and historical issues at play in the Middle East along with regional and international interests. This particular administration has acted with arrogance, self-interest, and in an aggressively anti-intellectual manner. This is a tragedy. Americans should know that your country is the linch-pin upon which the stability of the West relies. Of course you care about your country. You should know that there are foreigners who care about the well-being of America, too.

Sad thing about Ottawa: thanks to our mild winter all you can do is go boating.:cry And Toronto, Canada, is still entirely green!

I think that you will be amazed at how well the band works. You will find yourself losing a lot of weight over the next year. I know that you are going to enjoy 2007.

Thanx, Cloe. This is a timely reminder. By the way, your ticker is looking very good! Congratulations!:clap2: :clap2: :clap2:

Gadget Lady has raised a number of issues, issues which are critical to this discussion, in her response. The first issue is the question of the accuracy of that collection of documents which collectively go under the name of The Bible. It was Carlene, I believe, who has pointed out that it was at the Council of Nicaea - which took place over 300 hundred years after Christ's death - where the material which now forms the New Testament was chosen. Think of these religious cats as editors; they chose the shape of what we now have come to know as God's word. It seems that there was other material; they chucked it out. Lost documents aside, there is the issue of translation. It is interesting that the Qu'ran remains untranslated; as a holy book it is always kept alive in its original language. It remains untouched and pure in its original Arabic (although it is possible to buy a translation). When I lived in France I took a course at the local university in translation. It was there where I learned that this business of translating from one language to another was not only exceedingly difficult - our professeur was a rigorous bastard! - but that something, either meaning or nuance, would inevitably get lost. A change, a loss, or a shift in meaning or nuance is no big deal when you are reading Tolstoy, Gogol or Cyrano de Bergerac. If, however, you are citing this material as the inerrant word of God then it does become kinda important. This business of the damage done to Plato's text falls under this same category. Injuries done to Platon's text do not matter for the inerrancy of this is not at issue. There is this point about the accuracy of the Old Testament or Torah. Gadget Lady mentions that the scribes were held to exigeant standards. I have heard this, too. As for the Dead Sea Scrolls, I cannot comment with any degree of intelligence other than to say that I have heard that these were the writings of the Essenes, a sect that espoused Christ-like teachings. I believe that I have heard that Jesus might have been a member of this sect. This is where my desire to know more of archeology and social anthropology becomes tickled. The other bit of Bible business is altogether different and would merit a separate post, if not thread, and this is the question of the internal inconsistencies in the teachings in the Bible. I have often mentioned my opinion that this is a very difficult book. There is little that is cosy about this document. It certainly ain't Coutts-Hallmark Care-Bears friendly.