green

Yah, Green loves Winners but she was beginning to feel mighty p*ssed off about the selection available in la zone big grrl. In fact this zone was impossible to find in the designer Winner's in the la-di-dah area of Bloor Street. And Green was kinda screwed when it came to finding giant grrl shoes for her giant grrl feet, too. Hmmph! Snort! (She did buy a really nice designer bag there.) As for Zeller's transforming itself into Target (Targay, en francais), I am excited. This is a great store from everything that I have heard.

Green wants the film rights.

Oh, I am experiencing some NSVs at the moment which have to do with some of my favourite pants. They are linen, cut to be loose, and were kinda elegant. Now it is a matter of crotch management when I wear 'em for they are much baggier than they were before. I love the pants but I love losing weight.

I have never set about to collect anything but I have ended up with a lot of things. In particular I have a lot of books and I have some folk art, carvings of animals and some masks. Both give me a lot of pleasure and both have started their own collections. They collect dust!

And it is true vice versa. Women also like to see men and women of like attractiveness yoked up. We all like to see a couple evenly matched when it comes to the beauty department and a disparity is always unsettling to the casual onlooker. This sense of wrongness disappears, of course, when you come to know the couple. The superficial impact of looks always disappears when you come to know the people inside the packages. This is just how it works. My own mate is 9 years younger than myself and while I had been a fairly good looking woman in my day, age and weight gain have certainly damaged my allure. *Please insert irony here, by the way.* As for my mate, well, the body gods have been very kind to him. This has resulted in some occasions where my feelings could have been hurt if I was less comfortable in our relationship. We have, you should know, been together for twenty years. I am also aware that I would have made the same judgement calls had I been on the outside looking in. This is something that we are prone to do is all.

Actually, I had heard it posited that one of the reasons that baby Bush got the country embroiled in this war was because he still had parent-child rivalry issues with his own father and was hoping to best the old Bush with his direction on Gulf War 2. This explanation, one that seems purely psychoanalytical, does not seem entirely off the wall to me. Reports do say that mini-Bush and George the first never did see eye to eye.

Oooh Yoda, my name looks so good in Green! And you are right but I am blonde inside and out and I still haven't gotten around to it and so I am having to rely on those NSVs. Well, I've been experiencing the good and the bad. The good is that my 2 most favourite pairs of baggy trousers are starting to get a little too baggy. I am now having trouble with crotch management. The bad news is that one of my best friends didn't notice a thing. Finally, after 4 hours he said that he thought that my stomach looked smaller. Initially he had said that he didn't see any difference. My Scottish cousin (who is over for a visit) didn't notice any difference but he tends to march to a different drummer. He did notice the price of the bag I was looking at a Winner's, though! LOL I find myself on a bit of an emotional roller coaster when it comes to dealing with these responses or lack of responses to my perceived weight loss. I was banded on Sept. 7 and when people do remark on my weight loss I think that maybe I might be losing too quickly and that this will mean that I will lose my hair 6 months down the road. On the other hand, when my weight loss is invisible to them I am disappointed too. This is likely how we all feel but I thought that I would mention it.

Angel bear, try sticking on the soup, yogurt, tuna, apple juice part of the post op diet. It really seems to work and it doesn't involve much cooking.

Sounds like a fine stew.

Consider it scratched. Yep, the Donald is one ugly dude. His mouth looks like a chicken's ass. I don't know how his trophies can let him get anywhere near them, especially the face....

The Dondald Trump, eh? I don't think that his hair is a toupee. I don't think that they allow wig makers to make toupees that are that ugly. I think that that is his very own comb-over and that it must be a foot long when it's completely unravelled! I hope I don't lose my hair. It's one of the best assets I've got. It's really thick. If I do lose it maybe I'll tell everybody that I've had chemo and need cheering up, then wait to see what happens. Ooh, what if nothing happens....? Scratch that idea.

Mmmm, could be fun. I've seen that sheep farmer. Go for it, girl.

I had a bit of plastic surgery done when I turned 50. I wanted my jawline tidied up, and the guy did a good job. I paid for it myself just as I paid for the band by myself. OHIP seems to lump all of these types of surgeries under the banner of vanity surgeries - ones that are not medically necessary - and so the patient pays. Hell! now we have to pay for eye check-ups! The good news is that these surgeries are income tax deductible. The bad news is that if you want OHIP to cover your belly work you'd best have it mauled by a pitbull or a sheep first. Then maybe you would stand a chance for OHIP to cover the work.

I like this sign that I read about on the internet: Any toddler caught unattended in this store will get a free double expresso.

Mine is smack dab in the middle immediately below my bra band and I can feel it all the time.

It's ironic. We are all getting bigger, taller and wider, and they are building planes with less and less seat room. A few years back when I was flying in the interior of Mexico I flew in an old plane. The seat room was fabulous!

I was banded at the Toronto Lap Band Centre on Sept 7 of this year. I am losing weight but I can't tell you how much because I don't have a scale.

The last supper does make emotional sense for we are saying a formal good bye to a way of life. Remember that we will never be able to guzzle the way we used to pre-band and some foods that are favourites will prove to be complicated to eat, perhaps too complicated. This was why I ate a lot of undercooked filet mignon immediately before my op. I had heard that meat can turn into indigestible "golf balls." The band is good, however, and I have been loosing weight since Sept. 7, the day when I was done.

Oh yes, when it comes to women and our relationship to our own physical appearance, we do tend to suffer to a greater or lesser degree from a mind-body disconnect from how we really look. Back when I was young and thin I thought that I was fat. Almost all the young women I knew then thought that they were fat even though they so obviously were not. And though I was attractive, I didn't think that I was. Despite my poor body image I managed to sow quite a few wild oats. I could have sowed many more had I a more healthy attitude towards my own appearance. I was in my 40s before I had made peace with myself and started to relax. Ironically this was when I hit menopause and started to gain and gain and gain the weight that I am fighting now. But even now I still have no idea what I actually look like. I am just more relaxed is all. This seems to be a woman thing.

Ms. Vicki, your story is just one of the sweetest and most life affirming that I have ever heard. Indianlight, perhaps it would be best if you would tell your new friend what you have told us. It makes sense, you know. You are seriously at work on conquering your own weight issues and while you are nuts about his personality you don't want to get serious about an individual who still is in a place that you have now left. A reformed alcoholic or smoker will turn down a heavy drinker or smoker as a mate for exactly the same reasons, you know. You might also explain to him that you want a serious relationship and this has got to be with a man who is not compromising his health and indeed his life. By explaining it this way the looks issue is never brought up, and it is strange how this is the issue that hurts us all the most even when it is sometimes the least important.

A good idea, I think, by Tuesday you should be feeling in excellent condition to meet the world. Beware the gas, though, and get yourself a supply of chewable Gas-X. Moving around really helps with this.

Ah, The Last Supper Phase. I did that. I called it Green's Farewell Foodcourt Tour. I ate barely cooked 2 filet mignon every night for the last three nights before my operation along with diced new potatoes sauteed with onions and fresh rosemary. Mmmm.

Hi, Taymac. I was banded at the TLBC earlier this month on a Thursday. By that Sunday I was still tired and I was hurting but it was from gas, not from the operation itself. I drank apple juice and I never did suffer from constipation. I actually enjoyed the 3 days I spent in bed after the operation. I read a lot and slept a lot. It was very relaxing. On Monday I got up, had a bath, changed into day clothes and went shopping.

I always drank a lot of water. Since the op I have been drinking less water. I don't know why.

My goal is to continue to stay away from the carbs, something I started on the post op diet.