green

It's a good thing that I never saw any advertising of this nature concerning the lapband. I never would have gone for it and I would have missed out on getting hardware which really has turned my life around. In my case it just took 9 months. Products which advertise miracle results really turn me off, especially if these appear in the form of info-mercials. You see, I feel that if a product really works as advertised it would be sold everywhere and be used by everyone; it would not be flogged on an obscure cable channel or on late night TV. Two major areas where we are vulnerable are both connected to our appearance: one has to do with our weight issues and the other has to do with ageing. Many if not most of the products flogged to us which advertise miracle results hook into one or the other of these fears. Use these cremes and you will look years younger. Buy my fat burning product and the weight will simply disappear. Of course the stuff doesn't work. If it did we would be thin and wrinkle-free. If it did we would be hearing about it on the media. If it did we would all be wishing that we were smart enough to buy shares in the companies that produced these products. And the few of us who did would be retiring awful early. Now, unlike you, Alexandra, although I was a chubby teenager I spent my pre-menopausal years as a normo - although I sure didn't appreciate this at the time. (I began to gain weight once I became post-menopausal and that, grrl, was a long, long time ago. I went through menopause when I was 41 and refused HRT until I was around 47. I was on HRT for about 3 years max, by the way. So this is my fat profile, eh. LOL) I am inclined to believe that some individuals are more cynical than others by temperament (and maybe by education/experience?) and it is these individuals who are likely to be alienated by the miracle ad. I also note that both you and I are atheists. This would also indicate that we are prone to be skeptical. At the same time I have to admit that I am not entirely immune to trying stuff out. I have just returned from a health food store where I bought a month's supply of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) for a whack of cash. I did this because one of my grrlfriends has thick and glossy hair and she takes the stuff. The main ingredient is safflower oil and I am thinking that I am plenty stupid to sucker myself into buying these little capsules instead of buying a bottle of the oil. And the bonehead who sold this stuff to me kept referring to the oil as being saffron oil! Even the best skeptic will dream occasionally.

Thank you for opening this topic, Sunta. I find it interesting and would like to know more. Are you saying that the American government charges its own citizens those big fees when they would like to adopt internationally? I had always heard that international adoption was expensive but I thought that it was the foreign governments who were shaking down the adoptive parents for this cash. And it is indeed sad when there are folk who are anxious to adopt and children who need parents who are blocked from finding each other due to the big bucks issue.

A slow and steady weight loss is much healthier for your body to accept in the long run. I was banded last Sept 7 at TLBC and am now around goal. Be patient, SusanSilver, you will get to where you want to go.

Wha...??? Don't you have milk in plastic bags down there? :faint: Do you have sour cream and chive flavoured potato chips? Salt and vinegar? By the way, on her blog :ranger: the American woman who moved to Canada mentioned that she found that Canadians tend to be cheap compared to Americans. She says that while Americans will simply pay for an item that they want Canadians tend to shop around and then yap to each other about the various prices they have paid for the item. I am very pleased that you appreciate Toronto, Lucy. It's my home town.

I dunno that I agree with you, TommyO. I do think that to some extent weight is a class and money issue. Money and education often do mean that people make healthier lifestyle choices. They can afford to go to gyms. They can afford to buy better quality foods and are more likely to cook using fresh produce. They are more likely to read the nutritional info on prepared food items. But money alone plays a huge role; it is much cheaper to feed your family on macaroni and cheese and hotdogs than it is to feed them chicken breast and salad. And a loaf of white bread costs a lot less than a loaf of 7 grain whole wheat. And the more affluent and better educated do receive more social pressure from their friends to be thin. Let me explain this last statement: whenever I visit those temples of culture - museums and art galleries - I rarely see truly large people. I do, however, occasionally see them in my local Walmart and Zellers.

Because you can still eat a lot it sounds to me that you need more fill. You haven't hit your sweet spot yet.

It has happened to me on a few occasions and it has always been women who have asked me when the baby is due. Because each time I was asked I was well beyond menopause I found the question kind of funny. I always liked to tell them that "that ship had sailed years ago'", that I am post-menopausal and just fat, and then watch them squirm with embarassment. The weiner you met in the club wouldn't know how to squirm, unfortunately.

Jachut is right. This guy will always be a weiner.

Yep, that lack of toilet activity thing always baffled me, too. I was very, very envious.

I think I would have told him that my "objective" was that I was looking for a father for my baby and I was kinda in a rush. :heh:

She was one of the best drag queens I've ever seen and I have seen quite a few.

I am another Canuck and up here removing your shoes upon entering a private residence is generally considered to be the norm and, well, correct. A few years ago I was reading the blog of an American who had chosen to immigrate to Canada and one of the things that sent her into culture shock was our practice of shedding our shoes upon arrival at someone's house or apartment. This was the first time that I realised that there was a difference on this issue. I imagine that Canucks drop shoes because our weather is often lousy. As for me, I hate wearing footwear! I don't even like wearing socks! Mind you, a Canadian foyer can look pretty messy during a winter party what with all those boots, etc. And it is fun watching drunken Canadians trying to stagger back into their footwear when they are leaving. Haha. For formal parties Canadians will bring footwear to wear indoors and the elegant ones carry their Manolo Blahnicks in velvet bags.

That would be cool. I live fairly close to Bloor and Spadina. I live at Bloor and Dufferin and I often walk home from my doc's office/physio's office and these are situated close to Bloor and Spadina. What time, what day, and how will we recognise each other??? It would be fun to meet you all.

That squirrel better hope that nobody goes after his nuts!

Thanks for finding this site for me. I am glad that it still exists. It is an important resource and should be e-mailed to everyone who has just given birth.

Thanks for your generous feedback. :car: I do try to be thoughtful and coherent but I sure did write some long and rambling posts the night I first arrived home from the in-laws. :car: I was beat but I sure missed being on-line. :ranger: Not a good combination. :phanvan

There used to be a website, I don't know whether it still exists, The Institute for Naming Children Humanely. I visited it and found it hilarious. I am one of those who believe in giving kids normal/straight/conventional names. Hero is one dumba$$ name to saddle a little kid with.

What a bummer, Indigo Girl! Your experience was atypical and you went through a really rough ride but now you are banded and everything will be clear sailing for you from now on. :biggrin1: :hungry: @ the hungry ones: you have already received good advice. I dealt with my first weeks post-op by having many small liquid meals instead of just 3. This was recommended by my doctor and so I had breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, a mid-afternoon snack, supper, and a mid-evening snack. It seemed that I was always having a small liquid something and this stopped me from feeling hungry. Many of these meals were hot (soups and broths) and I think that this helped with my hunger pangs. And like the others told you, please try not to cheat - your insides need time to heal. :car:

Yes, I agree. He could apologise and then try to give another shot at explaining what it is he wants to communicate with us. I do note a certain crankiness....

Oh, BJean, that green bean recipe sounds profoundly awful!!! :car: Thanks for sharing this with me. Now I know to avoid any restaurant which advertises home cooking or country style cooking when travelling through Oklahoma. LOL :heh: As for the ma-in-law, she is German and is a Fan of Meat and Cold Cuts but at the same time she is thrifty and so often the stuff which she presents is meat which only a true Fan of Meat can eat. :phanvan As for me, my sensibilities lie more in the Italian, Indian, or Asiatic line of nosh when eating cooked food, and I love salads. When I do eat meat I want the expensive stuff and when it comes to beef I like it very, very rare. This means that I am usually on the wrong page when it comes to dining with the in-laws. :rolleyes I am also a fan of sauces. It was eating cheese, pasta, food in sauces, and bread that made me a fatty grrl. :tired My own ma was born and raised in England and she had a nasty way with meat. She bought the good stuff and then carefully cooked it until it was grey all the way through. :omg: She would squeal in horror if she saw any sign of pink. It took an hour to chew your way through a slab of her roast beef. :help: She turned lamb chops into lamb chips. I actually thought that I was a vegetarian until I lived in France. My ma had a lovely way with a sauce or a gravy, though. :car:

I really like the point which you have just made. :car: You may be aware that a former Canadian and a press baron, Lord Conrad Black, has recently been convicted in an American court of certain financial malfeasances. Financial misbehaviour is usually the result of greed. Innocent people who are on the outside of dishonest actions do get hurt, whether these folks are the taxpayers who underwrite the financial assistance of those who are on welfare, the shareholders of a company which has gone sour, shareholders who may have been planning for their own retirement or for their kids' education, or those individuals who had been earning a living by working for these same companies. Yes, there are solid and responsible corporations who are run by fine and ethical people and there are decent folk who do land up on public assistance. I believe that neither the left nor the right should forget this. I myself am actually pro big business although I do tend to speak like a left-wing nut in most of my posts. I believe that it takes big business and big money in order to bring about the kind of progress upon which we all rely. Mom and Pop style businesses do not bring us airlines, railroads, the trucking industry, advances in medical and pharmaceutical knowledge, computer technology, the internet, or, for that matter, any of the mod cons which we all take for granted. And it is only through big business that all of these products which we do enjoy have price tags which put them within the grasp of average people with average incomes. Ugh! I hoping I am making sense. I am still recovering from my time up north with the in-laws. Lemme know if this post is incomprehensible, eh.:car:

My husband is 9 years younger than I am. We have been together for over 20 years and we have a good relationship. He often tells me that he loves me, he is an open-hearted and generous man, and he does do some of the housework. We make a point of spending a lot of time together, going out to restaurants for breakfast or lunch on a fairly frequent basis. I figure that I am very lucky. One of my aunts married a man who was 11 years younger than herself and they were together until the day he died. Some men may find the notion of having an older wife to be repulsive but many other men are cool with this. Some women are crazy about older men. Others find them kinda creepy. Such romantic decisions are inevitably made on a whatever floats your boat basis. What does make a relationship work has little to do with the age of the partners but everything to do with compatibility, love, care, and hard work.

I'd be afraid that my cat would mistake 'em for prey. :omg: She is a hunter. :heh: That would almost certainly destroy a romantic moment with their father even if he did have a good sense of humour about mishaps. :tired

Don't sweat the little stuff, LeslieLee. We are bandsters and we are losing both weight and clothing sizes. From time to time there will be small set-backs but try to remain focussed on the big picture.

I am another Toronto bandster. I was banded in September 06 at the TLBC. If you all ever meet somewhere which is TTC-friendly - I don't drive - lemme know, eh. I would love to connect with the actual faces who sit in front of the computers. :ranger: