Hello All

[Vera 7]

My hope is for you also. Please keep writting. You speak words we all think and feel.

Thank you for being here and for us.

[Penni60 45]

I don't know if I could write a book about this stuff. It's hard, you know. What it's like to be fat. The stares, the jokes, kids pointing, the health issues. I often think that if other diseases could be so readily identified then everyone would have a different story to tell. I mean you can spot a fat person in any crowd. They're the jolly ones, right? But what if alchoholics were a bright lime green. I mean ground effects colors, and you could spot it a mile away. What if sex addicts were a day glo pink color that stood out on the gloomiest day. At the beach you would know to stay away from them!

Ryan: with such profound writing as you possess there is a way for you to write this book. You could interview each of us that would want to participate and incorporate our stories into a book of each of our struggles to "get healthier with the LAP BAND."

This will allow you to write the stories and if you choose to add parts of your own story however little or however much you want we won't mind. Right ladies?

I for one would be willing to share my story if I thought it would help someone else. This is a struggle every day I wake up. I know the food is there. I know I must eat to maintain my health. I must choose wisely the food I take into my body for nourishment and not for comfort as I have for the last 30 some odd years.

So write our stories Ryan as you so eloquently write here.

Just a suggestion.

[donali 57]

The new "chicken Soup for the food Lover's Soul". Has anyone read the "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul"? If you need a good cry, I highly recommend it. I'll bet Ryan's book of our tales would be just as inspirational, and just as heart-breaking.

Ryan, sorry I have not posted an open-armed welcome to you sooner. I confess, I have been laying low. Although I have not been participating much, I still read LBT everyday, because the people here are SO SO awesome. What a wonderful addition you are to this group!! Reading your writing is like reading beautiful poetry.

Wishing you all the best - hugs to you and your wife.

[New Hope 37]

Ryan, please reread your quote! You're being given a second chance to become a writer. You have a God-given talent that needs to be used for your ability to "know from hence you speak", to express yourself very creatively, to encourage and uplift others, increase awareness of this so misunderstood situation.

Obesity is such a stigma for the individual, not only physically, health-wise, but even more importantly, emotionally. You could comfort and encourage overweight people and teach other people compassion and understanding.

Kindness is always in style! If others could just learn to look past an individual's physical size and really "see", just imagine what a kinder and happier place this old world would be!

If your book (or perhaps in the beginning, booklet,) touched one life, then your efforts would not be wasted.

Best of luck!

[New Hope 37]

Ryan's quote" It's never too late to become what you might have been."

[DeLarla 22]

Ryan, write away, but I've been working on "The Lighter Side of Lap Bands" so you gotta pick another title. Mine is mixing the hell with the humor. I don't have a copyright or anything fancy yet, but what's stopping you considering you've published before?

[donali 57]

Mine's going to be, "Why Weight? When Bigger Isn't Better".

[donali 57]

Or, "Eating Your Way to Emotional Health" - I bet THAT would be a bestseller!!

[whippledaddy 5]

You don't need a copyright, yet. When you get ready just put a mark on your manuscript "C" in a circle. You've got one year to copyright it, but it's better to leave all that up to a publisher. It's a long hard, lonely, road. But when you see your first book, in print, when you hold it in your hands, well it's gotta be a lot like a woman feels when she has a child. I know I was awed. I'm still pinching myself two years later and deep in the throes of the sequel.

Of course I've been thinking of a book on what it's like to be a fat person in today's society. My working title is "Letters From the Fridge". I have small pieces here and there. Bits. I have to be careful that they don't turn into rants. I'll surely give it more thought, though I'm writing a sequel to "Havenwood" right now, and it makes me a little crazy.

You guys are all right. Thanks for the inspiration.

But I feel a little guilty as this thread has drifted, it's certainly beyond the intro stage now! I'm posting something in General, and maybe it'll pick up there.

[bushbaby 8]

My quote would be Damit ...It's more than just a pretty face...I love all of me! I used to hate it when people told me that like I should be ashamed of my size and just think that was when I was a size 14/16...what I wouldn't do to get there...oh wait I did do something...I had this awsome band put in.LOL:D

[DeLarla 22]

My biggest peeve is when people say "you have such a pretty face." Why not say "you have such a fat and flabby body?

[New Hope 37]

O.K., Lisa, if I call you "ugly" will that make you feel better?

[New Hope 37]

Maybe it's like people at a funeral, when they say, "Oh he/she looks so natural." No one looks natural when they're dead!

[whippledaddy 5]

My biggest pet peeve is when someone says something like "You aren't fat, look at that guy, now HE'S fat!"

If I'm not fat, why did you feel it was so important to point that out to me and not to any other unfat people?

And does that mean there is a certain point where you're fat? Like when you get like the poor person pointed out?

Ya know what? I wonder how many times someone has used ME as the example of what fat really is to someone else.

Ever heard any one say "You're not anorexic, look at her, now she's really anorexic".

By the way, my insurance company says that obesity isn't an eating disorder. It's a lifestyle disorder. Anorexia is an eating disorder.

Sooooooo......... if you can't stop eating, that's a lifestyle disorder. But if you can't eat, that's an eating disorder. Does this confuse anyone else?

[bushbaby 8]

Now that was funny....