Jumping the gun here.....

but I am afraid of the upcoming holidays. October is Halloween....chocolate chocolate chocolate (MY ULTIMATE WEAKNESS), then we have Thanksgiving....(turkey turkey turkey, food food and more food) and Christmas which is basically the combination of both. ARGH!! How am I gonna make it through? LOL. It just dawned on me. But if I can make it through the winter and the holidays then I can make it through anything. Erin

I was thinking the SAME things Christa

I am trying not to think about the food part of the holidays. My holidays have always been centered around the table. Perhaps now is the time I switch my focus onto the reasons we have these holidays, no not the religious aspects either. Good times with family and friends. I am going to try and stay out of the kitchen as much as possible at these times. Perhaps I will feel more upto taking my kids trick or treating this year, instead of being the one sitting at home passing out treats. Maybe on thanksgiving I can watch football with my dad instead of hovering over the table eating everything in site. During Yule I can walk around and sing carols and help chase down my hyper kids. To focus on what is actually important....living! ~Rachel

My dear Erin - Have you ever heard the phrase..... "One day at a time?" It really works!! If you will email me your address, I will send you a chocolate candle for Halloween, a pumpkin spice candle for Thanksgiving and a peppermint? (you pick) candle for the Christmas season. Smell is a wonderful sense and can satisfy many cravings. Carry with you a beautiful wine glass full of clinking ice and water (or juice) and take small sips. It's that hand to mouth thing that we all suffer from needing for some reason. Anyway, by the time the end of October arrives, you will have already began losing and will be so excited that perhaps you won't even notice (yea, right......that's a big fat lie.....LOL). But, the offer stands for the candles. There is a wonderful place just about a mile from where I work and they make the most wonderful candles I have ever tasted....er....smelled. Tracy

I too was thinking that but realized that I enjoyed the cooking and baking and candy making more. So I will continue my traditions and this year I am going to volunteer at the local church on Thanksgiving to serve dinner for those less fortunate. I couldn't last year because of my many problems but now with the surgery, I finally can. Hey, let's find some great recipes for those holidays aimed at us! We can share and compare! What do u think? Doreen

I, like you Doreen, enjoy cooking during the holidays. My tradition is to make choc. chip cookies with my son for Santa on Christmas Eve. I love to cook Thanksgiving Dinner. That to me is the best part of Thanksgiving (besides the Macy's Parade) but if I remember correctly, the prep work is intensive that by the time dinner comes I don't usually eat that much....until later.....But I think that I probably won't have much appetite anyways for the holidays and won't want to eat so......maybe this is actually a good time to have surgery. I think I had a temporary panic but the more I think about it, I should be OK. I will be 2-4 months out and I will most likely not have an appetite. Thanks for your responses. It helped me put some things back into perspective. Erin

My biggest thing will be the egg nog!!! IT is my absolute favorite thing about the holidays. And since I'm getting the VBG, I can still sabotage myself with calories. But my will power has been getting a lot stronger so I know I will be okay. Good luck to all of you Jenelle

The binder my surgeon gave me has recipes in it and one of them is for eggnog! Want me to e-mail it to you? -Carrie DJ Vixen on www.freakradio.net

Ok the post is about eating & before I read your whole post I just saw "The binder"..... & even before I could finish the sentence a binder/corset came into my mind & I thought you were gonna say "The binder my surgeon gave me will keep me from overeating." LOL Am I a dork or what! But it might work if it was really tight! Candi