Recent Posts
Waving Hi to everyone and looking forward to seeing some faces from the past 
BTW, I see you are from Manteca, I am currently living there also 
HW:330 - GW:150 - MW:118-125
RW:190 - CW:130
Linda,
You certainly make a good point with regards to FB being about the social aspects of our lives and this really being about the prospect of living life as someone going through the pre-op and post-WLS and helping each other to stay or get back on track. . . the last time I tried being part of that on here, I found it was much more social than the latter and so I went back to my FB life.
So here I am, willing to give it a shot, because what have I to lose, but my regain by not having any measure of accountability since I stopped all forms of that around the time my brother Frankie died, which was directly linked to morbid obesity :(
Good to see you still plugging along.
Laureen
My Mantra is that I do not determine my success by the number hanging in my closet, nor will I let the scale determine that success either. . . It is through trial and error I will continue to grow and succeed. . . Laureen
"Success is a journey, not a destination." Ben Sweetland
Good Morning Jeannie and everyone else
Jeannie You must be so proud and exhausted. I will be ancient when my grands graduate from high school. Glad you had a good time
I am on my way to the orthopedic to discuss my knees and exactly how bad they are. I have had this appointment for 5 months. My back doctor called the ortho office and even with his intervention this was the first available appointment. Don't know what to expect.
Back later when I am home.
Hi Laureen
Welcome. Stick around for awhile. You may have great friends on FB and many may be on this forum also but if the posts are redundant then we are losing our way. FB is a social site and this although social has it main function as support for WLS issues. It is great to talk about the social aspects of our lives and we do that here, sometimes we have to reign in the social and remember why we are here. We have done that lately and are back to focusing on our WLS path. As we do that we discover that we all have struggled in silence and many of us , myself included, have regained more than we thought we ever would. We are now encouraging each other to steady the course. Its hard work and we need encouragement and a swift kick in the butt sometimes.
Congratulation on the walking. Most of us are doing that now. I too aim for 6,000 steps on a normal day and 10,000 on an active day. I have a fit bit and that reminds me to get up and walk.
Hope to see you regularly, we need you.
Funny thing, I just came back to visit based on some instant messages I received over the weekend and started reading some of the postings and read this post with interest. . . this board is not unlike many other places, people get tangled up in various things, sometimes express their very strong opinions, which sometimes causes a stir and/or hurt feelings, etc., but I've also witnessed people who had bad beginnings with one another, only after some thought about the issues that caused it, take stock and come back stronger for it.
There was a time, when one of our members was being stalked by someone in their life, wherein the person put up a fictuous profile only to find out what was being said by that other person, we figured it out rather quickly, that person eventually dropped off this board, sadly so did the person being stalked, and there have been other instances where some less savory individuals have come on here and caused people distress, chasing some away for good, others for a time, so while a newbie may not necessarily know these things, as has been stated, this is a pretty open forum and so sometimes there are reasons that you may not be aware of. I have never seen anyone new really be mistreated, sometimes there is more posting, than at other times and there too, sometimes a conversation has more people with a common interest, so it can seem like you get lost in the mix, I've felt that way at times, but I also know that for years I felt invisible because of my size and other reasons, so in the earlier days of my visits here, sometimes even later, I felt like I was being ignored, I guess we all have our issues prior and post-op.
As for lurkers, as far back as I can remember, people have done that, I always noted the amount of actual postings, as per viewings, differed greatly, just the nature of people, some curious, some fearful to jump in, others feeling like outsiders, but the main purpose of this, as I started out as a lurker, is to gather information on what life post-op was and can be like, which is why, while we band together and share intimate details of our life, we must be sure that there is some measure of giving people encouragement and trying hard not to get into politics, religion and the very things that cause problems in real life discussions. . .
Just my two cents worth. . . :)
My Mantra is that I do not determine my success by the number hanging in my closet, nor will I let the scale determine that success either. . . It is through trial and error I will continue to grow and succeed. . . Laureen
"Success is a journey, not a destination." Ben Sweetland
Nancy, you got that. I think wardrobe is important. So many of us forget to take of ourselves. As we are losing weight - making sure the clothes we were fit well is important IMO.
I spent a lot of money.....relatively speaking ....in thrift stores, salvation army...etc... I had a monthly budget..
Wearing good fitting clothes makes me stand taller, smile more ...and feel better about myself. That little bit of self confidence makes it easier for me to make better food choices. Suddenly I no longer think "I can't eat that" but rather "I chose not to eat that"..
Feeling good about my apperance also makes me more social - I don't feel like I want to hide in my room when the formal activities are over and social time starts.. So that also makes me more active...
Good luck.
I am going to an herbal conference in 3 weeks and I know I need to chose my wardrobe to be both, comfortable and nice... For me. So I feel good about myself.
Hala. RNY 5/14/2008; Happy At Goal =HAG
"I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences"
"Failure is not falling down, It is not getting up once you fell... So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...."
Laureen,
We posted at the same time. Welcome back. I am so happy you are back. Weight gain is something I think we are all dealing with. I have found that being here has helped me because we all have this one thing in common and it is dealing with our WLS pre,post and during....I think for me it has been the difference between talking about action and action.
Please hand around and join us as we all regain the use of our tool and our board. I think sometimes we have all become complacent in our efforts to lose weight and encourage each other, so now we are working toward keeping it real, keeping it positive, and keeping the goals in total in sight.
These grandkids are something, aren't they. My number 1 baby graduated high school yesterday and I couldn't be any more prouder than I was when his mother graduated. He towers over everyone in the room and is such a sweetie. I am taking him and his girlfriend for a tattoo party as soon as he turns 18...his mom won't sign and his girlfriend's mom will sign for her. So, a tattoo party on his 18th birthday which will be marked on my right shoulder......
Ladies,
It's here. Monday. Wow. Yesterday was a good day. I ate very reasonable; I didn't cry too much as my first born grandson graduated, with a large scholarship, which surprised me. We ate trout, bass, and catfish and tons of veggies and some fruit. I made hushpuppies and by the end of the day, we were all tired. Of course, they put the volley ball net up and all the kids played volley ball....my nephew, who is 54 had to sit with the old folks because he hurt his knee and we all laughed and said, this is the transition from playing to sitting and I said, dear, soon you will be like me, watching from the kitchen window. LOL....yes we are all aging.
Well, today should be a good day for me. All the students have loaded up and summer school is two weeks off. Our intercession is a very short time and few students are here for that. We are a typical college town so when summer hits, we lose more than half of our population (the students go home). Yeah...no waiting in line at stores.
Ladies, have a good first day back....catch you all later.
So over the weekend I got a slew of messenger posts about a reunion and I thought, let me just see who all is on OFF. . . It was nice to see so many of those that posted and made me feel like family for a time in my life are posting, but there are even more not here, some of which are FB friends, which is one of the reasons I stopped posting here, because it was almost redundant to come there and be there and my life was busy. . .
so how am I?
I am busy with my family who has grown and continues to grow, I now have 6 grandchildren (this for those not privy to my FB posts), 2015 found me with two new additions, my son had his bonus child (others were almost 10 and 8 when baby brother was born), my youngest daughter, had her first child, who lights up my world with her smiles and curiosity. This year is the year of weddings, my youngest daughter got married Easter weekend and my oldest daughter will be marrying Thanksgiving weekend. All my children now have their life partners and are doing well, my oldest grandchild, Sammi, graduates from HS the end of this month. . . I turned 60 last June and I have recently begun a new journey, one that will hopefully help me deal with the loss of my brother, almost 3 years ago, a loss which I suffered in silence over, a loss in which I resorted to old bad habits and for which now finds me at a weight I never thought I'd return to, and it has caused me a great deal of shame.
I've been trying to do something about it, but to be honest this past winter my back did not cooperate and lots of tests later, I wound up going to a chiropractor who has helped and I am walking at least 6000 steps daily, mostly over 10000, but committed to the 6000 so as not to set myself up for a case of the "eff it's" What I can say is my pouch still works, but my weight does not want to be shed and it's really sad to me. Also, the end of 2014 found me with emergency surgery due to a twisted bowel related to my RNY and the hiatal hernia that my surgeon had fixed in 2007 when I had my RNY, did you know that they come back (hiatal hernias)? Anyway, it was scary and the worst part of the scary was that the place I choose to have my surgery abandoned me at my time of need, which was very disconcerting, since I choose them because they said they would always be there for me, well seems the great surgeon, whose name I will not speak of, not my surgeon as she moved to Kentucky years ago, said my situation was too complicated for him to want to handle. The surgeon who took on my case, told me this after the fact and was unbelieving that such a thing could take place, as he said, even if I leave this practice, you shall always have someone within this practice to step up and take over and that is and should be the way of things. . . obviously, I survived and am glad that I went to the hospital when I did because it could have been a whole different outcome, so please if you ever experience a sensation of severe pain in the stomach area, do not ignore it, as it can very well mean the difference of life or death in our circles. In spite of my regain and aches and pains, I am healthy, still make healthy choices most of the time, just seem to be lost with how to eat and be losing weight, I currently eat about 1000 to 1400 calories and have gained over 40 lbs., it is no joke when it is said that fat cells are hungry to regain their plumpness, there has now been proof in the medical fields that is the case. My friends who have had the gastric sleeve seem to do very well, RNY is what it is and works well if you adhere to what you are supposed to at least 90% of the time. I got lost due to my grief, but I have not given up on reclaiming the numbers that make me feel good, and no, this is not a numbers game, but I do know how it felt to be at a better scale number and I am determined to at the very least, give it my best to get back to that place.
I have to go now and want to give a shout out to my old friends here and say, glad you're still doing what you need to!
With kind regards, Laureen
My Mantra is that I do not determine my success by the number hanging in my closet, nor will I let the scale determine that success either. . . It is through trial and error I will continue to grow and succeed. . . Laureen
"Success is a journey, not a destination." Ben Sweetland
