Lunch Bunch announcement

The Lunch Bunch was started a little over 4 years ago as the result of members on this forum with a desire to deepen the bonds of friendship and support by meeting our online WLS brothers and sisters face to face. What began with a group of 4 people meeting in the small breakroom in the warehouse owned and operated by the family of one of the attendees grew into a monthly gathering that often numbered in the 20s and 30s and came to include spouses, children, parents and other support people in our lives.

It transcended hospitals, surgeons, programs, and surgery types...all have been welcomed and have contributed invaluable support, encouragement, and information to fellow attendees.

For the past 4+ years I have coordinated most of these gatherings and have enjoyed the meetings, the friendships and the support. The friendships formed have seen us through emergency hospitalizations, plastic surgeries, births, deaths, and many other ups and downs of life. Many of the people I first met on this board and later in person at a Lunch Bunch gathering are still very dear friends and I cannot imagine my life or my journey without them.

That said...I feel it is time to turn over the reins to someone else. At this stage of my journey I am no longer as active on this board as I once was. I would love to see this group continue with a new core group of losers with a desire to share the journey like my friends and I have.

I do still monitor this board from time to time and would love to be a part of future gatherings as my schedule permits.

Anyone wanting to take this over, just start posting invitations and the people will come. You don't have to keep to any of the days and times we had in the past. Make the group fit the most active participants and have fun!!

Love to all and happy losing!!

Susan - AKA bilsrib

Thanks for doing it for so long!  You did a great job!

Thanks so much Susan for all the time you dedicated to making the lunch bunch a success!

While I wasn't part of the original group in the back of the warehouse, I did come early on...  and the lunch bunch provided wonderful support to me throughout my entire journey...  I started attending the lunch bunches before I was ever approved for surgery!  It used to be a very important part of my journey, that second Saturday at 1:00 wherever the local restaurant of choice would be... 

But like Susan, I'm not as active here.  I always wondered where people went...  why did they not continue to post and be part of the support forum.  I realize now, its because they are out living life!!  The very reason they had surgery in the first place was to experience new things, to live, to do, to be!  And now 4 yrs later...  here we veterans are...  busy, going on with our lives as it seemed that it was placed on hold for a few short years...  we struggled to lose the weight, struggled to learn our new patterns of behavior...  and we were somewhat in a ****oon state where weight loss was what we lived, breathed and NOT necessarily ate... LOL...

I think many of us still lurk here occasionally...  we're just a personal message away....

Susie Q:

Just a note to say thank you for your leadership and guidance for the past 3 1/2 years.  I started Lunch Bunch before my surgery.  I learned so much and felt so welcome!  Thank you Susan for getting it together each month and keeping us in touch with reality.  We have certainly had our ups and downs but this group has been a wonderful addition to my new life.

Big kiss!
Freddie

I am 6 days post op and I think the Lunch Bunch is a great idea.  It sounds like you did a wonderful job with it and I hope someone else picks up where you left off.  IF someone does please let me know as I would like to find some people to meet with that are going through, gone through, this same journey as I am just starting.

If someone does pick it up the information will be posted here. I usually posted something no later than the week leading up to the Saturday. You could always start things off if you wanted to. You don't have to be a veteran of WLS. I was only a few months out myself when the first get together occurred.

Congratulations on your surgery and welcome to the loser's bench.

It is not looking like anyone else if picking up where you left off.  Can you give me some details oh how you did it.  Which Sat did you all meet and what is a good time?  Would you just post the date/time/place in this message board?  I guess I could get a list of those that want to be part of the lunch bunch and send them all a message also. 

Help, what works because I don't mind taking it over if no one else will :-D

We decided originally to make the second Saturday of the month at 1pm our regular date so people could mark their calendar and know in advance the date and time. They would just have to check the board for the location and to let me know if they planned on attending.

I was always open to suggestions for locations and would sometimes post 2 or 3 possibilities to get board input. Other times I would select a restaurant myself and post the location.

If it was a restaurant I was not familiar with I would either check out the menu online or drop by and look at the menu. I would also ask the manager, not the hostess, if we would be allowed to order from the children's menu if it had any decent choices on it. I would explain that we were a group of WLS patients and most of us could only eat small amounts but we would also be bringing family & friends who had not had surgery and would definitely order regular entrees.

I would also ask about seating a large group either at one table or at tables in close enough proximity that we could easily talk and mingle. Most places were more than happy to accommodate us and actually go out of their way to provide us with a very pleasant dining experience.

Once the location, date & time are selected it is just a matter of posting it on the board and collecting the headcount. I would try to post something the week before and then a reminder the week leading up to the date asking for the headcount. Most of the restaurants wanted a final count no later than the morning of the luncheon. I usually added 2 or 3 extra to the headcount just in case we had folks show up that we weren't expecting. And, we weren't shy about asking to add tables if we did run out of room. LOL

Part of our tradition was to pass around a pad & pen so people could write down how much weight they had lost. This could be from their highest weight, pre-op weight, or weight lost since surgery. It was an individual choice where you wanted to start counting from. We would total the amounts to see our total group loss. It was so neat to see that huge number each month.

We would also take a group picture. Early on we decided to line up according to surgery date. Since we had several regulars, it was fun to watch ourselves shrink from month to month.

For a while we did a clothing exchange too. Until most of us reached goal and no longer had "undergrown" clothes to pass down. We would get a kick out of seeing outfits we had brought and passed on to someone coming back to be passed down again and again as other members made use of and shrank out of outfits we had once loved. Or to see someone wearing an article we remembered wearing on our way down. Each time it was like seeing old friends again.

I am glad you are willing to step up and keep the luncheons going. I am willing to help you out in any way I can and will try to make it to the luncheons.

The main thing I would tell you is to keep it fun and casual. Get to know each other on a deeper level.

This sounds great and love the suggestions.  The 2nd Sat this month is too soon so I will try and get it together and plan for later in the month for Aug or wait until Sept. 
Did you normally pick restaurants in Nashville or outlying towns like, Murfreesboro, Franklin, Hermitage, etc?