Chips, Ice cream, candy!!

Hi Jill, I am sure if I had kids around all the time, they wouldn't get the junk they get when they visit. Again, that's the benefit of being a grandma - fill 'em up with sugar, get them spoiled rotten, and then send them home!! Especially in a family of five other siblings and for a week you've been the center of attention, how cool is that!! Please give Jon a big hello from me and Greg, love donna

Donna, Thanks for making me laugh this morning! (furry little pigs) Good for you keeping away from that stuff. It is hard! Kirsten

Well look at you and your very nice picture!! You look great Kristen, and i hope you are feeling good too!! I sort of expected to hear from some animal rights people (hey, you don't get any more animal rights than me, but I thought I might get a post or two) about how could I give fruit loops to the forest folks (as we like to call them), Trust me, I have found those little critters will eat anything, and live another day (as long as they stay out of the street) to eat some more!! They were probably like, hmmm, this is much better than the bird food and deer food she usually feeds us!! love donna

Donna I so know how you feel! I have my neice coming from the UK today to stay for a month and between her and my au pair - there is a bit too much junk in my house! I make sure my son eats the protein pretzels and limit his sugar or else he turns into a tyrant - and try to limit his chips and I told Paula (our au pair) that she has to keep anything chocolate up in her room so I can't even think of it! I am still too close to be over tempted but I can feel the older temptations starting to creep in a little so I need to start being stricter about what comes into the house. I buy lots of fruit as my son and au pair love it so at least most of the time we all eat fairly healthily..... and not just me on the healthy foods...... I just spent the weekend in Ocean City at a family reunion and we ate a lot of seafood so there was not too much temptation for me when I got the munchies! I think it is best to throw everything out that I may be tempted to eat but my husband thinks that is overboard lol! He counts the money wasted, I count the extra calories avoided lol!! Jackie

Hey Pretty Redheaded lady, yup, I have to throw it out or it calls me. This is going to sound sick sick sick, and I haven't done it since surgery but that's not to say I wouldn't, but in the 'old days' I used to not eat something all day, just deprive myself and pat myself on the back as to how 'good' I am -- and then comes bedtime, and I even go to sleep, and then I get up and then I go in the kitchen and sometimes I bring it back to bed (yes, I've found a spoon on my pillow before) and sometimes not just eat it standing up at the fridge. And then I wake up in the morning and I think, oh that must have been a cruel joke, a bad dream, but then I have sort of a funny taste in my mouth, or my hands are sticky, or like I said the spoon is there and the ice cream carton is empty ---- yeah, I have absolutely no control, so it gets thrown out just so I don't push my good fortune so far. And the money (as your husband so rightly says) wasted, well, it's better wasted money than wasted time and energy on having this surgery!! Thanks for the post Jackie, I thought of you this weekend on your reunion, was everyone ohhhhhing and ahhhhhing about how great you looked -- I have mine on the 20th of August in San Diego, So looking forward to that, love donna

Hi Donna - my husband and I don't subscribe to the same rules lolol! And I usually win as he isn't around to see if things are eaten or thrown out. I did not go through this surgery to eat everything I am not supposed to.... My family reunion was fun.....a few members said they would have walked right past me if they hadn't seen Bill there so that made me feel good. Most of them said I was looking very well and healthy - taking away many rumors that WLS makes you look hagard and ill!!! I did have one person there who pissed me off no end though! He had weight loss surgery 6 years ago and lost 200lbs and must have gained 150 of it back again. He had the same surgeon as me... At one meal I watched him drink alcohol like it was going out of fashion, (whiskey and sours and beer) eat a small appetizer then eat everything else off of his wife's plate as she had the buffet ( that way he didn't have to pay), eat a large ice cream cone, chocolate cake - decent portions too, not tiny ones, bar of chocolate while he was waiting on people to finish there meals, three rolls with butter and declare that the surgery didn't work because he dumped regularly on Chinese food - mostly on bourbon chicken and sweet and sour chicken but he maintained it was the rice that made him dump......... I had to hold back what I was thinking and when I politely said maybe you are not supposed to eat these foods any more, he told me had had to eat something!!! One the beach the next day I watched him chow down sandwiches, drink coke - full sugar version, eat the rice and pasta salads, cookies, chips and anything that was not hidden away or nailed down!! He told me I would soon get fed up eating like I was eating - a small piece of chicken, some salad and a couple of 1 inch chunks of melon..... He was eating just like he had before surgery as far as I could tell. I told him that he was making bad food choices and that the surgery was a tool but he maintained it was a waste of time. He doesn't take any supplements or protein declaring he didn't need them.... Bill told me to let it go - the man was a fool and not to get worked up about what he does - but all the same I found myself wanting to tell him that!! But he was family and I said very little - I am just venting now lol!! He was a classic example of what not to do after surgery if you want to keep your weight off. I am sure he did not get this way overnight but over the 6 years he sure has gone back to his old ways....something I am determined I will not do. The funny thing is he is an odd shape now - the weight did not go back on the same places it came off - he is like a blubber man - this will serve as a severe warning to me to not gain it all back!!! I had to go to the airport on Monday evening to collect my neice and she did walk right past me as it is over a year since she last saw me!! She was astounded as I still have not told my family in the UK that I had surgery... so I am starting to enjoy this attention lol! You look so different from your pictures that your family will never recognize you either I am sure!!! Enjoy your reunion!! Hope you don't meet any idiots there like I did at mine! Jackie

Hi Jackie, thanks for that post! The blubber man!! Every family should have one. No one in my family, outside of my immediate family, knows I had WLS, and I sort of debated about saying anything, although I know it will be obvious, but I just didn't want all the attention. Do you know what I mean? I am not used to getting so much attention and I get a little self conscious. But they're my family so of course I will tell them. And I have had such a postitive experience with this surgery, ,so far, that I always feel maybe I can be a good advertisement and disspell some negative hype people have heard. The only thing that might bother me is I think I am looking a little old and haggard these days, and I hope no one says anything about that. We'll see. I laughed at why your blubber man ate -- he has a good appetite going on. I wonder if he would consider a revision, which I'm not sure what that means, just a fixer upper thing I guess, or a band around the stoma?? Anyway, I guess he's happy, so more power to him. Now for us -- use I pray all the time that I will not go back to old habits. But I am trying to always be aware of what I'm doing and eating, although I guess that's not a sure bet. Welll glad to have you back Jackie, and I still say you need to update your picture!! love donna

Hi Donna, You will be embarrassed by all the attention but inside you will love it, I promise! And you deserve it! You have worked hard to get to where you are so please enjoy every compliment and enjoy all the attention!! You are not looking old and haggard these days - I think you are looking wonderful!! You are glowing! I am not sure he would consider a revision - he thinks he is doing it right and everyone else is wrong - he could lose weight again if he stopped eating all the wrong things but he seems to feel that he should be able to eat what he wants. I wonder if it is because his doctor told him he needed to have the surgery in order to get his heart surgery............ the rest of us have researched this and done it voluntarily for our health - maybe he feels he was pushed into it and never really wanted it.... I did not ask much of him because I knew I would sound judgemental and look like I was criticizing him. I mean he did lose a heck of a lot of weight - you would think he would want to keep most of it off. But apparently he just wants to be able to beat the surgery and eat what he wants..... some people just don't try ....... Hey I did update my picture and have not had any others ones taken - I will try to get some taken at Disney..... Jackie

okay, on the picture - your son is darling and I love the picture of the two of you, but how about a CLOSE UP of his pretty red headed mom!!! love donna

When I go to Disney I will try to get a better picture I promise! Jackie