Roll Call

Type & Date of WLS: RNY 9/21/04

Current Age:  52 Years Young thanks to my PS!

Big Weight & Little Weight & Current Weight:
285 / 150 / 165

Family (Spouse, Kids, Grandkids):
Married 28 years, 2 daughters (26 and 24)  No Grandchildren

What you do all day (job, hobbies, etc.):

Teacher Assistant/Job Coach in Special Education.  I work with physically/Mentally challenged students in the work force preparing them for life after 21 and hopefully giving them the courage and support they require to be able to be as independent as they can in their future life.

Advice & Things You Did Right or Wrong:

Discovering that I can tolerate sugar and crap!  Do NOT be tempted to ever try anything with SUGAR in it because it will lure you into its ugly bondage forever unless you go cold turkey and break the insanity, because if you don't it WILL succeed in sabatoging your WL success! I am now in the process of trying to escape!  It's hard but each day I get closer of becoming totally Sugar FREE!

Post Date: 6/7/08 8:23 pm
Type & Date of WLS RNY-1/11/2008
Big Weight & Little Weight & Current Weight
235/127/130
Family (Spouse, Kids, )
Wife Dawn 17 yrs., 3 kids Kenzie, Toby, Sawyer
What you do all day (job, hobbies, etc.)
I'm a production manager for a major manufacturing company
Advice & Things You Did Right or Wrong
Followed the rules to a "T" continue to ge****er vitamins in.  Track meals and developed good exercise choices.  
Troy

Used to be you never saw the name Dawn...It's all over this board...There must be four of us on the RNY board too!  Nice to meet you Troy!

Type & Date of WLS: RNY 4-30-2007

Big Weight & Little Weight & Current Weight:
335/ 205(for a hot second!) / 210

Family (Spouse, Kids, Grandkids):
Married 10 years, 3 kids ages 9,7, and 5.

What you do all day (job, hobbies, etc.):
I am a stay at home mom and home school.  As far as hobbies go, I enjoy blogging and play the piano and guitar and love to sing.
Advice & Things You Did Right or Wrong: Before surgery I thought looking good and feeling good where the same things.  They are not!  Biggest piece of advice.. keep the focus on health, not size of your jeans.. health is always a better motivator in the long run.  I would like to loose more weight.. but not sure if it will ever happen... so I am just concentrating on health.. and if I loose anymore.. it is icing on the cake.

Wanda, I hope all went well w/  the arrival of your brand-new grandson!  Type & Date of WLS:  RNY, Aug. 2004 Big Weight & Little Weight & Current Weight:  295 / 155 / 185-190 Family:  Husband, Ron, almost 37 yrs.; grown children--son, 33, married w/ my 3 precious grandons ages 5 1/2, 3, & 8 mo.; daughter, 29, just engaged; daughter, 27, married, no kids yet. What you do all day:  I retired a year ago as a h.s. guidance counselor.  This past year, I did quite a bit of sub teaching in the same h.s.  (I was a h.s. Eng. teacher for 17 yrs. before going back to school for my counseling degree and changing departments.)   Otherwise, I love spending as much time as I can w/ our grandsons (2 hrs. away in St. Louis).  I love, love, love to read and spend time on the computer.  I'm also slowly re-decorating several rooms in our house.  I am constantly busy running around with other friends who are "at home" or retired or have a day off--I don't know how I had time to work full-time!! Advice or things you did right or wrong:  Things I do right:  started exercising consistently from the beginning after my wls nearly 4 yrs. ago; have always drunk plenty of liquids; have tried continue to emphasize protein first.        Things I currently do wrong:  have had a big lapse in exercising--the first really bad lapse in 4 yrs.--and I absolutely, positively am getting back to the gym and outside to walk & ride  my bike!!  Also, I have let the bad carbs back into my life, bad  grazing habits, mindless eating, etc., etc.  My current weight reflect this.    Advice?  It is boring but so true:  do not, do not, do not "test the waters"!  For about 1 1/2 yrs. I was so devoted to my program.  And then little by little--just a tiny bit at first and then, gradually, well . . . you know the rest.  Just don't do it!!  If you think it's "too hard" not to eat the junk, believe me, it's WAY harder to get back on the wagon once you've fallen off!

Type & Date of WLS: RNY 04/05/06   Biggest Weight & preop weight & Current Weight: 350/269/ 154    Family (Spouse, Kids, Grandkids): Married 31 years to the same DH, One son age 29, one daughter age 24 and one grandson age 7.
What you do all day (job, hobbies, etc.): I am a retired RN, worked in Labor and Delivery unit in major city hopsital for 30 years. Enjoy reading, movies, crochetting and geneology research. Advice & Things You Did Right or Wrong: Only advice I can give is much the same as others have stated about testing the waters..best not to go there. I wish I did not find out I can tolerate a fair amount of  sugar. I do for the most part follow the rules and attempt in getting in exercise at least three times a week and I journal my food intake 99% of the time.

Sher

Hope all is with your newest grandchild.

Type and date of surgery:  March 6, 2006 RNY Big weight & Little weight & current weight: 293, 165, 171  Need to get to 169 or less Family: Happily divorced, no kids, great boyfriend Job: Occupational therapist for 15 years Advice: Get a metabolism test after 1 year post-op. Invaluabe info is provided with this test. Things: I'm doing right: Exercise Mistakes: Testing/ tasting the sweet stuff. Belinda

Type & Date of WLS: Lap RNY 6/7/07

Big Weight & Little Weight & Current Weight: 196 / 98.8 / 101

Family (Spouse, Kids, Grandkids): Married for 11 years to my best friend Bryan (but been with him for almost 18 years). One daughter - Cheyenne. She's 6 going on 16! You can check her out at www.cheyenneseyes.com she's actually going to have her own t.v. show soon and there is a little promo video on her site.

What you do all day (job, hobbies, etc.): I'm a Physician Assistant (PA) in Occupational Health. I've also just started a business doing metabolic testing (RMR testing). Very excited about this - getting really good response so far.

Advice & Things You Did Right or Wrong: TRACK, TRACK, TRACK your intake and follow the rules. I know that although I am a unique person and I know my body like nobody else does - those rules are there for a reason!

Pleasure getting to know everyone!

Bekah

Great thread!!  Love reading everyone's posts. Date & type of surgery:  Lap RNY 1-31-05. Weight:  280 pounds preop/155 lowest/169 current. Family:  DH Patrick (married 15 years), 7 furbabies - 4 maltese, 1 Italian Greyhound, and 2 cats. What I do all day:  Manage a cancer education & outreach partnership program.  Been working in cancer education/community outreach for 14 years. Advice & Do's & Dont's:  I was very good about sticking to protein and supplementing with protein drinks (still do at least 2 a day).  Also very good about not drinking with meals, etc.  What I didn't do very well was keeping the sugar monster at bay - tested the waters after one year out and little by little starting having a bit of this and a bit of that.  Also allowed stress eating and mindless eating back in.  Advice:  Start exercising early in your journey and make it a part of your normal day.  I still struggle with exercise and being consistent at it.

Type & Date of WLS:
RNY 3-16-07

Big Weight & Little Weight & Current Weight:
390-241-241

Family (Spouse, Kids, Grandkids):
Married 3 years, together 7 ~ one daughter together aged 3

What you do all day (job, hobbies, etc.):
I am a stay at home mom. Hobbies include grocery shopping, laundry, sweeping, cleaning bathrooms, and scrubing toliets.
Advice & Things You Did Right or Wrong: #1 thing I would tell pre-ops is DON'T expect post-op life to be any easier then pre-op life. If you think the war of obesity is ending with surgery you are sadly mistaken - the real battle is only beginning. It still takes daily determination to meet your nutritional goals (whether it be not eating too much of the wrong thing or bothering to eat something at all - cause we all know how a bag of popcorn for dinner sounds WAY better then some protein and veggies...) and just choosing not to lose sight of the BIG PICTURE is important.  It's amazing how even before your first year is up you can really start backsliding in your head because you forget how hard it was in the beginning. Whether you threw up or got foamies or had an elephant sitting on your chest or just the pain associated with abdominal surgery - those things evetually fade and you become more normal. That normalcy doesn't mean you're free and clear. It means you have to be even MORE determined to stay healthy. And that is why *I* stick very closely to the cardinal rules because if I don't I would be in a world of regain hurt. Protein first, complex carbs next (only very limited occassional simple carbs), minimum 64 ounces of water, and move your body.  It's so simple it's easy to make it more complicated then it has to be. I say stick to the rules 95% of the time a handful of indiscretions won't become cataclysmic in your thinking. That's the hard part though. Making room for one indiscretion a day or sticking to the plan and having one every couple weeks (basically one 100 cal snack pack of shortbread cookies daily versus a couple bites from a slice of decadent cake at a birthday party you go to). You have to be determined not to make daily allowances often because they will catch up with you. For my thinking and my recovery I have to stay away from daily naughtiness because I could see how it could really hurt my recovery from obesity quickly. I guess the main thing is to be accountable and understand the only thing (baring any mechanical malfunctions like a stretched stoma etc) that would change from day 1 post-op to day 2,354 would the actions of the owner. You have to follow the rules forever. Consistency of my actions is key to my lifetime recovery. Without it I am doomed to regain hell. So it will forever be protein first, complex carbs second, minimum 64 ounces of water (no drinking with meals EVER - I'm convinced that got me up to 390 pounds), and moving my body. And I am ok if people think I'm snobby about it because it's that important to me to NOT go back to old behavior. And my haughtiness about following the cardinal rules hardcore keeps my accountability blinking on my radar. Once I stop talking the rules I'm more then likely not following them. So I'm really ok with preaching them and most likely will forever because it helps remind me what is important in the big scheme of things.  Heck - it's even more important to me then a certain scale number because if I'm doing everything right then how can anything be wrong? Food is way bigger for me then just nutrition and has been for 20 years. If I can use it for my mental advantage rather then my crazy head disadvantage I'll do whatever I can to make it happen. God bless the day I ever chose not to give a damn about my health anymore. That will be a dark day indeed and quite possibly the final point of no return. I'll take my optomistic haughty outlook anyday over that.  Congrats on your almost 2 year mark Wanda. I've watched you since a couple months out and you're still such a gem to this day. Continued success to you my friend. Jenny