New to Group

Hi everyone 

I "met" Yvonne yesterday and just loved her attitiude.    I am headed for surgery on the 30th and and thrilled to know there is a supportive positive atmosphere here.   Thanks again Yvonne for your kindness and uplifted email yesterday.

You are very welcome.  You got caught up in some of the bullying that was going on and I am sorry.  Because I have to change my format, I will show you some of the successes here OK?  One of the most awesome is Ramon so check the next message for a video about him.
hugs, Y

And here's one about me.

OK, check out Ramon's story. You'll love this

hey, what bullying?  i feel left out. lol welcome to the group. hope u are comfortable here. let me know if i can be of help. vick

Be eternally grateful you missed it.  Eternally grateful!  The good part about it though is that we have some new members because I met them because of the drama.  I'm so glad we got some of them here.   Good times to be had here!!!

Checked out all the links you sent Yvonne, including your YouTube.   Thanks so much, it gave me lots of focus on tonight.   I usually spend Friday night working with teens but they are on break for the month so I had no idea what to do with my evening....you are very inspiring.

Hi everyone

I too 'met' Yvonne just yesterday and this is just so amazing.  I feel like I'm making new friends already.  I'm on a lonnnng waiting list for surgery so I'm trying to keep a positive attitude.  Trying to get some pounds off the old fashioned way.  It is sooo encouraging to see the results of successful surgeries.  It gives me so much hope.  Keep up the great work gals & guys!!!

Citykitty, I am soooooooooooo glad you're here and thanks so much for the many kind words.  If you feel like sharing your story, I think it would be awesome on several levels.  One so that we can all be very grateful for what we've gotten and there's always the outside chance that someone could always come up with a solution for you my darling.  As we build our membership, we'll get more heads involved and the more the better.  I've also got more videos to share too!!!  I just love sharing videos!  Again, welcome welcome welcome!!
hugs, Y

        My sweet baby Sundance...

Hi Yvonne.  My story is probably a very familiar one to many.  I don't remember ever not having a problem with weight.  As a matter of fact, one of my earliest recollections is of a comment my older sister made to my mother about me  when I was about 5 or 6 when she said, "Mom, she looks like she is pregnant!"  My sister was about 12 at the time so that was the first of many hurtful remarks that I endured through childhood about my weight.  Of course the older I got the worse the problem became because I learned to 'stuff' my feelings inside.  Follow that with a few battle scars from the dating world and one quickly discovers that layers of fat become a wonderful shield that 'protects' from the possibility of further intimacy.  After awhile those walls become pretty solid and can make for some lonely nights though.

Then we move on to my weight loss journey.  Does anyone remember the yoyo????  Has anyone ever lost 100 lbs only to put it all back on again???  I can hear you all sighing and shaking your heads!  Been there, done that and bought the Tshirt - but the tshirts just won't fit anymore.  I've kept them though.  I swear I'm gonna wear them again!!!  They may have to cut it off me in order for me to wear them but I am going to wear those damned tshirts again.  I'll be at goal weight when I die or I'll die trying.  Somebody once told me when she looked into my closet, "You should give all those small clothes away.  You'll never wear them again."  It made me so mad that I turned around and lost a huge amount of weight within the following year or two and managed to get into all of those clothes again.  The point is You Never give away smaller clothes, only bigger ones.  Unfortunately I've done this so many times that I think my body is now telling me that it's too tired to do it on its own again.

I've had a referral sent off to Halifax for the weight loss surgery (vertical sleeve gastrectomy) that is offered there.  As I understand it they do about 200 people per year there and they currently have 1700 people on a waiting list.  My only other option is if I could pay for the surgery myself (approximately $1500 I think) and get it done in Toronto or Montreal.  I could check out clinics in the States but then I also have to figure in the cost of the exchange on the money as well.  Considering that I don't have the money anyway, I'm not really researching very energetically at this point.

So I'm left with trying to lose the old fashioned way for now at least.  Perhaps I can come up with the funds at some point down the road a bit (certainly I can't see me waiting 8 years) but right now it is not an option.  I do have my heart set on WLS so all your surgery stories are very inspirational to me and encourage me to hang on, and to plan for the future financially.
I'm rambling now so I'll say goodnight all.  Thanks again for all your encouragement Yvonne.