Hi April, good to see you! Congratulations on your success in school! ~Wanda

Hi everyone, I'm still here about once a week I come and read the posts. We have to change or re-do our profiles? I hadn't heard that. Well, I don't wanna. That would just be too much work. Oh speaking of work, I joined the coolest gym. worked out today with a personal trainer. I got 1 hour with my membership. I cannot afford on regularly. I left feeling great and optomistic. LOVE those endorphins. I nedd to get strong and reduce sub-Q fat in prep. for a tummy tuck (out of pocket) in March. Hope everyone is doing well. Andrea

Hi Laurie, I've been having an incredibly rough week, but, for once, it is not because I'm stressing about not losing weight! One of my cats fell ill and I had to have him put to sleep yesterday, he had liver failure. Of course, I know it was the right thing and that he was a rescued stray and had 13 very pampered years living with me...but, it was still hard. I cried quite a bit about that. Then as I was leaving work I got a call that one of the other deejays at the radio station I volunteer at died of a brain hemorrhage. Life really throws some hard balls sometimes! I am so sorry to hear that you are struggling still with health issues. I so hope you can find a balance that works for you! Hugs, Lori

You are so right Mary - it is so easy to think that we're all alone and that our problems are unique and that makes us feel like more of a failure (or at least I do)... but by coming on here - we see the truth is far different. The TRUTH is that there are general similarities in all of us who've had wls about the same time. There is a pattern to this stuff!!! Its NOT that I'm a failure - it's that these are common problems at this stage and together we can all deal with it and move forward. It was incredibly hard to share my emotional problems with anyone. I REALLY felt that it was my own problem and no one else was having issues. After all, I lost all this weight I should be emotionally WONDERFUL - right??!! WRONG - all losing all this weight did is change my physical body!!! It didn't fix anything on the inside and I can't run to food to mask those issues anymore so they're there and dang it all they HURT like crazy.... so it's time to deal with them and fix them. Thanks for coming out of lurkerville to post!!!! We all have something to contribute to each other. Hugs, Laurie

Like many others on here, I read or "lurk" most days, but don't post very often. I have been pretty well overall. I work two jobs, so I spend about 70 hours a week on the job. That leaves little time for enjoying life, but this schedule should only last through Christmas and then relief will be at hand. My weight has pretty much stablized, and I am happy with where I am. It would always be nice to lose another 6-8 pounds, but if it doesn't happen I can live with that. I have been amazed at the similarities that many of us have posted on here......problems with old food demons, fear of regaining, emotional issues, you name it. I think that in some ways, we all hoped that the problems we experienced when we were heavy would melt away with the weight. Now that the majority of the weight is gone, we are still left with many of the same issues that caused us to need the surgery in the first place. I do believe that we are all better equipped to deal with them now.......but deal with them we must. I am grateful that we have this open forum to discuss what's going on with us, and reaffirm that we are not alone. Every one of us will be tempted to eat something that we know isn't good for us, sometime we will have a tendency to graze throughout the evening, we hesitate to exercise like we should, and countless others. Each one may feel unique to us, but in the total scheme of things, most of us are facing similar situations, and trying to figure out how to make this all work!