GREAT idea!! Thanks Jamie!! Morganna in Indiana livejournal.com/users/ichoose2live/

Oh I hear yeah on that! LOL! I finish college this term and I am working on my 1* on WitchSchool.com and I am still finishing my other degrees in Natural Faith Wicca... so I hear yeah on the time issue

Tell me about it... I would love to have formal training and I am very tempted to find a cooking school after we move to our next duty station! I love my diabetic cookbooks and now I have a ton of low-carb ones b/c I have two friends who do low carb. Have you considered starting a cooking club in your area? I started one but we had to have our last meeting this month since myself and three other members are all moving. What we would do is set a theme and we'd each make a low cal, low carb, or low fat dish that matched the particular theme and we'd bring it over to the "hosts" house and we'd dig in and share each other's dishes. We would also share recipes and cooking techniques for each dish we brought. Sometimes intead of a theme (like mxican, italian, or whatever) we'd set a challenge... like use a new cooking product (like the press and seal stuff, or parchment paper) in innovative ways when preparing our dishes. That was always very interesting! LOL! Girl, run with it... you can discover a whole new healthy passion for food! And if you really love to cook and have no one to cook for, expierement with yourself. Once you develop your own recipe that just rocks, submit it to contests! It is a fun and interesting hobby to say the least! I won a competition will Pillsbury, the challenge was to use their products in innovative ways... it was so fun experimenting with my son, let me tell you! Won $500 for runner up that year. HTH! Jamie

OK to make research easier, as you find things of interest, of things you might need later, print them out and add them to a large 3" - 3 ring binder. What I made sure to do it get the one that you can decorate the front and back of it so that I knew it was my WLS book. I have B&A pictures on it too! You can use books and research. I also suggest a small 1 subject notebook to make personal notes and write down questions that you want to ask here on OH to to your doctor. Believe me, you come up with questions at the weirdest times of the day! LOL! I too had my procedure at a military hospital, I had distal open RNY by a military surgeon and tricare paid for everything. Of course I got more bypassed than most b/c of existing problems I had unrelated to my WLS, had some ulcers repaired and has some other procudure done for my IBS. (Yeah, long surgery.) As far as books go may I suggest some good ones... "Before & After: Living and Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery" and "Weight Loss Surgery: Finding the Thin Person Hiding Inside You" and "Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding My Self " All are very good books! Do you like to cook? I hope so b/c it makes eating right after WLS so much easier if you enjoy cooking. I suggest starting to relearn how to cook now. Trust me, it really helped me not "miss foods" so much after surgery since I had changed my eating habits and cooking styles about 6 months before surgery. I have TONS of cookbooks now! Hehehe... mostly healthy cooking and low-carb cookbooks! Glad I am a kitchen witch, let me tell yeah! Jamie

MM Kiya and welcome to the boards. The interest boards are usually pretty slow and do not have a lot of chatter. So if you want to chat about pagan topics this is the place to do it. However if you are looking for info and advice related to surgery your best bet is to really keep an eye on the main board, the board related to the particular procedure that you are having, and when you finally get a "date" - the board related to your surgery month. Those boards are always hopping and popping and full of information! That being said, welcome to these boards (I saw you cross post to this one and the wiccan one) and post away. Just wanted to let you know so you did not think anyone here was being rude or ignoring you or anything. LOL! I am on the military, Army, Swimming, Martial Arts, Law Enforcment, Camping, Volunteerism, Tattoo, and cooking boards too and they are all equally (or more so) slow as these two boards. LOL! So how much research have you managed to knock out yet. Do you know which procedure that you are aiming for? Do you have the support from your friends and family? LOL! Yeah, lots of questions but trying to start a conversation....LOL! WELCOME, WELCOME! Brightest Blessings for a Wonderful Day~ Jamie M. aka Lady Autumn Weight- 257/168/146 BMI- 44.1/28.8/25 Height- 5'4" Total Weight Loss: -89 lbs. Surgery Date- 1/19/05 Visit my OH profile or stop by My Weight Loss Journey Website at: home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-LadyAutumnsWLSjourney Visit my Live Journal at: livejournal.com/users/magickalmom