I was reading the news today about different ways people and organizations celebrate the 4th of July weekend and came across the most ridiculous and stupid meal at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.  It wasn’t bad enough that so many Americans are overweight that it’s turning into a huge national crisis that’s going to cost billions in unnecessary medical expenses, Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub has decided that people aren’t quite fat enough yet.

Yep, introducing the “Beer Barrel Belly Buster Burger.”  A full FIFTEEN POUNDS of burger, bun, salad and condiments!  I looked at the photo and then showed it to my husband who said, “who could eat that?”  At first I agreed with him but then after reflecting for a moment I realized that of course people are buying it and eating it.  If the restaurant sells it then obviously it’s not too much to eat, right?

I don’t know what it’s going to take to change peoples’ thinking about portion size but the Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub certainly isn’t helping vulnerable overeaters in any way at all!  That one burger would feed me for an entire week if I ate nothing else at all.

Happy 4th of July and I hope you’re eating smart.  If not eating smart, I hope you’re not being stupid. 

With my lapband in place and working nicely, I’m still losing weight.  Certainly not as fast as before since I have this dodgy gall bladder that has to come out whenever my name hits the top of the surgical waiting list.

Since I started my journey last November I’ve lost nearly 60 pounds.  Not quite.  I want to lose about 30 more pounds or maybe 20.  I’ll know when I look in the mirror and think, “geez, you look like a prune,” then I’ll stop.

I know, everyone tells me that if I don’t start exercising I’m going to have my skin dragging the floor.  I know this.  I can walk just fine - for hours.  I need to start lifting weights and stretching.  Consciously I know that without being told or having to read it somewhere.

My life is so busy and full, I don’t know where I’m going to find the 3 1/2 hours a day it’s going to take to do those freakin exercises!

“What?  Why does it take 3 1/2 hours when I only need 30 minutes of that a day?”

The actual exercise takes only 30 minutes, you’re right there.

It’s gonna take me 3 hours to talk myself into it every day!

Give me encouragement!

I was visiting Dying for Food blog today and found this post very interesting.  Here’s a snippet of it but you should really click The Big Breakfast Diet to get the whole story.  With a lapband on, this is not an option for me because I can only hold 1 cup of food at a time.  I couldn’t fit all that food in one sitting, but if you don’t have a band and are looking for ways to lose weight, why not try it?  Anything with chocolate or candy in it works for me!  Here’s the post:

We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but now a study has concluded that you can lose more weight if you have a big breakfast.

Women who were on the big breakfast diet lost almost 5 times the weight than did those who were on a low carb diet.

Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz has this explanation for the process. Upon awakening, your body looks for food. The metabolism is geared up for it and your levels of adrenaline and cortisol are at their peaks. The brain needs energy immediately and if you don’t eat or have too little, it has to look for that energy elsewhere. So it goes into a system that takes energy from muscle, which destroys the muscle tissue. When you do eat later in the day the body saves the energy from the food you just ate as fat.

To make it even worse, the levels of serotonin in your brain are at their highest in the morning. So your cravings are at their lowest. Later, when the serotonin levels start dropping you get cravings for cake and chocolate and things like that. When you give in and eat those treats the level of serotonin rise. This is not good because your body associates the treats with feeling good and that becomes addictive.

Check out the whole story at Dying for Food.

That’s what I call going for a pap smear to detect cervical cancer.  How many of you ladies are slackers and haven’t been yet this year?  Way too many I suspect.

I know it’s a nasty job but it’s one that pays great benefits in detecting any abnormality soon enough to fix you up right and proper.  Right now, make a note and stick it on your computer screen to call for an appointment tomorrow.  Don’t slag it off, do it.  It’s important for you and it’s important to your family that you take care of yourself.

My results came in today’s mail.  All things in that department are just fine, so I’ve got 6 months not to think about it and 6 months to dread the next one.

I belong to a Yahoo! group of gastric banders in Victoria, Australia and today I got the most fantastic email from the forum. Rather than try to tell you about it, I’ll just post it without using her nickname.

Hi all from lurkville,

I thought I would update you all on how things are progressing with my fav journey. Went to the clinic today and I’ve now lost 160kgs…woohooo I’m just blown away and so is all there.

They want me to speak at the next seminar which the Prof will be attending. So, I will be at the seminar on the 1st July 08. I amnervous as hell about it, but I owe it to the Prof who saved my lifeand I owe it to others who are struggling and wanting to change theirlives like I have. So, if anyone is going to be there say hi.

On another note, my tummy tuck surgery has been booked in for the 7th August 08. They are trying to put it forward but its not looking too promising. Oh well it’s only 2 months away, that gives me more timeto lose as much weight possible.

Hope everyone is well and are kicking goals in their journeys of fighting obesity.

Can you imagine?? She’s lost 352 pounds after gastric banding! The sheer enormity of shifting that much weight leaves me gobsmacked. I needed to lose 90 pounds and that seemed so huge when I started. I was over the moon when I was more than half way to my goal weight; I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to lose that much. Feeling terrific would only be the beginning. Imagine her self-esteem? Imagine getting out and meeting people? Imagine looking in the mirror and smiling back at what she sees?

I’m still fighting with myself about my fat perception. I’m no longer clinically obese, just overweight now, but I still consider myself a fat woman. It’s in my brain. I don’t feel normal yet. I worry that perception will cause me to get fat again. When I look in the mirror I see a normal woman but take me away, and I’m still the old fat lady in my head.

If any of you have dealt with this, encourage me, ok?

Since having the gastric band put on my stomach last November, I’ve really been paying much more attention to food. Not that I didn’t always think about food before, but now that I can only eat small portions (make that REALLY small portions) I am careful to make sure that the food is fresh and nutritious. That brings me to the growing wave of people calling themselves “locavores”. I’m not a locavore yet, but I just might be one day soon.

A locavore is someone who is very concerned about all the miles food travels to get to them. It’s been said that most food travels 1500 miles from farm to plate and that’s a lot of gasoline and fumes adding to global warming. I love growing my own vegetables and in the past I’ve been very successful at making my own tomato sauce, ketchup and jams, plus freezing berries and the occasional green beans or corn. I have never considered only buying at the local farmer’s market.

Locavores say that their movement means improvement in the quality of the food they eat, less impact on the environment and the small local farmers get a big boost to stay in business. It all sounds good to me. I doubt I’ll ever be 100% locavore. I love mangos. The American part of me needs the occasional homesick food cure. I can say that I will do much more to support our local farmers because it just makes good sense to do it.

Just when I thought I was finished grieving for all the food I used to eat, it got worse.  I had another gallstone attack when Mr. GT’s parents were visiting so I lost a day with the pain and then another day getting over the after-affects of the pain killers.  So I thought I’d be clever and only have fresh squeezed vegetable and fruit juice for a few days to see if that would quiet things down.  It would also give me a chance to reset my food intake because I’d been eating more than usual while “the olds” were here.

Well, who would have thought that only juice could bring on another attack?  Certainly not me. So when the first pangs of discomfort started I didn’t take any pain killers because I had only had juice, I couldn’t possibly be having another gallstone attack!  Turns out that when the gall bladder is really inflamed, most anything can set it off - even juice.

The doctor who cared for me at the hospital said that waiting for the real pain to set in made relieving it much more difficult.  After the 4th try of a different drug, I was pain free but not nausea free.  It took 36 hours to be able to walk without feeling I was going to adore the porcelain god any moment.

So now the bland diet is clear broth and not much else for another 24-36 hours and then slowly introduce food.  Now, if I’m not supposed to lose any more weight until my liver is better, how can I keep the weight I’ve got eating nothing but clear broth?  Maybe I can find some fattening broth. 

My in-laws are visiting from Australia. While I love to cook and entertain, this stupid gall bladder of mine really restricts what I can eat. I know I should be a better person but I’ll be darned if I’ll spend hours cooking something I can’t eat. Call me shallow and selfish if you want, I probably deserve it, but I want to cook what I can eat. Sadly, that’s no butter, cream, ice cream or anything yummy. I have introduced “the olds” to the joys of fresh veggie and fruit juice and they like it - a lot. So now my juicing time is extended to about an hour and fifteen minutes to get all the nifty goodness out of a bushel basket of fruit and vegetables. They’ll go home healthier, I know.

My father-in-law is nearly 87 and he has arthritis and bad knees, but this man can eat like a horse. I’ve read where the older you get, the more bland food tastes so you don’t bother eating too much. Not so with him. Not only does he finish his huge plate but if anyone leaves anything, he feels duty bound to clean it up because tossing it out would be wasteful. He’s a small man, no fat on him, so I think it’s wonderful that he has a great appetite at that age. He eats more slowly now because of his age. Sometimes he naps in between bites. He’s really cute for an old fellow.

My mother-in-law is 83 and she’s the sexiest old woman I’ve ever known. She’s not overtly sexual, don’t get me wrong, but she’s got a sparkle in her eye that just doesn’t quit and she still flirts every chance she gets. She’s very petite and dresses like she walked out of a magazine layout. I want to be just like her when I’m over 80, that’s for sure!

So what have we been eating? One night my husband cooked scallops while I had pumpkin risotto, but the rest of the time I cooked. We’ve had a rare roast fillet of beef, lamb cutlets, roast chicken and tons of roasted vegetables. I haven’t eaten a lot, and made sure I didn’t have even the teensiest bit of fat and I have been ok. Well, sort of ok. We took them to Russell one day for lunch and I had a bit of green curry chicken and within 4 hours I was writhing with gallstone pain. No more of that!

Bottom line is that I can still entertain, and do it nicely, without causing any discomfort OR gaining any weight.

I was offline for the entire weekend through Monday because the data center where my server is hosted blew up.  Yeah, blew up. Explosion, fire - knocked out 9000 servers and my server was in the hardest hit area so came online last.  Sorry for anyone who planned to have Entrecard advertising, but as it turns out, Entrecard.com’s server farm was in the same building with me.  They were offline just a wee bit less than I was so I didn’t have to feel guilty at all.