aliya

I kinda liked the Stuart Little breakfast nook. If you've ever been to Ann Arbor, MI, they have 'fairy doors' all over town. It's quite cute and I had a nice time roaming around checking off the doors I found. If they had a few of those little nooks in the hotel and kept them up/decorated for different holidays, it might be OK. And yes, I'm weird. I would have liked GR to have done something with the housekeeper, considering how dusty and dirty the place was. If they didn't have a routine, he should have provided one, like Anthony does. Other than the owner being a pain in the kitchen, I didn't notice GR saying anything negative about the cooking. Maybe he didn't need to do anything but clean the kitchen (did they even show that?) Fairy Doors

How gross is all that? I'd like to see the UV light used in a higher class hotel. I wonder if we'd find the same thing? I know for sure they don't wash those duvets after every guest.

So much word. I thought that if she was afraid for her students to do turns, then she should learn how to do them for bigger people. I'm sure just about every basic exercise can be adapted for those with limited mobility. I kept thinking that we're talking about dancersize class here, not brain surgery. I monitor research. I actually know a few brain surgeons. You don't want their secretaries stepping for them. Dance move instructor? Who cares if someone else teaches it? And, as far as we know, Whit doesn't have any real training in teaching or exercise, right? So she can't really adapt her program for physical limits (including size), right? She can't do an evaluation on anyone and suggest what moves to do or avoid, right? She wants to be a spokesperson for fat acceptance, maybe she should learn a few things about working with this population. And, as a mother of a grown child for whom I occasionally provide food and dry goods (because I'm nice and he's a grad student), if I'd heard that mouth, I would have packed up everything I brought with me and taken it home. So ungrateful! Beyond the lack of gratitude, it's obvious that she doesn't want to do any work to change her habits. "I don't want to eat 2 ounces of tuna." OK. Find something else to eat, but show that you're willing to change whatever the heck you are stuffing in your face. Lost cause. eta that I just saw "Fat Joan of Arc." Almost wet my pants.

I just picked up on this when she came back from the hospital. I thought she was just getting help because she'd just come out of the hospital and a bit of extra care or help might be expected. Then with the ski boots I wondered if it was the boots or did she actually have trouble getting her shoes on. If that's the case, she seriously needs to re-evaluate her fabulousness. Surely she can't be far from wearing flip flops all the time or like Amber (also a pretty girl), not wearing shoes at all. Not fabulous.

No kidding. I meant to comment about this. I am 62 and plump. If my blood pressure goes over 130, my doc gets antsy. When I heard the health care person say that 140 was OK, I was shocked. Yes BP can go up as you age (tho it doesn't have to, depending upon diet and other factors), but to say that 160 was OK for a young person, wow. I was shocked. Re the heart rate, a very active older person like GW Bush has a resting rate of 65 (I know 'cause read it somewhere and am jealous). I'm a lot higher (but still typical for an older person) at 80. I was shocked at Whitney's numbers. She's only fooling herself. They gave her the numbers and then she glossed over them as though they were meaningless. Maybe the cardiologist will smack some sense into her. The writing is on the wall.

Not only that, but she drops the dog like a hot potato on her way out of the room. Kinda freaked me out a little. I'm a rabbit mom - that's a good way to kill a rabbit. Maybe dogs are more bouncy.

I know that folks thought the collapse last week was fake, but I thought her 'ER face' looked pretty authentic (having been in the ER a few times myself). I don't think she is a good enough actress to fake that look. You aren't like everyone else, Whit. You're big. Way big. I'm sure you knew right away that the ski boots were too tight, but you wore them anyway in a misguided attempt to show you can do anything. I don't think she would have asked the crew to help her if she weren't in dire straits, so she must have been in pain, but she brought it on herself. And in the 'surely I'm going to hell' segment, When I first saw her on the snow tube thing, I thought for sure that all that weight was going to propel her down the hill like a rocket. When she got stuck a few feet out, I thought the weight was too much for the tube and she was too heavy to even slide. Personally, I thought it looked like fun, though I'm not sure I'd want to go down face first without a helmet. I've got a small fortune invested in dental work. : )

I was pretty sure it wasn't : ) , but I wanted to put that out there because different doesn't always equal mental illness and some people have to be reminded. On the other hand, sometimes it does, as Gordon's innkeepers and restaurateurs so often show us. : )

This was the prior post: "I rather suspect that that's all that Karan would allow the stylist to do. Certainly if she'd been all tarted up with a swoopy 'do, makeup, and a flowered dress, that would have made her uncomfortable, and for sure she wouldn't maintain it. Personally, I think she's clinically depressed." Re Karen being depressed because she says she lives an Amish Mennonite lifestyle - We have the largest settlement of Amish west of the MIssissippi near me. Also there are enough Mennonites for a rather large Mennonite school. These communities have their own issues, but choosing to live a minimalist lifestyle does not make one depressed or otherwise mentally ill. I'm sure no one meant that to be slur against people in these groups, and perhaps she was just making a statement about her clothes rather than her religion, but I just wanted to point out that there are people who dress plainly (I also know a few Quakers who dress plainly) and they're OK. : ) There are also people who chose not to get their hair done, wear makeup, or spend a lot of time on their clothes. They're OK, too. That said, Karen sure had a lot of clothes for a person trying to be a minimalist. I do think she's something of a hoarder and that she would be helped by some therapy and some attention from her son. I didn't see a kitchen rehab. That poor cook deserved a new stove or something. It sounded like all they did was remove the microwaves and move the freezers inside (what the heck was that about?). Re Harper's Ferry & DC - I'm from DC. I don't think people would be driving there and back for a nice dinner, but it is close enough for a weekend getaway and I worked with guys who took the train from Harper's Ferry into the Maryland suburbs everyday, so it's not so far.

Yup. On the gastric sleeve page, I see women who weigh less than I do and look like they weigh almost twice what I do. When I did the consultations, the doc only wanted me to lose about 70 lbs. Well, shoot. With a little mindfulness, I could make that effort on my own without the surgery. Yet, when I look at these other women, I see why they wanted the surgery. They don't look anything like me (even my son says so, so it's not just me). I understand that blacks have denser bones; so I'm assuming I can weigh more than whites and look like I weigh less. Whitney might have to go the surgical route, but there are people who post testimonials on Forks to Knives and Dr. McDougall (veg*n) and Dr Fuhrman (prefers veg but very small amounts of meat are allowed) who have lost 200 lbs; also on Raw Food Boot Camp. You can see similar results when people do low carb. Shoot, people lose weight (I'm talking >100 lbs and recognizing that 200+ is probably an outlier) on Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem. She just has to choose something and stick with it - but she doesn't want to do that.

I have a friend who just turned 40 and has been running for years. Her doc just told her a few months ago that it's all over; no more running for her. She's a doctoral student now and her school doesn't offer PT in its health plan, so now she can't even get PT for her pain, etc.

I learned I have another reason not to take up running. : )

Ruby is on Facebook. I track her down every so often to see wassup. Lots of face pictures. Looks like she's still very big.

I have a friend who is probably 150 -200 lbs overweight, and this is after losing 100 lbs with surgery years ago. She's had 2 hip replacements and she's in her early 40's. Way too early, and all due to weight.

We have a massive 24 hour dance marathon here at the Univ of Iowa. This year the students raised >$2million for the children's hospital. "During the Big Event, Dancers may not sit, sleep, or drink caffeine in order to raise awareness for pediatric cancer." It seems that not everyone is a 'Dancer', however, and I don't know why she expected people from off the street (probably there to see what being on TV was about) would be able to do that. I have a stand up desk at work and don't freakin' stand for 4 hours, much less dance. Having seen videos about our dance for years, I was shocked to see Whitney's pitiful attempt. No atmosphere, no excitement, nothing. Maybe I missed it - was it done to raise money for anything? I think I've mentioned it before, but years ago I read that it is not unusual for obese people not to be diabetic. In fact, not being diabetic may be one reason they get so large - they never get the 'wake up call' that Type 2s get, which usually makes people change their lifestyle or at least watch what they're eating more than they did before the diagnosis. I knew this girl was not going to last for 4 hours. What was she thinking? Iowa Dance-a-thon

The insulin just goes under the skin. You don't need to find a vein or anything.

I've been thinking about toilets for the obese for a while (no life). In re-reading this thread, I finally remembered I wanted to look up whether there wee large toilets (as opposed to large portable toilets, which seemed likely) and found this: http://www.bigjohnproducts.com/seats.htm We're a creative people; I kniew someone had addressed this problem. I don't know why Dr Now's office doesn't have, at the very least, one of the wide portable toilet things.

You raise some very good points. First, because I'm shallow that way... "pee pad meatloaf" is going on my meal rotation. I think I can make it vegetarian... Second, I think you are right about people not being joyful after the surgery. Henry (RIP) and Nikki (the red haired costume designer) are the only two I can think of. Maybe Amber, as well. I wonder if so many at this weight just have so much work to do, such as skin surgery, that it's hard to be happy. When we say the operation is not a quick fix, that covers a lot of territory. Not only doesn't the fat come off quickly, but it's still a hard slog, food-wise, to help it along. It's not automatic. There are still cravings, weight loss stalls, possible complications from surgery, maybe dealing with lymphodemea, and changing familial relationships now that one doesn't need 24 hr care. I'm still on a FB page for people over 50 who have or are contemplating the gastric sleeve (I opted against it). A number of these people have complications and other issues after surgery; more than you'd think are quickly gaining weight back, but many are happy with their choice and post about the good things they can do now with less weight. Perhaps there are physical and emotional differences between needing to lose 150 (not me, btw) lbs and losing 400. It's complicated stuff. My son doesn't understand why I watch these shows, but they make me think.

Wait a minute - this show has been on 2 yrs and she hasn't lost any weight? Is she even trying?

Someone's going to hell. Don't know who it is... : ) See Pauline way back in a BBC show, with the blue pants starting around 12:46: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hitRUroOf0. Regarding Pauline's knees, I forgot all about that. My mother has lost all the cartilage in her knees and without shots several times a year, she would be in terrible pain and unable to walk.I realize Dr Now can have a short fuse sometimes, but did they ever x-ray her knees and determine the level of damage? And when she was in the hospital, was there no kind of intravenous pain killer that wouldn't affect her stomach? I realize she was big and that weight loss would help, but why not help with pain relief now so that she could walk more and get some exercise? I agree that Chay would have been a better name than Lola.

Lola, trust me, no one was surprised. You need to stop worrying about who likes you or will support you. You're always going to have issues with that; if you don't learn how to deal with it, you're going to continue to have emotional and food issues. You could have knocked me over with a feather when Dr Now told Lola she looked nice. I don't think I've heard him say that to any of his patients. And, yeah, I thought she looked nice too. Especially for someone who wasn't on hormones yet (from what I gathered from the show). I kept seeing Ethel Merman. I felt sorry for Dylan. He looked so big and sloppy and nothing. I hope he hangs on until Penny finishes her skin surgery (just 'cause a little help after surgery is nice) and then escapes to Alaska or someplace.

I'm diabetic. A lot of these folks are diabetic as well. There's a lot of sugar in uncontrolled diabetics' saliva and you can easily have a really bad dental situation going on. I read stuff about overall health care when one is diabetic, i go to the dentist. I go to the eye doctor. I try hard to stay in control. I bet a lot of these people aren't doing any of this, and hence, the bad teeth.

Me too. I thought I was paying attention, but obviously not. I look up and the evil black guy is acting like they're all friends. Didn't this guy kill a bunch of people? Innocent or semi-innocent people? And what are they going to do with Tom in the spinoff? At some point, Lizzie will be back from maternity leave.Won't she be wondering what happened to her husband? I did like Red in the makeup and beard, tho.

Sterling is in the news for donating bone marrow to a young woman. He was selected from a donor list and didn't know the person. Chef donates bone marrow A good guy; it looks like GR wasn't wrong to give him such a special send off.

Maybe we should note the difference between the 'regular' bypass surgery and the gastric sleeve. I'm on a sleeve page and the people there eat cottage cheese with fruit all of the time. Because you aren't completely re-routed, I don't think sleeve patients get dumping syndrome. Which, now that I think about it, may be one reason why I see so many of them complaining about regaining weight - they aren't 'punished' by eating the wrong foods the way they might be with the other surgery.