This is Amazing!!!
 

Hi All:

I thought you might get a kick out of this. As you all know, my life is one big vegetable patch. I make veggie patties, I made my veggie stir-fry. I eat lots of veggies.

So I buy lots of Zucchini. So this morning, I take my walk and go to the big produce store a few blocks away, to buy some zucchini. I figured I would buy a few pounds, make some every night and this would last me for the whole week. Me and Alan also.

So I see a bunch of nice zucchini, and I pick it up. Then I look over to the other bin and imagine, to my surprise, I see something from LAND OF THE GIANTS. I just stood there in amazement. I had to buy one. I could only buy one because that’s all I could carry home. Just one Zucchini. So I bought a regular one, and my Land of the Giants one.

Here’s the photo.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...igzucchini.jpg

Have any of you ever seen a zucchini this size?? I know I haven’t. And when I walked home and all my neighbors were standing outside, I hit the big one behind my back in the shopping bag and when they said “hi Melody, what’s up”. I simply said “here’s a regular zucchini, right???” and here’s his grandpa”. You never saw people laugh so hard in all your life.

So for a little while, I hope I made you smile.

Melody

I don't know about that. I think I'd be afraid to eat it! :eek:

I'm hysterical!!!

Melody

Cute joke Mel
 

But I'm not amazed. We grow things this large in Texas all the time. I have neighbors with gardens and they are always giving us zucchinni, tomatoes, etc. I've seen this size a lot. It is our experience that the larger they are, the tougher the seeds are. Since I like steaming vegetables, I always ask for the small ones.

Hope you enjoy it and it's not tough. cute joke.

Billye

Billye:

You should see the size of the squash that grows in my backyard. It's those 3 feet long wonders. But they are not zucchins. This is the first time I have ever in all my life seen zucchinis this size. And the one I took home was the baby of the group. It was all I could do to carry it home.

The others were bigger. I mean, who carries these things home?? You need two pushcarts!!!!

I wish I could have my own garden. Who knows what wondrous things I could grow?? And they would probably speak french!!! lol

You may want to keep this one....
 

...upon close examination you will notice a lighter area in the lower left of the vegetable , this appears to be a perfect outline of Elvis! I saw one similar on ebay.

Hi Mel

Just thought the following may put things in perspective.:D
zucchini[zoo-KEE-nee] A popular summer squash shaped like a slightly curved cylinder, a bit smaller at the top than the bottom. A zucchini's skin color can vary from dark to light green, sometimes with yellow markings that give it a mottled or striped look. The off-white flesh has a very pale green cast and the flavor is light and delicate. Common market length is 4 to 8 inches long and 2 to 3 inches thick. However, some specimens are as tiny as a finger while others-usually home-grown-can reach a mammoth 2 feet long by 6 inches in diameter (or more). Fresh zucchini is available year-round in most supermarkets, with a peak period during late spring. Select small zucchini, which will be younger and therefore more tender and have thinner skins. The skins should be free of blemishes and have a vibrant color. Zucchini can be cooked by a variety of methods including steaming, grilling, sautéing, deep-frying and baking. See also squash.



Tony

19 inches long and 7 inches wide

THE ZUCCHINI, I MEAN!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

Melody

Expected that
 

Melody,
Why did I know you were gonna say that!:rolleyes:

Thanks Tony,
I enjoyed all the links and got some new ideas. I love squash in any shape, form or flavor. If I could stand up longer, I'd be trying Mel's vegetable patties.


Billye

Billye:

As soon as I typed 19 inches and 7 inches wide, I got hysterical laughing and I had to say what I said.

And I am now making my spinach, onion and parmesan romano cheese patties. My kitchen smells GOOD!!!

I'm afraid to cut the darn giant. lol
Mel

I love it!!!!

You reminded me of an email I got today...

I started to put it into a web page after I saw your topic... but then I wondered if the images were so large that they'd load too slow.

I can make them smaller in my photo program.

Let me know if they load slowly...

Anyway, here's a few of them...
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...eggie-Art.html

:)

You know what, I made all of the images smaller...

so now I think it will open more quickly.

They are really cute.

:)

http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...eggie-Art.html

Now that's what I'm talking about!!!! You could feed an army w/that thing!!:eek:

Now that is the most adorable veggie critters I have ever seen.

How cute!!!

Thanks for sharing. It made me smile.

Melody

Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I loved it when it came. They are really clever, and capture the spirit...

Thanks for your post, or I wouldn't have shared them... you inspired me.

((((((((Melody)))))))))

Gee, Mel, I wish I could take cooking lessons from you. I am a terrible cook, and need to add more veggies to my diet.

Ditto! And I hate to cook so that doesn't help. Sigh.

Wow, thats a monster, you will need a chain saw to cut though :D or keep it and Alan could do his weight lifting at home ;)

We grow zucchinis every summer. If you don't pick them they get as big as banana squash and are similar in many ways. The skin gets hard and thick, and the the middle is full of seeds. The flesh is still delicious to eat and the seeds are similar to pumpkin seeds. They're great salted and roasted or just add them to vegetable stews with the chunks of squash.

You are making me really hungry for salted seeds!!!!!

I remember, years ago, I had things called pumpkin seeds. They were white, and salty, and I distinctly remember, rolling them around in my mouth and loving the salty taste.

I also remember pink pistachio nuts (I think they were pistachio nuts). That you cracked them open with your teeth and you ate the little seeds inside.

The only problem with this was that they dyed your hands and mouth a bright red. But god, were they delicious!!!!!

I am going to cut up my giant today. I'll take a photo of it all cut up so you can see what one giant squash can yield. And this was the baby of the lot.

I won't eat the seeds. I can't imagine what they look like.

Oh, I have a tip for all of you weight watchers out there. The other day I went to Shop Right. They sell a package of Chicken Sausages made by Al Fresco. These were BUFFALO CHICKEN SAUSAGES. Well, you have never tasted something so delicious in all your life. Comes 4 to a package. Now I have no idea if you can get these where you live but if you like something with a little kick (not too hot, but a little kick), you will adore these. They took the taste of Buffalo chicken wings and put this taste into the chicken sausages. I sprayed PAM in the skillet. I took my knife and made four indentations in the sausages, and then I cooked them. They plumped up and you got the grill marks. I can only imagine what these would taste like if you plut them on a grill. Even a George Forman Grill (oh I just remembered, I have a George Forman). Believe me, the next time I go to Shop Right I'm buying a few packages and freezing some and eating the rest for a few nights. I eat two at a time, with a nice side of vegetables.

These are low-fat, no carb and nothing wrong about them. They also had other flavored chicken sausages. One was Maple Apple. Can you imagine, a Maple Apple flavored sausage??? And my friend bought the Feta Cheese and Spinach stuffed Sausage??? Oh my god, I'm getting hungry typing this, AND I NEVER GET HUNGRY.

I am experimenting with things other than chicken and fish. It's nice to be able to eat delicious foods and not have it go straight to my hips.

When I get the next batch of Buffalo Chicken sausages, I'll take a photo and put it here. Then you can see the colors of the sausage.

bye for now.

Melody

I came here to tell you how great you are and how much fun you gave me this weekend with your post. I almost never have fun, so it was just great. And doing the web page of veggies instead of h.pylori was way WAY fun and people laughed and enjoyed it. (I went to an unusual forum I found and stayed up into the night laughing with people there, and without your post I don't think it would have happened. So, Thank you VERY much.)

But today... ah, today is a different story... You are making me sooooo hungry for these Buffalo sausages. My goodness, it way surpasses how hungry I was for salty seeds, and I can't go out.

Evil woman!!!!!! (LOL)

In truth I think you are an angel, figuratively speaking. Because of course I can see you are real flesh and bones. But your picture has kept coming to me, and you make me smile with you.

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!

Karen: (I believe that is your name, right??)

Thanks for the nice words. I try and keep a good perspective on life. If I didn't I would have shot myself a long time ago. But I can't let myself think that way. You see, we all have our stories, our struggles, and our losses.

I would rather laugh out loud (that is if I am able to laugh out loud), some days we have pain and really can't find anything to laugh about, but other days, the sun is shining, we go to Dunkin Donuts, we say hi to the neighbors, and we live our lives.

I had a different goal, when I became a mom 26 years ago. That goal did not turn out. We no longer have our son in our lives. Believe me, I could have ballooned to 400 lbs with no problem whatsoever. But honestly, from watching what the morbidly obese go through on the Discovery Channel, well, I learn from watching these tv shows. I knew someone that Richard Simmons helped. He weighed over 800 lbs. He got down to 200 pounds. He is now back to 800. It's a real disease, this over-eating. I thank god that something clicked in my brain because believe me it's very easy to self-medicate yourself with Ding Dongs. I don't believe I can over medicate myself with Squash, lol.

So when I find something amazing, like that Land of the Giants squash, I knew I had to post it. I made videos and I sent it to my sister-in-law. She just called me. She said "oh my god, where did you get that thing, that can feed your family for a week. I said "and that was the baby of the bunch".

I can just see myself living in Nebraska, raising my veggies behind the house, growing my own tomatoes, growing my own 6 foot squash. Taking my methyl B-12 (because I don't eat any beef whatsoever). I could live that life. I could also NOT see myself milking cows, raising chickens and picking out eggs from underneath the chickens, nor do I see myself with squirrells, raccoons, whatever (like some of my friends who live in New Jersey).

So I would like to live in a condominium on the 14th floor (where there would be no ants or waterbugs), and then I would have a hot house, where I could grow my own fresh vegetables. Oh, and a pool on the roof top would be acceptable. Now I know that will never happen.

So I go to Dunkin Donuts with Alan and have breakfast. We take what we can get in this world. That's the best we can do. Other people have much less.

As a matter of fact, five minutes ago while I was talking to my sister-in-law (Alan's sister), after oohing and ahhing over my giant veggie, she said "I just heard some bad news", It seems that Alan has a second cousin (we don't know her), She is from Brazil and two months ago, she went back to Brazil for a gastric bypass (she was not morbidly obese, and that's probably why she couldn't get it done in the states). She was just chubby (so I've been told). She was 47 years old. So she has the gastric bypass and comes home from Brazil and she's fine. So last week, she decided, because next year she's throwing her son a Bar Mitsvah for his birthday, she decided she wanted to look as best as she could. So last week she flew to Brazil for a face-lift, an eye lift, a nose job, the whole thing. Guess what happened?

The next day, she had a heart attack and she is now still in Brazil, on life support and is brain dead. She leaves behind an 11 year old and a 7 year old. Her husband is now there trying to find out how to pull the plug because it seems in Brazil, it's done differently over there when you want to take someone off life support.

I just listened and I thought to myself. Now there are two young kids with no mother.

So whatever we have, we thank our lucky starts because there are always some other people out there who lose it all in five minutes.

Imagine, first you get a gastric by-pass, two months later you want to look better and younger, so you fly to Brazil, and you get a face lift, and the next day you are on life support. Jeez. That is exactly what happened to the singer James Brown's wife. She went in for cosmetic surgery and she died.

And I've been telling Alan "oh, if I only had the money, I'd get my face done".

I'm not saying it any more.

I'm eating my veggies.

So hope you have a good day and keep smiling.

Melody

I just loved the idea that squash couldn't be used to over medicate oneself.

Yes, laughed out loud.

But gosh, the rest of your post was so sad.

Here's the thing... I could hardly move when I had tetanus... so I was up to 280, and I really looked like a truck. I don't have the dynamite bone structure you do, so I was just a flat (pudgy) cabbage patch face. Gosh, it's very distressing.

So then I was having so much sleep apnea at night, and my statistician cousin died of that... so I knew I had to lose weight.

I have a page on my site about my weight loss... because I started out eating 3 saltines and a piece of pre-sliced cheese as a combination lunch and breakfast, then I ate half of my dinner entre that they bring me, and froze the dessert, and threw the rest away.

In two weeks I'd lost 1 pound.

I starved the whole time, and 1 pound... that meant it would take me two years to lose the weight I needed to lose.

DEPRESSED.

But then something really depressing happened, I have so much stress from the court things that get so much worse because of my brain damage and the corrupt judges, and so I ate a month's worth of frozen desserts in two days.

And, I did not gain any weight.

So that showed me that my metabolism takes awhile to catch on to changes.

So then I started exercising a couple minutes a day, literally two, three, maybe four, and I began to lose weight.

But I have to be so careful about stress. I can't let myself get stressed because I can't handle it any more. It not only tightens all my muscles again, it makes it so I can barely walk, then I can't exercise at all because I'm in bed, and then I gain weight and then I can't breathe at night... and once I really saw people in the afterlife... so that scared me.

So I totally agree with you, grab from each day what you can... enjoy... and don't try for too much... a little improvement is a good thing, celebrate it.

(((((((((Melody)))))))))

Gosh, I'm so glad you found the giant of the vegetables, and shared. :)

Karen:

What's with the court thing? (if you don't mind sharing), if you have, I missed it. And yes, I do know what stress can do to a body.

Years and years ago, when my son still lived at home, I had bladder spasms that drove me to specialist after specialist. I thought I had this, I thought I had that. I had every x-ray, bladder test, trans vaginal this, I went nuts.

It was all stress. Everything came back negative. I now know that having my son living in my home was not condusive (is that a real word??) to my being healthy. I have learned to let go, and let god (if indeed there is a god, I have my days when I do doubt that, but then I have my days where I give Him thanks).


All I do know that stress is a killer. I once had a nurse tell me that when I was all of 19 years old, a secretary, and working in a medical department. I was having a chat with a nice older woman and she said the one sentence that I never forgot. She said "Melody, stress kills". I never forgot that.

Little did I know that my own son would be a direct cause of all the stress in my life. But I have dealt with it in my own way. We have no choice.

And believe me, I do know about not eating and you don't lose.

Don't know if you heard this story, (I've told it before on these boards). When I was around 50 or so, I began a really healthy way of eating. My doctor had gotten on my case, so I joined a gym. Now I have arthritis so this is no easy task. So I did the gym and I never looked better in my life. I had previously weighted 203 at the doctor's office, so here I am about a month or so later, looking quite trip and fit, wearing spandex shorts, and a tank top (very revealing), I walk in, he takes one look at me and goes "whoa, look at you, you look great, hop on the scale". I proudly jumped on the scale and what did it read???? 223. I never in all my life saw that number and looked the way I did. NEVER!! I went absolutly crazy in the doctor's office. I made him get on the scale, I made the nurses get on the scale and I made everybody in the waiting room get on the scale. Everybody knew their weight and I weighed almost 30 lbs more than my 6 foot 2 inch doctor. Like I said, I went nuts. He looked at me and said "what on earth are you eating to have gained all this weight?" I just looked at him and said "are you looking at the same body I'm looking at?" He just said "the scale does not lie".

So I went back to the gym, grabbed the bigges muscle guy I could find, he was about 6 feet 5 and all muscle and I said "can you please help me?" and he looks at me and says: "sure, little lady, what can I do for you?" LITTLE LADY???? no one has ever called me that in my life. I said to him "Tell me why I weigh 223 lbs". After picking up his jaw, he took me over to the scale and sure enough it said the same weight. He scratched his head and in five minutes, I had 10 bodybuilders walking around me in a circle scratching their heads. All of a sudden, one of them looked like a lightbulb went off in his head and he said to me :"have you been working out?" and I said "of course, three times a week". and he said "show us exactly what you have been doing". So I walked over to the weight machines and put on 40 lb dumbell things and I started lifting weights. I did that with about 10 machines. After they stopped laughing, they explained that I had replaced fat with muscle and one pound of muscle weighs 6 times more than one pound of fat.

Oh, by the way, I have never, never never, picked up a weight since that date. I have never never weighed myself in a doctor's office that I know what I weigh. I went back to my doctor, told him what happend. He looked dubious. Then of course, I went back to my old habits of compulsive overeating. So fast forward a few years, I go to Cornell Medical center in NYC, I stopped eating the bad stuff, started eating the good stuff, and I lost weight. Now I don't look as good as I did when I lifted weights, but I don't weigh 223 either. Thank god.

Some day, I'll get down to my fighting weight of about 150. I will look like Gwyneth Paltrow if I ever get down to that, but I'm determined.

It's all about bone structure, body mass index, muscle vs fat, all that, blah blah. I don't care. I want to be thin and look like Mariah Carey. That's all I know. So this year I turn 60. I don't dress like I'm 60, and I certainly don't feel like I'm 60. I wonder what I'll be like if I live to be 70???

What a hoot!!!

Melody

Wow, that is very interesting... about the weight of muscle.

I've been so perplexed by all the work I've been doing (a little at a time) without losing weight. I was thinking that if I was up painting for an hour a day, then I would for sure lose weight... because I wasn't in bed.

but it wasn't happening.

I thought it was because of how we have to make this huge mental effort to complete tasks when there's pain... and I thought somehow that was keeping my body in a fat stasis.

But now, I wonder if it was that I was exchanging ...

no...

it can't be that.

Because you looked great. And... I have a terror of weighing myself because I get absolutely obsessed... and then I get into major fear that I am going to gain weight... so I don't weigh myself anymore. I measure, and I have clothes that I try on and which fit more and more loosely.

So I don't weigh myself... and I can't say that I've gained weight.


Well, the thing with our kids is hard.

Did you see that movie, Riding in Cars with Boys? The end is pretty interesting... I won't tell you in case you haven't seen it.

But it's a good movie in terms of our relationship with our parents...

Okay, the court thing...

I had three properties because when I just had my 600 sq ft condo my son said he wanted to come here to Santa Fe from London to live.

So I bought a three bedroom house, rented the condo, he came and hated it and went back to London, and I cried every time I was in the house I bought with high hopes of us having this great relationship.

So I bought another house and moved into it and rented the townhouse that was making me cry.

years pass... things happen.

I move back into the condo after my tenants moved out, saying they weren't feeling well.

They'd had the sewer back up... and I'd had it fixed. I didn't really think anything of it.

Well, there had always been small sink holes, and when the tenants had been gardening a new larger one had appeared.

Okay, so there started to be sort of loud bangs... and it turns out that there was hydrogen sulfide in my condo (the bangs caused me to call around and I was told to get some air tests).

So that explained why I was falling more and bumping into stuff when I walked, and was losing memory again at an alarming rate.

The condo association had a legal duty to pay their share of the remediation, but they hired a lawyer who advised them to say there wasn't a privy pit, that it was all a broken sewer.

I argued that you can't flush bottles down a toilet, and there were a lot of bottles in the pit... but the judge favored them.

Of course there is a "previously"

This major Christian guy had borrowed a lot of money from me... sold me cubic zirconium as diamond... etc. and I wanted my $10,000 after he wrecked my car. So he filed in family court and said we were a family and I was abusing him. :eek:

He had consistently said to me that God couldn't love me because I was too interested in money, that I was always bringing it up. He considered me wanting the money he owed me to be abusive. :eek:

So I got all the papers in order to show what he owed and how I'd paid him every single thing I owed him (he then had gone on to argue that I owed him $80,000 for legal work that he'd done -- he wasn't a lawyer). And I had to read in court because I couldn't remember because I was living in the hydrogen sulfide; he on the other hand had this country bumpkin way of talking that I think he practiced because it made him sound so genuine... and the judge said in court, to him, "I believe you."

I was just shocked.

So I went home and called Pueblo, Colorado where he came from and talked with another jeweler there, and the jeweler's wife said she'd send me some of the cases against him there... she sent over 30 and then after she told me how to find them, I found another 13.

Okay.

So come the condo case and the judge says in court, "Don't worry, I'll make her pay everything she owes you." :eek:

He hadn't seen any evidence when he said that.

So when he also said he was going to have all my foreclosure cases I was a bit beside myself.

So since by this time he was not allowing me to read, I filed an ADA case against him in Federal Court... so he couldn't hear any of my cases any more.

:)

But it ****** off all the other judges.

And my case was eventually dismissed -- despite the fact that the case the opposition had relied upon had been overturned. Only I forgot (I had tetanus at this time) that when I wanted to amend my complaint, it had to be amended, I had to attach the amended complaint to my motion for leave to amend. Failing the attachment, my case was dismissed. But I kept thinking it was because judges all stick together.... only recently did I snap to the amendment thing... (I'd done a chapter 11 earlier, and knew about the amendment thing... or else I knew about it from having sued the City of Santa Fe for taking me out of the hospital and putting me in jail for weeds... they settled for a small amount of money, about $12,500.)

Jail for weeds
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...for-Weeds.html

Okay, so then my tenants burned out the boiler and I ceased to be able to get rent. Major poverty. Lucky I was getting meals every day. :)

Foreclosures... they foreclosed my home and people were always trying to force their way in because I had so much equity... they wanted to see my home so they could get it.

Stress.

yes... I think stress is damaging to health.

So then I filed bankruptcy, then wrote a motion to please dismiss it so I could sell my single family... and the court did, and I did, and so I was all happy.

But Judge Sanchez, the one who had the restraining order against Letterman for sending bad thoughts to a woman here, foreclosed my condo with no notice to me... it was sold at foreclosure and I was still paying to have the final bits of remediation done re the privy pit...

I had it listed at Sotheby's and a Sotheby's agent bought it... He got about $150,000 in equity of mine. :eek:

So I argued in court that there hadn't been due process and the judge sort of laughed at me. I was told that he'd told the Sotheby's agent's broker that there was "no way" I'd get my condo back.

I think he was influenced by my case against the chief judge... the ADA case.

So I'm appealing.

And it's very stressful.

that probably wasn't clear...

In between I hired a lawyer... and she was just abysmal.

I also paid $7,500 interest to borrow money to redeem, and I couldn't redeem, they let the Sotheby's realtor redeem on unadjudicated liens...

Oh... see the condo association put their entire legal bill on me, and said I owed that much... and then they filed a lien. It was never adjudicated, and I'd asked at least three times.

So their liens weren't really appropriate to allow for redemption...

but... if the judge said there was no way I'd get my condo back... this sure fit right in...

:confused:

Appeal
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...firmation.html

Reasons not to affirm
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...To-Affirm.html

Complaint to the bar against a lawyer
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...-a-Lawyer.html

So that's about it.

:)

Are you sorry you asked? ;) :rolleyes:

(The Christian guy is in prison... he got $30,000 from a woman who was much smarter than me, and she got him caught. :))
.

Oh my god, they put you in jail for having weeds in your yard?? They don't put rapists in jail but they put you in jail???

You have certainly had your share of stress, you poor thing.

Your life is fascinating. Are you from England originally? Do you talk with an english accent (which I adore, by the way).

And do you have a good relationship with your son??

Sorry for the questions, but sometimes it's good to vent!!!

Melody

I bored you. Sorry!!!!!

How was the zucchini????

Yummmmm?

But, yes. Jail for weeds.

:)

Melody you are a lifter. I love your stories. I agree a lot is outlook and self talk. I have had before this many years of severe depression,anixety,ocd and without working on those areas of coping I would not be here today. You have to and though many times hard hold to hope. On a side note I have been all different weights well never heavy but being a number or size won't make you happy or better. It is important to be healthy though and to find the reason behind why you are not. Whether one is under or over there are reasons such as anxiety,depression and when you learn better coping it can help with the weight issue. I'm going to your house Melody you sound like a great cook. You got to make some yummy muffins though. Take care all and considerthis you have to laugh more. That is what they told me in treatment. Now its finding ways.

You guys are great!
 

Thanks Mel. It has been a painful day and at least I am able to still laugh. :D

HI Julie and Daniella:

How are you guys doing today.

I have a theory about the weight thing. Just imagine if we lived in a small community and everybody weighed 200 lbs. If someone didn't weigh 200 lbs, everybody would look at that person, point and say, 'oh, look at her, she doesn't weigh 200 lbs". And I am only talking about women here, because I don't believe that this applies to the way men think about their bodies. I might be wrong, but I don't think so.

It starts way back in school, when we try to fit in. Imagine being the only overweight kid in a classroom. Of course you are going to get bullied, picked on, named called, made fun of.. Why?? Because you stand out like a sore thumb. I wish we all had the mentality (way back when), to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror and say "Oh, I must lose this weight, I must be healthy, I don't want to get diabetes, or heart disease".

But adolescents do not do that. Adolescents look in the mirror and go "I want to look like Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan".

And god forbid this kid doesn't remotely have the body type to be a Paris Hilton, or a Lindsay Lohan. BUT.... if this kid lived in a community where everybody weighed what she weighed, well, there would be no depression, no "I don't fit in", because she would absolutely FIT IN!!!

We grow up in a society that gives us super models on the tv who weigh no more than 85 lbs and then you have all the informercials for the fat burners, the hoodia, the diet pill, etc, then you turn on another station, and lo and behold, there's a commercial (I saw this the other night and could not believe my eyes), there was a commercial by Subway (it's a fast food deli thing just in case some of you have never heard of Subway). And they have a meat eater's special. It's a gigantic sandwich piled high with meat, etc.). Well, it could feed a third world country, believe me. And there were 4 people in this commercial (all normal size) and the young girl was trying to put the front of the sandwich in her mouth. Believe me, she couldn't have put that sandwich in her mouth if she tried. The whole idea was to send a message to all the over-eaters out there that there was a new kid on the block. A new sandwich, a new way to self-medicate.

We all do not have the same body types. And when the fast food people learn to stop selling these gigantic portions of these foods, and when they again (hopefully) put physical education back in the school (I used to go to gym every day), but when I watched Shaq's big challenge, I listened and he said that only 6% of the schools in the United States have a gym program. Well, I just could not believe it. The show also said that the next generation will not outlive the parents. It's really scary how things have changed in the 40 years since I finished school.

And whether you are an under-eater (like my friend), or an over-eater, like I have been most of my life, I truly believe that it has a lot to do with how we view ourselves, and how others view us. We yo-yo diet, which is really not good for our bodies, but we want to fit in. Why do we want to fit in? because 10 of our friends weigh 120 lbs, and we are the only person who weighs 200 lbs. It's very confusing. It was for me in school, and it was for me with my own mother who was 5 feet tall and weighed 110 lbs. She was one of 10 children and as a kid she was fat. She lost all her weight at age 18 and never was fat again. And then I came along and ruined everything for her.

She took me to hypnotists, she took me to doctors, she put the food in the closet, (I will never forget coming home from school, opening up the linen closet to get a towel and finding loaves of bread hidden behind the towels). I just stood there completely confused and said out loud "Mom, why are there loaves of bread in the closet". We had company in the living room, and she shouted "what do you expect, look at you, you'll eat everything in site".
Now that could not be true, because I NEVER ATE IN FRONT OF MY MOTHER. I ate out of the house so she would not say anything to me. But she just had to throw digs at me. Once, she and I went to Nathans with a friend of her's. I was 22 years old. I ordered those famous Nathan's french fries. I had a french fry and was about to eat it and she knocked it out of my hand (right in front of everybody), and she said "you need this like you need a hole in the head".

I never forgave her. For that or other stuff. But did I stop eating?? No!! I ate even more. It's what I did to cope with what she was throwing at me all the time. Only after I moved out, got my own place, fell in love, did I manage to control my weight. But it was very hard. I did it for the wrong reason. I did it for a boyfriend, to get in a dress, I did it because I had a wedding to go to.

But finally, as I grew up, and got older, I did it for the right reasons.

Sorry to go on and on, but when something clicks in the brain, it really clicks. And mine clicked about two years ago.

And I just made another batch of muffins that are to die for.

When you opened them up, the blueberries just popped out at you. Alan just sighed and looked at me and said "you are indeed the muffin lady".

lol

Melody

I do agree a lot has to do with ones view and self esteem. I do feel people need to focus on themselves and not on others especially if its not a person close to you. People always like to give there opinion. It was such a hard part of my weight gain recovery when people would make weight comments. I think if everyone focused on what they needed to do to be healthy and happy the world would be better. Everyone is different and has different needs. I can relate Melody as my family has many ed suffers. I'm in recovery but health wise recovered. The mindset is daily. Anyhow my mom is anorexic,my gramps is compulsive eater/anorexic,his mom was anorexic. I could go on. You do learn coping mechanisms from family whether negative or positive but I'm learning I have to live my life and using food or weight in a negative way is not the way to find the life I want. I'm sorry for all you have been through. I can remember when I was in the cardiac unit and 40 pounds under my gramps gf said don't gain too much weight. Comments are hard. Have you told your mom how that makes you feel? I hope you can see what I see in you or well hear. Your such a warm,funny,caring person. I would feel so happy for you to be my friend. Hang in there and those muffins sound yummy. I don't know if I told you I got a muffin top pan to make the tops like muffies.

Daniella:

Well said!!!!! I too am so sorry for what people have said to you. It's hard hearing these things.

My mom passed away 12 years ago. She and my dad were both put in a nursing home rehabilition kind of place. My mom, for her emphasema (she had 28 packs of cigs in her purse when I went to visit and she was telling me to go and buy her some). When I opened her purse to show her the 28 packs of cigs, she looked at me and said "OH". I immediately went to the resident psychiatrist on call and inquired "why does my mother keep asking me to go and buy her cigarettes when she has 28 packs (I counted them) in her purse"? He just nodded sadly and said "it really doesn't matter anymore, the nicotine has gone to her brain, it's too late". I had no idea about the nicotine going to her brain. I knew she was there for emphasema because she had been smoking all her life. She was 79 at the time at looked way past 90. Actually, she was pretty nice to me during her last days because I had lost weight when I came to visit her and although I was a large person, I didn't stick out like a sore thumb.

And because all the residents of Ritchie Manor Nursing Home were in wheel chairs and some of them were grandma dumped (that means dumped at the curb and the families just drove off....yes I know, never heard of that either back then), I took it upon myself to take my makeup, and give all the ladies there make-overs. You should have seen these 85 year olds in the wheelchairs with a little eye shadow and rouge and lipstick. They were like new women. I had gone down there with my Sudden Beauty lifting serum. I left it there. They seemed to enjoy the 5 days I was there. I would stay at the motel at night (I was not invited to stay at a nearby aunt's because they never accepted my weight. So I was kind of a left-wheel back then. Didn't matter. I just took a cab every morning to the nursing home to visit my mom and my dad. They put them in one room, and that was not the norm in those days. But they didn't want to break up a family. My father had congestive heart failure and he was on hospice.

Well, I will never forget what happened. My father could not stand my mother's mouth any more (Just to give you an example, when I was sixteen, I bought my mother a house dress for mother's day. She opened the box, took out the dress, looked at the stitching on the waistline and started screaming at me "don't you look at the work they do, this is shabby". I then proceeded to pick up my 5 foot tall mother and put her on top of the refrigerator. And yes, I really did that. She was so amazed that I actually had the audacity to do such a thing, that she couldn't talk for 5 minutes. (a record for her). My father walked in the door, she started screaming and the first words out of my father's mouth was to my mother. He said: "what did you say to her this time"???

So now we are back at the nursing home many years later. I was 48 years old and my mom and dad are in the same room. He is on hospice and was given 9 months to live. He told them "I can't take her anymore, put her someplace else". They put my mother in someplace called "The Sunshine Nursing Home". I was home with sciatica at that time and could not fly down again. Well, they lost my mother. I would call them up every day (my phone bill was $300 a month back then. When the guy from the Sunshine nursing home told me "we can't find your mother", I just phoned every nursing home in Port Richey and finally found my mother. It seemed she ****** off someone in the van and they dumped her some place else. Well, all hell broke loose and they had to return her to my father's room.

And this is exactly what happened. She died in January of 1995. He went off hospice because he actually got better. They made him the mailman of the nursing home and he would run around in his little scooter thing and give out everybody's mail. He was a darling man who had 11 more months of peace. He actually lived 18 months more than he was supposed to live. He died in December 23 of 1995. 1995 was some year for me. Lost both parents, I got Bells Palsy, and my 14 year old went through a glass window and got 75 stitches over his eye. Boy, what a year.

But my father had a good death. The kind of death we should all have. He ate some peach pie, I spoke to him on the phone, I said I love you dad, he went on his scooter into his room at the nursing home. He got off, sat in a chair and died. Then the nurse called me and said (after breaking the news), she said "melody, we had a bit of excitement, because when a person dies, we have to call the paramedics to officate and pronounce the person as deceased". Well, when the paramedic took my father's pulse, it seems he still had one. But no heartbeat. Everybody was freaking out, until some bright person said "oh, this guy has a pacemaker". That was why he had the pulse.

So Daniella, I know full well how cutting some words can be and how people can influence other people. I have learned how to respond to inappropriate remarks. I stood in front of my mirror and practiced what I would say if someone said something stupid, for example "don't you know that you are fat, or don't you know that you are skinny (yeah, I get that too, since I lost weight, now how stupid is that remark?) or even better, when some mean neighbor, who knows full well, that my son has not been home in 5 years and that I do not speak of him to anyone, well, when that neighbor is being a gossip and comes over to me and said "you know, I dreamt of your son last night, why hasn't he come home".? Now really, am I supposed to really believe that she dreamt of my son?

So when anyone says an inappropriate remark (for any reason), I look at them square in the face and I say: "Now why on earth would you say something like that?". Stops them dead in their tracks. And watch the expression on their face. See people (some people) like to say stuff just to be mean. They never expect you to call them on it.

be well hon!!

Melody

P.S. The visiting nurse just came for Alan's IVIG and we have begun to speak french. I love it!!!!!

Au revoir

You are a sweetie, daniella, thank you.

You are right. :)

(((((((((daneilla)))))))))))

(now I have to go work on my boring yet stressful court stuff)
.

Melanie, you kill me. There is a woman at my church who is a total skag to me when we are in private, but when we are at church in front of others she is always saying sickenly sweet things to me. Next time she does, I'll say, "Now why would you say something like that?" Now, for something really important: Write a cookbook for us! For all of us who need to quit eating white food and need to get more veggies in our diet. I am pretty good at not eating white food. But my cooking is so boring. Of course, it has to be quick and easy for me because my feet hurt while I am standing in the kitchen. Maybe it is my attitude. Ha.

Dakota:

Go and buy the Buffalo chicken sausage. It's fully cooked already. Cut up some asparagus, some zucchini, add some chopped tomatoes, and some
Baby Bella mushrooms.

Spray pan with PAM. Add some fresh garlic. Add a little bit of EVOO, (as Rachel Ray says), Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Then put everything (Buffalo chicken sausage, which you cut up in chunks, and the veggies). Start stir-frying, adding a bit of low-sodium terriyaki sauce and a dash of something called LIQUID SMOKE. They sell this at any supermarket.

When it's all piping hot, put it on a dish and go crazy.

The combination of the terriyaki and the liquid smoke (just a little bit, mind you), it tastes like you just made all this on the grill.

You can do this combination with anything (since I don't use beef), I'll do this with strips of chicken. If you buy Purdue Short cuts, it's all cooked. I can't tell you how fast you can make this.

It's really something.

There, you have your first recipe.

Melody

Mel,
I love reading your posts. They help keep me smiling. :)

I can totally relate to the weight issues. I have always been the girl with weight problems. A year ago I was diagnoised with Diabetes and started taking nutrition ands diabetic classes. I have managed to loose 45 lbs in the past year. I refuse to diet. I just want to eat and be healthy. It is too bad I didn't know the things way back when that I know now. Or that my parents didn't know either. I came from a big family. Seven brothers and sisters. My parents were just worried about feeding us whatever they could afford and would fill us up. It wasn't necessarly nutritious. And of course we always had to eat what was on our plates.

Knowing what I know now, I worry about my grandkids and trying to get their parents to understand how important what we eat is. I see so many parents rewarding their kids with candy or sweets.

I am probably just rambeling. I had a really bad headach today and even though the pain is gone, my head is still fuzzy. :wink:

Hi Julie:

Wow, aren't you lucky?? I always wanted brothers and sisters. I was an only child. My mother would always love to tell me "why on earth would I have more kids, when I had you, you never slept!!!" What she failed to mention was that she drank. Never knew that. I always thought it was normal to come home after school to find your mother sitting at the kitchen table drinking a glass of scotch. I am absolutely amazed at how naive I was. My father knew but no one said anything. That's why her personality was the way it was.

And that's why I ate. As we grow older, some of us get the lightbulb moment, some do not Anyway, I can only imagine having all those siblings. My mother had 5 brothers and 5 sisters. Holiday were crazy at my house and at everybody else’s house. I was always the odd duck because of my weight. When you are the biggest in the family and your mom is 5 feet tall and you’re grandma (the one who gave birth to 10 kids, who weighed between 9 and 15 lbs at birth), is all of 4 feet eleven inches tall, and then here I come, all 5 feet 7 and, well, let’s not talk about what I weighed, well none of my cousins ever had anything to do with me. I was the one who stuttered and who everybody made fun of. It’s quite odd, how at 60, you remember stuff.

It’s also quite odd that, at one family reunion, last year, at one of my cousins house, when Alan and I showed up and I had lost about 100 lbs since anyone last saw me and Alan lost about 75 lbs, and everybody is saying to each other “who is that??” and some one poked the other one and said “That’s Melody” and my cousin said out loud “THAT’S MELODY, OH MY GOD!!!! See, one might see that as a compliment. I do not. Not one person said “oh , you look great!!! Want to know why?? Because they all gained weight. So here we all are at this barbecue with all the food and they all weigh 200 lbs and let’s just say that I no longer weigh that and what got me, was the expression on the face of the guy who said “That’s Melody”!!!

See, I finally realized how they all saw me, as I was growing up. I was the fat kid.

No one really understands how others view you when you don’t look like the rest of the family. Well, I got it that day.

I also GOT IT, years ago when I visited my family in Florida. It was like visiting the Land of the Lilliputians, like in Gulliver’s Travels. Here I was, all big and tall, and people are ringing the door bell, all 5 feet 2 and 110 lbs. One my my aunts said to another aunt, as she was coming in the house and looking right at me “Oh my god, how big is she??”Like I couldn’t hear them at all. Yeah, right!!

I remember all this so vividly, it actually makes me grimace.

And I just came back from the supermarket. I got my Buffalo Chicken Sausage and my Perdue Short cuts. And Bumble Bee Solid White tuna is on sale for $.74 cents a can.

Can’t beat that!!!

P.S. Hope your headache is all better.

lol that is soooooooooooo funny about them gaining weight.

What a hoot!!!!!!

That made my afternoon, now I can go back to work on less fun things.

:)

Boy, have I got a good tip for you.

Today, I was in Shopright with my friend. She had told me about Peter Luger Steak Sauce. Now I don't eat any beef but we do eat turkey burgers, and I usually put my worcestershire sauce and some Liquid Smoke on them. Absolutely delicious. Then I remembered watching Oprah one day and they had a special about who makes the best burgers and Peter Luger's Steakhouse came up.

So there I was in ShopRight Supermarket and I say "Where's the Peter Luger Steak Sauce? (It has to be in the refrigerated section and when you get it home it is kept in the refrigerator). Now I have never tasted Steak Sauce on anything. I keep it simple. But I said 'wow, 25 calories, no big deal),

So I made Alan and I turkey burgers. And I put just a bit on mine. A little bit on his.

Well, let me tell you. This is the best thing since sliced bread.

I can ony imagine what it will do to my chicken breast.

I now have a new thing besides my Buffalo Chicken sausage.

It has a taste all it's own. You must try this.

Just a bit but my goodness, it really souped up the turkey burgers. They tasted exactly like a beef burger.

Oh, I made french fries. But they were legal.

I took my Vidalia chopper. I took a regular Idaho Potato and put it through the chopper. Then I sprayed PAM in the frying pam, and cooked it for 30 minutes. Came out just like french fries.

And one potato fed the two of us. Imagine, I ate a half of a potato and I was satisfied. It's amazing what the mind does to you. You think you are eating a plate of fries but actually I ate one half of a potato. No oil.

I'm getting real good at this.

So try it and enjoy.

Melody