Leaderboard

I am very excited for my first fill! I'm 5'8 and started my journey at 293...I am now 269 (goal weight is 150) and 3 weeks post op today. I started my pre-op diet about 2 weeks before surgery and lost a lot of that weight in that time frame. I am now eating full foods. A lot of protein from meats, cottage cheese, string cheese, sugar free pudding, yogurt, veggies, soups, hummus, some lean cusine meals. I feel like I could keep eating but stop after my serving is done. I havent really been sitting down and eating 3 square meals a day. More like 3-5 mini meals. I've also been a lot more thirsty than normal...I had my first really uncomfortable feeling the other morning. I guess my band was a little tight because I ate some meat and OMG...I thought I was having a heart attack! I felt extreme pressure and so much of it in my chest. I immedietly stoped eating and was fine in about 5-10 minutes. I do feel tighter in the mornings so I am trying to just stick to my protein shake and coffee for breakfast... I am really anxious to see what this fill is going to bring. My surgeon says I should feel full longer and at times may not be hungry at all. I feel hungry a lot now so I hope it works out for me. I would love to hear about everyone else's first fills if you don't mind sharing?

I am putting on the full-court press from this point to get to 101 lost in 6 months. I have decided to go past it another 10 or so because I can see 218 will still be a little heavier than I want at 5 11 1/2. However, until November 10th it's going to be 700-800 calories a day again (down from 1000-1100 now) I truly want to grab the brass ring in 6 months! Anyway, follow me at my external blog: michaelwasfat. blogspot.com or friend me at FB: Michael Pickert

I sit here tonight after a long day at work, reading blogs and watching "Dancing with the Stars." As I am watching these people 'stars" put them self out there doing something that pushes them out side their comfort zone it came to me, "Is that not what each of us are doing?" We are putting ourselves out in front of everyone and allowing ourselves to be judged for our progress in our journey. I would like for all of us to give ourselves a "10" tonight. A "10" for being willing to admit we are not perfect. A "10" for taking each day, "one day at a time." A '10" for each new healthy habit we embrace and enculturate into our daily routine. We are all individuals and each of us has their strengths and weaknesses that we need to highlight. If we collectively added up all the weight each of us have lost over the past 6 months or a year, would we not be the "biggest losers." And guys being a loser on this site is a WONDERFUL thing, we need to stop thinking, I only lost a half of a pound, I only lost a pound. Instead we need to be saying, "WOW, I lost another pound. After all we are not the gainers we are the losers. For the first time in our life losing is winning. Now how often can you make a negative a positive. We may stall occasionally, we may stumble, we may even fall, but we will pick ourselves up, we will admit we strayed and we will get back on track. So I challenge each of my cyber friends in this weight loss journey to pick one positive affirmation to post for the week and embrace the positive energy it will instill in your life. I am posting a web site that I think may help us all if we could just allow ourselves to believe in our selves and open our minds to some positive thinking. http://www.vitalaffi...ons.htm#example When I chose my name for this blog I used the positive affirmation theory. LovetheNewMe. Honestly when I started on this journey I did not love anything about me but now after a year of logging into this blog and signing on everyday with my user name "LovetheNewMe." I do love me, I love the person I am becoming, part due to weight loss but even deeper than what you see on the outside. I love the person I am on the inside. It is hard to love yourself, we are our toughest critique, we judge our selves and we always see our failures not our successes. Each time we loss an inch or a pound or make it through a day always choosing healthy foods is a successes. We should celebrate every success we have, big and small. We are learning to lIVIT not dIET, we are learning to Love ourselves. My affirmations for my journey are: 1. I choose to make positive healthy choices for myself 2. When I believe in myself, others will believe in me also I say my affirmations every morning as I am getting ready for work, I look in the mirror and yes I talk to myself. and no I am not wacky. So my challenge to all of us is we put our best foot forward and and get the positive energy flowing on this blog, love your self, support yourself and most important believe in yourself, why you ask, why because you are WORTH IT. Have a great week all.