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I never gave my big clothes to good will or the salvation arm because I feel this way: We give them things for free and then they turn around and sell stuff for outrageous prices. Some of their clothes I could go to Ross and buy brand new ones for what thrift stores sell their clothes. I have a lot of nice dress clothes and I decided I would sell them on Ebay. In one day I made 80 bucks doing nothing more then sitting in my house placing things on ebay. Everytime I need to go down a size I just start listing the bigger items on ebay. Within a week I have enough money to buy a whole new ward drobe. Lets face it WLS and losing tons of weight is inevitable we all need new clothes. So why not make money off your good used clothing. I also am starting to buy things on clearance and sell them for full price. You would be surprised how many people will bid way over what you put the starting bid at. For instance: i put a pair of just my size jeans on ebay for $4.00 by the time they were done bidding I made $16.50. I think I only paid $7.00 for the jeans on clearance when I was wearing them. So I made enough to buy two more pair in my size now. There is money to be made folks. All you need is a paypal account to get paid with and they will send you a debit card to use if you want one. The first sales take a few weeks for ebay to give you the money but if you are a new seller they have to make sure your stuff is legit. So get to selling your old clothes and make some money for some new ones. I think I have found a new business to start. If I can find stuff on clearance for $2.00 at Ross no matter what size and sell it for full price I have made 150% profit. Use flat rate shipping, print your shipping labels off paypal, the will deduct if from your funds so no out of pocket expense for you. Go to the post office get a small box, tape the postage on and off it goes. Easy peasy. Now make some dough because who doesnt like to go shopping.

Actually, I think this is just an old wives tale! Your sleeve is constructed from the non-stretchiest part of the stomach, with the fundus (the stretchy part) being discarded. Read some of this researches I made about it and few things I found out. Yes, you can gain weight by over eating etc. but even if the pouch stretch it won't be a lot. http://www.provostbariatrics.com/can-you-really-stretch-your-pouch/ This one Is from another forum. And this person had three pregnancy after her surgery. http://m.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4145194/It-is-VERY-VERY-VERY-hard-to-stretch-out-your-pouch/ http://www.carolinasurgical.com/life-after-bariatric-surgery/i-am-afraid-of-my-pouch-stretching-after-bariatric-surgery/

Today I got a glimpse of you,yes you,the one I thought I left behind! You just never know when to stop do you?Once you start,you dont seem to have an end.And its carbs that brings you out,isnt it?You can deny it as much as you like,but I saw you! Rusks,good old South African rusks,with nuts and seeds.And before I knew I was earing like I didnt even ever had surgery.Now I see how one can gain back all your weight.You just eat something every 20 minutes.A woman on a nother board posted recently that over the weekend she had eaten almost 100 pieces of chocolate,really truely that many!Rollo and such.I thought she was very melodramatic but not anymore! I had about 4 slices of wurzel bread.(german bread that is a little thicker than a baguette) A large cup of butternut soup.Beef jerky,3 rusks and some chicken. (this is all the food for the day)Its the bread that I should not eat and the worm in my head that started after the first carbs that bugs me. I will not keep doing this to myself.I feel horribly fat just because I ate like a fatty. Back to my proteins.Thank goodness for chicken,meat and fish!

Day 6 of my pre-op diet has been difficult. With weird noises coming from--well, everywhere, sugar lows, weakness, headaches, and even envy as I watch my family munch down on mint chocolate cookies and milk, it has not been a good day. I'm almost watching the clock until I can say 6 down, 8 to go. It has always been difficult for me to diet. My stomach rumbles telling me that it wants food, any food, all food, and quick. I've always been able to lose 20-30 pounds as I diet, but eventually I would quit and then gain back everything plus some. I will not repeat that cycle this time, because I am not going to stop until I make my goal, and then my new way of eating will be habit and I won't go back. I am more committed to this plan than I've ever been to any of the other myriad of diets I've done. So while doing all the reminiscing of diets through the years, I am reminded of one in particular. One of my doctors graphically explained weight loss in the following way: He said it comes down to the basic fact of less calories in than you burn, and that he has never seen a picture of a prisoner of war who wasn't skin and bones. He showed me a couple of pictures even, and gave me a chapter of text to read where some POWs were starving to death, yet they still had to drag themselves to the local coal mine for 12 hour shifts with nothing but a handful of rice for the entire day. Then they drug themselves, step by step, sometimes crawling, sometimes pulling or pushing one another, back to the prison camps where they were lucky to get a small amount of water and another handful of rice. If they searched for a morsel of something else, or complained that it wasn't enough, they were tortured even more. Often these POWs prayed that they would pass during the night, knowing that their frail bodies just could not continue on. Others prayed for help to sustain them just one more day. As we are struggling through with our limited shakes or various different diets, I am reminded of those POWs and how they survived on a handful of rice for days, months, even years, all the while working hard labor in their camps. Tonight when I am hearing my stomach rumble, I'm trying to be thankful for what I have. With that in mind, 700 calories doesn't seem so small when compared to the lives of our brave prisoners of war in history.

I have reached the 10 month mark post surgery at the end of January. I am finally down 60 lbs. My weekly weight loss has been a series of slow losses, never reaching the 1 lb + mark. This has led to a “will I” or “won’t I” get to a 60 lbs loss every time I have stepped on the scale this past month. Now that I have reached my short term goal of 60 lbs I am moving on to the next goal which is to get out of the 180’s (I am currently at 185.6). Since my surgery date I have averaged a loss of about .8 lbs a week (so sloooow). I am continuing to go to Crossfit three times a week. I have now been going for 6 months. I continue to have a love/hate relationship with working out but I am working on that. The routines have a lot of weight lifting so if you thought you couldn’t do any “weight lifting” after the surgery…not true. I joined the gym’s Paleo challenge for the month of February. It isn’t that much different then how I normally eat but I thought the challenge might help me through this slow weight loss period. I’m only on day one today but the biggest challenge has been to drink ½ my weight in water. My clothing sizes haven’t fluctuated much this past month. I am between a 14 and 16 in pants (mostly a 16 with some 14’s) and a L/XL top (again mostly XL). My hair is growing out nicely but I am losing more than I ever did pre-surgery. My hair went from “thick” to “medium” in weight. I am growing out a very short haircut and the fact that I can pull it back in a rather scraggly pony tail is cause for celebration. I eat pretty normally, except for smaller portions and not going back for seconds or thirds. I do try to limit carbs and sugar (the Paleo challenge should help with that). I still eat when I am bored and I have to watch that. I don’t regret my surgery and am glad I did it. I am getting lots of compliments and “how did you do it?” to which I reply “eating South Beach like diet for the most part” – which is true. I really don’t want to put “weight loss surgery” out there and have anyone undermine the effort I have put into loosing the weight. Wish me luck for the next month. Hopefully I will be in the 170’s if all goes well

December 5, 2012. The first day of the rest of my life. The last few days have been very dark days. I've been in a stall for a about 5 days now, and this is my second stall in 8 weeks. My highest weight was 242.2 and starting weight was 239.8. I've been stuck at 205 + or - 2-3 lbs. Today is my 8 week surgiversary. Today I am feeling much different than the few weeks, even the last 5 days. I have learned so much about my body as well as food, nutrition, and life in these last few weeks. Today I hit 100 oz of fluids. Prior to today I might have hit 50-60 on a good day. Today I hit my protein. Today I walked over 2 miles in under 40 minutes. Today I ran on the treadmill. I haven't 'ran' in almost 10 years... Today I made healthy choices. I have had sooo many struggles. EVERY SINGLE MEAL is a challenge. (anyone else?) Every meal is a new opportunity to choose the best food for my body. I am sooo far from perfect, and have struggled every single day. Today I put the scale away. Today I will focus on being healthy. Today I will focus on exercise and going forward. Today I will focus on being happy and living in the moment. My hunger has NOT gone away, however I can say that it is NOT the same kind of hunger as pre-surgery. Music has been my healing power. I hate plain water, and most protein shakes. I have learned that I am a strong woman, but I have a lot of dark demons that haunt me, I have many issues that I am always going to struggle with, but I am NOT going to let them beat me or get me down...I have done that for way too long. Thank GOODNESS for the amazing people who post on this website as they are and have been extremely supportive and I have learned so much from the many others who are taking a walk on this journey. I don't always post, but I read others posts and comments daily. Cheers to the rest of my healthy life!

The rearview mirror is my best friend. I'm always consulting it, flicking between the road ahead and what has just passed. For me, I'm obsessed with understanding and learning. I never take "I don't know" as an answer. There ARE no mysteries, there is always a reason. Maybe we don't understand it at the time, but that's what rearview mirrors are for; they are the teacher's answer key. And the more I know, the better I get. So here I am one week from getting my band replaced and am glancing at the rearview of my band failures and successes. I feel very different than the first time I was banded, and it's made even clearer by the new people I am befriending here on LBT. All the questions and the anxiety and the excitement, it's like looking at a photograph. It makes me smile and I'm probably more excited for their journey than they are, knowing what's coming. I want to be a good leader, a great example, and most of all I want to not repeat my own mistakes (for I am still a human leader). I wasn't perfect on the band like many others I see. I have a food addiction. And the first step in anything is owning up to your misses. I remember the first few months with the "magic fill" - I was a kid in a candy store, eating cookies and ice cream or high fat stuff. I would MARVEL that literally, two squares of a Hershey's bar would satisfy me. I would fold up the candy bar and put it in my desk drawer. I'd open the drawer just to look at it and boggle at the fact that I didn't WANT it, and I could say no. That never, ever happened to me. I destroy food like Godzilla with a hangover. I would sneak ice cream as a 7 year old when my mom was in the shower. The taste of food was unparalleled joy, all the time. And I enjoyed my bad food for a while when I was newly banded, because I had power over food for the first time in my life. I did eventually get too cocky and the band would interrupt a nice dinner I'd made or purchased, and all the food was put away because I had to PB, or just felt awful. Try having something stuck on a date....ruins the mood. I needed to go through that embarrassment and wake up call to get back in balance. Play time was over, it was time to work. Then I got in line with the band; roasting chicken thighs and carrots for dinner, portioning things out. Talking more with whomever I was with and letting food fall to the background. I never felt deprived because my food choices were just that - MY choices. It was so empowering I cannot even describe it. I literally felt like a normal person because my relationship with food was changing. This time around, I'm not even interested in bad food, or the permission to have it in small quantities. I have tasted normal sized clothing, I have tasted normal relationships with food, and I absolutely hate where I am now. I'm 40 lbs less than my heaviest, but I feel worse than I ever have. For 6 months now I've been heavy (half the time with a baby...the last 2 months of pregnancy were awful!) or healing from a c section, and lugging around more fat with sleep deprivation. I used to feel GREAT! I want to feel GREAT again. The band makes me feel GREAT because I feel in control. I am out of control now. And rereading my past entries, I fought and fought for stability with a constantly failing band and a less than ideal mindset. I am blessed and lucky to have a second chance. I'm not squandering it. Open eyes, looking ahead and behind, changing the bad and repeating the good. It's not all daisies on the journey, but yeah, when you get there, it's a freakin' field of flowers

Well, I went back to work on Monday and have had a pretty good week so far! I teach kindergarten so I've been REALLY tired in the evenings but I'm glad to be back into a routine. I started walking Monday night on my treadclimber and have done 30 minutes the past two nights. Today was my first appointment with my surgeon since having surgery. He said everything looked great and I could start on regular FOOD! Oh yeah!!!! Just watch my portions and chew,chew,and chew some more! I go back in 4 weeks and will probably get my first fill then! I'm really happy with thus decision and for once in my life feel like I'm actually gonna "do it" this time! Hope you're all having a great week and achieving myth success with your band!