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I was banded a little over a year ago, I've lost over 80 pounds and I am at my goal weight. I also drink wine every evening. I don’t hide this from anyone. I have posted such information several times and when I get PM’d about it I answer honestly. I knew when I decided to get the band that I would have to change my life and I was more than willing to do just that. But, I was not willing to give up my wine. I enjoy wine, I like the taste. My husband & I often go wine tasting at some of the Texas wineries. So, I decided that wine was going to be a part of my lifestyle. From day one (& before) I have enjoyed my evening wine. Yes, the evening of my surgery I had a glass. I count the empty calories (110 calories for 5oz of wine, approximately) and I am careful. I know that wine relaxes the band right along with you. So if you drink too much and the munchies set in…..everything will go down & then some. I am responsible with my wine. I don’t drink for the effect of the alcohol. I drink wine because of the taste. You wonder, does my doctor know? Of course he does, I tell my doctor everything. Hiding information from your doctor only hurts you. My thoughts are this, if you have something you love and you can manage it then you should enjoy it. Make it a part of your plan. I have a friend that has a treat once a week of their favorite fast food meal, and another who has a single serving bag of Cheetos every day. Depriving yourself will not work. If you are anything like me, you will get resentful and end up splurging and hating yourself after. Enjoy your love, just manage it and you will succeed.

Everyone always wants to know why you have to eat protein. PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN is all we ever hear. Well I'm gonna try to make this as short and sweet as I can. When we are obese it doesnt matter if we eat protein because we have enough fat to burn for about 20 years worth. When you have weight loss surgery and you lose your fat stores, you will then start to lose lean muscle mass. Once you lose the muscle mass YOU CAN NOT GET IT BACK! 70 TO 90 GRAMS OF PROTEIN EVERY SINGLE DAY. (Sorry forgot to unlock caps and was not yelling). Before you put anything else in your mouth, you should be eating something filled with protein. If you can't eat meat then you have to find other things such as cottage cheese, tofu, beans, etc. If you lose your lean muscle you will be in trouble. Its not about just eating protein to burn fat, its about keeping your body healthy. If you chose to eat like crap then you can't blame anyone else when your muscle's don't work correctly. Also if you do not get enough protein you can become very vitamin B-12 deficient. Once damage has occurred from B-12 deficiency it is not reversable. I have seen patients become paralyzed from not having enough B-12 if that happens you will not get it back. Eat your protein. If you have to drink it then drink it but you must get in your protein. Losing muscle mass from weight reduction can lead to harmful effects on your body, as well as problems with your weight-loss results. You want to lose weight fast but please do it safely. Nothing worse then losing a lot of weight, lose your muscle mass and end up in a wheel chair. That is not what weight loss surgery is about by any means. You are given directions for a reason.

One of the scariest or infuriating things I encounter is when I've made a new low on the scale and then gain back 3 or 5 pounds in the next few days. And then it takes a week to get back where I was. I know it's just my body getting adjusted to my new lifestyle, but it is infuriating to see it happen. After reading so many success stories about losing 20 plus pounds per month in the 1st 6 months, I WANT IT TOO! Not 10, not 15, I want my 20+ pound loss, just like clockwork - gimme, gimme, gimme! But that isn't the way my body wants to do it. So I'll just have to get used to the way it works. In fact, the gains are my fault. I allow myself a "cheat" meal on Saturday nights and one more on Sundays when I visit my parents (twice a month). It's not that I eat more food, it's just less healthy. For example: Friday morning weight in: 296.8 Saturday night was Golden Corral buffet night. Over the hour I was there, I had about 4oz of meatloaf, 1 fried chicken strip, 1 big cauliflower floret w/cheese, about 2 tablespoons of Shepard's pie and about 1/2 of some kind of pecan gooey thing. I didn't stuff myself, just ate until I was full, waited while my friend hit the buffet again, and I ate a little here and there as my stomach emptied. The following Sunday happened to be one of the 2 days a month I visit my parents. At lunch we had Churches fried chicken. I had 1 fried breast, 1 single serving of mashed potatoes, and 1 biscuit. This is not the normal fare, usually mom cooks meat and vegetables. I wasn't able to eat the whole thing in one sitting. I broke it into 2 meals, one at 11am, the 2nd at 2pm. The rest of my meals for the weekend were my normal fare: turkey hamburger w/cheese and spaghetti sauce or turkey hamburger w/gravy and chopped cauliflower. In a 4oz bowl. Monday morning weigh in: 302.4 - almost a 6 pound gain! I can only assume that all the salt and sodium caused quite a bit of water retention. I don't believe I really over did it too much on the calories. Now it's Thursday - 4 days later - and I'm back down to 298.4 - 4 pounds. Not surprising really, it's happened more than once. That doesn't mean I have to like it! I think it might be a good thing to switch up foods this way, my body won't get accustomed to a certain calorie count/protein/carb/fat intake. I just won't go overboard on the bad stuff and eat it more than 6 meals a month. Now if only I can get over my fear of seeing the scale move up instead of down! And I'll watch and see how my body reacts long term. If turns out that it's causing stalls or long term weight gain, I'll have to go back to the basic diet and cut out the bad stuff. NSV! Now, where's my light saber? I have to punch a new hole in my belt.

I have 5 days until my surgery!!!!! Im so anxious to have it done already...it feels as though this process has been sooo long!! I have finally realized something...I am on my liquid diet btw..yesterday I was talking to my fiancé and I asked him if I could cheat just a little on the diet...and he told me something that I now hear in my head every time I want to cheat.."You have cheated your whole life, its time to buckle down cause things are changing!!" Im blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life who supports my every move. I heard him and I thought to myself...he's so right, I have ate pizza at late hours with extra cheese, extra pepperoni, I have eaten out for days eating junk and greasy food, I drank pop whenever I wanted to and never thought about the consciences...but now is my chance to move forward to grow out of that to help myself in becoming the better ME I can be for my Fiancé and most of all for my DAUGHTER!! I don't want her to have to see me as a diabetic or with high blood pressure and have to worry about me taking pills or having to be on insulin..i want her to know me as active and healthy I want to chase her around and take her for walks and not feel out of breath because I jogged a little..These next 5 days cant come any faster!! I am so ready to start my Journey with the lapband

Hi Everyone!I am very excited and nervous at the same time. I have been a member of this site since 2009. whoever thought of this is a genius. I finally get to express my feelings and say to the world that my journey has just begun. I have prayed to our dear lord Jesus asking him is it my turn yet? Yes, he finally told me."Yes Sheryl it's your turn" I was so happy when I received the news from my insurance company that I was approved. It is time to make a change. I have been pretty big all my life. and darn it I am sick of it.. I can't take this extra weight on me any longer. All things are possible.. right!! At least that is what people keep telling me.. It could happen and it will. " Well finally its going to happen. I go back to the Doctor's office April 23rd this Tuesday 2013. Someone once told me that life holds no promises. You must search and work for your own dreams. Well, I am taking chances and making my own choices. I have been given an opportunity to become the one person I have always wanted to become. (Me) finally I am going to step out of this fat person and find my way to freedom. life is a precious gift and I'm going to make it possible .

When people fall in love they are head over heels with each other. They can't get enough of each other and decide we are in this for the long haul. As time goes on life changes and that in love feeling changes to a new love. People have to work at it because if it goes stale then the only thing that happens is either divorce or break up. People don't stay married for 50 or 60 years because it was always easy. Work, children, stress and everything in between come in to play and if you give up then you are giving in. When you choose to have weight loss surgery you are entering in a new relationship. In the beginning you are all gung ho over the band, bypass, or sleeve because you are getting results. Then your weight loss starts to deminish, it goes slow and that feeling of giving up plagues many. That in love feeling with your band becomes stale and sometimes obsolete. To keep your love alive with your band you must make an effort to have a healthy relationship with it, not give in because the going gets rough or you're not losing as fast as you want too. You have to change up your diet and not give in to eating the same old boring foods day in and day out. If you don't work with it or for it, it won't work for you. We had a good relationship with food before the surgery so you now have to have a good relationship with food now that you have the band. The only way that you are going to let this make you or break you, is your determination that your relationship with the band is going to be ever lasting. We don't give up on our children because they don't behave well, we don't give up on our jobs because they stress us, we don't give up on our loved ones because they are ill and we can't give up on our bands just because at the moment the scale won't move or we are having a hard time in life, stressed, dealing with things that we don't want too that would make us eat before. Our relationship now is different. It will in time give you life, health and happiness if you are willing to stay married to it for the long haul. If you want the band to work, then develop a loving healthy relationship with it. Don't let it get stale. Keep your momentum alive and think about why you did this. It is only up to you and you alone to make this relationship work. If you don't then you will be right back where you started. It's not always easy to have a new relationship but it's not impossible to have a healthy relationship with food. Love yourself enough to make this work because the benefits are priceless. If you ever doubt that you can't or won't succeed then its up to you to know that you are worth more then that.

So my orientation for the Kaiser Permanente Options program was on Monday April 15, 2013. I had to take my youngest son because of a miscommunication with my husband on who was going to pick him up. Grrr... but regardless, I was able to make it on time. I am going towards choosing the vertical sleeve option which seems to be the most effective and less dangerous. I'm just really excited to start this process!!! - RCN

Hopefully the fact that the scale moved 2 weeks in a row means that the stall is over! It didn't move much, at least not compared to the first month but it's going down. So whatever speed it chooses to move is fine with me! I have been trying very hard to listen to my body and eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. Right now that's about 800-900 calories a day and I'm feeling really good. I have good energy and feel healthy! And my libido is in full swing (Hubby is loving the current hormones...LOL) I am trying to bump up my intentional exercise. I have plantar facietis so when I walk too much I am in alot of pain, so I'm trying to rotate between walking and riding my bike. (Just to give you a visual, I have a super fun green cruiser bike with big flowers and and a basket!!). Monday I rode 6 miles AND took my dog on a short walk (she's a sausage dog with short legs so she doesn't walk far Gonna shoot for the same thing today. I'm trying to figure out the whole gym thing. I want to join one mainly so I can swim but haven't decided if I can justify the money. Then I could alternate between walking, swimming and biking...Hey wait, that's almost like a triathalon...right??? Whoo-hoo Go Me!!! Heaviest Weight: 281 3/6/13 Surgery: 257 (-24) 3/13/13: 251 (-6) 3/20/13: 245 (-6) 3/28/13: 238 (-7) 4/3/13: 238 (-0) FIRST MONTH -19# 4/10/13: 237 (-1) 4/17/13: 235 (-2)

I think most of us have had a love hate relationship with something- our cell phone, our job, heck even our spouse. It is also easy to have a love hate relationship with the band. I do love mine, don't get me wrong, but some times that little plastic makes my life hell. For instand on my vacay, I ended up being stuck most of the trip, I couldn't eat much of anything. Sometimes eating slow is a problem especially when you are busy or in meeting- a quick bite gets you stuck quick. However, because of my band I have learned so much. I am eating better foods. Yesterday when I hit WallyWorld for grocery day I noticed as I was placing my groceries on the checkout how my buying has changed. I buy very little from the interior of the store- the highly processed, sodium rich, high cal foods. Most of what is in my cart is water, water packs, yogurt, milk fresh meats, frozen and fresh veggies. I like this change. Due to the change of what I am eating I feel better, I breath better, I move better, basically I am better. So my relationship with my band is way more love than hate. It is so easy to get frustrated on this journey and blame our band and say we hate it, or it's not working, but before we say that we need to ask ourself are we working it. You car can't get you any where unless you drive it, you band won't get you to goal unless you work it. Yes, you can have bump ups and your car might even break down - but you must fix it and keep on truckin. Everything including our band journey is a process. The band plays it's role, we must play ours, our doctor has theirs, and our nutrtionist has theirs. All the players must do their part or the journey gets off course. Are you doing your part?

Thank you Scale-Gods!!! It finally moved! After 2 full weeks of my scale being stuck at 238 this morning it finally says 237!! Whoo-hoo! So in 5 weeks I have lost 20#....I can handle that! :D Right now my challenge is calories. Not getting them in, I haven't had any problem tolerating anything. I'm having problems figuring out where my body will lose best. My surgeon recommends staying at 600 calories for the entire losing process. However, I have a couple problems with that. #1 - I feel like crap keeping my calories that low (like low energy, foggy brain etc) and #2 it just seems like in the long run that would work against my metabolism. So here's what I am currently doing. I am trying to listen to my body, if I'm hungry (not just bored, sad etc) I am eating a little something. It's about every 2-3 hours that I'm eating something. I am tracking everything I eat and right I'm averaging about 800 calories. My RMR is about 1700 calories so I would think that everything should be fine. I've seen quite a few people on the forums )and picked their brains) who didn't sticl to the super low calorie intake and have still been incredibly successful. BUT, there is still that little voice in the back of my head telling me that I will fail....especially if I'm not doing exactly what the surgeon says. So I'm glad the scale finally moved, just reinforces how I feel. I know I feel better, I actually have so much energy. I feel like I'm going a little stir crazy cause I work at a desk job all day so when I get home I'm ready to go and do something...all the time!!! My poor little lap dog has to just follow me around and hope I sit down soon Heaviest Weight: 281 3/6/13 Surgery: 257 (-24) 3/13/13: 251 (-6) 3/20/13: 245 (-6) 3/28/13: 238 (-7) 4/3/13: 238 (-0) FIRST MONTH -19# 4/10/13: 237 (-1)