♥LovetheNewMe♥

Well gang I have been MIA for a while. busy with work and school. Just to update everyone, I am still on track but have had a little set back. On my journey to a healthy me, I had a little set back with my exercise routine. I selected curves as my gym because it had been such a long time since I had exercised and I wanted to start out slow, I lost 12.5 inches my first month and was so excited in my progress, I think I became a little obsessed with my progress and was attending the gym 4-5 times a week, well 2 weeks ago I went to work on a Friday like always and wham............... I started walking across the hospital campus and my knee went out, I tore my lateral meniscus, The past few weeks have been a serious bump in the road, no exercise and I am on crutches. I have to do 3 weeks of PT and than they will decide if I need surgery. I have no stability in the knee and with out the brace and crutches I end up on the floor. I have really been worried that I would gain weight and have obsessed over my calorie intake. I decided not to have my band tightened because I was exercising and maintaining my intake to the 1000-1200 calorie range. I had just finally gotten to the point I enjoyed eating again and not getting stuck. I monitor my calories on myfitnesspal.com but the not exercise is driving me nuts. I am stuck, still weighing in at 177. Hope everyone is doing good.

Donna agree with above you it sounds like your to tight. I have several friends at work and we have all had the band. She is 1 year out and has done well but in the last several months she has had to have fluid removed becasue of vomiting and reflux. I have only had two fills and 1 partial unfill since my surgery last October. After my bad experience with my last fill and unfill I decided to learn to eat properly. I do not regret my band but if possible I do not want more fluid in it. I have lost 72 lbs and have about 25 left to lose and I know it is going to be tuff. Everytime I think I need a fill I have an episode like yesterday and everything healthy I tried to eat got stuck. Can't explain it, I have just decided the band sometimes has a mind of it's own. As far as your question about your diet after your unfill, my doctor makes you go on liguids for 48 hours post any fill, he says there is always the potential for some swelling after an adjustment. I usually do shakes for 2 days just to be safe. I hate throwing up, it hurts. As far as gaining your weight back, I think that is the daily fear we all live with, learn to rely on new habits not entirly on the band. If you do not develop a healthy life style success long term is more difficult and you will always be fearful of gaining weight. If healthy choices become a way of life you will keep your weight off. Remember this is a journey and a life style change and change does not happen overnight, it takes years to change unhealthy behaviors we all have had. Good luck and hope your feeling better and back on track soon.

I guess we all have to learn that the band is a tool not a magic wand. You may think that counting calories or watching what you eat is a waste but you and only you can decide what you want to get out of this surgery. Lapband surgery is a life changing event for all of us, we all ended up with surgery becasue everything else had failed. Remember old habits die hard, we are like all addicts, we need reconditioning and have to believe in ourselves. Change is hard and does not happen overnight. I am 10 months out and have lost 72 lbs. But believe me it did not just fall off, I have had to learn the hard way at times that I can eat just about anything but it is up to me to control my behavior. The band does work, but you have to work with it. Don't be to hard on yourself because we all have had to learn that we are the one factor that makes the band work. It is only a tool, but a tool we have to learn to listen to. Start making healthy choices and STAY away from fast food. It is what helped get us all here! Good Luck and remember we are all here for you.

Thanks for the encouragement, I will talk to the PT on Wednesday, I am hoping that I can develop a new program that will allow me to continue to work out. Today has been a bad day on my feet a lot and the knee just buckels unexpectedly. Hoping the PT will build up the other muscles and stabilize the knee, if not I am ready for surgery (I think) A nurse with a bum leg does not work very well.

That is great news, will be thinking about you on surgery day. Keep us posted and know we are all here for you on your journey.

Totally understand, I have went from a size 24 to a 12 and I still can't believe it is really me. Congratulation, enjou the new You!

Hi, everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend and is doing well on this beautiful, hot summer day. This past weekend I have been doing a lot of soul searching about commitment and why I seem to be stuck for the past month when I felt I was doing everything right. The first 6-7 months after surgery I did well with my weight loss, I lost 1-2 lbs per week, had 2 fills, 1 unfill. I failed to exercise regularly as my doctor told me because I was not motivated, so basically the weight in the beginning dropped at a fast rate. But I weighted 248 lbs, 5'1" tall. (check out my photos I was quite the little butter ball) I ate around 800-1000 calories a day and tracked what I ate. I used the lap band web site, watched the videos, logged my foods, read everything I could get my hands on and participated in the forums. I was committed. I thought. Then I got comfortable, I looked better, felt better,and like I said things were going well. Then the weight slowed down, but I was still losing, so I started using the expensive treadmill I bought for Christmas, 2 or 3 days a week. I had pretty good restriction after my first fill, I had too much restriction with my second fill and they removed less than .4 of a cc. Some days I feel restricted, some days I can eat what ever I want. So over the past few weeks I asked myself, " Diane are your really committed to this journey, are you in it for the long haul" Boy is that an eye opening question. My answer is yes! So I had to recommit to why I started this journey, I look a lot better now, but seriously, I am still obese. Just not as obese as I was 8 months ago. I can wear a size 14 but a size 14 today is probably not what a size 14 was years ago. Let's face it guys as a society we have all gotten larger and so the designers have made the sizes fuller to growwwwwwww, with us. Sorry just a little play on words there. But honestly, I was fat so I feel I have the right to talk about myself and have an opinion. So how do I make sure I can keep this commitment to myself, because honestly in the past at about this time I start getting Bord with things and fat Diane would seem to resurface. I cannot let this happen this time, or maybe I should say I WILL not allow this to happen this time. So this is what I did this weekend to try and figure out why I seem to be sorta stuck, lose a pound, gain a pound, loss two pounds, gain one pound, loss nothing. What I committed to a month ago. 1. 2 weeks ago I joined curves, and I am proud to say I have went 4 days a week since I started. I got my curve smart key today and boy I thought I had been working out, well now I am really working out. 2. I committed to blogging and being honest with all of you, I have kept that commitment also, I make every attempt to blog my feelings at least weekly and I read the other blogs and comment to lend encouragement and honesty to others. Many of you have encouraged me, some directly and some indirectly. I find even though I have never met any of you formally, we all share so many experiences and we can learn so much form each others successes and failures. 3. I committed to writing down all of my food and not snacking between meals," the graze thing" boy I think this has been the hardest. I tired using the lap band web site to record and this wasn't working well for me, when I was at work I would write my food down and try and log it to the web site in the evenings. I wasn't always consistent. I had post it notes all over my office with bits of info on them of what I had eaten daily. I tried drinking protein for breakfast, no between meal snacks, increasing my protein, watching my carbs, looking at my fats, etc, etc. I thought about getting a fill so I would eat less, but realized over the 4th, I may not have total restriction but I was not listening to my band. I had fallen into the crutch of wanting my band to do the work not me. Now let;s face it guys, I loved food, I love to cook, I love to eat because no one gets as big as I did by just cheating a little. Seriously! Sorry for digressing. Like I said logging the food on the lap band site was not working well for me so by reading the forums' blogs and internet searches I found some answers I am going to try. Saturday, I did a lot of Internet searches; How many calories should a lap band patient eat?, How much protein should a lap band patient eat? How many carbohydrates should a lap band patient eat? How many calories do I need to decrease to lose 1 lbs a week? How many fewer calories do I need to eat to lose 2 pounds a week? What drives the metabolism, How do you jump start your metabolism? I am not sure but I am sure I did a few more I have forgot about by now. So what did I find, lots and lots of information. So what now? I think the best site I found, was right here on our own blogs. www.myfitnesspal.com The site is free, you plug in your height, weight and your life style. (Now be honest about the life style) You can tweak the protein to what we should eat, and there is a mobile application that you can use on your droid, I-phone, I-touch or blackberry. It is free, it will allow you to add stuff that isn't in the data base, build a recipe and calculate your servings. It tells you how much you should loss based on what you eat and exercise. Honestly, not sure what the long term result will be but it will also allow me to run a report I can take to my nutritionist for her to evaluate at my next visit. It adds your exercise points back in but I have decided to eat these for now to see how the next few weeks go. So what have I learned about myself over the past 72 hours, I am OCD big time. But I need to be OCD or I will never make it for the long haul. I have to hold myself accountable, I can not expect anyone else to do that for me. I can not lie to my self and I can not expect the band to do all the hard work. Some of the work is changing my own thought process about food and how I cope with life. Do I have restriction, yes if I listen to my band and to what I was taught. Eat off a small plate, cut my food into bite size pieces, chew each piece 20-30 times, lay my fork down between bites, eat at the dinner table NOT in front of the TV. If I finish my food under 20 minutes give my brain time to catch up with my stomach oh and lastly make healthy food choices and eat protein first. Now if I do all of those things I do have restriction and I am satisfied for 3-4 hours. Question is, do I feel full? The answer to that is no, but I feel satisfied with what I eat. I still measure all my food, eating 2-3 ozs. of protein at each meal, learning that a serving of vegetables is really 1/2 cup except lettuce of course. I will probably measure my food for the rest of my life because obviously I do not understand serving sizes. So guys I challenge all of you to commit to your self. Think about why you did this, it should have been for you. You are the only person you have to be honest with, you are the only person who knows what you put in your mouth everyday. You are the only one who really can answer the question."ARE YOU REALLY COMMITTED TO THE LONG HAUL?" We will have good days, great days, bad days and totally sucky days? We will lose weight, we will gain weight, we will stay neutral but what matters most is our honesty to ourselves and our commitment to change how we use food, how we think about food and taking this one day at a time.I am committed or maybe I need to be committed some days I am not sure but I will say, I am so glad I had the surgery, I am thankful for this support forum and last but not least I LovetheNewMe! Have a great week and believe in yourself because "YOU" are worth it! Edit note: (p.s. I learned by logging my food that I may not be eating enough consistently and maybe my body is going into starvation mode. I will keep you posted if I lose anything over the next week. I started tracking every morsel on Saturday the 9th of July. So crossing my fingers ) Try out the web site it is pretty neat and I got the idea from reading one of our blogs. :iloveuall:

Keep moving forward, hopefully you will be able to schedule surgery in the next month or so.

Chips are my weakness along with french fries. I have a rule at my house, no chips are allowed in the door. I can not trust myself alone in a room with a bag of them. I always said if they didn't want you to eat the whole bag they would never have put them all in there. If they are sitting in the kitchen, I swear the call my name. I know tha sounds silly but that's how they are for me. And YES, the mental changes or the head hunger is the hardest behavior for us to change and it so hard and every time you think you have it under control, it can slip back up on you. For me I have had to become OCD about something else in order to not focus on food. Like you I had been on every diet known to man and had been successful losing weight but never keeping it off. The old mental thoughts always crept back in and I would find myself with all the weight back on plus more. Don't beat yourself up, keep that thinner picture in front of you and the picture when you were your biggest on your fridge or in your kitchen. There is no better image for me not to eat than to see how big I was 2 years ago. Write yourself an affrimation "I will do this and I "will be successful" Keep this on your mirror in your bath room. I know this sounds silly but it helps me to stay focused and believe in my self. People can tell us all day long how good we look, but we have to change how we fill inside and believe it ourselves. Good luck and remember we are all our here to support you in this journey, we are all in this together.

I am super excited today! I shared with everyone I started exercising 3 weeks ago, I joined Curves and dusted the treadmill off and started using it for something besides a clothes holder. I had been so frustrated because I had been stuck since after my last fill and unfill in May. I dropped immediately after my fill but than continued to hover in the 180's, lose a pound, gain a pound. I started logging everything I ate 10 days ago on myfitnesspal.com. I loaded the free app on my blackberry to make sure I would log every morsel I placed in my mouth. Well ladies and gentlemen, it paid off. I got weighed this morning at the gym and I am down to 179!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo, a new set of numbers, I am so super excited, I have been stuck in the 180's for 2 and a half months. I was so excited and motivated I started Power 90 the Original Version, Circuit 1-2 and 3-4 this evening. This is lower impact than P90x or Power 90 Master series but for me it is enough impact. I made it through the 35 minutes and didn't pass out or pull my back out. My husband walked in and said, "Honey please don't have a heart attach, your breathing awfully hard and sweating. I had to laugh. You guys don't know me but I'm a girlie girl and usually don't go out any where with out every hair in place and my make up on. So seeing me work out like this was blowing his mind. He thinks I have become a little OCD and maybe I have but dang it I didn't do all this (have the surgery) to not loss weight and get in shape. I want a healthier me and it is going to take more than just a lap band to get me there. To get to my goal weight of 138 I am going to have to really work at it and if that means I am obsessive, so be it. I really care what I put in my body these days, I have wasted a lot of time over the years abusing my self with fast food and junk. It is time I really took care of me, because I am worth it and I want this not so much to look good but to feel good. Today doing the Power 90, I could barely do jumping jacks, now come on who can't do jumping jacks? My legs felt like two lead pipes and it took everything I had to move it, and balance, OMG.. I think I have the coordination and the balance of a 90 year old. My WII fit tells me all the time I need to work on my center of gravity, seriously! I hate it when a dang computer soft ware program is such a smart A$$, but honestly it is correct, my balance sucks. So here is hoping that I improve my coordination and tone a little doing this, now I don't think I will ever have 6 pack abs. (lol) but at least maybe I can stretch my thighs without hanging onto a chair. I am sooooo glad I did this circuit in the privacy of my own home so no one could see how bad I was, but I think I get "A" for effort. I get my measurements done on the 27th of July I can't wait to see how many inches I have lost since I started working out, I know I have lost some because my shorts are lose in the thighs and waist and my bras are too big again. Dang it I really wish I could keep the boobs, I have more fat on my booty and wish it would come off first. Do you think I could have the fat from my butt sucked out and injected in my boobs than I would be pretty equal. (Just a suggestion) Signing off, have a great week everyone!

What about adding unflavored protein powder to cream soups and puddings. I used a protein I ordered from bariatriceating.com called pure. It is unflavored, no taste, no change in texture of the food and 2 scoops adds 24 grams and about 105 calories, low carbs. You can't heat it up but can put in hot foods if yiu tempure the liquids. It really has no taste or smell.

Happy Saturday bloggers! Hope everyone had a great week and did one thing for themselves this week. I have worked my "buns" off this week at Curves and on my treadmill. In the past week I have exercised 30 minutes every day and burned a total of 1830 calories. I have lost 1.4 lbs and a total of 8" in the past two weeks. It was so hard for me to get motivated over the past 8 months to exercise as usual I wish I had got off my butt sooner and started. Some mornings I do not want to roll my body out of bed but I do and it is paying off. So happy with the results so far. Tonight we are going out to dinner with friends to celebrate her 40th birthday. She is a gastric sleeve patient, about 2 months post op and has lost 30 lbs. We are going to a dinner theater. Looking forward to the evening with friends but always stress over what to eat. One good thing we can share a meal. Have a good weekend everyone and keep up the good work, remember we are all on a journey taking it one day at a time.

This is great, I agree with the not weighing, just go with how the cloths fit. I have struggled over the past few months trying to decide if I needed a fill because I was not losing. Then the band would tighten up and I would get stuck. So like you I decided to go with the flow and let the band do it's work and stopped obsessing about it. Honestly I think your right, live right, and eat clean will get us where we want to be. Good luck and congratulations on your success!

I know it is hard but you have to have some fiber in your diet. I tried the fiber tabs, chewable ones, two a day. I still seemed to have gas, and boy was it bad. I have started adding some oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast and this seems to help. Sometimes I think we focus so much on protein we do not do as well with veg, fruit and fiber. I use Gas-x to help with burping but if I eat past satisfied and to full I always burp, my friend gets the hiccups. Good luck with the exercise, every little bit counts, you will work up to more over time. Good luck and keep up the good work!

Totally understand your frustration. I am eight months out and have lost 70 lbs to date, I still have 38 lbs to lose and I say everyday these are going to be the hardest 38 lbs to lose. I exercise 5 days a week, started this religiously 3 weeks ago. I used to do the treadmill 3 days a week but it just was not getting it. I also started using myfitnesspal.com to track all of my calories and activity. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong, eatting to much, not eatting enough, eatting the wrong things. I thought about tightening my band so I could eat less but glad I didn't. I decided to learn how to work with the band and not let the band do all the work. So currently 50% is me working hard and the other 50% is the restriction of the band. I do not snack, I eat 3 meals a day, I take 15-20 minutes to eat my meal and if there is anything left on my plate after 20 minutes I trash it. In the past 3 weeks I have lost 8 inches and lost 2.5 lbs. Now this is no where as fast as it was for me in the beginning but I now know I am doing everything I can to make the weight come off, I am changing my behavior towards food, making healthy choices. My co-workers laugh at me when they ask what I snack on I say my vitamins, I take soft chews and gummys and I split them up in 3 servings and feel like I'm getting a treat. So remember, slow weight loss is best (even though frustrating), the scales are not our friend because as we get smaller and exercise we start to build muscle and lose inches. Good Luck!

Great Post, I agree we do tend to beat ourselves up when the scales don't move. I loved the analogy, we should all try that and it may help us to add prospective to our weight loss. We become so focused on the scales and the numbers.

Good Luck

Consider the not drinking with your meals. I know you said your fill person says it's ok but honestly I know how hard it is to not drink but it really makes a difference if you don't drink 30 minutes before you eat and wait 30 to 45 minutes post eating. You fill satisfied longer and for the most part if you band is working like it was designed you can just eat 3 meals a day with out snacking. The band doesn't do all of it, your head has to learn to keep those thougts from sneeking back in. Try this web site for a week, www.myfitnesspal.com, log everything you eat and drink, log your exercise, don't eat the extra calories it adds back in and I bet if you do this you will start to lose again. The exercise will help a lot also, my first half of this year the weight really was falling off but now, I got to really work the program. Good luck and come back to the site we are all here off and on to help you make it to your goal. Good luck and keep going, look how far you have already come.

Congratulations Michael. You are doing fantastic, look forward to following you and watch you become a shadow of your formal self. :success1:

i read this last night on the internet, we love this show. I knew he was looking different but had no idea he had joined us here in bandster land. He looks great. Thanks for sharing.

You made me smile after a very hard day at work, with this type of attitude you will be successful. Thanks for sharing.

Very inspirational, thanks for sharing your fullfullment with us.

Thanks for sharing, it is so hard for us addicts to admit when we fall. But the key is we admit it, learn how to deal and move forward. I think the hardest thing for most of us is accepting that one bite will never be enough. Sometimes I think, life is so unfair, why can that skinny person eat what ever they want. But you know I bet they have their own demons to fight we just can't see them. Hope your next trip goes better, remember we take this one day at a time. Good luck.

Congratulations, we will be here waiting for you!