KatieKateKate

So glad I found this thread as it is making me feel human and has melted pretty much every single frustration I've had since getting my band almost a month ago and replaced them with motivation and hope. :wub: I was diagnosed with PCOS 6 years ago but never thought it was that big of a deal...or a real thing...due to the way it was explained to me (as an explaination for my symptoms after ruling out all other possible causes) and the fact that my sister supposedly also has it and spent the last 5 years of her life pregnant with her 4 kids. It seemed as if she just looked at her husband and was pregnant again. Not to mention the fact that she droped her baby weight effortlessly while eating nothing but garbage and not exercising. So as a result of these things...along with the frustrations of trying to get a dr. to do anything about it seeing as how i'm unmarried and not trying to conceive, I've been untreated pretty much my entire life and never knew that much about it or what to do or why, despite my best efforts at every diet and exercise plan known to mankind I was having limited (or no) success. Jumping on the scale at LA Weightloss and seeing I'd lost 15 pounds for the month was awesome...until I'd get weighed 3 days later and see that, nope I'd managed to gain 10 or twelve of them back without changing a single thing I was doing. And so it's gone with the band as well. My scale hasn't moved in nearly 3 weeks. I was beyond frustrated and wondering what in God's name I'd done to myself and why I'd done it if I was just going to fail yet again...especially seeing the tremendous weightloss others on these boards have had. That was until I found this thread and read nearly every post to date...in one sitting. You ladies are awesome! :hurray: The successes you are having are inspiring and the tips I've read have renewed my hope in myself...and my band. I'm once again motivated to stick with it and try everything possible to kick this (the weight and the PCOS) for good...even if it takes me the next 10 years. Can't wait to put into practice some of the things I've read and look forward to learning more. Not only about life with PCOS and this band, but about each of you as well. (awwwww....sappy as hell, but true. )

I need some help here! :eek: I am not looking for sympathy, coddling, lectures or criticism, only serious ideas/suggestions that I can apply to my life to get me back on track. I've seen from reading the boards that a lot of ladies on here are nurses so they can probably best understand my situation and give me solid feedback because I'm sure they've been there, but I'm open to all ideas, from everyone. This may be somewhat scattered, so please bear with me... I'm having several problems adjusting the band to fit my lifestyle right now due to my schedule/job. So I guess a little background first would be good... I work in a busy ER. I work 12 hour night shifts 7pm-7am. I work a stretch of 7 days on, 7 days off. Which equals out to roughly 84 hours in one week, give or take. I am not a nurse (yet...working on that part now) but the Unit Secretary (or HUC depending on where you work). Which means I'm pretty much chained to my desk my entire shift, save for the times I volunteer to run errands in an attempt to get in some movement :biggrin: and my ten minutes sometime between midnight and 3 am where I grab my dinner out of them fridge, heat it up and use the restroom while I'm waiting. I'm probably making this sound horrible, but in reality, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my job. :sneaky: My weeks off are fine. I've got a good routine going and feel like a normal human. Most my weightloss happens during this time. :biggrin: My weeks on are a completely different story...:biggrin: Working out is a challenge. When I work out in the morning, it amps me up and I have a horrible time winding back down to be able to go to sleep...which is already hard enough during the day. Trying to wake up to work out in the afternoon and get to work on time is craziness because I'm exhausted from poor sleep quality/fried nerves/stress/etc (especially towards the end of my week), my mornings are everyone else's evenings so the gym is packed, traffic is horrible, etc. (Sounds like a lot of empty excuses, even as I'm typing it, but please bear with me here, because it's my reality). :biggrin: As I've stated before, I try to get up and move around as much as possible...answering call lights, running errands ( getting ffp from lab, running paper work to registration, getting the charts from our fast track instead of waiting for them to be dropped off, etc.), asking to go on walks on the rare occasions we're not busy or I'm not needed, etc. but a lot of times we're too busy and I simply don't have time or am not able to leave the desk because everyone else is busy and I'm the only one at the nurse's station. I'm also wondering how people manage to chew properly that have jobs such as mine. :blushing: My phone rings constantly and my desk is always covered in charts, so if I don't make quick work of getting my food in my belly and out of my mouth/off my desk, it becomes a problem rather quickly. As a result, I'm inhaling food and getting overfull. I spend the majority of the last few hours of my night feel nauseous and have come dangerously close to PBing several times. This isn't a huge problem now as I haven't had a fill yet, but I know it will be once I do and I'd rather just get things figured out and form good habits now. Maybe sticking to soft foods such as yogurt/soup? Or just having a Protein shake for my work meal? I'm just worried about relying too heavily on slider foods because as those of you who work in these enviroments know, there's a constant supply of candy/snacks/other unhealthy garbage available for grazing to keep energy up and keep you awake since no one knows when/if they may get the chance to stop and eat and I don't want to not feel full enough and fall back into that bad, bad habit. :biggrin: Also, since I pretty much do nothing but work and sleep during my week on, I basically have 12 hours to get in all my protein and Water...which are all spent at work. Water is not as hard. I don't always manage to get it all in, but I bring 2 1 liter bottles with me everyday and sip constantly; the protein is much tougher. The way I have been structuring my day goes something like this: 5pm-6pm (depending on when I feel awake enough to get up) Breakfast 12am-3am (depending on when I get time to eat at work) lunch 7:45am-8:30am (depending on when I get home for the day) Dinner Then immediately after that, bed. Repeat x7 days...well 6 because on my last day I stay up until roughly 7pm (or whenever I pass out from sheer exhaustion, but it's usually about 24 hours) to reset myself so I can be awake during the day and function like a normal person on my week off. :cursing: I'm pretty sure this is not the greatest approach.:biggrin: (The eating right before bed thing, not the staying up...that, I can live with. lol) So that's where I am. Have to say I'm not loving it. Love my job, my life is great, just a little (ok, incredibly) frustrated when I don't see the scale move for 2 weeks out of the month because of my schedule. Would greatly appreciate useful feedback on how to make this band work for me amidst the chaos.

A good quote I recently heard (can't remember where) that I repeat to myself whenever I'm faced with an uncomfortable or ridiculous conversation is: "What comes out of other people's mouths is about them, but what comes out of my mouth is about me." Or something along those lines...can't remember the exact wording right now. The important part to remember when you're dealing with ignorant and insensitive people is that what's coming out of their mouth is about them and their issues, and rarely if ever has much to do with you anyway. It's helped me immensly over the past few months to not react to every little ridiculous thing someone says to me or take it to heart. Hope it helps you too. =) Keep on keepin' on girl! Soon you'll have lost all your weight and look and feel so great you won't give a damn what anyone else says or thinks cuz you'll be too busy out living your life and enjoying every second!

lol, I doubt I ever will either, that's why I ordered the dvd's. That way I can make a fool of myself in the privacy of my own home instead of going to the gym to do the class like everyone else I know.

Thanks Lori Ann! And I agree, even with it's imperfections and the chaos it creates in my life at times, there's no way I'd go back to a 9-5 by choice! Zumba is amazing! Or at least it looks that way from the videos I've seen. I'm a little worried about the intensity of the workout, but also excited to push myself to the limit and see what I can actually accomplish fitness-wise. And if I cam learn to move like the girls in the video I posted at the bottom, going to the clubs will be much more fun, since I'll no longer move like the white girl with no rhythm I am. Here's the official description from the zumba website: Zumba® fuses hypnotic latin rhythms and easy to follow moves to create a dynamic fitness program that will blow you away. Our goal is simple: We want you to want to work out, to love working out, to get hooked. Zumba® Fanatics achieve long term benefits while experiencing an absolute blast in one exhilarating hour of caloric-burning, body-energizing, awe-inspiring movements meant to engage and captivate for life! The routines feature interval training sessions where fast and slow rhythms, and resistance training are combined to tone and sculpt your body while burning fat. Add some Latin flavor and international zest into the mix and you've got Zumba®! You can see it in action here:

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your replies and give a little update. You all had great suggestions and I've been trying them over the past couple weeks to see what works and what doesn't. I am now taking more slider/convenience foods with me to work and taking sort of a grazing approach to eating my work meals. A lot of yogurt, crackers and cheese, Protein shakes, etc instead of actual meals. I do still keep a couple lean cuisines in the work freezer or run to the cafeteria for a salad if we're slow and I have time for dinner. Thank God summer is over so we seem to be slowing down some now that motorcycles, ATV's, boats, etc are being put away for the year! My hospital also has a contract with WW and nearly everyone I work with signed up at some point over the past year and has been following the plan. I resisted for as long as possible thinking my band would be enough, but maybe it's not. I still have to learn to eat healthy and stick to a proper diet, right? So I signed up for that yeterday and will actually start next week after I see my doc for my apt on Monday. I talked it over with her beforehand and she wants to take some points away and tailor the program a bit to fit my band. Hopefully I can also talk her into a fill because I'm in desperate need of some restriction!!! As far as excercising goes...special thanks to Lori Ann for understanding where I'm coming from since it seems we live a similar lifestyle. I too have decided to stop the insanity and just accept my limitations. No more trying to work out on my weeks on, then being stressed if it doesn't work out right, then beating myself up about it. ENOUGH! In a perfect world, I'd be working out everyday for an hour or so reguardless of what else was going on. Turns out we don't live in a perfect world, and understanding that has made my life so much easier and less stressful! That being said, I have teamed up with some people I work with and am doing the couch to 5k program...as time and my schedule permits...and am shooting for our local Icebreaker 5k at the end of April. It'll be my first one and I'm super excited...if not a little terrified...about it! Also, another coworker and I have gotten into the Zumba craze and ordered the dvd's online. That starts next week when she gets back from Portland. Hopefully the combination of all these things will help. I've been super frustrated lately with the fact that although people keep noticing and commenting on my weightloss, my scale is still stalled and I haven't been able to move down a clothes size yet. (in jeans anyway) Soon though, hopefully very soon!

I have two NSV's to post! 1. Got my hair cut...no chopped off...SHORT! Like above my shoulders! This is a big deal for me because I've always had super long hair that I wore down...like a shield or security blanket covering my body or something. The biggest amazing thing is that I'm comfortable not having my hair to hide behind and *gasp!* might actually even like my new hair style! lol 2. People have been noticing the weightloss! I've seriously had like 10 different people comment on how good/how much thinner I'm looking over the past week or so. Feels so good! Especially since my scale hasn't been moving much lately and I've been feeling so frustrated lately. Two great NSV's! Looking forward to more throughout this process!

Hi all! I joined WW yesterday (won't officially stary until next week after I see my lb doc, as she wants to take some points away). So excited to find this thread and read every single post! What great motivation! :thumbup:Now I can't wait to start WW and maybe FINALLY see some movement on the scale again. I've been stalled for almost a month.:biggrin: Partially because I haven't had a fill yet and partially I think because my life has been crazy lately so I haven't been as focused on my diet and exercise as I should be. :biggrin: Next week I not only start WW, but am going to try to convince my doc I need a fill (she keeps telling me she's super conservative about them which is why she hasn't given me one yet) and also I'm starting a new workout routine with a co-worker.:smile: Has anyone ever Zumbaed before? Looks super fun! ...as long as I don't stroke out from the intensity. Keep up the good work ladies! Can't wait to be posting my own success right along with you! :wub:

Surgery (7/21) 386.2 Last Week 369.8 Today: 363.4 Officially my lowest weight in 5+ years! Love my band!

I've seen a lot of threads about different types of Protein powders, shakes, etc, but haven't come across one yet for ways to pack in the protein in other forms, so I figured I'd start one. I'm only a few weeks out so my diet is still limited, but so far the things I've found are: Oikos greek yogurt 110 cal, 0 fat, 15g protein! It's kinda sour, so I usually add some Bear Naked Protein granola. Bear Naked Protein Granola: 140 cal, 7g fat, 5g protein Kashi Go Lean High Protein & High Fiber cereal: 140 cal, 1g fat, 13g protein Special K Protein Plus: 100 cal, 3g fat, 10g protein Carbmaster yogurt: 80 cal, 4g carbs, 12 g protein (i can only find this at Smith's, so i'm not sure if that's true of everywhere, or just here) Frigo Light String Cheese: 60 cal, 8g protein 1g carbs I'd love to hear what other products people have found. I'm not a huge fan of the shakes, so as my diet progresses, I'd like to add a wider variety of protein options instead of going back to shakes. Right now, my favorites are yogurt and granola or Cereal with milk. Since skim milk has 8-9g protein (depending on the brand) I can easily get at least 18g in one quick meal. :ohmy:

Surgery (7/21) 386.2 Last 2 weeks 370.8 Today 369.8...FINALLY!!!! Some progress!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!! =)

Talk to your Dr. about the Green, you may have contracted c. diff while in the hospital.

I agree with all the statements above and would like to add that I chose the band BECAUSE I still have to do most of the work. Personally, I wanted to relearn how to eat properly and get into an exercise routine and become a more healthy, active person all around. In the past I've failed miserably because at some point it just stopped working for me and the pounds started creeping back on despite what I was doing. My last go around on LA Weightloss, I was losing and gaining the same 15 pounds for the better part of a year. Total I probably lost 150 lbs, but the scale only reflects a 60lb loss and that's all thanks to my band because I went right from LA Weightloss to my surgeon's office with no significant time in between to gain all that weight back. I will admit that my scale hasn't moved in almost two weeks now, which is frustrating and I'm feeling a little discouraged, BUT at least my band is making it so my scale isn't going back up in the meantime so that when I do begin to lose again, it's not that same old 2 steps forward, 1 step back routine and instead I get to have all 3 steps be in a forward moving direction! That NEVER would have been the case before. This is what people talk about when they call it a tool. It's not doing the work for me, but it's allowing me to keep my victories instead of watching them slip away again.