DynamoMini

Hi Everyone - Glad to see life goes on and we are coming along. My fill is really good. I am full most of the day after eating small quantities. At first I was worried I was overfilled, it is such a fine line, but I slowed down and really chewed and I do fine. Gulping is no longer in my vocabulary or I will be Pbing, which isn's sociable or fun. Drews glad you are back on the skates. mal - I remember when my Tiffany died (14 year old cock-a-poo), that dog even flew in my plane with me. I hurt in every cell of my body. it is such a hollow ache. Glad the puppy can soften that for you. Sunnysea - I adore the breed. I do hate finding a good groomer tho' but they are adorable and such great company, and no shedding, little barking, just easy sweet dogs. A swamp cooler is a unit that is on your roof, that blows air over water soaked aspen pads. We have runs to all upstairs bedrooms and just one on the main floor. It is wonderful to add some moisture to the air out here, and it really cools things down. It only works in desert climates, and isn't efficient when it is humid. You keep doors and windows open with it, as it draws through the house that way, so you don't feel cooped up in the AC house. Boy, I didn't know I'd go on like this. heee...hee.... Woofay - keep cool. At least we are supposed to have a cold front and the day time temp will get into the 80's. Have a good night, Michelle

Margi - good for you in your new size 12. It is a lot of work, but worth it! Indigo Girl - how are you doing? Hope you are recovering quickly from the surgery.

8675309 - I was a teacher for 31 years and i think you'll be able to do the inservice. Usually it is a lot of sitting and talking. You'll be fine. Make sure to wear comfortable clothes, when I sat the waists could hurt a week out from surgery. Good luck - hope you have a good class. Mal - I am so relieved that you got a puppy. You need one in your life. Buster won't replace but stimulate other kinds of caring. Have fun! Woofay - yuck this weather. I have bill averaging on my electric bill, because being retired that helps, but it is still a lot per month. Teach me to have a big house with gas forced air. The AC isn't even on, just the swamp cooler and I pay $280 a month. My fill is really helping me slow down and eat less. Yeah!!!! I have to really do the bandster eating rules and drink my protein shakes. Paula said that 1000 calories were probably enough for me. I was pushing 1400, so that is why my loss has been slower. We'll see. Marcy - sorry about the chick. I was swollen for a month and a half. Sometimes I wonder if I am still swollen, but I think my belly is big. Hope the kids are "perfect" and your friends take them out and run them around for you. I was tired after surgery. Hugs all, off to Mah Jongg. I don't know why I am not alerted when you post now, I used to be. This site is a pain, but a lovable one. I appreciate the kind words and good feeling expressed here.

Woofay - you are just part of the Dr. k. experiment on fills. I laughed with him when we found out I had a lot less in my band than he thought he put in. I think those misses are tricky. It is trial and error to get to a good spot. Yes my ticker is moving a bit. I'm at 196 in the mornings now, three days in a row, so I'll take it. Staying cool is an effort. My swamp cooler works when it is dry, but it has been kinda muggy by Denver standards, I am great if I stay under the fan in the family room. I am getting really excited about the remodel. New looking digs, just for me. Special. I worry I am overextending, but everything in my neighborhood has sold for a lot of money, so my equity is a good bet. Hugs to you Mal, hope your puppy search is a good one. I have the cutest dogs that love kids, don't shed and are wonderful companions - they are shih tzus. You do have to get them groomed.... which reminds me. I'll try to post a picture. Marcy - hope you are healing well, way up north. Drews - can't imagine what I want to say to you..... hey...hey...hey

IndioGirl - Best wishes on your surgery. I am sure you will do really well. You are prepared and ready to go! Hugs.

Shesha - yeah!!! that is good news! Mal - I think a dog is the answer. you will still grieve and miss your baby, but it takes the sting out. Drews - ok - you have different priorities, like sleep, I guess. We missed you! Woofay - where are you? Are you keeping cool? marcy - How are you doing? I spent 5 hours in Home Depot putting together my remodel materials. Then go to order the toilet and sink, and find out that the last delivery truck brought in all broken stuff, so I will have to go to another Home Depot to get the stuff, and 5 bullnose tiles that they didn't have at this one. Also they were out of the toilet seat, but i really am not complaining, I am glad to be moving forward. It was even hot inside the Home Depot. I cleared out shelving space in the garage for the stuff and put the tile that I bought and other stuff away. I found these really cool little glass tiles that are irredesant that I am putting into a patterned band inside the round glass shower. Should look really good. Considering I must have walked 5 miles around that place - I didn't feel guilty about not exercising. But tomorrow is a different story. I'll post pictures of before and after for you all. Otherwise, I have been painting up a storm for the August Wine Festival. Good therapy because when I paint I don't eat. Well... Hugs to all, keep cool, and stay on the path, my band reeeeeeealy has restriction and I have to be careful what I put into my mouth. This is good.

I always got another dog really fast. Some puppy who needed a lot of love. It was very healing. Dogs are special.

Mal - I am soooooo sorry for your loss. Our pets are parts of our families, your house will feel empty, did you put away all his stuff? That helps not to see it, but nothing really takes away the pain. At least you spared your wonderful companion a painful end. Seeing them in pain is the worst. Sometimes I think we are kinder to our pets than people, so bless you for loving him enough to decide for a peaceful ending. Man - I'm with Woofay - I'd be chugging the ice cream, be kind to yourself. Hugs! Know that we really care about you. Michelle

Green - good for you, figuring out why you weren't feeling well, then taking action! Wow! I want to be a goal too! Losing weight is a challenge for me no matter what my age or state of band. Right now I am tight, which is good because I can't overeat without PBing, unless it is m&Ms or ice cream. You see the problem. But on the happy side I worked out, drank two protein shakes and had lots of water, but the old gnawing headhunger works its way into my behavior. I deserve a healthy life and all of you do too! I keep having to get back to why I did this and to believe in myself, which is a lot of work. Hugs and happy weekends,

Marcy - I think, Anita - Woofay, gave great advice. Don't overdo it. Yes, I had swelling for a month and a half. I used ice a lot. although some people said a heating pad or other warm sources worked for them. GAS X is a friend you might want to acquaint yourself with. I can't imagine surgery and immediately flying for so many hours afterward. I feel honored to have met you and wish you a speedy recovery. You are so on top of the physical vs psychological head work. It is a journey. People that speed there are blessed. I seem to bumble around, altho' with the band, my bumbling isnt as self-destructive. Enjoy the midnight sun. Someday I want to travel to Nome for the festival, perhaps we'll meet again. Mal - you are the bestus, cheeriest person! The skate park is just North and next to the Greenwood Village City Hall and police station (nice and safe for your son) on Quebec Street between Arapahoe Road and Orchard. Woofay - you give the best advice! Hugs to you. Don't let those kids get you on the ground again, unless you have an air mattress! Lap Dancer - Damn those kids! Young adults are invincible and sexy crazy. I'm sorry you missed out giving your daughter a wedding. She won't figure out about how substantial that loss was for you until she is a lot older. Strange thing about that. Maybe you could have a reception for her and her new husband? Relationships are really hard to mend if words are said. She made her choice and now she's a married woman. Shucks! My vote is to hug her and wish her well. Family ties are essential in this crazy world. You are a wonderful, loving mom, I'm sure you will make the right choices and don't eat over it. It's a done deal. Hugs! Well wishes! and I hope you can make the next meeting of the LP Ladies. Everyone - You know, there is something special about all of us. We all have an untapped beauty within. Hugs and happy weekends, Michelle

Hi everyone - We all see a little of ourselves in these posts. I am you and you are me. Isn't there a song with that lyric - yeah Beatles! Oh those glorious 60s and 70s. I also thought I could do the band "perfectly." The fills help to jar me out of complacency, a BP will do that to anyone. But I am finding other successful things, like going up and down my stairs doesn't seem as difficult as it did. The down side is the neck is looking like a gobbler. I salute you green. I will get my nip and tuck when the weight is off (probably another year and a half) and stablized. I don't trust myself not to regain my weight, as I've done it before. Just let me get there! Be well and enjoy your weekends! Try to stay cool. Michelle

Yes, we met, gabbed, dined lightly and took pictures. So glad our friend Marcy from Nome could join us. You will always now be with us in spirit, even if not in body. Of course, Drews where were you - you party pooper! Thanks Woofay -Anita for putting the pics on the website. We look like a slimming group, if you compare the pics to last month. I appreciate being with wonderful women who "get" me. Malani your son is adorable and so well behaved! So are you! All those years of practice - just kidding. You have a million dollar smile, it is the greatest! :sick I am burbling - I guess that is the only word for it. I was fine at lunch, even had some sushi. Tonight I had a bite of roasted turkey and chewed lots, but - OMG! Glad I was home. I settled two hours later for some yogurt and a banana. It was too painful to repeat. I have to only sip my water, so I don't burble it up. I'm kinda like my own seltzer machine, if you get what I mean.:omg: Best weekend to all of you, I am going to a purse party at a friends (already said I wasn't buying) tomorrow and a play on Sunday. Hugs, Michelle

Oh Woofay - What drama! OMG you have been to hell and back. It is great that Dr. K is right there, wow, not many docs call back within 5 minutes. I'm impressed! I hope you feel well enough to go to Red Robin tomorrow night. Hugs! You know it is good to know that others have been there and back. I get a fill tomorrow, I feel nervous after reading this. Mal - I am so glad the pounds are dropping off. You sound like you are close to your sweet spot. Happy Anniversary! Marcy - Welcome to bandland. Hope you can make it on your way to the airport. All who are available to be social are welcome to come to Red Robin at 7pm Arapahoe and I25. We are a wonderful support group, a little outside the office setting. Best wishes - see you soon,

nicki - Wow! You have done an amazing job of losing weight. What is your secret? Right now I am experiencing some of the binge eating I did preband. I am getting a fill on Thursday. I think that will help me refocus. I want to be as successful as you have been. Congratulations!

Woofay - Congratulations! A pound down is a pound down - you are going the right direction. I have to get myself back on track. My food choices have gone haywire and I have found myself eating reeses peanut butter cups, yes I logged them, but OMG have some control! I haven't exercised because of spraining my ankle, but I think i will go tomorrow, come hell or high water, my ankle's swelling is down and I have have to move or go nuts. My appt is on Thursday for Dr. K and Paula, I think it is good, I have to look at what I am doing and get focused again. I am so happy for you! Mal - how are you doing since your fill? Are the pounds sliding off? Ok - I will be at the Red Robin on Arapahoe and I25 at 7 pm Thursday night. Bring lots of pictures. Who is going to be there? Hugs to all, Michelle

Hi Everyone - Shesha - wow! what a fanatastic place to build a home. Greens and blues Mal - thanks for the sympathy, it's my ankle by the way, I have been working on balance because of this problem and I think that work avoided my falling onto my knees. Lap Dancer - yeah really cool story, yuck. We'll be thinking of you on Thursday. Glad you found an alternative fill doc. Hugs. Woofay - I am so excited about my fill too. I think I'll say, "git 'r dun" this time, last time, I think Dr. K maybe missed my port, we had to get a longer needle when I sat up on the bed, the shorter one popped out. So we had to do the whole thing over. I am readdy to fill up. Marilyn - welcome, we share the same birth year. The LapBand is a great tool, though not the only answer. Your husband is right that you will have to confront all the emotions behind the eating, it is a rather painful process, but wonderful self-discovery. Marcy - best wishes on your lap procedure, I hope you are able to meet at the Red Robin so we can really connect with our northern neighbor. I can't imagine hand feeding little chicks. You are really our pioneer. Hugs all, I am going to a five year old's BD party up in Breckenridge tomorrow. My niece doesn't want to be a princess, she is having Spiderman as her theme. Hugs.

Hello Everyone - Yep - I am going to the fill doc this week as a matter of fact. My week in the mountains with the family went great, but I am binge eating at night. I am not able to dump the extra calories through activity and there is some cravings I am experiencing. I think any time I get into the head hunger I need to be on the computer talking not sneaking food, which is such old behavior. It makes me sick. What is great is that we can talk about it here, and no one starts lecturing about the "should nots". Thank you for being here.

Raize - I had the same dilemma raising my sons. Both are adopted, but there is nature and then nurture to consider. I think, now, that being a good example of healthy eating would have been the best role model for them. One is weight and health conscious, the other was on medication that blimped him up and now he is 75 pounds overweight and has trouble controlling his food quantities. I am now a better role model eating healthy food, but wasn't much of his life. I don't know what the answer is. My sister, who was bulimic, now is a health nut and exercises excessively. Her 5 year old daughter is very active but has turned chunky (which points to the hereditary thing). I want to protect her emotionally from my sis who is demeaning about her body and her food choices. I talked with my sister about it, but it is hard for her to pretend to be emotionally healthy about food and weight when she isn't. I have decided that life is hard enough and I need to "tend to my own garden" and that is where my focus now rests. Best wishes to you all.

Karen - I think Woofay and Lap Dancer have made very good points. The lap band is only a tool, it isn't a magical procedure that takes the urge to overeat away and we all become beauty queens, we all have to work hard to get the weight off. The gastric bypass guarantees more loss and quicker loss, but you are choosing to reroute your body's digestive system. I have a close friend that went that route and has lost 100 pounds in a year. I don't think I will accomplish the same loss in a year, but watch out for me in two years. Your angry complaints, while very real, may be your clue to the fact that you really don't want to go the LapBand route. People have to be really motivated and dedicated to lifestyle change to have a positive outcome with LapBand surgery. It definitely isn't easy or quick WL. Good luck with your choices. Aren't we lucky that there are a few more choices out there? Hi My People - Yes I am back from the mountains. I went to enjoy the 4th and my family. I did that, hiked one day, sprained my ankle the next. I have been having problems with ankle weakness and have had two other sprains in the same foot. I just misstepped into a hole while walking to town. ShEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEt! i am so disappointed. I am ready to rock and roll with my exercise and I am sidelined. DrewsLou I hear you. Glad you are all fixed. Unfortunately, no magic here either. I am at the RICE stage. Foot in the air, icing, and resting. Not good for the weight loss. But better for the recovery. We are on for July 12th at Red Robin on ARapahoe and I25. Best support group around. I'll have just had a fill that day, so sipping. I'm with you Mal, but hope I don't have to doggie it after eating. What a picture. I was sitting in a hut thing at a Thai restaurant and had just swallowed part of a spring roll, and then the sliming, then the gooping, upchuck. I just used my napkin, I didn't think I could make it to the bathroom. My kids and I were grossed out, but at least I knew I had a band. I left a big tip! Anyway. Hugs See you the 12th. Let me know who is coming so we can get a good table again. It was so much fun!

Hi Everyone! I think it is never TOO LATE to take care of yourself. We all DESERVE A HEALThY LIFE! BJean - you are always very funny. Between you and green I just keep laughing. I have already figured out that part of my journey will include a face and neck lift. I am not sure about the tummy tuck. I will have to get those pounds off first and stay at a weight for more than two minutes. I have had two fills, but no restriction. I think the last fill completely missed the mark, so I have another one this week and we'll just have to see where I am. I look around at women our age and they look older, sagging chins, wrinkled necks, I think it sucks that aging does this to women. Many men look better longer. Now on a happy note, last week before the 4th I got under 200 pounds. So, I feel like I am on my way. I went up to the mountains with my brother's family (three kids under 7) and my sister's family (2 kids under 5) and sprained my ankle, so the great exercising I've been doing is now on hold and I am icing and resting. Oh well, I'll be able to get back to it. Hugs to you all, make sure to hug yourselves, we are embarking on a major journey of change. Michelle

Hi Everyone! Boy a lot seems to be happening out there. Woofay - camping - yeeesh, you are a wonderful mom. I sent my guys outside and said wake me up if you get scared. I was always so tired. Mal - you are just lightness and beaming, I feel your positive energy through the computer. Hope your fill finds you restricted but able to eat small portions. I definitely would go for the filet before getting filled. Angie - how about you come to our meeting at Red Robin on July 12th at 7? woofay is driving in from the springs. Marcy - we'll play it by ear, some of us would be able to run a marathon after surgery. I was out of it from the anesthesia. Lap Dancer - you know we love you, take care of yourself. If you need to find a fill doc for a fill before you can fly again - go for it. Hugs! Well, I am going up to the mountains for three days starting tomorrow. my sons won't be able to come because of work, but my mom, brother his wife and three kids under the age of 7 will be sharing a condo. My sister is the MC of the parade so we'll get to sit on the bandstand. It is a good time and at least it will be 10 degrees cooler. So Happy 4th of July to all of you!

Thanks for the congrats Jaqui and travelbug! travelbug - I sometimes think it is better to take our focus off the numbers and just know that if you have portion control, exercise, drink lots of water and make good food choices our bodies will have to give it up. It is excrutiating waiting for the pounds to drop off, like watching a clock to make time go faster. At least that is the way if feels for me. Going to NYC, breaking my daily pattern, thinking about things other than my weight (like how to ride the subway) may have helped me break the barrier more quickly than watching everything I did and ate. Who's to know? You will get there. It has to happen, you deserve a healthy life.

You know, I think I do better with more protein than carbs too. When I am very active I tolerate carbs better, but I totally understand the study showed better weight loss with a protein heavy diet. I also think that my metabolism has changed with age. Protein, fruits and veggies - that is best for me. What I wonder is how many grams of carbs are people recommending? I want a "normalized" diet that I can follow after the weight loss phase. Has anyone read anything about that? Or better diets after 50? Best wishes to you all and happy almost holidays!

Yes, I did a no no. I got my scale down from my closet and got on it. Now I wasn't holding on to the wall or anything and it said: 199.2 I acknowledge that this isn't "official" and I can do such silly things with the scale, but this was after breakfast, working out and a 24 oz bottle of water, so I am hopeful! Today, I did not weigh again. I get so compulsive, but am holding on to the joy of seeing that scale dip under 200. I'm in Onederland!!! :whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo: The reality is I can do this, if I can do this - anyone out there can. Best wishes and happy holiday to all!

Serena - The other tricky part of it is that "knowing it" doesn't take the blaming and shaming we have put on ourselves, it is the heartfelt unconditional loving of myself that is so difficult for me to get to. Like a Starbuck's pastry isn't going to "ruin" my chances for success and mean I'll be a fat person for the rest of my life, yadda....yadda....My mind was going crazy beating myself up. After I was bruised, I attempted my "new" behavior, I entered the pastry on my daily log of food on CalorieKing.com and found it wasn't the end of the world, I didn't have to starve to get RID of it. My long winded point is that a person who unconditionally loves themself wouldn't have gone through all that mental anguish over a pastry, but just take it in stride (like the "new" Michelle did) and adjust her eating the rest of the day. Oh well. I have a long way to go, but I find I can obsess about "perfect" dieting like nobody's business which is as crazy as mindless overeating then self flaggulation. Bottom line - I am practicing being really kind and accepting of myself, trying to notice crazy behaviors and let them go. It isn't overnight. It'll probably take years, so what else do I have to do? But I do know that I deserve a healthy life - like we all do. green - so you recognize that magical thinking too? Birds of a feather.... that's why I love it here, you all "get" me ckbw - I know that coumadin is a powerful drug that affects surgeries and healing, and I think you are wise to get many opinions. Good luck! Hugs to you all.