Fenton

Ha, Scrappy - that's the idea! To have the band to make me behave... So, yes, that will happen. And thanks for the offer of @$$ kicking, Amanda; I think it'll be fine, but July was a bit of a right-off month for me. I'll find out tomorrow if I've spiralled upwards again. I hope not. Either way, I shall post the gory truth here!

I myself have not been doing well. I'm still fill-less, but have lost a lot of my momentum, and am kind of churning around. Since - actually, before - my vacation, I haven't been able to get traction on myself, and am slipping into bad eating habits. Indulging, then justifying continuing to indulge because, well, I've already slipped, and can start again tomorrow, fresh. Part of the problem is that life has been v. stressful - I'm trying to work on my next book, but have had a spate of obligations and disasters. I've been feeling not in control of my own time and life, which makes it easier to slip and fall. Another major problem, I think, has been lack of sleep. It's part and parcel of the whole busy busy stress stress thing, but also I'll come home exhausted and then stay up till 2 AM on the internet when I have to be up at 7AM. Last night, though, I finally got almost 7 hours, and today have been an Unstoppable Force. I'm going to try to get back into the groove. And I'm going to schedule a fill for when I get back from Paris next month. I'll weigh in tomorrow, see where I am.

Sorry to hear about the knee problems - my own are markedly improved, I have to say. Amanda, you should try doing Rodney Yee's AM Yoga routine from Gaiam's AM/PM YOGA DVD. It's a 20 minute routine that starts with relaxation exercises and goes through a sequence of gentle stretches. I always feel so much better when I do it. Congrats on all the restriction and progress, you impressive losers!

That's fantastic, Rhonda - next stop Onederland!!!

Whoah! Hi drama, Amanda! Now he owes you his life! It's your job not to let him forget it for the rest of his life... Yay, SPecialK! Well done! And Yay Scrappy! Congratulations on beating me to the 100! And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!!!!

Yay, Amanda! That's fantastic! And even better is the fact that you're now motivated to do more... I've had kind of an up and down week. I'm back on the wagon, did well with my eating most of the week, did merely OK on Friday, then on Saturday and this morning, I passed a kidney stone (my first!), with which I actually managed to finish the day with Negative Calories! Bring on the weight loss, I say!

Yeah, Old Goat, they sure don't make it easy for you to get the band, do they? Hang in there! I hope some other Old Goats come out to join you here, but if not, you can always chat with us Middle-aged Goats, and even some uh Kids...

Welcome aboard, renob!

I guess it takes a little while for your body to get used to the changes, and to the stress/fatigue of the anesthesia and surgical process. How are you faring now? How are you doing for pain? It sounds as if pain isn't the issue, but energy is. Let us know how things are going.

That's FANTASTIC news, Cathy! What an ordeal it's been for all of you - and how great that it's finally heading in the right direction. And Amanda, yay you! Knock 'em dead tomorrow. And remember, slow and steady wins the race! And watch the heat! Wear sunscreen! And NoseKote!

Way to go, K-Pod! Halfway to goal!!!

Sorry to hear it's been a little bumpy. How are you doing on Fluid intake? On Protein?

I think that for me the biggest thing is getting up out of a chair without thinking about it. It's something I hadn't realized I was doing, until I did it without effort again. How absurd to let oneself get so heavy! Although, no matter how much weight I lose, scrubbing my bathroom floor will NEVER be easy! I bumped into my PCP this morning as I was working to work - he was very pleased with my progress, particularly when I showed him my belt and how far I've come down around the waist (about 9"). He was easy, though - the lap band was HIS idea!

What the hell??? They've screwed up the ticker link? Now when I click on it, it just enlarges, like those damn thumbnail photos and their damn attachments! I must confess! My ticker is now a lie: I put on 3 lbs, and am now 9 lbs away from the damn hundred. Darn it all to heck!

Here-ish, just crazy busy. Christine, sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. I wish you and your husband strength for handling that stress. Back on the wagon for two days, weighed myself today. Ugh! The Ticker must be fed!

FINALLY! Congratulations, Rick! I've been away on vacation, good to return to your news. The next few days you'll be feeling better and better. Welcome to the fraternity!

Oh, those jitters will come back before the op, rest assured! It's also the best possible thing you could do for yourself...

Uh... Good morning, Angels. So, I am back. And I am full of sin! I had a really disastrous week away from the fold. I set off from NYC a bit enfeebled by my cold, and when I got to Florida, I completely gave in and went back to my worst eating habits. The friends I was staying with eat badly, and I was yanked out of the dietary structure I've carefully constructed for myself in NYC. But, more fundamentally, this was stress eating - work stress, writing stress, relationship stress. I had an opportunity to misbehave, and dove in headfirst. I'd estimate that most days I was eating over 4000 calories, although "estimate" is complete bull, since I wasn't tracking my consumption. And, of course, I was deliberately not checking in - to read this site and all your reports of valiant battles and successes would have been to kill much of the joy of my blow-out. It wasn't, actually, particularly joyful. But it did clear out all the hankerings I'd had for my standby junk food favorites. It was pretty pathetic. On the plus side, I shamed myself into going to the gym. I bought a 14 visit pass, and most days made it in and did 45 minutes on the treadmill. Now I have to figure out how to leverage that gym momentum into getting my act together here. I did some damage but I don't know how much. And, in the end, between exercise and possibly overestimating my intake, I don't think I ended up doing TOO badly weight-wise. But I'll never know - I skipped my weigh-in today, and will not check until Wednesday. I don't know if I damaged my "pouch" - I don't know how really damageable those are. But to be on the safe side, I'm going to stick to fluids for two days, then mushies for two days, see how I do with that. Now I have to go through the misery of carb withdrawal all over again! Yeesh. Anyway, I'm back. Congrats to all of you course-stayers! And welcome to Nurse Niki (I hope I got that name right - I'm pretty busy this morning, and caught up this morning before posting now)...

A fatty liver is a fragile liver - fat isn't strong tissue, so the liver can actually be damaged. What's more a fatty liver is a big liver, which means it's harder to manipulate during surgery. The larger your start weight, the more fat there is in your liver. If your doctor has put you on that diet for a prolonged time, he's obviously wanting to reduce any risk, including the risk of converting to an open procedure; some surgeons will refuse to do the surgery if you haven't lost enough. So it's clearly in your best interests to stick to the diet - do it, it's important. And it's one of the times you'll be losing weight fastest! Protein drinks are not fun - they're a kind of medicine, really. I like - really, I guess I should write that "like" - Isopure premade fruit punches. They taste Gatorade-y, but pack 40 g protein into 20 oz. Good for preop, good for post-op. I don't think one slip is that big a deal. But try to focus on the fact that this surgery is important, that you want your surgery to go well, that straying from the diet may radically affect your surgery. TAKE IT SERIOUSLY, PILGRIM!!!

I think I'm coming down with something. My intake was a bit better today, but not great. Still, I really burned a lot of calories, walked a long way carrying heavy equipment, so we shall see. But yeah, I think I'm coming down with something. And just before I go away on holiday! Bleargghhh...

Sweet Jesus! What a HARROWING read this has been for me, what with all the discussion of female undergarments and "girls" possibly injuring other runners! Amanda, congrats on what sounds like a day packed with epiphanies. I don't think taht you can get inspiration more intense than the things you've experienced today...

Damn. I should have been down 4, instead of up 1...

So, my weekend of excess had a penalty: I've gained a pound... And worse, I haven't lost anything, so I won't make my original goal before I leave on Saturday. Wah.

And don't leap to the conclusion that your hair loss will be marked - we normally shed a little more in hot weather, and stress can contribute to it. It may just be a little more than usual - hell, it may just SEEM a little more than usual. Remember that the average human loses about 75 hairs a day. And if you're losing hair, it'll come back...

Welcome, dwrd! A good decision, to be sure...