shellbellz222

oh man, do i ever, eating has become a pain in the neck. something that i really dread having to do. going out to dinner with friends and family is no longer an enjoyable option because i rarely have an appetite and somedays, even Water will make me sick. the food will just sit there in my chest not moving anywhere ever. i've lost almost sixty pounds and i'm thrilled, but at what cost? i'm so afraid of becoming malnourished. i try protien shakes, multi Vitamins, Vitamin water, healthy foods, but somedays i'm telling you i just cannot eat. is it just me or are some days worse that others? the other night, i went to dinner with my sister and had some tortilla Soup, a small small helping. and i ate it. i ate every drop without having to run off to the ladies room for fear of being sick. i ate it without having, what feels like an entire thanksgiving turkey stuck in my throat. it was marvelous. and then the next day i could barely keep anything down. i don't know what's going on. and what does pb'ing stand for? anyway, any input would be appreciated. thanks!

Hello and good health to everyone. I would like to thank those of you who responded and offered support for my bad week last week. Grandma is doing better, my car's still totalled but Grandma is doing better so that's all that really matters. Probably the last month I've been really frustrated with my progress. The weight has just been coming off a lot more slowly than I had hoped and expected but today I think I reached a stepping stone. Another five and a half pounds gone in just two weeks!!!! Yeah, I'm no skinny minny but I'm losing and I can see it and I can feel it and it just feels so damn good. If I'm feeling this good and I've only lost eighteen pounds can you imagine what it will feel like on that fateful day when I reach my goal?!?! I can't even believe it. My surgeon's slogan for his weight loss center is "This time you will make it". And i'll tell you what, talk about some genius marketing because I believe it. My only complaint(there's always one;) is that I haven't been going to the gym this week like I should have. But i'm serving it up to circumstance, it's been a rough one and I don't really have a car so...it's ok, right? Anyway, my best to all the rest of my Marchies. Come to think of it today is my two month band-a-versary. How exciting. I'm so thankful I found this thread. I'll be checking in with you all very soon. God bless.

I'm really proud of all my fellow marchies. I'm afraid I'm feeling a little frustrated. I haven't lost as much weight as I thought I would have by this time. I am still looking for "the sweet spot" as we so lovingly refer to it. I have lost about twelve pounds and nine inches, and i know that's a big accomplishment. But i look at others who have lost thirty pounds since surgery and i wonder what i'm doing wrong. i've hired a personal trainer, i get to the gym at least four times a week. I guess it's just that i've lost this much weight before. I've reached this goal so many times only to fail ultimately and be in worse shape than when i started. It's just hard for me to believe that this is really going to happen for me. I mean am I really going to be a "normal" healthy weight? Is that even a real option for me? I've been overweight my whole life, I don't know anything else. I apologize for the ranting and raving. But for those of you who've read this far, get this. I guess I'm a little emotional, yesterday was a really bad day for me. You see, my mother woke me up around six in the morning to tell me that my grandma was in the ICU at the hospital I work. I went to see her, she's stable, just eighty nine years old and tired. So, that put me in an emotional frenzy. I went to see her for a little while but then I had to go home and go to bed because I work the night shift from seven p.m. to seven a.m. Well, I wake up to go to work and leave a little early so I can go visit my ailing grandmother in the ICU. Well, in my car, as I was stopped and ready to turn into the hospital, I was rearended by an suv going about fourty miles an hour. my little civic didn't stand a chance. I'm ok, really really sore. Probably more sore than when I had my surgery. So, yesterday was a really bad day. I've been bad about going to the gym this past week anyway, and I was really going to go this morning after work, but that's not really an option I guess. Anyway, I'm sorry if my attitude seems negative. I know it's just a little bump in the road. I have another fill on wednesday so, i'm excited to see how far i've come. thanks for listening. i wish you all a very blessed day. michelle

i'm having some pretty hard core temptations... there's always diet coke in the fridge and i found my self wanting just a little taste today. but i didn't. im just saying it was pretty tempting. i may need a little encouragement here. i don't want it really do i? but it's just SOOOOOOOOOO good...help!

i'd appreciate that. i'm trying to cut down on calories, work out a lot, and no soda, i need at least one vice, right? but i'd like to cut out the smokes too. if i'm going to be healthy i might as well be healthy in everyway. i'm pumped to see how they work out for you. let me know. thanks!

it was difficult for me to tell anyone. at first, i only told those closest to me, my family of course was right there with me and my dearest friends were all a phone call away. i guess i didn't want to tell everyone because i've never wanted to admit to everyone that i'm the fat girl. i don't feel like the fat girl, i don't belive i act like the fat girl, but my health problems and self esteem demanded my attention. it was also hard to tell people because now, if i fail at this, everyone will know. i really believe that this was the best decision for me. i know i'll get there. but i don't want to have to explain myself to a million people if i haven't lost 100 pounds in six months. it's my decision, it was a difficult one. but everyone has been really really wonderful in supporting me. i'm very blessed.

i haven't had a soda since surgery. i was banded on 03/13/07 and it really hasn't been too bad. i've heard all the negative affects of soda and i drank too much of it anyway. i started drinking propel fitness water a lot. it's delicious. and a lot of iced tea. but no soda, i figure if i can go this long without what's the point of going back. now, if only i could do that with cigarettes...

oh man, i'm not alone. i'm hungry. i can eat everything i could before. i'm just about to gain some of my weight back. i'm working out, i'm trying to be faithful. i need to pay more attention to my diet but when i'm hungry and there aren't carrots or cauliflower but a delicious burrito...what's a girl to do. is it just me or is this harder than i imagined?

i'd like to thank everyone for the feedback. my trainer nor my surgeon has me on a diet plan. i've been trying to watch my calorie intake but it's not as easy as it should be. and i've only been going to the gym for about a week and a half now. i'm sure it's not totally uncommon for me to be such a slow loser but when i hear of people who lost thirty pounds two weeks after surgery it makes me think i'm doing something wrong. banded or not, diet and excersise should make anyone loose weight. i feel like i'm holding up my end of the bargain and my band isn't. i guess i just feel like i'm stuck in a rut. i'm not going to be discouraged. my first fill is just a couple weeks away. and i'm trying to get in shape for softball this summer so, i'm not going to quit working out. i've invested too much time and money already to turn back now. i just figured i'd have lost a little more by now. thanks for the encouragement. hope you're all doing really really well!

it's a comfort to me to know that there are those out there struggling too. I recently hired a personal trainer and i've been working out faithfully five or six times a week. i'm just not seeing results. i actually think i've gained back some of the weight i lost right after surgery. i was banded on march 13 and i'm only down about seven pounds. i know i'm not eating quite as much as i used to but i still think i'm eating too much. i'm looking forward to some restriction. my first fill is on the 16th of this month. i'm feeling super super frustrated. but we're not supposed to be this over weight. our bodies were not designed to handle it. at 260 pounds, my heart is/was working hard enough for two people. i know all of that but i'm just having such a hard time losing. :help:

jullee, i have two tattoos. fortunately, there both in places (upper back and inside right ankle) that they shouldn't really be bothered too much by my weight loss. I did, however, have a very close friend of mine that lost weight and it had an impact on her tattoo. it was a tribal tattoo on her lower back. it didn't look awful or anything you could just tell that it had shrunk a little. i'm sure that there are tattoo artists that could touch up or refigure any tattoo that doesn't suit you. it's pretty amazing what they can do now a days. but anyway, good luck with your surgery.

i too would consider myself a food addict. it's not an easy thing to admit. i'm not a veteraned pro with the lap band. i'm only a week out of surgery. but I have noticed that my biggest struggle, hands down, has been my food addiction. I eat when i'm hungry. I eat when I'm not. I eat because I see food that I know is delicious and I eat a lot of it. I eat that delicious food fast a furiously on the chance that when I came to eat more it would be gone. I eat when I'm sad, I eat when I'm bored. I eat when things don't go the way I planned or when the opportunity to eat good food is right in front of me. I have a habit of not saying no to the things I should and food was no exception. I knew going into this that it would not be as easy as it sounded. A smaller stomach, a fighting chance to say no, but it never mattered how full I was before, if there was something in front of me, I would eat it. My biggest struggle thus far has been telling myself that it's ok not to eat. It's been coming to the realization that there are better things out there to do eat, or think about eating. I would literally wake up in the mornings before surgery and this was my thought process... "man i'm still tired. i should really try to catch a few more z's. but i'm hungry. i wonder what's in the fridge? I wonder if there are any of those frozen burritos left? better go check it out." I would literally get out of bed using food as my main motivator. I lost sight of the fact that food is the fuel our body needs to survive. I forgot that food supplies our bodies with the vast about of Vitamins and nutrients that make our bodies run to the best of their abilities. I would try to hide the fact that i ate so much from my family and friends so as to hide it from myself. In the seven days since my surgery, I've lost about seven pounds. I've found myself walking and searching for another habit to fill that of my overeating. I want this band to work. I believe this band will work. I'm trying my hardest to treat this as my second chance. A second chance to prove to my body and to my brain that I DO NOT need to stuff my face with trash to feel satisfied with life, to prove that I do care about myself and what I put into my body. I want to be healthy. I want to be able to do the things I took forgranted when I was in high school. I'm a 22 year old hypertensive, pre-diabetic, with back pain, and an ovarian disorder brought about by obesity. It's not exactly something to shout from the mountain tops. But i know that i can do this. So, susansilver, you are not alone. You are probably the polar opposite of alone. there is one thing that everyone on this site has in common...food. We're all fighting the good fight. And my sister and I love that show intervention. how lucky are we that we didn't have to have ours on national television... i wish you a blessed experience.

Hello, my name is Michelle. I'm a 22 year old student and CNA working full time at a local hospital here in town. I just had my surgery 3-13. So, i'm three days post op. I've been walking a lot and following my doctors orders. One of my big concerns is that I am having difficulty telling whether i'm hungry or just havin some gas pains. I definetly know that these hunger pains are nothing like they were before. I'm working on full liquids now, and this morning when i tried to eat my super runny mashed potatoes, i experienced some pressure in my chest. I don't know if I was eating to fast or what. It's uncomfortable to say the least. I would really appreciate getting to know people who are going through the same thing I am. There aren't any support groups or anything close to where I live so I feel a little bit alone in this whole process. But I'm very very optimistic. I'm excited to start this new chapter in my life. Thanks.