LadyDreadHead

This is another video from Beautiful Brown Baby Doll she is a YouTuber who lost 100 pounds. Now she is not a band patient, she lost her weight with diet and exercise but she is still has been an inspiration to me during my journey. Please watch this video “Your skinny is not My Skinny” in the video she explains how you should do what is best for your body and not follow the crowd or the next BIG DIET FAD. We are all different and you have to listen to your own body! Enjoy!
 
 
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=5B5pbsKVEMI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5B5pbsKVEMI
 
 
Amanda Out!

Okay ladies I was worried about this one since he wanted to go to dinner. I was actually going to say "No” but I'm glad I didn't because I had an amazing time. Any of you who read my profile know that I was in an abusive relationship for over 9 years. So to have a man treat me like a Queen was wonderful. I was worried because "what if I ate to fast" or "what if I had a stuck episode"? But I prepared myself by looking at the menu online before meeting him at the restaurant so I already knew what was on the menu and what I would order. And during dinner I just remembered to take small bites and chew, chew, chew, and chew some more lol. Things went perfect. Although I didn't finish my meal, so I hope he doesn't think I was wasteful but all in all it was a great night!!!! Loving the new me!!!!

About three or so months ago Jacksonville held the biggest adoption event ever for cats and dogs. Over 850 cats and dogs were adopted in a single weekend. As some of you know I am a big advocate for abused animals and rescue overly abused iguanas. Every year over 8 million dogs and cats are euthanized because people refuse to spay or neuter their pets. That is 8 million too many. I vowed this year I was going to put some kind of happenings in to action regarding euthanasia and abuse to animals and began writing my senators and congress men and women. Of course they nix things like this off because after all it is just an animal. An animal that has no voice. We can house rapist and murderers, feed them, clothe them, provide shelter but can't save a helpless animal from being put to death because an owner just didn't want them anymore, refused to feed them, or like with pit bulls chose to fight them until they died.
 
The first congressional hearing is going to happen. I am taking my voice to be their voice to Washington D.C. in April to stand before our law makers and make them accountable to make harsher punishments for people who abuse animals, to provide aide to shelters so that these animals can live until they are adopted, to make owners who surrender pets just because they don't want them anymore to have to pay fines besides just a surrender fee. With the help of three attorneys here in Jacksonville, our Mayor, and several SPCA members from this area along with law enforcement, we are all going to make our voices heard.
 
Every cities shelters need help. If you can donate some of your time please do, if you have old blankets, can donate some food please do. These animals do not deserve to die because people throw them away like garbage. I am also urging any of you to write your senators and congressmen and women to provide the funds needed so that shelters won't have to euthanize animals. I know I am only one person but by God I am doing something to try to help save these babies. When you adopt an animal it is part of your family. I don't think any good parent would surrender a child because they didn't want them anymore. A pet is for life. Also if you want to adopt an animal go to a shelter. Most of the time you pay only 20 bucks and the animals are already fixed and if you already have an animal please get them spayed or neutered. We owe it to animals and children to make sure they get the best care they deserve.

I started out 8 years ago telling people about the band. I was excited, I had researched the hell out of it and answered/resolved a lot of my fears, and was adjusted (pun intended) to the idea. For the most part, I got positive or no comments, but very few negative comments about my decision.
 
Once I was banded, and losing weight, it started to become less novel and more of an everyday tool. Nothing exciting about that. It's like that sparkly pink ink pen that you coveted as a kid lost its magic once you started to write with it...and write...and write...!
 
The same thing happened with the band. I loved it, it worked, but it was a harsh master and would ruin events if I didn't follow the rules. It would make me decide whether I wanted to go out on a given night. It became so big and familiar to my friends that it practically needed its own chair at the table. My friends would ask if a restaurant was okay, what could I eat, and basically make a fuss with the best intentions that became, frankly, tiresome.
 
But the band got boring around food, too. The novelty of eating tiny amounts like I had one of those enviable "bird like appetites" in public waned. There I was, talking, nibbling at my meal, eating healthy for the band (but under-eating to the rest of the world) and the waitress would come over and ALWAYS ask me if everything was okay. It got embarrassing after a while. I would start out by joking that I was a slow eater and a fast talker, then moved to asking for a doggie bag at the beginning of the meal and pretending I wasn't hungry, and finally started "sort of" lying and saying I had an issue with my esophagus and had to eat small meals and quantities.
 
Explaining the band to complete strangers was just too exhausting and time consuming...and I became embarrassed again explaining myself to waiters in front of the same coworkers and friends. It's like the band was this huge elephant in the room. (lol) For me, though, the sparkly pink pen had lost its luster and it was just a writing implement. There were more interesting things to say and learn and do rather than discuss my digestion and caloric intake.
 
I think this turning point of my relationship with the band had it good and bad parts. The band becoming every day and boring was great because it was working in the background, and I respected it, and we both were happy. But it was so unbelievably easy to start forgetting that yeah I might need calories but it DID NOT need to be a chocolate chip cookie. That's when you start learning how to eat around the band, because the sheen of respect has worn off.
 
I want to remember this going into my rebanding.

For most of us that are banded our doctors told us to stay away from breads, rice and pasta and with the exception that they do get stuck but for most they really only do one thing. They turn in to sugar after consumption and sugar turns in to stored fat. Our bodies need carbs to function but good carbs such as fruit and vegetables. Who wants to make anything we eat turn to fat? I don't I have had enough of that.
 
Before the band and my many failed attempts at dieting I/we ate low calorie bread, a baked potatoe, rice, pasta and every other flipping thing that we thought was good. But in all reality eating those kinds of carbs only makes you crave more of those kinds of carbs.
 
I did an experiment with myself and a group I was teaching in two different sessions. I gave everyone including myself one quater of a buttermilk bisquit (yes we ate it slow but it went down) the next week I asked them to report what happened when they went home. All of them including myself wanted more starchy carbs and some caved in and went on a binge for the next entire week which the out come was weight gain.
 
The next week we ate a small plate of vegetables and some fruit (because I can't expect people to just eat veggies at 9 in the morning and the following week I asked them to report what happened. The group that starchy carb binged the week before got back on track and lost the weight they had gained but everyone said they did not crave starchy carbs from eating the fruit and vegetables.
 
Once you reach goal then its fine to eat these things and add them back in to your diet but for me to do it is a disaster. This is only my personal experience with carbs and may not be yours but it is true that starchy carbs do turn to sugar and then they turn to fat.
 
If you can't control your craving for carbs, then eliminating these from your diet may help. They also make you crave sugar too. TTFN

Well, I'm open for business. "What business" you ask. “The business of shedding excessive pounds. Let’s see how I do.
Over the past couple of years, I have learned about my strengths and weaknesses, and I found that it was hard for me to achieve the necessary balance. In my quest to achieve success, I listened and tuned in to too many self-made experts which had many contradicting opinions. The fact is that each person in their own skin achieves their goals. But I am not in their skin, so I need to find the balance for me. I’ve decided set aside all of their antidotes for now, and get back to the basic.
I will just take things slow and pace myself according to my abilities. Which mean I won't get caught up in the hype to get thin; when it all said and done, I just want to feel good about myself. The journey is mine to make, the work is mine to do, and the victory can only be earned by me. I am getting older now, and I don't have the luxury of yo-yoing, stopping, quitting and restarting. This change must be permanent, for life. Not to get small, but to stay healthy and live better. I plan to keep this post up and running, I plan to stay motivated.

Being into the 5th day of a new month, my energy level is still lagging behind my determination, but there have been some changes.
 
With intent, purpose, and consciousness I choose to remember the basics, because they are the foundation which to build on.
Eat much slowly (enjoy the food away from the computer and television)
Green Tea beverages throughout the day (it seems to control my food cravings)
Portion sized smaller (protein first)
Eat more frequently (2 to 3 hours apart)

Change happens with intention…. Stagnation occurs because Change never took place.
 
Off I go...

Day 6 of my pre-op diet has been difficult. With weird noises coming from--well, everywhere, sugar lows, weakness, headaches, and even envy as I watch my family munch down on mint chocolate cookies and milk, it has not been a good day. I'm almost watching the clock until I can say 6 down, 8 to go. It has always been difficult for me to diet. My stomach rumbles telling me that it wants food, any food, all food, and quick. I've always been able to lose 20-30 pounds as I diet, but eventually I would quit and then gain back everything plus some. I will not repeat that cycle this time, because I am not going to stop until I make my goal, and then my new way of eating will be habit and I won't go back. I am more committed to this plan than I've ever been to any of the other myriad of diets I've done.
 
So while doing all the reminiscing of diets through the years, I am reminded of one in particular. One of my doctors graphically explained weight loss in the following way:
 
He said it comes down to the basic fact of less calories in than you burn, and that he has never seen a picture of a prisoner of war who wasn't skin and bones. He showed me a couple of pictures even, and gave me a chapter of text to read where some POWs were starving to death, yet they still had to drag themselves to the local coal mine for 12 hour shifts with nothing but a handful of rice for the entire day. Then they drug themselves, step by step, sometimes crawling, sometimes pulling or pushing one another, back to the prison camps where they were lucky to get a small amount of water and another handful of rice. If they searched for a morsel of something else, or complained that it wasn't enough, they were tortured even more. Often these POWs prayed that they would pass during the night, knowing that their frail bodies just could not continue on. Others prayed for help to sustain them just one more day.
 
As we are struggling through with our limited shakes or various different diets, I am reminded of those POWs and how they survived on a handful of rice for days, months, even years, all the while working hard labor in their camps. Tonight when I am hearing my stomach rumble, I'm trying to be thankful for what I have. With that in mind, 700 calories doesn't seem so small when compared to the lives of our brave prisoners of war in history.

I met my wonderful amazing husband 5 years ago and married him 3.5 years ago. He is my biggest fan and support. Once he went to the seminar on WLS he was fully supportive of me having the band. Over the next couple of months I hemed and hawed about would I be, could I be successful on this journey. He kept telling me that ofcourse I would, I just needed to commit to him as I did him.
 
Soooo.......
 
I am in a committed relationship with my band. My band is 100% behind me losing weight. While my band can't prevent me from eating more than I should or eating things that are unhealthy for me; it can help me stay satisfied longer on less, that is if I allow it to. When I think about my band from this perspective- I think about I would never cheat on my husband why would I want to cheat on my band. Ruining my marriage would be painful, but ruining my band and having to have another surgery wouldn't be a walk in the park either. Just like with a marriage you have to work at it, I have to work at my band life. Some days it will be easy and other days it won't, but I don't give up on my marriage just because of one road bump and I won't give up on my band either.
 
Just like I want my marriage to last forever, I want my band life to last to.
 
So with this being said.... ( I am calling my band George)
 
I promise to love, honor, and cherish George forever!!
 
Are you in a committed relationship with your band?

This morning I did my norm morning routine. Got up pottied and got on the scale before dressing (TMI I know, but it is always best to weigh in you birthday suit). The hubs walks in and hugs me and says "geez I can reach my elbows when I wrap my arms around you". Then he said "I'm proud of you babe, but don't get so skinny I have to shake the sheets to find ya".
 
For those who don't know my husband is visually impaired. His vision is 20/800 - legally blind since birth. Granted he is well educated graduated with honors with a degree in computer science and is a well respected software engineer. He just can't see very well. So it's always been the running joke that he feel for me because I was large print (he always replied to that with you said that not me). Now he is joking saying I am getting so small he won't be able to see me anymore.
 
The joking is all in fun- he is very supportive of my weight loss journey and is helping me leaps and bounds.
 
But I must say it would be nice for him to have to shake the sheets to find me

Previously I cut all ties with my publisher for personal reasons. So I decided to submit my manuscript to one of the hardest to get published, publishing companies in the United States. I did this about six weeks ago and figured well they said I would hear something in two weeks. So I gave up. I continue to write everyday because I love to do it and well..... I think I am pretty good at it.
 
So today came the email and I didn't want to open it because I knew it was a rejection email. After all this time it had to be right? WRONG WRONG WRONG!
 
Not only did they accept my manuscript but said this:
 
Congratulations Cheryl! Tate Publishing has accepted your book,"The Prevalence of Love" for publication. This email is to inform you that we would love to move you to the next step in this process and get you a contract to look over. I have been reading through your submission and I am certainly impressed. This is a project that we are really interested in taking on. I just want you to know upfront that I really enjoyed your work and we are excited about this opportunity. Please take some time to read through the material and let me know if you have any questions.
 
It is important that you know what it is about your book that caught our eye and you need to realize that a lot of time and effort goes in to each review of every submission that comes to us. Your book has been chosen on the basis of writing ability, concept and most importantly- marketability. It is with great pleasure that we welcome you as one of the 4% chosen out of tens of thousands each year to become a published author with us. Congratulations![/font]
 
I was moved by your short stories and the encouragement that radiates in your writing. We are very honored to have you come our way and look forward to working with you on this project. [/font]
 
Yes they read every single submission they get and my book was picked! Over the years my writing has improved drastically. I not only just produce books but I write for Yahoo Voices, The Examiner, Angies Diaries and many other websites. With perserverence I have been given an opportunity that most authors never have the chance to get. It is hard to get published and while I have been publshed for quite some time by another publishing company that is being sued by many authors for their lies and deciet, I have broken through to a publisher that is by far hard as hell to get published by. So today I do my happy dance and now you all know what I do instead of thinking of food. I write.[/font]
TIME FOR A BIG HAPPY DANCE

So a banded friend tells me..."I can eat 3 cups of salad before I'm full". Ummmm, yea? My response "doesnt mean you should eat 3 cups". Her response was that we are supposed to eat until your full.
 
No, that is such a false statement. You still need portion control. If I am still hungry after eating, I wait the 30 minutes after eating then I start drinking my liquids. If you are not getting your liquids in every day, your full spot will trick you into wanting more food. I'm sorry, but I just don't think there's a lot of truthfulness about why the band isn't working for some people. I can sit and eat chocolate pudding and candybars and a bunch of other crap, then post my menu and say I'm eating a well balanced diet....that doesn't do me any good.
 
I GAINED 2 POUNDS IN 6 WEEKS BECAUSE I WAS NOT EXCERCISING OR EATING PROPERLY. I was sooo proud of my 31 lb loss that I got cocky and thought I needed to reward myself with foods and treats that didn't comply with my instructions. I screwed up, not the band. Well, since my fill last Friday I am down those 2 lbs plus 1. I contribute that to following instructions.
 
The first and most important process to this journey is being honest with yourself, if you mess up, recognize it accept the consequences (possible weightgain), fix it and move forward. I have only been banded for 6 months, I don't want or expect to lose all my weight in the first year. I don't want to...I want it to come off slow and steady.
 
Does the band work for everyone? No, some have true medical complications, some are just not using it correctly. Some are relying on the band to work for them instead of using the band as the tool it was meant to be. If you follow instructions to the letter, excercise 2-3 times per week, be patient with the weightloss process....the weight will eventually come off. Maybe not as fast as others, or in the first year. It wasn't meant to be a quick fix. Frustration is just an emotion, don't let it consume you or drive you. You have to take the wheel on this journey. So many say if I had the will power I wouldn't have had the surgery...it's not about will power. It's about following instructions. My will power sucked before the band, but I would have never of gotten the band if I wasn't ready to put those feelings aside and just do the work. Got a sweet tooth, then find a recipe for a desert you can have. Be prepared. Have the need for some comfort food, MAKE IT!! But use lower fat and carb options. Its all out there. Yes, some things are a little more expensive, but you won' be eating as much so it will last longer.
This is solely my entitled opinon...and I am sure that some will agree, some will disagree and others will feel the need to "set the record straight". That's fine. Just make sure you are honest with yourself before commenting.
 
Anyway...that's my rant.
 
Breakfast:
Mocha protein shake
 
Lunch:
LC/LF chicken enchilada
 
Dinner:
White bean chili
 
Chai tea
water with MIO
Multivitamin
 
1 Cor. 15:33 My bible verse for today.