Bandista

You'll be needing a size down before you know it! I was thinking about my men's XL parka that will be way too big for me next year. Can't wait to give that away --kind of made me look like a giant blueberry!

You are ready now, that's what's important. Choose yourself first and watch your healthy future unfold. Best wishes to you and congratulations for saddling up. You can do this! The band is there to help but it needs to be adjusted properly. No sliders. When I find things in our house that I am going after, that tells me two things. One, I need to consult with my doctor and two, that food needs to be out of the house for now. Glad you're here on the forum!

Hi there and welcome -- new chapter beginning! I am so happy with my band. It's just been six months and I feel great. Hope you have a nice healing weekend ahead with lots of walking and liquids. Best wishes to you!

I keep almonds in the glove compartment.....

Oh thank you, every one -- yes, I'll take Tigger for all that energy! Bounce, bounce.

Well the door is open now and it's time for some honesty. Withholding info is one thing but making something up is another. You will be relieved to build some trust. Ask him if he will still want you when your thinner. He will! And the whole band thing is so fascinating -- he will be curious how it works. Not restriction, but signaling the brain for satiety, a signal that so many have lost. Let him know you want to be healthy. He will be glad!

@@Annette Corrado Great post! You are doing beautifully and it is very inspiring to see those numbers. @@cleescruggs That awareness is going to help you pull yourself right back up. Personally, I don't count carbs but I only eat good ones -- no breads, pastas or sugary things. chips, etc. are sliders and if my band isn't giving my brain the signal for satiety, what's the point of having done all this?

"Be yourself; every one else is already taken." -- Oscar Wilde Thanks so much, Pink Dahlia, I love that one and had kind of forgotten it.

Great post! I know for a fact that it wouldn't have been my usual five pound gain this winter. If I were not banded I probably would have put on ten. In my case I had a big gain (fifty) but then it was the slow creep up from there until I had put on one-hundred. Wow, it's hard to type that, but there it is. But now half of that is gone. Phew! You are so right about time. I started this process saying that I didn't want to lose too fast -- it's one of the things about banding vs. some other surgeries. So I need to stick to that on the mornings when the scale hasn't moved. Slow and steady is what I am after -- a healthy weight loss.

Yippee! So happy for you -- whole new chapter beginning. Best wishes with all to come!

Congratulations on getting banded. Like TMF I had the five but the port one, largest, definitely took a while to heal. I didn't mind the incisional pain because I was so excited. Ice packs can help -- and of course call the doctor's office immediately if it seems like there could be heat or any indication of infection. That's what they are there for -- they want to hear from you. Hope you feel better today!

Great post, B-52. That listening is key to the whole thing. Many of us have those old instincts, screw it I'm going to do it anyway, but the band reminds us not to go there. You're doing great, Shelley. It definitely takes a little while to get into the swing of things, to get the right fill, etc. Many people have said not to rush, that for them the stages were an important time to develop new habits, get the head into the game. I feel impatient at six months out almost fifty down but hey, six months? That's the blink of an eye in the grander scheme of things. There's the whole day at a time thing. This day it's time to exercise and I'm going to work it, because I can. I don't always want to when I'm about to do it but afterward I love it and can't wait to go again. For me, much of this is a mind game. I tell myself every day I am not on a diet. I don't count calories but I don't eat if I'm not hungry. Thanks to my band I'm not hungry very often and when I am I have what's good for me then -- protein, veggies -- love fish, fish oils, etc. Listening to my band......

Great post, Just Watch Me! I know what you mean -- there's a great Ted Talk about body language and faking it. The arms up like crossing a finish line is a signal to the brain of winning success so I try to do that when I get on the treadmill. It's sort if a joke with my cousin who I work out with 3-4 times a week.

Well said, CG! Do you have a list of goals -- maybe this is a good time to review them or make that list. I am going to try to find mine. It's in a notebook with my measurements, which is also another great motivator. Don't forget when the scale number isn't moving we are changing shape. Get moving and get ready to shop for a new pair of jeans!

I use ice packs daily - have to count to forty as at first it really hurts but it's just surface pain. Then when the inflammation dissipates I can't believe the result. My doctor suggests that if I have ibuprofen it should be liquid or the pills taken with food to make sure they move right through the pouch. Reminds me to talk to the pharmacist about a decent liquid as the children's version is awful. I try not to take anything but sometimes it's just too much. I have Lidocain patches but they don't reach the joint pain very well. Still, they are something. Fish oil seems to really help me. I take it daily in liquid form mixed with flax seed -- yummy!

I am very careful of anything I post as it's all available for the world to see and read. We are so cozy here but it's important to remember we are in a fishbowl.

This made me weepy for some reason -- I must be emotional today and it's so moving to hear of that build in confidence, the self-esteem. I feel that, too, and I'm just so grateful and there's that part of me that wishes I had done this decades ago. Very inspiring post -- thank you so much! Best wishes for all that is to come. Oh, and @@relief57 love that "scenic route" -- here's to the long view and seeing what we see along the way........

Would this be a good time to say that my nutritionist is kind of clueless -- I am so surprised by what she doesn't know about nutrition! Just pointing out that being a nutritionist does not necessarily make for a credential in my book. And this one that you dealt with (beautifully, by the way) seems to be particularly idiotic.

@2muchfun I know what you mean about watching people eat now -- it's disgusting! I love being a dainty eater now.

I've had to practice a lot of mindfulness to unlearn the mindless eating habits of going too fast or having too much at once. And I've been stuck maybe a half a dozen times to help remind me. It's uncomfortable until the food dislodges and then immediate relief. Not a position any of us ever wants to be in but for some of us food bolting types it does happen. I have found the things that don't work for me and Tom is right, this can be very individual. Steamed beets, of all things, as they seem to be too slippery or perhaps grainy. Once it was leftover fish direct from the fridge. I had not eaten for way too long (several hours) and grabbed cold protein -- did not heat it up and then probably gobbled. It was rubbery. So the moral of the story is chew, chew, chew. Note that being stuck is not like throwing up because the food hasn't been in the stomach, so it's more like spitting up. I can tell that once an episode begins it is going to have to come up. I have used warm water to get it over with.

@deedadumble@LipstickLady you guys look fantastic! I've been hunting for a dress, too, something cottony and light for summer when it would just be too warm for any kind of second layer. The sleeveless world is pretty daunting -- no way I will ever go there. And how about the puffed sleeve look, lol. These arms don't need a poofy sleeve, that's for sure. I think I may end up in skirt and top world but I really want a dress. It's on my list of goals I wrote last June. Pretty dress for son's graduation.

We had a non-wedding figuring we didn't need the church or state to tell us we were meant to be together forever. So a big party at the farm where we lived, we exchanged rings made by a local silversmith, said a few words and smashed champagne glasses in the fireplace then danced to a band. But then we soon found we really needed to be married, lol. I had left my job, required health insurance, we wanted to buy a house and that was complicated, etc. Plus my parents wanted a "real" wedding. I am an only daughter. So then we had to go through the whole rigmarole the following year, which I hated. I just wasn't bridey, never wanted that, so for me it was kind of excruciating. I had done a lot of catering work and weddings to me felt like bad school plays where every one knows the story, the costumes, etc. Look, now they're going to cut the cake, oh, now the first dance. Eeek! How it was that we weren't smart enough to elope is beyond me. Or a courthouse wedding -- anything you decide that is YOU two on your big day is what you should do. Our 23rd anniversary is this year but we will be celebrating 24 as we still go with the non-wedding date. That was a good party and it's just too bad we didn't have the paperwork. Had to do our hippie rebellious thing, I guess, but what a lot of fuss that legal wedding was; I would have loved to miss that and just slipped away somewhere. Happy anniversary yesterday @@kll724!

Wow! Just wow! You are doing beautifully. Thanks for dropping by and giving the rest of us a huge dose of inspiration. I know what you mean about this happiness. For me when the band went on and the appetite monster finally shut up, I felt this overwhelming sense of relief. Peace with food and happiness with myself after all those years of besting myself up for not being able to stay on a diet, or regaining everything I lost and then some, etc. It is so wonderful to be right where I am in my body even though I have fifty more to lose. I guess complacency is its own battle. It does get a little tiresome, that's for sure and maybe some of us have to gear up for the next round -- let our bodies stabilize and then suit up for another charge ahead. Maybe there's a different drink that would appeal to you more. I fill 32 ounce glass juice bottles with Water then add aloe (which I need for my digestion and trying to clear joint pain) and a splash of unsweetened cranberry. Sometimes I put in a little liquid Steevia if I want something sweet. I try to drink three of these per day and probably average two. There are lots of herbal teas out there. I like cold ginger tea a lot. Maybe you just need the right drink for you. As far as exercise, are you on MFP? I don't track food because I was such a restricter and I don't want to be in a diet mentality (yippee, not on a diet!), but I do like to track my weigh-in and exercise there. Gives a little lift to record that walk or work-out, etc. If you want to friend me on MFP I am sabinadublin. I think all my peeps there are from LB. It's very cool to watch some one start with ten minutes and then be doing fifty a couple of months later. I'm hoping to exercise more now that the longest winter ever is finally behind us. There's that -- Illinois? Ugh, as bad or worse than here in NH and I don't know how we made it through. I think once we really believe it's not going to snow again we will all be dancing in the streets. That's great exercise, I hear. Best wishes to you and really, you are amazing! Don't forget to pat yourself in the back for all you've done.

Such a time you have been through! I'm so glad you are stepping up to take care of yourself and it sounds like you are getting right on track. Best wishes to you! It is so good to choose ourselves first and then every one benefits. Such a time you have been through! I'm so glad you are stepping up to take care of yourself and it sounds like you are getting right on track. Best wishes to you! It is so good to choose ourselves first and then every one benefits.

Hot ginger tea is a wonder drug. Hope you feel better soon. Tis the allergy season.......