Marimaru

I'd probably have described myself as large. I'm 5'6" and a 16/18. I think another thing is that the person you meant doesn't have the same idea of large as you do. It seems her idea of large is maybe our idea of "humongous"? Different people have different ideas of what fat is you know? I met a woman at the doctors office who was banded to lose 50 lbs. Another woman was banded and had lost almost everything she wanted to lose, and had her daughter go in for that balloon procedure... that girl didn't need to lose ANYTHING but her mom wanted her to lose 10lbs. Some people are getting up to 400 lbs and they don't think they need to do anything about it. I'm not actually sure if what I said above has anything to do with it, but it's a matter of perspective I guess, right?

Nykee, Michelle and Babs are right. You are TOO TIGHT. You do NOT need a fill. If you have just a tiny amount taken out, you'll be able to eat things like oatmeal, or cream of wheat in the morning, or a little protien shake. Then have a reasonable lunch and you wont be so hungry for dinner. The other thing is that you HAVE to make better choices. Cheetos are never going to help you lose weight. The band is ONLY going to help you with portions you DO have to do a LOT of the work for this. And I'm sorry to say that would be true with ANY weight loss surgery. But I do believe that if you get a small unfill (my unfill when I was like you was .3cc's), you will eat something like chicken for dinner and you WONT BE HUNGRY for crap like cheetos. I love cheetos, don't get me wrong, and I CANNOT have them in my house or I WILL eat them. Please schedule an unfill. In the meantime, makes sure you are drinking lots of Water. That should help you from being so tight in the morning if you haven't been getting enough water in to date. Milk and juice don't count as water either, so you gotta drink that on top of those if you continue to drink them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I was gonna say Sex Goddess too, but ReneBean beat me to it!! Wishing you a great year and LOTS MORE BUSINESS!!

Ok, to be honest when I first saw the post, I wasn't going to join, but I think this is what I need. I agree whole heartedly that Crystal (vines) should be the leader, and am so glad she accepted. I lost 50 lbs in the first year, and 5 lbs since my bandeversary 3 months ago. It used to be that I'd fall below the 1lb per week average, then lose just enough lbs to be back there, but now it's falling farther and farther out of site. I'm not exersizing. It's horrible. I was walking almost 3 miles a day before, then switched to a pilates aerobic dvd... then went on vacation in June and never picked it back up again, because I wasn't losing weight and didn't feel like should have to do it if it wasn't helping. Once again, never mind the idea that I felt better and had more energy, the scale rules all, right? Now I'm getting married and even though I don't have a date I've put all sorts of pressure on myself to lose this weight by my wedding. In all honestly I wont say I have to be to goal by then, but I'd love to have a size 10 wedding dress at the very least, you know? Crystal, I think that your therapist is right. I was so obsessive over my weight loss at one point, and so depressed every day that I looked at the scale and it hadn't moved and I just realized one day that I wasn't doing myself any good. My ENTIRE DAY could be ruined by 3 seconds on the scale in the morning. I still weigh every day, but I no longer freak out about it. I haven't counted calories in a while either. I know that I'll lose if I eat less than 1300, but I just haven't been counting. If I figure in my head, most days I'm probably around 1500, but I don't lose there. I just don't have the strength for it right now, but one day it'll come back and I'll be all over the calories. I will start my NSV thread this afternoon. It'll take some editing because I'll need to pull them altogether.

Wow! Thanks so much you guys!! I do want to start planning (mostly in my head until my sister's plans are done) but my head is kind spinning right now! I have to pick my colors, and decide if I want a big traditional style wedding, or a smaller more 'casual' wedding, where, when, who, lol. I'm about to inherit 16 sister and brother inlaws (Mike's 9 older siblings, and 7 of their spouses), and over 30 nieces and nephews! I need flash cards with pictures for names!! hehe I'm a little overwhelmed when I try and think of it all at once, but I'll get to where I can think of one piece at a time, lol.

It's TOTALLY been worth the wait. It's been a few months since I was in "when's it gonna happen" mode... knowing but waiting... but VERY CAREFUL not to say too much or nag and scare him, LOL. We haven't set a date yet, because my sister is getting married in April, and I don't want to take the fire away from her planning. Once she tells me that all the planning is done and all that's left to do is wait for the day, I'll start getting into mine more. (I'm sure Mike and I will be disgussing though.) As for the ring, I'm counting on having it downsized . It's really snug now (tight but not turning my finger purple), and we got the 5 year service plan and I can have it sized any time I need to in that time. I was totally planning for that, hehe. I found a big flaw in the diamond last night when I got home, so I took it back this morning and they just called to tell me the new (and more scrutenized (sp)) diamond is in and I just need to go pick it up again! I feel so silly with how giddy and twitchy I am, but that's how a girl is supposed to feel, right? :Bunny

I bought some of that but haven't tried it yet (sorry Lisa, local store, I'll buy a BIG order from you in the next couple checks though! I have a list!). I read that it could be used as a conditioner and found that interesting. I'll be checkin' it out tonight!

I can't speak to who the best is, as I only met the one doc there ( ), but I highly recommend Dr. Rumbaut.

It's good that you are climbin' back on the wagon, but you need to keep in mind that you have lost about 35 lbs in 4 months. That's not bad, you know? Also, I've read in lots of places that your body can't really take more than 25 to 30 grams of protien at a time, so more than that is kind of a waste. You might do half shakes, or less powder in the milk at one time, you know? Keep it up!

Icky!!!! Hope it cools down for you soon!

Also thinking of you Paula

I haven't been around much, so I just saw this. Congratulations!!

I'm sorry to hear about your friend as well.

Diane, Even if the reason for their reaction is that they worry about you, that doesn't mean it's okay to berate you about a decision that you made as part of your adult life. You are smart, you did research, you made an educated decision. It's not as if you heard about it one day and hopped a plane to find Juan in a back alley with some Tequila and a knife, you know? After they have cooled down from your email (if they do, whatever happens), if they want to discuss it further, tell them that they have to shut up and listen to why you decided to do it that way. Show them pictures of the facilities down there. Print out posts from here where many of us say we were happy in Mexico. Inlaws or not, nobody has the right to make you feel that way, no matter what the deep seeded reason for their feelings are (like worry, etc).

Same as last week: Weight:225 Chest: 39.5 Waist 42 Hips: 49.5

I was put into kindergarten a year early. I sucked up all of the lessons and got in trouble for goofing off because all of my work was done. My 2nd grade teacher called a parent teacher conference and my mom brought in some of my school papers. Apparently I was finished so early and so bored I'd gone over the 0's in my papers so much that I'd worn them through. My mom told the teacher to challenge me and the teacher told my mom that I had to be at the same level as the rest of the kids in the class. She pulled me out of school and home schooled me the 2nd semester of 2nd grade, and all of third grade in time to be put into 4th grade in public school the next year. (Previous school was private.) I never had any issues being younger, and graduated at 17.

I've got on black bikini types with white trim, and a black bra with a little lace and a pink bow Fortunately I tossed out most of my horrible panties a couple of weeks ago, so even though I still have some granny panties, they aren't holy

I was told nothing strenuous (sp) for 2 weeks, so that's how long I waited. We took it slow and everything was fine.

If you are on liquids, that probably has to do with your diarhea. It's highly possible that you are getting sick and it's unrelated to your band, but you should probably consider having it checked out if you don't feel better in the next couple of days. Feel better!

Your doctor should give you the limitations on this. I was told no strenuous activity for 2 weeks and no heavy lifting for 6.

Keri, If you post one picture as an attachment, it will show up, but if you post more than one, they'll just show the links.

Eli, if everything was fine, and this suddenly started happening, you probably need to have things looked at closely to make sure there's not a slip. It may be that it didn't show up in the flouro because it was at the wrong angle. If you can't afford to have it taken care of right now, at the very least you probably need to be completely unfilled so that you don't make it worse. I'm not a doctor and I can't say for sure, but that's what it sounds like to me..

Coffee for me too. I'll brew a pot have have it with SF flavored syrups. other than that, keeping your hands busy is good too, but I haven't been good at that lately.

If I lost my band and couldn't get another one, I'd probable go it alone for a while and see how I could do after 14 months of being banded. I was just telling my sister yesterday though that I was pretty sure that if I lost my band right now, I'd gain my weight back. If there was some reason that I could not get a band, but I could get the bypass, I probably would really have to think about it. I always thought the bypass was too drastic for me, so I didn't have an option until I found out about the band. So I'd go it alone at first, and MAYBE consider it later, but I really couldn't say without being in that position.

Have you had any bloodwork done recently? Has anyone checked out your thyroid? While it wont cause a TON of weight gain, it will cause some, and I can see how that could easily translate into difficult weight loss, you know? Anyway, just something to consider.