vinesqueen

Jessie, that is not a small SV, it is a major milestone! Welcome to Twonesia!

Thanks Sue, we all appricate the update. Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but yesterday was a travel day for me. Rachele, we are all very glad to hear that things are going well. We are all sending prayers and healing lights for you, wishing you the fastest and the most pain-free healing time. Sue, we are also wishing you the best in your upcoming DS WLS

what was the point? Point of what, getting the surgery or getting this specific surgery, or getting fills in general? Only you can answer why you did this. I have my reasons, Kathy's reasons were diffent from mine, and Jenna's reasons were different from either one of ours. How in the world can you be looking like an arse with your friends and family if you are doing this exactly as it is supposed to progress? Maybe they have set their expectations to hight for you, maybe you had you expectation too high, but how does that make you looke like a jerk or an arse? One of the many wonderful things about the band is that it is personal. PERSONAL the fill level right for one person doesn't give enough restriction to another, while that same fill will have someone foaming at the mouth restricted to the point of causing pain and possibly harm. No one fill level is right for anyone else. I think the reason that you haven't gotten satifactory answers to your questions is that people cannot answer. Perhaps their language skills are not sufficient, perhaps simply trying to explain how something feels to someone else is daunting. I cannot adaquately tell you how it feels to be perfectly restricted. Maybe I don't know, maybe I do but cannot find the words. I've had asthma my entire adult life, but I don't believe I could explain adequately explain or describe what it feels like to have an asthma attack. I do think that your suspicion that you feel pleasantly full sooner is a good description.

Aren't crazy moms the best? Something only a child of the cirus would understand. I had to laugh about your mom writing on the walls. Not that my mom ever did something like that, but there are so many different types of crazy. We miss you too, really, really, really. Jonathan asked if he could come back and so we let him. Silly to even think that he needed to ask.... I've posted several of my usual long-winded papers that ramble on about weight loss, or not. Hope your GI stuff goes well and you get good news. And stop with the sugar, alright? *(ducks out real quick)*

Yup, I'll get it to you. It's at home, and I'm still in Idaho, but I'm going home tonight! (so it will be a couple of days )

Megan, honey, I think all under garments are all about false adversting! (well, maybe not panties, but the rest, yes!) think about the different styles of corsets women used to be required to squash into. Do you think the waspwaists of the 1800 were not false advertising? How about the bullet bras of the 1950's? Hell, bras in general are false adversting.

Oh Kare, I'm sooo sorry to hear about your boy-ohs! That must have been beyond hard. You poor thing, your family is really putting you through the wringer lately! You need to schedule something nice for yourself, like a facial or a pedicure or a facial and a pedicure. Okay, it's Thursday, and I've gotten in an hour Monday, 45 minutes hour on Tuesday (we didn't dance much in my dance class, what with our "cultural" presentations) and an hour yesterday. I took the extra long way home after math class. I was ever so happy that I had my long silk undies on, as well as my way too big winter coat. It was coooold last night.

That is totally cool! It's amazing what happens when we get, as Kathy calls it, a brain band. Everyone is doing so well with their NSVs! I just updated my main NSV thread.

Okay, time to bump the thread. Last night while Iwas talking on the phone to an old friend from high school I again casually just crossed my legs. Without thinking about it. I know I've done this before, but it's a mind thing I think. Other NSVs include belly dance stuff. My DH won a few auctions on ebay for me, a couple of B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L belts, a gorgous silk veil and a pair of harem pants. The pants looked impossibly small, even with an elastic waist. I just knew that they were NOT going to fit, but being the glutton for punishment that I am, I attempted to put them on anyway. They fit! They are too shere to wear without a skirt, so that will have to be next on my list of things to get. The other victories around dancing are some of the skinny ones are asking me for help, since they cannot get some of the moves quite right. I'm also getting really excited about dancing at the restaurant. I'll do that once I get home after Thanksgiving, and I complete my costume. I still need a top and a skirt I mean, I just bearly broke out of MO, and I'm going to be a fat professional dancer. What am I thinking? I mean, what am i thinking, other than I'm dead sexy and a fine belly dancer.

Oh, I switched to black tea, lots of anti-oxidents. Black tea with splenda and milk. Helps me get in some protien and part of the 3-a-day dairy coffee is not to be sullied by artificial sweeteners. I am a cofee snob. (said in my best Garbo) I've tried it with splenda, but it was just too wrong. I loooove African coffees, and I can tell the difference between, say an Ethiopan Harrar and an Ethiopan Siddamo. I find if I don't drink a morning caffinated beverage that I do not get a caffien headache, but if I drink coffee after say, noon, it will keep me up late. And yes, when I have asthma issues that I find I drink more hot coffee. Heh, probably one of the reasons I started drinking quad short americanos... But anyway, I'm back to my beloved coffee, the experiment failed.

Oh baby, if your fill doc is any good you won't feel anything. Flu shots are much worse compaired to a fill. Eat breakfast. Don't stress. I cried and cried before my first fill. I cried so hard I had tear filled ears! Then it was over faster than you can say "bob's you uncle". I was mortified that I was such a baby about getting my first fill!

okay, I gave up my beloved coffee with sugar and 1/2 & 1/2 in hopes of shaking something lose. Over a month without coffee, and not a pound lost. It's just wrong. Just wrong.

I would like to challenge everyone to think about weight differently. Not in pounds and kg, but something different, some other measurement of weight. This is the site I used for weight conversions, and I find it facinating. (but I'm a geek, so there you go) http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_all.htm What got me thinking about this was a converstaion on the official Turtle thread, Slow Losers Unite. We were talking about how easy it is to discount NSVs because they are not a socitial approved measure of success, like pound on the scale are. But pounds are just as arbirary a unit of measure as kegs and stones and Kg and firkins and pfunds and atomic mass. They are conventions that we have agreed to judge ourselves and others by. Arbitrary as they may be, we give them power they do not deserve. This is why I always list my weight in some weird other unit of measurement. To attmpt to take power away from the scale, to take power away from the scale. And if I can take it away from the external, I can reclaim it for myself. I know that this isn't an issue for many of our celibrated Rabbits. But maybe it is. Maybe Rabbits are devistated when the scale doesn't move at the rate they are used to. Maybe Rabbits are hit harder by plateaus. I don't know these things, but I suspect that it might hit you harder than The Turtle Tribe because if we don't lose our 4 ounce a week, well, it's hard to tell. But if ya'll are used to losing 3 pounds a week, and some of our Rabbits do lose like that, a week where you don't lose must be really hard. I know that think women are hit very hard by body dysmorrphia, that they stress just as much, if not more so, than those of who who are zaftig. So anyway, I would like to invite everyone to challenge the way the view weight. Change your weight to cloves, or dynes or even your atomic weight.

no, I don't have any of these, but my lumpy old dog is covered with them but he's older than dirt...

I make three different types of christmas Cookies every year, The only year I didn't make them in the last 8 years was the year I was on oxygen. I just didnt feel safe cooking while attached to an oxygen tank. The first is a lavender sugar cookie, the second are starlight peppermint weaths, and the final are my speicalties, black pepper cookies. I also make hot candied chipolte pecans. (they are amazing on vanilla ice cream.)

Well I"m sorry for one to see you go. I can't imagine what sort of problems LBT could cause, but of your life is not my own. Cheers and take care in your journey.

Everyone, welcome to Bandlandia! You will do just fine during your surgery. I am always a big baby, blubbering like I was 4 or something. You will be just fine!

Congrats and welcome to The Banded Gentry!

Oh hush woman! Yeah, like no one missed you. We were just being patient. saying to ourselves, okay, we know she's okay, she'd been though hell, but she's okay.... I also wanna know where the hell Zoe went, and Shelly.... Okay, Donali is posting a little bit lately, but not nearly enough for me. Greg hardly posts, but I'll bet it's because he's got that new grandbaby.... I'm thinking it still has that new baby smell...

I almost always have to have breakfast on the run, what with living the glamour lifestyle of a university student in Idaho... I usually have 1/2 oz of nuts with 1 tablespoon or so of mixed dried fruit. I can eat it in class, and there's not much danger if I drop a nut on my shirt. I'll make up a couple of bags of nuts and fruit at a time, this way I always have them at the ready. There is plenty of crunch and texture. This way I also have something in my backpack so I'm not tempted by the junk-food machines.

Wow, looking good!

Okay, take a look at your calorie count (BUT DON'T OBSESS!) Just track for a few days to get a true feeling for you food intake. Your fill appointment is 2 weeks away, so no sweat there. In fact, take these two weeks to journal your food so that you can take it to both the nutritionist and the fill doc. This will give everyone a clear picture of where you are. It looks like you are doing great work. You just might need to work it a little harder than most, tht's the way it is with the Turtle Tribe. Okay, how much and how often are you excersizing? Is it possible that you have lost inches? I know that we have one woman here who's GAINED 26 MUSCLE pounds. Man, if I could gain that much muscle mass it would completely change my goals! Just so you know, I haven't lost any weight since my 3 fill, and I'm scheduled for my 5th fill next Monday. I have read here that many of our big band bandsters have to have several fills before that bad boy is filled to the point where they have any restriction. I think someone recently said that they needed to go up to like 8 ccs or more before the yfelt any good restricion. Do a search on you band and see what you come up with. As for the hair, now are you sure you are getting in enough protien? Have you had any traumas recently?

Okay, Tuesday it is! I'll let you know later in the week! This is so exciting!

How funny Jonathan, I was just thinking about you last night! (where's my yellow ribbon?) Okay, here's a reality check for you. You have just had one of the most stressful years of your life. Divorce, moving, quitting your job, changing your profession, going back to school, changing the way you interact with your kids.... did I miss anything? All of these things rate very high on the stress chart that the mental health type use to track stress with. Individulally, they rate high, and collectively they pack a huge impact on us. So, you gained back 13 pounds. Well, how many pounds do you think you would have gained without your band? I think, given our collective histories, a heck of a lot more than 13 pounds. So You are doing really good. I think there are different kinds of accountability, differnt ways to hold people accountable. I know that for many of us here, we are our own harsh critics. We do a good enough job beating ourselves up, thank you very much. I think it is much more effective to parent in a kind and loving manner, offering unconditional love. Oh sure, sometimes that love requires a swift kick to the pants, but they are generally rare, and well deserved. For us, usually when we need that kick is when we are being unrealistic or too harsh on ourselves. And so, of course you are welcome back, but you knew that before you even asked. That's one reason why we are different than so many other places on the net. WELCOME HOME (the old oak tree is across the street...)

I think you hit the problem square on there Trish, we discount our NSVs precicely because the scale says we are not good enough. It doesn't matter that you've lost 27 inches because the scale says your are not down enough, whatever "enough" is. You know that all these accomplishments are truely amazing on their own, and when combined with each other, they become so much more powerful because they tell more of the true picture. They help give our journey dimention and shape, they add texture and shadow that the numbers on the scale simply cannot give, all on their own. I know that it is easy to discount them, they are not a socitial approved measure of success, like pound on the scale are. But pounds are just as arbirary a unit of measure as kegs and stones and Kg and firkins and pfunds and atomic mass. They are conventions that we have agreed to judge ourselves and others by. Arbitrary as they may be, we give them power they do not deserve. This is why I always list my weight in some weird other unit of measurement. To attmpt to take power away from the scale, to take power away from the scale. And if I can take it away from the external, I can reclaim it for myself.