Pippz

Stef, they make full-body uhhh I hate to say "girdle" but thats sort of what it is. From your thighs to your shoulders. I was thinking of getting some of those myself, actually! thanks! My band is a 10cc band there's 2.something in there now. I'm sure I'll need another fill in a month, but I'm going to do my best until then to work on the "head" hunger issues. I realize now no matter how tight the band is, I can still gain at least some weight back if I'm not careful. So - I did a daring thing today too. I adopted a dog! It's daring because I'm not allowed dogs in my apartment (even though sooo many people here have them). I worry that I'd get caught and have to find her a new home, but she is sooo beautiful and so calm and sweet. I just love her already. I'm praying that having her will help me and my lazy-bum 7 year old get out more. My daughter refuses to go anywhere lately! I hope you all have a good weekend. Talk to you soon!

Sooo happy to hear I'm not the only one. I was starting to get guilty! I'm happy I'm finally standing up for myself. So this is what "normal" people are like!! They're not afraid to tell someone off because of being afraid of being called fat anymore, woot! I imagine this is going to be a pendulum of emotions. I'm sure we'll be swinging wildly from one extreme to another for a little bit, and settling somewhere in the middle. I'm just really happy that I was finally able to get this stuf off my chest by telling certain people off, and that I've eliminated the bad people in my life so I can start building healtheir relationships soon!

I can relate to being ANGRY. I'm angry all the time now. I've finally started telling some people what I've been meaning to FOREVER. I'm trying to figure out if this means I'm "getting better" or if I'm taking out my anger on the wrong people. As an example, my cousin, who I've always been very close with, had a "wedding" at her house one mile down the street and didn't invite any of her family, including her mom. I wasn't even going to talk to her about it (I HATE THE GUY), but she kept f'n asking me why I wasn't happy for her. After about the third time I just let LOOSE and said some really mean things to her. it felt GREAT to get it off my chest but I'm pretty sure I'll never talk to her again. Right now I feel like it's a good thing, it's not good to have draining people in your life all the time (she's always borrowing money or something else). I've also been super angry at work. Before I would "yes ma'am" everyone to death, now some people think I'm such a bitch. I do enjoy this empowerment, but it's very hard for me to think of myself as strong when I never have before. Okay sorry, done with the ranting. My emotions are everywhere. I even asked out my brother's best friend of like 20 years VIA EMAIL. What was I thinking?? He never even responded!!

Hi everyone. Life's been a little nutty. Having some family/emotional stuff going on, but at least now Im dealing with it instead of just stuffing my face. Weight loss has slowed a LOT and I put on 4 lbs in a week because I was eating CRAP. I'm back on plan now, though, and went back to the gym today. I think what I need to learn more than anything now is self-forgiveness. Before whenever I'd cheat I'd say oops the diets over! Now I know it'll never be over and this is something i HAVE to do. ughghg I'm sending virtual hugs out to all of you. You are the only people that know what this is like! I had an appt a few days ago but no fill. I go back in a month. I slimed for the first time last night (my fault - I took a huge bite that was hot so I swallowed it without chewing). Okay that's about it from me. I didn't really know what to say here lately so I've just been reading and not posting.

Faith - I was stuck for what felt like forever, too. I started using the eliptical machine for 25-30 minutes a day for almost two weeks now and the scale has started moving again. Have you been working out?

Stef you look AMAZING.

I listed all my starting/preop weights a few posts above this one. Sorry, don't feel like retyping. HAHA :-) My weight loss has not been consistent. I lost a lot in the beginning, then over 3 weeks I lost maybe 2 lbs, so I started working out in an actual gym for 1/2hr a day and the weight loss has started up again!

THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENTS. That pic is from my heaviest last year, I was 327. I went to the surgeons in November and weighed 319 on my first (second) consult. I didn't lose much weight on the pre-requisite 6 months nut consultations, maybe 5 lbs. I started dieting heavily about 1 month before the surgery and lost 25 lbs that month. The rest is all from the lap-band. I'm 5'10 and think that has a lot to do with making me look smaller. My arms and legs are proportionatily bigger than the rest of my body, just my middle has disappeared a lot. I'm at 260ish right now (haven't weighed myself in a few days).

PAM YOU LOOK AWESOME!! OKAY EVERYONE ITS PICTURE TIME!!! Post them up!

My current gym playlist is as follows: It's Alright - Ricky Martin My Humps - Black Eyed Peas The Killers - Move Away Shakira - La Tortura Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison Beyonce - Check on It Kanye West - Stronger (LOVE THIS SONG) Nelly Furtado - Do It Melanie C- I turn to You Timbaland - The Way I Are Get Your Head In The Game (HSM soundtrack ..uhhh how did that get in there?) LL Cool J - Apple Cobbler Ozomatli - Ya Viene el Sol Beyonce - Get Me Bodied Daddy Yankee - Impacto Q-Tip - Breathe and Stop Gwen Stefani - Wind It Up K7 - Come Baby Come Timbaland - Give It To Me Kelly Rowland - Like This Lady Sovereign - Love Me or Hate Me Lloyd - Get It Shawty Lumidee - Like The Wind Salt-N-Pepa - Push It Ricky Martin - This Is Good (GREAT SONG) Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music John Mayer Trio - Try And that's mostly it. I have some others on there but I listen to these the most. I have like 80 gigs of music and can sing almost every line of the songs. I've always been into music more than TV or anything else really. I'm dead tired. I'm hung over too. I drank half a cup of vodka last night on a "date" that I was nervous about... :-| Today is my midyear review at work so I'm not having a great day I guess! hahaha

This 2nd fill has been awesome for the last couple of days. Even on liquids only I feel okay, but today I ate for the first time. I had 2 eggs (fried. I know, I know) around 3pm and haven't been hungry since. :-| I hope it stays this way for a few weeks at least! Today I got the best compliment from someone I haven't seen since before the surgery. They just freaked out and he said something like "oh my god you're like.. a normal skinny person now". haha well i'm far from skinny but it made me feel good to have him at a loss for words! Back to the gym tomorrow - I've been downloading tons of music so I can keep my workouts fun. :-) Good night everyone. I'm happy to hear us getting a little bit better as the fills go along!!

Suzzie - that is EXACTLY what I've been going through. We've lost our "friend", we've lost our ability to cope. I'm right there with you, I PROMISE.

O2b - THATS A GREAT WEIGHT LOSS! I hope you get happy with this and it helps with your spirit and weight loss! :-)

Hi everyone! I had my 2nd fill today, and of course it wasn't without incident! Nothing can be easy, hehe. Thank god my doctor is adorable and I don't mind spending extra time with him! I found out today I have a 5 cc band. My first fill was 3 weeks ago, it was 1cc, but the doctor accidentally wrote down 2ccs. for starters, he's had trouble finding my port for the 2nd time in a row. He said it just "feels weird" - i don't know what that means, but he still found it thank god. Then he pulled out the fluid to see what was in it, and said there was .8 of a CC. He was worried I was leaking (because he had written down 2 ccs) so he pushed in 2 and told me to come back in 2 weeks. I, being mesmerized by his adorableness, wasn't really listening to what he was SAYING. I got up and tried to drink some water and I sort of felt it sitting there. It did go down, but he looked worried. And THEN I realized what he had been saying. I told him I was really sure that I only had 1cc in there, and he said I must be right since it was only my first fill, he never would have put in 2ccs. So then I had to go back in the room and he removed .8 of them, so I now I have 1.2ccs of fluid in a 5cc band. what a day! I did ask him about the number of people on this board that have lost fluid after their first fill. he said that's typical because there is usually air in the band before you fill it the first time, and so when you put the fluid in with the air sometimes stuff gets out. It made a lot of sense to me, but he said as you continue the fills that happens less and less. Okay, that's my news for today. I've got the "I'm still glowing from seeing my cute doctor" look going on so maybe I'll go out for a walk. haha

Oh I also wanted to add that the scale was stuck for me forrrrrever. I hadn't been working out, though. This week I've spent just 25 mns a day on the eliptical machine and have already lost 2 lbs.

I've had a bunch of stuff stuck (bread, rice) but the thing that gets me stuck the most is chicken. I almost threw up at a work lunch a few weeks ago (My biggest fear!). Thank god for my (strange) instinct to jump up and down a little in the bathroom to try to unstick it, or else I would ahve lose it!!

I don't have a goal weight, I have a goal size. I want to be a size 14. I haven't been a size 14 since middle school!!! I was in a 26/28 AND THEY WERE TIGHT, now I'm in a 20/22 or 18/20 depending on what it is. Once I hit size 14 I want to stay there for a long time, if not forever. I need to give myself time to adjust to the notice I've been getting from guys... That really freaks me out for some reason! Plus I have all these adorable size 14 clothes that I want to wear for at least a year! I figure I'll be about 200 lbs when that happens, so about 65 more to go! I think its awesome that some of you are shooting for awesomely low and healthy weights. Is anyone else nervous at the idea of being thin?? I've NEVER been thin in my life (although I've lost 50-80lbs 3 times now). I wouldn't even know what to do with myself!

<embarrassed> I guess it must look a lot brighter when you only get to hear some of my complaints/solutions/etc. In truth I've been quite sad that I lost my "Friend", my coping mechanism. My weight loss has slowed to almost nothing (or goes up 2 lbs, down 2lbs) over the last few weeks. I wasn't really exercising so I think that might have something to do with it. I started working out this morning to fix that problem. I honestly think I just lost the weight quickly because of the carb thing. I've done REALLY well on atkins before, so I know if I stay away from sugar and bread, I'll lose much faster. I have eaten those things, though, and definitely a lot more recently. I have a fill scheduled for later this week, though. I really feel like I need it now. The last two days I was VERY hungry, but today for some reason I'm not. It's very strange that way. I've almost thrown up twice in the last week, though. My problem is that I've always eaten quickly, and it's REALLY hard for me to slow down. If I've lost anything lately, I think it's because I ate too fast and got something stuck, then couldn't eat for 24 hours while my stomach righted itself. Well I guess that's my two cents. I will post before and after pictures as soon as I take some "after". I was really heavy before so I don't think there's too much of a difference! But I'll let you guys be the judge. I'll tke some later. Hang in there, everyone. We knew this wasn't going to be easy, I guess we just wait and eventually it will help. At some point the fills are going to be tight and then we'll really be changing our lives! :-)

Okay... so I know a lot of us are hungry and emotional and cranky. But have any of you actually "binged" in any way, or the way that you used to? I was a big binge eater, and I tell you - as much as I've wanted to binge lately (stress I think) I havent' been able to. At first it was frustrating, but I find I'm getting better at dealing with the emotions that come along with wanting to binge but being unable to. A binge for me used to be two full meals at a fast food joint, plus ice cream or other desert. Just getting rid of the binges and the guilt alone have been worth it for me. Maybe I haven't been making the 100% right choices, but the binges going away has made the surgery worth it for me. The weight loss is icing on the cake now.

Sorry you feel that way, heather. :-( It's really so different for everyone. The girl at work that had her surgery two weeks after mine hasn't lost much and feels no restriction, whereas I was feeling it since day one, but have slowly been losing it. How's everyone doing with hair loss? I thought I escaped it, but it's just started coming out more than usual in the shower. eek! I had a real bad emotional spell last week, and gained some weight (ugh smoothies and sugary crap), but I had a long "talk" with myself and got back on track, and I'm back down to what I was about 1 1/2 weeks ago. I hope you are all doing okay and not going through the emotions I've been having this week!! Michele

Ohhhh yes. I've had seasonally depression for years, and over the last two it's turned into more of a permanant depression. After being happy and feeling thin for weeks, I suddenly find myself feeling like a miseralbe HOUSE. I'm sure it'll pass, but it's no picnic in the meantime. Just try to work on things that are stressing you out, and hopefully that will help. Avoiding my stressors just makes it worse. I try to pick just one problem to work on a little bit each day. Hang in there, I'm sure it'll be okay soon.

About the insurance bills... I think that they have to charge the insurance more to get more of a "market value" back from the insurance companies. My surgeon billed my insurance $6,700 and only got paid about $2,000 after "negotiations". The hospital bill was $19,000 but they only recieved $6,000. To my surprise the anastesiologist recieved almost as much as my surgeon, around $1,800. I wouldn't worry about the bills until you actually get a letter stating you owe that much, which you shouldn't. It says on my letter from cigna that all bills have been settled and so I do not owe anything more than my $500 out of pocket maximum per year.

ughghg - so I threw up for the first time. It was on Friday night. I was very excited about getting the new Harry Potter book and just wanted to take a few bites before I started to read it (after midnight). I ate too fast and had this HORRIBLE pain in my stomach/throat. I know it wasn't the food because I'd had the same stuff for dinner, I jsut ate too much or too fast. Anyway, I paced the house for 45 minutes with this horrible pain until I was finally able to throw up, crying and everything! Has anyone else thrown up yet? It was HORRIBLE. I've barely eaten since, because I don't want to go through that ever, ever again.

I've been dehydrated a LOT too, although my doctor says to wait 1/2 hr after eating to drink again. I find at night if I'm really dehydrated I force myself to drink 16+ ounces of something in less than an hour before I go to bed. It's hard, but if I don't do it then by morning I'm in horrible shape.