forgve70x7

Hey Phyl...235/225 for the Thanksgiving thing. It got deleted somehow. :car: Happy Birthday to Chim & Linda!! I hope you guys had great days.

Thanks Phyl. Hope you have a great night.

Phyl, Can you add my weight? I'm now at 235 and hope to be at 225 by Thanksgiving. Thanks!!

BTW, my current weight is 235...so I need to get down to 225 by Thanksgiving. Chim, it's great to see you back on here. Sorry you've been so busy, we've missed you!

Thanks Linda!!

Count me in with 10 lbs by Thanksgiving.

Ok, so one thing I want to encourage us all with (myself included) is that typically if you have more weight to lose, you will lose it faster than those who don't have as much to lose. I know I keep comparing myself to my surgeon who had his surgery about 5 weeks before I did, but he also weighed about 50 lbs more than I did. And, I know he too has hit a plateau. So, as long as you are doing everything you can to eat less (and the foods we know we should eat), you will start catching up on weight loss too. I was plateaued for about 12 weeks, and after my fill a week and a half ago, I'm finally losing again and am down 3 pounds. But, my Dr did say that it can take more fills before we hit the "sweet" spot. Don't lose hope, just keep eating the right foods (as I'm eating boneless wings from Applebees) and working out. Anyways, I am encouraged seeing your pictures and wanted to post a couple of mine. The first picture is from January of 2006 which is what I looked like before surgery too. I was getting ready to go skiing and can't wait to try it again this year since my calves are a little smaller. Hopefully the boots will fit better. The second one was taken last week with one of our beautiful sunsets here in Northern Arizona. I hope you all have a GREAT WEEK and I'll talk to you again soon. ~Nichole

just family crap...and i'm tired of my family not being able to move past things that have happened in the past. they just don't let go and won't let us move on with our life since they haven't dealt with it.

It's the one thing I've always wanted out of life. So, hopefully I'll see that dream come true in the next couple of years!! I'm doing ok, it's just been a rough few weeks.

Hey Dini...I'm here...How's it going?

My niece is almost 3 and my nephew is 4 months old. It was great to see them, and let me tell you, I can't wait to become a mom, but needed to lose weight before I get pregnant because my weight and high blood pressure would make for a very high risk pregnancy. I'm hoping to maybe get pregnant this time next year, but it's all in God's hands, so we'll see.

Can I get a new name?? Mine was slut boi. :eek:

Wow, so it's been so long since I posted, but I figured I should check in. :eek: I've definitely had a mind game going on especially since I have lost ANYTHING in the last 10 weeks. It's been really hard to accept, but after I went in for my 2nd fill this past Thursday, I feel much better. I spent some time talking to my dietitian and he was nothing but supportive (as usual)!! Now, let me tell you, I have the new small AP Band. I was asking my Dr about how much volume they hold, and he said they've tested it (and the large one) up to 20 cc's, but most people will never go above 10 cc's in their lifetime. Just some interesting information I thought you guys would like to know. I now have 4.5 cc's in mine. He initially put in 1 cc, but when I drank, it felt tight. Since I live 4 1/2 hours away from my Dr, he pulled 1/2 cc back out. I am actually hoping my hubby can go with me one of these days and to have them give him a needle and some lidocaine in case we ever run into problems here. My hubby is a nurse, and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. I'm not setting my next appointment until I know for sure how this fill is. Right now, I think my stomach is still swollen because I can't eat more than a few bites before I start sliming and have that great pain in my chest. But one thing I can tell you guys is that even though I'm not losing weight (I should start here soon though), I am still noticing a change in my clothes. Two pairs of my jeans actually make me look almost flat in the front. I'm also putting a picture of me with my niece & nephew. When I was in Omaha 2 weeks ago, I got my hair cut (I think I cut 6 inches off) and as I lose weight I'm starting to feel more girly than I ever have. I can't wait to buy some cute girly clothes. Well, I guess that's it for now, but I'll hopefully post again soon. I do read the posts, I'm just horrible at responding.

Ruby (and anyone else who needs to hear this), I just got off the phone with my dietitian and explained to him what had been going on. He said it was normal that even after your first fill, you may not feel the restriction you thought you would. He says most patients it takes a few fills before you are feeling full with a half a cup of food. I'm not sure what your Dr told you, but I have 2cc's in my 4cc band, and the Dr told me that I should see a significant amount of weight loss with this first fill. However, according to the dietitian, it's not always like that. In fact, with most people, it's not like that until you are really feeling the restriction and are only able to eat a 1/2 cup of food at a time and feel full. So, don't feel discouraged, and just keep going with your fills as soon as your dr allows you to. That way we can get to the point where we all need to be!! I hope this info helps you, it helped me feel better after talking to him. Anyways, I have to get to our exchange student's football game, but I'll talk to you all again soon!! ~Nichole

Ruby, I totally understand what you are feeling. I have been feeling the same way. I've been doing cardio 3x per week for at least an hour, and doing weight training 2x per week for about an hour. Usually I'll work my upper body one day and my lower body the other. Even since I got my first fill, I haven't lost any weight, I keep going up and down about 4 pounds and I'm not sure what I'm doing either. I know it's not aunt flo right now, so that makes it worse. I haven't been eating more than I should either so I'm perplexed since my dr told me I should see some significant weight loss with this fill (2cc in a 4cc band). My next fill isn't scheduled until Oct 11, so it's not that far away, but I'm ready for one now and wish I would have stuck to 4 weeks like he said at first until he remembered that I live 5 hours away. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to keep working that much harder. It's good to know that I'm not the only one feeling this way though!! I'll Talk to you soon, ~Nichole

:clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2: CONGRATS RIBEARTY!!! Brag away, it's your right and privilege!! :whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo::whoo:

You know, the hardest thing for me to get over is the mind game that I'm playing with myself. I still want to eat the amount I used to and it's a constant battle to not eat the amount I used to. With the fill, it's getting easier and easier, but I know it's going to take time for my mind and my eyes to get used to this. Having the fill is also great on the snacks because you can't eat as much. However, you just have to watch eating things like chips because those will go through the band quickly and not keep you full for long!! Big Medicine is on TLC - normally on Monday nights. The season just ended, but I'm sure you can catch the re-runs until the show starts up again. I hope you get better, and I know once you get your fill you'll start seeing results again so keep your head high!

CC, I'm just wondering if you're getting close to "Aunt Flo" visiting too, because that could be part of your weight gain. I put on 8 pounds last month, and really freaked out about it, but the nurse said we need to allow ourselves at least 10 pounds each month that we could potentially put on. Another thing to remember (and this is from my Doc) is that even though we got that band, the pouch hasn't really been created yet and the initial restriction we all felt was from the swelling in our stomach's. My dr's don't even count the weight loss from the time of my pre-op until the first fill. They look at the pre-op weight, then the first fill weight. They even say that the liquid and post-op diets are ways to diet that anyone would lose weight on. I hope that helps, but don't feel down on yourself. Things will get better, it just takes a lot of patience to get to that first fill. I just had mine on Friday and am loving it. ~Nichole

Hey all... I finally got my first fill today!! I'm so excited about it too. It was very interesting to me because the doc found my port on the first poke and with the needle in, he told me to stand up. Then he gave me a bottle of water and told me to chug it. When it started to hurt me while swallowing was when he backed it out and took out a little bit. I'm not sure how your fills have gone, but it was very interesting. I'm actually writing this from the Phoenix airport and am flying back to Albuquerque to drive home 2 1/2 hours. Oh well, it was well worth it and I'm so glad to have the restricted feeling again so that I can better control what I'm eating again. I was also very happy with the scale at the Dr's office because I'm down to 236 which finally put me past the 30 lb mark!! :waytogo: I hope you are all having a great Friday, and hope you all have a safe 3 day weekend! ~Nichole

It's such a small world!! When they eliminated that position, my mom made the lateral move to an ASM (I also worked at Kohl's for a few years) and ended up quitting because of the hours. She liked working M-F and her favorite time to work was overnights. Congrats on making it 13 years...that's awesome!! Laters, Nichole

Shannon, I'm getting caught up on posts, and a visual is the person who works in stores and works on the displays. Mostly, when my mom did it, it was dressing the mannequins and the wall displays. But, she also had to make sure the product displays were correct and met the corporate standards. **Not sure if anyone else answered this, but I figured I'd at least respond.

Lynette, I'm not normally a big beach person, but I'm hoping that changes as I lose weight!! I'm too self-conscious in a swim suit right now which is most of the reason I don't like them!! I hope you have fun though. BTW, I know you said you were a visual in a retail store, and I was just wondering where you worked. My mom was a visual and then district visual (until they eliminated the position) for Kohl's. ~Nichole

The housing situation was another reason we didn't move up there. The cost even to rent is way too expensive. Once I lose weight though, I really want to do a 2 week cruise up that way where a week of it is on the train inland. I think part of the reason the pic looks so bad is the avatar pics themselves because I changed mine, but still don't think it looks any better. I think it's the size requirements and the dimensions that skew the pics. Oh well, at least it's updated for now.

Thanks Marci!! How are things going for you? On a side note, my hubby and I almost moved up to Sitka a couple of years ago, but decided not to when the HR department was changing what they said they would give us after he did a site visit.

Thanks Chim...It's just been busy, plus I've been having computer problems again so that's been limiting when I'm on.