salsa1877

It is one day and the nice thing is that the band allows you to just pick up right where you left off. I remember being on Atkins and having an off day, which meant that it was going to take at least a week to get back on track again, which meant that it gave me an excuse to be off for 3 or 4 or 40 days. We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving this year because we were moving so I didn't have the huge plate of mashed potatoes to tempt me, but I did fight major head hunger yesterday. I think part of me was acutally hungry (89 trips upstairs carrying very heavy items can work up an appetite!) but the majority of my food cravings was just plain head hunger. Maybe for Christmas, you could plate your own food so that you can participate in conversation and mindlessly eat without over doing it. I don't know if your family/friends know so I don't know if that is plausible. Everybody under the sun knows that I have had it done, including the waitresses when I politely decline any and all beverages they insist upon bringing me or when the question whether or not I like the food because I only eat a few bites. My trick is to put on the plate what I think I should eat, because if it is in front of me, I will find someway of eating the whole thing. Just a thought. But don't feel too bad, and just get right back to what you were doing. 44 pounds means that you are doing something right!

Yipee, down 2 pounds since Tuesday. Maybe moving isn't so bad after all...Oh wait... Yes it is!

I HATE MOVING! So we finally got everything transferred from the old place to the new place with only a few hiccups in between. Like when we go to the new place and realized that someone had used it as a crash pad and the place smelled like cigarettes and they had used the shower!!!! So we went to the rental company and they were great and had their cleaning crew come in and fix the places up, but that put us back a few hours and the temperatures were dropping rapidly. Nonetheless, we are now moved in. I got my exercise for the week though!! I made at total of 89 trips up our flight of stairs to the apartment. Yes I counted!!!! Those were just the trips during the moving, not to mention the others for just normal living. Anyways, we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving this year due to the fact that we were moving, but I have decided that I must have a Christmas dinner because I battled major head hunger all day. I think it was because I didn't get a Thanksgiving dinner. We went out to eat and I had a very small piece of pumpkin pie, but it just didn't cut it. Doesn't help that I am not filled. Being unfilled hasn't affected my hunger (still rarely feel actual hunger), but it does effect how much I can eat. I really have to measure my food and only eat a certain amount, cause if I pushed it, I could probably eat pre-band amounts and I don't want to go there. It is a good thing that it is almost my bed time because I seriously wanted to eat. I haven't weighed for two days becasue the scale has been packed away, but it is in the bathroom waiting for me to step on it in the morning. I am hoping it is down at least a couple pounds. Tomorrow I go to join the gym, sore muscles and all. I won't be able to do much with the weights right now cause I am so sore, but it will just make it look like I am improving quickly. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I am off to bed. I have to get up early in hopes of finding a good sale on microwaves. Ours had to stay at the old place cause it was attached to the wall and I think they would have missed it if we took it with us.

You look fantastic Melissa. There is a very noticible difference. Be proud!

Well I didn't have any formal exercise yesterday, but 3 hours of packing a truck and then 4 hours of unpacking the truck and hauling a crap load of HEAVY stuff up a flight of stairs is going to count for my last day of exercise to meet the challenge. I am going to go join the gym tomorrow so I wil get in a few more days. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent our day finishing the unloading of the truck and unpacking boxes. We are going to go and share an entree at one of the open restaurants.

Wow Janet, a 500 calorie Thanksgiving. Though I don't know if I could eat that much being unfilled!! Well we are packing the truck and staring to move to the new place so I will be without internet for a few days. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and take Janet's advice...GOOD FOOD CHOICES!!

Well we are packing everything in the truck today and starting to move into the new place so I am going to be without internet for the next few days. So I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Remember GOOD FOOD CHOICES!!!!!

I still have port pain now and again. When I got the food lodged early last week I really started having pain. I think anything that can irritate the torso muscles can probably irritate the port. Coughing always causes my ribs to hurt which is around where my port is, so that is definetly a possibility. Hope you feel better

Wow you guys are doing great. Since I had to revise my November challenge due to my little eating incident (which is sooooooo much better now), I only have one day left. The last two days I had been packing and walking up and down the stairs, so I decided that I would just take a break from packing and just walk/jog up and down the stairs for a half hour. I thought I was going to die by the end, but after I recovered I felt great. Nana I am going to be joining the gym as soon as we finish moving. Though mine doesn't come with a personal trainer. It is like Curves only with real weights. The people seem nice though.

SPEBSQSAlady - You are probably still swollen which can cause restriction in itself. I got food lodged a week or so ago and had to be completely unfilled because of extreme pain and irritation. However, since then I haven't been hungry at all either. The doc said that was because I was probably still swollen. I guess we should be happy that we are not starving even though our bands are completely empty. Keep in touch and let us know how you are doing.

Hi! I am currently living in Central Oregon, but crossing my fingers to move back to the valley area in June. I was banded by Dr. Neal in Olympia, WA.

Christmas decorations:omg: I REFUSE, ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to do anything for Christmas before Thanksgiving! It makes me furious (and my poor BF has to listen to me everytime) when I go into the stores in mid-October and they are playing Christmas music and have up decorated trees!!! Seriously! However, I will forgive you for now because we are CLOSE to Thanksgiving. Just a little rant;) Phew all of the heavy stuff is into the garage. Now it is all the little stuff that doesnt fit nicely into categorized boxes. I am a true scientist...I have to categorize everything. If it was up to me each thing would probably have its own box. Not efficient, but at least it would be properly sorted:D

You probably heard me again this morning. I have to say that I half expected it to go back up above 200, but it actually went down another 1/2 pound. I think it is because I went back to mushie foods. NO MORE PAIN:clap2:. If I fall very far below 1000 calories, I just stop losing period. Nothing is going to budge. I made myself get to 1100 calories yesterday. I had to drink calories, but I chose V8 splash so that I was getting something nutritional. I never would have thought that I would have to make myself eat MORE to get to 1100 calories. Before that would have been the amount of calories in a second mid morning snack! I have actually had a few people talk to me about the lap band, but when they hear what you actually have to do when having the band, the decide it is not for them. People actually do think this is the easy way out until they hear the rules and see how little food we eat. I tell them not to go through it until they are mentally ready. I would not have been successful at this 2 years ago. Well I am moving furniture to the garage while my BF is at work. It is quite the work out. Got all the furniture down from upstairs and now working on my 3000000000 lb cabinet stereo. Dang that thing is heavy.

You are so right Candle. I knew that I was losing, but I almost started crying when I actually took the pictures and posted them. The mirror lies almost as much as the scale, but the camera really shows a big difference.

4.9 cc's does not sound high based on what my fill nurse said. I got the new AP band as well and on my first fill I got 3.6, but I asked for them to be conservative since I live 6 hours away from my doc and didn't want to have to turn around and go back because I was overfilled. My doc does them under fluoro and I know people who have him that have already had 4 fills since the end of August, so I don't think it works everytime. I am just glad that he does it because I am a scientist and I think it is cool to watch. Also it helps diagnose any problems that may have arisen. I had to go in a few days ago for a total unfill because I didn't chew properly and got something lodged. They were able to tell that the band was still in the perfect position and that everything looked alright with the contrast going through.

Marsha - When I saw my doc 2 days ago, he said that he considers it a success if you lose 50 pounds in 1 year. So if you take that into consideration you should have lost a total of 16.7 pounds in 4 months. You are ahead of the game. Some of us lose faster than others and we all get discouraged when the scale doesn't read what we want. The band does require a lot of self control and will power. The band has helped me enormously, but it requires that I choose good foods most of the time, that I only eat at specific times, and that I exercise. If I am hungry at times other than meal time, I really make myself determine if it is head hunger or real hunger. 99 times out of 100 it is head hunger. If it is real hunger, I try to stave it off by drinking crystal light or diet (not light) cranberry juice. By doing that I make myself not eat for at least a half hour and by then the hunger usually passes. For the head hunger I just look at the voided 17000$ :omg:checks that I have hanging on my fridge and the cabinet where the snackish food is. That usually stops me. My suggestions are to look at the amount of Protein you are eating, the amount of times you are eating, and the number of calories. You have to make sure that you are eating enough. I know that sometimes we lower the amount of calories that we eat to try to lose those few extra pounds and it backfires on us. While I was on liquids the last few days because I ate to fast and food got lodged (PAINFUL!) I didn't get enough calories and didn't lose a thing. Yesterday I got to 1100 calories and today was into onederland. Calories in and calories out works most of the time, but there is a limit. As for what restriction feels like, I can't tell you. I didn't think that I was that restricted prior to my incident and now I am completely unfilled. Soooo...it looks like maybe the two of us are really going to have to rely on our self will. You have made the first step however. Coming here to get support will certainly help. The people here are great and keep you honest! Good luck and stay in touch.

I finally made it. And after a rough week as well. I didn't chew my food well enough (I know slap my hand!) and was in terrible pain due to irritation of my esophogus. My doc completely unfilled me and I am going to have to keep it in onederland using pure will power. I can and will do it though, cause this is a GREAT FEELING. You all are doing so well and have been a big inspiration to me. Good luck on the continued weight loss.

I lost 50 pounds in 3.5 months. My doctor said that was very rare though. He said they consider losing 50 pounds in one year a success. So even though some of us have lost substantially more, if you go by what he said, you would be on track if you have only lost 12.5 pounds. I don't think most people (or anyone) would be happy with that, but just food for thought.

I MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am pretty sure that if you lived anywhere in the western United States, you probably heard me screaming this morning. 199.5. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made it, I made it. For those of you who heard a faint shrieking this morning about 1 hour ago, that would be me screaming when I stepped on the scale. 199.5. Can't get any closer with my scale, but it no longer had a 2 anywhere in the number. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Salsa: congrats on the fast weight loss. Could you share your weight loss secret with us... what you're eating, & exercise plan. Sure could use some new ideas. I think I'm going to go in and get a little bit taken out on Wed. It actually hurts to eat most meals. Then within a few bites I have a gag reflex that makes me want to throw up. Sometimes I can work through it, but other times I have to go PB. Some days and meals are worse than others... but I think it might be best to get a slight bit taken out. First, you really should go in and have a little bit taken out. Pain is not a good thing. I know this from experience. As for my secret...I think it is what and when I eat. I have a very regimented day because that fits my personality. Here is a typical day: 1. Breakfast at 6:30 - Usually a sausage, egg and cheese lean pocket (140 calories and 6 grams of protein) 2. Lunch at 11:30 - Usually left overs from dinner the night before. Always has at least 20 grams of protein (Meatloaf, spaghetti sauce with beef or chicken and a few noodles, chili, stir fry etc.) 3. Snack at 3:30 - Pure Protein Bar (180 calories, 18 grams of protein) 4. Dinner at 5:30 - Whatever my BF fixes. Again no less than 20 grams of protein. I don't eat anymore than 1 cup of food at a time. I still measure if it is a new food, but I am getting pretty good at eyeing it. I also eat anything I want as long as I stay around 1000 calories. That way I never feel deprived. The only food that I really have some issues with is rice. I don't do well with sticky varieties. By not "dieting" and restricting or eliminating foods I don't feel like I need to binge. My biggest problem before banding was binge eating. I said in my first post on this site that I have been hiding and binging on foods since I was 8. When I eliminated that the weight started coming off. I haven't been very good about exercising lately, but I have job where I am on my feet all day. I have been walking/jogging home until I had this "not chewing" issue. After we move and reduce our rent significantly I am going to join a gym that is like Curves but with real weights. I hope this helps. Oh and by the way, you can put me down for level 3. I am going to be getting a fill on Dec. 21 so I should make the 5 pounds. Now if only I could get below that dang 200 mark. DO YOU SEE HOW CLOSE I AM TO ONEDERLAND:angry

My doc was a little worried that I would be unfilled during Thanksgiving, but I told him that it wouldn't be a problem because we are actually moving Thanksgiving day. It is the only day that both my BF and I have off together so we just decided to skip the meal since I wouldn't be able to eat much any ways. My esophogus is still really sore today so it still hurts to drink, but I am not getting the pains in the stomach. I still can't get in enough calories. I only had about 600 calories today. We ran out of peanut butter so I need to go to the store tomorrow to get some. I can add that to my protein smoothies and that helps bump up the protein. If I don't get around 1000 calories, I stop losing. Keeping my fingers crossed that the darn scale realizes that a 2 at the beginning of the number isn't necessary. A 1 is normal. Been a LOOOOOOOOOONNNNG time since I have been there. 4 years or so. And even then it was for a fleeting moment.

When I went in yesterday to get my unfil, the nurse pulled out 1.6 cc even though I had 3.6 put in. She said that often 1-2 cc of the first fill gets absorbed into the body.

200.0 I can't get any closer. 0.000000000001 pounds to go. If only my scale weighed to that! Maybe tomorrow, but definetly by thanksgiving. You are all doing great. I had to get a total unfill yesterday cause I didn't chew properly a few days ago and everything is agitated and irritated, so I am going to have to get to and stay in onederland with will power! Wish me luck.

gretal - Most people don't get restriction from their first fill. In fact, my nurse told me yesterday as I was getting a total UNFILL, that most of the saline from the first fill is absorbed into the body. They had originally put 3.6 cc into my band and when she pulled it out yesterday there was only 1.6 in there. Don't get discouraged. Hang in there, and maybe your second fill will do the trick! Good luck