JustWatchMe

"We're not worthy!" Oh, wait. Yes, I am.

Hello my peeps! I had a great weekend filled with lots of people. I went to my CODA meeting today and talked about giving up alcohol. My head is in a very good place today. I've been more mindful about slowing down my chewing. This has resulted in better satiety and an easier time stopping when satisfied, instead of when the plate's clean. I won't get a lunch break tomorrow at all. So I'll bring chicken salad to work. My body feels better today. Lighter and cleaner.

Nope. No acid reflux for me. Can you see if your surgeon can check your band? This isn't normal.

Hoping it's temporary? Try to get back to the newbie mindset. Pretend you were just banded and have the post op protocol. Liquids, then transition to soft foods then regular foods. Are you going to get fluid back in eventually or look into a revision? Why did you have an unfill? Good luck. I've heard that it's a difficult time but NOT impossible to stay on track after an unfill.

Yes! Just like weight loss, begin where you are and work from there. You have the perfect attitude to be a successful adult student. Yay! And please don't be embarrassed about math levels. I'm a reasonably successful IT person, and I stopped being able to help my daughters with their school math at the high school level, even though I had to take many years of math beyond that for my computer science degree back in the Fred Flintstone age. I applaud you for your bravery to take charge of your life and for your common sense. None of us ever succeeded at anything by focusing on what we couldn't do. Only on what is possible. Help is out there! Take it and RUN with it!

Glad to be here with all of you. Last night was a big success. I was the DD for my pals and drank one glass of cranberry juice and about ten glasses of Water all night. food was planned and moderate. The band we saw was quite good. Today I have a birthday outing to a restaurant/winery with another dear friend, planned weeks ago. She will understand and I'll just have tea. Her 20 year old son is going through alcohol detox right now. No explanations will be necessary. After I posted here about this, I had an incredible feeling of lightness the rest of my day. It was like, OK. A decision was made. By me, nobody else. I'm taking charge of my life. This is good. And it is. I'm not stressing over the weight gain. It will come off, sooner rather than later. I logged in MyFitnessPal yesterday and I may do that again for a while. Get a reality check. Busy weekend for me with food and social events. Birthday outing at lunch. Movie night with my bestie. No crapcorn. Tomorrow a couple I became friends with this year is taking me out for lunch for my birthday. It's all good.

Shaving my legs in the bathtub sitting down! Sitting down in the bathtub!

Congratulations! I was dizzy a little a few months in. Actually about 6-7 months in. But it passed. I attribute it to my lower body weight not being adjusted to my blood pressure meds. Everything evened out over time. I wasn't tired though. I actually had tons of energy for the first time in years. Like tmf said, keep up with your fills. I'm a year out and doing great and I'm still being adjusted. You'll do fine!

My first six weeks post op of full liquids was hard but my surgeon wants his banded patients to have maximum weight loss right out of surgery. I was very motivated to follow directions, so I did, but you better believe I wallowed a bit! Like you, I went through Easter (and my birthday) last year on liquids. My husband didn't change a thing, but I didn't expect him to. (We're now divorcing, unrelated to WLS.). Anyway, it gets much better as the weight starts to fall off. Hang in there. It's all worth it.

Congrats @@Rogofulm!!

Yes Lisa. More often lately actually. It's Friday. The clock ticks down to the weekend ....

I'm a little south of u and it is beautiful here today.Dupage here. Yep!

What a beautiful day in Chicagoland. Having my Unwich in a busy, noisy Jimmy John's. Thinking of all the years I would never eat alone in a restaurant. Now I feel right at home with the normies. Eating well and slowly and moderately. Happy weekend, everyone!

It's 74 and sunny in beautiful Chicagoland. I'm happy!

Ok, big leap into accountability for me today. Ready? Hotshot here got on the scale after a couple of weeks. Easter, my daughter home, my birthday, blah blah blah. I'm up to 205.6 this morning. That's 11 pounds higher than my lowest weight so far. I know exactly why I've gained. It's cocktails and wine. Wine is pure sugar and as a BONUS (!) it leads to eating carby yummy foods without inhibition. No matter how many stairs I do, or how many miles I walk on my lunch hour, I've managed to gain instead of lose. Even with this latest tight fill that really is noticeable. This latest fill is probably perfect. I can eat CORRECTLY successfully. If I eat too fast or too big of bites, I get stuck immediately. No GERD, no other problems. It's probably exactly where the band was intended to be, restriction-wise. So. I am NOT beating myself up over this. But I want to share my feelings about it, so here goes. I'm sad and angry that I have to give up alcohol if I want to lose weight. I enjoy the buzz. It's been my treat when everything around me has been stressful. I have a glass of wine or two at home and mellow out. On weekends I go out with my girlfriends and let my hair down. But it's not working for me. It's too many calories and it makes me not care about the food I'm putting in my mouth. I also frequently sip my wine while I eat when in a restaurant, which is a big band no no. Why? Because I'm relaxed and I don't care. Problem is, I do care. Another reason it's got to go instead of cut back is that I am a food addict. I already go to two 12-step programs, OA and CoDA. I don't have time in my week for a third. And I know me. It can get to that very quickly. When I was 28 I joined OA. A couple of months into abstinence from overeating, I had this same epiphany. I had to give up alcohol in order to keep my food abstinence. It was briefly hard. I was in my twenties and loving life as my body went from obesity to normal size. I didn't know how to socialize without that lubricant. But I gave it up. I gave it up for over 10 years. I'm going out tonight with my best friend and another friend. We go out and we drink and we bitch about our exes and we listen to bands and we eat and we laugh and we drink some more. Tonight I go out with them. Tonight I won't drink. My bestie knows my life history. She was my friend before and during and after my teetotaling days. I'll explain my decision to her and I'll probably have a feisty conversation about it, but ultimately she will be okay with it. I'll be okay too. The problem is I'm sad. I didn't want to have to go back to being a non drinker. I didn't want to live without a buzz. But my goals are bigger than that buzz today. I want to achieve my normal weight once and for all. It also puts into stark relief how I desperately need to find healthy daily ways to comfort myself. Without food, without drugs, without alcohol. This is serious stuff for an addict to tackle. I've been dealing with my nosy non drinker mother making judgmental comments about the wine bottles in her pantry. At least this will solve that problem. I know some of you may understand this. Not all of you will. When I gave up alcohol at age 28 it really was a non event. After the first few weeks, I didn't miss it much because I was on a weight losing high. I dropped 130 pounds in two years after that. But I picked up a spending problem on the way. I bought clothes I couldn't afford. Pick your poison, huh? I'm operating in "keep me teachable" mode these days. When all else fails, follow directions. My directions today are no booze, eat Protein slowly, up the exercise. I've upped the exercise successfully over the last month. That's a big plus. I've slowed my eating and focus on protein at my meals. That's working well. Now goodbye to the booze. Goodbye, booze. It was sure fun while it lasted. But you bit me in my skinny ass. You're outta here. I can't update my ticker from my cell phone and I won't log into the PC site from work. But my weight today is 205.6. I'll update the ticker from home when I can log in from a laptop. No Merlot is going to cost me my hard-won Onederland. Or keep me from getting to my goal weight. Thanks for listening.

I'm pretty sure my NP always draws it all out and then adds more when she refills. I look at the screen instead of down because I don't want to accidentally bend at the waist while she's working. I asked her once if she draws it out and she said yes. They check for leaks because you could develop one and not know it.

Well, that's a loaded question. What comes to mind immediately, and what is currently the topic of my counseling, is to break the pattern I've lived in for over two decades in my marriage, which is now ending. Reacting, anticipating everything (anxiety related to his behavior), fear, hypervigilance, putting his needs ahead of mine to avoid conflict. In terms of emotions, I guess I'd describe it as figuring out what I feel instead of reflecting what's around me. As an example of that, I'm house hunting now and I haven't a clue what my likes and dislikes are. That problem has haunted me since I was a child growing up in a crazy household. I couldn't even tell you my favorite color. I was truly stymied when it came to answering the question, "what do you want?" Making decisions is excruciating. This head work is a full time job, I tellya. If I ever figure this out, I will rule the world.

"Probably more info than anyone needs????" No such thing.

I just discovered gel manicures. Love 'em! Also I have to protect my skin from the sun and this brand of sunscreen for your face is the best I ever found. It's sold by dermatologists. It's called Elta MD and here's a link. http://eltamd.com/product/uv-clear-broad-spectrum-spf-46/

If you're not too tight, why have some fill removed? Maybe talk to the psychologist in your team? Anxiety wasn't my direct issue, but a LOT of emotions are triggered as we lose weight and they are due not only to mental changes (self-esteem, identity issues) but also due to hormonal changes that happen when so much fat is released from our bodies so quickly. Please think carefully about reducing your fill unless you really believe you are too tight. Your surgeon will be able to advise you upon examination and listening to your symptoms. I wish you the best and much success! You've lost a lot so far!

I love unjury chocolate. I think you can only get it online. I forgot to say that I've started a new habit and I'm hoping it will help move the scale down. I'm slowing my bites a lot. It's really out of necessity because with this latest fill I get stuck very easily. If I chew well and slowly I don't. So that thing about putting your fork down between bites -- I'm practicing that at every meal.

Codependents Anonymous. I meant to say the multifaceted approach includes counseling for ME. Counseling is not part of OA or CoDA.

I was up until 3am but I got my paperwork done. I'm going to have to fight off a headache today. Breakfast will be bacon. lunch will be an egg salad sandwich. dinner might be at a restaurant with my mom since we have to go shopping to replace her clothes dryer. I'm ready for a nap and it's 6:30 in the morning.

All wonderful posts above. My two cents: Your attitudes will change. For example: Surgery and weeks of post op liquids is truly the easy part. Matter of fact, the first hundred pounds down was my easy part. Now it's getting harder. My daily food choices must change and my exercise needs to go significantly higher if I'm going to lose my last fifty. As Miss Mac said, after that first chunk of weight comes off, you probably won't care about the "stigma" of WLS like you do now. You're going to be so happy to be thinner. Truly. All I wanted at the start when I was 302 pounds was to have my health issues resolved. They were. Now I want to be pretty. We got fat because we overate. We overate all our lives because it fed a psychological need. WLS does not change that. You will battle this as you progress in this process. Eating for comfort or for sport is still going to tempt you. You will be forced to deal with why you want to eat or else you'll eat. You'll have to find new ways to self comfort or... you'll eat. Guaranteed. I'm a year into this and I don't have it figured out by a longshot. But I'd do it again without question.