JustWatchMe

I'm so sorry this happened to you. This is very scary. I hope they will be able to offer an alternative. You've been through so much.

@@CowgirlJane , you look beautiful! And so youthful !! Congratulations!

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Beautiful!!

Wow! Gorgeous!!!!

Just checking in with my peeps. More divorce crapola today, but nothing that my band and I can't handle! Lol. It's been pretty easy for me to eat well this week. Not sure exactly why, but I will take it. I have planned a weekend chock full of activities with friends, from Friday through to Monday. Friday Ladies' lunch with coworkers. I started that tradition six months ago and it's been awesome. Friday night out for rock band music and drinks with my bestie. Saturday watching huskies pull dogsleds at the local arboretum. How cool is that? Saturday evening having a fancy schmancy late Christmas dinner at the Hancock downtown with a dear friend (plan to wear a dress if I get some pretty shoes tonight). Sunday afternoon walking dogs with some new friends. A dog play date actually. This is my life today. Filled with people and everyday joys. I am blessed.

Good for you!! You sound well on your way. I'd advise staying off the scale for awhile as well but if you must, weekly works well for me. I happily weighed daily until my weight loss slowed, and then I got anxious about it. Weekly is a much better barometer. Your fills will help the hunger but until the right fill level is achieved, plan to stay vigilant about your intake and try to stop at moderate portions. I've had five fills. I'm in the green zone now. But when it was the early stages, I had to pretty much diet a lot of the time. Everything will start to get so much better now, and just think of the wonderful summer you will have with so much excess weight gone!!! Thanks for posting. Seeing this helped me today!!!!

Makes sense to me. I like this. Thanks for the insight.

Have a friend do rapid karate chops on your neck and shoulders a few times a day. And lots of walking. Good luck.

Whoa! I stand corrected. Happily!

Wow! You're doing great!! It just gets better from here!

Congratulations!!! Isn't it wonderful to look forward to summer clothes!?

The Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce.

Mom Stalker (why I do this to myself I'll never know, but it's addicting)

There are just as many, if not way more, posts from successful banders. Long term too. I get daily encouragement and hope from these folks who rock their banded lives!! That said, I do read the complications threads. I just try to get as much info as I can and learn from them what I can. If I read about a symptom that later turned out to be a slip, maybe I could recognize it if it ever happened to me. Also, the complications threads are where I learned about the dangers of throwing up with the flu, the possibility of erosion when taking NSAIDS, etc. There's some useful stuff there. But the scary stuff hasn't dimmed my enthusiasm for my band a bit. I'm very happy and would do it again.

"OH MY GOD HE IS GOING TO SEE MONSTER CROTCH." This has made me laugh over and over again since I read it. I so get this. Matter of fact, now I have a new word in my head that I can't get rid of: Sascrotch.

"Also tracks my sleep and caller id." Calories? I read this and said hey!! I want that!!! Caller ID! Then realized I already have a FitBit One and nope, no caller ID. Lol!

I had a session with my divorce therapist last night. I see her monthly now. When I came home hungry for dinner, I was able to effortlessly stop eating a very delicious food when I felt the stop signal. Truly no effort. I realized in that moment that the therapy session met my emotional needs yesterday, so food didn't have to. Without the band I wouldn't have gotten a stop signal and would have eaten all the food in front of me. Complacency is my enemy. Well, one of my enemies. Service to others is a sure fire way to stave off complacency. Staying involved with other overeaters and WLS patients, both here and in my 12 step meetings, gives me focus outside of my own sometimes addled brain. My thinking is not always reliable. Sharing the good I've been given helps others and helps me by snapping me out of my destructive patterns. My session last night was about how I slide into fear mode in reaction to my husband's behavior or anticipated behavior. Did you get that? Anticipated behavior. I'm living/reacting/stressing over/in dread of what I'm guessing his next move is going to be. She asked me how long I've operated this way. Decades. I broke down and cried for the lost years of self and the lost years of growing as a person. Why was I content to be bullied and why was I content to accept a life that was so unsatisfying? Why was it enough to have food instead of a full life? It made me so profoundly sad to look at my behavior objectively, as an outsider does, as my therapist does. She kept drawing my attention to the fear reaction I was exhibiting. She pointed out that it's not necessary anymore. I'm not in the house with him anymore. My girls aren't either. But like Pavlov's dog, I still drool when the bell rings. All I know is that recovery from overeating and self destructive behavior is multifaceted. The band puts a physical stop signal in place for me and dims physical hunger appropriately. But woe is me if I think that's all I need. The issues beneath the eating are like an onion being peeled. This isn't news to any of us. We know "it's not what we are eating, it's what's eating us". But hearing it and nodding "yes" doesn't mean we've worked through it. I actually have to work through this stuff. I actually have to talk this over with a professional, understand what I've been doing and how it doesn't serve me, come up with better coping habits, and then do them. I've felt a certain way about myself most of my life. Many of those messages were wrong. F-ed up. They need to be undone and it's not as simple as sticking an affirmation on a mirror. It's daily work to replace the messages with new messages and new actions that reinforce the messages. It's work. It's hard. It's scary. I cried last night because I couldn't understand why I valued myself so little for so long. I look at my beautiful, strong daughters and think, if they ever treated themselves the way I treated myself, it would kill me. I can see their beauty, their goodness, their worth. Why can't I see mine? I think that as long as I stay on the path of recovery in all its forms I will not relapse. Part of that path for me is therapy and part is OA and CODA. With the 12-step programs I have the opportunity for service to others which keeps me working in a positive direction. That can be as simple as leading a meeting, or even just showing up faithfully. I see you ladies here leading BariatricPal support group meetings in your area. Same effect. Just like sharing here on the boards and keeping it real. An OA sponsor from years ago used to talk about the folks who would come into meetings and share their "happy hor$e$hit" for a few weeks, then disappear and you'd never hear from them again. Don't get me wrong. The uplifting posts are crucial and I do my share of them. But the real, raw stuff I share and read here is equally, if not more, necessary to my recovery. At some level a year ago when I started the WLS process, I knew this would exhaust every molecule of my being. And it wouldn't have an ending date. Because of the escalating emotional abuse turned toward my kids, I finally became ready for it. I'm sad I couldn't become ready for myself, but I did become ready. It's just as hard and raw and painful as I expected. But it's authentic. It's real. It's not the fake plastic life I lived before, under hundreds of pounds of self hate. It's all being stripped away and I can't stop now. I won't.

Have a friend do rapid karate chops on your neck and shoulder a few times a day. And walk walk walk.

Wow. That hurts just reading it. Godspeed to you tomorrow and take good care of yourself. Post when you can. ((Hugs))

I've had five fills, have 7.6 cc in my 14 cc band, and I'm in the green zone. I have always been able to chug a bottle of Water. Eating Protein first, yes, about a cup of food comfortably should be it. Don't eat between meals, and if you're in the green zone, you will stay satisfied for 4-5 hours between meals. If you're not snacking and you're getting hungry earlier than 4 hours, you may need a fill. If you're snacking, it doesn't apply because you're keeping your appetite revved up all day.

I battle the head hunger a lot. Going through a stressful divorce and missing my kids away at college (one in Europe). But this counseling thing is amazing. I had a therapy session today. I cried and got some worries out and got some good advice and then came home for supper. I picked up my favorite takeout meal. Dug in and started eating. And then with about a third of the food left, I felt a stop signal and ... stopped. It was effortless. I actually tossed the rest away because I was so surprised that I stopped so easily. I was afraid if I put it in the fridge I'd pull it out later. Point is, for me, my emotions are tied to my appetite more often than not. The miracle is that today I have a band that at least throws a stop signal out there for me. Prior to WLS I had no stop mechanism at all. I still have to hear the stop signal and then obey it. Today I was able to do that and I think it's because I had just come from a therapy session that met my emotional needs. So food didn't have to.

Omg Liz, you look fantastic! I can't wait to tuck in a blouse again.

When I get a fill, I bring and take two Arthritis Tylenol caplets during the fill. If I can swallow them, I'm good to go. I won't leave the office if I can't.

I won't argue with B-52's self analysis. But don't read what he said to mean that he doesn't work his tail off. He makes wise food choices (not eating garbage food) and he exercises every day while many of us (like me) are still in bed. He also resets his restriction every few weeks by voluntarily going on liquids briefly. He is a wise veteran who knows the band's limitations and how to make this lifestyle change stay successful for him. Bravo, Sir. You're a motivation to many.