JustWatchMe

LapBand gave me my life back. Two thirds of my excess weight is gone and I can walk and climb stairs with the best of them. Even more importantly, my confidence is back and determination to have my best life is back. No regrets.

Blame it on dealing with life without food numbness, but my tolerance for BS seems to be at an all time low right now. Getting crap from my mother who expects me to live in her head. I had the audacity to have my Saturday planned with my friend after my morning dental appointment, and didn't know she was thinking (not saying, just thinking) of asking me to run to the mall for her before a candy sale ended at one pm today. This was at noon today. She's openly hostile and accusing me of never helping her. Good God. Getting crap from the not-soon-enough-to-be-ex who's texting me again because he's pissed that some mail addressed to both of us actually got forwarded to my new address and he couldn't intercept it and hold it hostage. What part of "no contact" does a narcissist not get? Oh yeah, all of it. Getting a FB message from one of his friends who decided to scold me for not attending his recent anniversary party with my husband (are you f-ing kidding me?). There's more, but suffice it to say I feel like a s)&t magnet this week. I went out last night to a political banquet and had a blast. It was something I could never do in my marriage because NSETBEx was a member of the "other" party, and ridiculed every opinion and decision I ever made. It was so refreshing to be in a room full of intelligent people who shared my world views. Today and tonight I am celebrating Christmas with my best friend. One of the only people in my life who remains bull$:!@ free. Thanks for listening.

I'm thinking of you today and wishing you the best. Let us know. Try not to worry. ((Hugs))

Woo hoo!!!

Just want to wish you good luck and a speedy recovery!

I was afraid mine might come back with my 100 pound loss. I'm two years without one as of November. So far, so good except this month I had some familiar symptoms like I used to get mid-cycle. Waiting to see if I get a surprise in a couple of weeks. I hope not. Those night sweats were hell and I'm glad they're behind me.

Good luck!

This just made my day.

Great job! You're on your way!

Banded on a Thursday and back to my desk job on Monday. Work was fine. I stupidly carried laundry at home up the stairs though and my incisions were not happy. So no lifting. And walk whenever you can. I made a point of getting up from my desk every hour or so and walking around.

Name (Real or Screen)-JustWatchMe Age-53 Location-Chicagoland Date of Surgery-03/13/2014 Weight Lost Since Surgery-102 pounds Current Weight-200 Weight Loss Goal for January-195 New Year's Resolution-be kind to myself every day Goal for the New Year-attain my weight loss goal

Arlene, yes -- we are like group therapy here. Love it.

I thought I replied to this yesterday but I guess I didn't. Just wanted to say I've had a rough couple of weeks with head hunger myself. Bouncing down into Onederland and back up and out. I'm being gentle with myself. And staying aware that the head hunger does not get fed with food. Or drink. The stresses I'm feeling from a pending divorce and my younger daughter leaving for a semester in Europe in a couple of weeks, on top of an edgy relationship with my mom (I'm living there for now and feel like I'm 20 again, and not in a good way) are all stressing me out in a big way. Food was on my mind all week, even though with my latest tiny fill I'm probably at the perfect green zone for now. WLS does not fix our brains. But the good news is that I have the power to recognize the underlying issues now, and the strong desire to work on them. No distractions from an emotionally unavailable and outright hostile and mentally abusive spouse. I can self-care without self-medicating. I'm kind of grateful that I'm not at goal weight yet during this first Christmas after leaving my home, because it gives me a physical goal to continue to strive for as well as the emotional goals. I hope this makes sense. I feel like I've grown a thousandfold in the nine months since my surgery. There's so much more to do, but I've got time.

I feel so grateful for the folks on this thread. ❤️

12/21/2014 200.4 I suppose I should be glad I'm hovering instead of gaining this holiday season, but I won't lie. I wanna be losing!!! Waaaahhh! Ok, enough whining.

Four ounces of prune juice works for me.

Oh yeah, macadamias are killer calories. I gained eleven pounds on my honeymoon eating a can of those suckers every day in Hawaii. But almonds, pecans..... Yum.

Late to the party here, but I want to add my two cents and say that you, RJ, are a tremendous help to me. Your honesty and compassion have benefitted many. You post what's real. The good, the bad, and the ugly. No "happy horse$#!t". I learn from you and am gentler with myself because of your example. Stay and keep posting.

Sounds smart. I like nuts and measure out 210 calories' worth as part of my lunch sometimes. But as a "hard candy"? Genius.

I am starting the 5:2 intermittent fast today (Mondays and Thursdays 500 calories, other days normal healthy food choices). I am also not weighing myself until Sunday. The first thing I noticed this morning was relief about not fearing whether the scale went up or down a pound this morning. My plan is to rely on Protein shakes today because they are easy to control and satisfy me. I'm going to post my experiences in this thread. All are welcome to join me.

I'm happy to say that I've found it better for my soul to weigh once a week, so that's a change I will stick with. As for 5:2, I "fasted" one day instead of two this past week, because my daughters are home from college and my Thursday ended up with us going out for dinner. I've decided I'm going to take a break from the 5:2 for now, and not focus so much on "dieting" or "fasting"; just focus on lean protein first, eating slowly, listening for and obeying my soft stops, and staying with moderate portions. I still track my food in MyFitnessPal, and it helps me get a clear, honest picture of what I'm eating. I will keep doing that. I'll keep weighing on Sundays since that seems to work best for me. Thanks to all who participated in this thread. It was nice to have your support as I tried this approach. Feel free to keep it going if you like.

I've had a week of head hunger. I know my band is at green. At least for now. But even without physical hunger I was thinking about food all day long this week. I came to the conclusion that I'm emotional about Christmas and the people I won't see this year due to my pending divorce. Also, my daughter is leaving for Europe in three weeks and I won't see her until summer. So on these two levels, I'm grieving, even though I'm busy busy busy and doing all my daily errands and whatnot. The interesting thing about being a banded food addict is that I now know when I'm stressed and avoiding feelings. It's when I'm properly "fed" but still thinking about food. Whereas I used to be able to be in denial (I'm so hungry), I know with my properly filled band that I'm not physically hungry. So therefore it's emotional. My choice then is to deal with those feelings or remain obsessed about food all day. I go to OA, and it helped to talk this out today. This is going to be a rough couple of weeks. I don't want to eat over it.

It's a process. It may feel green for a month or so, then you lose some weight and need 0.25 put in. My last fill was 0.10. Tiny tiny fills inching up to green. First few fills were several ccs each.

I like U njury chocolate. I order it online and also buy the single serving packets for travel and work. As for clear liquid protein for pre op diet I used Isopure but I didn't like any of them. Ensure makes a clear that's slightly better tasting but Isopure had the most protein.

Five so far. Probably there but time will tell.