DevilMayKare

No, it's inside. NOT turning on the heat is a little trick I use to GET myself ON the trainer. I love that I don't even have to put on shoes (this is a BIG ADVANTAGE of the ET over a treadmill). I roll out of bed, pull on some undies and workout top and jump on the elliptical w/o turning the heat on. If I time it right I can just turn on the little heater in the bathroom and not have to waste $ heating up the whole house before I leave for work. Tricia--bowling is great exercise, but is it aerobic? Seems like an anerobic activity to me... unless you pace between rolls and jump up and down (cheering for fellow bowlers) to keep your heart rate up you aren't going to get the aerobic benefit. Do they have music in your alley? I used to take my kids to Rock n' Bowl. That was pretty cool.

Don't catch cold! A scarf... gosh, doncha have earmuffs and a HOOD? 17 degrees, are you kidding me? I was chatterin when I jumped on the elliptical this morning at 61 degrees!

Anne--or anyone else--PM me your address and I'll mail you a CD of the music I run on my elliptical to. I LOVE my IPOD, but since I use headphones so much my morning time on the ET is just to a CD. If you don't already have one, there are several decent boomboxes at Target for under $50. Anyway, I've got a good mix of music--30 minutes fast and 20 minutes cooldown/stretch I think you'd like it. After a little haitus I'm back to the trainer 20 minutes before work every morning. I don't let myself turn on the heat when I get up and warm up on the ET instead. That machine is some of the best money I've ever spent.

I'd try to keep the weight off and if I couldn't I'd just kill myself and get it over with. Am I allowed to say that?

Kudos and Amen Crystal! And also note this... even IF there is absolutely NO power in positive thinking it FEELS a whole lot better!

Add me to the list of prayers, meditators, well-wishers and white-light senders! Your bands may be eroded, but your spirits are strong! Banded or not--we're all sisters and brothers in this. We're your LBT family THICK OR THIN! So, please, all of you check in with us as soon as you're able. We'll be here thinking of you and waiting with shoulders to lean on thru every defeat and hands raised in high-fives for your next victory! May we all be blessed with many, many more.

But didn't skylab ALREADY fall??? I could have sworn that it broke up and fell over some other continent. You mean I'm so misinformed I haven't been worrying when I shoulda? Personally I try to worry about as much as possible because the things that I worry about almost NEVER get me. It's always the ones I never even considered.

ROTFLOL! That picture in my head is gonna keep me giggling all day! But now stop with that X-rated stuff please.

Well the BIG difference that did and would still make me choose the band over the bypass anyday is that it IS reversible. Even tho it's an additional expense I'd be willing to bet Michelle's $ outlay is less than it would have been 2 years into a bypass. In most circumstances w/ the bypass, there is no going back. Like you'd ever get to say the "hell with it" when it comes to weightloss, Jenna. Funny... that's the phrase that almost goes thru my mind before I EAT.

Well, we've already established Mars is in retrograde this month (Crys, WHEN does that change???). We've had some well-known and loved bandsters in this group suffer some terrible setbacks. Nobody's giving up, but many of us need to take a breath and process it all. I suggest you do a search back a few weeks and you can catch us at a *happier* time. I'm sure those days will come again. But personally, I really appreciate the HONESTY here. And honestly life without and WITH the band sometimes SUCKS.

Well Crystal, you are one of the most compassionate and supportive people on here. Many a time I've read something wise and helpful you have written and thought, "Wish *I'D* thought of that!" Now why on earth would you be harder on yourself than you would be on anyone else? So here's your assignment... Go back and read your last half-dozen posts on here like someone ELSE wrote them. Pretend it's not you, but Sally (or whomever) that is experiencing the same frustration. What advice or support would you give her? I doubt you'll be HARD on her. Spend a little of that compassion in your heart on YOURSELF. You deserve it.

Really!! First Kelly says "Crap" and now Kathy says "Sh*t" -- pretty soon the LBT forum will have you Christians saying DAMN and then all H -E- Double Toothpicks'll break out! Just a little levity... (we all need a bit of it, doncha think?)

So what's the verdict? Wednesday is today, right? Lots of bad news on the board today. I'm almost afraid for when you check in... but do it anyway. If everything's okay we'll be grateful for you and if everything's not--we'll be grateful for YOU. But Crystal, we all know it matters here in the corporeal world--but in the bigger picture of things... in the aura of the Universe if you will... your spirit is BEAUTIFUL AND STRONG no matter WHAT size body it's held in!

Waiting only a week seems like too short of a time to me also. If the point is to shrink your stomach it sure seems like 10-14 days would be better. And... okay, I know this sounds crazy, but how about standing on your head? Okay... that's hard on the skull, but how about hanging upside down on monkey bars a little? Maybe even put the foot of your bed up so you're sleeping slightly downhill. If your stomach shrinks and you give gravity it's best shot maybe it WILL slip it back into place! Hey, can't hurt. So, so sorry Jonathan. This has been SUCH a hard year for you! I promise in ten you'll look back and be grateful for all you learned during this time and I know what an even MORE compassionate and strong man you'll become. I am not a "religious" person, but I am a deeply spiritual person and I truly believe pain is often a vessel that makes our spirits grow. If you've asked God to help you be a better man I'd say your prayers are being answered. Hopefully it helps you to think of it that way. It often helps me.

MuffinBirdie had an erosion, didn't she? I think she was banded in Europe somewhere...France? Anyone remember? As far as technique... it's been stated several places (including by himself) that Dr. Ortiz has trained many US surgeons in band techniques. Wouldn't that mean they are using the same techniques? I think Michelle has the Inmed band that IS FDA approved, right?

Michelle, Some practical questions, do you have to pay for this since you were banded by Dr O and he is taking it out and how much? Also what did your endo cost? (Forgive me if someone else asked this...i missed it if so.) 48 hours on an IV...wow...that's longer than the original surgery. Why is that? I'm sure you know many of us on here are redirecting our thinking and plans a little... Since many of us are Mx self-pay like you it would be helpful to know how much we should probably put aside for the future. Also raises the issue for me of how easy this is going to be to KEEP this secret since my family knows nothing about my band. It was a trick to keep my fill underwraps. Even tho I don't want to, I'm considering telling them just so it isn't a GIANT shock if I have to go for an emergency surgery in the future.

Omigosh Michelle. Okay, I know you don't want sympathy... but may we at least say we're sorry to hear it? And YES it IS something to be remembered by us all. You've been such an exemplary and helpful Bandster--and such an Inspirational Loser. Now I'm looking forward to you being an INSPIRATIONAL MAINTAINER. We all know it can be done and that YOU CAN do it! So to be unbanded, do you have to go thru the whole surgery--stay all night and deal w/ the after gas, or is it a simpler proceedure?

Well....... if you guys are up it's probably MY FAULT because the stars are obviously aligned against me this month!! I just won't even go into what a disaster November has been for me. I'm just firmly holding on to my belief that for every yin there's a yang and good intentions and hard work will win the day in the end!! Please keep the faith and don't give up! The bastian of fat cells WILL surrender eventually. Don't forget how EFFICIENT our bodies' are at gaining and keeping weight. Those fat cells have their own strategies. They're just trying to psych you out to give up exercise and EAT EAT EAT! DON'T DO IT! PERSEVERE! And wait for the cosmos to realign. Because ultimately hope wins out. Anyway... I hope so.

The LA Times had an interesting article on weighing this morning. Thought I'd share it here for those who don't get the Times and see what you guys thought. Dieters, step on your scales <LI style="LIST-STYLE-POSITION: inside; LIST-STYLE-TYPE: square">Those who weigh themselves regularly have a better chance of losing extra pounds, a recent study finds. But not all experts agree. By Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writer Losing weight is hard — and you might say hardly studied. Only recently have scientists clinically shown that the widely used Atkins diet actually works, and they've yet to definitively weigh in on another diet-related question: Does regularly stepping on the scales help a dieter lose weight? Sure it does, say many weight loss experts. Weighing yourself is a clear way to monitor progress or catch (and nip in the bud) a slow, steady uptick in lardage. Not so fast, say others. The glacially slow nature of weight loss, plus those spiky daily fluctuations in body weight, might actually make dieters more apt to throw in the towel. ADVERTISEMENT Now, just in time for the waist-expanding holiday season, a new study has come down on the side of daily weigh-ins. Published in the December issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, it reports that dieters who weighed themselves regularly shed more pounds over a 24-month period than people who didn't regularly weigh themselves. Those who weighed themselves daily lost the most. To the authors, the implications are clear: Dieters should be encouraged to weigh themselves — and often. "We talk to people about monitoring calories daily, about monitoring their exercise daily…. if we're asking them to do those … on a daily basis, then why not add this other recommendation?" says Jennifer A. Linde, lead author of that study and an assistant professor at the school of public health at the University of Minnesota. Yet there's a chicken-egg caveat here that some critics point to and that even those who believe in the findings acknowledge. Sure, successful dieters may weigh themselves more. But the studies don't tell you what caused what — just that the two things correlate. It's fun to step on the scales when you're succeeding. When the numbers are nudging upward or stubbornly refusing to change … less so. "They're assuming that weighing yourself frequently leads you to lose weight. I think losing weight makes you weigh yourself more frequently, because — 'I'm losing weight, yes, yes, I'm down another pound,' " says Janet Polivy, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, who is not a fan of the bathroom scales. That confusion is why, to this day, you'll sometimes get roomfuls of PhDs and MDs sitting around discussing an issue you'd think 21st century science might have put to bed by now. A curious study from the 1960s points to the potential effect of frequent weighing. Eight overweight women in a small private college were enrolled in a weight loss plan, part of which consisted of coming in to be weighed four times a day. By study's end the women had lost an average of 40pounds each. The study was small; it lacked important controls. But it was intriguing. "People in that group lost more weight than any study since then in nearly 40 years," says Dr. Joseph A. Risser, director of clinical research for Lindora Medical Group, which runs the Lean for Life weight loss program. The scales couldn't possibly have registered real loss from one weigh-in to the next — but maybe, Risser muses, something else was going on, such as a reminder of the mission the dieter was on. His own studies of more than 600 clients show that those who were weighed five times weekly lost more weight (24 pounds) than those weighed twice weekly (19 pounds). The new study by Linde and colleagues tapped statistics from two populations. One was a group of 1,800 obese or overweight adults enrolled in a weight loss trial. Participants were asked at the study's start and at intervals thereafter how often they weighed themselves. After one year, monthly, weekly and daily weighers all lost weight on average, but those who weighed themselves daily lost the most — about 8 pounds. (Those who never weighed themselves gained weight.) The other data came from 1,226 adults in a weight gain prevention trial. At 12 months, those who weighed themselves daily had lost about 2 to 3 pounds. Those who weighed themselves less often, or not at all, actually gained weight.In both studies, significant differences were also seen at two years. People who weighed themselves also did other healthy things such as exercise more, but the self-weighing effect was statistically significant on its own, Linde says. James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, says the findings fit with a registry of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and (even more impressive) maintained that weight loss for a year or longer. A key thing those succeeders report, Hill says, is regular self-weighing — at least weekly, and often daily. (They also have an emergency plan of action for when the reading creeps above a crucial number of pounds.) Focusing on the long term Psychologist Patrick M. O'Neil, director of the weight management center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, says he's a strong proponent of daily weigh-ins, based on Hill's data and his own clinical experience — but that the practice should be paired with a weight chart that focuses on trends, not short-term, zigzag fluctuations. "It's sort of like tracking stock prices," he says. "You know they're going to vary day to day." Regular weighing is one thing. But every single day? After all, hormonal changes, Fluid intake, sweating, medications and salt intake cause day-to-day, hour-to-hour differences in body weight of up to several pounds. At Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, dieters weigh in each week with their personal consultants or at meetings. "We encourage them to take a break from daily weigh-ins because weight fluctuates," says Jenny Craig spokeswoman Gail Manginelli. "It can be demoralizing." Meanwhile, there are some specialists who think either daily or weekly scale-hopping may have downsides. Psychologists and psychiatrists who treat patients with eating disorders note that encouraging people to weigh themselves might exacerbate such pathologies. Other scale-doubters, such as psychologist Michelle Dionne of Ryerson University in Toronto, believe self-weighing can also be counterproductive in psychologically healthy folks who just want to shed some poundage. Among the studies she points to: ones in which students were brought into an experimental clinic and weighed — but on fixed scales that actually recorded their weights as heavier or lighter than they truly were. Students led to think they were 5 pounds heavier than they had thought scored significantly lower on psychological scales measuring mood, selfesteem and body satisfaction. In one of the studies, students were also provided with a tasty snack right after the weigh-in — and the ones who'd been bamboozled into thinking they were heavier than they were ate significantly more of that snack. "I would suggest there are some people who are going to receive really helpful feedback and reinforcement from self-weighing," Dionne says. "But there's another group of people, whom we call for lack of a better word 'vulnerable,' who … may feel worse about themselves, dislike their body to a greater degree and start engaging in behaviors that may lead to weight gain." Experts debate how students given false information in a lab relate to real-life dieters using scales to monitor their progress. But even proponents of weighing advocate restraint. "I don't think anyone in a responsible professional position has argued for weighing oneself more than once a day," says O'Neil. "We do not want to encourage people to turn this into a fetish." If you do weigh in With that caveat in mind, here are some tips from various specialists about the best way to weigh yourself if you choose to. • To minimize variation, always weigh at the same time of day, such as in the morning just after having used the bathroom. • If you are weighing yourself daily, understand that your weight will vary day to day. It's the trend that's important. You may find it useful to make a graph of your weight. • Put the scale on a flat, uncarpeted surface so the readings don't wobble. • Use a scale that is consistent, giving the same weight when you step on, then off, then on again. That's more important than the type of scale you buy. Use the same scale each time. • Don't get fixated on the scale. Monitor your body change in other ways, such as the fit of your clothes, a tape measure or how you physically feel. • To the best of your ability, try to gauge how the weighing makes you feel, and if it is reinforcing — or undermining — your efforts.

Oh Tammy, that is a frightening experience. Please go to the chiro tomorrow and get adjusted for whiplash. This will be paid for under your medical coverage with no deductible up to the limit (average is $1,000). It's already a chargeable accident w/ bodily injury so as far as your insurance there is no reason not to go. I hope you have rental car coverage. IF your car can be fixed (& my guess is it's a total) it almost always takes over a week. Start shopping now because w/ most policies the rental car benefit runs out 5 days after the car has been determined a total. (Even if you have 30 days coverage.) If you have comp & collision (I HOPE) the ins will pay you "Acutal Cash Value" which is what you could have sold the car for. This is partially based on blue book, but also on what like-cars are going for in the ads. I would suggest you print-out both items from the websites (KBB.COM & AUTOTRADER.COM---or whatever is in your area) and fax them to the adjuster along w/ an itemization of any reason your car might be worth more (just got new tires, etc...) What they will offer you in a pay out varies greatly among companies, but I do think you are likely to get a better offer if you document (Not verbally--in writing) these things. Insurance companies don't want to mess w/ people who put things in writing. I'm a Mercury agent out here in CA and have also worked for State Farm so I know a lot about how these things work. Another state some different rules might apply--but I doubt it. And I am currently on the "claiment-end" of this as my son was the middle car in a 3-car on the fwy last weekend. His car was declared a total. Even tho it didn't LOOK like a total, the back flooring was wrinkled (common) and that costs a lot to fix. We haven't been offered a buyout amount yet, but you'd better believe I did the above. I HAVE seen people question the ACV amount & have seen it increase by as much as $800 after documentation.

What is it??? Links?

No coffee? Yikes! You can't drink it w/ sweet n low? The sugar & 1/2 yes, but I don't think giving up coffee is going to help you at all. I think the caffeine kick helps. Certainly someone who has been caffinated for a long time is going to slow down their metabolism w/o it. Are you getting your caffeine somewhere else? I start every morning with 2-3 cups of coffee that I mix my vanilla Protein powder in. That way I get my protein and my coffee. It's really the perfect Breakfast for me. I know the jury is out on caffeine, but I think it's a good thing. Whenever I've given up coffee I've ended up having to take asthma medication. I'd rather just have the coffee than pay for meds. There have been many studies of athletes on caffeine (I read every one I see) and if there are negatives they seem to be balanced by positives. I think caffeine is one of those things that people react differently to and if you're one of those who does well with it, it's a mistake to give it up.

Yeah Jonathan... hard to find anyone here to kick your ass. So instead of all this "Welcome Home" sweetness, just let me say: GET YOUR BUTT BACK IN HERE YOUNG MAN!! Missed you...

To be EXPECTED!! Please! Give it 3-4 weeks. Your body WILL put on muscle--and likely RETAIN FLUIDS when first starting or upping exercise. Really. Please Tricia, don't get discouraged about it. You have to take the overall LOSS in a month--not what happens the first week. Crystal--that's just downright MEAN! Why didn't someone put a sign or something on the scales? Personally, I think it's grounds for a "pain & suffering" lawsuit! As for me... I've been getting used to severe restriction this week and cosumed way more liquid calories than usual (because they go down!), it's really a whole new thing for me. With all the stuff going on w/ my dad I didn't work out anymore than walking the dog minimally each night (prolly 1/2 hour) and--as I suspected!--this behavior has me UP 5#!!! But am I stressed? Nooooo....well, not as much about the pounds as about my dad recouperating, my brother extending his honeymoon (leaving me w/ the business), and my 17-year-old son DRIVING TO SANTA CRUZ to visit his big brother and GETTING IN A CAR ACCIDENT IN OAKLAND ON SATURDAY NIGHT!!!!! (Yes, both boys are okay--however I'm about to throttle them...the car is in a tow yard outside of Oakland & I just had to pay for a plane ticket home to get Arthur back to school and Lord only knows when the car will be fixed and how the hell we'll get it back to SoCal...) Omilord. Added pounds are the least of my worries right now! (Sorry for the RANT. Do I ever EMPATHIZE w/ parents of teens everywhere!!)

Hey Muffinbirdie! Haven't seen you on LBT for awhile, but I see from your website update that you had the bodylift. (Muffin's Website: http://www.myagb.homestead.com/to_lose.html ) I'd love to hear more. I know you're a busy-busy gal, but we miss you! Come by & say hi sometime. (I'll paste this msg into a PM in case you don't see it, but I wanted to let the gang know your latest!)