DevilMayKare

Yeah! How about a Thanksgiving Day Challenge! Jonathan???

I've been running on my elliptical trainer every day. I try to push myself hard and know I'm really "running" when the fat at the inside of my knees starts flapping. This morning no matter HOW fast I went, I could NOT get that fat to FLAP! There's just not enough fat down there to flap anymore. Now THAT'S an NSV!!! My ultimate goal is to be a totally unflappable gal.

You might get your thyroid checked. Low thyroid (even on the low side) can cause hair loss.

What's starting to come back? Your tummy? The scar? Please elucidate. Thanks!

I was banded June 2 and have not had a fill. I keep THINKING I must need one because most people seem to, but the truth is I definitely get that "choking" feeling if I eat too much meat or eat it too quickly. Sometimes I'm sure I need a fill because I'm overeating, but when I look at it, I realize I'm overeating yogurt and cheese and all the stuff I could eat just fine w/ a fill anyway. If there is one thing FOR SURE about this band, it is that it is DIFFERENT FOR EVERYBODY.

I'll second that. I'm a coffee drinker, so my breakfast is coffee with vanilla Protein powder mixed in. I drink a couple cups so I end up using about 3 Ts of the powder which is 120 cals & 11 grams of protein. I make it to lunch w/o hunger just fine. I used to eat a bannana for breakfast and would feel starving by lunchtime.

Hey, I just had IPL (where they shoot ya w/ light) TODAY. Yikes! I look like I dragged my face on the pavement. My skin's supposed to look good about five days from now. We'll see. Before the procedure you put your face in this special camera that takes shows separate shots of where all your large pores are, where your age spots are, your undersurface UV damage. Oh my. I may have to start socializing w/ vampires to stay out of the light permanently!

You know what "normal" people who fit in are? I'll give ya a hint: BAAAA-BAAAA I'm having real trouble seeing you as a sheep Vines. OF COURSE you don't fit in! So you have a little angst now and then, the pain is worth it if it keeps you from being boring. (And we all know, boring you are NOT.) CHin up, kiddo. Revel in your Otherness. Which reminds me... guess what I did this past sweltering SoCal weekend? After I moved the bed, took the mirrors off the wall, draped the dresser and put plastic on the floor? Stripped down to my birthday suite and painted my bedroom STARK NAKED! It was incredibly liberating. I highly recommend it. Yep, revel in your otherness, then (take the mirrors down--let's get real here) and revel in your nakedness!

Hey Jonathan! Just put my new stats on your "Waisting Away" site. I thought we were supposed to list the loss from the beginning of this "Labor Day Weightloss Challenge." Your loss is listed at 118#. Honey pie if you've lost ONEHUNDREDANDEIGHTEENPOUNDS since the start of this challenge, I wanna know WHAT you're doin'!! But really, a 118# loss is phenomonal at any pace. GOOD JOB!

I've been working out SO HARD this week! Last night I knew my son had some fig newtons in his room and I could hear them calling to me, "Kare....come EAT US! WE'RE YUMMMY! EAT! EAT!" But I PERSEVERED and abstained. I haven't weighed all week because I was looking forward to seeing a dip on Monday for this challenge. 3:00 a.m. I got up to pee and decided it was officially Monday so stepped on the scale. OHNO! SAME as LAST Monday!! It hadn't budged a jot! Just sat there glaring 193 at me! I was SOOOO PISSED! I went back to bed and layed there--GRRRRRRRR--and thought, just what the HECK do I have to DO???!! Then I thought, I might as well go eat the damn Fig Newtons. But by that time I was too snuggled to get up so I said to myself, "okay, Fig Newtons FOR BREAKFAST!!" and went back to sleep. Alarm rang at 6:30 and I trundled off to the bathroom. There sat Helga (my dominatrix scale's name) just taunting me. What the heck, might as well stomp on her again.... and WHAT DID SHE SAY??? 191!!! So I don't know what the heck my body did between 3 and 6 a.m. but I am happily, joyfully, exctatically DOWN TWO!!! And newts are untouched. (Now THAT'S AN NSV!!!)

Oh, I feel so for you both. I've been where you are many, many times. I'll tell you the only thing that truly, truly works for me is EXERCISE! Yeah, I know you don't want to hear that and certainly don't want to do it, but for me--it is the only thing that works for weight loss AND this "what's wrong with me" depression. If you want to lose at any kind of good pace a couple of times a week is not enough. I "run" on my elliptical 20-30 minutes EVERY morning and I walk the dog a MINIMUM of 40 minutes a night. I almost NEVER want to start, but often when I'm out with my dog in the moonlight, enjoying my Ipods tunes I'll walk for an hour and a half. The last 2 weeks I only lost a pound a week, but I'll bet it's more than that THIS week when I weigh Monday. Please, get an Ipod, get a walkman, get some sorta music and start moving--especially when you feel bummed! You've gotta have successes to build on and weightloss or not, getting your heart pumping is a success. YOU CAN DO IT!! (And please don't think because I'm under 200# I don't know how hard it is, because I was 312# in 2001. I lost lots of weight without the band--but NONE without exercise.)

Justbeingme, I thought it might be helpful to be more specific with you. Do you need a lot of variety? Luckily, I do not. If I were you I would come up with my own food plan using what is available. Just make sure you stick under a certain calorie count. If you're a young person I think 1500 cals per day would probably be good for you. Add exercise and you should lose steadily. Total everything you can think of up and so you know whether to chose a bannana or an apple for fruit. Some vegtables I consider "free" (lettuce, spinach, carrots, aspar, green Beans, celery) and don't even add them to my calorie count. None of us got fat on spinach. I begin my lunch or dinner with either chicken, turkey, tuna or salmon. I practially live on Trader Joe's canned salmon. That's where you get your restriction--and the Protein is best for appetite abatement. Good luck to you!

Well for one thing...ice cream is OUT. (dammit) Just because you have the band does not mean you can eat whatever tastes good! I could eat ice cream and crackers all day without restriction. Basically I am keeping under 1200 calories and working out (elliptical & walking) everyday. AFTER I reach my goal I'll add cals, but for now it's still a "diet" for me. If you really need to follow a program--use any of them... Weight Watchers, Bob Green's, Atkins, Jenny Craig, South Beach, whatever, they all work. (I oughta know, I've been on them all.) Remember the band is JUST A TOOL. It will help you on any of these programs. Just eat the solid Proteins first.

I WISH I had a pic of my butt at all it's various stages, but honestly I couldn't bear to look at it!! There was a layout of Oprah just like this in one of the rag mags awhile ago. I bought it just to do exactly as you said--relate to the different sizes. What struck me MOST about those pics tho was her drastic yo-yoing over the years. I sure hope she's able to stay where she is now. Which reminds me of years ago when Liz Taylor wrote a book after a weightloss. I read that book and found it very inspiring. About a year later I was standing in a grocery line and there her returned fat body was displayed on the cover of the Inquirer with something like: "Elizabeth gains back 100 pounds!!" I just started crying. Standing there in the grocery line I started sobbing in empathetic pain for Elizabeth Taylor. And also I thought to myself, "If the most beautiful woman in the world, with all her money and help cannot keep off fat...what the hell makes me think I can??" And the real lesson is, it doesn't matter who you are, if ya got the fat genes you've still got to slay the deamon on your own. Beautiful people, rich people, smart people all have to be hungry like you and me if they want to be thin people too.

I LOVE my plastic surgeon! He did just what I wanted on my eyes. He COULD have made the lines even less under my eyes but I told him to be conservative because I wanted my eyes to match the rest of my face. The biggest problem I have seen many people I know have w/ PS is they do TOO MUCH. My bro's fiance got a boob job and told her surgeon she didn't want to be big--just big enough so clothes and swimsuits would fit better (she very thin & was flat). Well he gave her a D cup which just look ridiculous. She's not happy w/ them at all. Anyway, my doctor is Doctor Doezie and he works out of Mission Viejo & Newport. His office number is 949-645-3333. He does a LOT of reconstructive surgeries from car accidents and such so he's really more of a "serious" PS versus just the cosmetic. He was so supportive of me when I had my eyes done. He even CAME TO MY HOUSE to take out the stitches because I had foot surgery 2 days later and couldn't walk. Didn't even charge extra for that. In fact, I'm getting IPL done on my face & arms in his office in Mission Viejo on Monday. (Not by Doctor Doezie himself, a nurse trained in that does it.) I did go to another place just to check prices and his office was $300 less per area than the other. (IPL reduces age spots and fine lines w/ no down time... I'll let you know how I like it.) The surgery center where the operation is performed is right by Hoag Hospital in Newport which is near my house in Costa Mesa. If you live far away and need to stay somewhere the first night after sugery (you really don't want to drive very far the first day) I will be happy to put up a fellow bandster & nurse and comisserate with you for a night. If it's a weekend you can stay...but a weekday I have to go to work and you should have someone nearby for at least couple days after PS. (I have an extra room & bed unless it's school vacation time.) So tell Doctor Doezie that Kare (PM for my last name) sent you, but maybe you should just tell him you know me from a weightloss online forum. I haven't told him about my lapband surgery. I'm pretty sure he would not approve of me going to Mexico for surgery! Good luck!

One down for me. I'm gonna have to work my ass off if I want to be in the 180s when my son comes home (spent the year in Europe) Labor Day weekend! ANd here I thought I was ALREADY doing that!! Work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder, work harder...

I'm looking forward to my 21-yr-old son's surprise at how good his mom looks when I pick him up at LAX, September 3. He's spent last year at the U of Dublin & has been traipsing around Europe all summer so he hasn't seen me for awhile.

How about, "Well, I'm really working on losing weight but I was kinda hoping it would be in my ASS." tee hee... (BUt sheesh! She's probably one of those types that ask fat women if they're pregnant!)

Yeah, I vote for replacing--maybe not with another hamster tho. Would your son like to try another pet? I think it's really good for kids to have pets... even tho I usually got stuck taking care of them. I'm reminded of the time my son's green lizard, Philip, died while he was away on an Indian Guide's weekend. When I found the dead lizard I ran out and bought another the same size since they all look alike and put it in the terrariaum. Imagine my 6-yr-olds amazement when he came home and exclaimed, "Mom! Phillip learned a new trick!!" The new Phillip liked to climb upsidedown on the ceiling and the old Phillip had never done that! Thank goodness for the gullibility of 6-yr olds!

I though you were another Ortiz patient. I've never heard anything about getting a "referral" filll, but it's nice to know. When people refer clients to me I always send out "Thank you" movie tickets. Referral business is always such a compliment because you know people think enough of you to refer someone. I'm not filled yet... & I'm not sure if and when I'm going to get one, but maybe we should corrdinate to go down together since we're both in OC? You have any idea of when you're going back?

Wow La Madam-- that sounds very frightening. I'm so glad your doctor cared about you! Are you a patient of Dr. Huacuz.... or Dr. Ortiz?

No numbing, uh? Hmmmm.... I wonder if that's with all doctors. Anyone know if Ortiz numbs ya first? I haven't had a fill yet. I had an apt 8/8, but cancelled it. I was doing okay just bare-knuckling it because I wasn't binge-hungry. That seems to have passed tho as I'm eating this week. So, gotta call & set up a day again. Now I'm gonna look forward to it even MORE! Hope you're not too miserable & bruised tomorrow!

"My Body Looks Funny" ...boy I saw that and thought, THAT'S the story of MY LIFE!!! I've always been a pear so I know what a pain getting clothes to fit can be. I ALWAYS have to get pants w/ some elastic in the waist so they don't puch in the back. Mervwyns carries some decent ones.

Okay, here's a pic of my eyes 3 days after blephemoplasty (or however ya spell it)--upper & lower eyelid surgery. The swelling has actually gone down quite a bit from the first two days. I could barely open my eyes for 12 hours. This was taken by my buddy JUST BEFORE she drove me to get foot surgery. You can imagine the looks I got in the waiting room of the outpatient podiatry center. Oh, the lovely STRINGS stayed on for 5 days. They're to keep the bottom lids from dropping so you don't end up looking like a hounddog. It's a very strange feeling to see the world thru strings attached to your eyes. But once my foot had been cut into I didn't think so much about my eyes.

Well Zoe, unfortunately (for comparison purposes) a photo of me without a smile simply does not exist. But here's a shot from 2003 where you can see the shadows under my eyes (and THAT'S w/ professional lighting!). Visually, there is not as a dramatic difference as you see in some B&As--but mentally there has been a big difference to me. I just plain feel more energetic w/o seeing dark circles in the mirror!