SpecialK

It was so nice to see old friends and to welcome a new friend to our Saturday mall gathering. Welcome Jenny! I hope we helped answer lots of your questions to help you along your pre-surgery path. Our dear Brenda looks fabulous post surgery on her tummy tuck and arms! I can't wait to hopefully do the same someday. I mentioned that I had found this neat poster that you can buy off the internet that is kind of a positive messages/positive attitude kind of thing. I'll attach the image of it here. The website I found it on was www.cafepress.com and you can buy one if you'd like. They had 2 sizes larger and smaller. I also mentioned that I am going to be doing my own version of this and was willing to host a crafting party/session at my house on February 20 in the Sunbury/Westerville area. If you'd be interested, send me a Private Message here on this board and I'll give out details to those interested. By the time we all meet at the Feb 13 mall gathering in Polaris, I'd be thankful for anyone who can donate magazines that I might be able to cut out word snippets or heathy images of getting thin or being thin would represent so that the crafters would have material to use to make their posters Feb 20. I'm game to just have those of you who want to watch the crafting process and join in the conversation join us if you don't want want to actually make a poster yourself that day. The only supplies you'd need that day would be: 1. Posterboard - size and color you want to use 2. Scissors - nothing special 3. Glue stick I'll supply the rest! Don't want anybody thinking they need to have scrapbooking supplies to participate.

I am checking in here at 8:30am on Saturday and definitely plan to be at the Mall food court at 2pm today. The roads were not so bad - I drove from Westerville to Pataskala/Newark last night to visit my Mom with no problem and I'm getting ready to head out and get my hair done in Reynoldsburg. Doesn't look like the snow did much blowing or drifting last night and the road crews have been doing a good job with plowing and salting. Polaris Mall did a good job last winter with plowing the parking lot so that should be fine. I'll be bringing my before/after scrapbook and anyone else who can share pictures or any new motivation ideas, I'm looking forward to seeing you all. Kathy

Hi Desdemona - yes, I too agree that we have been through alot and yes, it was necessary to make hard choices and go through pain, including the pain of walking away from a relationship when you know it is not healthy for you... isn't that a great feeling to mentally know to walk away from an emotionally unhealthy situation being as important as walking away from a physically unhealthy situation. I too just made a major lifechange but it involved my job. I am a professional project manager and I have managed huge multi-million dollar projects for my company over the past 14 years and was so pleased until 1 year ago when I got paired up with an emotionally abusive co-worker who had some authority over me (i.e. the project's sponsor and person who controls the relationship to the group who is funding the project). I tried everything in my power to get this abusive relationship turned around. He would shake fingers at me, raise his voice, cuss, and ultimately once he pounded his fist on his desk so hard, his computer monitor and every piece of paper on that desk jumped up including the two of us girls who were sitting in chairs across from him. I documented with my direct boss all along what was going on but it became apparent that this guy was "protected" because he worked for someone whom he had been friends with outside our company for more than 20 years. I finally broke down and scheduled counseling in November. By early December, she had assessed that I was potentially physically at risk and had definitely been emotionally 'beaten' by this co-worker and I needed to walk into my boss' office the following day(s) and ask to be removed from the project because it is still going to last at least another 4 months. Basically, I debated once again, even with professional advice to leave an abusive relationship, to try to stick it out a while longer, there had to be something I could do to fix this. In the meantime, I ate foods to soothe my anger, frustrations as I had always done. That desire to get control of my eating, and get the remainder of this excess weight off in the New Year was one of the big reasons I went to the counselor. She said, first let's get you out of that abusive work relationship, that's easy enough to do (but hard emotionally to walk away because I'm not a "quitter") so I have been going through very stressful times all through December. The abuser finally got told on Monday afternoon that I had requested off the project and he was so glad...Ha Ha! he thinks he won this battle of wills but really, I am the winner - because I will be better off emotionally and physically and he will still be a jerk! So, I shed lots of tears this week friends, I had to tell my project team I am unexpectedly leaving them without being able to give them details that our HR Dept would not want me to share. I think they know he is a jerk. Some of them have sent me chat messages or called and said they totally support me and I did tremendous in spite of him. I have to transition things off my work plate onto others during the next week and then I am free of ever having to sit in the same room with him again. !!! So what... I LOST 1 POUND THIS WEEK! I ate healthy, exercised, and feel so triumphant today. Last, for those who are struggling whether with work, marriage, or whatever, please remember to be strong and do what is best for you. You won't regret it in the long term. Short term pain for long term gain. And I better follow my own mantra there!

Okay, its feeling kind of lonely out here, maybe this challenge isn't for everyone but I'll keep posting and see if anyone joins in. Name Goal# Current Week: Total to Date: SpecialK.........2010 Minutes..........395.............395 My 2 huge chunks of walking was pushing a snowblower up and down for two 1 hour sessions 2 days in a row when Ohio got a big dose of snow. I also did shoveling snow added with that walking and worked up quite a sweat in my clothes underneath the two coats, three pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants protecting me outside! Okay, winter has arrived!! ACTIVITY ....................................DATE .....MINUTES Cardio - Outdoor Walking ..............1/8/2010 120 Cardio - Outdoor Walking ..............1/7/2010 120 Cardio - Stationary Bike................ 1/5/2010 35 Cardio - Elliptical Climber.............. 1/4/2010 30 Cardio - Treadmill Walk/Run.......... 1/3/2010 45 Strength - Upper Body.................. 1/2/2010 15 Strength - Lower Body.................. 1/2/2010 15 Strength - Abdominal Crunches......1/2/2010 5 Strength - Upper Body.................. 1/1/2010 10

Yippee!! Lost 1 lb. this first week of January which I am super thrilled about given I have been under extreme stress still with my job. I have been following my eating and exercise plan and it looks like its helping! Name -Starting Wt Goal End Wt 2010 CurrentWeight- SpecialK.............231.2..........155...................232.2 Scrappy_friend....149.............135...................149

Hi Harley Girl! Great to hear from you again. I have to include a picture here where I bought my mother's miniature schnauzer a Harley Davidson faux leather dog coat for Christmas.. he is so cute in it and it actually is functional to keep the little guy warm when he goes out in our snow here in Ohio. :thumbup:

We posted a note on the Local Get Together thread for this Saturday that says check there at 1pm and post if you are coming if you think the snow situation is safe enough for you. That way we won't strand someone at the mall Food Court with no bandster friends! Hopefully today is the worst of it and with good snow crews for roads by Saturday at noon, it will be okay. Tomorrow is my weigh in day for my first week since the new year. I am so hoping I have lost something! I made myself stay off the scale all week.

I did just post a note on the Saturday Columbus gathering forum link that if the snow is bad, please check and see that thread for a note on who is coming and who can't come based on weather. Be conservative and keep safe. Hopefully if the worst is today and Friday, we'll be stir crazy by Saturday and noon and just busting out with boredom to still do the get together.

Good question about the snow cancellation Yes, I think everyone should check in here at 1PM that day and post if you think its safe enough for you to come and I will too Keep your safety in mind and be conservative. There is always next month.

Hi Shamrock friends. I love the show Biggest Loser and the next season of the show started last night. It was so sad once again to see how super obese some folks are and to know I was there 2 years ago. I pray that with the extreme exercise they can lose a tremendous amount of weight under a doctor's supervision (which the show has) and that with eating right, for a lifetime, they can keep it off. I don't think the show fairly represents that the people who lost 100 lbs or whatever are left with excess skin and at the Finale show, some of those people who lost 150 or whatever pounds and had a totally flat stomach -- they can't be totally for real given how many experiences we have shared in this forum. Anyway, I will still watch because it is a good reminder to me to keep exercising and to cheer them on to better health. In the early shows of a season, it really is about them transforming their minds. Later on, it gets into some nasty game playing and I don't like that part of the show where one person eliminates another due to them being a threat to win the $250,000 prize. I really wish they would talk more about what the contestants are eating that allows them to lose something like 25-30 lbs in one week for those big guys -- I know even with extreme exercise, that is huge which has to mean they are going to a major calorie intake reduction as well as the major calorie burn thru exercise to get that kind of a loss. They even had several of the women on last night's show lose 20 lbs in a week including some women who were in the 200s lost about 20 lbs in a week. Amazing.

I will bring my updated Before/After scrapbook pictures. I spent some time over the holidays having fun with my crafts and just remembering and documenting my lapband journey from the past year. I basically went from -80 lbs in my first year post op last Christmas to -122 in year 2 (-42 lbs in 2nd year) and that was under some extreme stress and huge work overtime conditions. I have now set myself a goal of -40 to -60 lbs in 2010 so I can say by the end of year 3 I am done and ready to maintain (and hopefully be able to get my plastic surgery to get rid of excess skin)!

It is nice to see all of you OSU lapband program folks jumping in to support each other. I will post the Columbus gathering thread for this Saturday - it will be at the Polaris Mall again, 2-4pm, in the Food Court area by Chik-Fil-A and Great Indoors. I plan to bring some of my Before/After scrapbook photos. It has helped me a lot to keep a journal via a scrapbook of this journey because I don't ever want to forget the hard work and the sense of triumph I felt every time I hit a milestone on this journey. I never want to go back to where I was before.

I love my band. Had to get a new winter coat this season and give mine from last winter to my older sister who is now bigger than me...I was always the largest of the family. When I see that coat hanging on its hanger, I can't believe its mine. It is not a size 2 or something crazy, but when you come from where I was, it is amazing what this lapband has helped me achieve. I wouldn't give it back for anything!

Thanks for joining in the accountability Thread. I so am proud of you that you got to goal and now I realize that knowing how committed you were to get to goal, that I will have to face the reality too that I am a food addict too and I have been using food to soothe my stress at work. I finally asked off the project where the guy at my job was just so emotionally abusive it was driving me to eat. Hoping that situation gets better soon here in January. My boss is working on a reassignment but I have to tough it out until then without overeating. I know you can get those pounds off -- you CAN DO IT!

Okay I did get the Tape Measure out and measured myself for Hips, Waist, Bust, Thighs, Arms and Neck. That was a hard mental thing for me to do but to be honest I was kind of numb about what the numbers mean as clothing size helps me measure it in other terms. I do find it very very frustrating that I can't tell for sure what clothing size I am in for the inches the tape measure shows. I bought a pair of workout pants yesterday that were a 1X and the difference to the "normal" XL in the same brand was weird - not as much room in the hips and stomach area as I needed but the length of the 1X pants were like 4" longer than the XL. I am getting a pair of scissors out to cut off the excess and then will have to hem them. I found it too cold at the gym in shorts and wanted the longer workout pants. Can't give myself any excuse to not work out and get those exercise minutes in! I also have jeans ranging from 20 to 22 and normal dress pants that are 18WP so finding pants that fit is a real challenge when you have the surplus pooch stomach skin. My legs below are actually pretty thin (for me). I am also finding tops or shirts range all over the place -- 1X is different than XL, some L fit, and even one sweater in a Medium fit but it was made big. Isn't that funny how we used to classify clothing as to it was cut small....and now I can tell when something is cut bigger or more generous! Bottom line, I used to be terrible at not trying clothing on in the stores, due to being embarrassed or hoping the biggest size they had would fit, and now I have to do better trying things on because I can't tell what will fit. What my mind tells me I can wear, isn't what fits -- I keep looking at the 3X end of the racks!

I remembered from a challenge I did on the ObesityHelp forum last year that there was some question about what counted as "Exercise" .... hummm. I'll take a chance and post what I will be counting and others please chime in as well based on what your ability physically is and what you want to hold yourself accountable for--that is the whole idea, what you personally need to be accountable for. It can be done at home or at a gym or wherever. I will count: Treadmill work - walking/running Elliptical work Exercise bicycles Cycling - where I live this isn't possible in winter Outdoor walking Weight training - upper/lower body - free wgt or machines Exercise DVD BOSU ball work Exercise Ball work Stretchy band muscles work Snow Shoveling Push Mowing Grass (no riding mower counted) Yard Work w/ sweating -- like shoveling, raking, bending Stair climbing - e.g. 5 flights on my lunch hour will count! Water Aerobics Aerobics, Pilates, Yoga or similar classes Ab crunches or other exercises Others? Copy this post and add to the list. I'm sure there are lots of ways to get your exercise in. I was not going to count general housework things or shopping.

2nd Accountability thread link -- to an Weekly Exercise Challenge to run from New Years to St. Patrick's Day: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f114/2010-shamrocks-new-years-st-patrickss-day-exercise-challenge-107689/#post1387609

Here is a link to the 2010 Shamrocks Weekly Weight Accountability thread. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f114/2010-shamrocks-weight-challenge-107686/#post1387593

Okay, here is my 2weeks of meal plan, plus exercise plan that I wrote out in advance - its not filled out for every calorie at this point but I was trying to be sure I had a good band friendly combination of Protein, vegetables and fruit and then added a few planned carbs in here and there plus some Snacks. Anybody that can post other meal ideas to help me with variety and advance planning I would appreciate any help I can get. LapbandTalk made me post this in PDF form but if anyone would like an MS Office Excel spreadsheet where you can make your own and edit on this one, PM me and I can email it. 2010 Meal Plan form by SpecialK.pdf

I did pretty good yesterday but didn't get to eat exactly my plan -- maybe January 1 is a little aggressive to start a diet because you are still doing special events with family and friends. I did weigh myself yesterday a.m. and was thrilled to see I had not gained (or if I did I had lost it) any weight from Thanksgiving to New Years! Now that is a good start to a new year.

Happy New Year Shamrocks!! I have my first 2 weeks of food all planned out here and will post soon. Also I will take the lead getting us a weekly weigh in and accountability thread for 2010 started. Thanks for all your support and thoughts over the past 2 years. I miss some of our early on friends who contributed so much but I really appreciate those of you who have hung in here for the long term since we knew this was a "Lifetime" commitment to have this band. We would have been foolish I guess, in retrospect for me, to think it would all be a bed of roses, but I would absolutely do it all over again! Here's to Losing Again in 2010! Kathy

This is a GREAT thread -- let's keep encouraging each other. I took December 31 2009 photos last night for a year end recap of where I stand and that helped me visually see where I am and capture it so I don't forget it. Tonight I am going to get my tape measure out and finally give in to my fear and measure myself all over and capture those numbers. A year from now, I promise all of you, and most importantly myself, I WILL be thinner. Here is a great link someone sent me this a.m. in email that is a great way to hit the RESET button on your heart and mind to get ready for the new year. You can do this! http://www.simpletruths.tv/mybb/

Hi there. I got a 15 lb kettle bell for Christmas and a set of 10 lb dumbbells to help increase my goal weight amount for some exercise in 2010. I have 2lb dumbbells, 5 lb dumbbells and 8 lb dumbbells and I had bought a good book on how to use hand weights for home exercising. The kettle bell came with a DVD with only 5 or so moves and it looks pretty intense. Anyone out there using a kettle bell and have a good web site reference of exercises starting out easy to building up to medium intensity. Thanks :thumbup:

How about a New Years to Valentines Day exercise challenge -- 6 weeks about - Posting our number of workout minutes per week and cumulative and a goal we individually set? I'll have to think about what I will set for myself. Need to make it something I have to stretch to make. Kathy

Hi Broken Angel --Welcome! BCBS has covered Lapband surgery for others so if you can be patient I'd give it a try and see how far you can get with insurance approval as paying out of pocket is tough versus only covering your co-pays for office visits and/or the part of the surgery costs that were mine were about 15% co-insurance thru my Aetna coverage. I have met folks who went to Dr. Curry in Cincinnati for selfpay and were very happy they did. He has an office in Columbus for follow ups and the out of pocket cost of Dr. Curry versus Mt. Carmel/Riverside/OSU is significant - as in $15K versus $22K or somethign in that range. I couldn't afford self-pay so I had to go with the doctors who were on my insurance plan which happened to be Mt. Carmel at the time and I was very happy with both my surgeon Dr. Price and my follow up surgeon Dr. Miller and everyone says Dr. Choban as well was just terriffic too so I think all of the three doctors they have at Mt Carmel are very good choices. I will tell you to get prepared that most of the three main practices in the Columbus area do try to talk you into RNY or gastric bypass if you are unsure if Lapband is what you want. Just listen to the facts and decide for yourself. My insurance didn't cover the sleeve or VSG at that time and I didn't feel I wanted something as major as the RNY but I have since met many other patients in my support group who had that surgery and they are very happy. Keep posting your questions and we'll try to help you sort is all out! Kathy P.S. for Marion, that would be pretty convenient for you to come to our next Polaris Mall gathering. Its usually the 2nd Saturday of the month, 2-4pm, Food Court near the Chik-Fil-A and you can meet those of us who went to the different practices and ask questions in person if you'd like. Feel free to bring a support person along, friend or spouse, if you'd like the comfort of meeting the group in an open setting.