coolcrystal

Girl you are looking awesome!! you looked pretty before too... but wow, you look like you are in your mid 20's now!! Hot chick on the beach - watch out!!! Looks at them legs!!

No, it's a different price. My doc charges self pay 15k for everything, even fills for a full year.. yet charged my insurance like 40k or so.. and I have to pay my deductable for fills. But, according to my insurance there is a lower price that they agree on. It's weird..

Trystelle, you crack me up!! I was reading the beginning with intensity and then you said "with my husband".. you go girl! lol As soon as my hubby found out I got approved for this surgery he did the SB diet with me and we have both lost pretty much the same amount of weight.. of course, I needed a band to do it and he just needed the SB diet. lol. It's like that danged commercial. But, because of both of our weightlosses, it has helped us to do this together, grow confident together and be even more attracted to each other. Oddly, when we met I was 240 and he was 165 and he said I was the most confident woman he had ever met. At 240 I felt sexy and shoot, felt that way till probably about 280 when I just couldn't get around much anymore.. I guess when I looked in the mirror I just didn't see an obese person.. I thought I was hot. LOL. but we gained the "love" pounds.. he got up to 250 and I got up to almost 300.. So, we are slowly but surely doing it and together.. I don't want anybody else but him... but we had a healthy relationship from the beginning.. i didn't settle... I can see how if somebody is obese and gets with a jerk and then loses a lot of weight and finds a better guy/girl they might could cheat...

Yeah, no doubt.. I complimented a guys shoes at work once and he told my boss that made him "uncomfortable".. and all I said was "I like your boots"..

Yeah, I call that my upper belly and lower belly.. sometimes my lower belly growls, but I'm not really hungry.. it's weird. lol. as long as my upper belly doesn't feel hunger, I just ignore that growling lower belly.. most of the time I don't have it, but it sometimes happens..

I did not know Denyell, but my heart is filled with deep sorrow for you and your families loss. God Bless.. Hope is the thing with Feathers - by Emily Dickinson <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=center bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>HOPE is the thing with feathers</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>That perches in the soul,</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>And sings the tune without the words,</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>And never stops at all,</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD>And sweetest in the gale is heard;</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right> 5</TD></TR><TR><TD>And sore must be the storm</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>That could abash the little bird</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>That kept so many warm.</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD>I ’ve heard it in the chillest land,</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>And on the strangest sea;</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right> 10</TD></TR><TR><TD>Yet, never, in extremity,</TD><TD vAlign=top align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD>It asked a crumb of me.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I totally agree with you. That's ridiculous... My hats go off to people who want to spend the rest of their lives counting calories.. no thanks.. if you eat a small healthy meal then you will be fine.. I could go into a long speech about why I think your dietician is a moron, but I won't. I think you have the right attitude.. and you're doing well... And, I'm sure there will be somebody who'll say "you should do what your dietician says".. bologna! a healthy active person does not live off 500 calories. period. It urks me that there are dieticians out there telling people to do this. I'm not sure if you ever watched Biggest Loser but there was actually an episode where Kelli was only eating 500 calories and she didn't lose any weight because her body went into starvation mode and her trainer chewed her out for it. Good luck to you.

My hats off to you and others that count calories... I refuse to do it.. i did it for a week once and it like controlled my life.. I don't want to live like that.. counting all the time.. I mean, how do you measure 4 tiny popcorn shrimp if the platter is 1200 calories? lol.. No thanks.. divide 10 by 1200 and get ..... I think this is why many people do stick with eating the same things all the time because they have the calories figured out already and its easy to deal with. lol.

Well, I guess I'm the naughtiest girl in the world because I drink with my meals. Not a lot, but I usually drink a full glass before my meal and then with my meal I'll drink about half a glass.. Uh oh.. call the lapband police.. I use to drink 3 or 4 glasses with my meals, so for me, this is nothing. My doctor says later when I have a lot of restriction I can't do that, but I never plan on getting too tight that I can't eat a nice healthy small meal. I never was into cokes and carbonated things, so I'm not sure about that aspect of it. I mostly drink Water, crystal light, and tea. But, I did have one diet coke about a month ago and had no uncomfortableness.. and I drink out of a straw all the time.. again, no uncomfortableness.. I guess it's different for everybody.

Exactly what KJeter said... I didn't say it that well! When I was on my plateau I ate some bad things and bam... then I went back to the healthy stuff.. it's weird how our bodies work. lol.

I had to come to my decision on my own as I'm sure most people have. Just set an example of what the band has done for you and let him come to that decision on his own. I would have been furious if somebody wrote me a letter like that. Fat people know they are fat. They don't need a letter trying to push a surgery on them. My mother in law is overweight and not once have I even mentioned the surgery to her unless she has asked me questions about it.. and yesterday she left me a loving voicemail saying how proud she is of me and how I've inspired her... she is looking into the band. She came to that decision on her own.

When that happened to me, I changed stuff up. I was drinking the low carb Protein shake every morning and eating just about the same thing every day... hummus all the time... ect... so, I shook it up.. I went back to my tuna, Soups, turkey chili, Pho.. bam.. I started losing again. Sometimes our bodies just need a slight change for a while. But, my way of doing things is probably different from others. I mostly eat healthy, but believe in having something bad every now and again.. if I have a craving I don't deny myself because in the past when I did that I would completely sabotage myself. Now, if I want chips and salsa at a restaurant, I have some, but only like 3 or 4 small ones.. and then I'm happy. If I want that nacho, I have it and don't feel guilty. But, what makes the hugest difference in my weight loss is working out. If I didn't work out like I do, I don't know if I would be doing so well. So, I would just change things up a little bit.. if there is something you are eating every day, cut it out of your diet for like 4-5 days and see how that works.

Don't be nervous... actually I was scared to death on my first fill and when she was done I was like, "that's it?" . I didn't get the numbing shot, as I heard that hurts worse than the actual fill. But, everybody is different. I have a bigger friend who got banded and she was probably 70 pounds heavier than me and on her first fill they kept sticking her cuz they couldn't find her port it was just SO deep... but, I couldn't feel mine either and my fill lady got it on the first hit easily... It will feel so funny though the first time.. like a swoosh inside and I had like a little burp that I did.. it was weird, but not painful at all. Good luck!!

I haven't had a problem "sculling".. now, I don't drink a full glass in one big gulp, but I can drink a pretty decent amount at a time. But, I prefer not to be super tight like others do... I think it really depends on your restriction. I still drink the same way I use to..

Well, what's wrong is that you just don't have a fill yet. LOL. Once you get that fill and have restriction you'll stop having the munchies and stuff... it will come. I had some restriction after my first fill, but it really took till my 3rd fill until I really had it. Good luck on your fill for Thursday!

I had a couple of "trying to throw up" episodes right after surgery, but nothing came up. The anestesia just did a number on me. After that I was perfectly fine though... Definitely call to get that anti-nausea stuff.

Has anybody noticed that they have been losing more weight in the rest of their bodies other than there stomachs? I mean, I have lost a few inches in my stomach but in the past I would lose from my stomach first and my butt was still big. This time I'm losing weight in my butt big time!! I'm starting to look odd with this bloated upper belly. It seems like the area that has the band just won't shrink much. Do lap banders get that weird distended bloated upper belly a lot???? :wink2:

CONGRATS!! HUZZAH!! I'm happy for you all who broke the 300 and for those of you still awaiting, it will come soon enough! Everybody is doing so awesome!

Hip Hip Huzzah!! I agree. I love this group of gals! ya'll get me through every day.

I did about 10 hours of straight walking this weekend but now I'm sick with sinus infection and coughing so I doubt I'll do any exercise tonight :-( I need to rest for sure.. But hope to be back on my regime tomorrow night. I'm going to challenge myself to work out for 1.5 hours each day starting on tuesday and not counting the weekend since I do the rennaissance faire thing and I'll be on my feet walking every day for three days (memorial day is final day for Scarborough faire!) so I always get plenty of exercise with that. lol. I need to challenge myself to work more with arm weights. I focus so much on belly and butt... :confused_smile:

Congrats to you and your family! what an accomplishment! You're right, street walking is tough.. I can do the treadmill but when I walk like in a park or on a street I tend to jam my knee cap up.. don't know why.. perhaps the little inclines here and there...

I used Dr. Fox of Richardson.. two things I love about him are: He has his folks do the South Beach diet 10 days before surgery instead of the liquid diet. You lose weight and learn to eat right. He doesn't believe in starving his patients on a liquid diet when you can eat chicken, veggies, and stuff like this and get the same results. He's very nice...and overall an awesome doctor..... but there are several wonderful doctors in the D/FW area... like Dr. Jayseelan, Dr. Marsden, Dr. Smith and so forth... You're probably pretty safe with any doctor from True Results...

I used Dr. Fox of Richardson, but I have heard great things about Benavides... DFW has so many wonderful doctors (and the occassional not-so-great ones) but I have heard great things about yours... You could probably do a search on here with his name and see if anybody else has posted about him too. Best of luck.

Wow, thank you everybody! I've been gone all weekend doing the Rennaissance faire thing that I do every weekend (dress up in corsets and all that fun stuff) and just got home to read all these! it really just filled me up with so much encouragement and happiness! I'm the happiest in my life right now than I have been in a long time.. I mean, I had a great life before and a wonderful supportive hubby, but I just feel happy that I can get around better and can fit into seats a little better and just have the energy to even walk around a dang grocery store.. before I would be in severe pain after 5 minutes.. This might sound weird but if I just lost 10 more pounds I would totally be happy with that.. lol. Thank you all for your kind words.. it made me feel like all this working out and turning that pizza down last night was all worth it. :-)

It's weird, after each fill I always lose a pound a day for like 4 days and then I don't lose anything for like a week or two.. then I'll lose a few more pounds... and then nothing. But, the biggest change was after my third fill. It's lasted for almost 3 weeks but I go in for another fill next week as I'm starting to get more hungry again. I don't mind when my weightloss plateau's because to me that just means that its more permanent weight loss. I don't gain or lose.. it just stays there. I change my eating up a bit and bam I'll start losing again.