UT LB Loser

I did another Tri yesterday. It was a pool swim. I loved it!!! That is so much easier mentally than the open water. My bike was acting up so I pulled back just a bit on the downhill portion of the ride. My wheel was rubbibg a bit. I didn't need a blowout at 40 mph. The run was a killer!! We made 2 circuits of this course, so I had to do the hill twice. Wow, what a grade to run up. I had a goal to do this in under 1:30:00. I did it in 1:25:01. I feel great. Next week I'll be doing a 20 mile bike race instead of another Tri. My last Tri of the season will be at Lake Powell on 10/18/08. Is everyone done training for the year or will you keep training through the fall and winter? I definitely want to keep this going, but am unsure where/how when the snow comes. I guess the gym will replace the road.

My fills are so easy that I have not even had the local anethesthic shot for the last 2 fills. I can barely feel it. Can you feel the port real well? I wonder if the nurse has alot of experience. Perhaps ask for the most experienced person in that office to do it. Good luck!! Focus on what is going right - you're losing!!!

I set a number of goals for myself before I got the band. Most were weight loss related and short sighted. One very important goal was to run a 5K by my bandiversary date, 12/6/08. I went skiing in February. My legs cramped so bad!! I used to love to ski. I committed to ski more than just that one time in the season. I ended up going 8 times, many of them for the full day. I realized that my legs were getting in shape. I also was riding an exercise bike. When the weather got nice, I pulled out my mountain bike and took a few short rides. What I found was that I felt so much better after riding. I increased the distances to 5 miles and on up to 15 miles. One day in May I realized that I was no further to my goal of running the 5K (3.1 miles). I took my bike down to a parkway and measured 2.5K with my bike's odometer. The next morning I was comitted to start training. The first run was more walk than run. I walked/ran that course a few times a week. By the 3rd week, I ran half way, albeit very slowly. The next week I knew I had to better that. I ended up jogging the entire 5K. I had my mountain bike in my truck too. I decided to ride the 5K course for a warm down. I ended up riding 13 miles that day. When I got home, I realized that I reached my goal, but not in an organized race. I looked online to find a race that I could run in to make it "Official". While searching, I came across a website for a Sprint Triathlon. I had heard of the Ironman Triathlon, but not Sprint. As I read, I found that there are 4 categories of triathlons. The Sprint is a 750m (821 yards) swim, followed by a 20K (12.4 mile) bike, and then a 5K (3.1 mile) run. I realized that I had done 2/3 of that on that very day. I can swim. My dad threw all of the kids in the pool at 18 to 24 months of age. We learned to swim early and well. I had been on a swim team in jr. high. That afternoon I went to the community pool and swam 34 lengths (850 yards). I knew I could do a Sprint triathlon. I signed up for a Sprint Triathlon 2 weeks later. The next week I did the swim first then the bike the the run. The run was much more difficult as it was the last thing. I walked alot more than I wanted. I did my 5K and a Sprint Triathlon in the same event. It wasn't until the 4th of July that I ran a stand alone 5K, which was my original goal. That was 2 weeks after my 1st triathlon. You mentioned a fear of being last. I promised myself I would never be last. I am always first. I only compete against myself! However, I have never been the final one across the finish line. Do you know what they call the last one to finish a triathlon? The same as the first one to finish, a TRIATHLETE. A man I met while training gave me a line that became a mantra that I still wear on my arm at each triathlon under my number. It says: DFL>DNF>DNS This means: Dead Freaking Last is greater than Did Not Finish, which is greater than Did Not Start. My goal is and always will be to start. If I start, I will finish unless a medic drags me off the course! I really owe my inspiration to the other Mantra that I put on the other arm under my number: JFDI. This means Just Focus and Do It! The are other versions of this as well. Personally, I love Just Freaking Do It. There are others, but I'll let you figure them out!!! A goal is just a statement until you DO IT! I have set many other goals as a result of triathlons. I am addicted. I am not the fastest in the races, nor the prettiest. But I always WIN! Hope this helps to motivate others. Along the way, I have reached the PRIMARY GOAL in my journey with the LapBand. It has never been about losing weight. Numbers are what we measure by, so I keep track of them too. But my goal has been to become fit and healthy. Weight loss is a benefit of getting fit and getting healthier. If you don't like your results, change your approach. It always works!!! Scouts Honor!!! Good luck!

I'm jealous Shirley. I won't be going on my first cruise until Nov. or early Dec. I'm glad you posted that about Set points, Stephanie. Another way to reset your metabolism rate (Set Point) is to increase your exercise. My nurse discouraged further fills for me even though I can eat over 1 -1/2 cups at lunch and dinner. I'm tight in the morning. Her reasoning, which is very sound, is that I need calories for what I am doing. I have done 3 triathlons since 6/21/08. I have my fourth Tri on Saturday, 9/6/08. One thing that I decided on before I had the surgery was that I was DONE dieting. This is not a diet for me at all. The Band gave me back control of portion size. I know what is sensible to eat, but freely admit that I have not always eaten the "good foods" since the band. I reward myself with something I want. I just don't eat "the whole box" anymore. I don't want the whole box anymore. This is just my 2 cents to the forum. Good luck to you all!!!

I have 3 more tris this year. The next 2 are coming up soon. I have a pool tri that I'm doing with my brother on 9/6. I am also doing another the next week, 9/13. The 2nd one will likely be done as part of a relay. It's an equalizer tri, 1K swim, 15.1 bike, & 4 mile run. I will also be flying to Page, AZ to do the Powell3 on 10/18. It is so much fun to have these to look forward to. How is everyone else?

Here are my times: Swim - 23:50 T1 - 4:15 Bike - 52:28 T2 - 2:22 Run - 46:33 The swim was 750m The bike was 25.1k and the run was 5k. It was by far the toughest course yet!! Next year I will spank this time!!

Great Jon!! Way to go!!! I finished my third Tri today too. Wow!!! The toughest one yet!! My shoulder is at about 80%, so I swam the 750m. My times weren't posted when I left so I'll update times later. The swim went fine until the 3rd leg. We were swimming against current in the lake. Kind of weird. I felt myself being pulled to the left. It wasn't like that last week when I did the course preview. I finished well. The bike went fairly well. I hit 48.5 mph going down a big hill with about 2.5 miles to go. One thing you can say about my size, it creates momentum! Finished well! The run started ok. No cramps whatsoever today. I loved that. I did develop a stitch in my sides about a half mile into the run. Then there were 5 hills. Small hills but hills nontheless. I walked a fair amount. I'm just glad I was able to Tri instead of Du. I feel great. Some soreness remains in the shoulder. I need to rehab it before I do another. My next is tentatively planned for 9/6. My brother will do his first with me on that day. It is a pool swim. I hope everyone else on this thread had a great day like Jon and I did!! These are so addicting. I hope I never stop Triing!

Best of luck Jon!! Undoubtedly, you won't see this until after your race. Hope all went well!! I swam tonight and felt about 80% healthy. I am going to do the TRI on Saturday not the DU. I am really psyched! I had doubts after my injury last Saturday. They are gone and have been replaced with real anticipation to get'r done! What a week. I'll report back on Saturday night.

I talked to the race director about doing a Duathlon if my swim isn't possible. He said I'd be DQ'd but could receive split times. It's a triathlon, so I understand the DQ if I miss 1/3 of it. Still hoping to swim. Last night's workout in the pool gave me some hope. Won't know until Friday night. If I remember why I started doing this... To get fit and healthy, doing the full Tri is less important. DOING something is key!!! I looked back on a few goals I set back in May. Wow! I've crushed a couple of them. I believed I could do them and I was right! If you think you can or think you can't, you are RIGHT! Have a great week!

I had a bike accident while doing a training ride in the course preview for next week's tri. I injured my shoulder. It is much better today than yesterday. I'm still hoping to compete, but if I can't swim, well there's no sense in risking it. I saw my dr. yesterday. He happened to be the dr working in the urgent care clinic. I hadn't seen him for nearly a year, since he gave me the green light to do the lapband. He was amazed at the change! He told me that I should bottle whatever I'm doing and sell it. My blood pressure is awesome!! I didn't want to see him until I had lost around 100 lbs. I'm glad he was the dr. on duty however. He's now a believer in the LapBand! He had read alot of good things but I'm the first patient he's seen with such great results. He is a fairly young Dr. I really hope this week goes well and I get full range of motion out of my shoulder. I'll swim on Thursday and guage whether I can swim on Saturday.

Good luck Lanie!!! Four years of triathlons? That rocks! Have your times improved year to year? What was you first tri time? And now? I'm doing a course preview on Saturday for next week's tri. I love the previews. I get alot of good info and begin to build the mental picture that sustains me through the race. My brother is doing the preview with me. He'll do his first tri on 9/6 with me. That will be in a pool. This is in a mountain reservoir. The whole open water thing concerns him right now. We'll only doing a portion of the swim in the preview as the course isn't setup. Good luck to efveryone this weekend, whether you're just training or racing!!

BTW Amanda, how was Bermuda? Or are you still there??

2labpups, are you getting a lapband? If so, congrats to you!!! Again as I said in an earlier post, we're all doing the lapband and triathlons for our own reasons. The LapBand is a tool to help me gain fitness and better health. I am definitely not going to do something that will jeopardize my health! My experience to date has been that training for 5Ks or Tris has been very motivating and allowed me to measure my fitness in a different way than just the scale. I am already losing weight due to changed habits and the control the Band allows me to have over food. Exercise is essential to my tool. Just like greasing a machine is essential to a precision machine shop. I completed my 4th and 5th 5Ks this weekend and today. Today I ran in a Corporate Olympics 5K. It was my best time to date!!! I'm taking a few days off on the run and will being doing a 15 mile bike ride in those same Olympics on Weds. Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

Water is your friend!! It is the best friend of the band!! I agree, you need to drink it even if you have to add flavor to it. Crystal Light Lemonade has become my Diet Pepsi (w/ Lime). I have one with me everywhere!!! You should be drinking 132 oz of water each day. I drink 7 to 9 - 20 oz. bottles of water each day. Good luck. I hope it all works out in the end!! (Couldn't help myself there!!)

Each Dr is different in how they do fills. Some are agressive and fill you up and then remove saline until you can drink water. Others, like my Dr are slow to fill the band up. At first that bothered me. Now I can see the beauty of it. My fills were all very comfortable and now I am right where I want to be. It also depends on the size of the band that you have. Have you asked your Dr which band you have? If you are losing and comfortable, don't give another thought to your fill level until your next appt comes around. If you don't have one, you ought to go at least once a month until you reach the "perfect" fill for you. Wish I could have been more specific. We all are so different. Thus our experiences will be different.

Did he say how this will affect the band, if at all? Have you been out of the country for an extended period? Can he guage how long you may have had it? Any prognosis on how he'll deal with it? I wonder how common or uncommon this is.

I would make an appointment with my doctor and discuss this with them. I think a total unfill and then a re-fill may be what happens. A totally filled band? Seems too tight. You do have an different style band than I do, so perhaps that is possible. You know this tool works for you. Now you need to figure out how to "hold the hammer". If you held a hammer upside down and tried to pound with it, you'd get a different result than if you hold it the way it is supposed to be held. Because you have a different model of "hammer" - you need to contact a "dealer" that understands that model. Good luck!!!

Jon, it's time to JFDI!!! You deserve this bike for all of your hard work. Buying stuff online really doesn't carry any more risk than buying it at a store. You'll be fine. Use a credit card that protects your purchases. It's an online retailer that guarantees 100% satisfaction. Just Freaking Do It!!! Order it Monday and you'll probably have it to ride by Saturday. You won't regret it.

Looks good to me Jon. My bike has Shimano 105s too. Sounds like you've picked a winner!! You and I share this day. It's my original bday and your rebirthday! My rebirthday is 12/6. Good days to celebrate!!!!

Amanda, We are all doing this (lapband and triathlons) for our own reasons. My reasons are the same for both the band and the tris. I am doing this to get healthy and to become fit. Triathlons enable me to get closer to both of those things. Weight loss has always been secondary in my mind. I have obsessed about my weight for so many years. I've also tried many diets. You know the definition of insanity, I'm sure... If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got. I made a very cerebral decision not to diet with the band and to pay less attention to the weight loss. The second really is the most difficult for me. Progress is normally measured by numbers. Weight is a number. I definitely pay attention to the numbers, but they are secondary to the fitness progress I'm making. Don't know if this philosophy works for everyone else, but I know it works for me. That being said, triathlons are for me a great measure of my fitness level. I'm not stopping them to reach any number. The numbers keep coming down as a byproduct of increased fitness. I saw something last night that really helped me understand my weight loss. I've been measuring body fat as well. I have a scale that gives me weight, body fat and water content. It's slick. Here is an example of measuring body fat vs weight loss: Let's say you start out at 200 lbs. Your body fat (bf) is 40%. That means that you are carrying 80 lbs of body fat. (200 x .4 = 80). You lose 25 lbs. You bf is now 36%. Your bf is now 63 lbs. Your weight decreased by 25 lbs, but your body fat was only reduced by 17. 3 lbs of the loss was lean muscle. Please don't get me wrong, you still lost 20 lbs. GREAT!!! Decreasing bf is the better goal than weight loss. Sorry for such a long post. Hopefully it helps someone. Looking at things from a different perspective can't hurt!!!

Hey Bandaid, I guess areallady beat me to it. She's a real lady too!! When I got banded, I set a goal to run a 5K. Once I had trained enough to do that (still hadn't run in an official race) I thought what else is there. I found triathlons. Maybe they found me. I am only doing the Sprint distance now. That is still 750m of swimming, 20K (12.4 miles) of biking, and 5K (3.1 miles) of running. I've done 2 so far. I've also run in 2 5K races. I have 2 more this next week. So when I say I'm done T RY-ing, now I'm T R I-ing , you will hopefully understand!! I've gotten more motivation from triathlons than anything yet. If I can do, anyone can!!!! JFDI - Just Freaking Do It!!!!

You may not want to deal with any of the insurance stuff right now, but NOW is the perfect time to approach them. There may be hoops they make you jump through. While you are battling that front, you can learn more about what choice is the best for you. Doing nothing wil leave you exactly where you are right now. From your earlier post, that isn't acceptable to you, correct? JFDI!!! Just Freaking Do It!!!! You won't be sorry!!

Your body is still adapting to this new "thing" inside you. My Dr told me that he didn't care if I lost anything for the first 6 weeks. Eat only what you are comfortable eating. By no means should you starve yourself. The fills definitely help you to lose. I've had 8 fills and am at 6.8cc in my band. I have never approached this as a diet. Diets don't work for me. I eat what I want, when I want. The band has allowed me to have the control to know when I need to cut back and stay away from things that don't fit into what I want. I love my band!!!

I look back now 9 months post surgery and wonder what I was afraid of. Everyone doesn't have my same success story, I realize. My journey has been the greatest thing I've ever given myself! I've run 2 official 5Ks, done 2 Sprint Triatlons and put alot of miles on my legs, bike and swim. These are things I'm doing because I find enjoyment in them. I no longer worry about what people think. I know where I've been and where I'm going. It has so radically changed my outlook on life. I'm living again!!! I wish you luck on your journey!!!