BillOh

I banded, my wife had GB, neither of us had to do that.

Everybody is different, but I'll take a stab at one part. The band is just a tool like any other diet, but it makes eating less easier and helps you slow down your eating. Now that I am at my goal, there is nothing I have to give up. I can eat anything, I just cant eat 48 chicken wings in 12 minutes any more, but now that the band helped me get where I wanted to be, I can do what I want, I just keep an eye on my weight and compensate for any bad days. (like holidays, or I gained 3 pounds because of a funeral. Large pills aren't a problem fro me. It is pretty uncomfortable when you do get stuck, sometimes painful. We don't usually vomit, people where call it PB or productive burping sometimes along with sliming. Only once have I had to vomit up a piece of chicken breasts. You learn quickly to avoid it. My sleep apnea and blood pressure are cured, so it was worth it for me.

Just in case you haven't seen this or something similar, I thought I'd share a website I use for measuring running distance and planning routes. Running Routes - WalkJogRun

I think that is a fair statement. I have read where people vary quite a bit in several ways, but I think I lost nearly 40 pounds before my first fill. If I wasn't careful in how I ate, you know the restriction is there. Two bites from a thick chicken breasts with little chewing put me in a world of hurt. It was an early lesson I will never forget.

I did, for what our area seems to be the norm I had surgery early am on day one, went home late afternoon day 2. I slept ok at the hospital, would have slept better if they didn't wake you up for idiotic reasons. My wife spent the first 3 days at my side pretty much getting me anything I needed, so in my case, being home was a little easier. It was just a pain (real) getting in an out of the car, but once home things were great.

Well, its been more than a month, I have shifted my diet slightly, but not much. During this time, I've had a week off and a holiday, those are the tougher times as my routine gets broken. Since the day I was one pound below my goal, I have spent the majority of the time 1-3 pounds above my goal. After my week's vacation I did go all the way up to 4.9 pounds above goal (199.9 ) But I've been very consistent at 197 most of the time. I guess my new goal is to stay between 195 and 200 all winter.

Two weeks ago when I ran my best 5k, I had run a 10k 6 days before, so I decided Saturday to get up and run that same 10k course again hoping it would help me this Friday night. Night time races are a lot harder after a full day at work. This Friday its the March of Dimes "Night moves" run through downtown Columbus in the dark. A couple of my wife's gym friends are running in this one, and I really want to be relaxing at the finish line when they finish, so I was motivated to get up early Saturday morning even though I was out till 2am Friday night. I suspect there will be at least 1000 runners Friday night which makes it fun. My wife has been slacking off, at least as far as the running this week, so I may run on the treadmill beside here tonight. ( I hate the treadmill) I'd rather run outside since the weather is and will be totally perfect tonight. But since I ran yesterday I could take the day off, but I think I will run shorter and faster tonight. I might crank the treadmill up to a 7 minute mile for about 14 minutes tonight just to scare her gym buddies a bit. (I love the mind games part of runnning :thumbdown:

Advice? Keep at it, it will come? :thumbdown: I suspect the dog is a factor, but I do notice on your BMI, that you can crossed the threshold and are no longer obese and just overweight. I suspect this will make the perceived effort start to drop pretty soon. I don't think I even started running until I hit the 30bmi level (I'll have to check my WII and see what it was when I ran my first 5k)

Impressive. You should look for a 5k in the next coming weeks, I'll bet you will blow your 5k best time away. I ran a 10k yesterday, hoping to blow away some younger skinnier friends this coming Friday night

Your preaching to the choir, unfortunately there are a lot of ignorant people out there, and many of us choose not to have to interact wtih them.

Have you considered separate surgery dates so you can help each other? My wife and I were a couple of month's apart and we were able to help each other out quite a bit. I can picture the two of you wanting something and neither being very able to get up and get it.

Lets see what my excuse is this time. Hopefully I'll remember. I have to pick up a PC from a customer that morning, hopefully I can swing by then.

Labor day was the 2nd event since reaching my goal. The first event was supposed to be my 50th birthday and associated party, but it turned into traveling and attending a funeral. Still both cases were a long weekend away from home that usually involved eating. In each event I gained 3 pounds, but got them back off and back to my goal weight in 3-4 days. I still weigh myself daily at home, but I've found the scales at my family's houses to show me weighing 3-6 pounds less than what I know I weigh, so its hard to monitor away from home. I think the hardest thing was getting in the same amount of water I normally drink at home and work because we were on the run. Still, I'm glad staying around goal is not been too hard.

Good advice. I'm holding off for the 1/2 marathon till next summer. I'm signed up for 5k #10 and 10k #3 already.

I did the exact same thing and it works! :thumbup:

I find steak even easier than chicken. At least the moister cuts, filet mignon and NY Strip are easy for me. For sweets, I buy the dove dark chocoloate minis. Only 4g of sugar each, I take two in my daily lunch bag to work, one for the morning and one for the afternoon.

Ready for the 5k yet, Ebony Rose?

Only if I can grow wings.

My wife and I have been married 28 wonderful years. She has lost 120 pounds and I have lost 79. We are very compatible. Our biggest difference, she loves to shop I hate it. I usually look for someplace to sit and people watch. I will admit to noticing women who are good looking while sitting there killing time. Yesterday I was sitting, looking, I saw a very pretty face, I only had time to think, "she is nice", when she turned to me and smiled and I realized I was looking at my wife. Yes, its sappy, sounds ridiculous, but its true. I've never thought she wasn't beautiful, and I doubt she has gone more than a day or two in 30 years without me telling her so, but it feels good again. No, I'm not turning in my "Man card" if any guys read this.

Agreed. Continuing to lose weight makes the running easier and then the running makes the weight loss easier. For us now, its actually fun. We have a week off with no real plans, so we looked online and found a good cause 5K in Cleveland (130 miles away) We jumped in the car, got a cheap hotel, and were on the starting line at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at 9am this morning. New personal bests for both of us and really fun day.

I had the lapband done a month ahead of you at OSU. I do appreciate that probably 75% of their work is bypass, they still do significant number of bands. They do have a support group, I go occasionally and most people are bypass people but I find it helpful if you participate. My wife a bypass patient has gone with a friend to Mt Carmel's group and says they are well done. You can go there even though your surgery was at OSU, at least that is the way I understand it. But this forum has probably been my best support. I can give you the email address of the lady who coordinates the OSU groups. Its Kaitlin who did my nutrition classes. Feel free to write to PM me here I will pass on her email address.

We ran the 5K there a few weeks ago, it is a nice place. I just checked into share some news. The people at OSU asked my wife and I if we would consider speaking to potential candidates at an up coming informational session. My wife was RNY and I was banded. We are kind of psyched about it.

Thanks for the encouragement. In a coincidence, I have a good friend who started running with me. He lives 30 miles away, so we were just running together once a week. He ran is first 5k a week ago, but then left and took his quad runner into a forest, flipped it and it came down on him bruising his hip, shoulder and leg all on the left side. So I'm back to running alone again.

I was 49 weighed 273 with a bmi close to yours, I was on two blood pressure medicines and had severe sleep apnea. Now just months past 50 I'm off all bp medicines and no more CPAP. It is wonderful and it can be done.

Well it was huge success today at least for us. I bettered my 10k time by more than 5 minutes. My wife bettered her best time in the 5k.