Band_Groupie

I had my 3 mo. Bandiversary last week. I'm down 48.5 pounds total, 29.5 since surgery. I've moved from a size 24 pant to an 18. I reached Onederland today (199.5) and a few weeks ago moved to the 'Overweight' BMI category. I've had 3 fills (last one today) and am up to 5.6cc's/10cc band. I had a little restriction with the last one, but I think this one will make a difference. Overall, I'm really happy with things, expecially as a low BMI'er. I'm doing well on making the diet part a lifestyle...I'm not 'dieting' (never again) and I never drink my meals (except after a fill). No food is off limits and I eat mainly what my family eats, but I'll eat more of the Protein and skip the starches. I'm having no trouble getting in the right amount of daily protein and keeping the calories in line is going well. On the other hand I need a lot of work in making the lifestyle change with exercise...it's been very inconsistent and non-existent at times. Here's to month 4! Sounds like everyone is doing great!

I would call your docs office and ask. Fruit does make a difference in the thickness of the liquid (I do fruit/protein shakes after fills and they are very thick). I was on clear liquids/skim milk for 4 weeks post-op and there's no way my doc would have let me add fruit a week out...but it would be fine in the 'full liquids' or 'mushie' stages. Best Wishes! -BG

Just get all the things you need for the hospital and for when you return home. I'm sure if you've been here awhile, so you've researched and you're ready to go. Good luck and keep us posted! -BG

I'm hoping that your Dr. has checked for a leak by now if you have never felt any restriction (take out all the saline and make sure the amount is correct that you should be up to). Sometimes it takes people to get very close to the max level before they get good restriction. The other thing I'd be sharing with my doc is exactly how much you can eat at a time of solids...if it's a lot, he might want to check for slippage (part of your stomach slips up through the band making the pouch larger). Best wishes and WELCOME to LBT!- BG

Labor Day Challenge for Bunny Bandsters! Bunny's name -----------Target loss ------ Start weight ----- Current weight --- Target Weight Sept. 7 Band_Groupie ------------ 15lbs -------------- 203 --------------- 201 ----------------- 188 soon2befit ---------------- 25lbs -------------- 261.5 ------------ 256 ----------------- 236.5 hopeful41411 ------------ 20lbs -------------- 253.8 ------------- 253.8 -------------- 233.8 smilan--------------------- 20lbs -------------- 218 --------------- 216 ----------------- 198 trobison------------------- 15lbs -------------- 221 --------------- 213 ----------------- 206 myturn2bhappy ---------- 15lbs -------------- 282 --------------- 282 ----------------- 267 WannaBe1/2TheWoman - 20lbs ------------- 230.6 ------------- 226 ----------------- 210.6 Butterfly64 ---------------- 15lbs -------------- 231 --------------- 230 ---------------- 216 MrsMitch ------------------ 20lbs -------------- 232 ---------------- 232 ---------------- 212 doodlebug11-------------- 15lbs ------------- 192.5 ------------- 191 ---------------- 177.5 size6----------------------- 11lbs ----------- (-)19lbs ---------- (-)21.4lbs ----------- (-)30lbs TerriLynne----------------- 15lbs -------------- 282.2 ------------- 282.2 -------------- 267.2 txdj ------------------------ 18lbs -------------- 183 -------------- 183 ----------------- 165 1want2bthin -------------- 15lbs -------------- 202 --------------- 202 ----------------- 187 ALuv82 -------------------- 30lbs -------------- 265 --------------- 260 ---------------- 235 tbryant1216--------------- 15lbs -------------- 260 --------------- 260 ---------------- 245

Sorry, I've been MIA for a few weeks, but I just checked everyone's postings and a few were left off again, I think they should be up to date now that I've added them back. REMINDERS: * You do NOT need to update this on a regular basis, just whenever you want to and of course by Labor Day. * Quote the LAST entry (Hit 'Quote' at the bottom of the very LAST post here) and then add or update your own information. This is important: DELETE THE BEGINNING AND END QUOTE MARKS/PERSONS ID, NUMBERS AND THE BRACKETS! What you need to delete looks like this at the beginning: (QUOTE=Band_Groupie;1267092) and this at the end: (/QUOTE) (except the brackets are the squared kind). If you don't do this the next person can't capture the updated list with your changes (and you can delete things not on the list, like these words!) Thanks all, and happy weight loss!!!:smile2: Labor Day Challenge for Bunny Bandsters! Bunny's name -----------Target loss ------ Start weight ----- Current weight --- Target Weight Sept. 7 Band_Groupie ------------ 15lbs -------------- 203 --------------- 203 ----------------- 188 soon2befit ---------------- 25lbs -------------- 261.5 ------------ 256 ----------------- 236.5 hopeful41411 ------------ 20lbs -------------- 253.8 ------------- 253.8 -------------- 233.8 smilan--------------------- 20lbs -------------- 218 --------------- 216 ----------------- 198 trobison------------------- 15lbs -------------- 221 --------------- 213 ----------------- 206 myturn2bhappy ---------- 15lbs -------------- 282 --------------- 282 ----------------- 267 WannaBe1/2TheWoman - 20lbs ------------- 230.6 ------------- 226 ----------------- 210.6 Butterfly64 ---------------- 15lbs -------------- 231 --------------- 230 ---------------- 216 MrsMitch ------------------ 20lbs -------------- 232 ---------------- 232 ---------------- 212 doodlebug11-------------- 15lbs ------------- 192.5 ------------- 191 ---------------- 177.5 size6----------------------- 11lbs ----------- (-)19lbs ---------- (-)21.4lbs ----------- (-)30lbs TerriLynne----------------- 15lbs -------------- 282.2 ------------- 282.2 -------------- 267.2 txdj ------------------------ 18lbs -------------- 183 -------------- 183 ----------------- 165 1want2bthin -------------- 15lbs -------------- 202 --------------- 202 ----------------- 187 ALuv82 -------------------- 30lbs -------------- 265 --------------- 260 ---------------- 235 tbryant1216--------------- 15lbs -------------- 260 ---------------- 260 ---------------- 245

Sorry, I've been gone from here for 10 days, so it's a two part blog. Murphy’s Law: “If something can go wrong, it will”…seems to be the theme of my life the last few weeks. Nothing traumatic, just life picking on me again. I, however, have survived and am victorious…well, sort'a. As you know I’ve been preparing for DS1’s HS graduation party yesterday…and you’ve heard me whining about trying to make the DVD slideshow of his pics. It was going slowly, but I was learning and slowly but surely I rummaged through my half-unorganized photos and managed to sort them by year (quite the feat), scan, crop, and individually save about 500 photos. Then Muphy’s Law kicked in…it went something like this…(or you can skip this part and just know that I’m severely technologically impaired.). - My program was an older version of the one my Sis (middle one) had and trained me on…this caused some great difficulties figuring it out and a few items my program couldn’t do. - Imported a large group of photos into the slideshow program (Movie Maker)…it mixed them all up…had to move them back into chronological order and by then the originals were back in the albums or boxes in a jumbled mess. Remember, I’ve got ‘old-timers’ (as my kids say) and I can’t remember what I did 5 min. ago let alone what year a pic was taken…I’m sure I guessed some of the years wrong, but no baby pics in the teen years LOL...it was 'close enough'. - Set a group of about half the photos into a new folder after they were done, went back to the slideshow and the photos were now just big red “X’s”. After much hysterics…well…it took some undoing. - After importing about 200 photos the slideshow program decided to slow down and continued to do so as I went…by number 500 there was a 30 second delay between each click on my mouse and when finalizing the transitions it would freeze the computer every 15 min. or so…VERY slow going. Yes, I was ready to lose my mind, but I was determined to win the battle and finally, last weekend I finished…it was beautiful…13 pieces of music…500 pics…cool transitions…even a title and ending! Now, all that was left was to burn the DVD’s! Murphy’s Law again… - I read the notes from the training with Sis, and realized I now needed to import the whole thing into yet another program…problem was, I didn’t have the program. DH and I spent last Saturday downloading other programs online and trying to burn the DVD with them to no avail. - I finally admitted defeat and called Sis. Three hours later and many attempts later we figured out my older version could burn straight from there, but my problem was I didn’t have enough RAM to do this with such a big slideshow. - I’ll wrap this up by telling you that I had to save all the photos and copy them onto DS1’s new college computer we bought him for graduation (after many promises that I wouldn’t blow anything up). Then…yes…I had to REDO the whole slideshow program again from music to photo transitions. I’ll just say that I had Sis in hysterics laughing at all the things that had gone wrong…the only thing that hadn’t happened was the computer completely crashing. The only thing that saved me from chucking the whole thing was the fact that DS1’s computer is lightning fast and had the newer version of the program on it…well, that and the fact that I had a slideshow for DD’s graduation (one where all I did was scan the pics and paid to have the rest done…money WELL spent folks) so of course DS1, and everyone else was expecting one. On to the next fun part of my last week. My second big job for the party was the quilt…you know the one where I’ve been saving all my kids T-shirts from every sport/activity they’ve been in since they were a tot and made them into a quilt…I put bands of white canvas between the T-shirt squares and at the party everyone takes a sharpie and writes messages/signs the quilt there. Well, after the DVD’s were finally burned last Monday morning I got back to working on this…thought I’d have weeks to do the quilt as the DVD was only going to take a few days after the scanning part…HA HA. I had most of the shirts cut and started piecing in the canvas. I was zipping along happily and was finally thinking that I’d be able to get caught up and finally start working on the food and other parts of the party. Yep, Murphy’s Law again…(or you can skip this part and just know that I’m cursed). - The belt that drives my 53 year old Brother sewing machine broke…well, it didn’t just break…it looked like the rubber had been rotting slowly for years and now it was in pieces. Yes, I screamed...Did you hear me on Tuesday? - Many phone calls later the only tidbit of help I got from any store was a name of a store about an hour away where they might be able to fix it if I brought it in and left it for their repair guy….but that would take at least a week. - More phone calls to every friend and neighbor…do you realize that no one sews anymore? Not a single soul I could find had a portable sewing machine. - I admitted defeat and called Sis again (more sympathetic laughter) and she agrees to pick up Mom’s portable and bring it on Friday when she arrives a day early to help me with the party. On to Part II....

DB- I'm back...thanks for missing me...two new blogs today on my 'comedy of errors' getting ready for the big graduation party...had me in the weeds for a couple of weeks, but everything went great...and more importantly, IT's OVER LOL!!! Lili- Hope that Lisa is back to normal by now, I've been thinking of her often. Is there anyway you can give me the link for the case report you found (I have to go back in for a colonoscopy in 4 years and I know I'll forget this by then if I don't file it with my medical stuff...if I want the doc to give me the antibiotics)? KMCD- Hope your daughter is coping with the loss and I'm sure she's thankful for all the support. Jenfs5- Hope your new fill is doing the trick! kittygirl- So sorry to hear about the infection...from the fill? Wow! I hope the new antibiotics will wipe it out and you're feeling better soon! No fun at all to be feeling weak for all this time! I hope your doc is taking more precautions to make you comfortable with future fills. Hope everyone is doing well and life stops kicking us in the rear...maybe it's to make us appreciate the good things even more. Love to all -BG

201 today...up 1/2 pound I think....third fill next week YAY!

I've been super busy; I’m tired and there’s no end in site. I haven't had my shower yet and I need more coffee. I'm getting ready for DS1's huge graduation party a week from Saturday and I'm running behind on things. It's been a super busy summer and I got a late start on things. The house is a wreck (I’ve been in the basement, so a tornado must have come through here…no other explanation) and I haven’t started buying the food and supplies yet. After finding out my DVD-slideshow lady is no longer in business I decided to tackle the project myself (with some tutoring from middle sister). The slideshow set to music runs in a loop in the garage where the buffet will be set up so people can view it for a short time or as long as they want while they’re getting their food (It’s almost ½ hour long…almost 500 pics). Yesterday I went downstairs right after breakfast to finish scanning pics and didn’t come up until dinnertime (never could have skipped lunch before the band!). I even forgot to drink any water until the evening…I was ‘in the zone’…gulped down three big glasses after dinner…yeah, I was up three times in the night. I do have the music all loaded, clipped and transitioned. Can’t believe I still have some pics left to scan today. It would have helped if all the photos were organized and in albums, but only about ½ are…we still have some that are just on CD’s and some that are sitting on our 5 scan discs…I hate all you scrapbookers that have every event in an album and with cute decorations too. My three sister’s/Mom keep trying to get me sucked in with all their rolling bags filled with cute scrapbook stuff, but I’m avoiding that cult like the plague. I wouldn’t be a good devotee as I can’t even seem to get my pics developed. As my neighbor friends have pointed out, I set the bar too high with DD’s HS Grad Party. Why did I have to do the slideshow in chronological order (real fun when you have pics sitting in boxes unmarked). My sister was smart…pull a pic out and scan it, who cares what order or if you even miss a year? Why did I have to make a giant quilt for friends to writ messages/autograph (I use T-shirts I’ve been saving from each of them from every sport, workplace, event they were in and put white borders around the T-shirt squares for people to write messages…framed in black and quilted). I HAVEN’T EVEN BOUGHT THE FABRIC YET FOR DS1’s!!! Stop snickering!!! I happen to hate sewing…no patience for it. So what am I doing here instead of getting busy on those pics? Well, one word…ONEDERLAND…I’m NOT there! I’ve been up and down the same 3 pounds this week and I’ve been eating like a bird…probably too little, some days maybe too much, but I don’t have time to track things right now. My next fill isn’t for another week and a half so I’m just hanging in there. This morning was the kicker though…200.5…the closest I’ve gotten yet. I was thinking ‘Comon! Give a girl a break, like I don’t have enough stress! Can’t you give a girl one measly pound?!’ I know, it’s been another WhineFest…sorry. Off to finish the DVD….if you don’t see me in a few days send a search party down to the basement computer as I’ve probably shriveled up and keeled over (Just let my friends here know I finally reached Onederland)!

Brave girl! Glad it went so well...well, except the pain. -BG

200.5 this week (Onederland is teasing me). Hang in there lingling and congrats on your weight loss!!!

Lili- SO glad the aspirations went well and it sounds like Lisa might be turning the corner. I hope that she continues to feel better! JT- WOW! I can really tell the difference...you look GREAT!!! Really, it shows in your face; you do look younger...and love those skinny earlobes too!

35 pounds is awesome! Keep up the good work! -BG