singand_dance

Yes Jes, I'll be in town tomorrow! I've got my psych eval with Dr. Schnurr at 11:00. I'd love to walk the bridge with you if that fits in your schedule!

Thanks for the comments. I wish I had a long lunch, we get 30 minutes and its barely enough to eat and get back to my desk!

Good to hear! Lol. I'm picturing Doc Fisher with a space bag and vacuum, except he's straddling the operating table trying to get all that air out.

The 1200 cal diet is hard, but it is a lot of food. I find when I don't stick to the diet, I eat crappy food but not my veggies and things. The first few days were the hardest, I felt like I was starving. That feeling passed. Now, I'm kinda stressing about school and other things and (shocking) I'm eating junk. I even gave serious consideration to buying a bag of M&Ms tonight at school. I even had the money in hand! But I did resist. I do weight my foods (usually). I got my food scale from weight watchers too, it is digital and I leave it right on the counter. I weigh all my proteins and pita chips etc. The veggies are measured by volume, not weight. The 1200 cal really has worked for me, these past 2 weeks or so I just haven't been working for me. I don't know if I'm just unmotivated or if its stress finally getting to me. Whoa, just saw that it's past midnight. Gotta be at work in 7 hours. Later!

I don't think I realized how time consuming all this weight loss stuff is. Maybe I'm trying to do too much, or maybe I'm a wimp. Perhaps both. I work full time and I do enjoy my job. I also go to school 1/2 time, I take classes one night a week for 9 week sessions. We're shopping for a house and hoping to buy soon. All of these things are great, but they're wearing me out. I try to prioritize. Work is always #1, I have to go to work because that's where the money comes from. #2, the house? or school? This is where things get iffy. I have one week left of school and only a few weeks to buy a house before the tax credit disappears. So which is most important? It really should be school since I pay so much for it. So school is #2, house is #3. That means exercise is #4. Somehow I can't justify going to the gym for an hour each night while I have a 10 page paper to write in 1 week. But I can somehow justify wasting time on facebook and lapbandtalk. What is that? I've been debating taking a session off school. The problem is my financial aid, I have to take a certain number of units. I want my degree, I just want to be done with school more. Sometimes I feel like my weight loss efforts need to be my top priority. I feel like this is my last chance to really lose the weight, like, I can get my degree any time but I must give the weight loss a real try. Does that make sense? I'm conflicted, to say the least. I guess I'm overwhelmed and I don't know what to do about it besides continue to stick it out. I'm disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm for school. I already took a few years off and have only just gone back. I've never been a bad student, I've always made good grades by just showing up and taking my tests. Now I have these large papers in every class, they require research (and I put that off way too long) and then I'm stressin like crazy. I wish I could just know what to do. And how to squeeze all those hours in each day. Anyone know how to freeze time?

We'd love to get a dog, but right now we gotta take 1 thing at a time. We just put an offer in on a house today (Yay!) I know they have 14 other offers, but I'm still excited about it! I've totally neglected the diet and school in the past 2 weeks or so since we started looking at houses every night. My goodness, that's a whole other full time job! Now I have to find something to make for dinner without having gone grocery shopping in forever! Then it's homework time, for real. What is with these stupid papers? I have a 10-page paper due every 9 weeks... crazy!

Here's a pic of the brown dress (thanks Candra!) And because there are other people in the pics with the blue dress(thanks Tina), you can check them out on FB.

Yeah, what was with the shushing? That was just silly. We really did miss our Donna (and Tina, Christine, Reggie etc) I bet we wouldn't have been shushed if we had you ladies there! It was great to meet John and Nicole-canolie, and we had our first sleeve post-op! I would agree with Pam, we need a second meeting for sure!

Great pic guys! No, I didn't catch the boquet. Boyfriend caught the garter but he & his friends hot-potato'd it over to someone else (who's getting married in April). We had a lot of fun. There was nothing wrong with the brown dress. Since it was "casual" I didn't wear heels, and I don't have brown flip flops. And with the brown dress I'd have to wear a sweater over it since I don't have a strapless bra, and it was dang hot yesterday! This was the 4th year in a row that we've gone to a wedding in Sept (this exact weekend too) and every time it's hot, and people are surprised its hot. Well, it was hot every year in the past 4 people! Oh well.

Just got home from the wedding. Enough regge music to last a lifetime. But it was still a lot of fun. I'll post pics soon. I wore the blue dress from Tina and white flip flops. We were a little dressier than some, but we looked good. :seeya: Wierd though, there were no slow dances. I have a 'rule' that we have to dance at least once before we can leave a wedding, this one wasn't working with us! Nothing to slow-dance to. Anyway, I still have to do a test for school before the night is done.

Maria- too bad you're CM appt isn't Thursday, we could totally carpool to Richmond. Jes & Candra- Wanna walk the bridge next Thursday with me?! We went looking at houses tonight. It's exciting and frusterating. The house I loved online was a bummer, apparently the seller's agent put a bay area lock box on a sacramento property so our agent's thing didn't work. The worst part was there was another agent showing someone the house when we drove up and she didn't say anything about the box. Then we went to another house, that seemed awesome online. It was boarded up because the field next to it had a fire! So the first 2 houses we couldn't even go inside! This is exhausting, and I'm not going to the gym like I should. Priorities. I feel like we're on a deadline for finding a house (Gotta close escrow before 11/30 to get the 1st time homebuyer tax credit of $8,000). I should probably focus on school a bit too. lol. I think its been too long since we've all done something together. Definately need a 2nd support group.

Good Luck Sharon! Welcome!

Oh Nicole, Crossroads is kinda snobby. I went in once with 2 loads full of clothes (some brand new, tags still on) and they didn't take anything. None. But that means that their stock is really good quality. At least, its supposed to. I hope they buy my dress and coat, they are both super cute and I'm bummed they don't fit anymore. Who knows, maybe I'll find some cute clothes to wear to work. My size 24 pants are getting pretty baggy. I'm going in looking like a total slob. Oh well!

Jeez, I was wearing a 14 when I was 14. I'm still in a 22. Some 20s are fitting. I have pants from last month's swap they're a 20 and I can get them buttoned and zipped, but it pushes everything up and over (severe muffin top going on) and I can't breathe. So they're staying in the closet for a while longer. My scale was mean again. It was being so nice to me this week, then it got moved to another part of the floor. I tried it again and was up 9 lbs! I can't believe the part of the floor makes a 9 lb difference. Ugh. Tamra- my psych appt is a week from tomorrow. It's at 11, so I won't be having lunch before! Maybe some of the locals want to walk a bridge or something? You know, if they're up to it. :thumbdown:

I'll be there Saturday! I'd love to go walking but we'll see. I may be going to a wedding, so I might be dolled up for the meeting. I'm going to Crossroads Trading Co. before the meeting to try & sell my favorite coat and a dress. I paid so much money for them and no one at the meeting is in that size. If they won't buy my dress and coat I'm bringing them to the exchange. I'm a little sad to be parting with my cute clothes. (Nicole knows what I mean!) Tina- Every item of clothing I got from you is super cute. I get compliments on everything! Riley- Can I get one of those cookbooks? Is there a website to order one or can I give you a check?

I finally have my psych eval scheduled! Woohoo! I still can't see the results of Thursday's weight check, but Doc Fisher either could see it or took my word for it and I called Richmond and got my appt for Dr. Schnurr. It was funny, when I called to schedule it she sounded like she was having a hard time finding my info. She was asking how long it had been since I was there last. I told her I had orientation in May and my initial consult in June and I've been working to get to my first goal since then. She was asking if I was at goal and when I told her I was at my first goal she sound super confused. So apparently Doc is handling me different than everyone else? Just kinda strange, no biggie. Pam, I totally feel your son's pain. Math would frusterate me to tears. I hope statistics next semester will be nicer to me than algebra was!

Pat- The average weight loss pre-op is 10%. I was tasked with losing over 80 lbs pre-op. Something about me being young and probably because I'm an apple and not a pear. Of course, that means I'll be losing about half my excess weight pre-op. But I'm fine with that! I'm still losing so it doesn't matter how, as long as it's healthy and steady! Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend! I miss you ladies!

That's what I was thinking (hoping) Jes! It has been so long since I've had lasagna and I just wanted to make a nice dinner for the boyfriend. My meal was much more modest than it would have been 6 months ago.

I'm totally off-diet today. I made waffles for breakfast, and now lasagna for dinner. I did get a small loaf of french bread though. The grocery store has these new tiny loaves for 2-3 people. Much better than a huge loaf. I've got a bit of diet fatigue right now. I'm so tired of everything I'm eating. At orientation they said the diet isn't meant for long term, I think that's because you can only eat certain things for so long! Anyway, I'm not overdoing it just having a nice little tryst with carbs...

Donna, I just signed up for the walk!

Awww you guys! You're the inspiring ones! I know the protein makes a huge difference with the nails. When I was 14 and stopped eating meat my nails were so gross, they split and peeled. I think the hair can be caused by the lack of protein but also by the rapid weight loss. (60 lbs in 4 months... holy cow!) I just emailed our realtor with 4 houses I found that we like. He said all 4 have already accepted offers. Ugh. This house finding stuff is tough! Our friends just bought a place and it has this great garden on the side. They're tearing out the garden! It's got a raised planter and its fenced in. Why would someone tear out a garden? Anyway. I'm just hanging out at home, looking online for a house and facebooking. lol.

I just got home from my hair appointment. I love having cute hair! Now I've got to clean like a madwoman, do a little reading for class, begin research for my new 10 page paper (what is it with these people and their 10 pages?!) and then probably go visit with my parents or something. Welcome Canolie Nicole! Kaiser keeps switchin up the process with us. I went to orientation in May, and was given my surgeon appt right away, he have me a goal weight and once I reach the first goal I do a weight check at my local kaiser, then I'll schedule the psych eval. Once I'm at my surgery goal I'll do another weight check and then get the case manager appt then a surgery date. I didn't have the info class ahead of time, but I know Tamra did. How fast you go, depends on you for a lot of it. My surgeon gave me a huge amount of weight to lose, so I'm plugging away at it. Candra and I have the same surgeon and the same orientation (if I remember correctly, our surgeon appts were 1 day apart too) but Candra was banded on Monday. I'll probably be Dec or Jan. I don't mind it though, I did in the beginning. I'm losing weight so I guess it doesn't matter that I don't have my shiny new band yet. I think the only time I really want one is when I'm sick of all the foods on my 1200 cal diet. I think its much harder to do the 1200 for such a long time. Luckily there are quite a few options, but I'm so sick of eggs for breakfast that I moved on to cheese and apple. Now I'm kinda sick of that. I had protein drinks this week. Sorry Robin! I just don't know what else to do some mornings, I don't have time and I can't eat anymore eggs. It's either the protein drink (the ones Reggie & Candra recomended) or I stop and get a scone or something else very bad!

We did that! But we called it a Pity party.

Super quick post since I have to be at work soon. I'm starting to lose a lot of hair! I know its normal but still annoying. It's not like you can see it, it just seems like there's twice as much in the shower. Ugh. Have a great day everyone!