kcweir

I couldn’t believe my scale this morning, 192.4! I’ve lost a total of 49 pounds so far, only one pound from half way there. My last fill really did the trick for me, I’m comfortable most of the time and even though I still can’t eat a whole cup of food at one sitting, I’m held over after eating for at least four hours. This must be the sweet spot everyone talks about.

I had a fabulous vacation with DH earlier this month to celebrate my 40th birthday. We flew to Cancun and stayed at a gorgeous hotel on the Rivera Maya called The Valentin Imperial Maya. I highly recommend it. I discovered a new favorite dish that is terrible for me but was so wonderful tasting called Lobster Thermidor. I’d never heard of it before but DH had. It was decadent and saucy and perfect. I ate it twice while we were on vacation. Even with that and the daily doses of yummy alcoholic beverages, I came home three pounds lighter. DH gained 8 pounds, but has already managed to take it back off in less than two weeks. Men!

I was able to do the physical excursion that I was so excited about on my birthday. I would not have even attempted this when I weighed 240 pounds. We hiked through the jungle, rode a zip line over a lagoon, hiked some more, repelled in to an underground cave filled with crystal clear water called a cenote to swim, hiked some more, climbed to the top of a Mayan Pyramid, hiked some more, and collapsed. Such a fun day! It was definitely the highlight of our trip. I didn’t like looking at the pictures they took of us during the excursion though. I was still by far the biggest woman on the trip, and my fat legs oozing out through the repelling harness was not a pretty sight. I’m not going to let that bother me because I did something so remarkable and I know that with the help of my band I will never be this weight again. It’s only going to get better from here!

Kimberly

I spent the day Saturday with my sister, attending a baby shower and having dinner at my house. The conversation was almost exclusively about weight. I still haven't told a soul about the LAP-BAND®® except my husband, and I almost cracked under the guilt pressure I was feeling that day. I can say that I haven't lied at all about how I'm losing weight, but I am not telling about this one amazing tool that I had installed. I did tell my sister how much my weight had gotten up to (241) and she was amazed that I'd ever been that heavy. I have always heard that I carry my weight well, and I suppose that's true. I actually thought that my sister looked pretty heavy this weekend and she told me that she weighed 173 and had just lost 5 pounds on Medifast. I thought that at this point I look thinner than her but she's only a few inches shorter than me so this may be that my own perception of how I look at this point is not realistic. I never seem to think that I look as bad as I do until I'm confronted with a picture of myself.

Anyway, we talked about what my goal weight was going to be and she told me she thought I was quite thin on my wedding day 13 years ago. I remember that I had starved myself down to 145 for that day and I agree, I was very comfortable with how I looked that day. Of course I came back from the honeymoon at 153 and never looked back! Anyway, I think that the 140s is a more realistic and reasonable goal than my original 130, so I am changing it to 141.4 to make it an even 100 pounds that I want to lose. I love even numbers, I'm an accountant and something about them makes me happy.

When I told her that I wanted to lose that much weight in 2 years time, she said that was great, especially since I hadn't had gastric bypass or anything like that! Yikes. No reply from me, I just moved on to something else.

I feel so guilty for being less than honest, but I don't think that my sister would even qualify for the surgery if she wanted it at less than 180 pounds, so I don't think it would be a help to her even if she knew. Maybe that's just my selfish justification for keeping my secret. What does everyone else think?

199.2 this morning! Yay me! I really didn't think that I would ever get there. I chose the band partly because I didn't want the weight loss to be too fast, or obvious, to other people. I guess I got what I wanted. Love my band!

I made it to a 40 pound loss finally. SOOOO close to onederland! I had my best fill ever on Tuesday and I hope this restrictions lasts for a while. I have 8.3ccs in my 10cc band now.

I've planned a vacation with my husband for my 40th birthday in April. My goal was to be under 190 when we leave, but I don't expect that to happen. If I can make it solidly in the 190s I'll be happy. Part of the trip is going to be climbing a Mayan pyramid and doing a zip line through the jungle! I need to hit that treadmill hard for the next three weeks so I'm up to the task.

If I tell my sister I'm telling the world. I don't want to do that yet. I'll reconsider as time goes by. I know that once I tell I can't untell, so I'm going to make sure that I really want to do that before I let the cat out of the bag.

I had a great weekend in Las Vegas with my mother, sister, and all four of our kids. The first happy thing happened when Mom walked in to my hotel room and said, “You’ve lost a lot of weight!” Funny thing is, she saw me last week but she said that I was wearing more fitted clothes and now she could really tell. My Lap-Band®® is a secret, so I said I was eating more protein, less carbs, and walking on the treadmill. Not a lie, but I still feel guilt about it, especially when talking to my sister who shares my weight problems.

The next day I put on my new size 14 jeans and we headed out to the Hoover Dam to take a tour. I was on the escalader in front of Mom and Sister, and they commented that my butt was so much smaller! This is the best I’ve felt about my body in a very long time.

We met up with some old friends for dinner, and I wasn’t embarrassed to see them. Usually I would dread seeing old friends because I just knew they were thinking, “Wow, she got so fat!” They didn’t notice the weight loss because they hadn’t seen me at my highest; they had only seen our yearly Christmas photos which are strategically cropped every year.

After our dinner, Mom watched the kids while my sister and I went downstairs to the casino for drinks and gambling. I won about $250 and we headed home the next day. Truly the highlight of the trip was hearing the compliments after so long.

Yesterday I had the day off from work but braved a bad rainstorm to go to my 4 month post op appointment. Dr. Oliak charted my progress on a graph and it made me feel so much better about how I was struggling for the first three months. I’ve lost a total of 33 pounds now, and most people I read about of LBT have done much better than that. I was below the average curve for the first three months, but my last fill made the weight loss jump way over that line. We decided against another fill right now, and I’m going to go back to see him at my six month post op in March.

Next goal, get to Onederland!

You're not alone, I had surgery in Sept and have only lost 30 pounds. I spent the first three months being hungry and miserable, but I think my fill three weeks ago may have finally put me in a good spot. It is frustrating to come here and see that pretty much everybody has lost more weight than me. Congratulations on your success, two years from now we’ll both look back on this time and forget that we were even frustrated at all.

I occassionally have beer, but it makes me feel very full. I don't think I could have more than one if I wanted to.

My weight is very slowly falling, I’m down to 215 now from my highest of 241. Not too shabby, but I think I expected to be below the 200 line by now so I can’t help but be a little disappointed. I definitely have restriction and still accidently don’t chew enough so I’ve had a few sliming and pbing incidents since my last fill two weeks ago. The problem is that I don’t stay full for 4-5 hours after eating one cup of food. I’d say I’m still at about 3-3.5 hours before I’m hungry and by 4.5-5 hours I’m STARVING. Next fill appt is December 15th, hopefully that will do the trick.

On the exercise front, I completed my first 5k this weekend. It was so fun, and really great to have DH and the kids cheering me on at the finish line. My goal was to complete it in under 50 minutes, and I was shocked to see that I got it done in 42:52. Woo hoo! Next race is January 23rd and I’m working on getting that one done in under 40 minutes. Wish me luck!

I have to say, I feel like I’ve come a long way since deciding to have surgery, so it was shocking for me to see the pictures my husband took of me during the race. I can’t believe how fat I am! I long for the day when I see a picture of myself and I feel like I look good. I don’t know if that’s ever happened for me, except maybe my wedding pictures. I starved my way down to 145 pounds for that day, and was 153 when I got back from our honeymoon, and I guess I never looked back.

Kimberly

Surgery Date 9/23/09

Okay, now I'm too embarassed to show pics of my house! Beautiful job, I'm sure your family appreciates it.

Update: Just got back from the doctor, they put in .7cc for a total of 7.2cc in my 10cc band. She didn't seem to be too worried about my PB incident, just told me to be more careful from now on.

Great gingerbread house! I remember my sister and I trying to make one when we were in college, it ended up being held together with some decidedly inedible rubber cement. Clearly your children have more talent than we did.

One side of my family has a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner every year the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I was really looking forward to it because I was able to fit comfortably in my second shelf pants (size 16) and was thinking I would get a little attention for it. Nobody noticed. Although I’m disappointed, I’m also a bit happy because maybe nobody noticed when I was barely squeezing in to my 18Ws. I think I became expert at hiding fat, this just shows me how good I was at it.

Another disturbing thing happened this weekend. I had my first PB. Mind you, this is the first time I’ve vomited since my honeymoon in 1997. Through two pregnancies, one prolonged labor, two c-sections, a couple of surgeries, and one very bad bought of stomach flu, I have kept it all down. 12 ½ years, not too shabby.

Here’s what happened: I was out shopping with my daughter when it got to be time for lunch. She asked for Bakers. If you don’t live in Southern California you don’t know the bliss that is Bakers. Fries better than McDonalds, with fabulous hamburgers or any delicious Mexican food, like tacos and burritos. We decide to eat inside and I ordered our meal while DD got us a booth. I ordered one taco, knowing that would be enough for me. DD got a burrito and fries. Apparently I completely forgot that I had the band. When I was getting DD’s food ready for her, I grabbed a few fried and popped them in my mouth. Next came the bite of taco, that’s when I knew I was in trouble. The pain was breathtaking. I’ve felt that pain before and it has always just gone away after a minute or so. This was not going away, and to make things worse my mouth was filling with horrible thick mucus. Obviously I couldn’t spit it out, so I just sat there trying to swallow it on top of my food. Desperate for relief, I grabbed DD’s Sprite and took a sip. Worst thing I could have done. A wave of nausea came over me and I fled to the bathroom. Lucky for me nobody was in there. Everything came up but the pain and mucus stayed for quite some time. I found myself spitting in the parking lot, in a very unladylike manner.

Dinner last night was pretty uncomfortable so I only had a few bites and gave up. Today I have a fill appt at 1:00, I’m not sure if I need one/should have one given the circumstances. Before my PB episode, I was really looking forward to the fill because I didn’t stay satisfied for more than 3 hours after a meal.

Good for you! I agree, exercise is a necessary evil. BTW, I have that Poor Man's Plastic Surgery magnet on my refrigerator. Love it!

Don't forget, you have the option of drinking gallons of water and wearing ankle weights when you weigh in. I was a little shy of the 40bmi, since I had no comorbidities, my doctor's office let me weigh while I had my purse on my shoulder. I carry a big purse.

My relationship with my band has gotten much better since the second fill. It’s amazing how much less hungry I feel during the day. I struggle to get enough protein in, so I’ve been drinking an Isopure zero carb every morning before breakfast to give me a head start.

A few of the most recent developments for me:

I noticed yesterday that I can pull my jeans up and down without using the button or zipper. I have several pairs of size 16 jeans on my skinnier shelf in the closet, but they are all still too tight. Maybe in a week or two I’ll be able to wear them again.

I had some goal pants from that same second shelf that I wanted to wear next weekend to a family gathering. They look brand new, I’m not even sure when I bought them. They are Dockers size 16 and I’ve been in 16W and 18s for a long time. Well, today I’m wearing them to work!

I signed up for a 5k on December 6th. I’ve been walking on the treadmill but not with enough regularity, so I thought this would motivate me to get on and walk/run every day. Less than three weeks to go! I told DS about it and he said that was the craziest thing I’ve ever done. DD said she wanted me to win, I assured her there was no chance of that happening, so she was very disappointed in me. I told the kids that my goal was to not come in last and they need to cheer me on at the finish line. They seem pretty excited about it now.

I’m down to 217.8 today, solidly 5 pounds lighter than DH.

Kimberly

Surgery Date 9/23/09

Mine says liquids the rest of the day and ease in to food the next day. After my first fill I didn't feel any difference at all. Just chew very well and be careful.

Fill number two was yesterday. I got to see the surgeon instead of the PA this time. I just love my doctor! He spent a good amount of time with me listening to how disappointed I've been, and that I can hardly tell I have the band at all. He said that I didn't have a lot of abdominal fat (I've got it other places!) and that the band was loose on my stomach when he put it on, that's why there were 4ccs in the band on the day of surgery. He put in another 1.5ccs for a total of 6.5. Holy Moly, I can feel it now. I have hope again that this is really going to work for me.

We also talked about carbonation for a bit. I confessed to drinking two beers over the weekend on my trip to Santa Barbara. I see conflicting reports on carbonation ranging from being something that will stretch your pouch or cause the band to slip to being completely innocuous. Dr. Oliak said that the idea that it could stretch the pouch was "ridiculous" but that he's heard that many times before. He said most people don't like it because we can't burp normally with our bands and that means there is extra gas trapped in the body. Moderation is the key.

I'm right there with you. I haven't lost any weight since my first week of liquids. No weight loss on second liquid week, and I was getting ready to chew my own arm off. After that, I spent two weeks "transitioning" to solid food but the truth is I didn't have to transition at all. I could eat absolutely anything, chug water, take pills, not chew enough, eat fast and eat lots it I wanted. The one good thing has been that the band does make me feel full faster and keeps my hunger away for longer than normal.

I also had my first fill on Friday. I was shocked when they pulled out 4ccs from my 10cc band. She put in 5cc total and I went home. I was warned that things would be very different now, but that hasn't been true. I don't know what restriction is supposed to feel like, but I can't have it if I can eat everything and as fast as I can. I'm trying hard to work with my will power and hopefully the next fill in two weeks will do the trick.

Good luck to you, you are not alone. I'm guessing we'll both look back at this time six months from now and we will have forgotten how frustrating this was at the beginning.

I'm so inspired by the posts I see on this site. I especially love reading about people who are six, nine, or 12 months post-op. They give me reason to hope. I know I shouldn't weigh myself every day but I'm compelled to do so. It makes me so frustrated sometimes, and makes my day other times. I'm only 2 weeks 2 days post op but I haven't seen that scale move in the right direction in a week now. Yesterday, I ate a total of 750 calories, 60 grams of protein, and walked off 300 of those calories on the treadmill. What's my reward? I gained a half a pound. How is that physically possible?

I know that I just need to stay the course and the weight will come off, I just want to fast forward to a year from now to see if that is actually true. Sometimes it feels like I'm destined to be fat and there's nothing I can do to change it.

Kimberly

Welcome back, I missed your blog while you were gone. Congratulations on actually losing weight on vacation, that's quite a feat!

You really should see your GP. I had the same problem almost immediately after surgery, I also have asthma and get bronchitis at the drop of a hat. My GP said it was important for me not to be coughing right now, so I don't hurt the new hardware. You probably need antibiotics and cough medicine.

Monday I went to my “transition” class at the surgeon’s office to learn how to move from the liquid diet to mushy foods and beyond. There were only four other patients there with me, we were all banded on the same day. I was so excited to get away from drinking those shakes finally!

The PA went over what our typical meal should look like and had lots of great suggestions about how to prepare it or order it. She had fake rubber food in the right portion sizes so we had a good idea what a portion actually looked like. I expected the portions to look tiny, but they were actually not too bad.

She went over nutrition information on packaged foods and made some suggestions for healthy choices. She told us the most important thing to remember is getting the required amount of protein in every day, 60-80 grams. We were told that these next two weeks were not so much for losing weight but for getting back to eating real foods. After two weeks is over, we should be able to eat anything we want and then it will be time for our first fill. The hardest part of the class was when she passed out menus from various restaurants and we had to order something that was healthy from them. I got the Jonny Rocket’s Restaurant, which is a hamburger joint. I ordered a Chicken Caesar Salad with the dressing substituted with vinaigrette, on the side. A for me!

When I got home I tried several things for dinner. My husband had ordered pizza to eat while watching Monday Night Football and I was able to eat a sliver sized slice of it. IT WAS SO GOOD! I find that the band does not restrict my eating at all so far, but it does curb my appetite and definitely makes me satisfied earlier. Yesterday for lunch I had a Starkist Tuna Lunch to Go and wasn’t hungry for the next five hours.

My problem has always been snacking during the day while I’m at work. I am committed to not snack anymore and I know I can do it with the help of my band. I need to work on getting that protein in, so I’m going to go to GNC on my break today and get some protein water to try it out. If it tastes good and isn’t too expensive, I think that would be a great thing to incorporate in my new daily diet plan.

Kimberly

Okay. Go to www.tickerfactory.com and set up your ticker first. Once you finished and it tells you your ticker is done, there are two boxes below the ticker with code for your to copy and paste in to your messages and signature box on this site. I had to try twice but I figured out that you need to copy and paste the code that is in the first (top) box. I was putting mine in each post then I figured out to put it in the signature space instead. For some reason, that only worked a couple of times and now when I post I don't see my signature. Not sure what's up with that.

Give it a try over at tickerfactory and let me know if you have any hangups.

Kimberly

Okay, I'll help you though it...and I won't treat you like a third grader. I saw on your previous post that you had a ticker already set up. You were able to cut and paste that code (bunches of characters that make no sense) in to a post already, right? That's the code you need to paste over to the signature area. Let me know if you have the code first, and we'll go from there.