sandradee0124

How eloquently written! I'm repeating to myself "a small blip on the radar of your life". Truer words never "spoken".

Sorry to hear about your star employee. I hope all goes well with the replacement search. Try fiber gummies (at target). They have helped immensely. The recommended dose is 2x a day; I take 2 in the morning and 1 at night. Have a good Tuesday :-)

Sitting here reading all this with tears in my eyes. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support. I think I'm so anal, so organized, so "set in my ways" that it is very hard sometimes to see a step ahead. God bless all of you; all of us!

You have done fantastically well. Imagine four months ago thinking your lunch today was a lot of food? I think that is one of the biggest differences. You are always responsive and supportive. I agree, this site has been extremely supportive and fellow bloggers "priceless". Hope your night was relaxing.

Good luck! As you said, you have the co-morbidity covered. Every insurance company is still so different on coverage..........

Fantastic, congratulations. You will do fine with pain and eating. Yes there are new ways to eat and work out, but there is a lot of support, both at your surgeon's facility and here on the website as well as other sites. You'll get lots of information!

I spend time at work blogging and responding to blogs. I spend a lot of my own time at work (I get there early and leave late) so I've justified it for now. I commend you for your decision. I hope your arm feels better! Is the site hard? You might have gotten a difficult injection -- if its sore tomorrow try hot or cold (depending on which works better for you). Take care!

Nice job! My mouth was watering too as you described the biscuits and even the steak. It is hard being away from home and what we consider our comfort zone of foods and exercise. You did so well! I'm glad you had a good visit with your friends.

Oh can I relate to this! The other day I had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. I had to go to the bathroom twice and still took an hour! She was done and ready to leave before I finished 3 oz of protein lol. :-).

But its vacation and you did great! I hope you had a good time! Welcome back........

Observations with a smile........ - a regular towel wraps around me without a major gap! - my friend gave me two pairs of pants with tags that were too big for her and they fit! I have clothes to wear!! - I did 1000 situps on the ball (over a 90 minute period). Might not be able to move tomorrow, but got them done - Someone at the gym said I looked "smaller". LOL - I found a pair of cute capris in the back of the closet (pays to clear it out lol) that I probably wore 5 years ago. I have them on today!! This is the last time they will work. I guess I must have been about 240 then? I'm about 230 now so that's reasonable. My bottom half is shrinking much faster than the top half (arms mostly) with the exception of..... Bad thing (but oh so typical!). My bras are huge! My poor boobies are already non-existent. That is just not right! LOL. Have a great day everybody

Thank you all for the encouragement and sympathy on the demise of the "girls".

Yes, lactose intolerance was a big deal with me as well post op. Gas X helped, but when I went to mushies the issues went away. You are doing so well! Congrats on your success and good luck this year in school :-)

Great way to think about the weight loss, and congratulations on your success. You are doing fantastic.

Congratulations, wtg! How fantastic to have the surgery between Christmas and New Years, and share your new lifestyle with your family as well. Best wishes for the future!

Yeah!!! I hope you had fun today, you totally deserve it. You are doing absolutely fantastic. I don't blame you for packing up stuff. I was looking at my closet today and thinking "what have I done? what will happen if it all comes back?" We are gonna make sure that doesn't happen, right?

Have I said I love my surgeon's office? The PA is WONDERFUL. My appointment was this afternoon for fill #3. Wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, so I kept the appointment and had about 30 minutes of conversation and training. Yep, training. My weight loss is good. Blood pressure was ok, not great. What we do every time is fill out a questionnaire -- what we are eating, how often, how we feel, issues etc. Then the PA comes in. She started asking me questions about how many times I've thrown up since the last fill, how often I get stuck, motivation levels, hunger..... After about 10 minutes she says I'm not going to fill you today -- you need to do the following: 1. First two bites of every meal should be soft -- applesauce, tea, liquid. This will "wake up" the pouch. I was eating the first couple bites of solids fast (starving) and the pouch rebelled. Throwing those bites up would move me back to starvation, and I wasn't getting a "full signal" after that. (I didn't do this EVERY time I ate, but probably once a day). 2. Then eat the 1c of food within 20 minutes, careful to chew and wait, but within 20 minutes. If I'm not done don't eat the rest. 3. Don't eat anything within 3 hours after the last meal. Water, tea, juice, popsicle. Nothing else. So I'm going to work on this. I was following what I've been told, but I can follow this and I'm excited about it. Thank you to everyone for your support and advice! Happy Weekend!!!

I record my weight on Saturdays too. I'm plugging along although I feel a little behind. Updating my ticker today; I am a little. Gonna try to kick up the exercise a little next week and see what happens.

Wonderful attitude and post, Tina! I agree -- "there is spring to my step". I just feel better about myself, even if the scale doesn't move or something else goes down. At the end of the day I can always be thankful for all that has transpired. We are seriously so lucky :-).

How was the tea party? Hey, I'd love a 12! This girl (LOL) lived in 24s for 2-3 years. A 12 would be a long term goal for me. Keep it up; have a blessed day :-)

Absolutely correct. And you still need to live your life. They just want you to be really careful so soon after surgery. Sounds like you were. Congrats on getting menu choices before you went and the choices you made. Actually sounds nummy!

You are doing fantastic! Most days (most minutes) I have to keep trying to be patient. Its really hard but a good part of this process. Keep it up, you are doing great!

Drinking water or vitamin water helped. I remember it was very loud and people in meetings heard it. I liked really really cold (slushy) frozen vitamin water -- seemed to make the noise lessen at least. Every week that went by that happened less. It was almost as if I was training my tummy not to be so hungry. It works!

Walk often. Helps with the gas as well as prevents blood clot issues post surgery. Hot pads. Liquids. Rest. And yeah!!! You did it! Celebrate the success :-)

Great self-awareness and heartwarming post. Every day I pray for my fellow bandsters. We are all, in our own way, going through something. Many of us find our way through the issues. I pray you do as well.