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I'm totally with Stevee on the no drinking thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love alcohol and I still have one or 2 glasses of wine a week, but I don't down 5 margaritas at the bar anymore. And I actually feel SO much better the next day. I've been having a hard time losing since my last fill, but I have another fill in about a week or so. In the meantime, I've been working out hardcore -- lifting weights 3x a week and 30-45 minutes of cardio at least 5x a week. I've also cut out sugar and most carbs. I started this 4 weeks ago and the scale has only moved 3lbs, but I think I can see some changes and I feel better, so I'm sticking with it! Anyway, hope all of you are well. Welcome to the newbies and congrats, Pamela, on your new oil change. I mean, car. xoxo

Hey guys, just want to stop by and give you guys an update, and boy oh boy was I tempted to just let this one go by. Well as you all know I had revision surgery September 30 and was unfilled down to 3cc's at surgery. Now to me 3cc's might as well have been a complete unfill. So here I am 6 weeks later and UP 6 POUNDS!!!!!! Yes, you heard me right and I didnt studder, 6 fricken pounds. Am I surprised? Not really. I'll admit that I got LAZY I enjoyed sleeping in until 6am instead of getting up at 4:30am to go to the gym. My eating post op was going pretty good until my husband (how dare he) took me on an all inclusive 7 day trip to Cabo for my 40th birthday and I Lost my fricken mind. I swear when I got on the plane the scale said 185 (and I know it did because I weighed myself on the scale at the airport where you weigh your luggage). And at the airport on the way home it said 197...I PROMISS IT DID. There was alot of drinking and late night eating on that trip. And honestly I know I didnt gain 12 pounds in 7 days but I knew that I hadnt been eating right and drinking alot of alcohol plus not getting in my water (unless you take in water by sitting in the pool swim up bar?) So 5 days home and the scals was down to 190, 10 days home and there it remained 190 sometimes 191. THANK GOODNESS today was my follow up from surgery appointment where she gave me a fill and I was never so happy in all my life. Theses last 6 weeks have really reafirmed my decision to get the band. with out it I truely have very little will and I really need the restriction that it gives me. I still am a fat girl at heart and in my mind. I still have work to do. C25K here I come and 180 by Christmas!!!!

Olay so..... Most docs, NOT all docs. This is something that I spoke with MY doctor about before I started. I got the okay. Maybe I should elaborate more. I make a mixed drink with less than a single shot and have yet to finish one. I have not ever gotten drunk since surgery, barely even a light buzz. Because I listen to my body. I don't consume more than 800 calories a day, including the alcoholic drink. I have lost 31 pounds and hit onderland. I have averaged over 4 lbs of weight loss a week. Please don't criticize me and my Journey. You're not me. I'm not fooling myself. I'm not dependent. I don't get drunk. And I'm still losing weight. We are here to support each other. You may not like that I drink, but you have no right to judge or criticize. Sent from my SM-N950U using BariatricPal mobile app

Did a little over 200 miles today I think. Stopped before 2 pm a little west of Phoenix in a town called Buckeye. Janet... I think you were off by about 100 miles yesterday because we still have a little over 200 to go. May or may not come in tomorrow. I have an optional stop planned for Quartzsite, but depends on whether or not we feel like stopping there or going on. I'll tell you what... it's HOT and Earl is complaining a LOT! He's not going to like being in DHS a few weeks early! Stopped for coffee and short visit w/Eva... other thread... this morning. There is a STARBUCKS right next to the parking lot of the building she works in. So that's where we went. Hip hurting a little again today, but walking just fine. Kind of funny... as we walked up to the SBX, part of the sidewalk was all blocked off with yellow "crime scene" type ribbon. It appears that someone tried to create a "drive through" window!! Windows broken out and all boarded up and frames pushed in. Someone was a little too anxious for their coffee!! LOL! Another funny story... I bought so much wine in Buffalo...7 bottles on our wine tour, and a case of the homemade stuff from the guy my nieces know. So Earl had the case stored on the floor next to his chair. This morning he decided that since there were just a few bottles left he'd get rid of the box. So he took the remaining bottles out of the box and laid them on their side one by one. He quickly found out that the cork had popped on one of them when we went over the mountains yesterday! Several of us bought 1 or more bottles of something called "Walleye Wobbler" at the very last winery we stopped at. By that time... 5th winery, we were "happy" and this gal at that winery was a kick... said she doesn't drink but uses all the wines her boss sells in recipes. So she was rattling off all these recipes she'd made up with all these different wines while giving us generous "samples" to try. So we were all quite taken with the WW and with the recipes she said she used it for... sauteing mushrooms, scallops, etc. So... she sold a lot of bottles of it. So a couple of days ago I get a text message from my sister, Barb asking if the WW is supposed to be "bubbly" like champagne!! I told her I didn't remember it being bubbly. So I emailed the other gals and asked them... they didn't respond. But.. that is the bottle that popped it's cork! I'm having a glass now and it's definitely not quite right. I called and talked to the gal at the winery today and told her what happened and she said the calibration was off on a couple of their scales resulting in this problem with the WW. She said it was perfectly safe to drink, just might have a little more alcohol content. But it's definitely not as tasty as what we sampled. But she's shipping me another bottle.

Candice, you and me both, I haven't even had time to finish reading Beck. Actually, I'm not even sure which box it is in...sad but true. My realtor is stopping by for one of my lattes. It will be nice to see him. He is a real inspiration, 12 years ago his family had an intervention for his drinking. The family was told that if he didn't agree to go into rehab within the first hour that it would be unlikely that he would. Two hours later, he still hadn't agreed, but before the night was over, he did go into rehab and hasn't drank since. He is active in AA and frequently gives talks about his addiction. His family never gave up on him. So...if he has controled his alcohol addiction, we can control our food addiction. Granted food is more difficult because you must eat to survive, but we don't have to eat sugar. We all need to remember that we can 'beat' our addiction

Beer. I don't miss it yet, but I am in mourning for it already. :grouphug: I love beer like a wine afficionado loves wine. I'm a stout/red/amber/black/micro-brew fan, but there's nothing like an ice cold domestic light brew on a hot day at the river... And since it has carbonation, it's on the band no-no list. :puke: My surgeon recommends no alcohol for a year, mostly due to the calories and the potential for addiction transferance. Once I do drink again, it's dirty martinis for me. Good thing I love good vodka too! :hurray:

check out my new update everyone! Okay, so this is an update on me in a nutshell… I had taken a short break from college, but now I am going back. I had moved back to Corpus for about 3 months with a sorority sister, but she ended up being a, well, a bitch and because my name wasn’t on the lease, and I stuck to my responsibilities instead of partying all the time, she kicked me out the day after I paid rent on grounds that were completely false, however I don’t have a leg to stand on in them. I have a boyfriend that Ive been dating for about 2 months that I have had hell with, however he and I are both working on our lives right now. I am back in my hometown trying to get a full-time job and goto school as well as get back in the Theatre. He is in rehab for alcoholism. I asked him to go. He is a great guy, but I cant be with someone that I cant trust with money. Atleast if he bought crap we would have something to show for it. I love him so much, and he is freakishly in love with me, but unless he straightens up his act, I can not be with him. Im diagnosed as pre-bipolar or bipolarish and Im taking trazadone and abilify to help manage that. Im not happy about being home, but its better than being homeless in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Corpus Christi</st1:place></st1:City>. I actually have a positive outlook right now, which is rare as many of you may know. Im in debt up to my ears, but with the right job I can fix that in a few months. I need a new car and new cellphone, but since I lived a homeless life in Corpus (thanks to my wonderful roomie), and lived very poor because my boyfriend was a bartender/busboy and I was a hostess at a restaurant, we couldn’t afford much after helping our friend that we were staying with out with rent. Ive never lived that way before, it really opened my eyes. Ive almost completely quit drinking myself btw. I finally saw how much money I was wasting just tipping the bartender for free drinks! I still enjoy a couple of drinks every now and then, but as for the every night party I would rather not. As for events coming up……..Im going to school to get my paralegal certificate and Im going to Substitute teach at the schools here until I get a fulltime job. Well that’s my update……….Im open to questions, I know it is kind of brief for my writing lol! I already posted this as a seperate thread but if you are still subscribed to this one, I wanted you to read it

I too bought the glogg. I have been adding a splash to my hot tea in the mornings. I love the fact that one of the ingredients in non-alcoholic wine. WTF??? wouldn't that be rotten juice then? Wine has alcohol....or so I thought. I was also told that the glogg is great added to a pork roast in the crock pot, I don't eat pork so I have no intention of trying it, but the lady at Ikea that was buying 2 cases of it swears by it. ~Mandy

There is an entire history from my hubby's mother/grandmother of the year mom. His parents divorced when he was 13, and his brother was 16. His brother lived with mom and my hubby chose dad. Mom was an alcoholic (brother is too), a chain smoker and very abusive to my hubby but his brother could do no wrong. Now that has transfered to the grandkids. The brothers kids are great, she spends time with them, attends soccer games and school programs. My daughter gets overlooked every year. I prefer it that way, she is not loving and kind like a grandma should be. She is overbearing and short tempered. She threatned to spank Abi a few years ago and I told her if she ever spanked my child I would press charges. We are her parents and should handle the punishments. We don't spank her, she gets her hands slapped or she gets timeout. Spanking simply doesn't work with an ADHD child. She says that is a cop out for us not wanting to be more firm with her. We have the pleasure of seeing her 4 times a year, the 3 kids b-day and the week before Christmas we all get togehter at my house and exchange gifts. I have the holidays in my home, I hated being taken to family's house after opening our gifts as a kid so I don't make Abi do that, we spend days before the holidays with extended family and friends. Then Christmas afternoon is open house around here. I make enough desssert for about 75 people and there is usually one a few small things left over. I tried to make a relationship wih DH's family. (they have never been a close family) and it worked for a while. Then 3 years ago Abi was getting old enough to understand what the gifts were, and what home means. So I put my foot down and said that holidays would be in our home, we could do other days with family. My wonderful DH's grandma tod everyone I was a black sheep and she disowned me and hubby. I was told that unless I planned to spend the entire day at her house I wasn't welcomed there anymore. She actually told me that I could not see my family on Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter. I told her she was being unreasonable and that is when she disowned us. Fastforward about a year, I was working in a very busy tattoo studio that was being put on the market for sale. She and her roommate decided to buy the place and allow me to run it, they were going to be there only to collect money and handle paying the utility bills. I worked for them for 8 months. I was expected to stay at the same salary, and commission rate but now work extra hours, do all the supply shopping, and clean the shop twice a month on my days off. When I asked for a raise or some help with the cleaning and shopping (these were never my job before) I was called moneyhungry and accused of trying to run them into the poor house. I worked 3 nights a week, 5pm to 10pm and sat from noon to midnight. I got $200 a week plus commission. My job was to manage the artist, order all shop supplies, help customers, do light cleaning and work the front counter. I made 50% of my piercings (industry standard is between 35% and 60%). I tried to talk to my MIL and her partner and explain that I was having to drive to my mom's house to care for Abi, and that was also taking serious time, and gas money and the shopping was also costing me gas money and time. I also had to pay for everything and wait for the end of the week to get reimbursed. I was totally stressing out, losing my hair, and my blood pressure was going through the roof. I started hating my job, a job that I had for 10 years and loved every day that I worked. One day my home phone rang and it was the busines partner, screaming about the price of papertowels, saying I was spending too much. I told her the comfort of the customers was very important to me and she said that the money was more important. I told her I quit and have never been back. The relationship with MIL has never been the same. She stood there crying while I packed my things in the shop. The partner called the police to make sure I didn't steal anything from them. It was such an ugly situation, I have never forgiven her for allowing the partner to treat me the way she did. She never defended me and never tried to make the situation better. Things are always tense now, and I suspect they always will be. I love my husband and can't understand how such a cold hearted woman could have raised such a wonderful man. I am gald to have him in my life and my mother loves him like a son. He says that he is the luckiest man in the world. He has a great MIL, and he always says I got the short end of the stick with his mom. Now that you know the story, you can see why her behavior is not surprising at all. It just sucks for Abi has to suffer. I have a girlfriend that is older and she treats Abi like a grandchild, and also a neighbor that loves her too. She is lucky, she has several people in her life that make up for the lack of a real grandparent on that side of the family. Sorry to ramble, but I feel much better now. ~Mandy

I didn't see the Oprah show but i have seen a few research articles about how we are at risk or replacing one addiction with another. For the first year after banding I didn't drink any alcohol because I didn't want to waste calories. Then I went through a few months of bad drinking on my own where I felt very alone. Now I've pulled myself together and am back at goal weight and am verging on anorexia to stay at goal weight. It is one addiction or another

I'm not going to call you a liar. I'm not going to call you stupid. What I am going to say is that you do need to see a therapist. I understand the cost, but perhaps you might try to call your local health department- they have mental health services and they have it on what is called a sliding-scale basis (you pay according to what you earn; which for you is nothing since you aren't earning an income right now). There are crisis lines to call which you do not have to give your name and they will help you. You can find these by looking in the blue pages in your phone book. Are you medicated? Are you taking your medication as prescribed? Does the medication say not to drink alcohol with them? Please know that I am not judging you. You sound as if you are in a lot of pain and need help. Please go get the help you need. What gives me the right to say these things? I AM a therapist. Please take my advice.

Great thread! Thanks to all for your transparency on this topic. I wasn't a great over-eater -- just enough of an over-eater to gradually gain more and more weight. And, believe me, when you move less and less (as you get older) and you keep eating just a little more than you need you can pile on the pounds plenty fast enough. But back to the OP topic .... I travel a lot on business, and my work is very stressful (fun, but stressful). I loved nights alone in hotel rooms -- eating comfort food AND dessert. Burgers AND chocolate cake. Salmon, potatoes AND carrot cake. Steak AND ice cream. There's a real common thread here I recognize about eating alone and unobserved. Breaking rules. Behaving as though there are no consequences. It could have been worse, I suppose. No drugs. No alcohol to excess. No unsafe sex. Just chocolate cake and carrot cake.

I have had alcohol on several occasions since my surgery. The first was at 3 weeks out and I had two glasses of wine over the course of about 5 hours. I made sure to get in all my Protein that day using my shakes and then actually budgeted the calories into my plan for the day. Just be sure to make sure it's not a really bubbly wine. I drank Riesling. The second occasion was about 6 wks out and I drank a margarita on the rocks and a vodka cranberry. (those were not budgeted in but I actually lost weight the morning after.) I will say the only issue I have had was the frozen margarita I tried to drink last weekend. I got down about half of it and was sick to my stomach. I guess it's all the sugar in a frozen drink. Whatever you choose to do is up to you personally! Good luck to you!! Kacy Sent from my iPhone using VST

Well, my "patient advocate" has received my 3 month Dr. supervised documentation, my lab-work showing I'm a non-smoker and not now nor have I ever been treated for drug or alcohol abuse. She says she will submit to my insurance in mid-May. I'm feeling pretty good about the choice to do this, but am apprehensive about the recovery period - I will have a limited amount of PTO and am worried I won't be able to heal enough to go back to work by the time I need to; I'm also worried I'll keep being a slug - right now, I come home and flop until time to go to bed. I should get on my treadmill, but after all day climbing stairs delivering groceries, doing home visits, etc, my knee hurts like hell and the last thing I wanna do is climb on the treadmill and aggravate it more. I am just really NOT a huge fan of exercise. I keep wondering if that will change with weight loss. I think I am more worried about failing after the surgery than I am about the surgery itself. Anyway - just checking in with everyone, I love seeing all the success and even reading about the difficulties and seeing them eventually be addressed and overcome. Keep doing what y'all do. You each are an inspiration to me.

You dont want to mess with the sleeve if you already have had reflux issues. I converted to bypass 2 1/2 months ago and although I wasnt very happy the first 6 weeks I have come around and its not so bad. I do dump on cereal or heavy carbs so I just dont eat that stuff especially in the mornings !!! I can drink alcohol and I dont dump on that. It really varies person to person. I know a woman who has never dumped with the bypass and she said she wish she did !! It is a good deterrent for sure.

My latest results were much better BUT it has raised my awareness about Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease which is much more serious than I believed .I looked on the Britishlivertrust.org.uk at the stories and facts of NAFLD and realised it can take the same pattern as alcoholic fatty liver disease .I am so grateful my results were much improved , it is pretty scary reading .

See doesn't it feel better to come out with it. :kiss ..and see it in writting :clap2: :clap2: Tomorrow we both should strive to do better and post what we had. Being that it will be Friday night, there will also be alcohol on my post for tomorrow Oh I forgot to post about my water...I too drank all my aqua for the day :clap2: :clap2:

I've never tried alcohol. With my addictive personality I'd be an alcoholic in 3 months, flat! Lisa, I'm glad you're going to try the 3/4 cup thing. It was truly a revelation! 4/18/06 B: SF Carnation BF - 200 calories, 15g Protein L: Garlic chicken w/ green Beans almondine - 250 calories, 27g protein S: Oreo 100 calorie pack & WW Cookie sunday - 270 calories, 5g protein D: Leftover honey-glazed salmon & broccoli & easy mac :faint: - ~500 calories, 25g protein S: chips ahoy 100 calorie pack - I can't control myself! That's it. They're going in the garbage! Totals: 1,320 calories, 73g protein

endorphins are the only things that have ever successfully controlled my anxiety. when i don't exercise, i'm just emotionally down enough to make life more difficult. but when i exercise, i get everything out of my mind and body, the catharsis is deep, and my brain chemistry is more balanced. i'm talking about daily exercise. my favorite exercise is hiking and walking. this sounds psycho -- and i'm not saying i'm NOT psycho -- but i power walk and hike with my bluetooth earpiece on and talk to myself. it looks and sounds like i'm on the phone, but really i'm just getting it all OUT. i have to work out all my stuff, and doing this gets my stuff worked out of me physically and mentally. this is when i'm in shape, mind you. i know the hardest part of this journey for me will be when i'm thin -- thinness is where the rubber hits the road for me. i have no armor, no excuses, i can't blame anybody else for any number of things, and life is vivid and REAL and mine to mess up. i have a fear of being thin. i know this now. so, this time i'm armed with a clear understanding of how i tick, and i know i have to treat my food and weight issues the same way an alcoholic treats their recovery. i know life isn't going to be ideal just because i'm thin again. life will be awesome, i'm ready for that, but it will still be challenging and i'll have to work through it. my plan is to be in individual and group therapy in perpetuity, and i've already lined up steady exercise activities to keep me balanced (i've already joined an ocean swimming group, stuff like that). i'm ready to LIVE. all a long-winded way of saying TRY EXERCISE once you're recovered enough and have lost enough weight to move around without feeling like you're going to die. the link between endorphins and serotonin levels is well documented. drugs don't always help, so endorphins can be your friends.

Interesting take on the whole carb thing, and I think it makes a good deal of sense. I grew up a strict ovo-lacto vegetarian. Everybody I knew was either LOV, or strict vegan (religious thing). Everything I've ever known about eating a healthy diet was centered around low-fat, high-carb, high-Fiber food combinations to create whole Proteins (Beans and rice; :tongue_smilie:legumes such as lentils, and grains like barley and buckwheat, and on and on). The emphasis on healthy living was so strong that I actually remember attending church services where the sermon was about the evils of eating meat, consuming alcohol, and any source of caffeine, and what it would do to you. So far, I can't seem to kick the carb habit, or at least the automatic mental process of pairing foods to create balanced meals that are, of course, high-carb. It seriously sucks being diabetic with that kind of background, let me say! My reaction to eating something high in carbs is more like serious annoyance, and, "Crap, all that health stuff I got hammered into my head, and I had to go and get diabetes and now I have to try to convince myself that the nutritionist isn't full of crap on the whole 'eating meat' thing." I guess some kinds of indoctrination go deeper than others, because I'm still not totally convinced after all this time that vegetarianism (if one includes sufficient sources of protein) is at all a bad idea. There're always dairy products and eggs, after all...or at least I'd like to try to maintain that pleasant fantasy for a couple more weeks, anyhow! :001_tongue::laugh0::001_smile:

Thank you, CCwriter! I had no idea regarding the connection between alcohol and Seratonin! That's an amazing piece of information, and I'm going to be sure to pass it along, as well. Luckily enough, I don't enjoy drinking when I'm feeling sulky. Somehow, things have just turned out that way. Yesterday was a good day. I ate well, got all my nutrition in, stayed in range, and even had a small walk. I felt better, just by writing down my feelings! Having people on here offer encouragement and support is a giant plus, and I feel so lucky to have found this community. Thank you. I've got a meeting today regarding my transfer, and I'm really hoping things pull through!

Yesterday was our 8 yr anniversary so we went to dinner. I had 2 glasses of wine and behaved totally -- no bread, no dessert. Had chicken marsala and spinach for dinner. :juggle: But THEN when I got home I had to "white knuckle it" to resist diving into the chocolate! I did resist but finally decided to hell with it, I'm just going to bed...and I did. I've long suspected there was a correlation between drinking and eating sweets. The alcohol lowers my resistance to temptation AND heightens my cravings for sweets. Hmmmph. I don't know what kept me out of that chocolate last night but I do remember mumbling in my head: "Just for today...." I guess it worked.

Well the truck is considerably higher than when he got here. I fixed dinner for them, there are only 3--one of the guys chose to stay home, get drunk, scare his wife with his ramblings, and is now sobering up in detox! He has been a serious alcoholic for a long time, and he goes on benders frequently. But when he does this trying to get to and from the reservation, while smashed, it makes me mad-------I have loved ones on the road, he needs to not be! Hope they lock him up for awhile this time. Dinner is meanwhile getting cold, because when they thought they were done and I set it out, they forgot some plate on the front of the truck......grrrrr thats ok, they get cold enchiladas, and Beans and rice and corn bread! LOL Well I am gonna eat mine while it is warm. BBL!!

Haydee - There is a scientific basis for the way you feel, you're not just imagining it. You have reinforced the food=pleasure connection for 30-something years...creating very real, physical neurological connections that take TIME to re-direct. That's why people tell you to be good to yourself and find other ways to derive pleasure for yourself...it helps to create NEW pleasure pathways in your brain. (Same for addicts/alcoholics.) But that all takes time.... it takes about 90 days to really get over the hump. That's what the addiction specialist told us at the rehab center....and that guy knew his stuff!

are 2 oatmeal Cookies 9 days prior to surgery going to cause your liver to be inflamed and hazardously large for surgery? It's quite unlikely. Without being a surgeon, that just stands to reason. As others have said, so long as you don't make "slip ups" a habit during these tough 14 days, you should be fine. I had a low BMI and my surgeon put me on only a week of pre-op surgery to shrink my liver. My habits were not great on my liver prior to surgery, I enjoyed alcohol frequently, not to mention some other things. My surgeon said my liver looked perfect during surgery (I asked! I figured it was large and blackened, LOL!) and it was nice and small and easily moved out of the way. Just keep on your diet, and remind yourself that you will never ever be this hungry again! This diet is to assure that you have the easiest, complication free surgery as you possibly can in regards to your liver allowing your surgeon to have full access to your stomach. It's good that you are concerned, and realize you messed up and asked. I am sure out of the many VSG patients out there, there are plenty of people who don't control their urges to cheat during this time and figure it's no big deal. Better to be safe than sorry, and better to have the easiest possible surgery you can.