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Hey thank's ladys. I, have tryed Acupuncture one time seemed to make pain worse, maybe did not give it enough time? and thats to funny that,s what there giving me for pain 15 mg 3 times a day. it does help Put I have packed the weight on 20 lbs in a month time to quite. thanks again! JOHN Its time to start walking again 15 minutes 3 time aday to start with. Im not eating much?

Yep...don't weight yourself...stay on the healthy foods and keep the fluids going. You'll read that many people like myself during the stall lost INCHES from stomach and waist areas...with no weightloss during the stall

Hi Where do you want to be in 1 year from now? When I had weight loss surgery, I had no idea how long it was going to take me to lose weight; I was older than most of you and everyone l drops their weight at different speeds. Most all of us ladies know that men lose much faster than we do. For me it took me about 14 months to lose 105 pounds. I was thrilled it only took me that long. I know when I started this journey like the rest of you I wanted it to just melt off of me. As first it felt like it was, but I knew that would slow down and it did. What I want you to do it take it in small steps. Set you goals by weeks or by a month, and DO NOT put yourself down if you don’t reach that goal. Remember we are all individuals. I had a walking buddy and she was good to keep me motivated and when she was down I did the same for her. She had sleeve surgery with Dr. Aceves about 6 months after I had mine. I was honored when she asked me to go with her for her surgery. Mix things up, become creative with your food ideas. I actually have become a much better cook now that I am healthy and at my goal weight, but that didn’t happen overnight. I started searching out recipes that I could incorporate in my lifestyle and something that taste great and that my husband and I both would eat. Find the Protein that you like and find 50 different ways to cook with it and watch your carbs. chicken happens to be a protein that I use the most. Those sneaky carbs have a way of messing up your weight loss. If you are eating carbs make them WHOLE GRAIN carbs, not whole wheat—the key word is Whole Grain. Summer is coming along find some great salads and put your protein in along with a little fresh fruit—like strawberries and then make the salad your entire meal. Watch the dressing that you are using. I learned to NOT put the dressing on my salad, but dip my forks into the dressing and with every bite I always get dressing. :angel: So look at the calendar and put a goal in your mind where you would like to be one year from today. Some will be there and some will not. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too big of a goal. :thumbs_up: I also used to like to look at catalog or magazines that had beautiful clothes that I wanted to be able to buy when I reached my goal. Looking at these beautiful clothes kept me from eating too. Do what works best for you. I will admit I have bought a lot of new clothes once I reached my goal.:wink_smile: If you haven’t picked your doctor yet I would like to tell you the Dr. Aceves is the very best that you can have for your surgery. If you have any questions about him, I am more than happy to answer anything you would like to know. I wanted the best I could have and after a lot of research and talking to people on these boards, I knew he was the one.:attention: I wish you great success, remember do this one day at a time. If you had a bad day the good news is that day ends and you can start all over the next day. Hugs,:cheer2: Suzanne Sleeved 10/210/2008

congrats, good to hear you're doing well and ready to start losing.....you will definitely love your new journey to weight loss.....goodluck and please keep us posted.

Also getting banded Jan 3rd! Today is day 5 of the pre-op diet, and its just now starting to get easier. It's been hard having to go to holiday parties and be surrounded by food and not be able to eat any of it (yesterday there were bagels and lox on my dining table, a huge test of my willpower to not eat any!). I'm excited to ring in the new year (sans alcohol, unfortunately) knowing that the year will be filled with weight-loss accomplishments. Good luck to the rest of the January bandsters, and happy holidays!

MTVLMOM - It's absolutely normal to be nervous about the surgery. ANY surgery is scarey stuff and you really do have to think about the entire package when having it. But...I can tell you it's the best decision I ever made for myself. We mom's don't always do things for ourselves...instead we do it for our families but, you know what...you need to do this for YOU. Reason being....lapband is just a tool...you'll still need to work at it, make good food choices and yeap that swear word...exercise in order to lose the weight. Sure some will come off at the beginning no problem but, it slows down and we need to adjust our movement to get the weight to move downscale again. I was nervous too...but even more nervous that I wouldn't be here for my son or if I were...I wouldn't be able to function without pain and/or being more sick etc. The nervousness doesn't really stop about the surgery until after the surgery is done...then you know what? WE end up nervous about other things...will this work, did I screw it up, am I eating right....I can only tell you to take one day at a time and it gets easier I can remember two days before my surgery crying my eyes out because I was scared not only of the surgery but, whether or not this would be the answer for me and the biggest thing that got me upset was.....WHY THE HECK DO I HAVE TO DO THIS TO MYSELF IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT? Well......then I came to the realization that I needed help...I needed a tool to keep me on track and THIS was it for me. I'd do good dieting for the first few weeks...then hit a plateau..diet a bit more than blow it because the scale didn't move. THIS tool keep you going because you can't quit (well yea technically you can drink ice cream shakes, eat chips etc if you really think about it but, even then you can't eat as much as you used to prior to banding)..it keeps you on track long enough to kick up the eating right again. I too used to be so out of breath having to take a flight of stairs or walk any distance to my car or store etc...but, that's so much better now Clothes fit better, I have more choices in those too. You can do this! You can definately do this for YOU and for your kids! The best way to get over the nervousness is to ask all the questions that come to you....doesn't matter what it is....nothing is silly or stupid when it comes to Your Health and Your Life so ask away. i wish you the best on your band journey. Goodluck and best wishes!

Today was my 2 week check up from my revision. I am so happy that I am down 12 lbs!! I am very excited about this. I also get to start back on my Zumba class and lifting weights to music class next week. It is strange I am feeling the need to do more of that type of exercise than I am of walking.

Just ran out on my lunch hour to d**k's Sporting Goods to get goggles for my swimming lessons.... they were having a clearance sale ( additonal 50% lowest ticket price). I purchased 3 Dri-Fit workout shirts in size MEDIUM... MED-DEE-UMMMMMMM!!!! for $6 each... I was tempted to buy more but since I still have weight to lose these will due for now.... They had a LOT of XL and XXL stuff on the clearance rack..not much in medium... So I was reminded 1 of the downsides of losing weight...the middle sizes are the first to go... the extremely tiny and the humungous clothes seem to hang around the racks a little longer, especially in stores like this...

Let me first say, you look amazing! Keep up the great work! I was sleeved in February and at about Month 3, found my appetite really getting larger. I am still eating a lot of protein 4-8 oz per meal but lately also saw a jump in my carbs. I got pretty lax over the past week (holiday cookouts) and didn't exercise as much and ended up gaining about 5 lbs. everyone is different so I would suggest just monitoring your macros to make sure your staying in the right nutritional zones set by your doc. And make sure to keep moving.

Hey Everyone, I just a moment to share the worse experience I had with my first fill. I went to see my surgeon but he was unavailable, so I was told I could see the nurse for my first fill. I recoqnized her, she was the same nurse who checked me in on surgery day. A familiar face was nice, considering i was a little bit nervous. She sat me down, weighed me in and explained to me what I would experience, would there be any pain etc. By the end of the conversation I felt very comfortable. Which was nice. She then asked me if I would like to stand or sit, I said whatever is easiest. She said okay stand up. I did, she put the needle in and to be honest didn't feel much of anything. About a minute of moving the needle around, she said okay I am doing to take it out. I said wow were done, she said no, I am going to have you lay down. I said okay strange but lets try again Attempt 2: I layed down with my hands over my head while she but the needle in again. This time, she was pushing a lot firmer on my stomach, which is still forming new scar tissue. There was a lot of pressure not to much pain. Then I could hear this scratching sound and realized it was the top of the needle hitting my port because she couldn't find the middle. Now in my head Im thinking "what the hell is going on" She took the needle out again. Attempt 3: When I decided to have surgery I got to choose which brand of band I wanted I went with the J&J band. After laying there, the nurse felt like it would be important to tell me that she had never filled a J&J band before. Does that sound strange to anyone else? She left the room and got the band that they show to patients and put it beside me so she could see what it actually looked like. My question to her, why would you not have done that in the first place. After another attempt, and a bloody stomach from all the holes she poked, I left very angry and without a fill. Now I have to wait until Monday to see the surgeon. I was really excited to finally get a fill and start the weight loss. Luckily I am only waiting a couple of days. But i think i am just more disappointment with how the process went.

Ah hell yea ... My last weight management is August 18th. I'm the same way. I'm thinking it's the fact that I'm have food funerals. [emoji57] I know after the surgery all bets are off.

I know that to be successful myself I will need to do something more. Either Overeaters Anonymous, some type of counseling, or support group. This issue with weight I believe, is more than a physical difficulty.

I have anthem BCBS and I live in OK we don't have to do a supervised diet I just had to show a history of weight issues and list all the weightloss methods that I have tried in the past 5 yrs

Welcome! My surgery date is the 19th too!!! Awesome job on the weight loss

Congrats and welcome!!! Awesome job on your so far weight loss. You should add it to your ticker. I also want to loose 120 lbs. I'm from Cali too not sure when I will have a surg date but I'm hoping Decemeber. Best of luck to you and keep updated.

So the notion that low weight/high rep lifting tones is a myth. Toning is another term for hypertrophy. The term is usually associated with building muscle mass, but people mistakenly believe that mass is the same as bulk. In men, mass CAN lead to bulk if they have the body chemistry for it and work especially hard toward that goal. Women almost universally do not have the testosterone levels to add enough mass to become bulky. Rather, the mass they build simply adds firmness and some limited definition - that's tone. The ideal approach to hypertrophy is a median approach. Weight around 65-80% of your max, reps between 8 and 12, 4 to 6 sets. I'd advise a mix of cardio and weights through your losing phase and a greater focus on lifting afterward. Your scale may stall temporarily, but adding muscle is harder than losing fat. If you stick to your diet, the scale will start going down even if start lifting again.

Just from drinking much less would be my guess. Liquid/mushie stage will be over before you know it. I will say it was pretty easy for me as my huger was just not there for 2-3 weeks after surgery. The great side benefit was rapid weight loss ! Keep the proteins up...

I hear ya! I still have 6 days til surgery and I feel like I am going insane! I'm not crying, but now all of a sudden questioning why I am doing this and not just losing weight on my own. I KNOW why I am doing it and haven't doubted it until now! Just gonna keep on drinking that water!!

Thanks to my buddy Sheila, I change my Dr. choice to Dr. Madan. I have my first appointment on February 16th. I'm excited about it! I have so many questions however, I'm so grateful this board is available. My family has mixed emotions about it. They are worried about the after affects and feel this is a method of starvation. I disagree. It is because I have lost wait before with adipex, phentamine (sp?), over the counters and such to loose the weight, however, it comes back. I'm tired of yo yo dieting. I'm a health food nut! But I feel this is a "fat gene" I can't be rid of on my own. There's nothing wrong with a little help to permanent lifestyle change. I have a 4 daughters and one of them (10 year old) is obese. I have to make these changes for her as well. I want to be able to have a good time with them in life. I want to gain control of my menstral cycle again. I want to look great at fourty and ready for fourty more!

Thanks for writing Rebel. Congrats on being three weeks out from surgery! You are on the other side and going strong, right?! There is a real "move it thru it day by day" aspect to this journey and I am thankful that you shared some great tips and advice with me. Good to know about the lethargy. I have a very active 11 year old son whom I homeschool so I need to plan for lots of stuff he can do to keep busy school-wise while I am not feeling much like teaching after surgery. Thank goodness for educational videos. Increasing your Water intake sounds like the way to go to push your body thru to more weight loss. The big flush... Thanks again Rebel! Mamasez (Leah)

Yea i been seeing her from the beggining but i guess she thought i was only going to here for her to help me lose weight..na i just needed her to fill out my paperwork...i wanted to slap the piss out of her. she just like everyone else think its the easy way out .

It's hurtful because you probably always wonder if this person would have liked you in your heavier body. It's sad that he can't seem to handle it and just say something nice! I know how you feel though. Previously I had Lapband and was pretty much normal weight. I was out with my then boyfriend. Him and another guy starting joking about these big girls at the bar. I was mortified. I told him after that was the size I used to be and it was very insensitive. I always think fat people are discriminated more than any other group!

Amy, first of all congrats! I'm happy for you! Do you think it's because of your weight loss? I know sometimes people have to lose weight in order to be able to conceive. Just curious if you think that may have been the difference this time. Congratulations:)

Congratulations on your new baby girl! Her well being is number one right now. Maybe look up how many calories you should be consuming to keep your weight at 158. I would use that as a base point to keep your baby healthy. They say you need a few more calories, I think 300 for the baby so if you stay at what it says for 158 you should not gain and may even lose a little bit. Take your daughter for walks and just enjoy her.

Remember the band is just a tool so it's not a magic bullet. It's not going to lose the weight for you so delaying it by a couple of days isn't really doing you any harm. In fact, you will probably lose more weight on your pre-op diet than you will post-op and before your first fill which can be between 4-6 weeks depending on your doctor. The more you lose before the surgery, the better off you are so look at this as an opportunity to lose a bit more before your surgery.