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1. 49 2. Yes 3. 10/19/09 4. 241 5. 199 6. 89 7. no 8. 4 9. 8 10. I am successfully moving toward a goal, one that I had stopped believing I could accomplish. I feel good that I am having success instead of more attempts followed by failure.

Ok guys, I need some opinions. I am experiencing major water retention. I used to go up anywhere between 5-10 lbs anywhere from 5-7 days before I started my period then once I started my period it would leave. So I have currently been swollen for 3 weeks. My ankles are kankles and I can't get my rings on. I thought this started because on 4/17 I did a 30 mile bike ride. I ate some rice and a little pasta 2 days before so I would have some carbs to burn off. I don't tolerate pasta to well anymore so only had a tiny bit of it. Anyways I thought oh I am a little swollen becuase of the carbs holding water. Did my 30 mile bike ride. The next week still swollen. Then this past week still swollen but it was period week. Well period has come and gone and I am still swollen. Maybe not as bad but still bad enough that I still don't have ankles and can't get my rings on. Does anyone have any suggestions/home remedies? I have tried several and even over the counter diuretic. It didn't help just turned my pee blue(color of the pill). Should I talk to my Dr. about this? :thumbup:

It seems like I've been losing 3 - 4 lbs per week. I am down 55 lbs since surgery 4 months ago. I have never been a fast loser which is why I have gotten frustrated with dieting in the past and given up. This time is for the long haul.... it is forever... so I'm pleased as heck to be losing weight consistently. I say that but have had stalls for several weeks and other weeks where I've lost 10 lbs. As everyone else said, it is the process and as long as the scale is moving in the right direction, and it will, you have nothing to worry about. It is surprising how many inquisitive people ask me what my doctor expects me to loose. The good news is there is no expectation, just that the scale moves in the right direction. At my rate, I could be down 100 lbs by the end of Summer and 150 lbs by Christmas! That would be amazing!

I had chicken, well chewed less then 2 weeks out and I was fine... will be 10 weeks in 2 days!!

You're only 7 days post op Relax.....make sure to be up and walking around for at least 5-10 minutes of every hour you're awake. You had three different surgeries, your body is adjusting to a whole lot right now.

I found where you set your profile up at. Still learning about this site. Wish I would have done this 10 months ago, love the information that is available.

Misty, go ak for a slight unfill. You should not live with only drinking liquids. I don't knw if you have followed anu=yones suggeestions yet, but if not you are 10 days of liquids. See your surgeon on MOday. Best wishes, Karen

When the dr asked me that question at my first consult In my mind I recalled being 175 and comfortable once after a liquid diet... He said that was too high. I am 5'9". He suggested 150 and I freaked out. We settled on 160... Insurmountable really since that was either 217 or 227 lbs I had to lose. So I decided to take it 10 lbs at a time and see what happened. Well today I am 157... And while the race to 150 isn't imperative I would like to get there one day...just because. But don't get me wrong I am thrilled to be in a size 8 and happier with myself than I have ever been in my life.

I met with the surgical consult today. She said that she's sending my info for approval, but I thought there were 6 month requirements. I started on 1/10/17 and it's 3/28/17... so almost 3 months, but I have all the requirements completed.... I have my last emotional behavioral weight management session this Saturday and I have to be 6 months smoke-free. Can they still approval? I had my last cigarette on 1/10/17. When they told me I had to be smoke-free. I was down to just 1-2 an evening that I'd share with my husband. The surgical consult (she was a PA) said to expect surgery to be scheduled and done within the next 6 weeks. Any insight on this?

Hey we are sleeve twins as well... Im set for 10/24/12... First surgery of the day- 8am. I have to complete my cardiac clearance on Monday, and pay this ridiculous co-pay (lol.) Im trying to get through this pre op diet, but over all Im still in denial that this is really happening. Several times during the day, Im thinking "Holy-smokes Im having this surgery in two weeks"..... Blessings to you all for a great surgery

I went to Nordstrom Rack today. Honestly, I kinda hate this store. Everything is so disorganized and they don't carry any plus size even though Nordstrom does. Kinda makes you wonder where the clothes come from because if they came from Nordstrom, wouldn't they have some plus size too? :thumbup: But, anyway, I happened to be doing some shopping nearby so thought I would stop in and look through their stuff to see if I could find some new black capri pants. The biggest size I could find there was 16 and they didn't have much. But, there was one pair of really nice looking black capris made by some designer I never heard of before. The tag said they were originally $139 :eek:, but marked down to $34. That's more like it! :w00t: Actually, a little more than I like to spend on transitional clothes, but I decided to try them on anyway. Wow! These turned out to be the most amazing pants for a WLS patient. They fit from right above the crotch down very nicely (not tight, but not loose). Higher up, they don't really fit me. I have to suck and tuck and squeeze to get the zipper up. :thumbup: But, they are made of this really high quality stretchy material that holds my stomach in like a girdle and is actually comfy at the same time. And, they are high-waisted so no muffin top either. When I got them home, I promptly pulled out all the smaller tops I unpacked recently that would go w/black capris and tried them all on w/my new 'girdle pants'. All of my tops cover the tight part so every outfit looked awesome. Its like I lost another 10 pounds today! :w00t:

I went to Nordstrom Rack today. Honestly, I kinda hate this store. Everything is so disorganized and they don't carry any plus size even though Nordstrom does. Kinda makes you wonder where the clothes come from because if they came from Nordstrom, wouldn't they have some plus size too? :thumbup: But, anyway, I happened to be doing some shopping nearby so thought I would stop in and look through their stuff to see if I could find some new black capri pants. The biggest size I could find there was 16 and they didn't have much. But, there was one pair of really nice looking black capris made by some designer I never heard of before. The tag said they were originally $139 :eek:, but marked down to $34. That's more like it! :tongue_smilie: Actually, a little more than I like to spend on transitional clothes, but I decided to try them on anyway. Wow! These turned out to be the most amazing pants for a WLS patient. They fit from right above the crotch down very nicely (not tight, but not loose). Higher up, they don't really fit me. I have to suck and tuck and squeeze to get the zipper up. :thumbup: But, they are made of this really high quality stretchy material that holds my stomach in like a girdle and is actually comfy at the same time. And, they are high-waisted so no muffin top either. When I got them home, I promptly pulled out all the smaller tops I unpacked recently that would go w/black capris and tried them all on w/my new 'girdle pants'. All of my tops cover the tight part so every outfit looked awesome. Its like I lost another 10 pounds today! :w00t:

I can relate to these as well!! My surgery date is 6/19 and I have a few things I can't wait for either! How about: 1- tucking my jeans in boots this winter! 2- buying clothes from any store I want! 3- weighing less then my husband! 4- skinny whoopie! (Lol) 5- going to my nieces wedding in January and buying a pretty dress I feel good in! 6- running, playing, riding bikes more with my kids!! I can't wait to get the new me started!! ????

I had my first surgeons consult 1/24, I have my psych evaluation on 1/28, My papers will be submitted to insurance 2/1...Cross your fingers. I would like to get my band done over spring break since I am a Student, I am shooting for 3/10 Good luck Everyone

So, I got a speeding ticket this morning. Isn't that super awesome!! :thumbup: Honestly though, I was going 76 mph in a 60 mph zone, so I totally deserved it. The only thing that makes me mad about the whole thing is that that motorcycle cop is there EVERY morning and I KNOW BETTER! Oh well, it is what it is. I'm feeling much better today! The respiratory infection has faded for the most part. Jazzercise was tough last night, but I definitely felt better when it was over. It is nice to be in enough shape that I don't feel like I'm killing myself the first day back after a break! Today I'm taking it up a notch and I'm doing my 2 mile hill run at lunch and Jazzercise tonight. I only have a non-running lunch work out tomorrow (maybe the bike?) so I should be able to push it out today. I was hungry yesterday. After breakfast, it didn't take too long until I was hungry for lunch. We went to Mi Cocina to meet my parents and I was worried that I would need to eat too much. But my mom & I shared a nacho plate and I ate three nachos with sour cream and guacamole. So, not too bad. In fact, it held me until very late in the afternoon and I didn't get hungry until about 4pm when I had some greek yogurt. I was a little hungry when I went to Jazzercise, but it wasn't horrible. When I got home, I fixed goodies for dinner. (My niece's favorite meal is what she calls goodies, which is bascially a collection of snacks, like apples, pretzels, peanut butter and cheese.) I had just less than a 1/2 c of potato salad, a boiled egg, 10 crackers and 5 pieces of cheese (roughly 3 oz, I think.) I finished the potato salad and egg, but I left 2 crackers and a piece of cheese. I didn't seem to have any "restriction" in the sense that there was no issues with anything going down, however, I did have "restriction" in the sense that I was full after eating a reasonable amount of food. So, I did well yesterday. The trick is stopping when I'm full. I've not been good at that historically and is something I need to work on. So, goals for the week...drink water! And stop eating when I'm full. PS: My new item of the day that I'm wearing...electric blue flats with a row of sequence around the top. Very flirty, but practical too. Have a great day!!

My girls soccer game is at 10 on Saturday. I forgot all about it. Are we meeting at 11:30 again? Let me know and hopefully I can make it. Angie

I have a feeling we bandsters are going to hear a lot of crap from a lot of people for the rest of our lives. I'm sure there are many others around this site like me. Since I was 18 (many moons ago) I've probably lost over 500 pounds total. You know the cycle, 5 off, 10 on, 10 off, 20 on and so on. You must remember since you are so young that you will need to make some drastic life changing ways. This isn't really the easy way out like some think. I was camping right after my surgery (in fact I was still on liquids) and one night there was a young girl there that had had lap band and she was eating and drinking like there was no tomorrow. She told my daughter she did what she wanted but just not as often. Needless to say she hasn't lost much weight. I can't understand why someone would go to that much trouble to have surgery just to eat around the band. I didn't say anything to her but just sat in awe. I also hear many times why choose to have a surgery you don't have to have? I have no comment to come back with but I think so many people, especially heavier ones, are just jealous because they haven't got the courage to do it themselves. And then you will get all the statistics about why it is bad. Why don't these same people give you the statistics about why it is good. This is your life and if you choose to make yourself healthier through surgery it's no one's business but yours. I've only been out for 9 weeks and I have yet to think, gee I wish I hadn't done that. Since I was a self pay I had to do a lot of soul searching to justify spend that kind of money but since I'm now single and am not fincially responsible for anyone else I knew it was the right choice for me. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't have if I had dependents because an early death would be a financial burden and an emotional devistation to my kids too. Now I'm planning on living longer to spend the rest of my retirement and not leave any for the kids. I'm going to live longer so I can do the things I want to do with retirement. I'm just rattleing now but I think these are ideas I've been needing to put down somewhere. You go for the surgery and don't worry about the putter downers. Yes, you can be anxious. Yes, you will probably be a little sore for awhile. Yes, you can go back to work, especially at a desk job. I went back to running my in home day care a week after surgery. I was just really careful not to pick up kids. Good luck

Hi, I was banded this morning, I feel really good besides the obvious soreness. Already sick of beef broth though. LOL. Ready to get back into my size 6 jeans. I am now in a 14-16.

Well Mary told me Ashley would call me on Friday the 19, but I never heard from her, emailed Mary and on Tuesday the 23rd Adept Ashley called and apologized apparently the list they have messes up and my name was missing, but once I emailed Mary, they researched it and found me, I got my date right then, I chose a Monday since that's one if my days off, I check in at 11 surgery at 1, and it was all pretty easy, got my pre-op date too, which is the day I start my liquid diet 8/5 I can't have anything until after the testing, since you have to fast. Then they email a list of dates and info on your follow up appt and pre-op diet and what to expect.

Dont forget about sugar free popsicles and juice. I couldnt do the broth it made me gag. I ate a lot of the gogurt packs and popsicles. Glad to hear you are doing so well after 10 hours. I was still in and out of napping.

Thanks for all the feedback yesterday! Two weeks from Saturday, I will have the cut. So, stay tuned, I'm sure there will be pics by October 18th!! I watched the Biggest Loser last night. I know that it is the most realistic approach to weight loss seeing that we wouldn't have time to work out 8-10 hours a day. But I just love seeing what people can do. The first thing that struck me is that I'm not sure if I could do a Biggest Loser work out! I work out a lot, but what they were doing was amazing. I was so proud of myself for jogging on a 5.0 incline yesterday for 30 seconds. She was having them at a 7.0 incline for longer!! I realize they are puking and I don't push myself to that point, but it is still amazing what you can do if someone is pushing you and you are receptive. Second thing that struck me was when one of the guys had a bit of a breakdown and he questioned how he had gotten there. That really struck home for me. I grew up "the fat girl." Looking at the pictures from my past, I wasn't that big. Even my dad said to me that when he looks back at old pictures he doesn't remember me being that small. I think part of it was that I weigh heavy. I was roughly the same size as some of my friends, but I weighed a good 20-30 pounds more than they did. That remains true today. My mom & I are wearing the same size clothes (for the most part), but she weighs over 40 pounds less than I do. So I think that we had a mindset from the beginning that I was FAT, when maybe I wasn't really. Then I think we (I) became so focused on it. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting in 4th grade. At the time, I just wanted to be smaller, but in retrospect, there were probably better ways to focus my attention. I was on NutriSystem in high school and I consistently snuck food. My parents found out and (rightly so) got angry for wasting money. I just felt like a big, fat failure. I remember going to fast food restaurants with my family and my brother ordered french fries, but I couldn't. Now I wonder if I really wasn't allowed to, or if I just felt too guilty (fat) to order them. I honestly do not know. When I got to college, I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. However, my Freshman year I didn't have a car and I walked all over the place, including to my job which was several blocks away from campus. My sophomore year I had a car, but by December I had moved into the Sorority quad which in my case meant a 4th floor walk up! I think walking those 3 flights of stairs multiple times a day kept me in check through the end of my junior year. My senior year I moved off campus. I was only a block away from where I was before, but it was on the first floor and instead of walking to classes, I drove. It was ridiculous and I'm quite sure that I gained 40-50 pounds that year. I entered college around 185 and I left college around 250. I fluctuated between 200 and 260 for 13 years until I decided I had enough. I have been to Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. I have worked out, taken pills prescribed by the doctor and over the counter. I have done Atkins and South Beach. But nothing worked or it did for a little while until I couldn't stay at it. In November 2009 I weighed a whopping 285 pounds. I weighed more that my (hefty) dad. It was hard at the time to see how I got there, but now it doesn't matter. I have a tool that actually works for me! I am working hard, but I'm successful! I have another 6-12 months of weight loss to go, but I'm not at all intimidated by that. That's a first! For the first time, I'm in control! And it feels darn good. I'm over 70 pounds down since January and I fully expect to be under 200 by Thanksgiving! I would like to have lost 100 pounds by 1/31/10. Even if I don't make every goal, I'm going in the right direction and THAT is enough to keep me moving!! Anyway, I was a little "rambly" today, but The Biggest Loser will do that for me. Have a great day, y'all!!

Congradulations....I am so happy for you. I started in 3/10(surgery date) at size 24 now i'm a size 16. It's is hard but not so much. I am sooooooooo proud of you. Keep up the good work and remember it's all for you first than everyone else. I hope that also inspires you.

Hi everyone! I had the lap band in 2015 and thought I would be completely different within a year. I initially started to lose weight but even at the beginning felt like I shouldn't be able to eat as much as I could. I was constantly hungry and felt like I was starving all the time. I had several adjustments and even got to the max allowement then had to have it drained because I couldn't even drink Water.. It was aweful! My heaviest weight was 289.7 and I didn't even realize it! I seen a picture of myself and had no idea who that person was. I am 5'8 and have always been told that I'm curvy and look "good" so it never occurred to me that I was actually that big since I carry my weight well. Don't get me wrong, I knew I was a big girl but still felt like I wasn't that bad. My horrible motto and cop out was, "You can fix chubby but you can't fix ugly!" How horrible right?? Smh.. Well, I had pain, brusing on my belly button and could no longer hold down real food. But let me tell you that chips and candy went down super easy. I ate the big Reece's cups everyday! I felt like a complete and total failure and started feeling like everyone who loves me was being nice to me and telling me I was beautiful because they knew my heart. I am currently 33 and was 17 when my beautiful mother died and 19 when my amazing father died. I raised my 2 brothers and 1 sister when that happened and worked 3 jobs to make sure we had a roof over our heads. I sang in a band for many years and always felt like the fat girl. I even had a miscarriage 5 years ago that devastated me to the core. I was tired, and tired of being tired. Last week, October 19th I changed my life!! I had the revision to sleeve!! Let me tell you the honest raw uncut truth... I NEVER EXPECTED THIS! My amazing, supportive fiancé got me a scale yesterday as a surprise. I almost felt like maybe my doctor didn't actually do the sleeve since I don't notice any changes. I went into surgery at 281.7 and I weighed myself this morning at 262.4!!!!! I AM IN AWE!! I go to the doctor today for a follow up and am honestly in pain (mostly super tenderness) and man oh man do I want a cheeseburger.. Lol.. But this has been all worth it! I know that if I stay focused, stay connected, stay honest and give my all.. I will have amazing results! This site has been so inspirational. I have literally been reading stuff all night!! Haha.. I had to tell everyone a part of my story and really stay accountable. Thank you for reading my extremely long story. I hope that someone out there can relate and feel encouraged. My new motto is, "Live the life that you want to live and live it well!" Bee Sent from my LGMS550 using the BariatricPal App

09/27/2010 Well, I am now officially in the "waiting stage" to see I insurance will really approve me. It seems SO SLOW!!! I called Melissa at my surgeon's office and she said she would get all the paperwork in, but that was 2 weeks ago. I know these things take time, but in the meantime, I am still "pretending" that I already got the lapband and am still writing food down in my diary, eating off smaller plates with baby utensils, and have lost well over 10 pounds in the process. However, I would really like to just get approved and get on with it. The other blogger's stories of their waits, etc. have really been helpful for me. Trying to stay pro-active!:smile:

Hi. I 'm Kelly and I am 39 years old. Today, Dec 29, 2010, is post op day 2 from my VSG with Dr Pennings in Post Falls, Id. I decided to have this surgery vs a RNY or band because I wanteed to keep "my plumbing" as natural as I could and I didn't want a foreign body inside of me for the next 40 years. My OMG weight was 309 lbs. Before starting the 10% I had to loose before the surgery I was at 292. The day of my surgery I was 258.4. So why didn't I continue with the liquid pre-op diet and loose all my weight that way? Because it is an all liquid diet. I was having alot of what I call head hunger and was getting closer and closer to giving in to it. (oh I feel like eating a chesseburger, fries and a milkshake and not the protein shakes I was suppose to be drinking or treating myself to food for losing weight!??) My biggest issue today is that I have bloating and gas. So much that I can't even drink water without belching. I just got back from the pharmacy with some Gas-X thin strips and I hope they help. I also am extreemly restless. I am not sure if that is because of the gas or from the pain, stool softners or carafate I am taking. Anyone else have this problem??