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Grats on your NSVs and thanks for sharing them. NSVs are always so motivating. You must be feeling great about how things are going. Just imagine how much better it's about to get! Cheers! TexasTerry - Love you siggy!!

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with 1 step. What they don't tell you is that the journey is a b*tch if you're on step 1! 1/14/2015 Well it's been a few months since I last walked. November to be exact. With the cold weather and injuries and sinus drainage, I was pretty much out of commission. We were at it hard during September and October, hitting new highs on speed, sometimes going as fast as 3.9 mph for 3 miles. But November, my partner hurt his ankle and was out for 3 weeks, then I got terrible sinus headaches from breathing the smoke from neighbors burning piles of leaves and then the cold rain set in. So here it is, the middle of January and we haven't walked a mile per day. Fortunately, I've actually lost weight in that time and kept it off. My new job keeps me moving quite a bit. 8/26/2014 Wish there was more the report, but it's still HOT in Texas. Most days the temp is around 91 with a heat index of 101 when I walk. I've had to start wearing a water soaked towel around my neck and a hat while I walk to complete 3 miles. I've come close to heat exhaustion a few times and had to head over to the water faucet and soak my head till the dizziness clears. I thought I'd have built up a tolerance to the heat by now, but doesn't seem like that is going to happen. Good news is, the worst of the heat is over, once we hit September temps will slooooooowly creep down to the low 90's every evening. And by October, we'll be back in the 80's. I can't wait to see how fast I can do 4 miles when the temps are down in the 80's. Hopefully, I'll break the 15 minute mile. :-) 7/30/2014 I know I keep saying this, but OMG!!! IT'S HOT IN TEXAS! The good news is that today was a cloudy day and I managed 4.25 miles @ 3.6 mph. I should be up and above 4 mph by the time cool weather rolls in during October. The heat is still in the 94 - 95 degree range with a heat index of 101 - 104. And as Madge said on the Palmolive dish-washing detergent, "You're soaking in it." :-P I'm still walking 5 days a week and hugging every inch of shade I can find! But I had to cut back to 3 miles, down from 4. I was just getting too dizzy and sick - even with using a water soaked towel to keep cool and carrying a water bottle. Monday, I had to stop at 2.5 miles and go soak my head under a water faucet. I hit a point and knew I had better get cooled off or something bad was about to happen. 7/24/2014 OMG!!! IT'S HOT IN TEXAS! For the past week it's been between 91 and 94 degrees with a heat index of 101 - 104... during the evenings... when I'm walking! I've had to begin carrying a wet towel and carry a water bottle to prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion. But aside from that, I've managed to walk between 3 and 4 miles in about an hour, averaging 3.5 - 3.7 mph. And haven't missed a day this week. But you gotta believe it when I say I was looking for ANY excuse to skip walking after work. But alas, the weather has been clear during the evenings and all the rain has managed to miss my exercise hour. I wonder how much it would cost me to have a crop duster fly up and seed some clouds just around the time I supposed to start walking???? 7/04/2014 Another 3 miles (including 1 mile in total of jogging in short stretches) in the record book. It still amazes me when I think back to just 18 months ago when I would go to bed wondering how much it would hurt to walk from the car to my desk at work. The Texas heat is a monster and I was really dreading walking (I mean baking) in 94 degree heat with a heat index of 101. That was yesterday! But I got rained out at the last minute. :-) ****Does happy dance**** I know, I know, I should be like those workout gurus and tell you how much I missed not going out there and sweating my ass off. But I gotta be honest and say I will take any "HONEST" excuse to duck out on walking in this heat. When I say "HONEST EXCUSE" I mean just that.... a real, "believable", reason (rain, when my car had a flat 2 weeks ago, or I feel like I've been pushing myself to the point of injury or sickness). Skipping a walk just because I don't feel like it is not enough. So this morning the I had planned to walk with a friend at Claiborne Park just north of Vidor, TX. We normally do 3.25 miles and I've been increasing the distance I've been jogging. But the radar shows rain headed right for us in the next hour or so. So we cancelled it. Instead I ran around my neighborhood. One lap around my block is approx. 1/2 mile. 2 long sides and 2 short sides. In 70 degree weather, I managed to run 12 of the short sides for a total of 1 miles....And the amazing part was I could have done more! So we'll see how much more tomorrow when I'm back out at Claiborne. 6/29/2014 Can't believe how well my attempts to jog are working out. Averaged 3.5 mph for 3.25 miles today. I walk a figure 8 style track and managed to jog the 4 straightaways all three laps. My next goal is to jog 1 mile non-stop. Shooting to reach that goal by the end of July. If the heat gets to be too much for me, my fall back plan is to go back to wearing the 30 lb weight vest and speed walk the trails. 6/19/2014 Another 3.25 miles down. Speed is still slow at 3.1 mph. Temp 91 degrees. Managed to make the whole circuit on 13 swallows of water. It's a pain to have to carry a water bottle on the trail, but it beats getting heat stroke! It's been tough getting used to the Texas heat. The heat's really been kicked up a notch since the end of May. I thought it was bad when the temps were in the high 80's. Oh how I long for those days. My walking partner calls me the shade hunter. He's much more tolerant of the heat. He can walk in full sun for the whole 3.25 miles, while I zigzag on the trail - going from one patch of shade to the next. I think I may actually be walking farther than him, but he carries the GPS, so I have to go by his distance and time. Doesn't matter to me though, just completing the whole trail every day is a win. 06/18/2014 Man is it hot! The Texas Summer heat is just getting its stride and things are baking in the park. I'm up to 3.25 miles each day/ 3.1 mph while wearing a 30 lb vest. Fastest speed without the vest was 3.6 mph for 3.25 miles. Thinking it might be time to try the couch to 5k plan. Not really sure all this effort is worth the results. It's a vicious cycle - the more I get in shape the farther/faster I have to walk to burn the same amount of calories. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/02/2013 Hit a new personal best time at the park. 3.2 miles an hour, did 3 point something miles in about 53 minutes or something close to that, I've forgotten the exact time. :-) But at least I'm getting better, both in distance and being able to recover enough to walk at the same intensity day after day. It seems like only yesterday (actually it was Jan 2nd) that I started my walking program by taking the long way around the office to the bathroom. :-P Just goes to show that taking small steps can add up to bigger things later on. 7/11/2013 Well, I lost Gilligan, my pedometer. I named him Gilligan cause he was my "little buddy". Not sure where he ran off to. I left the house with him on my hip and at the end of the day, he was gone. So now I have Gilligan the 2nd or Gilligan the Next Generation, depending on your point of view. Gilligan II is a little smarter, so hopefully he won't get lost. He keeps track not only of my steps and mileage, but takes into account my weight, lists calories burned, total steps, aerobic steps (meaning any walking continuously for 10 minutes or more) and tells me how long I've been aerobically walking . And he remembers everything from the past 6 days. The good news is that I've graduated to a 2 mile trail in a local park. It has lots of ups and downs - and the occasional rabbit/armadillo/snake/Pimp butterfly on the trail to keep things entertaining. And I'm able to make the walk 6 to 7 days a week. My 1st goal was to be able to complete the 2 miles every day 6 to 7 days a week. I have reached that goal as of July. The next goal is to start increasing my speed. See if I can break the 45 minute mark for completing the trail. Current best speed is 46 minutes. 5/17/2013 Finally! Made over 10k steps a day for 6 days in a row. My original goal was to do it for 5 days in a row. Plus as an added NSV, I have graduated from walking on flat, level surfaces to walking in a parking garage. I do the 1st 5k steps in the morning on level ground, but at lunch, I step it up (no pun intended) by going out to a 3 story parking garage. Having to walk up those inclines between floors add a whole new level to the phrase "pain in the butt!" :-P I was walking next to a coworker yesterday and she said, "I smell smoke." I said, "That's me. I'm not just hot, I'm SMOKIN!" For those out there that have feet and knee pain like me, it pays to move, no matter how little. That's how I started out 5 months ago. I could barely walk from the parking lot to the store without limping and being in a lot of pain. But I always parked at the far end of the lot and minced my way into the store. And I set a goal to walk the inside perimeter of my office every time I went to the bathroom or had to leave my desk. That was 4 to 10 laps a day. When we move to a bigger office in Feb. I set a goal to make 4 laps a day around the office (approximately 1200 steps plus the 500 steps from the parking lot to my desk got me up to about 1700 steps a day). When I got to the point where I could tolerate the 4 laps with no lasting pain, I added 4 laps at lunch. Then 5 in the morning and 5 at lunch till I could do 10 each time. That took several months to accomplish and I usually only could do that at most 3 days a week and be in pain for the other 2 days. Now 10 laps twice a day is too easy, so I changed to going into the parking garage at lunch. The inclined ramps are easy on my ankles and ups my aerobic activity. Plus it gets me out in the sun - gotta have my Vitamin D! That's how I did it. Little changes add up. Now I've got 2 ladies a work who SAY they want to start walking with me - but so far it's only been talk. :-) This is from today, 5/17/2013. It's gonna break my heart to reset it in the morning! 2/19/2013 Just checked my pedometer when I got home and finally crossed the 10k steps goal or 4.5 miles in 1 day. I usually on get in around 2.5 to 3 miles a day, but today I had a lot of extra walking at work and for the 2nd day this week I've been able to walk additional laps around the building at lunch. Hopefully my feet and hips will allow me to maintain or surpass 10k a day from now on. Update:3/28/2013 Still managing to get closer to my goal of 5 miles/day, 7 days a week. I'm averaging 4.5 miles/day 4 days a week. My hips no longer hurt, just some muscle soreness. And my feet are usually only a little painful after walking but the pain is almost gone the next day. The people at work are starting to take notice of my walking before work and at lunch time. Commenting on my weight loss, that may sound encouraging, but I'd rather stay unnoticed and unremarked on. Noticing my weight loss and exercising will only lead to questions - ones I'd rather not answer. I've had one or two people comment on how much they need to start walking with me, almost daily, but they never seem to find the time to do even one lap around the floor with me. I never made those type of comments when I'd see people working out, cause I knew that I wasn't going to make the effort. So why try to fool them and me? If I did, it would feel like I was apologizing for being fat and feeling guilty for not exercising. I didn't feel like any kind of exercise plan was going to do me any good. I was too far gone. As Ralphie May said, "This is way past a diet coke fix." 3/4/2013 I'm still walking 3 - 4 miles per day, 5 days a week, but getting past 10k steps a day is tough. My feet and hips are pretty sore the day after doing that many steps and it limits me reaching 10k more than 2 or 3 times a week. But I keep working at it. As long as I'm walking every day, I'm getting closer to my goal.

THAT IS A FANTASTIC NSV! Way to go!!! Keep them coming!!

Woot! Congrats on such a great NSV!

Hello Bandster Bunnies!!! My roommate just got banded and she and I constantly talk about Non scale Victories (NSV), and I thought I'd start a thread for us to share what we're looking forward to beyond seeing the numbers drop on the scale. I have a bunch, but the ones that pop into my mind most often are: *Buying jeans that don't have stretch in them *Not having to pull my pants UP and pull my shirt DOWN when I stand up *Fitting nice and easy into airplane chairs, Starbucks chairs, bistro chairs, etc. *Playing sports again *Going swimming and enjoying it *NOT shopping at Lane Bryant anymore And just now I came face to face with one... **Actually weighing what I state on my driver's license!!!! I bumped it up to 200 a while ago, and to even be down to 200 will be a HUGE milestone. WOOHOO, I can't wait! :thumbup: What are some NSVs you all are looking forward to?

Ryan- I find myself shaking my head agreeing with all the above people who reponded so wonderfully! You emotions are normal, we all went thru the what the heck have I done, is THIS gonna work? Missing food, it is somehting that has never gone away for me, but I look at myself and the 100+ lbs Ive lost and it's worth it. now, while going thru it, it sucked! I actually went to my doc and told him I was sick of not being able to "pig out" I think he wanted to slap me. But its the feeling of being deprived. The most important thing is to keep yourself surrounded by people who support you and NO, I repeat NO sabatures (sp??) You will find as I did yesterday, that people who are "sabaturers" always talk about food, what your missing how good things like pizza taste things I personally cant have. I tried them and pb'd so I wont try again. As much as I miss pizza and tamales I dont miss that fat, being out of breath all the time, achey back ect. A great idea I got on this board was to list NSV- NON scale VICTORIES take note of how you feel at 4pm, your energy levels after doing things, how tight your clothes fit... then in a month ask yourself those same questions, see the difference? sometimes the scale is our worst enemy. NSV and body measurements have saved me lots of tears. Sounds like you are doing great 13lbs in 2 weeks- WOW stack up 13 lbs of butter at the store, that off your "BUTTer" lol Keep going, keep us informed. Hey, look at the tickers of the people above look at the 100+ lb loosers, your on your way.

Congratulations on your bandiversary and great NSV!!!!

Congratulations on your bandiversary and NSV! Keep up the good work!

Today is my 13th wedding anniversary and I went out to dinner with my hubby. I wore a new dress size 1x (down from 4x), wore my wedding rings (only recently fit me) and had a lovely time with my man who said I look 10 years younger! What a happy day. I was sleeved 6/25 and am down 40 lbs from surgery and a total of 85 since January. Lovin life! Just in case you wondered I ordered shrimp cocktail and had a few bites of my husbands filet mignon, delish!

Good for you for jumping back in. It sounds like you have a good dr & support system. Just do your best each day & start counting all the nsv's & weight loss. It goes by much more quickly than you think. You're working hard to take care of your family. Remember to take care of you!

NSV = Non Scale Victory

Yeah for you!!!!! That will be one of my NSv also ahhh Victorias secret !

Yaaahoooo!! Congratulations, Leigh Ann. That's the best part of being banded, the NSVs!! You are truly inducted into the NSV club.

There's your first NSV in the journey

ok i know this may sound corny, but one of my goals is to be able to jog on Lake Michigans lake front while listening to my ipod. i want to be able to do this by the summer. so my latest NSV is that i can jog on the treadmill for 10 minutes, walk fast for 2 minutes and jog another 10 minutes! YEAH ME!!!!

YAY, single digit sizes!! That is a HUGE NSV that I am aiming for as well! (currently size 20/22) Keep up the good work!

I'd say that's a NSV!!! :-) Woohooo!!

I can now wear a pair of jeans that I haven't worn in over 10 years!!! Is the amazing part that I've lost the weight? OR that I actually kept the jeans in the closet for that long?? lol

I had a 10 day stall and did not make my Nov.1st goal of being being in One-derland so I am sitting at 206 right now but my clothes are getting pretty baggy on me so I went tonight to get one pair of pants and got to shop in the REGULAR size ladies dept! No trek upstairs to WOMAN'S or PLUS for me! I bought a size 18 it felt so good! After 20 years! JCPenneys is also have a huge clearance sale so I also got a second pair of Liz Claiborne docker style pants for .70 cents! Might want to check it out if you are like me and not wanting to invest in clothes until you are closer to goal!

We got to Wednesday already, how did that happen:confused: ? I was more than surprised to see I'd dropped 2lbs this week. I guess the treadmill doesn much more of a job than swimming as a general rule..well for me anyway but am still gonna go to my pool cos it makes a change. I went for a walk outside today and enjoyed it although it was very hot. Then later I had an NSV...Jordan always does the shopping when I do my lessons because I could never cope with standing so long...my back would be killing me 10mins in. Today he needed to go see his kids and so I said drop me off at the supermarket and I'll see how I get on. I did the lot. Shopped, did the check out and packed the bags. Then I wandered around the little stores around the edge of the supermarket and in the bag store a new bag just jumped into my trolley and refused to leave...what could I do except buy it???????????????????????? Jordan despairs...he said was I gonna do the shopping every week now- until I asked if I could visit the stores too every week :eek: :guess :confused: That's all..see ya next time in Ali's wonderful world of complete and utter nonsense and ramblings...great place to visit but get out while you can!

We got to Wednesday already, how did that happen:confused: ? I was more than surprised to see I'd dropped 2lbs this week. I guess the treadmill doesn much more of a job than swimming as a general rule..well for me anyway but am still gonna go to my pool cos it makes a change. I went for a walk outside today and enjoyed it although it was very hot. Then later I had an NSV...Jordan always does the shopping when I do my lessons because I could never cope with standing so long...my back would be killing me 10mins in. Today he needed to go see his kids and so I said drop me off at the supermarket and I'll see how I get on. I did the lot. Shopped, did the check out and packed the bags. Then I wandered around the little stores around the edge of the supermarket and in the bag store a new bag just jumped into my trolley and refused to leave...what could I do except buy it???????????????????????? Jordan despairs...he said was I gonna do the shopping every week now- until I asked if I could visit the stores too every week :mad: :guess That's all..see ya next time in Ali's wonderful world of complete and utter nonsense and ramblings...great place to visit but get out while you can!

WEnt to regular Dr for a followup. He wanted to check my progress and my blood pressure. I have not taken my meds since my surgery. My pressure was lower than it was with my meds!! Needless to say I am Medication free!! woo hoo. ps the scales are down a total of 34 since my surgery on 9/11!!

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement. Now I remember why I was so devoted to this forum for so long! Somwhow got out of the habit of checking in here, but now I'll have to be sure to keep it up. The support is so uplifting and reaffirming. Know you are all appreciated!! Jack, I always appreciate your comments, and the NSVs are what keep me going even though the scale isn't moving. I've had to buy smaller clothes...my favorite was going down 2 band sizes in bras!! And people tell me they can see the difference. It annoys me that we all put so much emphasis on the damn scale! It's hard not to, though, when I go to the doc and his only concern is that I'm not losing and he acts like it's my fault. Anyway...thanks for reminding me how important the NSVs are and that we need to all support each other...luckily we don't all have bad days at the same time! Emily

Non scale victory Mikee. It could be anything that tells you that you're smaller other than what the scale says. For me, it's things like being able to walk, sitting in a chair with arms and not worrying I won't fit. Not needing a belt extender on the airplane, etc, etc. Those NSVs are way more satisfying than just numbers watching.

Yes, ma'am, that's a bonafide NSV. So is the increase of the reps. Same here with my love for the pool. It's the one place I can exercise with no issues. I take an exercise class 2-3 times a week and if I can fit it in, I do laps as well. That pool saved me for sure. You have a great day as well Mikee.