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Very happy for you, that was one of my goals too! I went this past summer and loved every minute! I wasn't tired & could have stayed longer. My husband agreed we'd go every year, I love flowers. The nsv's are countless.

I'm back from my long weekend with DS2. We had a great time with my family. We left early on Friday and arrived in Columbus for an early lunch (white-knuckled trip with pouring rain until we were almost there). I was supposed to be on mushies the whole day and then start solids Saturday (post-fill), so I chose some cottage cheese for lunch. I brought flowers from my garden and between those and Mom's we made about 8 arrangements and took them over to my Middle Sister's to start prep for the party. We worked until dinnertime and I was able to get down a little thin crust pizza and mixed fruit salad back at Mom's. Saturday found Mom and I (and two of her Herb Society friends) on a two hour trip down to a lavender farm for a festival (sorry, I forgot my camera but found these pics of the farm online-no, I don't know that cute little boy). It smelled like heaven as we pulled into the lavender field to park. She'd signed us up for two classes so we went off to the 'Mediterranean Cooking with Herbs' class. As I've said before, I'm not the chef in our family, but I was excited for this class. I have a nice herb garden (most cooks would kill for…my neighbors do come to take snippings occasionally at my urgings) and I'd like to learn to use more of them. I always dry some herbs each year (mainly for show in my kitchen and basement rack), but the only things I really use fresh are the basil to mainly make pesto or my mozzarella/tomato Italian flag salad, the tarragon for a chicken bake dish DH makes, and occasionally some chives, dill, or oregano for an occasional recipe. The teacher is the regional cooking expert for Macy's department stores (I think she works a lot with brides, etc.) and she was very knowledgeable. I'm inspired to try to incorporate the fresh herbs more now while they're in season. We had a meal of bread, salad, chicken, pancetta, and cookies all incorporating the herbs at the end of the demo. I almost had a stuck moment as I was carefully eating the herb salad (I thought I chewed very carefully). I was trapped at an inside table with people all around or I would have gotten up as I could feel the sliming about to start. I was panicking and I'm sure the folks across from me saw my eyes watering…but then it passed in a few minutes. I quickly gave Mom the rest of my salad saying I'd taken too much…whew…that was a close one! The Lavender Festival was wonderful, but small (about 20 vendors and the classes), so then we found ourselves with about 3 hours to kill before our next class. It was almost 90 degrees out so after the 'cut your own lavender' trip to the field and shopping the vendors (I bought; 5 plants, a pair of beaded earrings for DD's birthday in August, and 20 wooden garden markers for DS2's vegetable garden that he can decorate) we looked for a shady spot and bought some lavender ice cream from the Mennonites who had an ice cream and baked goods booth (they had a small John Deere engine attached to the ice cream maker…cool to watch). I asked for only one scoop…OMG that ice cream was wonderful…fresh cream from the cow…a scoopful of heaven! Our last class was making a framed picture from pressed flowers and Mom is going to be doing this at one of their Festival's at the herb garden she volunteers with weekly, so she was very excited. We were done in record time (the heat made us work fast) and we were back in the car for our trip home. Then off to Middle-Sister's for my nephew's HS graduation party (he's in a college program now to become a police officer). It went perfectly; no rain and lots of fun. We collapsed after pitching or bagging up the extra food around midnight. Sunday we stayed until late morning so I could spend some more time with Dad for Father's Day. I gave him a nice box of smoked salmon, which he loved. Unusual gift, I know. DH and I (and the kids) twice visited DH's sister and her family when they lived in Alaska for 2 years. We took my only brother on the second trip. He loved it so much that he and DH arranged a fishing trip there (in a motor home for a week traveling the area) a few years later and they took my Dad. He loved getting the salmon they caught smoked and so the salmon I bought him was labeled as being from one of the rivers in Alaska that they fished…he noticed right away. We got in the car for our 3 ½ hour ride home and DS2 said 'It was a great weekend!' and high-fived me as he said 'It was a nice trip with just you and I!' I forget that the baby of the family, even at 13 yrs. old can still need some quality one on one time. We played Mad Libs most of the way home and stopped at McDonalds for lunch (I ate ½ a grilled chicken club sandwich…went down fine). Had a nice evening of playing Frisbee in the backyard and grilling out for Father's Day back home with the family (Happy belated Father's Day all you Dad's). Tomorrow is the Jimmy Buffet concert with 2 neighbor couples (can't wait) and Thursday morning we leave for PennState with DS1 for our orientation (staying at the old colonial Nittany Lion Inn on campus overnight-run by the PennState hospitality program, so it should be fun). DH took off the rest of the week for all this, but I'll try to post some updates when we have some down time. I'm off to the Drs. (routine) with the boys and then on to DS2's guitar lesson (he AMAZES me with his talent...no idea where it comes from, but it's great for each kid to find something they're good at). Today is my two-month bandiversary and I'm down 19 pounds since surgery (most of that, just post-op though). I'm just hoping to keep losing or at least not gain during this 6 week wait for the next fill. Sorry I went on and on as usual, just catching up. Have a great week all!!! I'll post some pics I just took of my garden later.

I'm a size 22 now. Surgery scheduled for 2/20. I bought a pair of size 16 jeans to stare at in the closet. They are my future NSV. Lol

I think my favorite nsv was seeing my ex at a party and then all his friends who used to say how fat I was, come up and tell me how good I looked. I just smiled, thanked them and told them loud enough so he could hear too that it was only going to get better.

I notice the difference a lot. I normally smile and ignore it. I put it into my NSV victory folder!

For starters I had lunch out of town on my way to a dr's appt in Nashville today so my mom and I stopped at a Cracker Barrel. I ordered child's grilled chicken tenders and green Beans, you get 3 chicken tenders they are about the length size of your finger and I give some of my beans to my mom. Now, usually I can eat all of it but today I had to stop at 1 chicken finger and 2 bites of beans, don't know if I was stuck or full, the food just felt like it was right at the top of my throat. I didn't PB, didn't slime, didn't salivate as usual. Then for the last 2 nights I've experienced heartburn and had to take TUMS and I take Omeprazole every morning to prevent this, what's up? My NSV, I can finally cross my legs, woohoo, haven't been able to do that in 20 yrs, feels good.

Great NSVs! Has anyone been told that they don't look like their driver's license picture? I'm still waiting on that one.

These are great NSV's. Congrats to you!!!

Wonderful! I think this is a GREAT NSV. I can't wait for something like that to happen. I've not donned a bathing suit in many many many years. ISG - thanks for sharing!

It may not seem like a big deal, but this week I stopped in at Target and bought a bathing suit top off the rack. I didn't try it on but I got one size smaller than the one I have been wearing. Today, when I got to the pool I tried it on and actually looked at myself, in my bathing suit, in front of a full length mirror. The suit fit, and I looked pretty good all things considered.

favoredone, that is fantastic! I can't wait til I have NSV's to share.

I am down 2.4 lbs this week to 191.8 - just 2 ounces shy of my Thanksgiving goal. I hope to get into the 180's by next week - haven't been there in about 13 years! I had a great NSV yesterday. I am a singer and do a lot of gigs every Nov/December with people that I only really see during that time of year. I sang with one of the women last night and she asked me if I had lost some weight. I told her that I had lost 50 lbs and she said that when had I arrived at the gig she didn't even recognize me. That made me feel great!

I love my LapBand support group! We had our monthly meeting last night. I have made good friends with two of the ladies in the group. I email back and forth with one (Ann) most days. We are accountability partners and share tons of information and experiences. The other (Debi) and I text each other to share SVs and NSVs. We also do things together, like tomorrow night we are going to see Dreamgirls. These two friendships alone make Group worthwhile, but it is even much more than that. Hearing the questions and experiences of so many other people is invaluable to me. My friends and family are SOOO supportive, but no matter what happens, they can't understand it completely because they haven't done it. Our group has a lot of newly banded people, a few waiting to be banded and a few old timers. It is amazing to hear their words of wisdom! Group night also means updated photos for me. I put all of the new ones in my albums, but this angle was particularly great for me. I have attached the "before" picture and then last night's "current" picture. What a difference!!

I did it!!! I just got offered a job IN MY CHOSEN FIELD!!!!! I busted my butt (finished my program early and with a 94), chased a dream I thought was lost to me (thanks to the surgery, getting my health under control, changing my diet, and believing in myself that I could actually do it), and I just got my first job in the medical field!!!!! I literally cried. I'm so so excited!!!! I start on Monday!!!!!! Even though I'm a Medical Administrative Assistant, I won't be at the front desk when you first walk into the office (checking people in, collecting payments, verifying insurance, etc). I'll be the one that comes to get you and takes your vitals, takes you to your exam room, asks you questions and updates your chart, go over any doctor's orders, and then checks you out at the "check out" desk. I'll schedule follow up appointments, handle referrals, and call in any scripts and refills. AND, they will provide the scrubs I'll be wearing. I'm in an AWESOME mood!!!!! I can't believe I really did it. I wasn't sure I could, but here I am!!! I literally cried when I got the call today. I still can't believe it!!! And after 6 months, they will pay for me to continue my training to become a Clinical Medical Assistant and get all the certifications that come with that. All I have left to do is get this last 50 pounds off and then I'm literally living my very best life

Hey everyone. I hope that y’all are doing good. So the other day, my little girl came to give me a hug. I was standing at the time and all of a sudden she got really excited and said “mommy, I can put my arms all the way around you now”!!!! It might be dumb to some but it made me so happy and I had to hide my tears from her! Also, tonight!!!! I took a very comfortable bath for the first time in a very looonnnng time! Before, I couldn’t even sit comfortably in the tub.

That is very true! The NSV's should have been number one!

@@hopeliveshere yep, we love those clothing sizes and towel situations hope its ok to jump in with my brand new NSV was at parking garage car was too far away from the place i'm supposed to reach the ticket i was able to lift my teeny tiny rear end up and stretch over to pull the ticket!! new NSV's are hard to come by at 2.5 years love the above latest kathy congrats @@hopeliveshere and me too

Congratulations ! Great NSV's thank you for sharing !!

@@karine76 jean (clothes) stories are all good!! when i reached GOAL - i went to Kohl's and bought my old regular 2X elastic jeans put them over my new slender, "sexy" jeans it was amazing to me how big the old jeans looked i saw/realized what i looked like to the world in the past unlike you, @@karine76, i stared at myself and DID cry good luck bud more NSV's to come keep up the good work kathy congrats

Great NSV. "It's the little things in life..." like your butt now .

Was thinking about non scale victories the other day while on my thinking chair...yup, the toilet and it dawned on me. My best NSV so far is fitting in a regular stall... No more having to use the handicap stalls for me. I can "think" like the regular folks in the tiny stalls that are everywhere. No longer do I have to wait just because someone else is in the big stall. It's the little pleasures like this that make me thankful for making the decision I did. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App

For the past couple nights I have been awakened because my knees hurt. Last night I suddenly realized they hurt because there is no fat cushion between them when I sleep on my side & the bones are pressing against each other. LOL. Wish the fact was coming off my stomach, but I'll take it.

I cowgirled up and went to the Dr. for my fill yesterday - and I laid it out for her. She was so great and gave me some encouraging advice. I told her about how I seem to be able to fit into smaller clothing but haven't lost a single pound and I am feeling fustrated and like I'm going nuts.. She told me to consider it a NSV and celebrate it and not to worry that the scale will follow. Essentially she says that my body is repositioning as I'm toning up (thanks to my new passion pilates) and that this is a good thing. We also talked Protein. Admittedly I've been pretty bad about this and have been focused on calories and fat and not as much as protein. I find it difficult to count anything when I tend to eat things that don't have labels on them, so I just try to make good choices. Anyway, she recommended the Isopure drinks so I'm not taking in a ton of calories but will be getting a good dose of protein. I'll have to go pick some up today and see how it goes. Thanks to everyone!!!

You know, I hadn't realized the part about skinny people being more supportive than not, but that explains why I have received so much support - everyone around me (even at work) is pretty thin / healthy. I have been so blessed to have incredible support from my friends and coworkers. (There is one friend that isn't but I knew she wouldn't be. She's just like that about everything medical.) Interesting observation... I tell EVERYONE (and I mean everyone - perfect strangers - about my surgery). I guess I figure if I don't act embarrassed of it and get it out there before someone says something, then I have the upper hand? I don't know. Like you, I don't quite grasp that I have lost over 100 pounds; however, mine is because I never really understood how heavy I was. (Crazy, I know.) So just probably the last 10 pounds or so have I realized that not only do I look different but I am actually starting to look - gasp - THIN! Concentrate on those NSV's. That is why we all did this - off the meds, better dr visits, fit in the plane seat, smaller clothes, etc. Those are the things that will help you realize the weight that is gone (said I after going to a movie today and realizing how nice it was to fit in that seat!) I too do not like the excess skin but constantly find myself staring in the mirror trying to decide just how bad it is. Most of it is covered up - except for the turkey neck and that BOTHERS me to no end. I will have my arms done if nothing else because I have always wanted to wear sleeveless (without the requisite cami over it). I can completely understand being anxious about your wedding dress, but girl, you are getting married and from the sounds of it to a wonderful person, so I agree with @@Valentina, spread your wings and fly! Congrats or your progress!

Update on the scale- I haven't weighed myself since I wrote that originally. I guess I will see at the Dr.'s office. But I keep reminding myself that the scale doesn't matter. My health does. So I am going to focus on NSV. They have just slowed down. But I will go in for my first fill FINALLY on the 17th. Oh and Gibson- Its still dead. I ripped its batteries out.