Wish Me Luck!

[bandpal 7]

Hi All,

It's been a while, hasn't it? On the hope that there are some of us still reading this board, I wanted to check in and say hello. Overall I'm doing well. I weighed in this morning at 62.9 kilos (138.4 lbs), 5.1 kilos (11.2lbs) below goal weight, and 67.1 kilos (147.6 lbs) less than I did on the morning of November 21, 2007.

That's not to say there haven't been bumps in the road and elements of my new life which I'm not comfortable with. I can't keep anything down before the early afternoon hours, liquids included. It's rare for me to eat a meal without spitting up some food at least once. It's hard for me to drink for hours after meals, which has occasionaly interfered with taking medication.

I'm also changing jobs this fall, which will necessitate leaving behind the "spitting image" which I've acquired at my old job. So... I'm making the 2.5 hour drive up the desert to my surgeon's office and am getting a full cc taken out. This'll take me down to 5 cc's, down from a high of 6.5 cc's two years ago.

I'm a little scared. But I also know that it's time for me to step up and see if I can keep some of the good habits I've developed over the past three and a half years. Some of these are:

- Eating slowly

- Chewing food thoroughly

- Not eating a large Breakfast (basically, I don't eat breakfast anymore)

- Eating primarily vegetables, reasonable amounts of Protein and small servings of carbohydrates.

- Avoiding sweets as much as possible and trying not to ping pong between sweet, salty and fatty foods.

- Not binging late into the night.

The band forced me to adapt these habits, which meant that I was able to extinguish the bad habits of a lifetime which got me to where I was on that November morning. Now it's time to see if I can keep these habits out of choice rather than from necessity. And of course I hope I'll still feel the band in there, doing it's job. Please wish me luck.

Love to all of you who walked this road with me. I will never forget you.

- Bandpal (David)

[steph_co 9]

I wasn't around when you posted this, so here's a late "good luck." But I'd love to hear an update on how things are going for you at a lower restriction.