March Bandsters: MASTER THREAD

[chubbychecker 1]

Testing my ticker.

[SpecialK 22]

Checking in here but not with the best eating habits. Ice Cream has turned into my comfort food and I gotta kick the habit. The job interviews are happening this week and I'm having trouble handling the stress of wanting to find work so bad. I had the best interview yesterday and really want that job with all my heart. I have another interview today and I have one scheduled for when I return from my vacation on September 2 so hopefully I can get a job nailed down and get this stress under some better control. I am not going crazy on weight as I am getting walks and activity in every day. I guess its a day at a time thing for now.

Sorry this isn't more positive but its where I am for now.

[chubbychecker 1]

You sound very normal to me. Stress eaters will always find something to comfort them. It is good you recognize this and you should pat yourself on your back. Finding a job is so stressful. I hope this ends soon for you and you can get back on track. You will. Looks like you have come so far with your weight. You know the band won't let you get to off track. That is what it is there for.

[SpecialK 22]

Hi there to my supportive lapband buddies! Yes, the phone interviews this week while I have been in Arizona visiting family have gone great. I am very hopeful that I am going to get a job offer shortly after getting home Sept 1. I am finding my restriction level is still in place but when I see my lapband surgeon on Tues after Labor Day I am thinking I will ask for a tiny fill increase to help me with what I eat staying with me longer. It seems like my pouch size is obvious to me by the volume I can eat at one sitting, but then if I eat a very small portion then I am hungry maybe 2 or 3 hours later looking for something to eat. In my early lapband restriction days, I literally almost would have to remind myself to eat as I could go for hours without being hungry. I'll see what he says but I plan to keep in touch with my surgeon and also with my counselor for food eating for stress help and guidance until I get this last 60 lbs off. Not giving up! Never going back to where I was 140 lbs ago!

Also, it was wonderful flying on the airplane on a very long flight from Atlanta to Phoenix sitting in the Middle Seat and being comfortable and having easily 4-5 inches of seat belt to spare! Praise God and thank God for my lapband!

Take it a day at a time folks cause that is the only way I find to make it work.

[scrappy_friend 0]

Special let us know how the job situation goes.

I have heard people say they forget to eat but that has never happened to me. I dont eat a lot at each meal but I am hungry about every 4 hours and normally want to pick at food before that. I still have to force myself not to eat between meals even if I'm not hungry. I know I don't need another fill I just need to learn self control.

Rhonda

[SpecialK 22]

Last week's two interviews with the CIO's (Sr. VPs) of the same company I am hoping for getting a job went really well and the one guy from the parent company ended the phone interview with saying outright he was going to recommend I be hired. I relaxed and enjoyed last week after that feeling it is going to happen. This Monday the HR manager called for my references and I think that only takes a day at worst to contact a couple people via cell phone or email so I'm hoping today will be the day I get my job offer!

I'll be doing some traveling to NY and Minnesota for this job (flying into LaGuardia airport) so I'll give a shout out if I get to your cities!

I also tried something new yesterday that I saw in Women's World magazine while on vacation. It is called the Duke University Rice Diet. - Just tried it for 1 day - very boring and restrictive and not something you can live with for long I can assure you. The first day is a total detox day - meals of 2/3 cup brown rice (I did Jasmine rice) and 2 pieces of fruit for each of the three meals for the day. Allowed Decaf coffee and skim milk as needed. Drink Water of course. So here is my results, the dang scale was down 2 lbs or more this a.m. -- what gives! Its a virtually Sodium Free diet except for what was in the skim milk! But my WLS doc would be not happy - way too low on Protein. I realize I need to supplement with Protein shakes to get at least 60g of Protein in. The rice is incredibly filling plus the fruit is also filling. I could only do 1/3 c rice for Breakfast and 1/4 apple - I'm tighter in the morning. and then I did 2/3c rice with skim milk, cinnamon, and 1 tsp sugar for a sweet version, then did the 2/3 c rice and orange for dinner. I can't get the 6 pieces of fruit in they recommend so I probably should be spreading the fruit out as morning, afternoon and evening Snacks. I'll give the other days meals a try and see how it goes. It is really just a pretty strict vegetarian low sodium diet.

Turns out the article said that they have found Salt kicks our hunger in gear as does Sugar. Anyway, its an interesting experiment just to get me really disciplined again to measuring food, tracking carefully, etc.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend. I know I will if this job offer comes thru. Another interview at 2pm -4pm today with another company as my backup plan!

[SpecialK 22]

I got my job! I start Monday September 13. Looking forward to this new chapter in life. I had lost 4 lbs in the 6 weeks since my first fill appt in forever and he wanted me to have lost more than that but understood with emotional eating with being out of a job, that losing anything was a victory. I'm sitting tight at this level of restriction now and going to give it a 6 week test with less personal stress and see if I need a further tweak.

Happy Fall!

[scrappy_friend 0]

Happy for you Special K. Now take this last week of not working and enjoy yourself.

Any amount of weight loss is great! Anything is better than gaining! :thumbup:

[chica 2]

CONGRATULATIONS to you, Special K! :thumbup: I can only imagine the relief you must feel! The stress of unemployment is so awful and takes such a big toll on your psyche after a while...

I didn't make my goal of losing 3 lbs in the last month, only 2, but I'm just going to keep going. Maybe next month I'll finally be able to say my BMI puts me at overweight, not obese. But to fair, it's not like I've given up all my vices -- there's still ice cream way too frequently and occasionally thin crust pizza. Hmm, wonder why the scale doesn't move faster. :smile:

How is everybody else doing??

[Desdemona 48]

Hi All -- I'm glad to see you here. I've been away ---------and bad to the bone ----but I'm thinking of you all.

Hey Special --

I dropped in to see what's happening and I'm just catching up with your news. I'm really happy to hear about your new job.

Rice diet sounds ---?? Hmm. I wouldn't be able to take the carbs. I have also been on a bad ice-cream and cookie kick. Gained weight! But I'm off it the last few days and plugging away.

I hope others from March will stop by and let us know what's happening. I'm thinking of going back to the beginning this thread and reading all the way through. Thought it might give me some inspiration.

Penny:thumbup:

Edited September 24, 2010 by Desdemona

[hopeinapril 1]

Howdy!

I thought I would pop back in and see who has posted. Nice to see this is still a relatively active posting. I tried the Sensa and the stuff does work. It makes you not want to eat as much cause you feel full.

Of course, now I need something for my head, because it wants me to eat even when I am not hungry!

I am working on getting the number on the scale to go down. I still need to loose a bit of weight. I certainly don't want to go back.

Congrats on the job Special. Nice to see the other posters as well!

[Desdemona 48]

Sensa????? I guess I HAVE been away too long. Never heard of it but now I'll have to investigate. Is it chemicals? Should we be concerned?

I did finally break down and buy a Body Bugg. I hope that wasn't a waste of money.

[thin2bme 2]

Hi all, I have to admit some of my old habits are creeping back up on me along with a few extra pounds.... :smile2: I seem to have found ice cream sneaking back into my routine way too often also. I still weigh in once a week so I know I'm up about 5 lbs and need to do something about it, but I can't seem to get my head into it. I don't want to go back to where I was before having the band put in, so I know I need a good kick in the behind!!!

Hope your job is going well Special, I'm glad you finally nailed one. I will be starting a new part time job in a couple of weeks at a local casino as a Cage Cashier. This is in addition to my regular full time job, so maybe the extra hours working will keep me from snacking so much and maybe I will see my weight start going down again, keeping my fingers crossed. :thumbup:

[SpecialK 22]

Thin2bme - yep ice cream has been a weakness for me too - hoping with it getting cooler that it will be less tempting for me than in the summer.

Loving my new job and that emotional eating stress has abated but to be honest, there is always something emotional pulling on us and tugging us back toward old eating habits. I have plenty of restriction now - 1/2 of an apple and I have to stop, small bowl of Cereal and I'm full, etc. I can still eat a big salad - I guess the lettuce and things lose alot of volume when you chew well.

I am still hoping to get the scale moving down so I can finally see the 199 number on my scale by the new year or maybe by my birthday January 29. I will just keep working it because I am not going back to where I was.

I had to renew my passport this month and it was shocking to see the difference between my passport photo from 1999 versus now!

[SpecialK 22]

Hi Shamrocks! Its been quiet on the board here but I am still giving it a try every day and still hope to stay committed for the rest of my life. Been bouncing up and down at the same level too long. I miss getting to buy new smaller size clothes every so often. Sadly, the things from last winter (like Feb of this year) still fit -- that is good and bad -- good that I haven't gained weight back (Yea!) but bad that this last 40 lbs I need to lose are very stubborn.

I've been giving it some thought on why I am stuck and it is likely because I think I'm cute and healthy where I am...I really had "getting healthy" as my primary goal and "getting thin" to find my desire to date and have other relationships as a secondary goal.

I am getting ready to schedule an appointment to be retested on my need for a CPAP machine. I think it will show I no longer need that. So, no high bloods pressure, cholesterol or diabetes, dramatically less knee and hip pain, etc. adds up to me meeting my primary "get healthy" goal.

I know I'll be even more healthy if I get this last 40 lbs off but I guess I know with what I've lost I'm not at risk to drop dead from my morbid obesity where I was at 300+ lbs.

On the 'getting cute' front -- I did get brave enough to contact someone I was working with at my former job that I thought might be interested and he waited weeks to respond to my email -- really hurt my ego that I misjudged whether he was available/interested...this is the kind of stuff that has driven me crazy in the past...to eating things.... where I took a chance to put myself out there for a relationship and was put down again. Well, I felt like I was handling things okay, wasn't freaked out, and yet the motivation to 'get cute' to get a man, was gone. So, I'm back to the motivation to be only based on 'get healthy' or 'get to buy cute clothes in smaller sizes' as my motivators. I can't tell you how wonderful it is that people who knew me for years as overweight continue to remain stunned at how much different, better, I look now, and that I'm keeping it going almost 3 years after starting this journey. They are each day becoming convinced that I am in this for life.

Okay, I'm going to buy me something in a smaller size and keep trying that sucker on every day until I get into it! Maybe doing something just to please me alone, will kick my butt into gear.

Hope you're all hanging in there friends. This board was such support for me in the early months and its where I still think I can unload my thoughts and fears and find someone who understands where my family and friends who don't struggle with weight, can't say much to help.