I'm here to help...

[llkb4me 1]

Janet, I'll take that challange too. Like Octillo I'm going for the 10 lbs. That will fit into my goal I set myself. I wanted to lose 75 lbs by Christmas and I'm at 65 now, by my scale. Which I have to get a new battery since the dumb thing swings by about 6lbs each time I step on it.

Laura K

[llkb4me 1]

Laura, thoughts and prayers to you and your family as your Dad continues this journey and as you and Nelson travel.

Laura K

[ocotillo 0]

Laura, have a good trip and we are hoping for the best with your Dad. Hope Nels just has a quickie bug. (((HUGS))).

I'm down another 1/2 pound.....yeah! I'll take anything I can get.

Laura K....10 pounds is scary to me....but it would sure give my ego a boost if I could do that. I know you can....look how well you've done so far!!

Okay...got to get ready for work. We are going out to dinner tonight so probably no posting this evening.

Take care everyone and have a great day.

Eva

[Apples2 19]

Hello, I really don't need help right now...but I know I will how do we get mentors or buddies?

Hey Tiny..welcome. Tell us a bit about yourself. I love this thread. It's my daily dose of what I need to stay on top of LB issues. Also, this is a very friendly and well-informed group of ppl to check in with. Looking forward to getting to know you!:tongue2:

[Apples2 19]

Hey guys~

Nelson and I leave in about an hour for our trip to NC. Last night he starting running a 99.6 fever. SIGH..... What do you do? I called my Mom to give her a heads up; not sure if they want him around Dad. Dad is having surgery tomorrow. (cystoscopy, doublt J stent replaced and ureter biopsy) Spoke to Dad this morning and he said come on up, didn't want us losing the $ on the tix. I just worry about him getting sick is all.

DH was being sooooo sweet yesterday and this a.m. He is really sad about us leaving. I told him to enjoy the "time off"... he laughed b/c he has to work all week. But he can eat beer and sandwiches for dinner in front of the tv in his boxers without us. : ) I don't like the tv on during meals.

Apples~ Happy Anniversary tomorrow. You guys lead an example of how it is done! Thanks : )

Hugs to everyone. Have a good week. I will try to check in, but if I don't you will know why. Will return Sat. I do have LBT on my Blackberry so we at least read.

peasout....Laura

Laura..probably did not catch you but wanted to tell you to have a safe trip. Not sure what to tell you on the Nels with the fever issue. If he is like my boys were, they could run a slight fever on any given day this time of the year with the virus' running rampet. Hope his fever goes down. Just be careful that Nels stays a distance away from GF and clean his hands with disinfectant periodically.

Will be thinking of you and your family as your dad goes through this surgery. He will be happy to be able to be free of the tube. I am sure all of this is on your mind continuously and consumes you. Take care of yourself and stay strong.

Hope your DH takes advantage of his TV "scratch wherever he wants", beer drinking/sandwich eating sessions. Every guy needs to think he is getting away with something. My guys are usually "dirty". Mud and gravel on boots so my rule is drop the shoes at the door. I KNOW that when I am gone they sneak up to the fridge or down to laundry room with muddy boots. But, when asked, no one seems to know who did it.

Thanks for the anniversary wishes. The day is actually today. We've had a good run of it. Could just smack him sometimes (and I am sure visa versa) but we just have always had a good life together. Guess we set these three simple marraige "rules" early.

1. Pass gas in bed and your dead!

2. Respect for each other and our children

3. Try to meet each other half way on the parenting.

We have always had a tradition at our house on bdays and anniversarys. We "hide" our cards or gifts under the bed. When the alarm goes off, we take turns opening. We did the same with the kids. On their bdays, they would jump in bed with us to open their gifts first thing in the morning. Usually DH and I make cards for each other. This year I did buy him a gift. So weird. Sunday when I was in town I found him a John Deere (we are big into the green) pocket watch. A little JD tractor is the second hand that races around the face. Yesterday I had just gotten to town and he called looking to see if I had a second hand on my watch so that I could help him to calibrate his fert input while I was on the phone with him. So weird that I had just bought him that watch the day b/4. I was almost tempted to run it back to the field 15 miles away but waitrf til morning.

Also had a sign made for our farm as a gift to him. We have three HUGE flat rocks. They look like a mountain range as the tops form peaks. We dug into the ground and set all three, overlapping each other. Always wanted to have them etched. Checked into it and would cost at least $1500. Travel time, etching large letters, etc. Went to our local print shop and they made me a beautiful sign with our name on it. Has brackets to hang on rock. Turned out really nice and looks great. All for under $100. Nice cranberry color with ecru printing.

DH got me a Bose radio with multi-CD changer. We have had a Bose in our home for about 15 yrs. but with only one CD fitting at a time. That one will head to the bedroom or to the lake. I tend to crank up my CD's while I am cleaning, baking, cooking, etc. and am going to appreciate the changer. Now I can just put in my ppl all at one time (Fergie, Jewel, Josh Grobin, Black Eyed Peas, Pink, Taylor Swift, Micheal Bloublet (sp?), THE BEATLES, Nat King Cole, etc.). Yep, I'm all over the place in what I listen to.

Heading out to dinner (finally found time for our date) to a nice Italian restaurant. Meeting long-time friends and maybe oldest DS and GF. Looking forward to it.

Did some thinking on the Christmas Challenge. Not going to participate. I will be the referee. I am just going to take it as it comes. I tried soooooooooo hard all summer to gain and it never happened. Once I quit trying, the weight came on. Worried so much this last couple of weeks that I would drop that weight due to stress...and, dropped the weight and even got my cals in and then some with eating sweets, etc. that were brought to the house. I'm just not even going to stress about it and see what happens.

Linda...thinking of DSD and what she is going through. Hope they can get things regulated for her soon. I am sure it is all a heartache for you and added stress. Take care of yourself.

I'm still in my robe ("mom's" big fluffy pink on we gave her for bday years ago) and better hit the shower and get some things done around here. Have not paid attention to things here for the last couple of weeks as I have been gone every day. Dog needs some momma time so need to get out in the yard for some play time.

Nice weather the last few days. 50's and 60's and sunshine. You all have a great day. Life is good. :tongue2:

Edited November 10, 2009 by Apples2

[Great2BThin 5]

Good morning!

Happy Anniversary for real this time Apples! Enjoy your day with hubby! WE just got a Bose theater system for our TV and love it, but it doesn't play CD's. It's an older one we got used from a friend.

Linda, Wow 96 lbs. Congrats! That's awesome in 9 mos. Glad to see you back posting. AS for the joints, I thought when I lost the weight my knees would be better too, so they told me. But alas not at all. I took less ibuprofen of course, since I wasn't supposed to take that any more, but the knees were still killing me. Alas, my surgery on the worst knee. I just feel too good with the 128lb weight loss to put up with achy joints so decided to have it done.

Eva, enjoy your dinner out tonight!

Laura, hope Nelson is feeling okay, enjoy your time with your dad.

Tiny, welcome, just jump right in!

TV (is that our 'topic of the day'), DH always wondered why I liked to go out to eat so much since the kids have moved out and it's just the 2 of us. It wasn't really to get away from them, etc. I said it's because the darn TV isn't on and you are my captive in the booth or table at the restaurant and have to focus on me and conversation. At home he tends to have the news on or a newspaper etc. to catch up on the news of the day. Since then, we rarely have the TV on during meals.

Well off to see my lapband surgeon today. I was supposed to be at the bottom end of my goal range today but alas I am not, but am not at the high end either at least on my scale I'm not.

[Apples2 19]

Oops...missed the congrats to Linda on her 96lbs gone forever. Good goin'

Eva...You were asking about the 1910 lunch bags. Don't even know if I know what a costco store is. Nothing like that around here. We have SuperValu, Rainbow Foods, Cub, Sams Club or Walmart (and I have to drive 65 miles to get to one of them and 95 miles to get to the others. Just mom and pop stores in our rural area. (Yes, mom and pop are at the checkout).

TV...not very interesting. If it's on, I go for Dateline, 20/20, Larry King, CNN, etc. DH is usually behind his laptop in the evenings and I am doing my daily LA Times or NY Times crossword and then move onto my reading. My true addiction is those two puzzles DAILY. I actually feel withdrawl if I don't get them in every day.

My sons were not tv watchers while growing up and still are not. They had all the entertainment they wanted right out their front door. Could not force them into sitting down and watching cartoons on a rainy day. Slickers were put on and out the door hand in hand as little guys. I would love to make a wish and have those days back.

[Great2BThin 5]

Costco is like Sam's club, however, in my opinion, much nicer. However, you will find just as many folks that prefer Sam's. Personal preference and what you get used to I suppose. When the warehouse stores first came into being, costco is what I got used to.

Apples, where do you get your crosswords? Do you subscribe to both those papers or are they available online? I used to do Sudoku a lot but got tired of it, maybe I should try crosswords. Grandma always has easy large print crossword puzzle books around and sometimes I do some of those. Is it true that as the week goes on the puzzles get harder?

[Apples2 19]

Costco is like Sam's club, however, in my opinion, much nicer. However, you will find just as many folks that prefer Sam's. Personal preference and what you get used to I suppose. When the warehouse stores first came into being, costco is what I got used to.

Apples, where do you get your crosswords? Do you subscribe to both those papers or are they available online? I used to do Sudoku a lot but got tired of it, maybe I should try crosswords. Grandma always has easy large print crossword puzzle books around and sometimes I do some of those. Is it true that as the week goes on the puzzles get harder?

OK...now I'm clear on what Costco is. We do not have a membership to Sams. 95 miles away. I do hit Walmart to save on some bulk things I use to cook for my guys and things for the farm shop (paper towels, etc.)

We subscribe to the Minneapolis daily and the crosswords are both in the Variaty section. You can also get them online.

You are correct...Monday is easy (not enough challenge as I tend to get Mon, Tues, and Wed done in about 10 min.). Friday, Sat and Sun and what I like. I find crosswords to be relaxing and keep my brain working. How much brain power does it take to read a recipe, drive for farm parts, make a hotdish, do a load of laundry?, etc.

[IndioGirl55 32]

Here's a post I found looking for something on our #7 thread - this was posted by me 10/22/07 - I was 3 months out

I posted this on the 50+ thread - so you 7's who read that thread - you can just skip this message from me.

I thought my Lucky #7's would enjoy my little rant - especially since I forgot I was on the 50+ thread and say how great us 7's are :tongue2:

We were talking about Will Power - me saying that we do have it with the help of the band..

On the will power - as I see it we do have it - we say we don't cuz then we wouldn't need the band - that's not necessarily so - we have all lost weight before - that means we did stick to a diet at one time in our lives

Yes we all gained it back and then some - That's not necessarily lack of will power but falling back into old habits just a little at a time. Oh this extra taco isn't going to but 40 lbs back on its ok to eat it - those Cookies - that we started out only going to eat one and then the bag is gone. we gain 5 lbs - do go for a while eating healthy some of the time but slipping more and more and then gain 5 more - so on and so on..til it's all back and then some - and then we are so disgusted with ourselves again - cuz this last time we lost the weight we said "WE WILL NEVER RE-GAIN IT" as it was too hard to loose... We get hopeless. We think that we should be able to eat like we do and enjoy our food and be thin at the same time... We feel so cheated - cuz we look at our thin friends and it seems like they can eat any and everything and stay thin (a rare few do but those are the rare cases) but our thin friends don't eat like we do - cuz most of us are closet eater - people don't really see you eating 3rd serving of dinner at night or getting up and eating a half a bag of cookie or a bag of candy - not one candy bar but 2 or 3 King Size, society is to blame too - super size this -All you can eat buffets. We play little mental games with ourselves... We can't do - it's too hard why I can’t be like Suzie.. But that girl who eats a big lunch isn't eating a big dinner with desert too and then another dinner before bed...

But you know what "We can do it " "We are doing it" We have a great tool that does help you eat smaller meals but we all are working hard using our will power to make healthy food choices. We could be still making bad food choices even with the band but we all went through alot to get this tool - We are trying to figure out why we ate - what are triggers are and how to deal with them other than food. LADIES we are learning a new lifestyle - which I don't think we really did in any other diet we went on - we just figured that we would follow the diet and once the weight was gone we could go back to eating our way. For once in our lives we are really working the program we understand that if we want to succeed at this that we have to eat healthy for the rest of our lives - not just until the weight is off but forever.. We can have that cake - candy - but only every now and then. With the band we can't over eat a 24 0z steak - a large baked potato with the works - half a loaf of bread dinner salad & Soup Plus desert. The band will stop that binge for sure even if you don't have alot of restriction,..:embarassed:

We have this site which we didn't have before - it's made up of FAT women & men - people just like us - who understands our addiction to food which is physiological and not physical. We can talk to each other - we understand each other - We are on this journey together we are here to support each other - give a helping hand when needed and slap when needed. Ladies we really do have will power we have just convinced ourselves that we didn't - but we do - look at us lucky #7's. We are STRONG women - we are on our road to recovery - 10 lbs by Turkey Day... That's will power - Lucky #7 Will Power. & over 50+ will power (and us older ones are a tad smarter than the young ones - age does have its benefits). I am here to help will power :0). Added today 11/10/09 ;0).

Ok - the story above is mine - but I bet there is more than one other person out there who felt the same way as I did/do... We all are different but again we are all alike...

Well enough of my rant ....

Apples :0) Don't worry that you have to gain - heck it's the same as trying to lose - it hard and yes if you focus too much it can become harder - it's like when you say I am going to diet - then all you want to do is eat 24/7... I get it..

Happy Anniversary !!!!

Did you guys see Eva's post - She's comming to visit me on 11/21 !!! I am so excited !!! I am sure we will get w/Phyl too...

Laura - Hugs and prayer on Dad's surgery - we are with you in spirit holding your hand and giving you a shoulder to lean on.. xoxox J

Tina - Welcome - like Apples said - jump on it...

Linda WTG GIRL 96 FREAKING LBS - THAT'S FANTASTIC !!!

Great - and you know that your 128 aint to damn shabby either girl..

As far as the challenge goes - I think the end date should be 1/5/10 - that's 8 weeks from today and will help keep us honest between Xmas and New Years too ...

For me and Great - 5lbs and the rest of the gang 10...

My weight today 143 Goal 138..

I love t.v. I would die without my dvr - would love a surround sound (a good one that doesn't buzz) I love the crime drama's - grey's - lost - trama - etc.. I read &/or crochet while watching - sometime just listen if I am on the computer - but those are the shows I don't really really care about...

Ok I gotta get to work.... CBL....

[Apples2 19]

Totally agree with your original post, Janet. I am full of willpower as I am sure most of us are. Heck, the first time I lost weight as a senior in HS, my friends were all over me stating that they wished they had half my willpower. When I gained most of it back my college freshman year, nothing was said. I wish one of them would have. We have the willpower to take it off, the toughest part comes with maintaining the willpower throughout the years after weightloss. But, with the band (and if you continue to follow the band rules and eat a healthy diet) it will help you to keep it off.

I think it was Linda that posted this morning and was talking about being afraid of certain foods. (cake, Cookies, etc.). I truly believe that it was that fear that made me gain back weight time after time. My thinking was "Well I slipped up again...no use in trying". And then I would give up. It's almost like it put me into panic mode and I would feel like a failure and feel so defeated if I sat and ate some Pasta salad (was my downfall food), pie, etc. Now I look at those foods as a "treat". When I was in the weightloss stage, I did treat myself to all those foods. But, it would be a couple of bites. Just to satisfy. Deprivation can get a person into the wrong frame of mind and I think the body craves a treat once in awhile.

[Jazlady 1]

I want to join this bandwagon although I'm very embarrased to admit where I am. OK, here goes. 2 years ago I was banded, went from a size 22 to 8. Then, slowly but surely developed ways to cheat the band and eat whatever I wanted. I've gained back 30 lbs. and now in a size 14. I am totally disgusted with myself and don't know how to get back on track. My volume is up so I'm thinking about a fill, but until I get my food choices in order, I'm not sure if even that will help. HELP!!!!!!!!

[OnTheWay to Thin 0]

Dont beat yourself up, if we all had an easy time keeping our weight down we would not have had surgery. The cool thing about the band is it is always there and you can dust it off and put it back into service at any time. Take a good look at what you are eating, journal for a few days, measure and see if the quantities are up there, you may just need a small adjustment to get things going again. Hang in there.

[Great2BThin 5]

Good afternoon. My appt with Dr Snyder went really well today. He told me to quit stressing about those last few pounds, that I was 'fantastic' where I was. That I needed to learn it's okay to be happy with my weight. AFter years and years of trying to lose it is jsut so strange to think I don't have to lose anymore. But still I have in my mind it would be nice to have 5more lbs off. So I am undecided if I should do the challenge or not.

Janet, I enjoyed your post on willpower, I agree completely. LIke Apples my downfall was in the all or nothing thinking. I'd think in the past if I had a piece of that pie I blew it and that would be the end of my maintainance and or losing and I'd gain it back. I agree about the treats once in a while. As soon as you tell me I can't have something I obsess over wanting it.

Any Biggest Loser fans here? That's on tonight and is my main night for wanting to watch tv. I also like Dancing with the Stars.

I missed the post about Eva coming to visit Janet. Sounds fun.

Therapy went well today as well, I got 120 degree bend which is the goal. Still really tight in the thigh muscle. I got very dizzy and sweaty there today again. Not sure what was up with that. I did a bike and elliptical and exerted myself more than normal. Could I be that out of shape in 5 mos or could it be still my low b/p issues? HMMMM

[IndioGirl55 32]

I want to join this bandwagon although I'm very embarrased to admit where I am. OK, here goes. 2 years ago I was banded, went from a size 22 to 8. Then, slowly but surely developed ways to cheat the band and eat whatever I wanted. I've gained back 30 lbs. and now in a size 14. I am totally disgusted with myself and don't know how to get back on track. My volume is up so I'm thinking about a fill, but until I get my food choices in order, I'm not sure if even that will help. HELP!!!!!!!!

Hi Jazlady Welcome

I know what you are feeling - I haven't gained my weight back but I am on the high side of my 5 lb limit. I know how easy it would be to put those lbs back on - and once you have been obesit - and lost the weight it does come back faster and stronger (learned this at my lapband conference)

What you have done is allow just a little too many treats back into your life - and slacked on the exercise and you may need a fill.

I want you to eat dinner tonite (healthy) Protein 1st 4 oz of meat or fish - 1/2 cup veggies - then sit and contenplate your stomach - are you physicallly full - after this amount of food - and how long are you staying full - but the kicker here is the physical sensation of being full - that doesn't mean you still don't want to eat - hell I can be physicall full but still crave more food and like you know how to eat around my band..

If you are full on that meal for a few hours then I don't think you need a fill - if you aren't then make an appointment with your doc -

I go back and forth do I need a fill or don't I - I gotta say I don't think I do - cuz if I eat hard protein I am physically full even though like I said I still crave to eat more..

For me I have come to understand (well for the most part) that I can never ever again eat my normal - that's how I got fat in the 1st place. My normal - high fat/sugar isn't healthy..

You can still have treats and lose weight - you just have to plan for them and if you go over board you got = stop drop and roll (stop & do some extra exercise) to compensate for those extra calories.

You can do this - you know you can - you just gotta get back on eating healthy - not allowing too many treats here and there..

I truly agree with you gotta get your food in order 1st - and with that statement I know you can - you have proven you know that it's just not the quanity but the quality of the foods you are eating that has put on those extra lbs...

You can do :tongue_smilie:- Come here and we will help you all we can..

Hugs Janet