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start - 4/11/12 - 297.4 surgery - 4/24/12 - 282.6 14.8 1 month - 5/24/12 - 258.8 23.8 2 months - 6/24/12 - 246.6 12.2 3 months - 7/24/12 - 228.4 18.2 4 months - 8/24/12 - 217.6 10.8 5 months - 9/24/12 - 205 12.6 6 months - 10/24/12 - 196 9 7 months - 11/24/12 - 190 6 8 months - 12/24/12 - 181.6 8.4 9 months - 1/24/13 - 177 4.6 10 months - 2/24/13 - 172 5

Whew! Day 12 of 17 on my liquid diet. Surgury date is one week from today. It's almost surreal to think I'll be parked in a hospital bed one week from tonight. It's been a rough week but I've done pretty well. Total of 13.5 pounds lost on liquid diet. Not as much as I anticipated in the last couple of days, but I think I might not be getting enough water. Tried to up that intake today and hope that will help the numbers drop again tomorrow. I would love to hear from anyone who is post-op about what you recommend taking to the hospital. That is, besides a healthy dose of optimism and patience. LOL!

As I stated in my last entry, I am not much of a reader. However, that has recently changed. I cannot stop reading about the surgery, pre-op, post-op, the diet, amount of weight lose, etc. It's become a mini obsession. The more I read, the more I learn it is for me. I bought WLS for Dummies and it has been really great. Kind of a one stop shop for all phases of the process. Also bought Skinny Jeans. This is more of a psyche type book. The mental state you need to be in and why we look for this as an option. So far so good and both are on Amazon pretty cheap too. Also found some great videos on the subject: http://www.muschealth.com/video/Default.aspx?videoId=10693&cId=46&type=rel and http://www.upmc.com/Video/Pages/default.aspx?vcat=511%3b%230cc24f80-e320-4764-933f-2379e134e347%7cWeight+Loss. They are both hospital centers of bariatric excellence. Great info! http://www.obeseinfo.com/default.htm Is another great website. I have found the more I learn the less nervous I become. It is also reinforcing I have made the right decision. I cannot wait for my first nutrition appointment on 8/14. Happy Reading!!

Sorry for the delay!!! I weighed 239 and change this last time... I have to weigh in again on Monday! Im excited about the loss but I wish it was more like 3lbs a week instead... So funny because every time I think about updating my blog because I know im behind on tracking my weight I keep saying 139, hahahaha...I havent been that low since I was about 19! Anyway...I was trying on clothes last weekend because we ELOPED!!! YAY!!! We ran away and I wore a dress similar to what I wanted. It was more about the moment, the meaning of the ceremony...and then I saw my pics!! WTH, I look like I need to be making tortillas in a mexican kitchen, lol (I am Mexican, BTW) hahaha.. I will post my most heinous pics when I am at home since I am doing this from work (oh oh) :ph34r: So I keep saying that I have some nagging little support issues from my partner... I will post about it on my next weigh in on Monday. I promise. Also feeling fuller this last week. Ive had some serious stuck issues twice in the last two days when I was eating my protein. Once with chicken breast yesterday at lunch and this morning with my eggs and sausage at breakfast. It might have happened some other times but I cannot remember past these last two. It was pretty painful. Trying to avoid mushy slider protein like the tuna w/mayo and melted cheese that I have been eating in a pinch. Getting too long- let me start another blog entry!

I have never had a blog or the desire for oen until now. I was banded in 2007 and started out very strong but after a divorce, a new baby, and becoming a single mom, my workouts and motivation just took a nose dive. A friend of mine wanted to lose soem weight and started this program through Team Beachbody. I watched as she posted stuff about her diet, challenges and victories all over facebook. I guess her before and after pictures are what affected me. I remebered seeing my before pictures and how excited I was to have made such a noticable change to my appearance and my health and I wanted that feeling back. So today is a new day. I have started the Turbofire program and to help me stay motivated I have decided to become a coach and help others as well. I'll never forget how important it was for me to be able to connect with other people going through the same things I was going through and what a help they were to me when I needed a kick in the butt. I'm going to pay it foward and again, make a choice to be the strongest healthiest me I can be for myself and the people that love and depend on me. Today is a new day and I look foward to many more healthier happier days. A new fitness program that I can work with and a wonderful support group with team beachbody and lapband talk. I'm coming back and I'll be better than ever. I'm worth it.

I had my surgical consultation yesterday and it went swimmingly. Dr. Rantis was a lot cooler then I expected. Reading his reviews online led me to believe that a) he is a terrific surgeon and he lacks bedside manner. I thought his bedside manner was fine, and he seemed to think I was quite hilarious so that gives him a check mark in my book We discussed my health history and asked me if I had any issues. I said, "No, I'm pretty healthy. Just fat." he said, "I like you, you're funny." Maybe I opened him up a little more because I tend to have a blunt, no holds barred type of attitude. Who knows. After having my body composition analysis done, I studied the little print out in disgust. 310 pounds even. That is not the woman I see when I look in the mirror. I don't feel like a 310 pounds person. I don't like myself right now, and I can't wait to change that. I can't wait to see the number on the scale go down and down and down. I don't know how I've allowed myself to get to this point. I'm embarassed and disgusted and just plain sad. The doc asked me what my goal weight was and I told him at this point, my goal is to break the 200 pound barrier. I remember when I weighed about 225, thinking the same thing, I just want to get below 200. How silly was I! What I would give to only have to work off 25 pounds. Now I need to focus on working off over 100. Sick. Now, I wait. I have to get a pyschological evaluation and personality test done, and I need to attend a pre-surgery nutrition class for bariatric patients. I have scheduled both already, pysch eval on 8/16 and nutrition class on 8/23. I guess I will find out after that what my next steps are. I plan on taking some before photos this week to track my progress. Really not looking forward to that but I will do it for the sake of the cause.

Well, another weekend has come and gone and I am back to work this AM. Had a successful weekend with very few slip ups. I had a NSV moment this weekend..We had some dead spots in our yard so we had dug them up and were re-sodding..well, I was carrying the 40 pound bags of new dirt and throwing the squares of sod while my husband "watched". I asked if he was going to help - he laughed and told me that I was in better shape than he was, so he would just "let me" get my exercise in for the day..Hehe, As tired as I was - not to mention dirty - I kept on with the bags and the sod until the job was done. I acutally amazed myself in the fact that I was not short of breath and did not really get overly tired and no soreness. Now, you to have to know I live in Florida and it was 97 degrees and humid - Hot my friends..A year and 100 pounds ago - none of this would have been remotely possible. But I guess I am in pretty good shape to have done this job. As I sit and look at my tiny plate, with my tiny amount of food (all the time really wanting a pizza followed by some ice cream) I reflect back on this weekend and realize that I have come a long way. I am not only smaller, I am healthier and stronger than I was one year ago. Yep, I still have about 40 pounds more to go (the weight of one bag of dirt - which I thought was HEAVY) so I trudge on..Moving foward, not wanting to go back to the old fat me. I am thankful for the surgery and my weight loss...even if I never reach my goal weight - hey, there is still 100 pounds less of me today and that in itself is a "GOLD MEDAL" performance - if I do say so myself. So, next time you feel down, feeling left out or short changed - go find an old picture of yourself (a fat one) and think back at just how "wonderful life was" when you were heavier - huffing and puffing your way through life, with sore knees, bad ankles and who knows what going on in your insides. Hang in there bandster peeps - we are in this boat together and we will succeed one way or the other. This Saturday I am doing my 5th 5K - this one is up and down the ramps of the Jaguars (NFL) football stadium. It is called the "Stadium Challenge" and it is a tough one. I did it last year and I am crazy enough to do it again. Been working hard on my training. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I make it through such a demanding 5K. Maybe that dirt and sod "training" will come in handy.....I bet my husband will take credit for that one ! Until next time - have a great week and stay true to yourself ! Melinda in Florida

So ok. I started having feet problems back in 2004. was working on concrete all day and figured I needed some sort of orthotic. my weight was around 400. over the course of the next year, started having chest pains which the Heart Doc said was caused by stress, weight steady climbing. in 2005 weight is almost 500 lbs, feet and knees killing me, drinking tons of energy drinks to make it thru the work day, seeing a podiatrist who says I have heels spurs and degenerative bone disease. makes me take LOA from work to wear special foot supports (boots) to try and ease the plantars fasciatis. off work for 1 month, weight stable around 500 at this time. september of 2005, the podiatrist again makes me take medical loa and am off my feet for next three months. weight starts climbing. can't sleep at night, chest hurts all the bloody time, usually because I am angry and blood pressure now a major issue. go in to visit with HR and they tell me that my only option is to report for work or be terminated. doctor says I can't work. lose my job, lose my benefits, watch my 401k get eaten alive, go into bankruptcy. I go in for a sleep study and find out I have sleep apnea, the sleep doctor tells me that I have apparently not gotten a good nights sleep in almost 25 years. cause for depression, suicidal thoughts, weight gain, I get put on a cpap. laying flat on my back now, can't move around, weight going up, chest hurts, legs hurt all the way into my hips. get a chest x ray and my heart is the size of a small football. no wonder it hurts...skip forward as all I am doing in 2006, 2007, 2008 is lying in bed dying. finally get aproved for medicare and go see a doctor. after a few visits, he suggest I see Doctor Lee Schmitt from alabama surgical weight loss center. I go to a seminar at St Vincents east in birmingham alabama and weigh myself. 590 lbs.gained almost 2oo lbs in 4 years. speak with Doctor Schmitt. he tells me to get my weight down below 500 lbs and he will do a gastric bypass. I start drinking protein shakes and eating salads. my weight starts inching down a lb or so a month, I start trying to walk and can make it from 1 telephone pole to the next and back again. I start trying to extend my walks every week until I can walk a quarter mile, and go back to a bypass support group meeting st st vincents east, I weigh in at 550. I have lost 40 lbs. I continue doing the protein shakes and salads and start going to the support group meeting every month. I have an interview with Doctor Schmitt and my weight is at 525. NOW I have to start jumping thru some hoops, visiting with a Psychologist and a nutritionist and getting evaluated and poked and prodded. I get a surgical date for december of 2008 and 1 week before my surgery, when I am doing a liquid diet to shrink my liver prior to surgery, the bloody shrink puts a the breaks on my surgery. she insist I speak with a therapist and take a test, the test cost me out of pocket over 400 dollars and told me what I already knew, I am depressed and suicidal and bi polar and just suffering from PTSD. I go in for a sleep study (also required) still need the cpap. I hate that thing. hurts my face, if I roll over I drool and the bloody thing fills up with drool, ever wake up drowning in your own spit? GROSS! february 15th 2009. report to ST V's at 5:30 am. I weigh in at 490 lbs. they lay me down on a bed, a nurse injects something into my IV and off to sleep I go. wake up time, my wife and daughter are trying to wake me up in recovery. jessica tells me that cloee my cat wants me to wake up I think, kinda foggy on that memory, but I wake up. within the next hour Sandra, My Wife, gets me up and walking short distances in the hallway. 2 days later I go home. will continue this story later.