NJ2NC

Happy Birthday Chrissylu!!! Btw everyone, I loved my 1st Zumba class today.. I can see more of those in my future!

Recap-I believe I missed it by 1 pound I think it's only been 4lbs.. but its ttotm so it's possible I could be down another pound and it's just water weight now hahaha ok ok I'm reaching lol I only lost 4

ValAnn, Thanks and yes my chest feels very sore this morning, throat feels ok. yes, PB'ing provided immediate relief thank goodness! I was able to successfully eat scrambled eggs this morning.. funny I felt a strange need to chew them to oblivion haha. My husband said almost the same thing to me.. he said, hmm I'll bet you learned to chew slower, you always have to push the limits dont you..lol. Thanks for the advice I do have some soup here at work I think I will stick to protein shakes and soup today.

OMG.. My first real 'stuck' I promise to chew chew chew and chew some more! That hurt!! And kept on hurting until I was able to finally bring it back up and Yuck thick mucus .. Never want to do that again.. Scared my 9yr old to death she thought I was going to pass out, poor baby! Now my chest is sore.

amica813, wow, what was the name of that machine? I'm glad you are feeling better, I haven't had a kick butt workout like that in a LONG time.. I hate that you had pain afterwards, I hope it don't happen again, yes, yes, get that six pack, on second thought get a 12 pack and send me 6 keep us posted.

JDI130, When I asked my nutritionist about certain foods she said to just always try to stay less than 15g of net carbs especially for things like snack bars and yogurts. I do try to avoid carbs like bread, rice, pasta etc. (I'm not counting either) but I look at how many carbs are in the foods and try to stay within guidelines. I do well with my protein but I'm a complete slacker on my exercise and water..going today, 1st time in a couple weeks.. and work on my couch to 5k program and planning to try Zumba for the first time tomorrow.

Btw: if you cook a big enough steak you can cut it in half and have some for lunch the next day. 1 last quick lunch meal I'd like to add is chef salad with lean ham and turkey, 2% cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, Romaine, tomatos, I don't use croutons but its an option and lignt dressing. If I'm really hungry by lunch I may eat a yogurt with it or sugar free pudding.

For Breakfast its either a 2%cheese & egg omelet but mainly its a protein shake. For Lunch its tuna salad or chicken salad, or small chili w/ cheese from Wendy's (I may go to the hot bar at the grocery store and get a meat and veggie) For Dinner, I try to change it up from time to time, last night I made chicken fettucini w/ Classico alfredo sauce for the family. For me I took out a few cut up pieces of the grilled chicken from the pasta and put it over veggies, I took a teaspoon of the alfredo sauce and cut it will skim milk and put it on top just for some flavoring. I figured I ate light all day a little alfredo sauce wont be too bad. When I make spaghetti w/ ground beef (97/3) and salad for the family. I use either heart smart or light smart Prego sauce, I grill me a piece of chicken breast and I use some of the sauce (without the meat) and shredded cheese and put it over my chicken with some salad. If you like a sweet sauce like my family I just sprinkle in a little splenda (they don't even know I stopped using real sugar in their sauce) Another quick dinner is grilled steak and cut it up over a salad and a nice light dressing. Fish is always a winner too. I cook almost everything on my Nuwave Oven..I love that oven!! countertop healthy cooking.

Congrats to everyone with all your accomplishments this weekend.. running, smaller sizes, reaching and passing goals, breaking plateau's... this is a great group. This morning I decided to try on my family birthstone ring (a Christmas gift 3 yrs ago) that I was never able to wear because it was too tight. I'm wearing it today and it actually have room to spin on my finger..Yay for the NSV.

Prayers for you Chrissylu, hope u feel better and way to go on doing the 5k.. I'm aiming for October Breast Cancer 5k Congrats to all us incredibly shrinking women! I like to order my bathing suits online too! just dont know what size to buy for the summer..im not a big beach person but i may change that! lol

North Carolina here!

Hello All, Kganous, sorry to hear about the issues with your port...hopefully May 7th will be a positive visit and no surgery will be necessary...prayers. Chrissylu - "43 by 43" thats great.. glad you are able to increase that goal.. Congrats to all that are meeting there goals, getting restriction and doing well especially with those NSV's. I went to my nutritionist appointment today..she says I'm doing well even though I fell off the exercise bandwagon over the last week or 2 (6.4lbs lost in 6 weeks). I think I'm finally feeling some restriction well I did right after the fill on Friday into Saturday. I can go at least 3 hours before I think "am I hungry or thirsty" usually water help fill me up for a good while before my head is in the fridge. Well only 12 more pounds till "onderland" so I have something great to look forward too! if I get my butt up and workout hopefully I reach it soon..but its a process! I know. My NSV include going to LB's and buying 38 instead of 44 bra's during the buy 2 get 1 free event. The sales person said..wow your bra is too big why are you wearing that..I just smiled and said "that's why I'm here"

the dietician also told me not to worry too much about calories. So I don't count them. My diet is very similar to Adkins. Low Carbs, high lean Proteins, low sugar and veggies but NO starchy veggies she gave me a list and at least 60g protein per day. As far as protein bars she was adement about looking at the labels and watching out cause they are loaded with carbs and sugars. She said stay try to stay less than 14g net carbs per bars (if fiber is >5 subtract from total carbs = net carbs) so of course that fits the adkins bars and they are only 1g of sugar...If I can't get my shake in for breakfast I'll grab a meal bar (I use to never eat breakfast, so the bars or shakes is a big step). However lately I want 2 bars and more food and then more food on top of that. I'm feeling hungry all the time I think my will power has finally given out. My mom said on Easter "ohh you are human" I laughed and said what do you mean, she said "you always walk pass all your favorite desserts and food and never get tempted, today you ate, although a little bit but you ate dessert and more food than I've seen you eat in a long time" I realized then my will power was on its last leg and that my mom reality just slapped me in the face by my mom. I called my doctor and explained I'm hungry all the time and they moved up my 3rd fill it's now on FRIDAY.. I've never had restriction but I can't fight it any longer .. I've done terrible all week and scared to get on the scale now.

Round of applause to JustDoIt130..that's fantastic!! next thing you know you'll be on a shopping spree cause everything will be too big!!

Me too, me too! I'm at 216 so that will be 211 by 4/25. My goals are to get back to 3 days a week working out and drinking my 64oz of water per day! Good luck to us all and away we go on our 3 week mini-challenge!

Otaknam, losing inches is great! maybe the scale isn't moving because you are gaining muscle. I've just started keeping track of my inches! so far so good!

Thanks Meredith and JustDoIt130, I have a standard size band, I asked what size it was and he said there's large and standard and I have standard, so I suppose I have a 14cc band too. I only have 4.5 cc's in there and I feel no restriction at all, on Friday I ate some meat that wasn't chewed well and could feel it go down rough, thats the only time I ever felt anything or if I drink a big gulp of Water or Protein Shake it feel like a air bubble going down. Since I only get .5 cc's a visit it may take me a good while to feel real restriction. I go for fill #3 on 4/27. Happy Fill Day Kymie9899

Erica, going from a pre-band 24 to a 16 is FANTASTIC! congrats big time on that. I found I can get into those Lane Bryant 14 womans, but I can only fit a 16 in the misses dept. I'm still psyched about that tho! my goal is to be able to shop in any store that I want to! not quite there but working hard everyday. Today I'm wearing a 16 misses jeans at work with a semi-fitted shirt (Still a little lose) and have gotten several compliments about how I've slimmed down..I guess this is really my first time out of the baggy clothes that people are really noticing the difference. They see me with my gym bag so that helps with answering the question "what are you doing to lose so much weight?" lol JustDoIt130, Happy Fill Day!!

I reached 2 out of 3 goals. I did get up and go to the gym and worked on my 'couch to 5k' (iphone C25K free app) and I chewed much much slower. I'm still not getting all that water down, that has always been tough for me. I do get in 3 protein shakes per day, thats about 33oz of fluid but I'm just not that thirsty in between and after waiting 30 minutes after I eat, I just simply forget to drink. How did everyone else do?

By the way, I went into Lane Bryant yesterday (I couldn't resist) of all the places getting I'm getting smaller it's my least favorite area. Let just say I've lost a couple cup sizes!! But just out of curiosity I tried on the straight leg jeans in a size 14 oh my gosh they went on and buttoned right up.. A little snug but I would have worn them with pride! That's 2-3 sizes smaller per-surgery I could wear 18's but 20's felt better in jeans.. Love those NSV's

Hello all, Sound like a great idea.. My goals are: 1. Drink 64oz of water today and another 64oz tomorrow.. I'm lucky if I drink 24oz per day normally I'm terrible with drinking water. 2. Get up off my butt and and get on my treadmill for no less than 30minutes 3. Chew slower, first time last night a piece of steak went down and wasn't chewed well, I felt every inch it traveled through my body wasn't a good feeling. I had a great 39th birthday yesterday.. I 99% successfully avoided all the sweets and celebrated with a big 9oz juicy steak and fresh veggies .. My sweets consisted of non-sweet tea with added Splenda lol well it was no red velvet cake but I was satisfied lol

I had the Mirena a year or so ago in an effort to control/stop my heavy cycles, when I went back for my yearly exam I mentioned to my doctor my cycles were a tiny bit shorter but still just as heavy and she thought that was extremely weird and ordered an ultrasound..turns out it had dropped and settled in my cervix. Luckily my husband had a vasectomy. However, it was very uncomfortable when I first got it and It took my body about a month to get used to it I thought I had the never ending period. I don't know when it detached but I was told that was extremely rare. I'm actually looking into trying again. I tried the nuvaring last month and my weight loss halted! I removed it and didn't replace it and I'm down 4 pounds.. hormones and the band don't seem to play nicely together.

hello everyone.. Nicole1 sorry about your stress at home..I can relate to the stress, stay focused best way you can. JustDoIt130, way to go on the 4 pounds. Hope everyone is doing well, I'll do some catching up on posts this afternoon. I got my 2nd fill last Friday the 23rd. I only got .5 cc's which sucks cause I still don't feel much restriction but apparently they do .5cc's at each visit. I can go again on 4/27. I still get very hungry about every 2-3 hours, I wonder if I call and tell them this would they give me more before the end of April, prob not. I've lost 4lbs over the last week after being stuck for 2 weeks with no loss at all..I am happy about that.. I stopped using the Nuvaring..I don't need anything slowing me down anymore! I'll work on getting the Mirena in a few months.