Nikki Riviotta

Love that positive attitude!

Hello Denise. Congrats on taking the steps on your journey. If this happens for you it is a journey you will not regret. It has completely changed my life for the better and I am forever grateful for it and for the people that helped me in this direction! Good Luck to you and I will keep you in my prayers!

I am 13 months out and still get stuck a few times after fills, Its always an adjustment no matter how far out you are. One thing I do if I feel my food get stuck is I get up and walk around. Whatever you do, do not try to fix it by taking a drink, that just makes it worse, at least for me. Walking around for some reason helps move it loose most of the time. Just please be careful and remember consentrate and chew chew chew

I feel ya honey. But truely it is for the best. I was having issues with my hypothyroidism before my surgery. My Endocrinologist told my Surgeon to postpone my surgery because with the levels I was at I had a high risk of going into cardiac arrest under anestisia (sp?). I was so mad. I had already paid $300 out for a plane ticket for my mom to come help me with my kids and I could not get a refund. SO I do feel ya, but in the end I had the surgery, just a month later than planned and now all of that is just a memory. Good luck to you. Next week will be here before you know it!

It has been a horrible weekend for me. Hard to resist anything. I have been so good with my journaling all week and sticking to it and then the weekend hits and WHAM....Kids school carnival, baby shower and birthday party. Bad foods....I did not eat alot of bad foods, but I did have enough to make me feels so guilty and angry at myself. Tomorrow is a new day so I will start fresh. But on the upside this mornings weigh in showed a 2 pound loss since Tuesday so I gotta get back on track to make that number stay down and maybe even get lower by next Saturday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

I did mostly liquids yesterday because I had a fill. Today I upped to my 1400 cals as directed, it was hard to get them in but I managed to space it out just perfect. Went to the gym for 20 min then hubby and I took the kids to the park and rode bikes this evening. Day one down and positive one at that! Great job ladies sounds like day one went well you too!

I am losing inches. I lost about 2-3 inches since my last appointment. My size 13-14's are no longer in my closet because they were too big, I now have 11's and 12's but those are starting to get a little loose. So yes I am seeing a difference in inches. I also do lift weights, 2xs a week for about an hour. I am getting really close to goal. about 25 to 30 pounds, give or take so I suppose it gets really hard at this point, the weight doesnt just fall off at this point? Idk?

Thats my goal 20 pounds by June 7th when hubby and I leave on our vacation to go home and visit and then down to Miami for a cruise to Mexico

Me Too!

Well I am only a year out but I am still working on that last 31 STUBBORN pounds. I will join ya!

Went in to see my surgeon today. I was not happy to hear the news that I have only lost one pound since my last visit in Feb. Actually I was kind of crushed I work my butt off 5 days a week at the gym. For an hour per day. So I started to figure that when I was not seeing the scale move weekly that I must be doing something wrong. I generally do not keep a food log. I just watch what I eat and how big the portions are, stop when I am full and so on. So since I work really hard at this working out thing (lol) I decided to start to talley up how many calories I am taking in per day. Well to my surprise I am not taking in many at all! Usually less than 1000 per day. yet I am burning 500+ a day in the gym. This is very bad. I am burning what I am eating and then some so my body is in starvation mode Well upon talking to the dietician she now wants me to take in 1400 cal per day and burn off about 100-200 cal in in gym. My question now is I am sitting here actually logging my food, cals, carbs and protein....How in the heck am I suppose to get in 1400 cals. I can barely get in 1200 cause I am not that hungry , yet I do not want to stop exercising to burn cals. I really love to exercise. Does anyone have suggestions as to what I could eat to add cals yet stay in my set carb intakes of 130 per day and protein of 70 per day? Any help or advise will be greatly appreciated

I saw this and it was very uplifting and a great reminder of what we are all here trying to do, we all have our up and downs, but we are here for the exact same purpose...to change our lives. So next time you get down on yourself because the scale hasnt moved in a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months, or you start to reach for cookies or what ever your guilty pleasure may be, for me it is ice cream (for the the 3rd time this week)instead of reaching for fruit or string cheese (or your favorite healthy snack) think of this photo, and remember what you did this for. YOU! to be a better, healthier YOU! I am thankful that I found this forum. It has helped in so many ways. I don't feel like I am alone in the daily struggles we all face, even after WLS. So here is me, giving back because I am sure, like me, there is someone out there that needs to see this right at this exact moment. Lots of Love and Good luck to each and every one of you on this journey!

I noticed a difference in my first fill. I started getting hiccups and burps while eating. I called my doc and he said I wasn't chewing good enough. So I started chewing my food really good. I have found that I am extremely sensative with my fills. I have only gotten to 5cc and was so restricted I threw up every meal. Just have the doc start off slow with you fills, like just adding 1cc at a time maybe less and I think you would be fine to get your fill before your cruise, just remember to eat slowly and chew VERY good and you will be great! Have fun on your cruise! We are going for one in June and I am totally stoked for it!

I am sure you can get them on you tube and walmart also sells them, I believe they are between $7 and $10. Good luck to you! Sounds like you are coming up with a plan! please keep us informed!

YES!!!!! I am down to my last 25-30 pounds give or take and MAN it can be such a drag! but then the wonderful people on this site remind me of how far I have come, I am so glad to have stumbled across this site a few months ago, I have found so much support her! WAY TO GO on getting to 144! 145 is where I want to be, but 150 is my next mini goal. Good luck on getting to your 135, you have come this far you will get there!

FIrst off YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE! You have simply fallen off the wagon, or the beaten path and need to dust yourself off and get back on, slowly. Starting with getting help with your stress and depression, that alone will hurt your weight loss. The call your lapband doctor and go see him, embarrassed or not, trust me you will not be the first to come in that has fallen off the wagon. You can do this. You just have to get over this hurdle. I am studying nutrition and wellness right now and a couple of the best stress relieving things to do is yoga or pilates. Get a video and a yoga mat a couple of 3-5 pound weights and when you get home from class MAKE yourself do it, you will thank yourself in the long run. You can do this and you can make it happen for yourself, but FIRST you MUST believe in YOU! Feel free to add me if you like, i can do my best to help and encourage you along as much as I can. Good luck to you! I have faith that you can turn this around for yourself!

Thank you oh and yes I have my next appointment on April 10th i believe i am going to ask for a slight fill.

This is a positive twist on my needing encouragement post earlier today. Thank you for those that helped to lift my spirits. Today is my 1 year Bandiversary! I am down 73 pounds. There have been a lot of ups and down through out this year and by no means has it been easy. I have had about 3 platueas and even a small yo yo around the holidays (Dang Christmas cookies) but I really have worked hard and am proud of what I have accomplished! So happy Bandiversary to me!!! I made a new before and after photo, my before taken the day before surgery and my after I asked my daughter to help me with this afternoon and WOW what difference it makes when it is right there in your face!

Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement! It really did help get me over my hump for today. I tend to get this way when its weigh in day and the scale did not move my way. It really has been a great year and I am proud of how far I have come. I really am to hard on myself a lot of the time, sometimes that is good and sometimes that is bad, in todays case, it was bad. I put together a new before and after photo and boy did that ever list my spirits! Thank you again and much love to you all!

Today is my one year anniversary for being banded. Today being Wed is also my weekly weigh in day. I have been closely watching what I eat, and exercising, but the weight is just not coming off. I seem to fluctuate between 177 and 182.. it is so frustrating. My main goal was to be down 100 pounds by my anniversary date which would put me at 150. I have worked hard to try to accomplish that, but as I told my husband (who is completely supportive, yet I think he gets tired of it hearing it) That I am stuck in 180 hell because I have been in the 180 range since October. I know I have come a long way, unfortunately I am a person that wants things NOW, lol I am not very patient. So if anyone has any words of encouragement, that might help me through todays depressed state of mind, it would definately be appreciated.

I am willing to help and have a buddy to lean on as well. I have been banded since March 21, 2011. Add me if you like

You can find tons of support right here on this site I know Just reading peoples stories helps me alot and keeps me motivated. Something that might help you is to sit down and write out a daily meal plan. I do it and it helps me to stay on track. I write down the food, calories, fat, carbs and protein, I write in each meal and each snack and calculate each row, then I know when my day starts what I am going to eat through out the day and I don't venture off of that. Just make sure you have at least one protein shake a day, that is vital for the weightloss. It sounds like you are doing well with your walking. Once you have done that for a couple of weeks change it up a little, go to a class at your local gym or do some circut training, or some biking, just something different If you do the same exercise continuously your body becomes used to it and you will plateau with your weightloss also throw in two days of 30 min to and hour of resistance/strength training too, the more more muscle you build up the more fat you burn. Hope this helps a little and good luck to you!

How long ago did you start your exercise routine? How many times a week and for how long? What are you doing for exercise? How much Protein are you taking in Daily? How many grams of carbs are you taking in and then how many grams of fat daily? Finally how many calories are you taking in per day? I can try to give you some pointers if you can answer these questions for me

I am not a man but I can say this, not long ago my husband and I went out to a concert. I was dressed tastefully and had all the confidence in the world. I looked good for my husband and I was excited, it was the first time I had felt that kind of confidence for as long as I could remember. He later told me that he had noticed a few men "checking me out", which I did not notice whatsoever. I asked him if that bothered him. He said to me that it did not bother him, that rather than getting jealous that other men were looking at me, he took it as a compliment and knew that no matter what he was the one going home with me so it really didnt matter. So I don't know your wife or anything but maybe if you found a way to word that to her she would see it as my husband saw it, as a compliment, I mean really a woman enjoys nothing more than KNOWING she has the prize and it has been and always will be hers to keep forever

Congrats on your beautiful new daughter! What a pleasant surprise! I am a mother of 3 so I totally understand you when you say your busy! A couple pointers I have to offer is that if you breast feed, that helps to shed the pounds a little faster. It did with my last baby. (He was the only one out of my 3 kids that totally took to the breast) I lost 30 pounds in his first 2 months. Also watch your calories very closely. Keep a food journal, that really does help and of course the exercise, even if its just getting out and walking with the baby for 20 to 30 minutes a day. I hope this helps some! Good Luck to you and enjoy that little one, they really do grow up WAY too fast