jhansen71

I would also like to add: SW: starting weight (some people also use this as surgery weight) CW: current weight GW: goal weight

Just posting to keep this fresh. Anyone want to join our July 4th Challenge? Please feel free to join us...

July 4th ends on a Wednesday so do we want to weigh in on Wednesdays?

I also forgot to put the healthy food issue in my reply. I found that I could not eat, chicken, most vegetables, eggs and a lot of fruits. Where did it leave me? Processed foods! 11 weeks out VSG I can eat anything so far including veggies, fruit, chicken and eggs. Again, hard decision to personally make. Good luck with your choice.

Um, let's see...I was banded in 2009 and the most I lost was 40 lbs. I never found the supposed "sweet spot" and had multiple fills. Food always got stuck and i vomited often. I had the fill removed to go through fertility and gained all the weight back and then some. My port area hurt all the time and I was frankly tired of paying $300 every time for the fills, never to reach the right amount of restriction. I had my revision surgery on 3/13/12 and have already lost 42.6 lbs and I'm only sad I didn't do THIS surgery in 2009 rather than the band. I would never recommend the band to anyone because of my own experience and frankly I just haven't met many people where it worked for them. Good luck with your decision.

So far we have 18 people in this challenge. It will be fun to watch everyone's success. Thanks for joining and good luck to all of us and I pray we all gain our "independence" into healthy living during this challenge.

It's called "July 4th Challenge" if you want to search for it. Please join us. The more, the merrier.

REVISED!!! Now that the Memorial Day Challenge is officially over, who wants to join me in the July 4th Challenge? We have a little over 5 weeks in this challenge so I will make a few goals: 1. Get to Onederland 2. Lose 11 lbs 3. Work out 3-4 times per week 4. Track all my food in My Fitness Pal 5. Get to week 5 of Couch to 5K My starting weight for this challenge is 201 lbs. Good Luck to everyone!

I just started a new three for the July 4th Challenge. Please jump on there if you want to join. Good luck us!

I'm not sure who normally starts these challenges so if I am stepping on toes, sorry! I was just anxious to get it started. Now that the Memorial Day Challenge is officially over, who wants to join me in the July 4th Challenge? We have a little over 5 weeks in this challenge so I will make two goals: 1. Get to Onederland 2. Lose 11 lbs My starting weight for this challenge is 201 lbs. Good Luck to everyone!

Ladies that are 2 years out, thank you for sharing your stories. Do you have any before and after photos you want to share? We'll take all the motivation we can get. awesome job!!!

This is so encouraging to hear your story. I started close to your same weight. Can I ask how tall you are? Just trying to figure out if I could ever be that small. Thanks!

Sandi, great idea. I can see it in my clothes more than on the scale so I try to go just by that rather than the scale when stalled out.

I had extremely low blood pressure right after surgery. It was 83 over 52. A number of things can cause it such as dehydration, anemia, etc. I wasn't getting enough liquids in and I had also lost a lot of blood in surgery and had low iron. I felt so weak and run down. As soon as I focused on my liquids, my BP went up and I felt so much better. It is still much lower than it was before surgery (I'm 11 weeks out) 112 over 61. Prior to surgery is was about 130 over 70. I'm blessed with low blood pressure in general, but this is low. My doctor does not seem concerned about it so I guess I won't. Good luck to you!

Great point Sandi. I haven't made it to spin yet, but I did start running this week. So far, I've run 4 miles this week and will head back into the gym tomorrow. Congrats on all of your success! I hope to be in your shoes some day soon.

I ditto what Sandy said: Thank you soldiers and veterans for protecting our freedom. Without you we may not have freedoms like this message board and life saving surges such as VSG, not to mention feel safe and protected on American soil. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!! It's not looking good for my Memorial Day challenge. I have lost an additional pound which takes me to 14 lbs lost. My goal was 20 lbs. With only 2 days left I think it's unlikely I will lose 6 lbs, but maybe we can start a July 4th challenge???