DeLarla

Did she really say "blackberry cobbler" and where the hell can I get some in Vegas before Sunday??????????????????//

Jack, go to the store in your slippers and pass out lollypops. That will impress your friends tremendously.

I've been a slacker... but enough is enough. I'm heading to the kitchen with my 64 ounce jug right this second. Thanks for the encouragement!

Ladiebird, what a cute picture! Now take a picture of your cute painted tootsies and let's see that NSV. Feels great, doesn't it! Con'rads to you.

Selicia and everyone else, I am at WAR WITH FOOD. I weighed 250 this morning and the scale is on an upward climb. Enough is enough. Thank God the first of the year is around the corner. Starting New Years Day I'll be making calls every single night. I have a lot of phone numbers, but if you want a call send me your phone number in a Private Message and I'll add you to my list. My biggest screw up is giving up my morning protein shakes. The only way my life works is if I have a protein shake for breakfast, a good band lunch, dinner, then ONE SMALL evening snack like an ice cream sandwich, then I feel great and lose weight. FEEL GREAT AND LOSE WEIGHT, FEEL GREAT AND LOSE WEIGHT, FEEL GREAT AND LOSE WEIGHT, ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY, FEEL GREAT AND LOSE WEIGHT..... I think someone's losing her marbles. Better check my microchip.

My Mum (how cute is that?) picks green stems from weeds in the front yard and eats them! She is extremely gross, and yes she eats all that crap. She is mentally distorted and does not believe we are supposed to enjoy life. She believes we are here for a purpose to gather information that we'll need in the next life. She does not think food is an enjoyment, rather it serves its purpose, which is nutrition only. I have seen her eat some of the most disgusting stuff - like sour milk or nearly-liquified brown bananas. There's a whole thread about crazy family stories where I let go of alot of my "Mum" venting. Mum - that's so cute!

Seems to be a lot of insanity around here, so I started this thread to share stories of our insane family. I'll start with Liana (my MOMster.) The woman has been certified by the courts, so instead of crying, I laugh a lot. She's on a mission to prove that "the government is corrupt." She thinks she discovered this hidden secret, and that she's gonna blow the cover soon. Shhh, nobody else knows. She spends her days typing 100 page letters to the president that nobody will ever read. She sends me copies and the typing makes your eyes blurry since she still uses manual typewriters (she has several going at one time.) She doesn't believe in waste, so she never double spaces. She underlines some words, bolds others, highlights others, all of the above to others, etc. She then uses different color pens to draw arrows to the bolded, underlined text, and then removes the paper from the typewriter and re-inserts it sideways so she can type in the margins. Please don't tell anyone about government corruption - it's her little secret.

Staci, is your doctor Lopez or Kuri?

I guess my whole point is that I have a problem with addictions. I'm addicted to sugar, salt and fatty foods. I can't have "just a little" because it just starts up my junkie-engine, and then I'm not able to stop. I WISH I didn't like goodies!

One last thought. As part of the pre-screening process to see if you qualify for a band, your doctors will put you through a nutritional screening and a psychological screening. If you express your desire not to change during these screenings, you might be rejected. The doctors have to make sure you are 100% ready for a complete lifestyle change. I'm not saying that will happen, it's just something to think about. When I was losing consistently, my meals were: Breakfast - Protein shake lunch - about a cup of the last night's dinner leftovers, or 1/2 a normal salad Dinner - about 1 1/2 cups of WHATEVER hubby made for himself (meat, potatoes, spaghetti, meatballs, lasagna, etc) or 1/2 to 3/4 "normal" salad with real dressing. Dessert (bad girl) I always let myself have a fudgcicle or low-fat ice cream sandwich I lost almost 70 pounds that way. But during the holidays I started snacking inbetween meals, and now I can't stop. All I want is to get back on track! Maybe I need 2 bands?

Staci, fifteen pounds gets you a big high five! Good going. The loss will slow down, but if you work hard and really really really practice your new eating habits, the loss will be consistent. Good luck!

I see your point, Leigh. When I'm eating healthy, I eat a small portion of what you call a "normal" salad. I eat real salad with a real croutons, bacon bits, real salad dressing. I eat real cheese, and I even eat chicken fingers dipped in ranch. But I stopped losing because I started adding too much crap. Also, I can't have that yummy salad every night. You kind of have to stagger fattening salads one night with a lighter version at other times. So in answer to your original question, yes, I was losing a lot of weight while eating "normal" so to say. Every single doctor is different. My doctor did not consult me on nutrition, but one of his assistants did. She described the way I'm supposed to eat for life, and she was very adamant that I never again follow a diet. She wanted me to eat "normal" foods. I was to eat three meals a day, NO snacking, and to chew my food and eat for 20 minutes, then stop. I was told to introduce one food at a time, and eat whatever my body tolerated without dieting, counting, writing it down, etc. But most band doctors tell you to eat your Protein choice first, then your veggie, and eat carbs at the end so that you don't overdue the carbs. I am able to eat bread now, but I wasn't for the first 6 months. Bread gets stuck in my throat. Imagine having something really dry stuck in your throat that causes a lump and refuses to go down - that's the feeling we're talking about. I had problems with bread or dry chicken, but I never had problems with Pasta or rice. A lot of people can't eat pasta or rice for the same reason, and a lot of people have problems with fries for the same reason. Hey, if I was able to lose weight the way you are currently losing weight, I would never need the band. Good for you, you are very lucky cause none of us were able to lose weight that way... I take that back, most of us DID lose weight that way many times, but we always gained it back with extra pounds. Maybe you should discuss the differences between having a band and having a gastric bypass with your doctor for better clarification. With the gastric bypass, there are foods you'll probably never get to eat again because your body simply can't digest them. The bypass completely re-wires the stomach so that you can't digest certain foods. With the bypass, the bottom part of your stomach no longer functions, so you lose a lot of the digestive process. In addition, you can't absorb nutrition. The band doesn't come with these problems since everything you eat first sits in the top pouch, but then it slips through to the bottom of your stomach where it is digested and absorbed just like it always did. So ask your doctor to be more specific in the reason you can't ever eat bread or fries again. But if you have the willpower and control to lose weight by eating sensibly on your own, then there's no reason for you to need weight loss surgery. WLS is strictly for those of us who have tried and failed many times over - a last-chance resort... our last hope. I wish I was able to eat healthy every single day. A few ounces of protein, a portion of veggies and a couple spoons of carbs. Geeze, life would be good. But I got the band because I have been on too many strict diets. The last time I pulled out the scale to measure some chicken I had a nervous breakdown and threw the scale at the wall screaming and crying. I hope nobody gets mad at me because a lot of people, once banded, do stick to a healthy plan. Maybe one day a miracle will happen, and I'll no longer want nachos but till then................

The only part I saw is that YOUR BAND IS OKAY! The rest is small potatoes (very tiny band-sized potatoes.) Ringworm & Strep are temporary and well, cars break down. That's the rainbow at the end of your storm.

Fantastic. You're just a skinny little thing now. Thanks for sharing!

I've had a guitar for 15 years but still can't play it! We also have a bunch of electric guitars and amps. I took lessons years ago, but time to actually learn something other than a really bad, bad, bad rendition of Tequila Sunrise.

Leigh, sometimes you have to be harsh to get the truth. A lot of us still eat the same foods we used to eat in moderation (as I eat a chocolate covered pretzle.) But take my advice and at least give the healthy food a try, because the junk I eat is full of addictive properties. Salt, sugar, chocolate, fried foods - it just leaves us with cravings for more. And it is NEVER enough. Obese people have very strong food addictions. When I was first banded, I gave up french fries. After a month, I didn't even miss them. But then came the day when I ate just two. Eventually that lead up to a small order of fries. Now I eat handfuls several times a week, so I'm right back to the same old habits. I had great weight loss, but now I'm slowly gaining. I wish I would have stuck to the healthy stuff. The band let me quit eating candy, chips, etc. I still ate a lot of fun stuff (mac n' cheese, tacos, fudgecicles, etc.) but now I got used to the junk-food-side-of-life again, and it's so hard to turn back. It's all about breaking bad habits. Unfortunately, those of us that became morbidly obese got here from too many bad habits, too many food addictions. If you can go a month without fries, never look back! But you don't have to stick to any type of diet to be sucessful. You can still enjoy normal foods. I just know that the holiday Cookies and crap are loaded with fat and sugar, and now I can't go a couple hours without craving something.

Becky, I'm looking into guitar lessons for the same reason. I need a holiday detox, fast.

A lot of us still struggle. Your stomach says stop, but your head says go go go. I'm in the same boat. Yes, that was a PB you had. I slipped back into old habits over the holidays, so I'll have to start making my famous phone calls every night. I have a list of phone numbers of my banded friends, and I call one each night to prevent myself from eating. It's an expensive long-distance bill, but better than eating.

And a cat eating the nose off a deceased person has got to be the grossest thing I've ever heard in my life! I almost hurled but then decided I better share one more story. My Aunt Doris left her false teeth on the nightstand. But they were gone when she woke up. The dog ate them. GROSS. But they are really expensive, so she had to buy another pair. This time she wrapped them in a tissue and put them in her purse for the night. But the next morning she couldn't find her purse... it was tossed all over the living room, and the teeth were gone. That dog ate her teeth a 2nd time.

Momster has been thrown out of psychiatrist's office. She can be very intimidating and speaks only in screams & insults. She calls doctors murderers, idiots, butchers till the have her escorted out. She sends 100 page horribly viscious letters to the president (she's convinced she personally uncovered government corruption.) She's not locked up cause nobody wants her. She's a legend in her small town after inheriting her uncle's valuable property smack in the middle of the County Park. The County, over the years, purchased all the surrounding parcels so the crazy house is surrounded in front by baseball diamonds, to the left County tennis courts, the right is the playground, and the bowling alley in back. The County has been making very generous offers for over 20 years, but my family won't sell. Now it's hers, so she's under constant scrutiny and now has 1/4 million dollar lien on the property. If I livein in Jersey, I might get involved because she is clearly incompetant, and I'm convinced the IRS and local goverment is letting time pass till they can snatch her entire estate. They should have forced sale or taken legal action, but they know they're dealing with an insane person so they allow penalties to grow, grow, grow, till one day they own it all. The cops know here by first name, but they don't want her. She's not hurting anybody but herself, though I can't for the life of me understand why Social Services hasn't intervened.

The part that worries me is that even when there are no more holiday goodies at home, I start digging in the cupboards and raiding my friends' house. Now that my body is used to sugar and fat again, it's craving it. I'm right back to the old viscious cycle of being addicted to crap like before being banded. Gee, don't ya just love Christmas? NOT.

Egads, that would mean I'd have to more than double my huge water intake. Can't we just stand in the rain so the water transdermally absorbs? I've heard you can die from drinking too much water - not sure if that's true. You'd probably have to drink a lot more if you are a personal trainer or a professional athlete since they lose so much through perspiration.

More info on the PT, please. I don't personally like them for myself, but nothing is about me (it's about my dogs.) Looks like a nice, roomy doggy car. Is it?

Actually, I had good restriction for a month after my surgery with no fill. I wasn't even ready for a fill, but since they had to remove my port they filled me anyway. Teresa lost a whopping amount of weight before getting her first fill, also. Everybody is different, but most of us can eat a lot more mushy food than solid. Mushies slide through to the bottom, like liquids. As soon as you're able to eat solids, you should. They stay in the pouch longer.

My first car was a Hyundai Excel (many moons ago.) I wanted to buy American, so I went to Lincoln Ford Hyundai thinking it was a Ford Hyundai - goes to show you how much I know about cars. But that cheap foreign car served me well. I drove it like it was a 4-wheel-drive race car; up sides of mountains, through rivers and streams, mud whomping, etc. I beat the hell out of it then just disposed of it like a Bic lighter. I got rid of my Pontiac Sunfire last year, and I really miss that car. It was really, really good to me plus reasonably priced and very roomy. I'll share my Girl's Guide to Car Shopping: 1) How cute do you look in the driver's seat? 2) Are there driver and passenger lighted mirrors for checking lip gloss? 3) Tunes - gotta have tunes. 4) Sunroof - let the sun shine in. 5) Is there a place to hold your purse?