DeLarla

And I still have those red lace fingerless gloves that would go lovely with black. Zoe, that is such a good point. Maybe if we all started our new year's resolutions in the 2nd week, we'd be more sucessful. I bet you could do a national survey and reveal the truth about trying to start a fresh year with all the lingering holiday stuff still lingering. By Friday it will all be stale, so next week sounds much better to me. By the way, I donated ALL my baking supplies to my (skinny) teenage neighbor. Her gramma got her cookie cook books for Christmas, so I have just completed the baking portion of my life. Next module, please.

Zoe, have I told you I LOVE YOU today? January 6 is a perfect day for me to start over!

I'm not really worried about the gain, I'm petrified about the bad habits I picked up. I came in today thinking it was a new year, with the holidays behind us. But someone brought their party leftovers (an entire spiral ham, a huge deli platter and 5 pounds of chocolates.) I had no intention of touching anything, but I downed about 20 pieces of the candy in a chocolate-induced hypnotic state. I was fine before the holidays, but partaking in the goodies started the destruction ball swinging again. I hope after the PMS stage and after this gloomy rain is done, I can get back on track. For the guys, try going through PMS and rain while ignorning five pounds of chocolate. I dare you.

I'm glad I backed out of this challenge! So, how did it go? Is there a winner (or should I say a big loser?)

Paula, I found the container at Walgreens. The sticker on the bottle says Water U. It was only $3.99, and there's a website on the bottle dscproducts.com 1(800) 895-6563. But I checked out the site and it looks like they sell them to distributors only. They should be able to tell you where to get one locally. I'm going to buy another one next time I'm at Walgreens. If they have them, I'll mail ya one!

Adam got lost on the way to the apple tree but refused to ask for directions. He was helpless, so God created Eve. Eve immediately found the apple - she had no intentions of biting it - she didn't even like apples - but she had to bite it to prove to Adam that women make the rules. Some things just don't change.

Getting back to how my food relationship has changed... well, it hasn't really, but I work at it. Right after getting banded I took a plate of food to the trash can and tossed it out. I felt like I just made my first poopy in the toilet. I like putting food in the garbage disposal for fun, too. I go to the park to feed the ducks once a week, and I love feeding horses, cows, mules, kids. Food, feed, eat, food, food. I wish it would get out of my head.

"that isn't fair to wolves." Gosh, we just gotta laugh at this stuff now! I never even knew I was a food horder till I read this post about stocked pantries (that could be a fun typo.. stocked panties.) Every couple months our mom would give in to her PMS and buy 1/2 gallon ice cream, and like starved wolves, nobody would take their eyes off the container in fear someone would get a bigger share (it never made it to the freezer.) She sliced right therough the carton with a sharp knife and slap a quarter - container and all - on our plate. We'd scamper to individual corners and devour then lick the carton clean, like wolves. Now I hate the grocery store. It's like sending a cocaine addict to a cocaine factory with huge piles of white powder everywhere: boxed, canned, packaged, fresh, frozen, wrapped in sparkly paper. So I always come home with a trunk load of stuff, most of which gets thrown away. And your dad buying all that cheese, gosh, I love these stories cause they make me feel less of a freak. We also had powdered milk... we were the only ones I knew that had the crap, but I never drank so much as a sip. I don't know why Mommy Dearest wasted her money on it, because nobody really drank it. And I thought we were the only ones that had a pressure cooker! Till this day my sister can't eat chicken Soup, which is what the Momster called the plaster she made once a month. Put a whole chicken in the pressure cooker with barley and a whole onion and it came out thick paste. Momster would sucking the insides of bones dry, but I got lucky and always got the neck. I was the youngest, so chicken necks to me are like prime rib to normal people.

No more added salt. Learn at least one song on my guitar other than the world's worst rendition of Tequila Sunrise. Write a book. No more gambling... there, I said it. My name is Gamblina, and I'm a 4-Card Nickle Keno junkie.

Pat, I like how you said, "young girl" cuz I was never a little girl either. And I'm right there with you having to order a salad while waiting to eat, and getting agitated if the waiter marched by me holding a salad only to bring it to someone else. I have urges to join strangers in restaurants because they pick at their food then just have the waiter take it away. I feel like yelling, "NOOOO, I WANT THAT!." Food is my Lord. I can pretend that I'm healing, and I can fight the urges sometimes, but this is just how my brain was wired in the food department.

The story behind the bra is funny to me, because there really is NO story! I just wanted to post a picture of my wound. I didn't even think about what underwear I was wearing, but the bra ended up getting more attention than my wound! The red glove came later as a joke (after everything the purple bra went through.) And I still have the bra and the gloves.

Violet, this is why I only write down my weight once a month. It takes the body a long time to adjust to weight loss. If you aren't eating enough to maintain the body of an obsese person, then they weight will eventually come off. Make sure you don't have any medical reasons for not losing first, but enjoy what you've already lost. Don't look at it as having lost the biggest chunk in the beginning, but rather average it out and realize that you are doing fantastic. Let your body heal and adjust to your new eating. I went through the same thing a couple months after being banded, where the weight didn't seem to move, but then 3 pounds would fall off over night. Patience, my friend. It will happen.

Rachel, you don't have to do 15 minutes today. You can start with five minutes. Heck, you can do five in the morning, then five at night. First, pat yourself on the back for getting on the bike. Go easy on yourself, start slow. I promise, if you stick to five minutes a day pretty soon you body won't even notice it and you'll find yourself WANTING to go for 6 or 7 minutes. It will get easier, and you will start feeling a lot better. And try not making so many changes at once. Stick to one or two things that you know you'll be able to change. This is the first year that I didn't make drastic NY Resolutions. This is the first year that I would really like to keep at least one. I don't think I've ever kept one.

Hi Blossom, I was already super depressed today, but your post almost made me cry. I'm so angry at your doctor right now. I agree that you should at least "consult" with another doctor - get different opinions. Yes, Inamed thinks sneaking up on good restriction is the key, but all doctors have different ways of doing things. Hang in there. I'm in the same boat only I have different problems. Having a band is like having a child that needs constant attention and costs a small fortune.

My relationship with food is very screwed up. I have issues with "abundance." For example, if someone offers me a cookie or a taco or a piece of chocolate, I can easily walk away. But if there's a heaping platter of the Cookies or tacos or candy, my head swims, and I can't concentrate on anything but that food. This comes from a childhood of never having food. We were not poor, but my mentally ill mother would not keep anything in the house that children would eat. There were brown, mushy rotten bananas, plain yogurt, lentils, and liver, and she never prepared anything. We used to eat mouthfuls of Creamora (powdered coffee cream) since it was the only palatable thing in the house. There was no sugar or Cereal, Snacks, soda. We learned to survive by stealing money from her. My older brother & sister would buy huge bags of junk food, and we'd hide and gorge ourselves. Or we'd steal cake batter from our neighbors. I never had meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, lasagna, pot roast. Not even Top Ramen. My sister and I turned out with the same food obsession. We can easily say "no" to a handful of chips, but put us alone in a room and the bag will be gone in 20 minutes. When I see meatloaf, my eyes Water and my mouth drools. When I see picky eaters I hate them, I mean I can't stand people who are finicky about food. People who scrunch their noses up because they don't like what I'm eating, or ask for things that aren't even on the menu, holding up the restaurant so they can have their picky little food exactly the way they want it. To me, a hunk of dried out meat and raw brocolli is survival. So thanks to Momster (my mother) I will never have a normal relationship with food. Sure, I've been to therapy, and I have a band, but I still eat too much because my head can't stop obsessing on all the food around me. And today is supposed to be the start of a new year, but someone brought platters of ham and party leftovers - a large abundance. So I'm trying to focus on work but I'm being harrassed by a dead pig. When I order a meal, I can never order small. Now that I make my own money, I order way too much. Hubby always wants to know why I order so much, but I can't help myself. I see the menu and all those choices and my eyeballs spin in their sockets like I'm hypnotized. Waiting for the food to come causes anxiety, even till this day. When I see actors on TV pretending to eat, I can't concentrate on the show, but instead I wonder if they'll ever actually take a bite of the phoney food. I could go on for hours, but I think you got the picture! Sorry for taking so much time.

"There's no better revenge than success!" I think that's the quote of the year! I used to just put the plate back in the cupboard after eating. Whatever can't be scraped up by a fork or spoon got mopped up with bread. Rinse sauce down the drain? No way. But now I'm throwing a lot of food away. I don't like it, but I have no choice.

Wow, you learn something every day. I still think "sticky" belongs in the dictionary. I always thought it had to do with food sticking. I didn't now you could keep a post at the top, and I never knew how those push pins got there. Interesting.

The richest man in the world trips over a bottle in the sand, picks it up and wipes it off, and POOF, Genie appears before him and grants him one wish. The man, being so rich, has everything he wants except for one thing - he's afraid to fly. So he asks Genie to build him a bridge across the ocean so he can travel by car and finally see new countries. Genie scratches his head and apologizes to his new Master, "but Master, that is too large of a request; just locating and gathering the supplies needed to build such a large bridge would take your entire lifetime. Isn't there something else you really want?" And the Master says, "Why, yes. I have always wanted to understand women." And the Genie replies, "so, exactly WHERE did you want that bridge?"

Wow, I haven't seen that picture in a long time. Why did this come back? My incision has been closed for about 3 days now, but it's a little pink, tender and poofy. If it gets any worse, I'll have to go to Urgent Care to have it lanced.

I don't have the courage to get on the scale today. My monthly weigh-in is the 5th, and this will be my first gain. I hate the holidays - everyone ends up fat, sick and broke. I've picked up all my bad addictions... now how will I break them?

Alex, this whole threat started cuz I keep seeing the term, "sticky." Now you used it in your response, but the defininition is still blank! What is a sticky? I thought it had to do with a sticky band, like food getting stuck??????? Good job on filling in the blanks!

Gayle, good point! I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Ortiz, and he does speak better than a lot of people I know! He barely has an accent.

Kelly, all joking aside, you should call Inamed immediately and tell them it's an emergency. We can't be throwing up so much - you could risk hurting your band. Larry and Craig at Inamed might be able to make a suggestion or at least maybe they can get through to a doctor. Those Inamed guys seem to be good friends with a lot of doctors, so maybe they have cell numbers or home numbers. This is not good. Are you nauseous? Would something like Pepcid calm the belly, or is the aggravation higher up in the pouch? I have actually heard rumors of two local Vegas people that give their own fills - but it's strictly rumors and Inamed is against it. Also try anything warm, like baths, heating pads. One of the Inamed guys told me to drink warm liquid in the morning to open up my esophagus. Since the liquid isn't staying down, how 'bout a hot steam? Just boil some water and toss in some eucalyptus or any other nice herb, then put a towel over your head and breathe. I'm reaching here... I just don't want you throwing up anymore today.

Theresa... I LOVE your face! Great avatar!

Megan, go find Penni's thread about "liquid vitamins" and you'll see a whole discussion on Chromium. I avoid it, but I bought a case of Advant Edge Protein Shakes without reading the label. After just one small shake, my whole house gets cleaned. Then Penni posted about her liquid vitamins saying they give her energy. So I looked at the label of the Vitamins, and sure enough, they contain chromium. But her vitamins have half the chromium of the Advant Edge skakes. To me it's like taking a diet pill, but I think a certain amount of chromium is actually good for you. And that's not a beanie and scarf, that's my swimming cap and towel because all we do in Vegas is bask in the sunshine. NOT... silly girl, it got into the 30s already this year! It even snows once every couple years for a few minutes! Yesterday it rained all day and stayed in the 40s. That's damn chilly for us lizzards.