TEAM SASHA PINK

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I LOVE walking. The days after surgery getting around the block was tough but now I'm up to 2-4 miles a day. I've lost weight every week too so far and this is the time people said I would stall!

Giiiirl, my hubby doesn't even acknowledge I NEED A gym membership with an additional couple of weeks of personal training. He thinks because I have a treadmill & a spinning bike at home, that that's enough (it's a GREAT place to start) but I want to start weight training so I can tone up. Today I mentioned that maybe instead of a gym, I should just take some kickboxing classes and he liked THAT idea.

I have been banded about 23 weeks. I have a 10cc band with 6.75cc filled. Is plication something that can be done now? Just curious if can be don't after the initial surgery. Thanks in advance.

Thanks !! Excited. To share my journey with a buddy

Ft. worth Texas

I got to visit with my coordinator at my first post op Dr. visit. I love the fact that they don't give you the lap band and send you on your way. Each visit we talk with the coordinator about eating, nutrition, and all the changes you are going to go through in your every day life.
Guess what?!? I just found out how many carbs are in my yogurt. OMG!!! I was always lead to believe yogurt was healthy and good for you. She showed me an alternative way to eat it and it still tastes great and I can have it on my pureed food week.
6 oz plain greek yogurt
1 packet of splenda coffee flavoring french vanilla (in the coffee aisle)
I know I didn't know they had that either!
1 packet of regular splenda
Instead of the splenda flavoring you can mix it with flavored Protein powders and up the Protein it has. She said Gold Standard casein in creamy vanilla tastes like cheese cake. I love cheese cake! :wub:
I hope others will share some tips that got them through the pre and post diets, and just everyday since being banded.

I was banded on 2/19/13 and I've lost 40lbs so far. Before banding, I thought 40lbs was a LOT of weight. I thought 40lbs would be a couple sizes in clothes. I thought 40lbs would be a lean body frame. I thought 40lbs would be shorts and dresses.
The thing is--- when I look into the mirror, I don't see a woman who weighs 40lbs less. I see the same person I have seen for years.
My face has thinned out, I can see that, but my body looks the same( even my boobs stayed the same
I am 5'8" and have a true hourglass shape. So I gain all-over and apparently lose all-over.
At what weight loss point did you start to see the changes? Will I always see the "big-boned, thick girl" when I look in the mirror?

Well for one, you shouldn't be basing your calories on what MFP says, it should be based on what your nutritionist recommends. You have the band so you shouldn't be eating as much as a "normal" person. Chances are very good MFP is suggesting you eat a lot more calories than you should be.
Go see your nutritionist. They are who you need to establish realistic eating and calorie guidelines.

WOW!!!! GREAT WORK!!!! I would be emotional, too. You've worked hard and you sure have reaped the rewards; you have taken many years off of your appearance and added them to your life. You are so very pretty, that would be motivation enough for me to keep it up. You go gurl!!!

Congratulations on your weight loss. It will take some time before you feel restricted and most of the hunger feelings go away. Some people heal for a long time after surgery.
Keep up with your good attitude and work habits on eating properly.

How I lost 102 pounds
8 Easy Secrets of My 102-Pound Weight-Loss Success
I was banded in February of 2009 and just shy of 2 years later, in December of 2011, I reached my goal weight! I started at 225 pounds, a size 22/24. In December I reached 123 pounds and a size 2/4. I wrote this little excerpt in the hopes of helping some newly-banded people as they start their journey. I hope this doesn't seem too cheesy! Please let me know if any of you have any questions of need any help.
It's hard not to compare my weight loss this time versus all the attempts at weight loss that I've made in the past. What am I doing differently this time versus previous times? What's working? What tips do I have for others that want to lose weight? This post explains exactly what I've learned so far, and why this is working for me and other attempts have not.
I want to preface this list with a quick comment about weight loss surgery. Two+ years ago I had the gastric banding surgery. Yes, the surgery has helped me lose weight, but NO the surgery is not necessarily a magic tool that has enabled my weight loss. In fact, my surgeon told me that most people who have weight loss surgery aren't successful at all! Why not? Because some people don't change their habits, or learn to "eat around the band," meaning that they are gobbling up ice cream and milk shakes, which may be "easy" to eat, but are smothered in calories. No, the surgery isn't magic cure-all, but it has helped.
Weight-Loss should be easy. I can't stress this enough, and I know you're probably sitting there looking at me like I'm off my rocker. I'm serious though. I'm devoting far less effort and energy into losing weight this time around than last time. Sure, this may be due in part to the weight-loss surgery, but not entirely. You see, prior to my recent loss, I was: counting calories, measuring food. I was going out of my way to eat healthfully. I exercised a minimum of an hour a day, six days a week. I worked hard to find the perfect combination of cardio vs. weight training. I paid for a personal trainer. I paid for weight watchers. I obsessed over the scale. I tried Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Master Cleanser, and a zillion other fad diets. And you know what? Those fad diets are HARD because they force you to live dissimilarly than your usual lifestyle. Fad diets are hard work. Let me repeat this: weight loss should be easy. If you're spending hours and hours a day actively "working on losing weight" then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate how you're going about your weight loss. This time around I try hard to make good eating choices, but I don't always get it right. (In the past, I'd be 100% diligent to my plans, but with ZERO success on the scale.) I try to get some exercise in, but I don't always succeed. The point is, I'm just trying to live well and do the best I can, but I'm not obsessing and going nuts over trying to lose weight, and you shouldn't either. After all, don't we have families and careers and more important things that we should be spending the better part of our time on? It's 80% about the food and 20% about the exercise. When I first started out losing weight, I had all but given up on exercise. I don't like working out. I don't like going to the gym. At the start of my current journey, I had given so much blood, sweat, and tears at the gym with ZERO reward that I flat-out burnt myself out. So when this new weight loss journey began, I wasn't exercising at all. It didn't matter. I'm no scientist, but just an observation of mine: the more weight you have to lose, the less your weight loss is about the exercise. Instead, focus your attention on getting your eating under control, picking healthy options, eating often (more about that below). As you start to lose weight, you'll naturally have more energy and will pick up the exercise factor, as it fits into your life. As you inch closer to your goal weight, you should exercise more and more. Exercise is crucial to weight maintenance, but not so much about weight loss. Because I'm so close to my goal weight, I exercise perhaps 3-4 times a week, but I don't freak out about it if I miss a gym session. Eat small meals, and eat often. I realized about 30 pounds into my weight loss journey that I was no longer eating "meals" at all. Instead, I was grazing. Snacking. All day long. I'd nibble on this, and I'd nibble on that. This is entirely due to the band, and without the gastric band I never would have discovered this important aspect of weight loss. So this is what my prior-to-weight-loss dieting attempts would look like: I'd either skip Breakfast or have some oatmeal. For lunch I'd have a 6 inch sub from subway, with vinegar as dressing. For dinner I'd have some steamed veggies and grilled chicken. Period. The end. The food choices were seemingly good, but I was eating too much, and only at two sittings. Your body apparently doesn't like this. Today, I eat 5-6 times a day, but only 150-200 calories of food at any given sitting. I never eat a "meal" anymore. The great thing about eating small portions of food is that I can pretty much eat whatever I want, and I think the variety is really healthy for my body. I'm less obsessed over eating "diet food" and allow myself to eat "real food" during these mini-meals. (I eat a lot of Soup these days, especially at restaurants, because it's the perfect portion size!) Pay attention to your body, not the USDA. Okay, do a little math now. If I'm only eating 150 calories per meal, 6 times a day…that means I'm eating….900 calories a day? Say what? Are you crazy? No I'm not! So in my Quest to lose weight, I scrutinized how many calories a typical woman should be eating, according to the USDA. They say 2,000 for a sedentary female 19 to 30 years old. BMR calculators told me I should eat 1,774 calories. Well, no wonder I wasn't losing weight! I was either trying to eat "just right" and follow one of those crazy guidelines, or pretty much starving myself trying to save as many calories as humanly possible.Now look. I'm not going to tell you to eat only 900 calories a day. I also don't think you should listen to the USDA. Instead, listen to your own body. I truly believe that every person has their own calorie setpoint that they like to be at. For me, I think that my weight-stabilizing point is around 1000-1100 calories. To lose about a pound or two a week, I need to target 800-900 calories per day. This is the point that works for me, but it may not work for you. You need to experiment a little bit to figure out what your calorie setpoint is, but the only way you can do that is to pay close attention to your body. Avoid carbs, but don't eliminate them entirely. I mostly eat whatever I want these days, but there are a few nit-picky little trends that I've identified. I don't know if these really contribute to weight loss or not, but I figure they were worth mentioning. Because of my gastric band, I avoid carbs. They get stuck in my stomach and it's quite uncomfortable. Consequently, I just avoid eating bread products, pastries, Pasta of any kind, French fries, rice, and things like that. That means no pizza!! Boohoo!! My favorite food is forevermore off limits to me! On the other hand, I don't completely cut out the carbs. My opinion is that if you're going to eat carbs, take them from real living plants: rice, potatoes, quinoa, etc. Stay away from things that are mixed with man-made products (bread, pasta) and are refined, processed, and look nothing like their main ingredient anymore. Eat real food. Quit feeding yourself "fat-free" and "sugar-free" and "low-calorie" garbage. Look, the stuff is gross and for good reason: it's not real food. Treat yourself to real food, and yes, please eat foods that are rich in fat. I'm talking about real cheese. Avocados. Almonds. eggs. Even indulge in real ice cream on rare occasions, and butter, and olive oil. (You know that candy bars and potato chips aren't "real food," so let's not even go there.) Stay away from foods that are processed and refined and look for food that has real flavor. Now, remember that I only eat 150 calories at any given sitting, so 150 calories of butter or cheese is not going to go very far. I might eat some hummus with 1 Tbs of feta cheese on Tomato wedges. Or Peanut Butter on an apple slice. Watch your portion sizes carefully, but ahead and eat the real stuff. Stay away from soda, even diet soda. For that matter, avoid anything with man-made sweeteners, carbonated fizziness (which only helps to EXPAND your stomach), corn Syrup, or processed crap. Okay, I'll have a beer maybe once a week, which I probably shouldn't, but as a general rule I don't consume sodas anymore. I used to drink Diet Pepsi like it was going out of style. No more! Drink Water, but do so carefully. This is a little trick that my weight loss surgeon taught me. One hour prior to eating, chug a ****-ton of Water. Then while you are eating your meal and for one hour following your meal, don't drink anything. The theory behind this is: (1) the water prior to your meal fills you up, and (2) avoiding water during your meal means that you are not physically flushing the food out of your stomach. Because the food remains in your stomach (3) you end up feeling fuller, for longer. It really does work. Try it sometime. A fun before pic!

Me now:

8 months and -65 lbs. I still have a ways to go, but I'm so pleased with my progress so far!
before!
current!

Pony on top of your head, then braid e pony, then wrap in a bun. It seems like a lot, but that's how I controlled my hair when it was long for sleeping, swimming and tanning

Im a sucker for being wined and dined! I started to feel like hey, if I have a salad Im good... BEWARE! Some salads are 800 calories. So generally you'd have to measure and eat 1/4 of it. I do like the 6oz steak no sides. I have an extremely busy schedule and stressful at that but being 30 and dating a 26 yr old is tough. He is a pig! And super fit by Birth! So I get a lil jealous but I wont get caught up in his careless Eating habits. My fitness app has nearly every item you might find yourself eating out. Kids meals generally with no fries or opt for the steamed veggies.

I suspect its NOT the Mac and cheese he was yelling about. Its the frustrations and the changes happening in front of his eyes because his wife is taking care of herself and that alone scares a man to death. My husband admitted to that. He never screamed at me or anything like that but in a conversation we had at the therapist, it was acknowledged that men will need a little more reassurance from their wives that they are not going anywhere because they will loose weight. I have no problem in reassuring my hubby as I am sure if the roles were reversed, I would feel the uneasiness also if the roles were reversed. He's going through changes also, just remember that and be supportive of each other. That is how I feel so that is my opinion only.

Glad he felt bad for yelling...my hubby tried yelling at me once over a jacked up version of red mac salad that I made...he can no longer wear that favorite shirt of his! Yep threw the bowl straight across the room...lol...I promote non violence guys...wink...