jenn0528

These are my babies. My little girls are the dogs and my little man is the kitty. :-)
Kitty Cat....yes his name is kitty cat....my son named him when he was 3, Marcy....black lab with an Easter egg in her mouth, and Jessy.....yellow lab sitting like a good girl. I love all my babies. Even the human ones!

I guess working with a rescue and having animals in and out as fosters, temps, and just simply not being able to say no to any animal tends to build up quite a collection of fur babies, shell babies, and of course scaled babies when needed. My Kammi had to have an eye removed, and they drained the Fluid out of the eye they removed, and then injected it into her remaining eye to try to save it. She is known in our area as the miracle dog, all the local vets know her. And we take her to all the local pet adoption events, to show that even the roughest looking babies can look like a show dog with love and good vet care.

Here's the love of my life, my protector, my best friend, my Precious!!!! My hubby and I rescued her from our local ASPCA just days before she was scheduled to be put down. She is the joy of my life and I love her. She's "My Baby Girl" and I would not trade her for anything in the world!!!

My wife and I adopted / rescued Remington ("Remi" or "Rem" is what we always call him) a few years ago. He was on a kill list. Can you believe that? He is a great addition to our family.

He is 1/2 English springer and 1/2 border collie.
We also have 3 cats, but no assessable pictures of them for now.

My puppy Jacques is a Pyrenean Mountain Dog (or a Great Pyrenees). He just turned one and is a great walking companion. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't get my three to five miles in a day.

Lovely pics everyone.
For me although I love all animals, I am a dog person. And this is my baby girl, Tootsie.
She was an abused, abandoned and starving little ragamuffin, but we rescued her and although she is still terrified of even her own shadow, she is our baby.

We call him "glitter paws"

Koa, my fur baby. The greatest companion a girl could have.

My Calli girl is 12. My best friend before my kids.

My Calli girl is 12. My best friend before my kids.

Me too! I've been at a stall for a week at 212. I'm adding more calories this week to see if that helps.
Good luck!!

Good work! How do you get all that Protein in?

Banded June 2010. Rid of 168 pounds!
(sorry if this is a repeat for some of you but thought i should post this in this forum too to
help/motivate more people)
So the truth is the way I had success was to get real with myself. The first year I completely failed my lapband. I lost a little and then gain 30 pounds back. I didn't exercise at all and tried to tell myself walking the dog counted as good cardio. I also didn't count any calories that first year. I ate crap and tried to blame it on my band not working properly. I was very uniformed and thought the band was magically supposed to work. I didn't understand that I needed to get to that "sweet spot". The second year I decided I had to do it and get informed. I read these bariatric pal boards and searched for the secrets to everyone's success. The answer? No big secret, actual real exercise and counting your calories! I got a little cruiser bike and actually rode it 15 miles a day 7 days a week starting the day I bought it. I had always wanted a bike like that and said if I got one i would use it. That day I also started counting my calories religiously...right down to a stick of gum. I stuck with 1200 calories for the first year and then actually had to up my Protein calories once I started doing even more exercise. When it got too cold I tried zumba and fell in love with it and did it 7 days a week. Then I upgraded to twice a day zumba for several months. Then I did the Insanity program and zumba every day for 3 months. I slowly but surely lost steadily that whole time. The majority of my calories was always Protein. 90 grams at least. And when my weight was stuck and I exercised more, i upped it to 120 grams of protein and lost even more. With that amount of protein i felt full, and there was only enough calories left for my veggies, then fruit the sometimes some carb foods. My band is a realize band and if i remember correclty it is at 10.2 in an 11cc band. I almost have to have the darn thing closed shut to feel any real restriction. I havn't had a fill in a year. (acutally i had it to 10.7 for a almost a year until this january when i started randomly having really bad night reflux so decided to just get a tiny bit out). I made little goals as I went along.. If I had a trip planned, I would say, ok I just have to lose 10 more pounds by then. Or I just want to weigh what I was when I graduated college, and the what I weighed when I first got married, and then I just wanted to be smaller than my husband ( that was an awesome day the day the scale said I weighed less than him!). And the it was I wanted to be what i was when I was 21, and then the ultimate was what i was when I was in my teens!
As for extra skin, yes i look dang good in tight workout clothes but naked is an entirely different story. I will be very honest here and many people here can relate. I struggle daily with my body image. While I may look tiny and muscle packed with clothes on ( I'm at 19% body fat), without clothes my skin is soooo wrinkled. My upper arms are super bad and I am pretty self conscious about them. I wore tank tops last year but vowed not to this summer as i swear all i thought about was people staring at the saggy skin. My upper and lower stomach and pubic region have a huge amount of extra skin that gets in the way when i exercise. I can actually hear it flapping about when I workout dang it! My chest is completely non existent, just flaps of skin which will require a lift and augmentation. My inner thighs and butt are the least saggy out of everything but will require a lift if I really want the complete packed. The good news about some of this is my legs and butt have actually gotten better with working out once I added weight training. I was so overweight for almost 15 years and so i just don't have time (or age) on my side for my skin to shrink back. My goal is to concentrate on reducing my body fat just a little more and have my arms, chest and tummy done this fall as a reward for keeping my weight off for a significant amount of time.
The best advice is to get very informed and have a plan. Don't kid yourself, real exercise and a diet plan is the key to success with the band. Exercise is my best friend now. I actually want to be a personal trainer and nutrition counselor. Many people have asked me how I did it and I have to say I was sick of being what I was.
You can do this!!!!!

here is my lapband adventure. First and foremost everyones adventure will not be the same. I got band a few years ago and it was empty and I had only gotten one fill. Did not make much progress at all. Now everything I have read told me I needed to keep up on my fills...that was my fault. Now this year I got back on track got two fills and have lost 20 lbs. in two months! The lapband is a tool and the process is slow and steady if you follow the rules. Yes you will have stuck episodes if you eat too fast or too much I have learned this. Also big news...I learned scales suck....don t be a prisoner to your scale. Exercise is helping a lot...but not everyone has to exercise to lose...the ones that don t have to I am a bit jealous of But don t think this is a quick fix or your going to drop 50 lbs in a month or two... cause u will set yourself up to fail and then lose hope like I did. Get a year calendar one of those wall ones and track your progress on it no matter how slow it is. that way you will see progress in your journey. Good Luck and don t be your worst enemy be your own Cheerleader!!
P.S. yes there are spelling mistakes and grammatical errors!! Get over it!

10 months ago I started going to a pain management doctor for back pain because of my weight. After 3 heart attacks, chronic pain and diabetes I needed to do something or I was just going to end up having another heart attack or worse. For obvious reasons I didn't want that lol. My PMD told me to go check about the lap band doctor in the same building. I did. I checked to see if my insurance covered it and they did and met with the Nutritionist. I weighed 345 that day. She put me on a diet and I think I lost about 20lbs in the 4 months I had to see her before my insurance would let me get it done. I lost about 10 on the liquid diet before surgery. Went into op at 315'ish.
I joined a gym and started walking on the treadmills as soon as I could, when I started I could only do about .3 of a mile. 6 months later I'm now walking 1.5 miles a day. I've lost a total of 100lbs, 70 since I got the band. I'm down to a 2x shirt from a 4x and wearing a 38 jean from a 46. I'm feeling so much better now. I'm off all my meds except some of my heart pills. I no longer have diabetes or much pain anymore. Even had the confidence to go out and find me a new girlfriend. I know I have 60 to go till my goal but I know I'll make it.
I have my 6 month picture and measurements on the 28'th, can't wait to see a good before and after pic and see how many inches I've lost and where I've lost them.
Just wanted to share a little bit and have a reminder of this day.

^ 315 - 245 ^

No Pain...No Gain.....they call it a "Work" Out...if it was easy, then everyone would do it, and there would not be any point to it.....
And yes, it is because you have not used those muscles in a while....it will get better...

I am indifferent. If you ask, I'll tell ya.

I am indifferent. If you ask, I'll tell ya.

I am indifferent. If you ask, I'll tell ya.

Whatever I'm craving. It can be a certain type of cake, cookie, ice cream, or chocolate. I give in to my cravings because if I don't, it will haunt me. I do not overindulge. I will have a taste (small piece) or a couple spoonfuls of ice cream or one maybe two Cookies or that piece of chocolate and then that's it.

I am totally with you! Especially 4 and 9!!

Try having a sauce with whatever you eat. Try ranch with chicken or a-1 with a filet. I found it helps keep the moisture as I eat.

Right now I have a bratwurst with mustard, for example.

Hey everyone wanted to share my story a little bit I was a big girl my whole life and sickly from the time I was 9 years old till a manageable health a little over a year ago I stop breathing 3 times lost my brova and bad break up over and over again fount myself 23 years old at 316 pounds n o lyrics 5 foot 2 iillll. I got my breast reducted from a 48 MM to 48 DDD in June of 2009 because of health reason my asthma was at its worst he took 14 pounds off I was still 279 plds n i was 19 when this happen uugghh. Im July 16 1012 I got sleeve at 287 plds it was a great a decision I made I healed easily n quickly . This past month on Dec 5th 2013 I got a panniculectomy surgery and it wasn't as bad as I thought I am now considering liposuction n a fat transfer. I m so grateful for my God and how's he brought me this far I m going to attach to photos at the end of this n let yall c where I came from. Now maintaining I weight at 190 my goal weight is between 170 n 175. Thanks for reading any question feel free to ask.

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My pattern is wake up, pee, weigh, record. And then forget about it. When I want to look at weight I basically pull the big chart out and I compare week to week and month to month. Some days I don't even remember what the weight was that morning.