Marimaru

Micki, I'm sure you are feeling better by now, and you've already been told that what you were going through is the norm. Each day will get better and better Buffy, Dr. Rumbaut will give you something that is great for the pain and doesn't mess up your head (at least that's what he gave me a year ago). It's not a pain pill like Vicoden, it's a muscle relaxer, that relaxes the muscles that are spasming and causing the pain (they are freaking out from being cut and having the port in them). What he gave me worked fantastically, and I didn't need it very long. I was greatful that it didn't cloud up my head as well.

Glad to hear you are doing well! I bet it's good to be home too! I can't imagine how you must have felt to look down and not see any tummy rolls or bumps. That just has to be AWESOME!! Rest up, and we'll see you when you feel better

I think that for all of us, we all "know" what we need to do, and how we need to do it. And we all get to the "I can do this" point before every diet, at least, I know I do, and I guess I'm making a blanket assumption there. The point that the band helps with (for me) is the "SCREW THIS" point of the diet. The point where you are at a plateau, or you think you aren't seeing the results, or you think you've screwed up your diet and you just give up. The band stays there and reminds you that you can still do it, that screwing up is ok if you pick yourself back up and start over again. It helps with the mental by being there physically if that makes any sense. As Jack said, I enjoy NOT eating tons and tons as much as I might have liked it before. Sure, there's times when I say "gosh, I wish I could have more of that" but I REALLY like that I don't load my plate up over and over again like I used to. It's really liberating in a sense. Do give it some serious thought tho. If you really think you can do this without surgery, by all means, that's how you should do it. Surgery should be a last resort of course Let us know how your consult goes, and how you are feeling after

Mae, do you mind if I ask your stats? How much weight you've lost etc? And of course we'll be expecting pictures after your Lower Body Lift

I'm 23, have had no kids, and have a decent amount of stretchmarks, so it sounds to me like you'll end up better that I am going to Stretchmarks, genetics, how long you were overweight, and how much you were over weight seem to be the things that effect this, so you might be cool

Wow! Congrats to you both! It has to be neat to do something like that with your wife like that. A whole life change, but together . The drink sounds yummy, I'll have to look into that as well

I collect Anime and Manga (japanese animation and comics). I don't know if my bookshelf full of used up sketchbooks counts as a collection, but I like looking through my sketches and remembering what was going on in my life at the time (even though they have nothing to do with eachother). I've got a huge collections of too much clothes because I never threw out anything I was too big for because someday I was going to magically shrink back into them.. but wait! Now I am!! haha. Now I throw out stuff that is too big. I also like getting notebooks and writing utensils. I always end up with more notebooks than I'll need, and then use them up and need to go get more. Unfortunately there's nothing important in them like a journal, I just use them for notepaper at work instead of sticky notes or steno pads. As for pens, I'm on the never ending Quest to find the perfect inking pen. I may have been close, but then it ran out of ink and I've been broke since then. maybe next month I can buy more

Maybe I missed something, or maybe it's past my bedtime and I jumbled the words or something, but are you supposed to be no a liquid diet of the exact same thing for three weeks?!?! And you've somehow FAILED because you've made some choices about other liquid alternatives that will serve the same purpose?!?!?! Tell your DD to go on the protien shake diet with you and see how long she lasts . As for the nurse... well, you already know our feelings on that Do your best! That's all anyone is allowed to expect of you

I don't have a good answer for you, but CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I love that song. Or at least it was in song form the first time I heard it. Good stuff.

Okay y'all (), I've been on the hunt for the low calorie, volumn Snacks. A serving size of 6 chips in a decent calorie range just doesn't do it for me. So I'm going to share what I've found; First of course is the SF Jello, and I've found I like it with just a little coolwhip mixed in while it's still liquid. They separate into layers when it's jelled, and it's yummy. Whilst in the store looking for SF flavored syrups I came across something called Dream Whip. It's in a box, in the jello/cake aisle. You mix it with 1/2 cup of milk, and just a little bit of vanilla, and it's kind of like coolwhip, but even less calories per serving. If you use 2% milk, it's 240 calories for the whole darn bowl (yes, I did the math, lol). I threw it in the freezer to make it cooler faster than the fridge to use, and forgot about it for a while and when I came back it was all ice cream like. Now, even though you only use 1/2 cup of milk, it whips up to 2 cups of the stuff, so it's like a pint. So you can have a whole pint of this stuff for 240 calories, whereas most of the ice creams I've found are 150 to 200something calories for a serving, which is 1/2 of a cup. It's not cheap on the carbs, (36 for the batch) but if you only counting calories like me, you might enjoy it. For me it's a 'planned snack' because it's 240 calories if I decide I want the whole thing (division as necessary if not), and it's also planned because you have to give it a few hours to freeze. next time I am going to try and add just a little bit of my Irish Cream SF flavored syrup.

I'm 23 and started at 280. I'm 230 now, and the skin really isn't bouncing back so much for me. It's just kind of deflating and sagging downward, if that makes any sense? It's like Alex said, your situation kind of decides for you, and there's not a whole lot to be done about it. Exersize will tone the muscles underneath, which might make the skin look better on top of it, but exersize doesn't do much for the skin itself.

Start keeping track of your protien for a little bit and see what you think you are averaging. You usually need 60+ grams of protien so if you aren't getting that much, you might have your culprit...

The day will be here and gone before you know it. I think that you'll do fine. Anything specifically that bothers you about anesthesia?

Lets see here.. -Scuba diving; I was doing it before, but had cut WAY down, and would have likely stopped if not for the band and losing weight. -dye my hair; I'd been dying it boring brown before (my natural color is mousy brown with little hints of grey >.<) now it's reds, and most recently burgundy (I did green in high school, but that's high school) -wear makeup some days for no good reason -quit wearing pajama pants out of the house. I used to wear them almost every day because the place I work doesn't care, but it turns out they looked horrible, lol. My sister made note of it when I quit wearing them. I wore some around because I was doing all my laundry one day, and boy, did I look fat, haha. I know there is more, but that's all I can think of right now

lol... I have some hand weights I got for my arms, but I only used those about a week. I have a pilates DVD that I was using religiously for quite a while, but that dwindled away after i went on vacations (because I wasn't seeing results, so my brain thinks it's ok to not do it now), and at my mom's house we just got a healthrider that she wants to use, and I'm allowed to go over and use. I've used it once so far, and I've been staying in her house all week, lol... Sheesh... I'm so horrible...

Jodie, they pointed you to Jessica's story to show you that it could be MUCH worse that what you have to deal with right now. That woman has had all those problems from the surgery, she's not strong enough for a reversal, she can barely take care of her son, and now she's found out she has breast cancer. As bad as you may think your life is right now, it pales in comparison to the issues that other people may be having, and THAT is why people are pushing you to look at the positive. Anyway, it seems your purpose is to vent, not get advice, so please, vent away.

Hopefully they've given her something other than the morphine that is helping her feel alright. Even more good vibes from here

That is SO funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even more ideas! Thanks!

I used to have this issue. I've been stuck for so long that I've learned that I had to get over it. It was so bad my boyfriend used to harp on me for what I was eating because "I know how upset you get when you gain a pound" haha. I've started counting every calorie that goes into my mouth instead of just having a basic idea at the end of the day. I was bumping around 1500 calories every day, and that quite obviously isn't low enough for me to lose. Yesterday I was at 1220, and i want to stay within the 1200 to 1300 range. And no, I'm not exersizing either, and I'll tell you why; I did really really good for about a month and a half, exersizing every stinking day, and I was bouncing around 1500 calories a day and it didn't make one bit of difference. So I went on vacation and then came back and never really started up again. I'm very much a person who needs to see results in something I'm doing, or else I don't really feel like doing it, because it's not doing me any good. And yes, I'm fully aware that exersize is good for your heart, etc, and I know I feel better when I'm doing it, but darnit!!! As I'm sure you can all understand Oh, and I'm also obsessed with the scale. I get on the darn thing every stinkin' day (except this week because I'm house sitting for my mom and she doesn't have one). I know it's not going going down, I can be pretty confident that it's not going up, and yet I have to stand there and stare at the same number every day. blarg.

Thanks for keeping us posted, tell her we all wish her a painless-as-possible recovery

I find everything you say here to be an obvious (but not previously thought of) truth for me as well. And the quote above is completely perfect for the way life seems to work. Jodie, I think you've gotten alot of good advice here. The choice whether or not to take any of it is obviously up to you. Like someone else said, maybe you just want to vent, and that's fine too, but if you don't say so up front, you'll get all of our ideas . Maybe it would do you some good to take a semester off of school while you try and get other things straightened out? Especially if you are missing alot and your grades are suffering for it. Just a thought. Hopefully you'll soon see the light at then of your tunnel

That is awesome. I now subscribe to the theory of DeLarlaism. When I tell my mom this, she is going to want to know if I can direct my fat into her boobs. LOL

I've been learning to do the same thing for myself. I'm not halfway to goal yet, but I've been stuck for some time for whatever reason ('whatever' being not counting calories and probably eating a 'maintenance level' instead of a losing level) but I've recently found myself noticing the difference that everyone else noticed some months back. I think my brain is finally catching up. I've also accepted the idea that more often than not, I'm not losing. I sit at one weight for a while, then a few lbs drop, then I sit for a while, etc. I'm finally okay with this as well. Getting on the scale and seeing the same number doesn't instantly turn me bitter anymore. That said, I think it's incredibly awesome that you have maintained your loss for this long without having your port and fills and whatnot. I don't believe that I could do that now if I were to go through the same thing.