Marimaru

Congratulations!!!!

Well, even when things don't work as quickly as we may have wanted them too, if they are still working, you are still going in the right direction, right? I've been up and down throughout the last 14 months with being happy I'm losing anything (or even just maintaining instead of gaining) to wanting to scream because I'm not losing even though I'm working really hard. I think we just gotta take each day as they come and deal with it that way. I weigh every day, but fortunately for the most part I don't let it dictate how my day is going to be.

We'll hear from you on the other side!!

Sexy, attractive... I think at the heart of it the problem that I have is that I don't like my body and that is what I need to work on. If I get to the point where I think I'm sexy, that doesn't have to mean by today's media standards you know? It's more about self acceptance I think. The bottom line is probably that I need to love my body more, no matter what it looks like. I am stuck with it after all

Alex, I think you bring up a good point. I suppose sexiness could be replaced with "attractiveness" in a lot of places. I DO want to feel sexy sometimes, but I'd also like "knowing" that I'm attractive on a regular basis. You know those people who look decent even if they throw on sweats and don't do their hair? I'd like to be one of those people. There are times when I'd like to be sexy. But I'd like to be attractive and pretty all the time tho .

I think that a large part of body dysmorphia comes from what you are told throughout your life. Whether it's to your personally or as a blanket statement that you feel you fall into. The way society treats body image has said terrible things to the people that don't have perfect bodies that we choose to believe. So now we have to tell ourselves (and hopefully the folks around us will help) that we aren't ugly, and that to not have "the perfect body" doesn't make us ugly either. I also wonder what to do with the attention. I've never been good at taking complements. Something in my brain always says "they're just being nice" or "they're lying" or something. I have good and bad days at work. I get complements on my graphics and think "yeah, I'm pretty good!" and other days I just don't think I'm that great. Talent dysmorphia?

My thoughts and prayers are will you and your family as well...

Maybe if they answer by the end of the day they are still in?

Well, you've already answered your own question, but really, you have to give yourself time. You lost weight on the preop diet, and they pumped TONS of liquids into you during your hospital stay, and I'm betting you had to lose that too. Give yourself time though. Your body is probably in shock from surgery, and all of our bodies handle that in different ways. Feel better

How's this? Great pic!

Tonight I paint my toenails (instead of putting it off some more), tomorrow, I start wearing mascara!

NJChick, I gotta say I find it hard to believe that you've not gotten any complements in years. If you are anything like me, you get compliments, but they don't go into the permanent filing system in my brain. But this isn't about what other people think anyway! WE have to start thinking better about US!

You can contact Inamed directly if you want a 'official' answer to your question. Their website is inamed.com, and I've known people to get very quick answers to email with questions like that. I do know that Inamed will not sell a band to a doctor that they have not trained, and I do believe that Dr. Rumbaut is one of their proctors that teaches the procedure to new doctors. I'm also 90% sure that he has a band himself, but I could be wrong about that. I can't honestly say where I remember reading that. Dr. Rumbaut did my surgery a little over a year ago, and I could not have been happier with his service. My surgery was uneventful and I recovered very quickly. I also just recently received a survery from them asking my opinion on how they could improve their service, and then also asking for an update on my contact information so that they could keep in touch. When I responded, I got a reply back within a day. I don't mean to prattle on, but just wanted to give you some of my good experience

What a great idea. My OH profile is here: http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/profile.phtml?N=G1098128096 It's getting kind of long. I may transfer it to my own webspace soon.

That's great! I love hearing this stuff!!!

Ok, I thought the thoughts on one's sexiness deserved it's own thread, so I made one in the lounge called "Woo! I'm Sexy!" My thoughts are there, with my feets Michelle, where/when is this party? hehe.

Okay, so in the "Adult Content" thread, there was a little controversy and I said "I WANT to be sexy, but I don't know how, and I like that I have people I can talk to about that" or something similar to that. Both Megan and Crystal (Vinesqueen) came after me and told me I was sexy, I just had to believe it, and I was told to choose one thing that I liked about ME. I promised to report to that "tomorrow" which would have been Friday I think, and I never did, so I'm starting this thread so that other folks can join in too. I like my feet. They are toning nicely somehow, and my toes don't look so stubby as they did before. They are also the only place on my body that I thought about without thinking "yeah but...". My calves are starting to get a nice shape, but they still need a little work, etc, etc. So, those of us having trouble believing that we are sexy, need to pic at least one part of us that we believe is, and work on seeing more. Those of you who already know you are sexy, give us some pointers!

I don't have all of my measurements, just what I took for Nana~'s challenge, but it's still a good example I think. Not the bestest picture (and someday I'll quit saying that about ALL my pictures...). The jeans are a size 16 stretch with a belt (that I got to tighten by an extra hole yesterday before that pic). The tag on the sweater is washed out, but if I had to guess, I'd say XL. I'm 5'6", under my bust is 39 3/4", my waist is 42", and my hip area at the widest is 50 1/2". But look! I have a neck! haha.

Mornin' all! It's a crappy camera phone pic, but a pic is a pic, right? So: under bust: 39 3/4" Waist: 42" Hips at widest: 50 1/2" Current Weight: 225 I think that about covers it right?

Toxic tea and poison meatballs, huh? Looks like you guys are having a GREAT time!! I will totally have to be there next year!!

Nicole, I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. I hope that with time things start to feel better.

Thanks for the update! Glad to hear that everything is all good

You know, that's not too far off from what the gas prices really are... only I think I never actually laughed at it. *sob*. I love PVPonline, though I'm a bit behind. RealLife and Penny Arcade are also funny stuff

Instead of telling the dentist, you might talk to your band surgeon and ask him if you should be on any kind of antibiotic when you go to the dentist for the first year after surgery. some surgeons like to do that, and your dentist still doesn't have to know.

You are better off eating the most that you can while still losing weight. This way, you can back off a little bit if you hit a rough spot while not starving yourself, you know? I try to stick to 1300 calories a day. I try not to get too hung up on the amount of food I eat at once, as long as it fits into that (and I don't feel hungry). Today so far I have had 1 Powercrunch bar for Breakfast, 135 cals, for snack I had a Pria bar, 110 cals. Then for lunch I had a salad with ranch (190 cals, real ranch), and some "Beef Jerky Crisps" that I found at the store. The whole bag is 200 calories, and I had some with lunch and some a little later. Then a serving of some pretzel sticks for 110 calories. I have about 550 calories to play with for dinner and desert, and that shouldn't be a problem. Hope this helps.