Jonathan

Man I love you guys. FYI: The pictures on my website (waistingaway) are from when I lost weight on my own a couple of years ago. When I gained back all that I'd lost, I decided to have the surgery. The pictures are still there to remind me what I had, and what I can have again. Thanks again, Jonathan

Clearly this is a difficult post for me to write, because this is the sixth time I've wiped it out and started over. So forgive me for poorly constructed sentences, the occasional grammatical error, and even -- heaven forbid -- typos. I've always been the lazy perfectionist... if I can't do something perfectly, I don't want to do it at all, and since I can (very) rarely do something perfectly, I find myself not making the attempt all that often. Nonetheless, here I am. Again. I had surgery on January 31st, 2005. I thought I'd be done with this whole "weight loss thing" by now. And here I sit, only 44 lbs down from where I was, with about 100 lbs still to go. What went wrong? In June, I completley changed careers, and I'm a full time graduate student now in addition to working a full time job. About that same time, my wife and I divorced, for the 2nd time. (Yes, from each other, for the 2nd time.) For 3 months, I was a "full time dad" too, but now they've gone to live with their mom and I miss them terribly. Lesson: life happens at a pace most people can barely hang on. But, we do. Somehow. Maybe nothing went wrong. Maybe I expected too much, too fast. Maybe as long as I'm making progress, that's all that matters. Lesson: I didn't get fat overnight, so I'm not going to lose weight overnight. But, the fact of the matter is that I'm not making progress. In fact, I've gained 18 lbs in the past 3 months, so I have to think that something's not right. I was having bad reflux at night and thought I needed an unfill, so I got one. And now, though I can't eat like I did pre-band, I eat too much, and I eat stupid stupid foods. And, if I eat at night, I STILL have reflux. Lesson: don't eat at night. And when I started gaining weight, I left my support group. That would be you guys. I'll be honest -- I don't find a lot of accountibility here, because you guys are just so loving and understanding, and despite what the world thinks about how quickly a weight-loss-surgery patient should lose weight, we know better. But, in the past, accountibility is what's always helped me lose weight. What I find here instead, though -- overflowing constantly -- is love and grace. And somehow, that's what it really feels like I need. What kind of group would this be if forgiveness and understanding were sacraficed for the sake of harsh accountibility? Not one that many (if any) of us would stick with, I suspect. Lesson: when things get hard, don't run and hide. The band isn't working for me. It's not tight enough. What ever shall I do? Duh. This "tool" isn't right for me because it's not restrictive enough; fortunately, it's an adjustable tool. Clearly, I need to get off my ass and get an adjustment. Lesson: the band is a tool, and you have to have the right tool for the job. Even with all of that, I'm still so damned stubborn. When the band was tight enough, I was PBing all the time, because I ate food I shouldn't eat, and in quantities that I KNEW I couldn't handle. Why? Because I'm addicted, and addicts make really stupid choices. Lesson: sometimes the band isn't enough. There are alcoholics on antabuse who still drink, despite the reaction. There's a 12 step program for people like me. I used to go. It used to help. Then things got hard, and an ran and hid. Lesson: when things get hard, don't run and hide. Hmm, that one sounds familiar. So now I now exactly what I need to do. Should be easy from here on out, huh? Lesson: there's a mile between knowing and doing. But at least I know what I should be doing. I miss you guys. Can I come home?

For what it's worth, I won't buy my clothes at Lane Bryant either.

Hi y'all. I'm alive, and things are good. I got an unfill about 4 weeks ago (.2 cc) because I was having reflux everynight. I wish I hadn't. I was losing weight, and with just .2 cc out, I'm gaining, slowly. Maybe adding .1 cc will be the magic mix. It will be my 5th fill, and that's what I get for free (well, not free, but included with my cash-paid surgery). School is wonderful (I'm getting my Master of Divinity degree from SMU) -- the best educational experience of my life. And my job (I'm the pastor of a Methodist Church in a rural town off of the I35 corridor here in Texas) is great. I've been seeing someone since shortly after I filed for divorce (met her after that point, and just really hit it off, quickly). At face value, it may seem like a rebound relationship, but I think that what characterizes a rebound relationship is that it often is with someone you have nothing in common with, just because you're "in a hurry" to be in a relationship. This is very different. I don't think I've met someone with whom I'm more compatible on more levels. I'm still taking care of my kids, in addition to taking care of my 80 year old mother, pastoring the church, and going to school. So, I'm a little busy. =) But busy is good.. most of the time. Annnnyway. Since I've been gaining weight, I haven't been around LBT much. I guess that's the wrong attitude to have. I've just been a little down as far as the weight goes, and coming here reminds me of that. But, maybe I need to be reminded of it. I hope you all are doing well. Jonathan

I think that counts as step aerobics.

I lost 60 poinds on Optifast the first time I went on it. Then I gained 100 back. I lost 80 pounds on Optifast the second time I went on it. Then I gained 200 back. Then I went on it again and lost 100 pounds. Then I gained 100 back. Does it work? Sure. Does it work forever? No. Well, it does if you're one of the 5% of the population who keeps their weight off after dieting. Sorry to be grim. Optifast (and Medifast, and all liquid diets) have an *extremely* low success rate. Now, if this is something you're doing in preperation for the band, that's a different story. If this is something you're doing instead of banding, I'd really give it some thought. Jonathan

It seems to me that at some point, if the band works, everyone will have less than 75 lbs to lose. Other than insurance approval and doctor willingness to perform the surgery, is there really a difference? Educate me! Jonathan

As if! The band is a tool. It takes more than just a hammer to build a house. If it takes more than one tool for you to lose weight, I'd say you fall somewhere in the "normal" category. As for me, when I don't take my anti-depressant, I binge. Thankfully the band doesn't allow much of that... Anyway, nobody's kicking you anywhere =)

Down 61 lbs.

I continue to be blessed with a wonderful banding experience. I can't believe it's almost been 6 months. I'm down 3 lbs this week to 282. I'm hoping for 2 more by the 31st, which will be my exact 6 month banderversary, and would be a 60 lb weight loss.

I'm down to 285 -- 8 lbs total =)

If you want to chew, I think (sugar-free) gum is your only option... =) Your dentist wouldn't want you chewing on ice...

I don't think any of us can be trusted with our own body image. Even with the slower weight loss of the band vs. bypass, our minds can't keep up with the change... and long after the weight is gone, we see ourselves as much bigger than we really are... Or, at least, that's what I've been told everytime I say something about how I look, or looked, when I lost a lot of weight before. =) Anyway, you look great to me.. just keep smiling, you have a beautiful smile. =) Jonathan

You're in. You can update your weight at any time at http://www.waistingaway.com/wlc Good luck! Jonathan

Anybody can join at any time, but we've always said that they had to use whatever their weight was on the day they joined. I'm not one for too many ruels -- just enough to keep some structure. If it's going to create any hard feelings, I'll go back and change it, but for now, I've put your starting weight at 356. Good luck! Sounds like *we'll* need it though, not you =) Jonathan

No, I must've just missed the post =) What's your starting weight?

Ok, I think I've got everyone up to date now. I don't have starting weights for everyone though. If that's intentional, that's fine. When you update your weight, if you're 2 lbs less than you were at the start, then just make your weight -2, etc. However, take a look at the weights listed, and I think you'll find that YOUR weight isn't anything that's going to surprise any of us. I invite and encourage everyone to post their weights just because it'll make it easier to track your progress as you go (you'll never have to remember what your starting weight was), and because if there's ANYWHERE in the world that you won't get judged for what you weigh, it's right here. But, if you're only comfortable with tracking your loss, that's perfectly fine by me. =) Jonathan

I don't round, exactly... it's a throw back to my programming days =) When you cast a floating point number (something with a decimal) as an integer, it simply loses whatever was after the decimal point. So, when I count my weight, that's what I do. 286.8 is 286 lbs. Since I do it that way, I didn't write my weight loss challenge program to use decimals (using floating point variables) ... just integers. =) If you didn't understand that, for the purposes of the WLC, just ignore everything after the decimal point on your scale.

Tomorrow's our first weigh-in. Everyone have a great Sunday. Get some excercise and eat right =) Jonathan

No restriction whatsoever. I drink water at the office to make sure it goes down, and then I'm welcome to go eat whatever I want.

I guess I forgot to mention that, but yes, that forum should be closed. To do that, Alexandra, you go to Forums & Moderators in the admin control panel (admincp). Go to Forum Manager, and click "Add New Forum". In posting options (the 2nd to last section) click "No" on "Forum is Open". Moderators will still be able to move posts there, but people won't be able to start new threads there. You could also make a new category by doing the same thing, but selecting No to "Act as a forum". Then follow the directions above, and select the new category as the parent forum. Jonathan

It's never too late. People may join at any time, but they have to use the weight as of the date that they start. So, the earlier you start, the better =) Everyone's in, so far...

As of this point, I think I have everyone who's posted or sent me quicknotes or PM's. Check the site, and if you're not there and think you should be, let me know again! Jonathan

There are a lot of really good sticky threads in the top two forums, but I find it makes it a little difficult to navigate through the forums, because they take up a lot of room. Some posts need to be in a particular forum, and it makes sense for them to be stickied in that forum. I'm not sure I can articulate what I'm thinking, but basically I'd like to suggest that threads that are stickied in each individual forums should be timely threads that need constant attention for a given period of time. (Challenge threads, food journal threads, etc.) Other threads, like the importance of drinking Water, Donali's secrets of success, I think would be excellent to move into a new "Library" forum, that is closed to the public, but can have posts moved into it by mods. Doing this would have two immediate benefits: 1) The individual forums would be a little cleaner, have more space for the threads that are created on a daily basis, and the threads that ARE left in there as stickies would catch your eye a little better. 2) We'd have one repository for a lot of really good threads that should be MUST READS for potential bansters, as well as a place for those of us already banded to quickly find informational threads we want to re-read. Anyway... just a thought. Jonathan

I think I have everyone so far. Just to clarify, you have to list your starting weight here, or send it to me via a "quicknote" on the challenge website. If you do that, be SURE to include your user name. I'm using ONLY user names this time, so there's no confusion over who's who. With your starting weight, PLEASE also include your GOAL weight as of the end of the challenge. I'll update the software to record that later, and will have it do something cool to your name when you reach goal =) Once you're in the system with a starting weight, you may update your weight at any time on your own. Jonathan Mods... can we sticky this thread?