Gibson

How liberating! I'm so happy for you!

kathy, I am not exercising. Baaaad Gibson! However, my calories seem to run between 1500 to 1000 calories a day on good days, around 700 to 800 on bad days. As shocking as this sounds, I have to make myself eat more because I lose better when my calories are up. I make sure I get my 60-70 grams of Protein a day, and watch my Fiber, but other than that, I'm not making the best food choices.

I basically eat anything I want, but very small portions of it. I have made a decision to accept the slow weight loss and be able to eat a little of what I like instead of feel totally deprived and low-carb all the time, or whatever. Unless I hit a KILLER plateau, I will probably keep eating this way. I plan to start exercising in June when school goes out so that should help all around.

I was really, really acting ugly about my slow weight loss for a while but then I realized, "Hey, I can eat baked spaghetti, an occasional Reeses Cup, and ice cream every now and then and STILL lose two pounds a week? Life is good!"

Because that's what I was doing this morning! I finally, FINALLY, after several years have gotten below the THREE HUNDRED MARK!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!! Who ever dreamed I'd be ecstatic to see 298.8 on my scale?

Hopefully this will serve as a mental breakthrough to help me focus. LIFE IS GOOD!!!! :thumbdown:

It's so exciting to pics of my Double V's! Honestly, some of you girls who say you are only halfway there have my dream bodies! (marathinner and JaxBandster come to mind!) I just want to look nice and curvy in jeans and I'll think I'm a hottie! I've never wanted to be bony (thank GOD, since bony is a physical impossibility in my family!)

You are all so beautiful!

And Ezma, I can tell a huge difference in your waist! I don't have boobs but the rest of our bodies could be twins! (Ponytails and all!) I can't wait until I've lost as much as you and can start to see it for myself!

Alright then, if fat content is not an issue, I can give you a low-carb pizza recipe that will blow your mind. The crust is made out of egg, parmesan cheese, and (hmmmm, is that it?) Can't remember exactly but you can pick it up like a real pizza, it doesn't taste "eggy" AND it will probably go down super easy for us banders. (Adds "find recipe" to my list of things to do today.)

Anything that you deep fried in breading before, can be deep fried with flaxseed and egg and parmesan cheese. Oh my gosh, it sounds gross but honestly, I'd rather have that than real floured breading. You can use flaxseed for salmon cakes, chicken tenders, fried mozzarella sticks, even as the breading in meatloaf!

One of my favorite low-carb sweet treats was half a cup of cottage cheese, one packet of splenda, and a Jello cup. It was low-cal, low-carb, sweet, and filling and it looked/tasted like a parfait!

I think I'm going to low-carb this summer while I'm off school and can exercise really regularly. I'd like to drop a significant amount of weight in the two months I'm off so a lot of people will notice the loss when I go back in early August.

Keep this thread bumped and I'll keep adding to it. A great site for low-carb recipes is LowCarbFriends, by the way.

Thank you Ezma, I hope so too! My goal when I was banded was to post here every single day so everyone would know me (and LOVE me, of course) hee hee hee. I have spent over ten years at another forum and posted over ten thousand posts but haven't made a single friend there. I would love to make some real friends here, real enough for us to meet up somewhere in the future! Wouldn't that be great?

Wow, just wow. Honestly, your current after pic is my dream body at the end of my weight loss journey! If I could look like that for the rest of my life I would think I was the hottest chick on the planet. Those jeans are perfect on you and that top...so sexy! I think you look perfect right now!

Boy do I know my low-carb recipes! (Too bad I could never stick to the low-carb diet for long enough to keep off the weight!) =)

Before I start listing a ton of things, are you doing Atkins style or South Beach style? I'm asking because most of my low-carb recipes are high on the fat side.

Hooray for your hubbies! I can't think of a better thing than having an SO who understands your new eating habits like that. You and Marathinner are both blessed!

I am very impressed, Crystal! The changes in your body are incredible. I'm so happy for you! =)

How exciting for you! You are a brave woman!

I'm with jbnwilds though, when I played basketball as a little kid I begged the coach to leave me on the bench. Once when she made me go out some crazy person threw the ball to me (what was she thinking?) and I panicked, and threw it so hard to the nearest teammate that I almost broke her nose. Yeah, blood everywhere. It was pretty traumatic. Needless to say, the coach didn't force me to play again so I enjoyed the rest of my season on the sidelines giggling and laughing with my best friend. =)

Yay Tara! I can't wait to see the piece! Even if it does "offend me", I'll be proud of you for creating it and being brave enough to share it with the world! Love ya!

I hope you are having a blast! I'm looking forward to your return and the stories that will accompany it! =)

Hey girl, I could have written your post myself! As of yesterday morning I've lost 21 pounds since my banding. (7 before banding, so I'm going to be hitting 30 pounds total soon....HOPEFULLY!) It has been frustrating at times but I'm trying so, so hard to be positive. My loss so far averages to about 2 pounds a week which is healthy, blah, blah, blah...somedays I can convince myself I'm satisfied with how well I'm doing but sometimes not. I know that the "not" days make me totally envious of the "I've lost ten pants sizes in three months!" people. If you ever bludgeon someone with a loaf of Italian bread, just pray I'm on your jury. I could never, ever condemn you for it. =)

P.S. I think just joining a gym should cause you to lose fifteen pounds overnight.

I have 3cc in a 10 cc band. I think this could quite possibly be close to a sweet spot already for me because I can eat small portions and I'm satisfied easily. I'm not losing much weight, but I'm trying to stay positive.

The only thing that ever, EVER makes me lose weight in my stomach is low-carbing. You wouldn't have happened to lose your weight the last times from low carb eating, would you? Just a thought!

Ahhhh, Onederland. The destination of my wildest dreams. I'm thrilled for you! Especially since I'm still trying to make it into the 200's! Maybe I'll be there with you in another year or so!

Hooray for you! My boobs are quickly disappearing too, but they were only a C cup to begin with so...I'm not sure what I'm going to have left when it's all over! Plums in tube socks?

Right back atcha, friend! *hugs*

Way to go! I may have to get that one, myself! As shocking as this sounds to me, I'm actually looking forward to school ending so I can get into exercise mode. I used to do Tae Bo and loved it! Of course, having the mad hots for Billy Blanks didn't hurt matters. :thumbdown:

Another vote for Reduced Fat Cheez-Its, pistachios, and sugar-free pudding here!

I used to eat almost a whole box of Cheez-Its at once and now I find that five or six totally satisfy me. The pistachio choice is great because it's time consuming to take off the shells so that's automatic Portion Control. My favorite sugar-free pudding is caramel but my stinkin' grocery store stopped carrying it! *whine*

Yep, I also had the half-dollar sized bruise. Mine took almost three weeks to go away, though! Weird. I didn't feel one ounce of pain with the fill, though. Thank God for small miracles!

Hey girls, I just wanted to drop in and congratulate you all on the "downsizing". I haven't gone down any sizes yet but I think, MAYBE, POSSIBLY, my pants are fitting looser. It's hard to tell since they are all made out of stretchy knit material. When I finally lose down to a normal size I am going to vow to never, ever, EVER wear knit clothing again as long as I live!

Hey gang! I just wanted to give you a quick update on how I'm doing since I haven't been online much. I sliced my finger open with a cat food can and had to get four stitches so typing is NOT easy. I've also had a rotten cold that makes me sleep from the time I crawl in to work until I crawl back again. I've been peeking in on you girls though. I miss you!

SOoooo, enough whining about me, I wanted to give the good news and the bad about my weight loss. The good news is that I've lost three more pounds in the last two weeks. The bad news is that I'm pretty sure that I'm officially the slowest loser in the Double V's. Oh well, at least I'm saving all of you from that title! I've lost 19 pounds in ten weeks. Which I suppose is exactly what the stinkin' doctor thinks is successful. (around 1-2 pounds a week), but I still feel like a failure. I'm not too discouraged, though. People at work SAY they are "seeing it in my face" and I think I can tell a slight difference in the way my pants fit. I'm going to keep on truckin'!

Talk to you soon!

I'm so happy for you!!!! That really is a major accomplishment, FIFTY POUNDS GONE and soooo close to the 200s! I hope to be joining you in the 200s in a week or so. I know I'll be MUCH happier there!