phyllser

WATER AEROBICS... I love it!

Hi there sixties buddies! Just found this thread. I turned 64 the end of Nov. I had my surgery last July.. 07/20/07 and I'm down a hair under 60 lb. so far. I've had three fills, the last one Oct.29. We are RV snowbirds spending the winter in Desert Hot Springs CA, so I'm hoping I can get by without a fill until we get back home (WA state) in April. So far I seem to still have pretty good restriction. I have arthritis in both knees and use a handicap scooter, so exercise is a problem, but here at the RV park we go to water aerobics Mon-Fri mornings and that has been really helping. Keeps me moving and helps with the weight loss as well.

I guess I'm the old lady in this bunch! I turned 64 the end of November. We have four grown kids, 35-41 yrs old, and ten grandchildren, 2yrs-19 yrs. I had my surgery 7/20/07 and am real close to 60 lb down. I have mobility issues due to arthritis in both knees. I'm getting my exercise in with water aerobics.

How much are you eating, how often, what kinds of foods? Are you exercising? Drinking enough fluids? It's not an easy journey.. lots of work, lots of self discipline. But we all lose at different rates. Don't get too discouraged. Hope our doctor has some answers for you on the 20th.

Diane, I never thought I'd be able to give up my Diet Coke. LOVE carbonated drinks... Diet Coke and we have a carbonator, so make our own carbonated Water, sometimes adding sugar free flavoring. Didn't know how I'd live without it, but I got through it just fine. Last week, I thought, since we have the carbonator and control the amount of carbonation, maybe I'd try making some. So, we did... DH added a little Crystal Lite powder to the first bottle. Well, the first bottle he blew up... literally! He used a cheap 1/2 gallon plastic bottle not designed to hold carbonated beverages and the thing exploded! You would've thought a bomb went off and we had orange carbonated Crystal Lite everywhere!! He ran for towels to soak it all up and his bottle was just blown apart! Kind of funny when the hysteria died down! Then he tried the right kind of bottle. But, I tell you, it just isn't the same anymore. For one thing, I'm a little afraid of it, so I found I was just sipping at it and not getting enough fluids in for that reason. So I am back to just plain Crystal Lite (Wal-Mart or Albertson brand) or just plain water. Once you get off of it, you'll find you can live without it quite nicely! Good luck!

Janet, Is that meeting the first Tuesday or the first Monday because 2/4 is a Monday, the rest of the dates you gave are Tuesdays. I put that on my computer calendar so it will send me a reminder! Don't know why but I've stopped getting emails of new posts! Wonder what's up with that.

Might hurt a little more than an ordinary blood stick, but nothing excruciating. They usually take the blood from the wrist. Think I had it done once.. not too uncomfortable. Why the arterial blood gases?? Some type of respiratory disease?

Good Grief!! Jackie, that is outrageous fee for a fill!! Charges I've seen for my fees are $179 for fluoro plus a reasonable office visit charge. Sorry to hear about your cholesterol! I haven't had mine checked since before surgery. I take Tricor and Pravastatin to keep it down. I'm hoping when I go home in the spring and have my blood work done again, maybe I can go off one of them, at least! I am really anxious to drop some meds... one cholesterol Rx and hopefully one BP pill! But I'm sure you've all heard me sing that song before! TOPS weigh in today and I was down 2 lb. I am so close to the minus 60 lb point that I can taste it!! Hope to reach that milestone by next week's weigh in! I am PSYCHED for it!! Karri... I'd sure help with those essays if I could! I especially love checking spelling. Sorry, Janet, you'd FLUNK!! LOL! One of my sisters is especially obnoxious when it comes to critiquing spelling and grammar and content!! She was an accounting major in college (which she never quite finished) but, I swear, she missed her calling! She'd be a great proofreader, if she could survive. I'm sure someone would have a "hit" out on her before long though! She is UNRELENTING!!

:welcome: :welcomeB: :welcome2: Hi, Carol, If you can get to a pool... YMCA, etc., Water exercise is the way to go. :Banane30::Banane42: I deal with the arthritis problems, too, especially the knees. I'm doing water aerobics and it's great. Also, have you tried Therabands? Good for strengthening. They sell them in a three pack at Target for around $10. Happy Birthday, Elvis!

Hi, Michelle, I can relate to your comment about something "wet" with your meat. I do the catsup thing, too, or with pork... a little applesauce, a little cranberry sauce with chicken/turkey, if I have some around. It helps a lot. Hard to get DH to understand that. To him, I'm just adding calories, but.. I'm using a very small amount, and sugar free whenver possible. Someone told me that Clark's (nutrition store) sells sugar free catsup. Haven't made it over there to check it out yet.

See... that's what happened to me a week or so ago. My signature disappeared and it wouldn't come back. And now I can't get that stupid glittermaker site to work for me at all. So I just had to do my own signature for now. I want my glitter one back!!

Yep, Saturday. That's the day you leave? With these post-season games, I would think they'd get them by satellite. Hope you have a great time! Forgot where you are going... somewhere warm, right??! We're in CA for the winter in our RV, but we've been getting a lot of rain and cool weather even here in the desert (near Palm Springs).

:welcome: :welcomeB: :welcome: Wow! You are doing great! You MEN are so frustrating.. you lose so much faster than us gals!! We are jealous. Keep up the good work! You ARE working your butt off!! You're going to be one HOT daddy for that little girl! Praying that God will continue to BLESS your efforts.

Excellent post!! Sometimes we have to "Fake it 'til we Make it!"

In November, because of the holidays, someone challenged us to exercise 20X in the month of December. Adding it to our signatures was a good way of keeping track of it. Then I decided to do it again in January just as a matter of accountability to myself for keeping up my exercise.

We like the chewable calcium from Costco but lately they haven't had the sugar free. Chewable Centrum works, and, like I mentioned, the liquid B-Comp. Small capsules go down easy. And small pills, for that matter. But anything very big... scarey!

It should be a good game. Play off party sounds fun!! Excpet for all that food. I ate too much today. Panera Bread for lunch. Although, I must say, their soup bowls certainly have shrunk! Used to get a pretty good sized bowl of soup when you ordered the "Take Two" or whatever they call it... bowl of soup and 1/2 sandwich. Now you get a little crock of soup. That's okay, but their price didn't change! In fact, I think it went up... less food, more money. It was plenty for me, but just annoying when they do things like that. But then I had about 4 little shrimp for an afternoon snack. So I couldn't even eat half of my dinner tonight... small chicken breast.. most of it went back in the fridge.

sorry... probably us football nuts gumming up the works!! Doesn't that make you mad when you type a really good post and then suddenly it's gone?? And you don't know where it went?? And you don't feel like typing it all over again!! Bummer!! FOCUS on the SIZE 12 pants.... not the "OLD" stuff... doesn't matter. Stupid kid! Part D, indeed!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: Hey! I was at Wal-Mart yesterday and I went to the McDonald's inside...... and I bought...... (DRUM ROLL) A LARGE BLACK COFFEE! Yes! :tea:

GO SEAHAWKS!!

I guess I take about 6 Rx plus vitamin supplements. Two BP, two for cholesterol, one for reflux, one for bladder and a synthetic hormone pill. The supplements are the most difficult to get down, especially B-Complex. But then someone here clued me in about the Liquid B-Complex, sublingual, and that works great. Target has it and yesterday I found it at Wal-Mart. GO SEAHAWKS!!!

Ok I have a question to pose - do you think getting filled is both a physical help & physiological too.. I have been contemplating this for the last 2 days. Out loud thinking here... Do you think that we can use our bands to become anorexic well not that totally but that we can abuse a fill... Like me right now - I want a little one - but I don't think I really need it - but that if he just went in and said ok here you go and really didn't do anything just said he did - would I think oh I am tighter... Right now I was eating some corn (need to go to the store it's the only veggie I have) and right now have golf ball - I have had 3 bites - normal bites not tiny and I am tight in my chest.. I want to be able to eat more than 1/4 cup of food per meal - I don't think that eating only that much is healthy - I don't want a starvation diet and mentally that's starvation to me.. As it stands now I am eating 1 to 1 1/2 cups per meal I guess what I am saying here is that with the restriction I have I should be happy with and not want another fill. am I getting too dependant on my band - I don't think so but I guess this is in the back of my mind. I guess it's just I know this is working now - but what is going to happen in 3 yrs - I got 30 lbs to go to get to goal - and maybe I just want it now and am afraid that I won't get there This 59.5 lbs is the most I have ever lost in my life I wish I could be as articulate as Karri in explaining my feelings. I get a thought then it leaves me... I hate old age I guess I am worried that I will rely too much on the band and not on myself ... That's not it either - well not totally but partially - someone help me out here.... is anyone getting what I am trying to say.. Ok I will just post this and see if you guys have ever had these thoughts or understand what I am trying to say.. Am I feeling guilty about my band as a tool - am I afraid of becoming addicted to fills - I am I wanting the weight to come off faster I think that cuz I have only lost 1/2 a pound for the last two weeks - that something’s wrong - but with the cookies & tamales I was happy with the 1/2 and with not exercising last week for 4 day -I was happy with the 1/2 lost – I guess what I am afraid of the platue (sp) that may be coming - I’m afraid that I am not going to lose any more weight - I am afraid I will lose my resolve if the scales don't move downward.. Definitely think that getting a fill IS both physical and psychological... there is more restriction and I know I am expecting that to be there AND I am afraid to test it. I have never had any episodes of pb'ing or sliming... just an occasional "stuck" feeling for a short time... longest was 30 minutes.. That is enough to intimidate me and keep me from pushing to the limit. I don't think you're in danger of developing an addiction to fills. You have a great deal of self discipline. If you were "addicted" to fills, you would be pushing it, trying to see how much you could eat before the band stopped you. We all want the weight to come off fast. I was thinking about that today. Someone I hadn't seen since last winter was at water aerobics this morning. She always used to talk to me, so we happened to be at the same end of the pool this morning and talking about what we did and didn't do over the summer/fall. I mentioned having surgery so she wanted to know more. After that conversation, it got me started thinking about why I chose the band over bypass. When I was researching both procedures, I decided I wanted the bypass. Why??? Because I wanted the weight off FAST!! But once I really thought it through, that was not a good reason to decide on that procedure. FAST is not healthy. Slower is better. And, plateaus are a fact of life. My pattern seems to be to lose 10-12 lb in about 2 weeks, then hover around that weight for several weeks before I start losing again. It can be frustrating, but after several cycles of that, I've just had to learn to deal with it and just stay consistent with what I'm doing because it does work. You've been diligent about your exercise and about making the right food choices. The weight IS going to come off. Patience, my dear. It's going to be okay. You know my Rx for this situation..... have a little glass of wine and chill!! LOL

Good to hear from you again, "Frustrated". You have definitely faced some monumental challenges these past few weeks. Hope things start getting better soon! Keep us posted!

That sounds really good, Peaches! We love salmon. Sometimes cook it on the George Foreman with a little Old Bay Seasoning, olive oil or pam. Costco had nice looking salmon today for $4.99/lb so we bought about 24 oz. filet. I love my seafood!

Hmmm.... might have to check that out on our way back north, Jann. Is it anywhere near a main north/south highway?? Not in the market for real estate, but like to explore new places.