Ang1982

Congrats on your loss so far, you've done great! But I just thought that I would throw out there that I was (still am) the person who drives around to find the closest parking spot, rides the elevator and still suffers from serious couch potato syndrome. I haven't been physically active in probably 15 years. My BMI when banding was 50.3, I am now a BMI of 44.1 (281lbs) when I started running (well started the couch to 5k) I was probably around 288 lbs. I have now been doing it for 5 weeks straight and can run for 5 minutes straight. It's a challenge and its not easy but people who are a high BMI can do it too ... if they put their mind to it. No one said it was going to be a cake walk, but if you're anything like me - we've done one too many cake walks in life already haha. :thumbup: Like I said, runnings not for just the "less obese" the "morbidly obese" do it too! And whosyadaddy is a fine example of what some hard work can do! :wub:

thanks for all the welcomes and encouragement everyone! :wub:

Glad you liked it! Good luck

Congratulations!! Hope you have (or had if you've been and gone already) a fanastic trip!

So I've not actually posted in this thread before but I finished work out 3 of week 4 today (and I will still do another one this week, I do it every other day so some weeks its four workouts others its three). I've found that with this being my first week of running (jogging, whatever you want to call it) for 5 minutes straight I could barely make the 5 minutes. Now when I look at the last workout of week 5 (what I will be doing next week) HOW on earth am I supposed to run 20 minutes straight?! That overwhelms me a wee bit.. lol

Thanks Julie, and you're right - I'll never see these people again. For anyone that is curious, after my trip I will post how it went haha.

What about instead of an actual gift card - if you know where you are going - why don't you make up a cutesy little gift certificate yourself either on the computer or by hand and give it to her before you get in to the restaurant. And have it say something like: This Gift Certificate entitles the bearer, my sweet friend [insert name here] to put [insert amount of money you are comfortable spending here] towards her Birthday Dinner at [Name of restaurant here] on [insert day going out here]. And if you want to kind of make it less obvious, make a couple other silly ones like - entitles the bearer of this gift certificate to a fun filled day of fabulousness with me! Unless that's a lame idea.... lol:tt2:

I used to work in a call center and you would be HORRIFIED if you knew half the stuff that went on in a place that big with people there at all times of the day. We had someone we called "Poo-casso" who would draw pictures on the wall in the bathroom with their feces....

wow that is absolutely ridiculous! I mean I guess if you live way far away from the office they could inquire politely about it being mailed to them but to be so rude and awful. I just do not understand some people...

My understanding is stuff that are NSAIDS (ibuprophen, aspirin, etc) are to be avoided as much as possible because they are very harsh on your stomach and if they sit up in your pouch and don't pass through (if have really good restriction etc etc) they can be harmful and possibly a cause of erosion down the road. However, for that to be of a concern I would imagine you would have to have some pretty regular use of them for it to do any harm. One here and there should be nothing to worry about!

Like the others have said it varies by surgeon... mine does not stitch ports in place.

Awesome Heather! Won't it be fun to have your hubby buying outfits for you more often?! Keep it up girl, that's fantastic No longer being "obese" is a TOTAL HUGE NSV and amazing. Congratulations sweetie, you have worked so hard for it! I can't imagine how fantastic it feels to shop in regular stores (and probably a bit weird too hehe) but fantastic!!!

I agree, or at the very least, if they haven't been doing so - make sure that they remove all the fluid in your band and then add it "and a bit more" back in next time you get a fill. that way if you know you have 9cc's and they are putting in say .5cc they have .5cc in the needle, remove all the liquid to see if you have 9.5cc now in the syringe/needle then put it ALL back in. Perhaps you have a leak or something. When getting your fills has your doctor ever had a hard time finding your port (if not done under fluoro? Perhaps he's accidently punctured your tubing. I would ask him next time to remove all fluid to check and then put it all back in. My doc does this about every other fill or so just to "make sure". Good luck!! And I would suggest maybe doing 1-2 weeks of food logging on Dailyplate.com (great and easy to use website) sometimes I find that I am eating more calories, etc than I realize and that is a good way to put things in perspective and get back to the better eating. Keep us posted

I agree, keep it up everyone! Doing great.. I will be posting my 6month comparison photos after I hit that on the 23rd... here's hoping I see a difference heh

I noticed (not so much the past month) but for a couple of months prior (I'm almost 6 months post op) that I was "shedding" more than normal - I noticed it most when I was washing my hair and constantly picking hair from my fingers. I have a LOT of hair though so it wasn't really noticeable and it seems to have calmed down... for now. I'd rather be skinnier and healthier with slightly temporarily thinned hair however....

Haha my girl friend was like whatever you'll be in florida just go bottomless.. the fiance was like "you cant hang out with cheryl anymore". i did however find an "okay" bathingsuit and by okay i mean - it's a swimsuit.. HELLO lol I bought a "body wrap" today .. it's similar to Spanx so we'll see how that works. Unfortunately the only store near where I live (and not really , still like 45min away) that carries spanx didn't carry my size so we'll see what happens with this "body wrap" thing.

All I can say is hang in there girl and don't get too discouraged (much easier said than done). Keep going to WW and the gym. You are smack dab in the middle of "Bandster Hell" and believe me I know how awful it is. I would see if in the future you can schedule your fills a bit closer together. Personally when I go for a fill before I leave the office I make my next appointment regardless of if I know I will need it or not that way in the 4 weeks or so I will know I can get in. Hang in there, you're doing great!

So sitting in my desk chair and taking a measuring tape and running it from behind me a bit at the back of the chair and all the way around to the other side it's about the same as the length of Alaska's seat belts and that wasnt even pulling it snug so I will use that as a judge for my flight and think it will be okay. Worse case im only on the flight 40 minutes then i switch flights after an hour layover so I will know for that one which is a longer one. I am going to check out the spanx tomorrow and i guess here's hoping a couple more lbs gone by the end of the month will help out!

This is why I post stuff like this on here because you ladies are fantastic! I NEVER would have thought of the Spanx idea but that totally makes sense, I will be investing in some of those before the flight that's for sure. I have to go swimsuit shopping so I will check out to see if I can get spanx too. I went to our local (lame) plus store and they had all the "tankini" style swimwear which is fine cuz that's what I wanted except...they had NO bottoms...clearly not going to work.. lol.

Thanks for the suggestion about using a sewing measuring tape to double check seatbelt length, I wouldn't have thought of that but think I will do that tonight when I get home from work! I am sure I will have a great trip despite all this! Thank you :smile:

That pic you posted the one in your avatar, WOWEEE girl, you look fantastic and look at those legs! I like your pin up name btw :smile: I didn't realize which you had chosen until now. Lookin sexy!

thanks girlie. It's funny that it never even crossed my mind before - even when I was at my heaviest but for some reason I am very apparent of it right now. i fully intend to make out with the wall (or aisle) for the entire trip lol, we will be inseperable.

I am going to florida at the end of the month and previous to this trip never really concerned myself with how my butt will fit in the seats. The past two trips I have been on in planes (approx 2'ish years ago now) I had no concern about it, the seat belt fit and it wasn't super comfortable but I was in the seat trying to not invade my neighbours space as much as possible (i always try to get window so i can squish against it, or aisle if can't get window). I never worried about it then but I have heard that they are more strict about the "spilling over" now. Am I crazy to be worried/scared? I am probably either the same weight or slightly smaller than I was at the time of my last trip (probably slightly smaller). Currently I'm 284'ish lbs, 5'7 and about a size 24 pants. Trying to not freak out but it's kinda worrying me....

Well according to our canadian government border website you should be fine

Well to be honest, I'm not 100% sure but I know for driving Canada to US you are "supposed to have" a passport but i don't think the law has taken effect 100% yet. Are you not able to apply for a fasttracked passport to be safe? Okay this is straight from CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) website.... http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/security-securite/admiss-eng.html