gingerbug

We do flouros/xray each and every time we get a fill so they check then. I had gone in for a fill and she wanted to make sure so she checked before she gave me the fill. Apparently, i was twice the size that I should be but she also told me that she has seen them 4 times the size the should be and that will the liquid diet I would be back down to where I should be. I think our pouch is supposed to be the size of an egg. It can stretch to accomadate a meal but will go back down unless we consistantly are stretching it out. In my case, I went on vacation, then had thanksgiving, then dh and i went out to ear a lot and were cooking yummy foods and i went overboard for about 3 weeks to a month or so. Never again.

So close yet so far away. I have a stretched pouch and I earned myself a week of liquids to get it down again. Not exactly what I had in mind to make goal by my band-iversary but that is the price I pay for overindulging myself recently. I am a bit crabby but I keep telling myself to suck it up.

from United Health Care to Atena . I read in my info for the employer that our new insurance company is supposed to have better bariatric coverage but I dont know how it works when I have already had the band. Do I need to be re-approved with Atena to get fills? Thanks

Thought I need a fill and she checked me and I have a stretched pouch. Needless to say, I did not get the fill and i get to do a week of liquids. I am overly worried about it and I plan to add a few days onto my liquids stage and ease back into solids nice and slow. I was told that I should have my previous restriction level back and if I dont, I should come back in to get it checked out to make sure it went back down. She did not seem overly concerned and she told me she has seen pouches much much more stretced out than mine. I had my fun and learned my lesson. No more playing around for me. I really hope several days of liquids will be enough.

I am on the verge of breaking a small plateau. I really want to make goal before thanksgiving so I can just maintain for a month or so for the holidays, a break, if you will.

I preferred fuzzi bunz but I was never without prefolds and covers. I preferred to fold my prefolds into thirds and lie them in a cover - I like Proraps. They have double gussets and NOTHING got through them.

Surely it will fall off of you, 20 pounds is a piece of cake and it has been only 3 weeks. I remember sweating all night long for WEEKS while my body was getting rid of all that Fluid I had been retaining. Good times. Take care of yourself!

Woohooohoooowooohoooo!! I did it I did it! Throwing myself a parade here!

LOL, well, you flush that part down the toilet. You wash your underwear, don't you?

TOTALLY brag worthy!! That is exciting!!

I finally had a picture of myself taken yesterday. I am usually taking pictures! This one is me about 20 pounds from my heaviest: and this is me yesterday:

I use cloth and I prefer to use fuzzi bunz diapers since they go on like a 'sposie. I have a HE washer so I dont go through too much extra water washing and I line dry when I can to cut down on that. Anouther reason I chose this particular brand (after, of course trying most other ones out there) was because of how fast they do dry, even in the dryer. It makes me sick to pay for diapers (for the occasional times I have needed to use a paper diaper) I just throw away now that I have spent so much time using cloth.

Um, no. I could NOT have done it without the band. What worked for me, I think, is that I was already a healthy eater, I just would eat mass quantities of food. I would try to diet by counting calories but eating less than 1800 calories left me crabby, miserable, hungry, and ill feeling. I would fail time and time again. Now, I eat anywhere from 600 to 1200 calories a day without those feelings. I dont obsess over food. I dont feel guilty when I eat. I dont look at myself in the mirror and agonize over my failures to eat in a manner that is healthy for me. I love my band. It has given me the control I did not seem to have before andit has given me my life back.

You are at a kick ass pace, IMO. Maybe less than some but, seriously, BARELY. We cant compare ourselves to others, it is just not realistic. You are doing an outstanding job.

I am doing well, almost there. I am having serious allergy issues lately and the gym is a distant memory. I am thinking in a week or two I can launch back into it and round this last 13 pounds off. Averaging still around 1.9 pounds a week according to fitday and I figure that when I get to that goal I am going to evaluate whether I want to go for 20 more. I love being able to fit into normal size clothes and I love that I look like everybody else. Average.

I am glad to see that lots of others feel the same way about it that I do. I am getting close to my initial goal and I want to meet it before I change my goal. I dont really know what I *want* or *should* weight. I am almost 5'11" and I havea medium frame. I will be fine at 190 but I am thinking that 170 would be great, too. I am having an easy time losing weight, I really cant explain why but I seem tofeel I should just roll with it. Going for a size is a good idea too. I would like to be a size 12 and right now I am a size 16 but I am thinking I will have to be closer to 160 to get there. Well, at least that was thee case the last time I wass at 160.

yeah...well...I broke down and went to walgreens and bought an enema bag. Warm water enema if I go more than a few days without a BM and all is right in my world. No more cramping, no more bloated painful stomach. It is all good.

It depends on who they are. I can forgive those I care about because I have been jealous myself. If someone is making rude comments to me I will decide if it is worth getting into as some people just need tome to work things through on their own. If it is worth getting into I address it in a manner that does not put them on the defensive. If possible, that is. If it is someone who has no impact on my life I ignore them. Life is too short. If you cant reason with them, let it go. It is their problem , not yours.

What factored in? Did you use a chart? If so, which one? Did you pick a past weight that you liked or did you take advice from your doctor? Did your goal change once you got to your initial goal? thanks for sharing!

It is the same thing with my husband and I. We travel and look for really good food. Sometimes I am jealous of what he can eat but I cannot but to be honest, my band has gotten me to try foods I might not ordinarily try and I have been thrilled with many of my choices. It does not change what we do, just my food choices when we get there. I also find that I can usually manage a taste of what I want but cannot eat a lot of. I still get the experience without it impacting my weight. Remember, sometimes change is good.

Dr. Schulman, Thanks for sharing your time with us. I have a question for you, if you dont mind. I am 16 pounds from my goal of 190 pounds on my 5'11" frame. My body shape is much thinner on top than I am on bottom. My shoulders are not much more narrow than my hips but the shape of my bottom half is much more 'curvy' than my upper half. As it stands, I feel I am thin enough on top yet I still have the same problems that I did before i had gained my weight in the first place, the hips and thighs. I feel that my skin has recovered nicely from losing weight so quickly. With the exception of what having two kids has done to my lower abdomen, which really does not look too bad in itself, I dont have any loose skin. Is it possible that I could have good results with just getting liposuction? I am a full size larger 'on the bottom' than I am 'on the top'. My goal is to look balanced. If I lose too much weight, I run a big risk of being really 'bony' on top since I have a large frame. I want to stop my weight loss at 190, spend some time at the gym toning my muscles, and then have lipo on my lower half. I am hoping this goal is not entirely impossible. Oh, i dont know if this is relevant, but I had only been obese for about 6 years. I dont know it that plays a part in skin elasticity. Thanks for your time, V

No, do what your doctor says.

and I am having a really hard time wrapping my mind around it: I look like a normal average person. I dont look sloppy. I have no food stains on my shirt. I can get up early and make it through the day. I dont ache all over. I dont have to wear fat people clothes. I dont recognize myself in the mirror anymore. LOL. The moment came yesterday when I was standing outside in front of our big window and I caught my reflection and I had to blink, it was really me. that normal size person was me. I have been so focused on being so close to goal that I forgot to look at myself. I am not fat anymore and I can hardly believe it.

LOL, I meant that I started tracking my weight loss from the start of my my liquid diet, not that I am doing a liquid diet now. Since the 17th of December I have lost an average of 2.1 pounds a week. I am 5'11" and my goal weight is 190#. I have for sure noticed it gets harder to lose the weight as I get closer and I am just fine with that. THe average for 8 months is 2.1 but for the last two months it is 1.33 pounds per week. As far as I am concerned, being this close to goal, as long as I dont GAIN, I am fine if it takes me anouther year to lose 23 pounds. At my height, 23 pounds is going down just about one more size in clothing so the visual impact is not huge. the benefit of this is that I already 'look' like I am a normal weight. My plan for the next few weeks is to hit the gym pretty hard. I am suffering from ragweed allergies that make it hard for me to even breath but as soon as I get a handle on that I plan to go into the gym and trade a pound of flesh as often as possible. I would prefer to be at goal by no later than spring so I can buy a whole new wardrobe. Right now i have a frankenstien combo of new, used, and out of date hand-me-downs. I have an appointment tomorrow for anouther fill, I notice that while my restriction seems ok with the amount of food I can eat, it seems short lived. Food 'drops' through the band rather quickly and i get hungry. I tend to eat about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of food at each meal and I think I was told no more than 1/2 cup. I have 6.7 cc's in a 10cc band. I usually get small fills more frequently instead of drastic fills because I seem to need time to adjust to them. Even with small fills I do an extra day of liquids and an extra day of mushies afterwards. The doc and i agree that this is the way to go to not aggrevate anything. This is a really long post, I just realized!

There are complications from any surgury. You could die getting your gall bladder removed, I dont think deaths from this type of procedure are anymore common than any other procedure. You could die from weight related problems, too. I suspect the dangerous health problems stemming from obesity are far more dangerous than those from this procedure. If you want to be left alone by those who want to talk you out of it, come up with a simple statement such as 'I appreciate your concern, I will speak to my doctor about any and all concerns and I will make my own decision'. Repeat over and over again, if need be.