JustWatchMe

Love love love this! You inspire me every day. ????❤️

Good luck! Scared is normal. I've been stuck but it's not a choking thing or breathing thing. Like Julie said, it's a sensation of having to spit up food that just won't go down. Lots of salivating but not nausea. No retching either. Hope this helps. Sounds gruesome but for me it's not that bad. And it sure taught me to chew thoroughly and slow down.

I've been getting tiny fills now and then over the last year. Four fills of 0.10, with my last one in August. I debated getting one in September but my NP and I decided together to try modifying my food plan and waiting to see those results. Well, I'm a stubborn old broad, and I resisted making serious changes right away. But here's what I did change over the last four months: I gave up alcohol completely in September. I gave up fried food in November. I gave up my weekly carby Thai overindulgence in December. Do I miss it? Hell yes. I gave up movie crapcorn completely in December. (Not movies though. I actually smuggled two pears into the movies a few days ago and got a little thrill out of that.) I began planning, committing, and tracking my food to my OA sponsor and using MyFitnessPal again two weeks ago. What happened? My band is talking to me again. I feel the stop signals very clearly now. I get the "enough" sensation on much smaller quantities. My dog is loving it because he gets the p rotein I can't finish. Bottom line is, I had to clean up my food for my band to be able to do its job right. I'm filled enough. I know that now. The band surgery alone enabled me to drop 2/3 of my excess weight without much behavior modification. Sure, I was eating less, and not eating between meals. But I was emotionally hanging on to my greasy, fried favorites and drinking with friends every weekend, not to mention socking away tubs of buttered crapcorn on a twice-weekly basis. And scratching my head as to why I stopped losing weight. Making the changes I made above was an incremental process. I wasn't ready to do it until I was ready to do it. I'm really glad that my band stayed consistent while I floundered around figuring this out. For whatever reason, I'm now motivated to get the rest of this weight off, and to follow the disciplined plan I have worked out with my OA sponsor. This may or may not help somebody else. But if you're chasing the elusive green zone, and wonder if you really need more fills or not, see if cleaning up your food for a few weeks first makes a difference. It did for me.

Thanks for the heads up!

Get to goal weight. (Actions to get there are tracking portions and committing my food plan.) Non weight loss goal: buy a house after this flipping divorce is final.

Thank you for your pictures and for all the instructive and helpful posts you share about your life as a successful bander. You help me all the time. Merry Christmas!

I often have reheated leftover meat from the night before. Lately I've been having hard boiled eggs. I like cheese sticks for a grab and go. Scrambled eggs are always getting stuck these days. Why hard boiled doesn't, who knows? Greek yogurt with slivered almonds is also good.

True. Stall is the wrong word. It was definitely due to the types of food I was eating. And that's okay. It's where I apparently needed to sit for awhile. It's taking more effort and stricter food choices to drop every pound now. And interestingly, it's consistent with the literature about post op weight loss. The surgery itself can be expected to account for 65% of my excess weight to be lost. And to the pound, that's what I've dropped so far. Not super easy, but not particularly difficult either. But from here on out, each pound is work. And that's okay too. I feel the energy to get it done now.

Good for you! In a similar boat. Happy to be free of the pain and starting my new life. Thanks for your post!

Very inspiring! Congratulations!

Update: still working my plan. Feels good to have food in its proper perspective. I've averaged 1375 calories over the last four days. Maintaining but not losing weight. It's getting harder to lose weight these days. I'm motivated, but it sure isn't as easy as the early post op days. Oh well. Keep on keepin' on, right?

The visit was great. Her fella is very nice. Here's a pic of the dress. And another pic my daughter took of me on The Magnificent Mile last weekend in Chicago. Life is good!

This was a great post to read! I love long term success stories. Congratulations!

Lisa, you are my hero.

Thanks for this site and Merry Christmas!

Oh this absolutely wins the internet today.

Wow. Sorry to hear about the band infection but glad you were able to get sleeved. Good luck!

In my former obese life, I only wore jeans that fit. It didn't matter what type. Now, with two thirds of my excess weight gone, the jeans that fit are actually called skinny jeans. That cracks me up every single time I put them on. As long as I wear tunic style tops, I can get away with it. My legs have always been my thinnest part.

Wow, I had not thought of it in terms of a resolution, but I, too, will reach my goal weight in 2016. I am coming off of a one-year stall. I have slightly over 50 pounds to lose to get to my desired goal weight. I recommitted recently and I am working with someone daily. She told me that I will achieve that goal. So 2016 it is!

I'm breaking a one year stall by weighing my food, measuring my portions, tracking it in MyFitnessPal, and committing my food plan in advance to my OA sponsor every day. Today and tomorrow are just Thursday and Friday. The food may be different and fancier (and prepared with love by me for the family), but it's still just fuel, not my reason to live like it used to be. WLS operated on my stomach, not my brain. The brain work is the hardest part, and I do it for life. One day at a time. Merry Christmas to you all. As my sponsor says, a clean food plan is the most loving gift I can give to myself. Today I happily open that gift.

Awwww. Four and a half months ago I was 403. Today I'm 297. This made my day. Congratulations!!!!

I learned a lot from your post. So glad you're feeling better and thanks for sharing this.

Way to go!!

Those are my knees!!! I used to get cortisone shots in both knees every four months. Now I only need it in my right knee. No NSAIDs for me. I used to take Relafen for years. Now Tylenol as needed for pain, but as you know, that doesn't relieve inflammation. It's still much better than when I carried 302 pounds around.

Make sure your meals are high in p rotein and no more than 4 hours apart.