Miss Meg

Well, for those of you celebrating with me over breaking up with the sleep machine, we are back together again. I love the concept but it turns out I was waking up frequently, gasping and all the rest. It may be that I am with this thing for the duration. Last week I was really dragging, pain index high (I have arthritis) and just not feeling "myself." Well, I think that can all be attributed to poor sleep. I went back on the CPAP two nights ago and have had a complete turnaround. Plus my husband is happy as I'm not waking him up now, so there's that. My plan for now is to lose ten more pounds then go back for another sleep study to make sure the machine is tuned to my new body and working optimally. That's the update! An NSV Take-Backsie but I am still one happy woman.

Great results. Congratulations on the hard work paying off.

Happy bandiversary????
Great year. You look very healthy. And happy
Aren't we so glad they came up with a great tool??? That works!!!
and if you plan right, it does NOt come back
Keep us updated.. We need a community for long term fun in my simple opinion.

Today marks 1 year since my surgery date and I haven't look back for one second.
It hasn't been easy, but it's the best decision I have ever made for myself.
I have lost a little over 33kg (around 72lb) which makes me just over half way there
If anyone is undecided - please take the plunge, it is so so so worth it.
I'm attaching a couple of photos so you can see the difference and how amazing I feel - The collage is a comparison shot taken exactly 12 months apart, and the second is a picture taken of me a friends wedding a couple of weeks ago...
Have an awesome weekend everyone.

As I've posted on a number of occasions, I've not been one to 'weigh in' on a regular basis.
In fact, up until about a week ago, I'd only checked on my numerical progress on three or four occasions in the nine months since my sleeving.
Each time I checked, I was pleased with my progress.
At no time did I ever feel that I'd failed or that I was doing poorly.
Even now, I'm more than happy with my progress and am in no way regretting the choice I made.
However...
Something happened last week that I can't explain.
For some reason, I became someone I thought I'd never become.
Someone I'd not been able to understand..
Someone completely foreign to me...
Last week, I became a scale watcher!!!
There, I've said it...
It's out there now and I can't take it back..
Won't take it back!!
Ladies and gentleman, my name is Jason and I now weigh myself EVERY DAY!!!
Now, I'm hoping that it's just a passing phase..
I'm hoping that once I pass the milestone that I'm fast coming up on (it's a pretty major milestone), I'll go back to the cool, calm, rational quarterly weigh in kinda guy that I was up until last week.
I'm hoping that the insatiable desire to know my weight (or at least the weight I've lost) will be quenched upon the passing of this mark..
Alas, that's all yet to be decided..
For now it seems I must resign myself to the daily (or twice daily) check ins to which I've recently become accustomed.
Here endeth my rant...
Thanx for your time...
KindaFamiliar

This has been a long relationship with plenty of ups and downs along the way. Love/Hate comes to mind. Before surgery I composed a list of goals and getting rid of the CPAP is on there twice. Being hooked up to a device drove me nuts at times, but over the years I also gained a certain amount of security from it. The white noise of the swooshing air helped get me back to sleep during my frequent wake-ups in the night but a lot of the time it was the machine itself waking me up (not being strapped on properly, the nose pillows coming loose, etc.). We went away for three nights and it was wonderful not having to pack up my machine and set it all up in the hotel room. I gave it a few more days as an experiment once home, and while I plan to keep it in a closet somewhere just in case I am delighted to have it off of my bedside table. Yippee!
Oh, and I looked up my measurements to check: I have lost 2 inches off of my neck. That's a lot, for a neck. My waist? This one is kind of a shocker: 8 inches. Wow! No more Mrs. Winnie-the-Pooh and no more CPAP.

Great pics, congrats!

Hi there and congratulations -- you look great! I think you were banded on US Thanksgiving -- so much to be thankful for all-around. Best wishes for continued success. So glad you're here!

Today marks 1 year since my surgery date and I haven't look back for one second.
It hasn't been easy, but it's the best decision I have ever made for myself.
I have lost a little over 33kg (around 72lb) which makes me just over half way there
If anyone is undecided - please take the plunge, it is so so so worth it.
I'm attaching a couple of photos so you can see the difference and how amazing I feel - The collage is a comparison shot taken exactly 12 months apart, and the second is a picture taken of me a friends wedding a couple of weeks ago...
Have an awesome weekend everyone.

Today marks 1 year since my surgery date and I haven't look back for one second.
It hasn't been easy, but it's the best decision I have ever made for myself.
I have lost a little over 33kg (around 72lb) which makes me just over half way there
If anyone is undecided - please take the plunge, it is so so so worth it.
I'm attaching a couple of photos so you can see the difference and how amazing I feel - The collage is a comparison shot taken exactly 12 months apart, and the second is a picture taken of me a friends wedding a couple of weeks ago...
Have an awesome weekend everyone.

I am 12 months post-op and go along pretty well with the amount of food I can consume.
I've recently worked out that that if I leave it too long between meals (longer than 4-5 hours) my band feels a little tighter than normal and I sometimes get things stuck.
I do try to avoid leaving it so long, but on busy days when I don't get around to eating, I've noticed this.
Does anyone else have the same issues?

As you may have noticed, I respond to a lot of posts with Embrace the Stall!
http://BariatricPal.com/index.php?/topic/351046-Embrace-the-Stall
I got tired of responding to the same posts multiple times a day and so wrote one long post with the information I have gathered and what works for me and others as it relates to stalls.
I don't see the need for educating people about stalls to lessen anytime soon, but I would like to hear from YOU some of the good things that happened while you were in a stall.
I'll start.
I am grateful that during my last stall, I: dropped a bathing suit size; increased my lap swimming to 1 hour, several times a week and have gotten faster and stronger; am able to get in and out of my car more easily; and no longer need a seatbelt extender.
How about you?

Ordering off the kids menu. I felt really silly doing it the first time, but then I realized sometimes you get a toy! Hell yeah!

Hi all,
it's been a while since I've made a post on this site - have been reading but haven't made any contribution.
I thought it was high time I updated again - if you are interested, please have a look at my blog...
livelovelapband.blogspot.com.au
I hope everyone is well and happy xx

I just wanted to do a quick check in with my very exciting news that this weeks weight loss takes me exactly to my half-way point.
30kg down, 30kg to go!!!!

pattij106 this has been happening to me. I've now added silicea to my supplements list which helps generate growth and my hair dresser has advised me to use sulphate free Shampoo. I've found the shampoo to dry my hair out a bit but the silicea has definitely helped.
Good luck...

Good for you... You can tell by the tone of your post how happy you are...

Hi there,
I guess it's true that Time flies when you're having fun; I've been having a lot of that. Honestly, I cannot believe that two years ago today I was waking up from surgery and beginning a new chapter in my life. I had no idea then of the many ways my life would be reshaped aside from the shape of my body.
I'm forever grateful the band was available to me as it has been the perfect choice for my situation. We are all different. I was 52 at the time and had never been an overnight patient in a hospital before. I can barely tolerate going to the dentist. Getting a band was a big decision but I was fortunate somehow to just know that that's what I wanted to do. Thank goodnes there are so many different surgery choices available to us; we live in marvellous times.
Two years ago I was 250+ and now I'm in the seventies. I'm a little tall and like my curves (oh my goodness, do I LOVE having a waist!) so I don't want to get too thin. But a word about collarbones: YIPPEE! And hips. Wrists. You know how it is -- I'm celebrating this new body every day. I was wearing size twenty pants and am now in tens. No more Plus Size anything. I would not have predicted that I have a thing for clothes, but oh yes, I sure do. It's so much fun to be able to just try something on without all of that angst.
I have been an exerciser for many years (arthritis - have to move) but in the last two years I have ratcheted up to being more of an athlete. I feel ridiculous even typing that out as it's such a foreign concept. I used to work out for 45 minutes 3-4 times a week; well, it turns out I am some one who needs more like 75-90 minutes 5-6 times a week. There's the faking it until making it thing and that's what I did. I pretended that I liked it, that I was one of "those" people until I actually have become something resembling one of those lucky people who truly look forward to exercising. Like I said, resembling. I'm not quite there but I raise my hands up in that crossing the finish line pose and I go do what I need to do and I feel like a million bucks afterward.
food. I am happy to report that I still like food. I can taste almost anything and be quite satisfied. That is a miracle. I love to cook and one of my weird non-scale victories (NSVs) is being able to tie my apron double around my waist. I love that. All those years in all those kitchens with my big fat Winnie-the-Pooh belly in an ill-fitting apron or Chef's jacket. No more. Silly, but that just feels so good. I was very restrictive in my former life so I am careful to not be on a diet. I make good choices, which I can do because my appetite is dimmed and I know what good choices are. But I also let myself have a little bit of whatever I want, whether that's a square of chocolate or cheese (behold, the power of cheese). This is why I still have a little weight to lose but I'm okay with that. I do drink alcohol and we have a lot of dinner parties, go to restaurants, etc. Practically no one knows I am banded; I'm extremely private about that. What people do see, however, is how much I'm exercising and how good I feel. It was important for me to go a bit slowly because I wanted the weight loss to be incremental and I didn't want to have saggy skin.
Well, that's about it. I am tremendously grateful to all of my Lapband Talk friends and now Bariatric Pal. You know who you are -- the encourageers. Virtual friends. This has been my first experience on a forum and it's been great. Best wishes to all of you wherever you are in the process. For new people, a few words: don't get too hung up on what kind of surgery you had; we have much more in common than not. Don't try to give or take advice from strangers on the internet. Have a good working relationship with your doctor and show up for all your appointments. Show up for yourself! I really had to put myself first to get the surgery and choose my own well-being over taking care of other people's needs first. I don't do that any more and, guess what, every one else benefits from that. Here's to our health!

I have 4.6ml in a 10ml band (apparently ml's the same as cc's). I have had 4 fills to get me to this point, but I am not yet in the green zone. I know I am close because there is a small amount of restriction, but I am still able to fit in more than I should in a meal. I will hopefully have my next fill this week or next and I am going to ask to take it to 5ml. I am hoping that will see me there.

I have had my band for nearly 5 years. In the first year and a half, I lost about 170 lbs.
Then it took a few years to let that creep back, and now I am nearly back to where I started. I am just 30 lbs down from when I first had my surgery.
I realize that it was not the band that failed me, it is me that failed to use this tool that was put inside of me. You see, I ate around it. Although I am not "too tight", it is still easier to eat Cookies and ice cream than dense Protein and veggies. I drank empty calories in the form of iced coffees or lemonade, chocolate milk and slushies. I binged on chocolate and cookies, junk food of all kinds. I skipped meals, then ate much larger meals than I needed.
All of that ends now. I am getting back on track. I don't think I need a fill... I still have a band, that tells me it's there. I hope I haven't messed it up too badly. I am going to exercise daily, watch less tv, and let the band do it's job and stop trying to sabotage it's role.
The "dieting" is never over. I know I will always have to be mindful of what I put in my mouth. But I vow to let the band do it's job and keep me from that "I-am-so-hungry-i-could-eat-a-house" feeling that normally goes along with dieting.
It seems so easy, but it's not. It is a constant battle to keep your head in the game, to keep watching that those bad habits don't return that got you here in the first place.
No matter how many times you have to start over, the most important part is that you don't turn around and go in the wrong direction.

I hit it! I now weight 198.8. Typing that 1 at the beginning of my weight is surreal to me. 14 months ago I weighed 337 pounds.
8 months ago tomorrow I had my surgery. I've lost 96 pounds in that time frame.
I'm not perfect and I've had my bad days. I hate that I can still have bad days but I ate the wrong way for many years. It'll take time and I get that. There is no way I can complain about losing 138 pounds and being in ONEDERLAND.
I have 32 pounds to hit the goal I set for myself. Once I get there I'll see how I look and feel and see if I want to lose more. For right now though I think I'll just enjoy my success so far and that big ole *1* at the beginning of my weight ☺️

I just wanted to do a quick check in with my very exciting news that this weeks weight loss takes me exactly to my half-way point.
30kg down, 30kg to go!!!!

I just wanted to do a quick check in with my very exciting news that this weeks weight loss takes me exactly to my half-way point.
30kg down, 30kg to go!!!!

I just wanted to do a quick check in with my very exciting news that this weeks weight loss takes me exactly to my half-way point.
30kg down, 30kg to go!!!!

I just wanted to do a quick check in with my very exciting news that this weeks weight loss takes me exactly to my half-way point.
30kg down, 30kg to go!!!!