coolcrystal

Here's the funny thing, I'm actually pretty wide open.. I can eat an entire can of tuna right now... a decent sized salad... a large chili from Wendy's... (not all at once obviously. lol) and just about anything except scrambled eggs which I have a problem with. Every now and again I get that slight stuck feeling if I eat too fast, but I've never PB'ed or anything... My doctor said my stomach was pretty small, but he doesn't place 4cc bands, only 10cc and 14cc, which is probably why I have a decent amount of saline in there. I also don't want to be super tight to where I can't eat food.. And I've never had a fill that prevented me from eating regular foods the next day. I do the liquids for the rest of that day I was filled and by the next day i was eating my tuna, chicken and chili... I wonder if I should get a better fill, but I just don't want to be miserable.

Well I know what the deal is.. I haven't worked out in a week. I got sick then my husband got sick so he couldnt' go and now I'm coughing again!! When I don't work out, I just don't lose weight... and I really need to go back to that phase one of south beach.. it's the only thing that gets me off the carbs and sugars. So, I'm not going to feel all guilty about it. In the end, it was one cookie and one package of two tarts.. but this is how it can start.. like some affair in the movies.. it starts off with one little flirt.. then one little kiss.. then next thing you know they are gettin it on... I'm a firm believer in not denying yourself these yummy things every now and again and not feeling guilty over it, but at the store last night I was making poor choices. It wasn't half a chocolate shake from Chic-Fil-A or a piece of candy.. I was starting to get back into bad old habits.. Not good.

WOOHOOOOOOOOO, party like a rockstar.. party like a rockstar.... Girl you need to go buy yourself something pretty.. OOh, some expensive fancy perfume! that's my favorite thing to buy when I deserve something. I've got bottles of Spellbound, Eternity and Hypnotic Pioson all over my room.. lol. yeah, I just try finding excuses to buy perfume... CONGRATSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS....

Don't you hate that moment when you are about to sabotage yourself.. or, you do... You stop losing weight and you think "maybe this is all I'm going to lose.. this is it".. so you go to the store and you buy Pop Tarts and Cookies. You eat one cookie and feel completely guilty and bring them to work to sit by the coffee so that others can get addicted to the pioson called sugar... but not before eating the luscious raspberry poptarts the night before.. AT BEDTIME no doubt... at first only eating one single tart and then justify eating the other as you dont' want it to get stale in the shiny tin foil wrapper that has been frantically busted open whilst saying "I haven't had a pop tart in two years.. it will be ok". You get on the scale to see you have gained a pound.. you have that sick feeling in your stomach and hope that the upcoming fill you are about to get will help, though realize the only thing that will help is going back on Phase 1 of the south beach diet to kick the stinkin sugar cravings that you never had before until you couldn't eat bread anymore!! Stepping off soap box..

Cool slideshow! And you are looking hot!! Congrats to you girl!!!

I'm so happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work! The dream of being under 200.. wow... I can almost see it over the mountain there.. one day.. one day..

My doc likes us to go in every 3 weeks until we reach that proper restriction. I go in on June 3rd for my 5th fill. My first four were decent fills 1-2 cc's each time, but this last one was only like .2cc's and it really didn't do much. I dont' want to be super tight, but I would like it to be tighter than what it is right now. Last night I was able to eat an entire can of organic chili.. not good. when I have proper restriction I can only eat half. but... it just kept going down and of course, I didn't even try to stop. ha ha. FILL TIME!! I think your doc should have at least filled you up 1cc for sure. I can't stand some of these doctors that are so slow...

Thanks girl.. well, you know what I wrote about my mother in law and how close we are, I think she has some animosity towards me there too. She probably feels like I stole her brother and mother and she always takes it out on me in these ways. This isn't the only thing she has done throughout the last few years.. but oh well.. I am totally wearing that robe dangit. lol. and I won't have to say a damned thing. Oh I have to tell you, you don't need a boob lift at all or a tummy tuck.. i saw you in your outfit today and you totally look awesome and don't need those things. I thought your boobs looked perky.. not that I was staring or anything, but you know what i mean. lol

That's about what I gained on my 7 day "eat fest" cruise.. but as soon as I got back I lost in in like 3 days, so no worries.. you'll lose it super fast! It's nice being banded isn't it? You are doing awesome girl.. I'm so happy for you! I wish I had just 40 more pounds to lose. lol....

Hell's yeah! we will have a total hoot... And yes, your outfit did fool me!! I was like, "uh oh, accountant lady in the nice dress, I better mind my P's and Q's".. Ha ha. You remember our waiter? He actually is a rennie and attends faire as well, so when I got there we chit chatted a little bit and told him the situation so he didn't want to bother us too much. total sweetie.

That's funny that ya'll say that.. when I saw my avatar pic next to Kjeter's pic I thought we looked like sisters or something, though she is WAYYY thinner than myself.. ha ha.. she looked like a model in this cute little outfit! trust me, my bodice pic is deceiving, those suckers take off at least 2 inches. We should all totally hook up Queen of Hearts! that would be so much fun. I live in Lewisville which isn't far from Carrollton at all. My hubby works there actually. And where we met for lunch today is probably 10 minutes from Carrollton.. And, I know I didn't look like yesterday's garbage, but I just hate my hair up.. I like it down and I couldn't find anything that fit me this morning. I need new clothes. I felt sloppy.. that's the word.. sloppy.. lol. Oh and trust me, I was holding back at lunch. Normally I'm loud, silly, goofy, and the jokester, but I figured on our first meeting I would be calm and civilized. lol.

If you go back to forum and you scroll down, there is age specific forum groups and there is a group for the sixties. I'm sure somebody there could probalby help you with that. Good luck.

HA HA HA... I don't mess around where pictures are involved... I have friends that wait months to post theirs... and it bugs the hell out of me. LOL. Sorry I looked like total crap at lunch.. I was just so exhausted and didn't get much sleep last night. Stayed up till almost 2 finishing that Twilight book and then all my clothes are getting too big for me and I'm in that "tween" size where I'm not quite a 20/22 but the 24's are too big on me.. though I did squeeze into a size 20 jeans amazingly.. anyway, I'm rambling.. you were all done up and I looked like trash with my hair thrown up in a clip. lol.

Look at this hottie that I went to lunch with today!! Lookin good girl! It was great to meet you... Maybe if there are any other Dallasites out there, we can have a small group to meet for lunch sometime!

Everybody is looking hot!! Congrats to you all.. It's nice coming to this forum and getting support and feeling that sisterhood/brotherhood with everybody. Like a small family..

Thanks.. lol. I'm not really a vengeful person, but we are talking about a lady who pulled out her knitting at my bridal shower in front of everyone and started knitting while we were playing games and I opened my presents. She's just very rude and thoughtless. lol. I took her best friend (and only friend - her brother) away from her and she still hasnt' gotten over that yet. My friend who is 205 can fit into the robe, so I'm hoping in 50 pounds I can fit into it as well. I think I can do that by December. LOL.

Thanks everyone! When I met my hubby he was 165... a boney little guy for his height and frame. Right now he's like 211 and he says he wants to lose 30 more pounds and I'm like NOOOOOO... I think he looks great right now, but I guess it's up to each person what they think their weight should be.

Yes, I have big plans. They are evil. Shall I tell you? :sad: My sister-in-law, who is very cruel and tries to get my goat gave me a beautiful silk chinese robe for Christmas. I was so excited when I pulled it out of the box and was like, "oh, you shouldn't have".. she insisted I try it on in front of the whole family.. as I slipped it on, it barely even went over my arms.. I looked at the tag and it said "XL". ummmm.. yeah, that's what.. a size 14.. at the time I was a 28.. then I noticed there were no tags on the robe.. then I realized it was probably given to her for a present and she was regifting it to me... my goal is to fit into that damned robe by christmas this year and wear it the morning we open presents... And I won't feel bad at all about it, because she obviously didn't care enough about my feelings when she gave me something about 6 sizes too small for me and had the nerves to ask me to try it on.

That's not true.. My friend Tracy has size A cup boobs and I gave her cleavage! Trust me, with the right bodice anybody can have cleavage. Now, with that pirate bodice I'm wearing in the second picture you do have to have at least a C cup for it to look decent, but with a Moresca (a different style not shown) bodice (more accurately correct) anybody can have cleavage. Faire is so much fun.. I love dressing up. So far the bodices have not hurt my port either. I was worried about that, especially since each one has about 20 steel rods in them and I often get bruised with certain ones... Thanks for the compliments everyone! It's amazing what a difference 40 pounds will make! I wonder what 40 more will do. lol. Getting excited.... :sad:

Girl.... you are one hot tamale!! look at those iddy biddy shorts! you are stylin and profilin.... I'm so happy for you honey!!

Everybody is different I'm guessing. I prefer not to be super tight to where I can't eat much. I also drink right before and a little during my meal. I also have no problem taking full pills. The only one I've ever cut up was a Mucinex horse pill I took once. But, I've never had any problems taking Tylenols, advils, vitamins, etc. I can also guzzle water, not like a big bottle but I can take like three long "drinks" so to speak.. and I've never had issues. Of course everybody says not to drink with your food, but I'm losing weight consistently and I've had no problems... heck, I've never even PB'ed before.. I guess it's what works best for each individual person.

My waist is about 14 - 16 inches smaller than my butt, so wearing bodices is perfect for me. Sadly, I have to buy bigger pants to fit but then they are baggy on my waist. But, my butt is starting to catch up. When I started this my hips were like 61 inches and now they are like 55 (3 weeks ago). So, they are starting to shrink.. Oddly, I wear the same size bodices as most women who are about 200 or less and most people think that I'm about 215 in garb.. which is fine.. I will go ahead and let them think that if they want. Kjeter - you should be able to see the pics now. I had to resize them for a moment, so they were gone..

Me and my hubby's favorite thing to do is rennaissance faires.. we do Scarborough and TRF and even go to other states and do theirs (Colorado and Maryland)...we have all the garb as well.. bodices.. doublets.. tights, you name it.. we have it all. Unfortunately, we each gained so much weight (him 90 lbs and me 60 lbs just from the time that we had met) when I found out I was getting banded he started the south beach diet when my doctor put me on it and we've been doing this together. I've lost 40 and he's lost 35 so I wanted to post our before and after pics in our rennaissance garb... In the first pic that bodice was the only one that would fit me any more and there was about a 4 inch gap in the back. His doublet didn't fit him at all anymore, so he had to resign to just wearing the belt. In the new pic taken this past saturday I could finally fit back into my black pirate bodice with greens and he could get his doublet back on too... The next faire we attend is in 5 months... I can't wait to see what I'll look like and, oh no.. I might have to buy a few new bodices. LOL. Now if I can get a few of you ladies in a bodice!! all women look good in bodices!!

Ladies don't feel bad or guilty over this... there is nothing wrong with treating ourselves every now and again... we are all doing really well! Yesterday I had 2 deviled eggs and chips and guacomole... I did have some healthy stuff too... and really, deviled eggs aren't bad for you.. or guac.. the chips... yeah. probably... but if we cut out everything from out lives and don't give ourselves those little treats, I think it makes us crave them even more... it was memorial day weekend.. you know, I saw my doctor today and told him I ate this stuff and he was like, "you are right on track and doing good.. I see nothing wrong with having stuff like this every now and again to treat yourself".. as long as we don't turn it into an everyday thing, throw that guilt right out the window!

I thought that hard lump under my incision was the port for a good three weeks... when I went to see the doc I asked him about the lump and he said it was actually the stitches under the incision healing and that lump would go away and then he pointed about an inch under the incision and said that my port was "in there"... I couldn't even feel it. So, when they go to give you a fill, your incisions won't be in the way.