bandpal

Name............Start........Current........Goal.......Left CindyG...........195...........191...........185........6 Momto1plus1......193.6.........188...........185........3 Foofy............226...........226...........216........10 Sades............185...........185...........175........10 Hollyberries.....245...........245...........235........10 Shortgal.........174...........172.4.........168.........4.5 Wnt2Lose.........195...........190.8.........180........10.8 Stephanie........182.5.........179.5.........167........12.5 Linda............183...........181.5.........170........11.5 Shalee04.........180...........178...........174........04 Bandpal..........185...........175.12 .......175........0.12 Ooops - haven't updated here in a while... I am basically there.

Foofy: "I've been gaining/losing the same pound since mid August." Looks like it's going to be a long, tough haul, Foofy. I'm amazed I managed to lose any weight at all during the last 2 1/2 weeks, yet the scale shows a three pound drop during that time. "It's 28 degrees F with 6 inches of new snow in Helena, Montana right now. It's a winter wonderland." Could you mail some of that snow to my kids? Current temperature in the Arava Valley here in Israel is 91.4. Meanwhile, a special thanks for stirring the pot and getting us talking again! Momto1plusone: "I'm thrilled with where I'm at. I'm thinner than I have been in years" Wendy, your gratification is as wonderful as the warm sunshine outside my window. All of us regular contributors here can say the same thing, and I hope we value it enough, even as we fight our own discouragement at how difficult those last few pounds are to lose. Shalee: "Thanks for the support on my TT" Shalee, keep us posted on the tt, we want to hear about it. ou are one determined lady - I'm glad I'm not those 28 inches!

Shalom Sim, First of all, good luck with your surgery. Having the operation during the Yamim HaNoraim has got to bring you a lot of luck- what better way to show that you are ready to earnestly repent for your sins involving food! Yashar Kochecha! As far as "holding yourself back" is concerned: I found that I wasn't hungry immediately after the surgery, and when my hunger did return, it was nowhere near the type of hunger I had always lived with for years before. Stick to the diet the doctor gives you - that's really important. Your compliance early on lays the ground for future success with the band. If you have urges to binge, look at your scars and ask yourself whether you really want to continue to abuse food after the step you have taken. And remember the part in the Viddui about the sins we have comitted with food and drink. G'mar Chatimah Tova,

Name............Start........Current........Goal.......To Go CindyG...........195...........193...........185........8 Momto1plus1......193.6.........190.6.........185........5.6 Foofy............226...........226...........216........10 Sades............185...........185...........175........10 Hollyberries.....245...........245...........235........10 Shortgal.........174...........172.4.........168.........4.5 Wnt2Lose.........195...........195...........180........15 Stephanie......182.5.........182.5...........167......15.5 Linda............183..........181.5..........170........11.5 Shalee04.........180...........180...........174........06 Bandpal..........185...........182.82........175........7.82 A couple of good days, a couple of bad days... the only thing is, there are more good days than bad days now.

So I have a new trick - I'm spooning up my dinner ( about a half a cup serving of cheese lasagna and milk puree smoothed out on a small plate) with the other end of my spoon, which is about a centimeter in width. It's making my dinner last much longer and hopefully go down much better. QatarPhil made a remark which has stayed with me for the last couple of days: "I’m surprised how little food I need to maintain my weight or even make small gains. My portions seem miniscule and I leave food uneaten. Our bodies are efficient and need so little food, aren’t they?" And I say, Amen, Brother Phil. If the Lapband has taught me anything, it is that I ate a lot more food than I needed. True, the lack of hunger I feel now is in part due to the effects of the Lapband itself, but my shrunken stomach and my newly learned habits and the emotional stability that the weight loss has brought have all contributed to being able to accept smaller portions and to being on the lookout for new ways to redefine that undefinable word, "enough". Finally, at age 48, I am rising above my mother's all too true characterization of me, which I remember hearing ever since I was a small child: "His eyes are bigger than his mouth".

Judy - I know how frustrating it is, but I'm sure that maintaining is the bigger prize. I always said that I'd be ready to accept whatever weight I was at as long as that meant that I wouldn't gain any more. Of course getting to a chosen weight and staying there might be even more rewarding, but you may well get there, too! But maintaining, especially with wedding bells ringing and without a band, is a pretty neat trick to pull off - congratulations!

Name............Start........Current........Goal.......To Go CindyG...........195...........193...........185........8 Momto1plus1......193.6.........190.6.........185........5.6 Foofy............226...........226...........216........10 Sades............185...........185...........175........10 Hollyberries.....245...........245...........235........10 Shortgal.........174...........172.4.........168.........4.5 Wnt2Lose.........195...........195...........180........15 Stephanie......182.5.........182.5...........167......15.5 Linda............183...........183...........170........13 Shalee04.........180...........180...........174........06 Bandpal.................185..................185..................175............10 ok. guys - first challenge for me - I'm taking the plunge - I'm in! - Bandpal

Thanks Wendy, I really appreciate your friendliness and encouragement. I'm close to that "overweight, not obese" goal myself, that's going to be a sweet one. Let us know when you get there! All the best,

Shortgal, good luck with the upcoming wedding- I hope you can enjoy your own production, not always the easiest thing to do. Anyone who looks at you countdown chart knows how long and how hard you have worked and waited for this day, and I'm genuinely excited to see how close it is! With food, I say borrow Diet Coke's slogan - "Do what feels good" , which sometimes might mean holding off and other times digging in. Wishing you every happiness. You deserve it!

Hi everyone... Good hearing from you, Phil! Easily fitting into an airline seat or effortlessly getting into a small car are enjoyable reminders of my progress. In the past I avoided looking at my reflection or getting photographed, but now I’m quite intrigued to see myself. We have more in common than geography... It's amazing how much more comfortable airplane seats and cars have suddenly become, isn't it (I also enjoy how people don't automatically cede the front passenger seat in the car to me anymore)? I'm getting accustomed to not hiding in famly pictures, and am wearing out the mirrors wherever I go. Loose skin hasn’t been an issue for me yet and I don’t think it will be a major issue when I am at goal. My wardrobe is all new and I quite enjoy buying clothes, something I really disliked in the past. For me neither on the skin, and ditto on the clothes - I would rather have stuck needles in my eyes than try on pants, and now... bring them on! Haven’t worked out why, but I am extra tight in the mornings. First bite syndrome can be an issue, so I start out with small bites. When I am particularly hungry this is a challenge for me. I am tight enough in the morning so that I haven't eaten Breakfast for a while - I drink coffee, tea and ice Water until lunch. Athough it goes against the prevalent nutritional dogma, I have been enjoying eating this way. If I want to, I can make my lunch and dinner larger to compensate. I’m surprised how little food I need to maintain my weight or even make small gains. My portions seem miniscule and I leave food uneaten. Our bodies are efficient and need so little food, aren’t they? How true... it's amazing how much of our food choices are the result of cultural conditioning, upbringing and our relative emotional and psychological well being. My palate has changed too... I’m regularly exercising in the gym and enjoying some tennis lessons and matches. My tennis game and stamina have improved... Recognising what I am like; I don’t try and completely eliminate my favorites... so far so good, getting my band has been a life changing experience... It is genuinely encouraging to see how well you are doing! Be well, and remember, أَكْل العِنَب حَبَّة حَبَّة

Thanks, guys! I tried taking the liquid in small sips and I'm not as queasy. Yay! It's amazing how hard it is for me to think small. No matter what you're eating or drinking, you can always cut it in half. I got an unfill today... Hope that works out for you, Cindy. I know you've been uncomfortable. I think it will be easier to loose weight without adding all the extra calories to my meals. I enjoy a little olive oil mixed in with my meals - good Mediterranean flavor, less calories than gravy or mayonnaise, tasty and a little grease on the wheels for the other end of the train track (TMI). I think I'm at the sweet spot with 7.25 cc's. Hope so. Me too! Go get 'em!

"Hmmm.... 100lb - a guineapig (2lb?), a brain (4lb?), a 2y.o. (25lb?), a cat (10lb?).... Damn, just how big is that elephant's penis??????" Not bad, Fanny: guinea pig.............. 1 lb brain................... 3 lb two year old........ 25 lb cat..................... 11 lb elephant's penis... do the math my lapband........... priceless!

+ + + + = _________________________ As of today I have lost just over 100 pounds (the equivalent in weight to all of the above, according to a previous thread on this board). Thank you to all of you for your friendship, your support and your presence on this amazing journey that we are all on together. I've got another 35 pounds to go before reaching my goal. I've started walking and have registered to work out in our local fitness center- did it the right way, took a stress test and got my GP's OK. My next immediate weight goal would be losing another 6 pounds, which would put my BMI below the obese level. Not being obese... wow, less than a year ago I couldn't even dream of it. My tastes and habits continue to change. The sight of french toast at Breakfast grossed me out today, and I had no problem sitting at the table with guests last night and watching everyone else chow down on home-made pizza. And at night, I'm willing to pop the occasional sleeping pill (also, on my doc's okay) rather than stay up late and fight the Battle of the Binge. Wishing you all a good week out there and thanking you all again, Love,

I can only ever say what everyone else has - good job on paying attention to yourself and catching it early on. Maybe try the medicine in very small sips, like any other liquid? Good luck, we are all thinking of you.

What does PB really stand for? Is it... Please Beware! or... Post-Prandial Blast or maybe... Pass the Bucket or perhaps... Profluent Belch or could it be... Prepare, Bystanders... or, perchance... Projectile Burp What does PB really stand for?

You know you have good restriction when... the only food you can eat looks like the food you've already pb'd. You know you have good restriction when... you comfort yourself by knowing that if you're ever kidnapped, the FBI will find you by your spit trail. You know you have good restriction when... you start chewing tobacco so that everyone will think they know why you've always got that big bulge in your cheek. You know you have good restriction when... every well earned burp carries with it the tantalizing risk of social catastrophe. You know you have good restriction when... you give up couting calories because, how are you ever going to know how much you've actually eaten?

You know you have good restriction when... everyone stands back a respectful distance when they talk to you. You know you have good restriction when... you start pricing spitoons on Ebay. You know you have good restriction when... you start to wonder if hurling is an Olympic sport. You know you have good restriction when... you think twice before opening your mouth at meetings after meals. You know you have good restriction when... you daydream about starring in the next remake of The Exorcist.

Thank you, thank you, ladies... prepare for some real shockers as our bandiversary approaches.

Aw, jeez, guys ...

Glad you're feeling better, Sades. Go get 'em! I'd say: "Good exercise, good food, good emotions!"

Bandpal - you are too true - with everything!! You're like our resident band guru! Ahh, gimme a break... About the family - it's still going to be hard to face them with my gain, but still I have lost a lot of weight, and I'm actually quite happy at the weight I am at now. I need to remind myself of that, and how proud of myself I actually am, rather than the few pounds that I have gained (which I know will come off again anyway!) You should be proud and happy - you have worked hard for the progress you have made, and we are all witnesses to it here. Don't give anyone the power to humiliate you, even the people you love (I'm not saying this is easy...) I'm hoping and praying that once my fill level is good, and it is good for a prolonged period of time so that I'm forced to eat properly, then I will get out of the bad habits I have always had. I know you can do it! Whatever works... believe me, I'm still grappling with my own food issues, and slowly am starting to see more good days than bad ones.

Thanks for your poem, Sades - it reminded me of how everything came down to food in the "old days", about how my whole life revolved around what I was or wasn't eating or something having to do with that. Poetry for me is one of the art forms which I can enjoy directly even in this remote part of the world. And it speaks to my soul like few prayers do. I'll share with you something that hasn't left me since I read it: You Are Me You are me and I am you. It is obvious that we inter-are. You cultivate the flower in yourself so that I will be beautiful. I transform the garbage in myself so that you do not have to suffer. I support you you support me. I am here to bring you peace you are here to bring me joy. -Thich Nhat Han For me, this is a reminder to avoid self centeredness. I work on myself so that those around me may benefit from my change. And my goal in interacting with other people is not to get what I want, but not to harm anyone, and to enjoy and appreciate the other people (the other parts of myself, if indeed "you are me and I am you") with whom I come into contact, no matter how hard that may be.

This thread asks a crucial question: now that we have been banded, how do we deal with the stressors which caused us to eat emotionally - especially when our band is working less than optimally. This question is very important to me because I don't want to gain back all of the weight I have lost since having been banded. My band, as I see it, is a temporary intervention. It will not (and does not, as we all have experienced) always operate at top performance, and one day, months or years from now, it will leak or or open or otherwise malfunction (as we have already seen in the cases of Shortgal and Sades). Will I be physically, mentally or financially ready and willing to undergo another procedure? Until then, I have to regard this period as a valuable "time-out", a pit-stop in which to reshape my life, unlearn bad habits and learn new ones which will sustain me for the rest of my life (and, after losing nearly 100 pounds in nine months, hopefully I'll have many, many more years to concern myself with than I ever thought possible). With this in mind, I'd like to address some of the issues raised here: 1. mariegabrieleee wrote: "I try anew everyday and fall back... It’s about getting you mind to stop turning to food when times are hard, or your sad. It’s about breaking old habits, but they are so hard to break. I can’t seem to end this love hate relationship I have with food." Thank you, mariegabrieleee. That is a painfully honest description of what my life used to be like before the band. I hope I never go back to it. It's so hard to break those habits, that love-hate relationship. For me, the band has made it easier: a) I am less hungry, so the emotional stress isn't accompanied my the hunger pangs which made binging so irresistable for me. Over time, as I eat less and my stomach shrinks, I hope this trend will increase. :thumbdown: When I binge with the band, I can eat nowhere near what I used to. Sades alluded to this when she said, "I know the band will help combat some of that [cycle] because it is impossible to pig out on a full pizza ...". This is another thing the band has done for me: redefine my food choices and my general sense of limits. Many of my binge foods are inedible for me now. Those which I can eat, I fill up on much quicker than I used to. Maybe, maybe this redefinition will become permanent, and (even when the band is not at its best) I will not remember the many times when I ate an entire pizza pie (I bet I would have left you in the dust, my dear Sades). For years I tried to confront my emotional eating unsuccessfully, I now believe that one of the reasons why I always, always failed was that I ignored the physical component that the band is now addressing. I'm just not as hungry as I used to be. For as long as the band lasts, even when it's only kicking in partially, there is a muffler around the engine inside of me that constantly roared, "FEEEEED MEEEEEE!!!". That opens the door for time, and reflection, and change. I wish this for you, mariegabrieleee. If I can do it sometimes, you can too. 2. Linda, I very much identified with your feelings about meeting your family after your difficult period with food. Still, I believe that this stressor is something that we have to use this time to come to grips with, because otherwise it's going to knock us right back on our a--es, and after we gain all our weight back, they'll have even more to talk about. Think of how ironic it is: these are the people who know us and love us best, and whom have seen us wrestle with our food demons for decades. Seeing you heavier despite your efforts should be no surprise at all for them, if you think about it, and the only decent response they should have is compassion, acceptance and encouragement. I hate to say it, but I think there is something in the dynamic of many families (mine as well) that makes people actually want to see our efforts fail, because it reasserts the status quo and means that others do not have to confront their own problems because they'll probably fail just like you, so lets just watch some more reruns on TV. But all of that is never going to change - only we can. We have to stop suffering from performance anxiety, as if every family event was a circus and we were the trained seals. Ultimately, my current weight is only important as it is to me, and if other people seem to care about it so much, then either they have problems (possible) or I am projecting my own concerns and insecurities on to theirs (more than likely). If it's not important to me, then however important it is to them, how important can it be? If I'm in the right place, then someone else obsessing about my weight is going to be as funny as a car owner in my garage going on about what he thinks the problem is while I know what the problem is. I hope you enjoy your time with your family, Linda. If you need me to keep them in line, just give me a call. 3. Finally, one more thing - Linda, I think that if "the one thing [you] will do until I get the right fill is WATCH what I eat and do some form of exercise every day", then you are trying, alot more than you or most of us did before we were banded. I share you feeling of having "knocked [your]self out for ten years and... only got[ten]... fatter." But I have to remember that the band makes me different than I was before, and I have been more successful at "diet (there, I said the dreaded word) techniques" like counting calories and weighing and measuring than ever before, including all the failed years in WW and OA. I have more good days than bad ones, which is exactly the opposite of the way things were before. Whatever you do, Sades was right on the money when she said, "hold you head up... because you have achieved so much". Guys, this emotional overeating leads millions of people into the jaws of depression, misery, ill health and death every day. It is a tyrant that only tightens its vise as we get older. We have had a miraculous escape, and all that's left for us is to do as much as we can to ensure it's not a temporary one. Lets try to find the solutions that work for us, and share them with each other. I apologise for a ridiculously long post.