puddin

They offered me 2,500 for nonexclusive rights. My husband got laid off from his job so this is very, very tempting for me. BTW, since I removed the "before" pictures on the Internet, you can visit my photo gallery here on this website and see the befores. Or you can see them at http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/3237784232_271ca08fc7_o.jpg

I've gotta tell you, I know I don't feel great selling my pictures as a marketing "before/after" ploy, as the whole purpose is to deceive somebody about a product. They may believe in their product, as she seems to, but says there hasn't been "enough time" for the before/after results. I'd feel better about it if I even used a little of their product, but I haven't. The only acai berry product I used were the xocai dark acai berry chocolates (which are fabulous, by the way, and really do take away your craving for other sweets, probably because of the richness of it). This would be a much easier decision if they weren't offering as much money as they are. I think, in the end, we aren't starving and peace of mind is priceless. I will tell this woman no and remove my pics from the Internet so others don't take them without my permission. Thanks for the advice everybody.

So my husband and I have been swimming pretty consistently for about 6 months now. He was new to swimming when we first started and I wasn't all that great, either. But today when we swam, I went for a half mile without stopping and he went for 150 yards before he had to stop and rest. I was ecstatic that I could go that far! But he was in this terrible mood. On our way home you could tell he was VERY frustrated and was telling me how he was done swimming. He feels like he's only a fraction better than he was when we first started. We're training for a triathlon in May. I keep telling him it was just an "off" day, but he's convinced he's hardly any better now than he was 6 months ago. I don't know what to do at this point. I feel like if I keep swimming it'll push us farther apart. Every time I do well he feels more like a failure. In some ways it makes me feel bad and like he feels like he should be better than I am at this. But the logical part of me just says he's frustrated with his own performance. I really don't know how to handle this or if I should even keep swimming...

But that's just my biased opinion. Okay, for documentation purposes let me describe my typical day: 7:00 AM - wake up & get ready 8:00 AM - Breakfast of either 2 scoops Apex Fit chocolate shake (mmmmmm... tastes like a REAL chocolate shake) or a FiberOne bar, and one Metagenics b-complex 12:00 PM - Lunch of leftovers from night before or a frozen dinner of some type 3:00 PM - Fiber One bar or some form of chocolate I shouldn't eat OR yogurt 5:00 PM - Leave work for the day 6:00 PM - Spin class on Mondays & Wednesdays, Swimming on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and running on Saturdays. It's warming up and we'll start biking and running outside soon. 7:30-8:00 PM - Dinner. This week's dinners consisted of Mon: Homemade Lasagna Tue: LF Cream cheese & chicken crepes and about 5 oreos Wed: Fried turkey steaks with mashed potatoes and a skillet brownie w/ ice cream Thu: Famous Dave's for mom's birthday and threw it ALL up! Fri: We're going to dinner for Nick's dad's birthday, not sure where This week we've not exercised at all because Nick was very afraid that he'd hurt his back again and woudl have to have surgery. He was so afraid that he even teared up the other night of the thought of going through that again. This is the equivalent of him being paralyzed. He's such an active guy. Not mountain biking and hiking and camping and doing some of those things he loves is like torture for him. We've prayed very hard lately and I felt like things would be ok. Today he called me and told me his back feels so much better. I'm so grateful! I wish I could have the motivation to exercise on my own without my awesome husband! Ugh. Maybe I'll have to start doing it at the campus track during lunch hours.

But that's just my biased opinion. Okay, for documentation purposes let me describe my typical day: 7:00 AM - wake up & get ready 8:00 AM - Breakfast of either 2 scoops Apex Fit chocolate shake (mmmmmm... tastes like a REAL chocolate shake) or a FiberOne bar, and one Metagenics b-complex 12:00 PM - Lunch of leftovers from night before or a frozen dinner of some type 3:00 PM - Fiber One bar or some form of chocolate I shouldn't eat OR yogurt 5:00 PM - Leave work for the day 6:00 PM - Spin class on Mondays & Wednesdays, Swimming on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and running on Saturdays. It's warming up and we'll start biking and running outside soon. 7:30-8:00 PM - Dinner. This week's dinners consisted of Mon: Homemade Lasagna Tue: LF Cream cheese & chicken crepes and about 5 oreos Wed: Fried turkey steaks with mashed potatoes and a skillet brownie w/ ice cream Thu: Famous Dave's for mom's birthday and threw it ALL up! Fri: We're going to dinner for Nick's dad's birthday, not sure where This week we've not exercised at all because Nick was very afraid that he'd hurt his back again and woudl have to have surgery. He was so afraid that he even teared up the other night of the thought of going through that again. This is the equivalent of him being paralyzed. He's such an active guy. Not mountain biking and hiking and camping and doing some of those things he loves is like torture for him. We've prayed very hard lately and I felt like things would be ok. Today he called me and told me his back feels so much better. I'm so grateful! I wish I could have the motivation to exercise on my own without my awesome husband! Ugh. Maybe I'll have to start doing it at the campus track during lunch hours.

I know I've only been married a few months, but so far I completely disagree with ninner. I suppose if that works for you, then great. But honestly, that's not how I roll. Both of us grew up in families where our parents did things as a family all of the time. Sure my dad went golfing on his own, his mom has her bunko group, I have my symphony practice, my husband has his church auxiliary meetings... all fine. But really, spending time together is a good thing! We both enjoy it. It seems like the divorces I hear of are because the couples grow apart and not together. So instead of finding things to do that DON'T involve my husband, I'm going to find fun things we can do together. That is quality time.

It's not that we're having marital problems. We have a great marriage! We are actually newlyweds, but I really don't want to continue to do something that may start to bring us apart. I know he is very competitive, and perhaps that's what it came down to... he doesn't like losing. We had a talk about it yesterday. I told him I was so excited to have done that, but I felt like his anger deflated all my enthusiasm for what I had just accomplished. I also told him that, because of his reaction, I was feeling like I couldn't swim again. He said he was very sorry for taking out his frustration on me. We'll continue to swim, I probably just won't share my "victories" with him in swimming. Maybe that'll keep the peace. In the meantime, we may have to have a few more talks about him taking his frustration out on me. Seems to happen a bit more than I'd like it to. I think these are all part of things you learn when you first get married.

Question out there: I've been banded for about hmmm.... 3.5 years now and reached my goal weight awhile ago. I do fluctuate between 3-8 pounds, but I basically stay the same now. But I have a little dilemma now: Maybe I forget I have the band and eat too fast, but I feel like I get stuck all the time. I rarely throw up, because I seem to have figured out how to choke it down, but I don't know if I should get an unfill or not. I seem to be able to eat a decent amount of food (like 1.5 cups), but sometimes I get stuck often. I don't get it. I don't get full until I've eaten 1.5 cups, but it takes me forever to eat! Any suggestions? I really don't want to gain this weight back. I think I've picked up that nasty sugar habit again. Damn. I hate cold turkey, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

3.5 years for me and no complications! I'm at goal.

Good advice. I'll maybe get a .1cc unfill. though I just got a fill a few months ago! It's $75/pop every time I need a fill or unfill and that's the biggest thing keeping me from getting one. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet.

I have more pics on my flickr site, but here is one I stuck up there today...

I don't get it. I worked SO hard today and still didn't meet my calorie burn goal for the day. I walked to campus twice, did yoga, did 45 minutes of exercise, walked for 10 minutes that evening, in addition to just sort of moving all day. Well, whatever, I still met my daily defecit goal, so now I can have junk at my dad's party. SCALE: 231.5 upstairs at the gym (228 at doctor's office) EXERCISE: Length: 45 minutes (25 minutes Arc trainer, 20 minutes treadmill) Intensity: Weight loss mode on Arc Trainer, steady state (3.3 mph at a 5% incline) on treadmill Activity: Arc Trainer & Treadmill (also walkeded to campus twice, did yoga for a half hour and walked 10 minutes that evening.) Calories burned start to finish: ~332 FOOD: BF: Apex chocolate meal replacement shake ... mmmmmmmm L: Loaded salad w/ Teriyaki Chicken D: Lean Cuisine Chicken & Veggies S: 1 rice krispie treat & some of Sara's Costa Vida Pork Salad CALORIES CONSUMED: 1,108 CALORIES BURNED: 2,679 CALORIE DEFECIT: 1,571 NSV: I could do yoga SO MUCH better than Sara. She's 10 pounds less than I was when I started. She used to be in better shape than me. I really hope she chooses to get a band in the near future.

I realized this weekend something I think I should have realized long ago: I have this addictive behavior problem. I realized this after visiting my boyfriend in Canada this last weekend. I realized (and this is probably TMI) that I have a sexual addiction problem. I am honestly going to go through a 12-step program to help me get over this. I can't be with him any more. I throw my values to the wind when I'm with him. I'm realizing also that the addictive behavior spreads to all aspects of my life: food, sex, music (I used to practice about 6 hours a day)... everything. I wonder if, when starting off this whole lap banding experience, I should have started with a 12-step program. I think many of us have addictive behaviors and use food as an outlet. I have come to realize that the emotional element is stronger than the band, in many ways. In my opinion we need to get some sort of training on overcoming our emotional addictions to food. Get to the source of the problem!

Hey, thanks y'all. So you're going under the Knife, Karey??? You should definitely do a thread on this... but don't make the same mistakes I made after that darn tummy tuck LOL. I think you'll be safe, you're a good woman. I'm excited for you, though. You gonna look HOTT woman! And anyone can look like THAT with enough freaking tenacity and OCD lol. It all comes down to goals, I guess. I had an image in my head of what I wanted to look like and I made it happen. There were consequences to that, however. Dealing with cervical cancer at the moment because I took liberties with my newfound body too far.

My port sticks out like a hernia. I had a lower body lift and anytime someone sees my stomach they say, "what's THAT?" So I have some made-up story about it, because I really don't want to go into detail about how I lost all this weight and got a tummy tuck, etc. Is it possible to reposition it without causing another huge scar? Also, has anyone gone in JUST to have their port repositioned? How much did it cost?

I had a lower-body lift and did not get unfilled at all for it and things were fine. I figured if I couldn't eat anything, I'd just survive on protein shakes. But then again, some people react differently.

I love how everyone dresses better and takes more pride in their appearance in the "after" photos. It's not just about the weight. It's about the attitude! Ok, here I am. Before, size 26/28, after, size 6

You guys are doing awesome! Keep up the great work!

Mmmmmm k, thought I'd post one more up here since going down even a few more pounds. Before, I am the one on the right, after is a silly pic I took in front of a mirror the other day with my camera phone. I was a size 28, now a size 6/8