Jill_S

goodness. Thank you SO much for making me feel less alien

From: http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/weighing111605/home.html Study Suggests Daily Self-Weighing Should Be Emphasized In Messages About Weight Control MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (Nov. 16 2005)--University of Minnesota researchers found that people who are either trying to lose weight or avoid gaining weight do better by weighing themselves daily. Study participants who weighed themselves daily or weekly had better weight outcomes than those who weighed themselves less frequently. Daily self-weighing should be emphasized in clinical and public health messages about weight control, according to the new study published in the December issue of Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Previously, clinical and public health recommendations for better controlling body weight did not emphasize weight self-monitoring. In addition, well-known weight-loss programs do not widely recommend participants weigh themselves daily; instead, many programs recommend weekly self-weighing. Public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control do not include self-weighing at all. “Our study showed that higher weighing frequency was associated with greater weight loss or less weight gain after 24 months,” said lead researcher Jennifer Linde, assistant professor in the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “If people notice that their weight has increased, they may try to make that small correction rather than try to compensate after gaining a larger amount of weight.” The research team evaluated self-weighing practices of more than 3,000 people participating in two different groups—those involved in a weight-loss program and those in a weight-gain prevention program. Both groups received the directive to weigh themselves at least once a week. The first study group consisted of 1,800 obese or overweight adults enrolled in a weight-loss program. Participants all had a body mass index (BMI) of at least 27 and were randomly divided into three groups: a telephone-based weight-loss intervention, a mail-based weight loss intervention, or a usual-care control condition. The researchers weighed them every six months for two years. The average 12-month and 24-month weight losses of 1.3 and 2 BMI units respectively, were in the clinically significant range. The second group consisted of 1,226 adults enrolled in a weight-gain prevention trial, all with a BMI above 25. They were randomly divided into an educational weight-control intervention, the same educational intervention plus a reward for returning self-monitoring postcards, or a minimal-contact control condition. The researchers weighed the participants at the study's outset and every year for three years. In this group, the researchers found that the control group decreased weighing over time, and both intervention groups increased weighing over time. Even though weight maintenance was the goal for this group, daily weighing also led to weight loss at the 12- and 24-month time points.

...as anal-retentive as me. Go on, I dare you. It's a sickness. I'm a computer geek. It's how I learn my living, creating software that makes people's lives easier. So, when I had my fill in January, I decided instead of using my calendar to track my exercise and weight, I'd make myself a nice little Excel spreadsheet. And it was a nice little spreadsheet, too. Until my data obsession got it the way. It now has 2 tabs. One for exercise, one for calories. The calorie page consists of a weeks worth of boxes (the past weeks are there, just rolled up.). In each box, every day, I list what I ate, and how many calories it was. There started off just being a nice little total at the bottom of each box, but now, there is a total eaten, a place for me to log my calories burned from exercise, and even a spot to include My base metabolic rate leftovers (BMR-(eaten + burned)) to track how much of my BMR is left at the end of each day. This nice little number goes into a total at the top, and is divided by 3500 (# of calories in a pound) to tell me how much weight I should have lost. Next to it is a cell that proudly proclaims how much weight I actually *have* lost. Got that? Cause we're only just starting.... The other page started off simply: The date, my current weight, pounds lost, calories eaten, calories burned, and total calories for the day. But oh - that was too simple. There are now columns for my current BMI (calculated off my weight each day), weight lost/gained since the day before, form of exercise (currently, they all say Bike), minutes exercised, miles(from the bike), and the average mph for that day. THEN! At the top, is my starting weight and BMI, my total pounds lost, my pounds lost since I got the band, my grand total of calories, my grand total of calories burned, and a percentage of those (it was up to 46pct, but my mom came for 2 days, so I spent 2 days off the bike *sigh*, so I'm down to 42pct now). And tonight, because I have this anal-retentive sickness and this obsession with data, I added 4 new cells: Last period, date expected for next period (last + 21), then a separate 2 for 5 days prior to my TOM when my Water starts to add on, and the next expected day THAT will happen. *sigh* It really is a sickness :/ Please tell me I'm not the only one who tracks all this crap. If my husband ever saw this, he'd know for sure that I've lost my little mind. He might be right.

(*dons flame-proof suit and prepares for it*) Everyone is judgemental at some point, on some point, for some reason, every day. Try and get through the day without having one thought that is a criticism of someone else. I'll bet you can't. If you can, you're probably fooling yourself. We judge people on TV. We judge our neighbors, our friends, our family, our co-workers, people on the street, people who cut us off in traffic, people who jump ahead in a line at the store. So maybe you don't do it here. Or maybe you do it, but you don't actually post it. Or maybe you do it on another board or email list or silently to yourself while you're sitting in traffic caused by a moron who had to change lanes at the last minute. Something as simple as having a thought such as "I would have done that differently...." or "That's the wrong way to do that." or "You should try it this way." is judgemental, because you are criticizing someone else's actions, even if you're doing it nicely. So, could we please try and refrain from referring to people as judgemental? Seeings as how unless you are an absolute saint, or someone who does not have a lot of thoughts, we are all guilty of it. If we could perhaps leave that word out of these sorts of discussions, we might actually get to have the discussions without them turning into a mess of hard feelings, anger and outright name-calling. Feel free to judge my assessment of humankind. It's in our nature, as human beings.

About 3 years ago, when I first started considering surgical options for my weight loss, I discussed it with my husband and my parents. All three were dead set again a by-pass, so it wasn't until a friend of mine had a band done 2 years ago that I finally got them turned around. Since then, the only people I've told are close friends, and my boss. Some of my family knows (from my parents), and some don't. I personally haven't told anyone - not because I'm ashamed, but just because it hasn't come up. If it does, I'll tell them. This little piece of plastic inside me is something I'm very happy for. It's a personal decision, and I tend to think that folks who keep their private lives private would be most apt to keep the band private, too.

Thanks much It ain't easy, but it's better than the alternative :Banane40:

Pre-op was 2 weeks before surgery for me. Mushy food and liquids mostly. From April to 2 weeks before the surgery I lost 20 pounds. From 2 weeks before to the date of surgery, I lost 11 pounds Since surgery (9/21) I've lost 39 pounds. Everyone's different I think, because every doctor's diet is different. I knew they wouldn't turn me away from surgery if I didn't lose weight, but, they'd be much more skeptical about it working. And I don't blame them I guess.

For me, it is a problem with willpower. As in, it's helping me get some by learning the hard way that eating things that are "bad" for me are not going to get me what I want. This is not to say that it always wins *chuckle* but it's defintely got over a 50% success rate. But it isn't that because "it's a willpower problem, I don't need any help" - quite the contrary. My band is my help.

"This is a cruel, cruel thread" -- Signed, Jill's Paypal account

I do agree that sometimes, our anger or our feelings of outrage do seem to get the best of us. Thing is, it's difficult to know who will take offense at what Sometimes, no matter what you say, someone will be offended. I guess with me, I try to decide if it's worth the risk offending people before I say anything at all. Sometimes, it is. Because as another thread stated not long ago, sometimes, we all need a swift kick in the pants. Other times, it's not worth it. At those moments, I give myself a little smile, and flip to another thread. The last thing I need in my house is someone else's drama. Many of us - myself included - have very strong opions about certain things. Those of us with those feelings may try and try to come up with a way of expressing them in such a way as not to offend. But again - there are people that will be offended no matter what, if you disagree with their point of view. I try very hard to make points as generically as possible. That's all you can do, if you're trying to avoid a flame war while stating your point. /shrug

Your avatar resembles Kevin Smith. I am known for my crush on Silent Bob So I guess I'm agreeing with Heather lol.

I bought a new scale. I had an ok digital scale that I got at Target about a year ago. It's served me well, but it has a weird thing - I could get on it twice in a row, and it would be a pound different. (Meaning - on, off, let it reset, back on..). I decided, since I have now fully invested myself in weight loss (as opposed to before the band), I deserved to have a nice scale. So I bought a Tanita. Thing is, the new scale is about 3.5 pounds off from the old one - in my favor lol (new weighs me as less) but still, it's weird to mark a new weight in the spreadsheet when the old scale has me the same as yesterday. I'm going to Celebrate the 3.5 pound difference, rather I lost anything or not What kind of scales do you use? Are you happy with it? Do you only *really* count what it says at the dr's office? (I know some folks do that).

I have a couple packs of the Peanut Butter Cookies...I didn't care for them, shall I send them? lol I like the Cheezits (Keebler) better than the cheese Nips (Nabisco), but the only sweet one I buy are the graham cracker ones now. The Oreo ones scare me for some reason, but that's probably cause I'm not a chocolate nut.

Nabisco 100 calorie packs. Eat ONE piece at a time, chew it up til it's completely gone before grabbing another. Those snack size bags of popcorn are good, too. Suck down a Protein shake. They fill me right up, might for you too. Sometimes distractions don't work and you have to cave. Better to cave with something not so destructive

They are my saviors http://www.nabiscoworld.com/100caloriepacks/

I keep a couple south beach bars and some of those 100 calorie packs in my desk at work. I also left some bars at my folks' house, just in case. If they didn't have a coating on the bottom, I'd leave them one in my car - this time of year, I could - but come summer - icky.

I did. And I have my own solution. Your mileage may very, etc. etc..(it won't work for everyone - the band is it's own brand of madness on each of us) Croutons! On a whim, I picked up a bag of Marie Callendar Parmesan/Ranch croutons, the fat free variety. When I was on a low-fat diet several years ago, these (in small amounts) alleviated my cravings for fritos (the bane of my existence). 5 good sized croutons have 30 calories total. They're bread (albeit hard and toasty) and they really do kick that craving for me. (*crunch* *crunch* *crunch*) I throw 5 (or 10, depending on the calories in the rest of my meal) on my plate, and eat them after my Protein. It's just enough to make me not feel like I'm missing my good ol' texas toast, and not too much to make me feel a need to PB, even with relatively good restriction. Sometimes, it pays to think outside the box (or, bag, in this case).

*chuckle* well, it was a theroy From my own personal observations. As I said, I'm a student of sexuality. I pay a lot of attention to innane details that people wouldn't typically recognize. This is just something that - especially from this thread - caught my eye.

That's what I did. And I was off caffiene for about a month after the surgery. That was mostly because I was scared of it :omg: Now, I'm back to about a half pot a day, and a happy girl. Tho, I stop at 11am, and unlike before the band, I don't have 3-4 diet pepsi to get me through. I'm cold-turkey off sodapop again

Yea -- that's why I said no absolutes Everyone's different, but there are definte patterns...

Okay, I don't mean to get all philosophical here, but I'm kinda a student of sexual behavior (don't ask, just pretend you didn't read that), and I see a definte pattern here that I'd like to ask about. (I see it in myself as well.) I could have sex every day of the week without fail. I have been like that since my late teens, and I'm 41 now. It sounds like, from the ladies who've replied, I'm defintely not alone in that. However. I have lots of thin(ner) friends who absolutely do NOT share this desire - actually, none of my friends that are within 20 pounds of their ideal weight share this desire. Hmmm. As in all things studied, there are, of course, no absolutes here. But I think it's fair to say (in my experience...in my experience...) that those of us with on-going, former or current weight issues have a higher sex drive that all of those skinny..er....thinner friends of mine. Anyone have similar experiences? Comments?

Me: Wisconsin Hubs: Virginia Yea, so. No, not since New Year's :couch2: Hitatchi is a girl's best friend. (Not to say Slumber Party's aren't but...well, Hitatchi is *my* best friend.)

Anyone have any experience using self-bronzers, or those new lotions that are supposed to add color gradually? I am such a pale girl this year. I'd like to have a little bit of color.

There are some people who want to be cuddled and coddled when they fall down off their roller skates. There are others that push people away who try to help. And there are still others who say "I can do this on my own." On the other hand, if you took three people who watched the person fall off their roller skates, they'd have three different reactions: Running to help, berating, and asking if any help was needed. Support for anything - be it the band, an addiction, or an injury - runs the same course. We all bring different life experience to this board. We all have our own ways of supporting and being supported. The absolute worst thing anyone can do is take that personally. It saddens me that people do. I have a sister who is a perpetual victim. Everything that has gone wrong in her life is someone else's fault. There is no doubt that 41 years of that colors the way I address issues. Everyone has that color - be it white, yellow, red or blue - we all have color. When I screw up, it's all on me. I do not berate myself (anymore - pre-band, I certainly did). I do not run those horrible tapes that a few people described (and could have been mine). But I do take responsibility for it, and I own it. I didn't see anyone judging anyone else on this thread, and I'm sorry folks felt judged. But the next time you read something and you feel that way, take into account how *many* people there are here who share that experience, and how many *other* people on this board do not.

Oh, no doubt. I didn't mean to imply that it did. I can only speak from my experience, because my experience is all I have. I still look longingly at cheese. I love cheese. Cheese is like nirvana to me. But I know that if I eat it, I will pay for it, either in weight gain or in pain from the band. Does that mean I never eat it? No. It just means it's a treat, and not something I'd eat often, or much of. I don't even buy my favorites (salami-cheese or cracker barrel extra sharp) because it goes to waste. There's no sense spending 3 bucks for a package of cheese that I'm going to eat less than 1 ounce of before it goes bad. This band surgery doesn't make *anything* magically go away. I don't think I, or anyone else here implied that it does. As I've said a few times, you have to work with the band. If you don't, you're just killing time. I wasn't speaking in absolutes. No one - and I mean no one - eats perfectly from the time their band gets put in, until they reach their goal weight. Working with the band doesn't mean forcing anything for everyone. Working with the band, for ME, means giving up many of the foods I stuffed in my mouth without really tasting, enjoying or thinking about before. It means stopping when I feel full. It means that pizza is a treat, not a weekly dinner. It means that if I am committed to seeing the scale continue to drop, I can't eat many of the things I enjoyed before /shrug. I don't consider it deprivation. And I do occasionally (seriously occasionally - once every few months?) indulge in something that I enjoyed weekly before. But in much smaller portions and in much fewer instances. Really. I'm not being preachy. I know that sometimes fast food is the only option for folks. I know that sometimes, your body is screaming for ice cream. I know that sometimes it pays to give in to a craving in a small way rather than over do it by putting it off. But I also know that the less I give in, the better I feel. And right now, at this stage of my banding progress, I'd rather feel better right now than order from Pizza Hut because I'm too tired to cook. It's a personal thing. Everyone has to do it *their way*. Banding: The Burger King of Weight Loss Surgery. (Have it your way!)