janesays

well hello there thanks for thinking of me! ive been doing really well- lately i have been eating more calories (keeping the band at little restriction) but i am eating mostly clean whole foods and working out really hard, therefore i am still getting smaller! good to know i still have the band in case my self-motivation drops (which it has been known to do...)

my mom is doing well by the way, she is going through chemo and it is shrinking the tumor, and her surgery is in august.

hope you are well! how is life?

well its great to see YOU still here and so darn skinny and BEAUTIFUL!!! hope all is well

im at school for the summer... the weight loss is slower but still pretty good! ive been working out a LOT and have the best personal trainer, so i am not losing weight as much as i am gaining muscle. i definitely have no restriction and could use a fill, but am not sure i want to get one... doing alright on my own for now.

you look BEAUTIFUL and so happy! missss youuuu update me more on your life!

omg that is NOT a joking matter! i just worked out with my trainer tonight.... he is super super hot, i love it when he works out with me side-by-side, because that means he changes into his under-armour clothes where i can see every rippling muscle on his body.... i look like im sweating a lot but i think it may actually be drool...

wow you can tell i am in DESPERATE need of an ACTUAL boy in my life, not just my 30-year-old trainer who is married with a newborn baby! so fed-ex away all your single bodybuilder friends to me!

theres also an intern at my trainer's gym, who is my age and just as gorgeous. sooo.... i have found some new eye candy. needless to say, they both get me going to the gym every day, especially the days that im not exactly feeling up to it.

p.s. how are you doing?? clearly you got me revved up, so sorry for the long reply! haha

i miss you! update me-- you look sooo great!

hey drew! hows it going? i miss talking to you!

thanks so much, you are awesome and so sweet! im sorry you are having slow weightloss. have you worked with your docs to figure out why?

i needed an unfill because i was too tight for almost 2 months, but instead of taking out a lot we just kept taking out .5cc every time and there was no effect. i started getting back pain every time i ate or drank, which scared my adjustment nurse so bad that she completely unfilled me and scheduled me for an upper GI a week later. The x-ray showed i was completely healed and that they could start adding fluid again. so if i had a slip, my body fixed itself.

there are only a few things stopping me from getting more fluid: 1) it is so expensive! it is supposed to cost me $75 each time but the nurse said shed work with me. 2) I am scared I will get too tight again and really hurt my body! 3) With 2cc in my band right now, my weightloss is slower, but I am still losing.

hope you are doing okay! update me

well you look amazing. its ok to be indecisive at the stage you are at because you are already very safely in the healthy weight range. and trust me, if i had shown the part of my belly UNDER my pants and hadnt tightened my abs for the picture, you wouldnt be saying i dont need a TT! its just so expensive and something i cant really afford right now, so for the time being i am trying to make my skin as tight as possible on my own. i still HATE my arms... i am so jealous of your arms in your pics!!

thanks so much katie for the pic comment! its good to hear other people can see a difference too. how are you doing? still holding strong at 140? how did you heal after your tt surgery?

hope all is well!

thanks so much for the pic comment! ive been really good, just working out like a madwoman. i have the best personal trainer in the world! i had a complete unfill a few weeks ago, but now that my body is healed i am slowing adding just a little bit of fluid to my band, just to keep the edge off of the hunger. my mom is doing well too- she is having surgery to have her the cancer removed from her breast august 6. i move to new york (where my mom actually grew up) at the end of august, and there is a race for the cure 5k event in september that i really want to run in. but first i have to be a better runner and increase my endurance! i cant believe it though... me?? running!? it feels awesome!

so how are you doing?! you look lovely as ever!

haha well good im glad. arizona is a little far though -- are you sure you cant just ship a bodybuilder boyfriend through the mail for me?

hey! ive been pretty good-- how about you? you have done really well with your weight loss. keep up the good work!

thank you! july 2009-- that isn't too far away! do everything you can to lose/just maintain your weight until then-- you'll thank yourself later!!! i lost about 20 pounds from my highest weight in the months i was waiting for surgery.

ohhh yeah august is what im shooting for! my ULTIMATE goal of maybe 150 or so, I probably won't reach for awhile, but I want to be at a normal BMI by the end of August. ahhh so exciting but sooo good to have that goal in reach!

yay! im glad you can finally feel it! yeah after i got my last fill i had that feeling and it went away after about 3 days and i could eat solids again, just a much smaller amount. but then it got all fickle on me (i was stressed with midterms at school and also flying back and forth, so that may have effected it).. but after about a month i got a slight unfill, and then another slight unfill a week after that. now, im fine. it was rough for abut a month and a half but on the upside, because i wasnt eating much and being sure to get in all of my vitamins/protein because of that, i had really solid weightloss! haha but now that i am where i should be and able to eat solids, i am still losing but at the HEALTHY and slower rate... still, thats like 1.5-2 lbs a week..

its so hard to determine our sweet spot! i hear from others that are farther along than us that they still have problems every once in awhile. but i guess its good to be reminded once in awhile that our band still works!

no prob!

so, how did it go? did you get a fill?

hey thanks girl! you know ive just still been counting my calories everyday, and im eating around 1000 net cals a day (so more if i exercise). but im eating kind of like a bird-- so like 4 or 5 smaller meals a day.

and just walking everyday, but i need to get back in the habit of some hardcore exercising everyday... bc im losing all that muscle i built up a few months ago!

good luck with your fill today! hopefully you will get the restriction you NEEEEED!

im not that much farther ahead of you-- we've lost the same amount of weight! and the first 20lbs i lost before surgery.

i think you are doing allll the right things! afterall, this is one of the reasons why we chose the lapband over any other type of WLS. slow and steady is the healthiest weightloss.

as far as eating tips, anything i would say wouldnt be much different than any old diet tells you. just eat healthy - but watch your calories. for me, i cant keep track in my head... ive been using thedailyplate.com to count my calories every single day... obsessively. gotta stay accountable for everything i eat!

haha yep, plano through and through. i won't be back there until maybe for a few days in august though, so we won't cross paths...

thank you very much! I have been working very hard, but I have to say about 80% of it is what I am eating. The other 20% of my weightloss is from walking EVERYWHERE i go, taking the stairs, and then when I notice I am starting to get in a slump I go to the rec center to get my body moving again (though we both know that can be really hard to do consistently). I try to be honest with myself and not set myself up for failure, because that can be discouraging.

Anyways, to make my exercise COUNT, i don't do much cardio. I spend about half an hour working out, and that entire half hour my heart rate is about 80-90% faster (what is that-- like 170-180?) and I interval train-- so five minutes on the treadmill, five minutes lifting weights, five minutes on the elliptical, five minutes weights, five minutes abs, five minutes weights. something like that. it is way more effective to do that for half an hour than to be on the treadmill for half an hour.

hope this helps and GOOD LUCK!!

thank you very much! And I'm only posting the pics because i know how motivating others' pics were to me a few months ago, and they STILL are. i hope you are taking before/after pics along your journey-- even if they are just for you!

thank you for the compliments and the pic comments! OH the gut is DEFINITELY still there, just much much MUCH smaller and easier to suck in and "hide" haha. Before, I couldn't even really suck in, just re-shape all the lumps!

yay! the scale is still moving for me, sometimes i think it isn't but when i look back over the past few weeks and months, it definitely is averaging 2 pounds a week! i am in a tight 12, but a 12 nonetheless, and i want it tight now so that i won't have to buy new jeans for awhile!

my mom is doing well! she started chemo and is doing better than most with that, as far as not being nauseated. thank you so much for keeping her (and me!) in your thoughts/prayers!

thank you! you have been doing a really, really good job so far, i hope you are proud of yourself!

i accepted your friend request so you should be able to see my (yuck!) befores with the "now" pictures next to them!