MADE IT 2 MY GOAL..OH YEAH

I'm right up there with you on being worried about the excess skin. I am only 56 pounds from my goal and only 36 from what my surgeon says he'd like to see me at. I know that I will have excess skin (and although I really really hope that I wont have to) I'll probably have to have some excess skin removed. Right now, I have hi bye arms, you know when you say hi the skin says bye..lol. I have been doing arm exercises but, they aren't seeming to work. Maybe someone out there will have a few tips as of what to do. And as for my belly, well, 9 times out of 10, I'll have to have some removed from there. And my thighs, well, I have been told they are getting smaller, but I don't see a difference in them, maybe I can get some tips on how to make them smaller? All in all, I look at it this way, if I have to have excess skin removed after I am finished losing all this unwanted weight, then so be it. At least I will look good after all the healing.

I can't speak for anyone else, but as for myself, since I have been banded, I don't have diarrhea anymore, I don't have those sudden strong urges to poop but maybe 2 times a month, and I haven't had the pain that I use to have. I'm not actually sure if the band has anything to do with these changes, but maybe it does. All I know is that my IBS is so much more under control since I have had my band. Hopefully your symptoms will improve over time with your band.

I was told right at 4 years ago that I have IBS and was banded in August of 2008. I have noticed that since I got my band, my symptoms have gotten alot better.

WOW! MAN!! Am I the only one that when I eat something spicy I get sick? I can't even eat a taco without it bothering me now. I guess I have to be the black sheep of the banding family huh? OH WELL, I am still loving loving loving my band!!

Everyone is different in how they come out from under. I myself, have never gotten sick (knock on wood).

Wanting to be at 150 to start with, I am only 30 pounds from my goal. I have noticed that while walking past a full lenght mirror I don't tend to shy away anymore. I don't mind looking in the mirror and seeing the person that is standing there staring back at me. I am on vacation right now in Gatlinburg, TN and the first night we were here, we went out to eat. Having to ask for a childs menu I explained to our waitress that i could only eat like a child size portion of food and thats why i was asking for it. After we had ordered our food and she brought us our drinks, she sit down beside me and ask why on earth i had the lapband surgery done that i in no way look like i needed it. With tears in my eyes and a few streaming down my face, I explained to here that only 10 months ago I weighed 267 pounds and sitting in front of here today, she saw a woman that was at 180 pounds. She was flabergasted and just looked at me in AWE!!! All the pain and suffering that i had gone through, I knew at the moment was well worth it!!!

Only thing that i can think of that was funny is when I first went to the seminar for the lapband. This really nice lady was sitting infront of me and my husband. My husband said something (I don't remember what it was now) but apparently it was funny enough to make he laugh so hard she snorted. My hubby thought it was so funny that she did that, that, he kept snorted and everytime he did, shed laugh hard and snort too...it made the whole room including the doctor and his staff laugh really hard.

45..2 pounds is really good. We all loose at different rates, theres ppl out there that has had it done after me, and have lost more than I have. Loosing at different rates is the reason I don't compare my weight loss to the weight loss of others. I have before and the only place it got me was depressed. Keep up the good work girl!!!

Question: sometimes when i eat, I end up with thick, I mean REALLY THCK slimy looking stuff...is this PBing? If not, what is it? I know it is nasty but that about all i know.

UM what is lovenox?

My surgeon said only 3 small meals a day. I have started eating my breakfast and luch together (brunch) around noon. I eat my dinner around 4:30 or 5. Then I eat my last meal around 8 or 8:30. I was told NO Snacks between meals but to be honest, sometimes I feel hunger between my 1st and 2nd meal and at times, I will eat something like a Protein Bar and that helps satisfy me until dinner time rolls around.

What questions have you ask him so far?

Just wanting to know how my fellow august 08 bandsters are doing? As for myself, just a little update. I was banded on the 18th of august. On the day of surgery: weight: 267 pants size: 26 shirt size: 4XL bra size: 44DDD As of today (June 4th): weight: 185 pants size: 16 shirt size: XL put can squeeze into a large depending on what kind of shirt. bra size: 38D I have had a hard journey but all the tears and pain have been well worth it. I am hoping to be at 175 by my birthday which is 1 month and 13 days. I think I can make it with a little exta work, but if I don't make it, I will be darn close to that mark. I hope everyone else has had as much success as I have or even more success than myself. Reply back and let me know.

This is total off the subject of lapband or anything to do with loosing weight. I am just so upset and home alone with nobody else to talk to. I hope nobody minds my venting about this on this site. If anyone does, I am very sorry. My 2 kids dad and I are divorced. They are spending a month of their summer vacation with him and his new bitch of a new wife. I want and need to go into just a bit of detail about their relationship. They met on the internet while I was the only one at work and supporting our family. While I would be at work, he would be on the phone with her and out seeing her. They were sleeping together when we were still married. I come home from work one day to him having his bags packed and him saying he had been unhappy for quite a while and was leaving. I tried my best to hold our family together but he was already with someone else. I don't hate either of them for what they did to me and my kids. As a matter of fact, I am grateful for them meeting and him leaving for her. If this hadn't have happened, I wouldn't be with my new husband now, the man whom I love with everything within me. I do hate Sam (his new wife) for knowing we were married, and still sleeping with him knowing he was married and had 2 children. As for my ex, he is such a dead beat ahole no good for anything piece of sh**. He doesn't pay childsupport unless the state of Tennessee finds out where he is working and takes it out of his check weekly themselves. When they start to do this, he ups and quits his job so he don't have to pay childsupport. His wife has told me they aren't paying childsupport they are smart and know how to get out of it. He has been summons to court 5 times since we have gotten divorced but has only shown up 1 time out of those 5 times he should have been there. He has her to lie when the cops show up at their door and say he isn't there cause he knows that if he don't get the summons for court, then legally they can't do anything about him not showing up, and once again gets away without paying child support. His wife tells me that my husband now, makes good enough money that the kids don't need their real daddy helping me out. I tell her she is right about the fact that my husband makes good money, but it is still their daddys responseabilty to help me support them. They both tell both of my kids that they pay child support every week and pays more that what the court has ordered. My oldest comes to me and tells me that they say this then i have to show her online where it shows the last time he paid anything and she realizes that he hasn't been paying. I hate to do that, but I can't and wont let them lie to her. They say that I spend the child support on clothes for myself and spend it on stuff that dont relate to either of them. That is such a lie. When he did pay and was forced to pay, I would pay bills, buy stuff for the house that my husband is building for us, and buy them clothes or whatever they needed or wanted. I checked with the child support office and yes, I can use the money to pay bills and to help build a house that they will live in. Right now, he is 3 months behind again, and guess what? He and his new wife just bought a new 2 story 3 bedroom 2 bath and a spare room. They got a new SUV, are always buying things for up there. He is supporting his 2 stepchildren and doesn't even care to help out his own flesh and blood. To me, he isn't their daddy, he is just a sperm donor with visitation rights. It makes me so angry to know that I can't give them stuff like he can. He trys to buy their love and let's face it my daughter is 10 and my son is 8, it's not hard to buy love for kids that young. But me, I can't afford to buy a Wii and games for it, I can't afford to go out and buy them new shoes every couple weeks, I can't afford to buy them toys and all that stuff. I can only afford to buy them the things that they NEED, and every once in a while, I am able to buy them what they want. It hurts me and makes me feel like a bad mom and failure when I tell them Idon't have the money when they ask for something. I work but don't make alot of money doing what I do. My husband pay and hours have been cut so we don't make alot of money. When we have extra money, we try to put it toward the house we are building so they will have a home to call their own. By the time we are finished building this home, we will owe NOTHING on it. It will be paid for fully. But what is a fully paid home worth to a 8 or 10 year old child. They don't understand what that means. Today, I got on myspace to send her a message to tell her I love her and to tell her brother I love him too and let them know that I will call them later this evening. I saw that she had added new albums to hers. I went to check it out, and its all pictures of her dad and her step dad. Not a single picutre of me or a single picture of her stepdad. Not a single picture of the only 2 people that actually try their best to provide for her. Not the ones that spend 100s of dollars for her for cheerleading, not the ones that stay up with her late at night when she is sick or sad cause something had happened earlier that day. Just her stepmom and dad. Her stepmom is trying to take my place. Yes I am happy that she says she loves my 2 like her own. But there is a line between loving them and trying to take my place. I know she can't take the place of me, but I am so scared that eventually, with them buying all this stuff for them and the big houses they keep buying, and the vacations they take them on, and all the stuff they can do for them that we can't, she is going to take my place and my kids are gonna want to live with them. 2 yrs. ago, they took temp. custody of the kids by going infront of a judge telling him that we hit them, and that my husband makes my daughter kiss him on the lips and saying that we make them call my husband daddy. Yes, I spank my children when they need it, but I or we dont hit on them. My daughter freely kisses my husband on the CHEEK before she goes to bed. I have never ask either of my kids to call him daddy mark or daddy for that matter and they never have. Even if they did, so what she calls her step mom moma sam. Whats the difference in her calling her step mom that and her step dad daddy mark. He is more of a daddy to both of them than their real daddy has ever been. Come to find out, he only did what he did with the whole court thing because he didn't want to pay child support (which he wasn't anyways and at that time he was almost 2 yrs behind on it), and was mad because I moved on with my life. He expected me to stay by myself, lonely for the rest of my life. It tore him up inside to know that I was finally happy and had a man that loved me and my children. OK, I'm sitting here holding back the tears. So I am going to stop now. I thank everyone that took the time to read this. If anyone would like to reply please do so.

My question for today is a pretty simple one so here goes. I was wondering is anyone out there in bandland is having the same problem I am having. My problem: I am barely able to eat anything during the day. I try to eat a really late breakfast at noon. 8 out of 10 times, I can't eat. I can get down a few bites of something like oatmeal or grits but that is all. I start feeling like my food is getting stuck and it makes me feel as if I am about to throw up. So, I stop eating. About half an hour after I stop, I end up hungry again. I hold off until dinner time which is usually around 4 and again, I can take a few bites of food and it feels like it is getting stuck and I am going to throw up so I stop eating. Around half an hour later, I feel hungry again. Most of the time I hold out until around 7 or 8 and try eating either something like cream of chicken or a pack of my 100 calorie cookies or chips. I have noticed that around 8 my band is finally loose enough that I can eat without getting stuck. After I finish my bag of cookies or crackers or cream of chicken, I stay hungry until I go to sleep but I don't act on the hungry. I would love to be able to eat during the day and not have to wait until 8 at night to be able to do so without having the stuck feeling. Anyone else out there have the same problem? If so, what do you do about it?

I am now 9 months and 7 days post-op. I have went from 267 pounds to 191 pounds (as of today), making a total of 76 pounds lost so far. I have went from a size 26 in pants to a size 16 in pants and from a 3X shirt size to a Large or XL (depending on the make of the shirt). I'm just wondering (since I have lost my booklet), how long am I suppose to wait to drink after I have eaten?

Well, I guess that leaves me out. I have the realize band. I'm still going to join curves again though.

brand name lap band lap band? What is the brand name lapband? :biggrin:

A LONG LONG time ago, I tried curves. I actually liked it, but the man I was married to didn't like me going, so, I stopped going. I had my sugery August of last year and up until about a month ago, I had been going to a place called Main Street Fittness. I have finally realized that this place is basically just for men who want to work out to get big muscles and for women who want to use a tanning bed. So, I gave up my membership to this place. I just got off the phone with Curves down where I live and I am going to start going there. They are open 6 days a week and for a 3 month membership it is only $100.00. I was paying $35.00 a month where I was going and found myself going less and less cause I didn't like going in when it was filled with nothing but men working out. 3 months at curves, $100.00 vs 3 months at mainstreet at $35.00 a month times 3 months is $105.00. Curves seems like a better choice for me. Not only is it all women but they actually have someone there to help you with the equipment which the other place had only 1 person there and I could never seem to get there while he was there. So, who knows if I was actually ever using the equipment right or not. Curves is a good place to go, so if you are thinking of getting a membership there, go head and do it.

Since I had my 4th fill I have had a big problem with my saliva being very thick. It's not all the time, just after I eat. Also, when I throw up, it looks like the throw up itself is inside of a bubble. Sorry bout that but I wanted to check to see if anyone else has had or is having this happen with them? If so, what is causing this?

The last thread I posted was titled "How many do you have"? Referring to how many goals you may have with your weight. I said that my first goal was to get down to 200lbs even, no ounces. Well, I have hit that goal. I weight 200lbs and I am so excited. I hope that all of you reach your goals! The chart below starts for my 2nd goal of 150. I have currently lost 67 UNWANTED pounds url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/w678TMh/] [/url]

My birthday is July 17 and I will be more than happy to join you in being 175 by then. I am currently weighing in at 200 pounds and would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be 175 by my birthday. Send me a private message if you want.

Try so no sugar added ice cream. It only has 3g of sugar and about 130 calories. I only eat about half a cup once a week and it helps me out ALOT!

I'm going to google it, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised it one of the hits happens to say something about a sexual position...lol

I was just wondering, how many weight goals do each of you have. I have often heard (since I was a child) "slow and steady wins the race". When I first met with my surgeon, one of the first things he ask me was what weight did I want to be. Without a second to think I blurted out, between 125-130. He smiled and told me with the lapband it is possible to loose that much weight and get to my goal. But instead of going first off to 125-130 pounds, how bout we try to 150 pounds to start with. So, while I still want to get down to atleast 130 pounds, my first goal is to get to 200 pounds even. Why did I pick 200 pounds and why even? Simply because I want to be 200 pounds before I set another goal for myself. I figured that if I do start small and go for the gold, I will make it easier than saying well, let's skip everything else and not let up until I reach 130. Today, as I sit here and type this for everyone to read, I look back at these past 8 months. I for starters can't believe that it has been 8 months already. Yes it has been a long and rough road to where I am now, but nothing worth having is easy to get is what I have always been told. I sit here with happy tears in my eyes and now that not only has this journey so far been hard, it has been well worth it. The day I checked into the hospital for surgery, I weighed 267 pounds. I hated looking in the mirror. I hated going shopping for cloths. I hated the thought of even getting naked infront of my husband. I am not 203 pounds and only 3 pounds away from my first weight goal. I am thrilled, excited, and amused. I no longer dread to look into a full length mirror. I no longer hate shopping for pants, and I have finally (after 3 years of being together and 1 year of being married) will let my wonderful husband see me without anything on AND IT FEELS WONDERFUL LET ME TELL YOU!!!! This band is an amazing tool and I couldn't be where I am today if not for it. Would I reccomend the lapband to someone else. HELL YEAH I WOULD, WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT!!! While I am only 3 pounds away from my first goal, I still have 2 others to meet. After I get down to 200 pounds, my next goal is to make it to 150 pounds, then after that goal has been met, I want to get to 130 pounds. With the lapband, I have no doubt that I will make it to where I want to be. My lapband is my best friend.