willowcat

chiropractor? I was having pain about a month after surgery in the area between my shoulder blades. When I talked to my chiropractor he said that the nerves to the stomach originate from that area of the spine. He worked on me and the pains went away. I know a lot of people are skeptical about chiropractors (and there are definitely some bad ones out there), but he helped me. Sorry for your problems. Thank you for the info. I hope all goes well for you sooner rather than later. Good luck.

Nope, Don't regret it in the least. Matter-of-fact, I plan on doing it again in 2012! :smile2:

Yes, I mourned food before my pre-op diet--and during! The first 3 days ARE the worst--something seems to kick in after 3 days that sort-of protects you mentally so that even though you're really hungry it's ok (I'm sure that it has something to do with caveman survival--if you just couldn't keep going because you were hungry, you would never have been able to actually go find food!). I just kept telling myself that "I can do anything for 10 days." I did--and so can you! Just keep thinking about wanting to shrink your liver so that your doctor has all the room he needs to easily do the surgery (that was the other thing that kept me going). Good luck.

I had the same thing--and it was a stitch for sure--when I went back for my post-op follow-up with my surgeon, I told him about it and he just snipped the little piece off. About a month later, I had another little stitch sticking out of a different inscission, and when I showed it to him, he took some tweezers and pulled it out (said that sometimes the stiches don't always dissolve all the way). I'm not recommending that you personally do anything yourself--wait for your surgeon! If it bothers you too much, put a regular bandaid over it to keep yourself from scratching. If you've got oozing or blood or you're really worried, call your surgeon--that's what they're there for.

I ride my exercise bike. Just recently, I started doing a little peddling while standing up--good thigh exercise! My goal for Eventually and Someday is to be able to run--I haven't been able to run since I was a child. That's something I really want to be able to do again.

December: 98 miles Six months of exercising! July-December! 798.9 miles in 2009 (I've "ridden" my bike from Colorado to the eastern edge of Iowa--I'm trying to get to NYC) Yeah! Thanks 2911 for starting up the challenges and for leading the way!

You may be lactose-intolerant and not realize it. Most protien powders/shakes are made from whey (a byproduct of cheese production--remember Little Miss Muffet eating her curds and whey?). I absolutely cannot tolerate any protien powder with whey in it--during my pre-op diet I was throwing up the EAS shakes my nutritionist prescribed. I also had bouts of diarrhea, so I went to the health-food store and looked at all the protien powders and checked their ingredients. I found a vegan (people who won't eat any animal products) rice protien made by NutriBiotic. One Tbsp. has 57 calories, 0.4 grams of fat, 8 mg of sodium, 2.4 grams of carbohydrates (you have to really be careful--a lot of the yummy-looking protien powders have 20+ grams of carbs--that's why they're yummy!), and 12 grams of protien (I know it's not as high as most other protiens but mix it with lactose-free milk or fat-free yogurt and it's not too far off). It comes in chocolate and vanilla.

What an interesting question! When learning a new language, they say that you know you have truly become bilingual when you dream in the other language--it's part of you finally. Hmm...makes you think... I'm sure our self-image is something that's quite complex--and probably mostly subconscious. Another interesting question is "How old do you see yourself in your dreams?" (not to hijack your post). For me, I've never seen myself as being fat (even at my highest weight). I'm always a normal weight in my dreams.

Exercise, healthy food choices, listen to my stomach (instead of my head) to tell me when I'm done eating

I don't have After because I'm not at goal yet. So, Before and During:

Eat a little something before or during exercise--a few nuts, a cheese stick, a sugar-free pudding, a banana--something with a low glycemic index that's easy to eat and doesn't leave you feeling weighted down. People with diabetes have to be careful when exercising because the exercise uses up glucose and they run the risk of having a low-blood-sugar episode. You don't take any medicine like metformin or actos do you? When I did, I would sometimes get shaky and sweaty after exercising from the low blood sugar--a candy bar always fixed it right away (yikes!).

Skim--lactose-free and organic. If we run out of milk and are too lazy to go the grocery store, we'll run in and buy a pint of 1% at 7-11 to tide us over. 1%=yum--tastes like cream to me after all these years of skim!

I'm in my 40's and have a playlist that reflects that: Billy Idol--White Wedding, Rebel Yell, Flesh for Fantasy Prince--Raspberry Beret, Darling Nikki, Let's Get Crazy, 1999 Cher--Gypsies,Tramps and Thieves Madonna--Like a Prayer, Into the Groove, Material Girl, La Isla Bonita, Vogue, Express Yourself Blondie--Call Me, Heart of Glass Modern English--I Melt with You Rolling Stones--Paint it Black, Can't Get no Satisfaction, Get Off My Cloud Rick James--Super Freak Pat Benetar--Love is a Battlefield, Heartbreaker Temptations--Papa Was a Rolling Stone Edwin Starr--War Bee Gees--Staying Alive David Bowie--China Girl Queen--Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You The Motels--Take the L The Trammps--Disco Inferno Survivor--Eye of the Tiger Pink Floyd--Young Lust Paul McCartney & Wings--Band on the Run The Go Gos--We Got the Beat Eric Clapton--Lay Down Sally Billy Joel--Only the Good Die Young, We Didn't Start the Fire Human League--Don't You Want Me Tina Turner--Better Be Good to Me Still scanning my memory and iTunes to find more oldies-but-goldies with a pretty fast beat (I pedal my exercise bike faster when the music is faster), though.

I'm glad you brought this thread out of retirement--the original was posted nearly 5 years ago (Feb 2005)--I wonder how BigT is doing now? It would be interesting to have him respond to his original post now 5 years later. I wonder how his perceptions have or haven't changed since then...

I like these challenges because they keep me thinking about exercising and making daily exercise a real part of my life. I'm having trouble,though, letting go of the goals I had during the summer when I wasn't working. Everything is a process, I guess. These are some thoughts I've had recently: 1. I'm not slovenly because I don't exercise as much when I'm working--I'm just tired (I've loved riding my exercise bike during this holiday break--I'm riding longer and faster than I ever have!) 2. Goals are good but they need to be realistic (just like with teaching, the material should be just hard enough to provide a challenge but not so hard that the likelihood of success is minimal)--I need to go easier on myself when I'm working full time and set lower goals--I'm not "wimping out"; I'm being realistic about what I can do while working. So...I lowered my December goal to 90 miles instead of 120--and I can definitely make that this month. For January's goal, I'm going to set it low to start with and make adjustments as the month progresses. I need to find a reasonable goal for the times when I'm working. Thanks for letting me ramble on...it helps me to put my thoughts down...they become clearer to me when I see them in print.

Yes, you got it Kathy--we started believing our own press! Of course we look good--compared to the 70+ lbs people we were not so long ago! "Good" is really a relative term--this "good" has been great, but now it's time for an even better "good"! So...onward and downward!

I like Tommy O's reply to posts on this thread: We are all a work-in-progress. The OP was making a personal, insightful observation about his own "stinking thinking" when it comes to fat people (himself included). Facing our negative thinking is the way we become better people. I have no bad feelings about fat people--but have begun to realize that I harbor less-than-positive feelings toward the elderly (now that I'm nearing 50!). Self-knowledge is a never-ending journey!

There was a 12-year study of morbidly obese and super obese patients who all had gastric banding. The study is online at http://www.obesitylapbandsurgery.com...eryArticle.pdf Good results for long term weight loss and life expectancy. I don't see how lapband can be considered unsuccessful given the long-term study's results? Weird.

I've posted this before, but I thought it was relevant to your post here: Years ago, when I was at my thinnest (after nearly starving myself and losing 30 lbs in 6 weeks), I bought a denim mini skirt. That mini skirt attracted male attention--attention that I was not comfortable with! I unconsciously put on 5lbs--just enough that the mini skirt no longer fit--and then I felt a wierd sense of relief that I didn't have to wear that skirt again! Fat has some benefits that we often don't want to admit we're ok with: fat lets us be in the background; fat says I don't have to compete fashion-wise, sex-wise, friends-wise, work-wise; fat says I'm off the market sexually and will be a faithful wife; fat says I can get by with just being the funny one; fat says I'm motherly and nurturing; fat says I'll be the one that survives a famine; fat can make me feel larger that life; fat can make me feel protected and shielded...! Fat can bury so many emotions and protect us from ourselves and/or our pasts. As the weight comes off, we begin the excavation of our past selves, and that can be very uncomfortable. We are all so much more than just our bodies. Good luck!

Cingulus, Thanks for posting the link to that site--I had no idea there were even sites out there like that--I'm looking forward to downloading the playlist for spinning!

Don't get me wrong, getting the lapband was one of the best things I've done for myself. But it is still just one tool (the others being good food choices and exercise). I have good restriction--thankfully! But good restriction doesn't garantee good food choices ("oh just a little bite won't hurt" "just this once" "but i'm so tired and hungry" ) and it sure doesn't make me get on my exercise bike or go for a walk. So I guess by "slipping" I mean that I feel myself becoming complacent just as you said. And because I feel so much thinner than I really am, it's even easier for me to lie to myself about how much work there still is to do.

Even at 285lbs, I didn't think that I was really so fat--you know how anorexic women can't see themselves properly? Well, I don't think that I see myself properly either--just in the reverse. I'm down over 70lbs and I am really enjoying my thinner body, but I'm beginning to worry that I'm enjoying it too much. I feel myself sort of "slipping"--like now that I've lost so much weight, I'm done. I feel so much thinner than I really am. I have to remind myself that just to get out of the "obese" BMI range, I've still got another 50lbs to lose (and 30 more on top of that for "average" weight)! I posted my most recent photo for two reasons: 1. Because I am proud of having lost so much weight 2. Because I need to see that I really am not thin yet and that this is no time to be resting on my laurels. I'm pretty good at self-deception, so I'm posting mostly just to be honest with myself.

All the successful old-timers here seem to have one thing in common: exercise, exercise, exercise! Congrats on your weight loss so far!

My nutritionist has me taking calcium and a child's chewable multivitamin.

This is an excerpt from Geneen Roth's website http://www.geneenroth.com/. It's something to think about. Eating is so often about more than just food. The holidays are hard for everyone in one way or another. Good luck. More About the Holidays A friend of mine once asked a 6-year-old girl what she wanted to be when she grew up. "A person with really long arms," the child answered. "Why?" my friend asked. "So I can reach across the table and eat all the chocolate chip Cookies before my brother gets any." "So, when you are 25, do you think you will still want all the chocolate chip cookies?" "Yes," the girl said. "Do you think that adults want the same things they did when they were children?" "Absolutely." When I heard this story, I thought about my friend Minnie who, when I started teaching her to eat intuitively, bought six packages of Sara Lee brownies and ate them all, even though she didn't really like brownies. Why, I then asked, did she choose to gorge on something that didn't even thrill her? "Because," she said, "I wasn't allowed to eat them when I was a kid, and now that I can eat what I want, I'm making up for lost time." Makes sense. But only if you believe that you are still that same kid. Only if you believe that you can make up for deprivation in the past by eating everything you want now. During the holidays, if we make decisions about what to eat based on the desires of the children we were, we get lost and dazed and fatter. It's as if we are possessed by so many desires, memories, and needs from the past that we can't figure out what the adult in us truly wants right then. Which brings us to the holiday season, when the child you used to be is in full command, ordering you to give her all the things she wasn't allowed to eat — fruitcake or Sara Lee brownies or sugar cookies with red and green sprinkles or anything else she wants. And while we are eating, we will feel free, which we never truly felt as children because the big people were lording it over us, telling us what to do. The truth that we didn't want to admit back then is that kids do need adults to set limits, to say, "No, honey, you'll be sick if you eat the whole plate of cookies and then drink three glasses of eggnog." Don't try for perfection. Do the best you can within your limits and let the rest take care of itself. Despite the voice that tells you otherwise, you are not in control of the immediate universe. And since you can't achieve world domination, maybe you should try to control what you can control, which is what you eat. My second thought is that you might ask yourself what you want now. If the answer is that you want long arms so that you can grab all the cookies or that you want to hide the plum pudding in your bedroom so you can eat it all before bed tonight, you know that the child in you is directing the show. That child is opening your mouth, putting the food in, grabbing for more.