juno610

I cannot believe it, but I have some darn decent restriction going on with this first fill. I can't even finish a Healthy Choice meal. Scale is down 3lbs already, and I feel like things are moving along pretty good. Most meals have been around 1/2 - 3/4 cup, and I'm not feeling hungry.

Getting enough water in is probably my biggest challenge. With the time constraints around meals and my work environment, It's hard to fit in. I normally cannot have water with me during the work day, so whenever I can, I pop into the breakroom for a few sips (since guzzling is out of the question.) I need to plan on having a full bottle for my drive home.

So far, so good! Now if I could just get rid of this sinus infection, I could start going to the gym.

It still counts, even if it was pre-op! Congrats on your first 30 gone!

Got 1cc in my 4cc band today. Whee! I go back to the doc in 6 weeks for more. I think I should do fairly well with this though. Believe it or not, I've never had more than 2ccs in this thing, and that was too tight! 1.5 seems to be a good working level, so that's what I hope to get to at the next appt.

For now it's liquids today and part of tomorrow, mushies, and so on.

Best of luck to you on surgery day!

Good for you for retorting! I am so bad at stuff like that. Makes you wonder what is making her so miserable that she has to treat other people like that. Hopefully she'll keep her trap shut around you now!

243.3 this morning. I managed to lose a few without even trying. Nice!

Mini-goal: 225 (pre-pregnancy weight)

This will put me back at the 50lb mark too.

18 to go!

Three more days till I get my fill! I'm all stocked up with my liquids and mushies for the first couple days out. I'm getting excited!

My little guy and I went to the zoo today. I just had to take advantage of this lovely 70 degree weather we're having. Walked my tail off! I wish I had thought to grab my pedometer; it'd be nice to know exactly how far I walked.

I've been having a bit of a week long "last supper". It hasn't been total junk, just things that I know I won't be able to tolerate once I get restriction again. Like tonight I'm making chicken pad thai for dinner. Noodles are a no-no usually. I've also been eating cereal like it's going out of style. I love cereal, but generally can't eat that either. I think it's that it gets mushy in the milk and then gets stuck. Oh well. Enjoying my Special K yogurt and berries for now. And sandwiches too - I had Jimmy Johns earlier this week.

Okay, I guess I should stop obsessing.

I remember those first couple days trying to get all the liquid in! I swear it would take me 30 minutes to get through 2 oz! As for being uncomfortable, I remember having horrible back pain. Liquid tylenol and a heating pad helped with that. Hang in there, in a week or two you'll be feeling good

What great progress! Congrats!

This morning I had a gastroscopy. It was a follow up from a year ago when I was in the process of discovering that my gall bladder doesn't work. Things are still icky; to be specific, gastritis, ulcers, and the worst part: an irregular z line. The doc didn't say it is out and out Barrett's espophagus, but I got the impression he'll be monitoring it indefinitely. Frankly, it scares the crap out of me. The frustrating thing is that I don't get heartburn since I had my band. So, was this damage done before I had my band? Or, have I caused it since by pouch packing and the like? Ugh. Bottom line: one more piece of motivation to eat correctly.

Last weekend I took my toddler to a gymnastics gym for play hour. They open the gym up to parents and kids for an hour to play on all the equipment (bars, balance beams, foam pits, trampolines, you name it). For $5, you really can't beat it.

My little stinker was happy just running up and down the tumbling runs (springy!) all the while yelling "Ruuuuun! Ruuuuun!" in her cute little toddler voice. And I was running with her, of course, because the tumbling runs happen to be 2 feet off the ground. I was having a great time just watching her enjoy herself, and then I realized... I was running! Well, maybe more of a shuffling jog, but STILL! It felt so good, I thought for a minute that I might just have to yell "Ruuuun!" right along with the kiddo! I bounced on the trampolines with her, I climbed the matts, and I even dove into the foam pit. Ok, so it took me ten minutes to get OUT of the foam pit. Working on it, people!

The next day, I was paying for it. My hips and knees were stiff, my leg muscles were a little sore, and I must have wrenched my neck in my epic battle to remove myself from the foam pit. And you know what? I liked it. I can't wait to do it again.

It got me thinking about what I'm going to do for exercise as my action phase kicks into gear next week. My dear hubby is going to pick the kids up from daycare a few days a week, so I can hit the gym. Weights and treadmill, here I come! This is good, but in an effort to forge new pathways, I need to find ways to fit in exercise on a daily basis. At work, I get an hour for lunch. As a bandster, I only need about 15-20 minutes to eat. This leaves 40-45 minutes I can make some serious use of. Weather permitting, I'll take a walk around the building. Or, as I get stronger, perhaps a few flights of stairs and some pushups in the locker room. Creativity will be key. I will keep you posted on the implementation of my lunch time frolics!

Thanks everyone for reading! It makes writing all this down worth it It's also nice to know I'm not alone!

I got my band January of 2007. I don't think I really understood what I was getting myself into. The first year, I made half-hearted attempts at following the bandster rules of eating, and allowed myself to be filled way too much. I managed to lose about 35lbs, down from my pre-surgical weight of 275. Needless to say, I was disappointed in my results. I got pregnant with my first child in December 2007, and only gained twenty pounds. This put me so uncomfortably close to where I had started, I was determined to make something happen. In a few months I was down to 225 - the 50lb mark! And then I got pregnant again.

This pregnancy started off great -- I had barely put on 10 pounds in the first 6 months. Then, in what seemed like a matter of weeks, I put on another 20! As it turned out, I had preeclampsia, and delivered my baby boy seven weeks early. All is fine with him, he's healthy and growing. Myself, well that is a different story. I had a c-section, so there was a little longer recovery. Plus, the stress of having my little guy in the NICU for a month. Plus, it being the dead of winter. Here is what I did with my maternity leave: ate.

Today is March 14. I go back to work in ten days. I weigh 246. The last few weeks, I started to realize how crappy I felt and how much of a stupor I was in. Time to snap out of it! I am here to prove that it's never to late to make your band work for you. I'm three years out, but I might as well be three weeks out! I'm reacquainting myself with the basics, and this time I WILL follow the rules. I've spent a few weeks in the planning stage, and the action stage is about to begin. Stay tuned!

Today my goal is to eat some veggies. I noticed I've been mostly eating fruit with my meat. I need some ruffage!

11am: 1/4 cup chicken salad, 1/2 cup corn

4pm: 2 hard breadsticks with garlic/cream cheese dip

7pm: 8 tortellini (meat filled) with tomato sauce

Exercise: Full body weight training, 30 minutes on the treadmill, 3.2mph/3.0% grade

I'm setting a little mini goal for myself. I'd like to lose 16 more pounds before we go on vacation in June. I need to start looking a little more closely at what I'm eating, so here goes...

I'm trying not to label meals as breakfast, lunch, and dinner because I'm trying to get out of the habit of eating because it's "time."

10am: 5 bites of cherry almond chicken salad

1pm: 1/2 cup curry chicken salad, 1/2 cup grapefruit slices

6pm: 6 cheese ravioli with tomato sauce, 1 marshmallow egg

9pm: 2 glasses wine

Exercise: 35 minute on the treadmill. 3.4mph, 3-6% grade intervals