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Hugs Jewel. You have done a wonderful job and should give yourself credit. Not only have you lost 50 pounds, you are excelling in nursing school at the same time you are taking care of a family. My hat is off to you!

I am holding down the fort right now, just as requested. I hope a good time is being had. Janet, I have excercise tomorrow morning. I am taking my dog with for the first time. My trainier wants us to run up the sledding hill at the park and then walk down. Repeat 5 times and then jog once arond the park (one mile). I am sure the dog is up for it; I hope I am.:thumbup:

It’s only been two days since I was here last. Boy, you guys cover a lot of ground! I had exercise on Monday, dog school on Tuesday and exercise again tonight. Whew, she worked me hard today. Cheri, I am sorry too that I didn’t get involved sooner. I would have enjoyed meeting everyone. Maybe next time. Actually, I work on the south side near where you teach. We could probably meet somewhere convenient to both of us. Off course, if you are looking for a night on the town we can always go downtown. We will set something up when you get back. I hope you and all of the other girls have a fantastic time! Watch out for those bulls, they are pretty tough.

Lori, sorry for your friends loss. I am happy to hear that the carjacker got what he deserved! Karen, Kids can sure stir things up can't they? Sorry for the drama, I hope it settles down soon. My day got off to a bad start. :smile: At 5AM I let the dog out. A couple of minutes later he was scratching at the door. I opened the door and immediately closed it in the poor dogs face. Oh My Gosh ~ SKUNK. He had taken a hit. Giving a skunked dog a bath at 5 AM is not fun. The first words out of my mouth when I got to work today was "Do I stink"?

All of the Vegas talk is so exciting - I hope everyone has a great time! Ran a 5K this morning. I have to get cleaned up and then it is time for Dad's B-day party. WooHoo! 85 years old.:biggrin:

Congratualtions on your race.:crying: I finished my first race last week in 45:38. I am running one tomorrow to and will try to be a little faster. Heck, we need to give ourselves credit - WE FINISHED A 5K!!! I couldn't even do that when I was a kid - I am 53 years old and I can run 3.1 miles!:biggrin:

So sorry to hear about all of the family issues. I agree with what has been said about us never drawing our parents into our drama. Heck, the first indication my parents had about my marriage troubles (first DH many years ago) was when I when I called them and asked if I could live with them until the house was sold and I got my half. I would have never thought to call them until I was ready to move on. To this day, I have never discussed my real reasons for leaving him with anyone other than my DH. By the way, this is a second marriage for both of us and we are coming up on 19 years. Best move I ever made. Janet, I had to giggle about the Italian question. How funny, I never thought about others calling spaghetti gravy – spaghetti sauce. My grandparents were from Italy, but my mother and I were both born here so I really don’t think of myself as Italian. Since I learned to cook from my mother I guess my cooking is heavily influenced by my Italian roots. We lived with my grand parents for a couple of years when I was growing up……..nothing better than the smell of a pot of gravy cooking on the stove and stealing a meatball when nobody was looking. Ah, good memories.

Wow, what a supportive group we have. Food is an addiction and there are times that we will stumble but we must pick ourselves up and recover. It is wonderful to have a place to come and discuss our struggles with others who have experienced the same things. Cheri- I agree with you that nobody knows our bodies or limitation like we do. We should never allow a trainer or therapist to push us too fast too soon. We are our own best advocate. I will say however, I would not be where I am without my trainer. She does encourage and push me but never too far. I have learned that people in authority aren’t the final word when it comes to me and my health. If I am not happy with a doctor I find another; same with a trainer. We are all different and sometimes we have to move on to find the perfect match. I lucked out and am working with a trainer who is a good fit for me. I have a busy day ahead of me. We are celebrating my father’s 85 birthday tomorrow. I am spending the day cooking as he wants to have his party at home. I had hoped to have it at a restaurant but it is his day and will do what he asks. He wanted lasagna and eggplant parmesan. I made meatballs, sausage and gravy last night and will make the lasagna and eggplant today. Tomorrow, I can just put the pans in the oven and enjoy the day. I have a 5K run in the morning tomorrow so this kind of a make ahead menu works well.

1day – Glad to hear the new job is working out. Having a job is a good thing, liking it is a wonderful thing. LauraK – If you can run 2 miles you can do a 5K. Be sure to rest for a couple of days before the 5K. While running the race be sure to pace yourself. Start out slow and steady and finish strong, that way you don’t run out of steam. That’s the advice I got from my trainer before my first race; just last week by the way. I am going to run another 5K this Sunday. This time I am going for a faster time. Hope you have a great time on your date! Laura & Joyce – It was good to hear about your being happy to maintain and motivating yourselves to get back to loosing. I have been at 190 for 6 months now and have been ecstatic to be maintaining. I need a kick in the pants to get back to loosing. Somebody kick us please! Julie – Glad to see you posting again and that you are feeling a little better. Hopefully, you will keep moving in the right direction with your pain. Great – I had a bone density too. My T score was 1.2 and Z score 1.8. I wish I knew what it means. All I know is the doctor said it was good. I had a crazy busy day at work today. I am so glad to be home with DH and pup pup.

All the preparation talk about Vegas is exciting. I hope you have a great time. Julie, I hope you are getting better each day and that the trigger point injections start to help. I just got back from the gym. I usually go straight from work but had another appointment. I seemed to have a much harder time going later. The cardio kicked my butt. Normally, I am ok but tonight I was such a wimp.

Does any body watch Biggest Loser? It starts tonight. I watched last season and got inspired to exercise (on a much lesser scale). I will miss tonights as it is dog school night. I love that pup pup and would miss any TV show to get him to school. Funny, Apples calls her's pupa (sp?) and I call mine pup pup. Count me in as crazy about my pooch.

Laurak – Keep at it. It took me almost a full year to get to the point that I could do a 5K. In April, I realized that I would not be able to do it on my own, even with the couch to 5K program, so I hired a trainer. She has helped me tremendously. I can’t wait to get my charm. I have to wait until mid October for it because it is not available in rose gold so the jeweler is going to make it for me. I am so excited; I have been working for this for a long time. I was, unfortunately, completely out of shape when I started and it took some time to be strong enough. Laura, sorry to hear about all you are going through with your Dad. My Dad will be 85 on Sunday. I know, all to well, the pain of watching the ageing process. Hugs. Janet, I tried a harness on my lab but it didn’t work out well. He is just too darn strong and I could not hold on to the leash. Thank goodness he only got away from me in class and not on the street. I have had to go temporarily to a pinch collar. I know a lot of people frown on that but I need some control to get the training process started. He has so much potential. I would like to get him into agility training. Joyce, sorry to hear about your family. I hope it all works out. Try to keep your stress level down. I find walking helps mine – just a suggestion. Great – Funny about thinking your troubles are over when the kids get to 18. My Mom used to tell me the older they get the bigger the troubles. As much as I hate to admit it, she got that one right. Oh my gosh, did I just admit that my Mother was right about something? I agree about the small dog issue. I guess I just tend to focus on big dogs as they heve my heart. Julie, wishing you well.:thumbup:

Laura, thanks for sharing the video. It is awesome. Like you I believe, but I am not a church going person. I love nothing more than to get out in nature and hike, it restores me. I do believe that God is all around us and that it doesn’t require church attendance to see and feel him. I apologize to in advance if my opinions offend anyone; it is just a statement of fact about me. I know, I know, never talk religion or politics, but this video is worth watching. Phyl and Janet, what kind of dog collar are you using? I ask because I have had my dog for 3 months now and am working with him regualry. He is a 2 year old lab and needs some work yet. Unfortunately for him, he was not trained in his prior home - probably the reason he ended up in a shelter. He is a good, loving boy and tries hard to please. He just has never been shown what to do. It makes me so angry when I see big dogs like him in shelters. Some people buy these cute puppies and love and spoil them until something happens and they don’t know what to do. By that, I mean they grow into 75 pound freight trains and neither the dog or owner knows what to do. So the dog ends up ends up in a shelter. It is sad, because a little training goes a long way to prevent this from happening. OK, off my soap box now. I signed up for another 5K for this Sunday. My trainer says she doesn’t want to spend our time together doing long runs because she now knows I can do them myself. She thinks our time together is better spent working on a new goal. She had a very mischievous look on her face when she said that. She would not elaborate so I am not sure what my new goal is. I went and ordered a small gym shoe charm for my bracelet in celebration of running my first 5K. I have done other 5Ks but always as a combination of running and walking. This was the first 5K that I ran the whole way. I know it is silly but I wanted a memento of the day.

Janet, I wish the cleaning bug would hit me like that! My house could really use a deep cleaning but somehow I always find something better to do. Someday…….. I am sure you love to see Andrew and take him shopping. I always love when I get to spend the day with DD and buy her a few things. Linda, I am glad to hear that your eyes and Katie are doing better. Eva, I am so jealous that you can plant a rose bush in September. Heck, by me we are just starting to cut them down and cover them for winter. I finished my 5K this morning. DH ran with me and he even stayed with me the whole race. Usually he takes off because I am too slow. I was so excited to be able to finish. The official times haven’t been posted yet but I was around 45 – 46 minutes. I even managed to beat someone!! When the times get posted I will know better how I did.

Hi guys. I had fun at the race track last night. It was a fund raiser for my husband’s fire department. They had a good turn out – 150 people. It included a buffet dinner which was actually pretty good. I had a big salad and a small plate of peel and eat shrimp. OK, I did go a little over board with a slice of chocolate cake. I am hoping for no rain tomorrow morning. I have a 5K run for the shelter that we adopted our dog from. His name is Charlie and he is a 2 year old yellow lab. He is the joy of my life. I was in a bit of a depression after loosing both of my dogs within the last year to old age. I wasn’t looking for a new dog, it just sort of happened. I guess rain and 60 degrees would be a better than 90 degrees and sunny. I am a bit excited because this will be my first official timed race. I have been working up to it for a few months with my trainer. Tomorrow I am on my own. She has asked me to text her when I cross the finish line so she can Celebrate with me. I owe her that much, she has really helped me. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow after the race. I hope everything works out for you Julie!

Cheri – You put so much of yourself into your kids, whether they are your biological or school kids. You have so much heart. Thank you Great and Eva, I still struggle but I think I’ve got it. Now the trick is to hold on to it. LOL Janet, sorry you were without your Mom for so long. I lost mine 8 years ago and that feels like forever. Glad to hear you had a relationship with your Step-mon. Phyl, what an awful thing for her to say. I am sorry she hurt you but be strong. Don’t let her get you down. Charlene – LA fitness sounds great. The Water aerobic classes are a lot of fun; I am sure you would enjoy that! Congrats on the 2 lbs loss. Janet – Those cruise prices look really good. Laura, hugs on the menopause stuff. It was really rough for me but I am through it now. Just remember, it doesn’t last forever. I did hormone replacement at one point because it got so bad. I remember telling my doctor, when she didn’t want to renew my prescription, that I would sell myself on the street corner to get more. Whew! Thank goodness she renewed my prescription. I don’t think I would have had any takers considering I was always wet with perspiration. I worked out for an hour today with my trainer. Going to the race track tonight with my husband for a "Night at the Races". It is a fund raiser for the fire department. Should be fun.

I love my trainer. She has me doing things I thought were impossible. I meet with her 2 times a week and go on my own another 2 times. I haven't felt this good since I was in my 20's.

I give the band credit too, even though I don't have one. It was the process. When I was going through my 3 month supervised diet I thought to myself "what a waste, but I will do it because I have to". Now I realize it was a blessing in disguise. I learned so much going through the process. I think the best thing I learned is that I cannot succeed at a diet. The doctor told me not to change my diet, just cut it in half. Oh my gosh, what a concept. I could still eat all of the foods I loved. I didn't have to live on chicken and salad. What worked for me was taking half of my normal portion. I did not weigh or measure, I just estimated half. Now that I am down to 190 I will probably have to start weighing and measuring as I am at a standstill. The good news is that I haven't gained any back. I have my head screwed on right now, I will get it.

I want to thank all of you for making me feel so included in your group. Yes, I have the same food addiction and yes I still struggle with it. Janet hit it on the head with: Sandy - Congrats on your loss and yes you have the same addiction as the rest of us - food - our bands helps us - but I really think it's all about the light bulb going off in our heads in the understanding that we have to exercise & eat healthy- which has happen to you - My trainer ask this question all the time - don't you think you could have done it w/o the band - ya - i would have lost some - don't know if I would be where I am now - I think knowing I had major surgery was my wake up call - and my band does stop me from over eating at times. I guess it's my constance reminder to be healthy. The light bulb went off in my head when I found myself at 240 pounds taking 6 prescriptions. Those 6 medicines were my wake up call. I went into the lapband process and had promised myself that I would follow all of the instructions I was given. I read every book. I studied the Lapband rules on this website. I tried my best to eat only 1.5 cups of food at each meal. And then it happened - I lost weight. It came off steadily and I found myself at 200 pounds at the time I was scheduled for surgery. I had set my goal at 160 which was an 80 pound loss. When I got to 200 I started thinking maybe I should wait, after all I had already reached the 50% weight loss that they tell you to expect with the band. I wavered back and forth about the surgery because if I didn’t have it when it was scheduled I was afraid I could not get insurance approval at my lower weight. I talked to the doctor and he told me that my insurance approval was good for one year and if I decided not to have the surgery in Feb I could call him within the year’s time and still be approved. So, I decided to wait. I reached a plateau at 200 for a couple of months and then in April decided to hire a trainer. Best decision I ever made! Through exercising I have managed to drop another 10 pounds. Not a huge weight loss but a loss. My body looks like I have dropped 25 pounds because it has toned up. I have lost 4 inches off of each thigh! I feel wonderful and best of all I am off of 3 of the 6 prescriptions I was on last year. I am doing things now that I haven’t done in years. I want to thank all of you. I would come here every night to read your stories and listen to your changing lives. I wanted that for me too. As long as you don’t mind having an “unbanded” member I would love to join in the posting. I don’t know why but I felt ashamed that I didn’t go through with it. I am no longer ashamed, I am proud of my self. :thumbup:

To answer Janet’s question about why I do not post – I guess I feel a little like an imposter. I started last September with my initial consult for Lapland. Because of insurance requirements I went through a 3 month medically supervised diet. I finished my 3 month diet and went through all of the pre-admission testing and was scheduled for surgery the 1st week of February. To make a long story short, I cancelled the surgery. In the 5 months from the initial consult to pre-admission testing I had lost 40 pounds just by following the medically supervised diet. I became a Lapland failure due to my success at following what I learned from the supervised diet and what I learned here on Lapbandtalk. That is why I still lurk. I am down 50 pounds in 1 year (70 from my highest) and I feel like I need to come here and read to stay in touch with weight loss struggles. Yes, I still struggle. I hired a personal trainer in April and have learned to embrace exercise. I have gone from only being able to run for 1 minute to running a 5K. I have finally been successful with loosing weight and maintaining for the first time in my life. I owe much to the Lapband process and to everyone here on Lapband talk but I somehow feel like I don’t really belong. Cheri’s heartbreak touched me and caused me to post as I live in the Chicago area too and felt her pain. Thanks for listening; I owe all of you a large debt. Thank you for being here, posting and making your day to day struggles (and successes) available for everyone to follow.:wub:

Cheri, I had just read the story about the shooting in the Sun-Times before I logged in here and read that you had taught both of the boys involved. Tragic; my heart goes out to you and the boys family. I know I don’t post often but I do lurk and keep up with all of you. Sorry for the lurking, I hope you understand. I don’t always feel comfortable posting but this tragedy hit close to home and shook me into posting tonight.

Started today. WOW:ohmy::frown::ohmy: what a workout. This guy makes my personal trainer look soft.:thumbup:

Don't worry if you have to do a week over, just keep at it. I could not get past week 5 no matter how hard I tried or how many times I did the week over. I just couldn't do it. I hired a personal trainer at my gym and that made all the difference in the world. She had me concentrate on overall strength, along with cardio at first. Then we went to running for the cardio. Apparently, I was just not strong enought to do a 5k before the strength training because I can now run a 5k. My point is keep trying and don't be afraid to ask for help if you get stuck.

I ordered mine today so I should be joining you soon!

I believe you must keep your kids away from your mothers dog. However, you have no right to expect her to get rid of her pet so that she can babysit for you. Have your mom visit at your house where you control the situation and find a new sitter. Your husband is right, the dog may be let out after everything dies down and you cannot take that chance.