LeighaMason

I think a "diet vacation" can be a great thing. If you had worked you job for 10 months without missing a day you would be tired, well the diet is the same way. And just for the record, since I have been at goal, I now eat anything I want as long as I stay in the correct portion sizes and I stay in a 5 pound range effortlessly. I bet it will be the same for you. I hope your not going to take a blog vacation as well, I read your posts religiously.

I am a hoarder so I have a hard time parting with anything that is still "good", so I am going to share one of my coping mechanisms with you. To get rid of something I have, I have to find someone who I feel needs the item more than I do. For instance, it could be a lady at your church who is getting a divorce and needs a new wordrobe to enter the workforce or our town has a program for the crisis center for abused women who need clothes for work. This helped me give away 100% of my too big clothes.

I did not start losing weight until I started measuring my food and logging it on a web site, there were several things that I was eating that I thought were ok but were actually costing me progress.

206 is only 7 pounds from onederland, just take it one step at a time, you can do it, 170 will be here in no time.

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, you better make plans to rob the bank.

The exact same thing happened when I was first banded, I told my husband "But I am doing everything right!" and he was like "um, no your not" once I started weighing and measuring my food and logging my calories I found lots of hidden calories that were adding up.

Its like balancing your checkbook in your head, if you write enough $25.99 checks and only "head" count them as $25 you will eventually be overdrawn.

To make good food decisions you need facts not estimates. I only lost weight at 800-1000 calories so if you keep a food journal it gives you the ability to track and see where your best calorie range is.

Good luck, Leigha

What stood out to me is that you are not eating during the day. If you do not eat during the day your brain thinks its starving so it tells your body to over eat at night. Start eating on a schedule. Breakfast 9 am 250 calories, snack 10:30 am 150 calories, lunch at noon 250 calories, snack at 3:30 150 calories and then dinner at 7 pm 250 calories. If your out during the day, fix a small cooler with these things in it and at those times. Eat on schedule, come hell or high water! (I'm in Texas too!) It will help you at night. Let us know how it goes.

Big difference in hips and thighs this month. Congrats!

I'm glad your doing well! Keep up the good work.

I had surgery for vanity reasons only. I was tired of being fat.

I also tell everyone, in my experience, fit and thin people have been much more supportive than other obese people, men are generally more supportive than women so you might really be cutting out a big group of supporters by not telling your coworkers. Especially when you start losing and feel more like exercising, if you have athletes to go to for advice that would be really helpful.

My husband called me last week, he had found a old camera memory card with pictures on it and was so excited. He called to tell me "You were fat!" I said "Yeah, I know." and he said "I didn't know! I knew you were overweight but I didn't realize you were fat!" Your husband will probably feel that way in a year too. Remember, love is blind. He just wants you to be safe, he will come around.

Oh look at those sweet babies. I'm sorry for the loss of your Jeffrey. I bet Lucian will be a wonderful new addition, he may seem timid but I have been around Germans before, they are so loyal. Once you are his person he will do anything for you.

WTG! I am so proud of you!

Don't worry, your just mourning your loss of your old lifestyle, it will pass. Once you start seeing results, this feeling will diminish. And you will eat again! I actually feel I can eat more, not more food but more choices. Before the band, when I went to a restaurant, I was limited on the menu to things that were large portions because I didn't want to be hungry when I was finished. Now I can order anything on the menu and be happy with it. I am through trying to lose weight so my band is semi-loose and I have not found anything I cant eat if I take my time and chew properly, but even when it was tighter, I could still eat everything except bread and bananas. It will get better, I promise and shortly you will be the one telling your family, I told you so!

Try a pack of tuna, the kind in the vacuum package. Its like 90 calories and keeps me full for hours.

On my last fill, I thought they had punched a hole in my band cause I felt less restriction, then 10 days later, BAM, sweet spot! It will get better, I promise, your through the worst part.

ETA: Be very careful when you go back to foods, you haven't had any practice eating with restriction and cut everything into super small pieces and just eat one at a time, you also have to eat so slow it seems crazy and chew,chew, chew!

Don't give up! Look up btrieger, he lost right at 100 before surgery and has lost more since. He will be happy to forward a plan he put together to lose the weight. Send him a private message and see what he did. There is an answer, just keep looking.

There is a lot to be said for learning to do most of the work yourself and not counting on the band to do it all. I bet once you have restriction combined with what you have learned you will do really well.

If you find your patience, see if your boobies are there, if they are check and see if my patience and boobies are there too and tell them to come home, I miss them!

Do all boobies go to heaven? Cause then I might get to see mine again........

I think thats a wonderful idea. I drive just 2 hours for a fill and that is hard enough.

I tried to limit my food to 1 cup at a time, but I had to eat more than 3 times a day. I probably ate 4 or 5 times a day then. Just try and keep what you do eat as diet friendly as possible, grilled chicken, sautéed veggies, salad, etc. It will get better, I promise!

Great pep talk! Way to get your inner drill Sergeant to kick your mind back in gear!

I eat Chobani Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and lots of tuna to get my protein. Have you tried Unjury chicken soup flavor protein powder? It tastes like warm chicken broth to me. You can get a sample pack to try it would at least get you through the days after a fill.

My husband was listening to a radio show that was talking about flaxseed having anti-inflammatory properties and I found this really cool web site, http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=81

that talks about the benefits of different foods. I have high arches which is why I have foot problems because they become sore from inflammation to the tendon so I am going to try eating flaxseed on a daily basis and see if this helps. I'm not sure what type of foot problems you have but I thought I would pass this on.