mauraclegg

I guess I should qualify what I said. Yes, once getting the band I found the weight loss to be easy, but I had to make sacrifices - and I continue to make them. I can't eat cakes, there are some veggies that I am nervous to eat. I can only eat a tiny bit of pasta - and really NO BREAD. Trust me when I tell you that I LOVE bread. I have a long standing love affair with bread and compared to other things I really miss white squishy bread.

I am 43, have 3 kids and I stay home. By my youngests nap time I am too wiped out to exercise (he has ADHD, my 5 yr old is PDD/NOS and my 11 yr old has RAD) They were all adopted from foster care so the are exhausting most days.

I still would like to lose 15 lbs to get to my original goal of 140, but pre-surgery my doc said 160 would be good for my height/build. I know I can do it, but it would be a lot of work, I have maintained my approx 100 lbs loss (with a 4 lb leeway) for 10 months. I wasn't trying to brag, just saying compared to my previous attempts at weight loss it was easy

HI! Personally I lived on tuna for a few months after I had a fill that was a little too much. I love tuna. I mix it with a little shredded lettuce and some ranch dressing - yum!

I still have exercise (2 yrs banded in a few days). I love to walk though and I do about 3 miles when I can - hard with 3 kids. My youngest and I (he's 3), will walk about a mile some days.

My entire circle of family and friends have been supportive. Except maybe my aunt who when she found out I got my band said something like, "Are you really that fat" Well, yes at 5'7": and 262 lbs I was that fat!

I still love my band, as too foods that I can't eat - it's RICE. Some people have different. I think things are subjective for everyone.

once I lost the weight I had a large amount of hanging skin on my abdomen and I wasn't feeling real self-assured about the new me. I didn't feel like I could dress like my weigh should allow - tighter fitting clothes, etc. And for health reasons I was getting redness in between the rolls of hanging flesh (gross). And it was hanging slightly onto my thighs.

Honestly the recovery wasn't super easy - prob because of the complications I had, but the surgery itself was worth it. I won't do it again, even though I still have some hanging skin - I wear a spandex tank when I need too

I still have the same body image issues, so it wasn't an end all be all to my issues, but it did allow me to get into some smaller clothes