Llyra

Give yourself a break, honey- it was a bagel and not a measure of your self worth or of your future success with banding. We have the banding done because we have a problem with eating, right? If we could "win the battle with food" with willpower alone we wouldn't need medical intervention. Don't make it a battle; let it be a learning process and don't spend a lot of time beating yourself up over each error. Diets suck, plain and simple. The band and the process of adjusting yourself to it will help you develop a new and positive way to deal with food. You'll be just fine.

I think it is pretty common to want to get in all the unfettered eating you can before your new reality sets in. I asked my doctor about it and he laughed and said almost everyone does it. By the way, eating like a horse is relatively sane compared to eating like a humming bird. Horses eat 7 times their weight in a year. Hummingbirds eat 24 times their weight. :thumbup:

Too cool! Most folks pay big money for tattoos they eventually don't want. Think of it as your Line of Destiny and wear it proudly!

Please excuse me if this has already been posted. Llyra In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. Response: Dear Dr. Laura: Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them. 1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians? 2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? 3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense. 4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them? 5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it? 6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination? 7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here? 8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die? 9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? 10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of threa (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging. Your adoring fan. (author unknown) PS It would be a damn shame if we couldn't own a Canadian

ONEderful! Congratulations from a sister belly dancer.

I feel it when I've taken too big a bite, not chewed enough, or in the morning when nothing wants to go down. I have occasionally had food come back up when the passage gets blocked, and it is not like regular throwing up, but just sort of a flush. Ooo, gross. :thumbup: Nice to correspond with people who won't freak about these weird subjects we need information on.

No one can make you feel like a failure without your permission. If someone tries, smile sweetly and think, "Permission denied, sucker." No one who has recovered from alcoholism is a failure. As for a device controlling your eating: it is a medical procedure to help you cope with a medical problem. Would you hesitate to use insulin to control diabetes or an inhaler to control asthma? As for encouragement, I can only tell you that the band is working well for me and that I would do it gain in a heartbeat. Good luck and great blessings to you.

Hurray for both of you! I'm glad we can walk together on the journey, if only online.

Good for you, August, on all counts. When I had surgery many years ago, I was concerned about the use of pain pills. A very wise nurse who was also AA told me firmly that even addicts and alcoholics had the right and need to be pain-free after surgery, and that if pain pills were used properly, there was no danger inherent in the use. When the pain quit, so did I.

8-9-10 and I am down 36 pounds, from a high of 240 to a current 204. When I first got started with this banding process, it was sobering to realize that I'd have to lose forty pounds just to get down to 200 pounds. Seemed like a long way to go to still be the size of some linebackers on pro football teams. Even though 36 pounds is a fair amount of weight to lose, I don't feel like it has really begun to show. My clothes are looser and my husband says he can tell a difference, but it is not yet the dramatic change that I yearn for in my heart. I'm still a fat girl, just not as fat as I was. I don't spend a lot of time bemoaning this, but it has crossed my mind as I get nearer to the mental dividing line between 200 and 199. The next forty pounds will put me at 164, the weight I hovered at all through high school and college; no matter how many times I dropped another twenty pounds, I'd gradually find my weight creeping back up over 160. When I think of the agonies that used to cost me and look of the pictures I thought were so ghastly, I realize that if I had never gone on a diet, never fought my way down below 140 time and time again, I might've stayed right there at 164 for many years. I looked just fine at 164. What is it that makes me think that one number is better than another, that somehow 143 is far superior to 148 or that 199 is superior to 200? That somehow hitting 175 will magically entitle me to wearing my unitard to teach dance classes instead of hiding out in black pants and a black knit top to teach? On the other hand, some days I feel so much freer in movement and agility that I actually feel normal sized at 204 until I catch an accidental glimpse of myself in a mirror or picture and realize that to the rest of the world I'm still a lump of too too solid flesh. Once again, I mostly don't dwell on the matter but it is interesting to see how my viewpoint has changed over 45 years of weight-related struggle. At age 27 and 145 pounds, I felt fat and ungainly. At age 55 and 204 pounds, I feel relatively normal and graceful. From an emotional standpoint, I'm better off now than I was at 27 and I may be better off physically, too. When I think of the strange diets I observed to in order to hold a magical number on the scale, I wonder how I managed to survive my youth without developing some exotic type of malnutrition usually found only in third world countries. In some ways, my food choices now are as strange as those I made thirty years ago, but now it is due to what I am able to eat and not what I think I should eat. I eat more nuts as a source of protein than I ever did in my life because there is a fair amount of protein in a small amount of food and I can chew them up well enough to keep them down. Every once in a while, but nut intake becomes- well, a bit nutty and I have to remind myself that there is also a fair amount of fat involved here. Sherbert also calls to me louder than it used to, largely because it never bothers my stomach and I can eat it when everything else seems like too big a chore to deal with. I am a night owl and nights can still be a time when I eat more than I should, partially because that's the way I've always been and partially because it is so hard for me to eat in the morning. The first meal of the day is usually a challenge, as if my stomach has as hard a time waking up as the rest of me does. Forget eggs, forget toast, even oatmeal can be a challenge to choke down and keep down some mornings. Once I'm past that first meal, though, the rest of the day is easier, and if I let myself get carried away, I can eat more than is good for me in short bursts late at night. Still, it is progress not perfection that matters. I know myself well enough to know if I get into the calorie counting journaling every bite that goes into my mouth routine, sooner or later I will rebel against the regimentation. I am better off nibbling my way through the day than I am with three distinct meals, the earliest of which is usually torture. I've struggled my whole life to learn to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I've had enough, and I've found that eating at 8 am, noon, and 5pm with a small snack at 7:15 pm completely negates any effort on my part to be aware of hunger/satiation. Know myself should be the title of this day's entry. I am not a poster child for the lapbander's ideal life, but I am gtting where I want to be, slowly but apparently surely. I don't mind when it hurts to eat or when things occasionally foam back up because I have taken too big a bite or haven't chewed well enough. It's all part of an enforced learning process that works much better than any type of willpower I ever employed. Eating is not the pleasure it once was with the exception of a few items, and that helps a great deal. It is hard to eat for emotional comfort when excess results in physical pain. That means I've had to find other ways to deal with emotions, but that's okay, too. For right now, I am mostly content with my progress and my life style. As time goes on, I will make other enforced adjustments and they will become normal for me. I never thought I'd be able to give up my favorite fast food hamburgers and french fries, but it hurts to eat them now and I realize I don't miss them nearly as much as I thought I would. Life is a series of compromises; what I can eat and what I can't has become just one more thanks to a physical barrier to past eating excesses. I could not have come this far again without help, and I am grateful I was able to have the banding done. Good insurance made it possible, as did some financial sacrifices in other areas on the part of my whole family. My band is a second trip overseas, the new living room bump out we didn't build, a remodeled kitchen, a new truck. I can't imagine anything I'd rather have more, though, than my life and mobility back, not to mention a decrease in physical pain due to too much weight on my joints. I'm grateful that my husband has supported me the entire way.

Carbonated drinks are my guilty pleasure. I love perrier water and diet Pepsi. My doctor says carbonation is more of a problem with gastric bypass than banding and as long as I don't drink the "fully leaded" (sugared) types I don't need to worry about it. I can only drink them on an empty stomach though- carbonation and food do not work for me at all.

Early Wednesday morning and I am still awake as usual. I wake, therefore I write. I weigh on Monday mornngs and otherwise avoid the scales because it would just make me crazy. This Monday morning I weighed 207. Things are still moving in the right direction. Last night I gave a reading of my short stories and poetry at a local music and literature event that happens each summer. It's fun- I get feedback on my work and $100 for 45 minutes of reading. A friend of mine took a picture of me last night and showed it to me today. There is less of me than there was, though I still look pretty soft and spongy. I wondered if it is really possible that I shall eventually dig myself out of all this too, too solid flesh and if a thin person might actually emerge in time. It won't be the same person that emerged the last time I lost weight- for one thing I am six years older and even in the normal course of events, certain parts of me would be heading south by now. I'm a bit afraid I might wake up one morning and discover I am a thin person hiding inside a fat person's skin, and I don't have the financial resources to have a lot of excess skin sculpted away. On the positive side, I don't have a lot of stretch marks to indicate damage and I didn't have a lot of loose skin the last time I lost a significant amount of weight. On the negative side- well, no reason to belabor the batwings or relaxed throat that come with five and a half decades of life even in some of my thin friends. It will be what it will be, and even so will be better than hauling around the equivalent of my fourth grade self on my body. A loss of 33 pounds is just beginning to really show to other people, but I feel much better living inside my body. I move better, dancing is easier, my horse doesn't have such a load to carry, and my jeans need to be replaced pretty soon. I saw the doc last week as planned and told him that I was still dealing with some issues including carbonated beverages. He asked, "Do you drink the high octane stuff?" I thought he meant caffienated, but he meant sugar. Told him no, I haven't drunk sugared soft drinks since Tab came out about a hundred years ago. He said, "Then what's the problem?" I explained I'd read and been told that the carbonation caused stomach stretching. He smiled and said that was usually more of a problem with the gastric bypass than with banding and not to worry about drinking occasional diet soft drinks. That made me quite happy as I love carbonated drinks, including things like Perrier and lime, and it makes life easier and more pleasant to not have to work to give them up altogether. DISCLAIMER: I am not suggesting anyone else should or should not imbibe diet soft drinks and I am not particularly interested in discussing the pros and cons of diet soft drinks. We shall now return to our irregularly scheduled blog. I have discovered there are some things I can no longer eat and the reality actually bothers me less than the anticipation of having to give them up. Black pepper Trisket crackers don't sit well, with or without Brie cheese. Microwaved chicken breast is a seriously bad idea. Hamburger patties are on the way out of my life, which is just as well since I really liked hamburgers and ate a lot of them before banding. French fries aren't too bad in small amounts, but what good are french fries without hamburgers? Most bread is a problem, though toast seems to be okay. This was one of the biggies for me- man may not live by bread alone, but it was a pretty serious part of my diet. Still, pain and foaming are excellent incentives to give up certain foods, and I find it bothers me less as time goes on. On the positive side, I can still eat rice and angel hair spaghetti and I am learning to eat fruit so that the fibrous membranes don't trip me up. Cheese and low fat low sugar pineapple sherbert are still edible, though I have to be careful not to eat all my meals in some form of frozen milk and eggs. That'll probably get easier as the weather cools off and as I figure what else I can eat without causing myself problems. One step at a time; I'm not going to freak out because of a chocolate malt every couple of weeks. I am not a person who can eliminate all fats and sugar from my diet; eating an occasional small package of cocoanut M&Ms is not going to set me back, but I also need to not become complacent about the amount of sweets I eat. Getting enough protein has always been a problem for me and even more so now, but I'm working on it. I've been eating a fair number of almonds because they are easy to chew up and get down. Well, this has been a remarkably boring entry, but it helps me to line some things out on paper in order to see where I am so I know where to go next. I haven't eliminated all problems from my diet, but the good old LAP-BAND®® keeps me from eating too much of anything. I realized this week that I am stopping when I feel full instead of finishing that last bite of ice cream or the second half of a sandwich. "Clean your plate" was hardwired into my psyche sometime early in life along with the idea if you fail to eat what someone puts in front of you their feelings may be hurt because food=love and affection. For years I've known intellectually this isn't true, but tell that to my inner child. Maybe she's finally getting restructured. Off to bed. I have several newspaper articles to write tomorrow and need to get up before noon to do the research. Blessed be.

I missed weighing in one Monday because I was out of town, so I weighed after I got home, knowing that I'd eaten alot of salty snacks which invariably cause water retention. Weight went up 1.5 pounds. Weighed again today and was back down 2 pounds. Note to self: salty snacks probably not a good thing in quantity, even if they are protein packed.

Most negative comments are directly related to the ignorance and intolerance of the person making them.

Early Wednesday morning and I am still awake as usual. I wake, therefore I write. I weigh on Monday mornngs and otherwise avoid the scales because it would just make me crazy. This Monday morning I weighed 207. Things are still moving in the right direction. Last night I gave a reading of my short stories and poetry at a local music and literature event that happens each summer. It's fun- I get feedback on my work and $100 for 45 minutes of reading. A friend of mine took a picture of me last night and showed it to me today. There is less of me than there was, though I still look pretty soft and spongy. I wondered if it is really possible that I shall eventually dig myself out of all this too, too solid flesh and if a thin person might actually emerge in time. It won't be the same person that emerged the last time I lost weight- for one thing I am six years older and even in the normal course of events, certain parts of me would be heading south by now. I'm a bit afraid I might wake up one morning and discover I am a thin person hiding inside a fat person's skin, and I don't have the financial resources to have a lot of excess skin sculpted away. On the positive side, I don't have a lot of stretch marks to indicate damage and I didn't have a lot of loose skin the last time I lost a significant amount of weight. On the negative side- well, no reason to belabor the batwings or relaxed throat that come with five and a half decades of life even in some of my thin friends. It will be what it will be, and even so will be better than hauling around the equivalent of my fourth grade self on my body. A loss of 33 pounds is just beginning to really show to other people, but I feel much better living inside my body. I move better, dancing is easier, my horse doesn't have such a load to carry, and my jeans need to be replaced pretty soon. I saw the doc last week as planned and told him that I was still dealing with some issues including carbonated beverages. He asked, "Do you drink the high octane stuff?" I thought he meant caffienated, but he meant sugar. Told him no, I haven't drunk sugared soft drinks since Tab came out about a hundred years ago. He said, "Then what's the problem?" I explained I'd read and been told that the carbonation caused stomach stretching. He smiled and said that was usually more of a problem with the gastric bypass than with banding and not to worry about drinking occasional diet soft drinks. That made me quite happy as I love carbonated drinks, including things like Perrier and lime, and it makes life easier and more pleasant to not have to work to give them up altogether. DISCLAIMER: I am not suggesting anyone else should or should not imbibe diet soft drinks and I am not particularly interested in discussing the pros and cons of diet soft drinks. We shall now return to our irregularly scheduled blog. I have discovered there are some things I can no longer eat and the reality actually bothers me less than the anticipation of having to give them up. Black pepper Trisket crackers don't sit well, with or without Brie cheese. Microwaved chicken breast is a seriously bad idea. Hamburger patties are on the way out of my life, which is just as well since I really liked hamburgers and ate a lot of them before banding. French fries aren't too bad in small amounts, but what good are french fries without hamburgers? Most bread is a problem, though toast seems to be okay. This was one of the biggies for me- man may not live by bread alone, but it was a pretty serious part of my diet. Still, pain and foaming are excellent incentives to give up certain foods, and I find it bothers me less as time goes on. On the positive side, I can still eat rice and angel hair spaghetti and I am learning to eat fruit so that the fibrous membranes don't trip me up. Cheese and low fat low sugar pineapple sherbert are still edible, though I have to be careful not to eat all my meals in some form of frozen milk and eggs. That'll probably get easier as the weather cools off and as I figure what else I can eat without causing myself problems. One step at a time; I'm not going to freak out because of a chocolate malt every couple of weeks. I am not a person who can eliminate all fats and sugar from my diet; eating an occasional small package of cocoanut M&Ms is not going to set me back, but I also need to not become complacent about the amount of sweets I eat. Getting enough protein has always been a problem for me and even more so now, but I'm working on it. I've been eating a fair number of almonds because they are easy to chew up and get down. Well, this has been a remarkably boring entry, but it helps me to line some things out on paper in order to see where I am so I know where to go next. I haven't eliminated all problems from my diet, but the good old LAP-BAND® keeps me from eating too much of anything. I realized this week that I am stopping when I feel full instead of finishing that last bite of ice cream or the second half of a sandwich. "Clean your plate" was hardwired into my psyche sometime early in life along with the idea if you fail to eat what someone puts in front of you their feelings may be hurt because food=love and affection. For years I've known intellectually this isn't true, but tell that to my inner child. Maybe she's finally getting restructured. Off to bed. I have several newspaper articles to write tomorrow and need to get up before noon to do the research. Blessed be.

So much for not starting a philosophical debate.:scared2:

Are other elective surgeries covered by your insurance before three years are up? If so, you may have an ADA claim. If not, you may still have a claim or you may be sunk, but talk to your rep. My husband has worked for a regional medical center for 20+ years. When he started, antidepressants, anxiety meds, bipolar meds, biofeedback, counseling, and all other mental health measures were not covered by insurance. Now they are, but it took a bunch of people complaining about discrimination and looking at legal action to get it changed. Even with our hospital's relatively liberal outlook on bariatric surgery, the insurance company dragged its feet for so long on approving my surgery that I'd nearly given up, as had the bariatric nurse in charge of the program. But they came through and I hope yours will, too. Enlist the aid of your primary care physician- if she recommends the surgery to improve secondary weight-related problems, it might help. My doctor really went to bat for me on this, god bless her. You aren't a monster. You are cute as a litter of kittens. Your nephew is a monster, however much you love him. I put up with "funny fat girl jokes" from my family for far too long to ever be patient with this kind of "teasing" again. He's either being deliberately cruel, in which case he needs to be told to shut up once and for all, or he's very young and/or dense and should be taught not to make personal remarks. My sympathy to you.

Welcome to the BIAA's new website! This is a website for the Brain Injury Association of America. There are local chapters all over the country, even in places as relatively small as my hometown. Hope your job search yields results soon, Laura. Unemployment is no fun, but barely graduating high school is no more of a guarentee of an $80,000 a year job than two degrees in education. (For the record, I have one degree, grad work, and a professional certification. I can also operate heavy equipment and thoroughly appreciate the trades.)

It is 2:20 a.m. amd I should be on my way to bed. I would be on my way to bed except I am a confirmed night owl and occasionally an insomniac besides. Reports abound claiming that too little sleep leads to too much bodily padding- I reckon I could be a posterchild for that theory. I view myself as a lifelong fatty until I look at pictures taken of me in childhood, much of adolescence, and even part of adulthood. If anything, I was a thin child, but my mother's cry of "hold in your stomach!" translated in my ears as "fat." Later on, she used the f word a lot in conjuction with me. If I reached for a cookie after school, she chanted "fat, fat, fat!" Once when she took me to the doctor for an emergency visit due to an inexplicable swelling of my mouth, he told me, "Tall girls are pretty. Fat girls aren't." I was approximately 5'6" tall and weighed about 145 pounds- a real ugly fat girl, for sure. To this day I wonder what it was about the late 1960s and the 1970s that made people believe anyone over a hundred and twenty pounds was fat? Well, it's a cop out to blame it all on good old mom- heaven knows she had help from television and fashion magazines. By the time I was in fifth grade, I had embraced the horrible truth of my largeness, my hugeness, my all encompassing fatness. I was 5'1" and weighed 103 pounds back then. Occasionally I wonder what my life would've been like had I not developed physically two or three years earlier than my peers. Oh, well, what the heck. That was a long time ago and now is now. I have always been able to lose weight, though as I passed forty it got harder to recover from the yoyo syndrome. Alas, I couldn't maintain the weight loss for more than a couple of years and sometimes far less than that. I ate too much, I ate the wrong things, I ate because food comforted me through depression, anxiety, anger, sorrow, and any other negative emotion that crossed my path. It's hard to argue with success and food was a very successful comforter. Alas again- the side effects eventually became unmanageable and to make a long story a little shorter, it one day became apparent to me that desperate measures were called for. I knew if I lost weight, all those pounds would eventually come back and bring friends to stay as well. People may think that is a defeatist attitude, but doing the same thing over and over again in hopes of a different outcome is insane, and I had been repeating this scenario since junior high school. I decided to try to reconcile myself to living the rest of my life buried in more too, too solid flesh than my knees needed to be carrying around. It couldn't be any worse than losing seventy pounds and gaining back eighty over and over again. I never considered bariatric surgery though I knew several people who had done very well with it and one who had regained the weight lost. Then back in August of 2009, I went to the doctor for my annual check up and asked casually what she thought of bariatric surgery. She promptly replied, "I think you are an excellent candidate for it and I will write any letters and sign any papers you need in order to have it." Oooo-kay. So I started to consider it seriously. Okay, so I decided I wanted it done ASAP and PDQ as well. But there were interviews to be done, tests to be run, the dietician to see, the psychiatric evaluation to be done. That last totally cracked me up. The world is filled with all sorts of anti-social and/or violent people running loose on the streets and my insurance company spent $600 to make sure I was sane enough to have weight loss surgery. Actually, it was one of the more interesting parts of the preliminaries. A reasonably intelligent person with half a brain and a desperate need to have that surgery no matter what could dissemble with a clear conscience on those tests. Most people are not as oblivious as the Highly Educated Care Providers like to believe. When I did the oral part of the exam, on more than one question I told the doctor, "I know this is the answer you are looking for, but this is what I really think." When I went to see her to review the results, I cheerfully asked if I was psychotic. She answered, "No, but you are unconventional." That was good news, though not completely unexpected, and she passed me for surgery, which was even better news. I didn't lose as much weight prior to the pre-surgery diet as the Powers That Be would've liked, but the surgery went forward. And I didn't lose as much during the post-surgical period as I would've liked, but a two week trip out of town put my first fill back and post surgery, I could eat whatever I pleased, though I tried to keep it under control. The first fill helped, the second fill was better, and I skipped a third fill for the time being. My banding was done March 3, 2010 and as of last Monday, I had lost thirty pounds despite not managing to change all my bad habits. I don;t lose every week and that gets me down at times, but thirty pounds is thirty pounds and I'm not going to waste time whining because it isn't forty or fifty pounds. I've spent a lot of time out of town eating meals that aren't healthy or wise, and I still struggle with sweets, specifically ice cream, which goes down beautifully and doesn't require chewing to mush. Sometimes I get sidetracked while I'm eating and take too big a bite and/or don't chew it properly. Ouch. Carbonated beverages have crept back into my life, though I limit them. I don't know why I drink them, especially if I've had something to eat. It hurts. I never thought of myself as a masochist, but sooner or later I get sloppy and... ouch. Drinking while eating is another struggle, though I don't seem to get hungry any faster when I drink water or tea with meals than when I drink nothing. I can't wait two hours after meals as suggested by the dietician, but maybe I can manage the thirty minutes expounded by some doctors. Anyway, it's time to make the next solid effort to change a bad habit. If I ever actually manage to get to bed tonight, I have to weigh when I wake up and on Tuesday I go back to see Dr. Beckstedt. I know he's not the enemy who will sit in judgement on me if I haven't lost enough weight, but it does make me a tad nervous, the lingering fear of doctors who told me if I didn't lose at least two pounds a week they'd wash their hands of me and leave me to welter in my disgusting fat alone. I really have to wonder what those guys were thinking: tough love or reluctance to have anything less than outstanding success on their watch. I suspect the latter, but forty-five years of weight watching may have made me cynical. And so, dear reader, should I actually have one, we arrive at the present where Llyra is 55 years old, weighs 210.5 pounds as of last Monday, and is ready to see what she can do about going down another ten by Labor Day. Blessings on us all and may we triumph over biology, training, and our desire for chocolate ice cream cones with diet Pepsi chasers. Llyra

I'd be happy to correspond with you both- is that Kosher? I am 55, have had my band since March 3, 2010. I'm down thirty pounds, but struggle with drinking liquids while eating, carbonated beverages, and too frequent forays into the world of ice cream and fast food, though I have cut way, way down on both. I do my weekly weigh-in on Mondays and stand on the scale with my teeth gritted until the numbers quit moving. So far no gains, but occasionally no loss either. I tell myself slowly but surely and that I don't have to conquer all my bad habits at once- but I'd sure like to eliminate at least one of them soon! And there's my current story. Too much information?

Second thoughts are not such a bad thing. Let yourself re-evaluate the situation, weigh the pros and cons of your decision, and decide whether or not this is for you. Personally, I am happy with the results. I didn't lose a lot pre-op or directly post-op (maybe about ten pounds) but since I had my last fill, my weight has steadily dropped. Each person is different, so it is risky to try and foresee your own future by peering into someone else's crystal ball. Good luck to you, whatever you decide.

Could also have been a scar tissue adhesion tearing. I've had that happened a couple of times after various surgeries. Hurts like the very dickens for a few seconds.

My bites are definitely bigger than an eraser but not nearly as big as I used to consider bite size. If I take too big a bite, I pay for it. eggs got me, too. I think I was eating them too early in the morning. I'm not a morning person and I don't have a morning stomach. When I ate eggs for dinner one night, I did fine.

Honey, a lot of us have been there. Don't give another thought to being a "fatty/loser". You can do this. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I'll sign up for the mini-challenge since the Xmas goal is a long way off. 12 pounds will drop me to Onederland. I weigh 210.5 right now, down from 240.:thumbup: