Fell off the wagon, but hopping back on!

Hello all! Been a little while since I've stopped by. I see the forums look a bit different!

I had my surgery 7/28/09. I was doing well with my weight loss once I got my fills right (which was probably 3-4 months after surgery). My starting weight was 263lbs and by the following May, I was down to 195. I was fine with my slow and steady weight loss, especially considering how busy my life is (2 jobs & school).

The beginning of June 2010 I went for a small fill. Well, after the fill, I lost all restriction. My doctor was adopting a child from China, so he was out of the country for about 2 months. When he got back, it was determined that my tube had a kink. I had X-Rays previously and already kind of knew about a kink, but I was still able to get restriction. At this point I had a fill under fluoro to determine if the problem was a kink or a leak. Everything looked fine with the band itself. So we scheduled a surgery for October 19, 2010 to "un-kink" it. I had my surgery and the problem ended up being a leak in the tube itself, so it was replaced along with the port. And the port was moved to a different location. I guess the problem ended up being that the tube kind of wrapped around the port, so when I went to get a fill, the tube was punctured by the needle, which caused a leak.

So now... everything is fine. I'm recovered and the band is working again. My problem is that I spent 5 months without restriction and it wasn't fun. I gained about.... 18lbs because I was eating anything and everything I wanted. It wasn't smart, but living a year without certain foods makes you go a little crazy. After I had my surgery, I wasn't ready to give it up. I ate less, but I was still eating bad foods. With the fill I received in late December, I was still losing weight, but barely. From the beginning of the year to the end of March, I had lost maybe 5lbs. I was really stressing during that time due to school, money, etc... so I really couldn't think too much about my diet. And since I'm a stress eater, I ate anything that I could. Small portions, yes. I definitely didn't overeat, I just ate bad foods (cookies, etc...).

Few weeks ago I kind of hit a breaking point. The problem wasn't just food, it was everything in my life. Even my spending was out of control (I ate out a lot., bought whatever I wanted, etc...). I had moved to a new place in my company, I had another $1,000 hospital bill, etc. So I decided it was time to STOP and get control back. So I set a budget for myself, I keep track of what I buy, I severely cut back on my spending, and I started counting calories again (which I found works best for me). I do want to mention that while I had no restriction I tried dieting and it didn't work. I was so hungry all the time. You think that sometimes the lapband doesn't do a whole lot for you, but when it's suddenly "gone"... you realize it made dieting MUCH easier.

So I had gotten back up to 213, lost 5lbs pre-diet, and I'm now back to 199. Four more pounds until I get back to my lowest post-band weight and then I will continue on from there. I've been eating very well for almost 2 weeks now and have lost almost 9lbs during that time. And that's without exercise. I really WANT to start exercising, but I need to get caught up with my schoolwork first. If I add any additional things to my plate, I will get stressed out and everything will fall apart again. So once school is squared away, I want to get back outside and start walking/jogging.