A thread for super-sized bandsters - starting BMI over 50?

[derbygirl 0]

Thanks, losingjusme,

I have checked out the plastic surgery area, but it seems like most of the people there didn't start out supersized. Ya know, when I first had this surgery, I was excited because I thought...finally something for someone like me who has a lot to lose. I had previously been on diets and lost 100 pounds (never kept it off) but I would get so discouraged because it would take me so long to get that weight off...and I'd STILL BE FAT.

It's starting to hit me now that I may still be what most people consider massive at the end of my lapband journey. That depresses me quite a bit.

Anyway, I guess that's why I didn't want to post about the pannus removal on those other boards. I feel like I don't fit in there.

I feel like I'll never fit in anywhere.

[Suzzzie. 3]

Phyllser - I know what you mean about being addicted to this site! No one in my 'rea' life knows what I'm going through like the peolpe here do! I totally missed this place yesterday!!

Derbygirl - How much weight do you/did you have to lose? When I get to my goal I will have lost 222... so I DO understand about the pannus and the whole not fitting in on some of the threads around here.

[lizrbit 0]

phyll, i am doing the snowbird thing in 11 days! i LOVE this part.

regarding yesterday: i found myself checking alot and i realized something. ALL the time that ive spent online, i could have been outside, and i wasnt even then. I had a dinner date and i loved getting out. it really was fantastic to get with other people and talk face to face! These were friends ive had since before i was even at my heaviest, and i revealed to them at dinner about my band. It felt good. they were very supportive.

i was thinking in the car on the way home though, about the board, about a recent ridiculous online quibble with one of the members and their sidekick, and how im doing these days offline, about our thread, and i was wondering...and its a personal question really...

how much time to you guys spend online during a regular day? I find im spending more time here and while i feel i NEED YOU GUYS and your support, i wonder if i would be any more active if i would just sign off and only allow myself on twice a day?

Am i the only person that wonders that? Yesterday, while the board was down, i realized how often ive been reading it. but i wasnt any more active than usual.

what do you think? Do you guys think about this at all, wanna share any insights?

[losingjusme 12]

Derby,

Try JulieNYC's threads. She is 5'2" and started 350-ish (Julie, plz dont kill me if i am off in the weight)..

she looks absolutely P H E N O M I N A L ... she had a Tummy Tuck and is getting ready for thighs and arms.

no need to feel out of place at all .. we are all in this together, whether we have 40 or 200 (like me) pounds to lose. challenges may be different, but we all need / want to get this excess weight off.

[phyllser 3]

phyll, i am doing the snowbird thing in 11 days! i LOVE this part.

regarding yesterday: i found myself checking alot and i realized something. ALL the time that ive spent online, i could have been outside, and i wasnt even then. I had a dinner date and i loved getting out. it really was fantastic to get with other people and talk face to face! These were friends ive had since before i was even at my heaviest, and i revealed to them at dinner about my band. It felt good. they were very supportive.

i was thinking in the car on the way home though, about the board, about a recent ridiculous online quibble with one of the members and their sidekick, and how im doing these days offline, about our thread, and i was wondering...and its a personal question really...

how much time to you guys spend online during a regular day? I find im spending more time here and while i feel i NEED YOU GUYS and your support, i wonder if i would be any more active if i would just sign off and only allow myself on twice a day?

Am i the only person that wonders that? Yesterday, while the board was down, i realized how often ive been reading it. but i wasnt any more active than usual.

what do you think? Do you guys think about this at all, wanna share any insights?

You're absolutely right. I spend way too much time on the computer. DH and I both have laptops and have a wireless network set up. So we sit in front of the TV with our laptops way too much. I hate to think of how many hours per day. A couple of hours in the morning. Then after lunch, if the weather is decent, I try to go out for a ride on my scooter around the neighborhood every day. But, then I'm back on the computer again! I have so many great books I want to be reading, magazines stacking up, I keep telling myself I need to get up and play my piano once in a while. but here i am! I defintely need to change this bad habit! It'll be better when we leave for the winter later this week. There are lots of things to do at the RV park where we stay and I'll be doing Water aerobics every morning. But, glad you brought that up because it's a serious problem for me!

[lizrbit 0]

Phyl, i can totally relate to being more active when your 'away' for the winter. I do the SAME. When im down south, i dont have a car, i have to rent one to get to houston for my appointments but the rest of the time i use a bike to get around the island. I start at sunrise on the ferry! i often dont get home until after sunset.

I dont want to lose online altogether or this board, i love it...but maybe if i only sign on before morning coffee, and again after dinner. leaving the bulk of the day for the day....im going to give it some attention.

i get hopeless sometimes too with the progress/process. It comes n goes, you know? I look at the journey ahead sometimes and all the changes and i think "why bother", then i see people like losingjustme and think, "because she bothers", and people like chickie and think, "and she started from where we are standing". I worry that i wont lose all of it, or even most of it, im a very slow loser. i think though, that as long as we fight those feelings and still find a reason to keep trying, we will get there. I do believe that. Sometimes those steps are little.

[mmcbelle 0]

Hi all,

I don't know how to describe the place that I am in. I hit 50 lbs off and seem to have stalled. I got on a sugar binge:hungry:. I have not been drinking my Water. I have made some less than good nutritional choices. I seem to have learned to eat around the band. Is this self sabatoge for getting 50 lbs off? I finally got sugar sick today and think that is over for now, but has this happened to anyone else. You hit an important mini goal and just coast for a while? I did have some unusual stress this week. My 87 year old granny had a cancerous lump and two lymph nodes removed and I was really worried about her (this is her second bout with breast cancer and she is my last living grandparent). My BFF and DH have both been "out of sorts" with me this week (really hard since they are the backbone of my support system - and maybe it is not them...it is me):faint:. My workouts seem to be the only thing I am consistantly doing right. I know one answer is back to basics. Review the band road rules. Stay the course. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Maybe I just need to quit whining and get my tuccous back to it. I have a follow up appointment scheduled on the 14 and now know I have to get a fill. I am also realizing just how small 1/4 cup is and it is frightening me.:paranoid

Any thoughts ideas, etc. would be appreciated (please be gentle, I am sensative right now). Please:help:

Thanks for reading,

Mary

[insubordination 0]

Mary, I am in a dreadful place right now too. I too have lost 55 pounds or so and started getting excited and made all sorts of plans for the future and then boom! Last week, I put on a few pounds. I thought that was barely possible with a band but I managed it. I didn't think I was even that 'bad' but I have been eating around the band too I guess (chocolate, smaller portions more frequently). I keep thinking that this is it, unless I cut down to 600 cals for the rest of my life and exercise a few hours a day, I will be morbidly obese forever and all my surgery has been a waste.

Fortunately, I recognise that these feelings are temporary and I just have to ride them out. I also clearly need a fill if I shouldn't be able to eat as much Breakfast as I have been.

Everyone has down periods and I guess I'm in mine right now, some of it is because I put on weight but most of it is my tremendous workload with no end in sight. It's a shame because everything's been so good.

So Mary, I can't help you but I can tell you that you're not the only one going through it.

[lizrbit 0]

sounds like theres a handful of us going through it. do you think it has something to do with halloween and all the candy laying around? the change in seasons maybe too? i know these things certainly get to me. Im to see my surgeon for a fill in a week, and im totally embarrassed. i havent even tried this month. Im trying again today and maybe i can shake it.

it snowed again last night :::groan::::;

[phyllser 3]

Good Sunday Morning, Ladies! At least, it's Sunday morning here on the west coast. I can certainly relate to the things you are expressing regarding being stalled! I've played with the same three pounds for two weeks now. I lost 10 lb. in 12 days, then gained 3 lb. back and gone up and down with those 3 lb for two weeks! I am so much wanting to get to the -50 lb mark and just can't seem to make it! I think it's quite normal to go through these "plateau" times, though, so I'm trying to be patient with myself and encourage you to do the same. We're in the process of changing eating habits that are LONG established. I didn't have a problem with Halloween candy this week, but some former neighbors brought their two little ones over for "Trick or Treat" and brought us a small bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies!! I had a few of those and I hadn't had a whole cookie in 4-5 months! It does start a chain reaction when you have JUST ONE!! I couldn't leave them alone until they were gone. Good thing there were only six of them and DH did eat a couple of them. Then we got to my sister's. We are RVing and on our way to sunny CA for the winter. Guess what her DH brought home from work that night??? A little container of chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies!!! I had ONE HALF of one cookie! Then today my sister made cinnamon rolls for breakfast! Fortunately, DH had fixed me an eggbeaters omelet out in the RV before we came in the house. So I only had a really tiny sliver of a roll. I mean it didn't even qualify as a BITE!! I don't have trouble with the sweets if they're not staring me in the face.

So....it's a HEAD battle, isn't it???!!! The band is great but the restriction isn't always there for me.. it seems to be as sporadic as my weight loss! Sometimes it wonderfully keeps me in check, but other times it seems to abandon me. I've had three fills, so it should be good. But it isn't always! Texture of the food I'm eating seems to matter a LOT. Softer things go down easy.... eggs, for example.

Oh, well, that's enough of my rambling. I'm not sure that's going to help anyone, but at least you know, here's another one struggling but still plugging along and determined to be successful.

[bneeley 0]

I was banded 8/16/07 I have a long ways to go! My starting weight was 330.5 and as of today I am down 60.5 lbs to 270. I got my first fill 10/30/07 of 1.5cc in a 4 cc band it took until Saturday to start to fill a difference but I definately can now. I cant tell I have lost weight to look at myself but I have so much to loose that it will take awhile. We just need to keep our heads up and know we didnt gain it all in a day we wont loose it all in a day.

BANDED 8/16/07

DOWN -60.5 LBS :whoo:

[lizrbit 0]

oh right on Bneely!

Phyll, i wanted to post to say that i grabbed a friend yesterday and made it to the gym!!! we worked out much longer than i usually used to do on my own and it felt so great to be moving! we went swimming and sauna after! i have felt so much better today than usual and guess what? i seem to have more restriction too! (odd?)

WOoho!

someone in the house threw away the bag of miniature butterfingers. ive caught myself looking for them and glad i didnt find them. lol

[mmcbelle 0]

Congrats Bneely, you are doing great.

I think I just needed to get it off my chest that I am struggling. It does help knowing that I am not the only one struggling right now. Today has been a much better day. Getting off the sugar seems to have been a key component. I also relied on a different friend who shed some perspective with me and that helped VERY much.

Thanks all for your words. They really do help.

Happy banding,

Mary

[lizrbit 0]

derby, I know i can realate to what you described, and i think most of us here on this thread can too. I want you to know that i always want to hear about how you do, that your goal is a VALID AND WORTHWHILE goal (even if it isnt someone who's thinner goal) and that you are improving your life each and every day, even if its just a little thing. Sometimes we need days off and you know what? thats okay.

YOU FIT IN HERE.

right here.

If you ever need to just vent, please know you are welcome, and that i will listen, i know everyone else on this thread will listen.

[Cherlita 0]

Hi everyone,

I received my approval letter from United Healthcare, so I am "go for launch" on Nov 27th. Have my pre-op appt on Nov 16th. I am nervous and excited at the same time. I've been trying to get at least 30 lbs off before surgery and I think I'm close.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences in this thread. Those of us who high BMI's have different struggles and challenges. It is nice to know I can find kindred spirits here; and comfort and support, and yes, maybe an occasional virtual slap on the wrist, if I need it.

To those who are struggling, keep up the fight. I believe in you! You are not alone in this journey. We will all have challenging moments along the way. Remember why you decided to do this. This is a tool, not a cure.

Have a Great Week!

Cherlita

Loveland, Colorado

379/366/200

pre-op/current/goal

10.5.07: 379 (1st Surgical appt)

10.15.07: 366 (Dietician appt)

10.31.07: Insurance approved

11.16.07: pre-op appt (I wonder how much I've lost :nervous)

11.27.07: op date