Hello Junbies ......

I haven't seen a June Band Crew thread yet so thought I would start it .

I'll be banded on June 9th in Texas. I'm getting very excited about it. I know that the band is just a "tool" to aid in my weight loss journey and it will take a lot of hard work on my part to make it successful. I've been overweight my whole life with the earliest memories being around age 4. Although no one else in my family is overweight, I am extremely fortunate to have full family support in my decision. I know that there are many people who's family doesn't offer the support they need. I would love to meet other pre-bandsters being banded in June to walk with me to the banded side of life and offer each other support.

I wish you all the best.

Melissa Lea :hippie:

Pre-bandster 240 lbs

June 9, 2006

Spivak

self-pay

Hi all! I want to first thank the following two woman for their support and love in reference to my recent post:

Pinkylee: Thank you for putting it into a new prospective for me.

RRoswelltx: Thank you for sharing your experience with me. It really made me realize that it is God's plan for me to only have one child.

I would also like to give me love, support and lots of hugs to Socialgal: I hope that your feeling better soon and on the road to recovery!

Here are my goals for Feb:

1. Follow Dr.Gott's No Flour,No Sugar Diet(Great food Plan for us Bandsters- was approved by my dietican).

2. Exercise - Do my "Walk Away the Pounds" DVD's every other day. "Cardio Dance Blast" once a week,"Dance off the Inches" once a week. Switch weeks with "Richard Simmons Blast Off" DVD's every other day.

3. Drink my water everyday -with and without Crystal Light.

4. Keep food log on Fitday or in little notebook kept in handbag.

5. When feeling emotional post on LapbandTalk or call someone or read a book. EAT FRUIT! NOT SUGAR!

6. Do not beat myself up if I slip, get back on track and start over again. Get support from Lapband June Pals.

Lisa

I was trying to log my food for today into Fitday and I am having trouble. Here it is :

I had so far for breakfast:

Designer Whey Protein Vanilla 1 scoop

With one cup of Skim Plus Milk

1 1tsbp of Smart Balance no sugar Peanut Butter

4 Ice Cubes

2 pkgs equal

in blender for 2 minutes.

I had problems putting the Whey Protein Shake in and then I tried looking it up and it said O search.

So I thinking my little notebook might be better to use as a food log.

Lisa

Thats why I love sparkpeople.com, I can take my labels and put it all in under 1 shake and save it, and then I just click on it any time i wanna add it. I found it much more friendlier for me than fitday!!!

Hi everyone! I'm feeling better today. Stayed home from work of course. Then I got my period! I guess it's better to get all the pain over in one weekend! ha! I'm glad I was able to keep my band so I can still be an official Junebee! Thank you all for supporting me through this stressful time. I use SparkPeople too. I've already had 5 cups of water today too, so I'm on track to meet water goal!

Socalgal --glad to hear you are on the road to recovery.

I think the challenges are great. I'm already behind on the water and exercise though. The food, no problem thus far today.

I will have to check out sparkpeople.com. I haven't heard of that site before.

Count me in on the challenges but not sure how well I will do the next several days...I will be traveling and that always makes it more difficult to get your exercise in.

Melissa Lea

For all of the Junebies that love ice cream... I have a solution. I am the biggest Icecreamaholic around and I have found a substitute.

Get a blender, put ice in it and soy milk. Then add either: instant coffee and splenda sweetened syrup or chai spice tea mix. Both sugar free, both great to eat. I have found that if I have this after dinner, I don't want ice cream. :confused:

Ok, I met all my goals today.

How is everyone else doing?

Regina: How did the fill go?

I met my goals too. I logged my food into fitday.com. It wasn't pretty, but I didn't expect it to be. My snack of a jelly sandwhich had more calories than my lunch did. I can already see some changes I could make.

Lisa - more fruit is right!

The water thing was easier now that I don't buy bottled water (too heavy to haul a case). I have a big 20 oz. glass. 3 of those - no problem.

For you ice cream lovers. I'd say you'd better have a pretty good backup plan for those days when you don't allow yourself the ultimate treat! A special fruit (mango?), a 70 calorie glass of wine, a 50 calorie cookie with a cup of tea, Poodles sugar free soy shake, - be ready!

Now who's got a plan to keep a lid on the chips? Don't say pretzels - calorie count on those buggars isn't so great either and the salt is gotta be bad. I think I'll try putting a few boxes of tic tacs where I normally store the chips. I'd ban them from the house if I didn't think there would be major mutiny. Hey - that might not be so bad.

Went to the Rocket's game last night with fam and DD's boyfriend. They threw t-shirts in the stands. We were up in the rafters and a guy came out on the catwalk and pitched down shirts in our section. I stood and waved to get his attention. He actually threw one my way! Last year I would have struggled to make it to my seat (incredibly steep) and sat with my shoulders hunched. No way would I draw attention to myself for some dumb t-shirt. I was nimble enough to reach, bend and snag the prize before the guy behind me made his lunge. I surprised myself and my family! What a hoot this new life is!

I need help with the chips too! It's so easy to grab a handful if I am starving. I try to eat roasted, unsalted peanuts or half of a protein bar but all of the protein shakes and bars have me craving SALT. I read somewhere on LBT that microwaved turkey pepperoni gets crunchy like a chip. I guess I'll try that.

We are snowed in here in Arkansas so I ate all day yesterday!!! All this after I just lost some more weight and got to my lowest weight since banding -- gotta fix my ticker. I was down 65lbs. (192). I will do better today and tomorrow and see what I weigh on Sunday. I always tend to show a loss on Sunday no matter what?

Water is NO Problem, I buy the Ozarka 20 oz. bottles and drink 6 a day!

Exercise - I am not doing so good for the past two weeks. I want to hibernate in January and February. No excuses! I saw bathing suits in all the stores the other day..the thought of that should get me back in the gym soon!

Everyone seems to be coming along great. Let's keep our chins up and remember you don't have to be STRONG all of the time..just recognize those times that the fight is the hardest and give it all you got! Mine is 3:00 pm until bedtime. I am finding hot tea, cottage cheese and other healthy, low cal snacks are the key to fighting through my tough time!

OK guys I did sorta well yesterday. I drank my water, had my multi vitamin, did good on food choices until dinner. We went out and I had a cheese enchillada, refried beans, and chips. Not bad, but the margarrita was definitely not on my calorie count for the day!!!!

Now this is super bowl weekend and that seems to be an excuse for eating snack foods. Even if you are not a football fan the stores are loaded with greasy fast food like snacks to eat for the game. How are you going to handle all of that? I'm not buying any of it. I keep tortillia multi grain chips in the house. They are pretty good. Why not buy some of those 100 calorie packs of things for snacks? At least you will know what you are eating if you grab for something.

February is love month. So its time for some tough love!!! Ready? We've got to stop grabbing for food mindlessly. We have got to stop reaching for food to pacify our moods. We've got to stop reaching for food to reward ourselves on our accomplishments. We just have to say NO.

Ok here comes the biggie for me. No ice cream for the month of February. Not going to do it. Period. I'm giving it up for the month. I'm breaking the habit.

News flash for those in Houston - In the food court where we meet, and they also have one in the Woodlands, is a restaurant called Pot Belly's. They have the BEST chilli ever. Don't know how many calories, but the small cup is enough for lunch. Had it yesterday and it was delicious. Full of protein too!

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't over indulge in those football snacks!

I did pretty well with the challenge. I was able to get my water in and I ate very well yesterday. I was not able to exercise. My schedule has been crazy, busy the past week and a half. I know that is no excuse. But if you knew what my schedule was like you may be a bit more forgiving for this past week.

Barbara465 --good luck being ice cream free this week.

I guess one good thing about living alone is that I buy foods only for me and not having to buy for anyone else. I have been able to keep the chips, ice cream etc. out of my house. I do have a general rule of thumb that I use for these types of things. I MUST have the craving for a food (like ice cream) for 3 days in a row before I allow myself to go and buy a scoop. This works really well for me. Most often I forget about the craving or I'm just too tired after work to leave the house and go buy it. Well, it works for me.

I think the challenges are good and it's getting us back on track and focusing on our goals. I think that's something we all need after the holidays and the new comfort levels we have with our bands.

Hey everyone. I got my fill yesterday, and they put in .2, everything seems fine, I haven't ate anything but yogurt today and it went down fine, so I hope I have some restriction now. Ok here is what they said yesterday. As some of you may remember, I have a huge knot under my biggest scar, my doctor says it's scar tissue. Well the more weight I lose the more my port moves under that scar tissue. They told me yesterday that I would probably never be able to get a blind fill without the x-ray machine because it so hard to tell when you made it through that thick tissue and get to the port. She also said I would probably always have to be numbed because they have to push so hard to get it through that it would most likely hurt me pretty bad. I talked to the doctors office afterwards and the nurse and doc are going to discuss it. At some point i may have to have it taken out, i don't want another surgery.

Ok I slipped last night and smoked a cig, I was starving on liquids, my DD was crying her ear hurt (she has an ear infection) and my teen son had a sore throat and 103 temp:sick . My hubby was crabby because of lack of sleep and I guess it just all got to me and I thought it would help me de-stress!!! So back on the wagon today starting over, now my throat hurts and I feel like crap. I think I will go to Jason's deli for lunch and get some broccoli chedder soup( don't worry I won't eat the big peices)! I love their soup. Hubby took son to the docs this morning, strep test came back negative which suprised me, but they think he might have Mono!!!! I'm in for a fun weekend.:faint:

I did however get my water in yesterday, and definetly my calories since I couldn't eat! LOL

Well thanks for letting me rant!!!

Reginia - hope your weekend gets better with sick kids, crabby husband, and no smoking. Maybe you should just try to cut back on smoking for now without really quitting. As much as I support your decision to stop smoking, it just might be too much for now. Hope your fill does well for you.

Speaking of scar tissue, I have complained about that big hard lump from day one. I don't think mine is scar tissue because it was there so fast. It doesn't seem to interefere with filling my port, but it definitely gets harder after I eat.

Last night I think I had my left shoulder pain means I'm full pain. We returned from dinner and immediately my left shoulder neck area started to really hurt. It was so bad I finally went to bed with heating pad. I was very full from dinner and didn't make the connection right away. I'll have to watch for that to see if that is my signal for being full.

Dr. Phil said about junk food don't bring it into the house. You will think twice before getting into the car and going to get it if it's not in the house. I think he's right. Melissa you have a good rule - the 3 day wait rule.

My lump showed up within days of surgery too!!! It also seems to get harder when eat! But they insist it's scar tissue, I just don't like that the more weight i lose it my port is moving upwards underneath it!!!

Ok everybody... I have an announcement to make:

I stepped on the scale. I stepped on the scale and did not go off the deep end today (yet).

I am officially at 268. The same number I stayed at for 9 months straight before on a low carb diet. That is 37 lbs down from my first official weigh in and 32 lbs down from surgery day.

Now, I am not going to weigh again for at least a month. Maybe I can get under that number by then meeting my goals.

Have not met the water goal today (yet) but have met the others.

And NO WAY am I getting another fill Regina. I can eat, and I am eating the right things in small portions, and I am losing. If I got another fill, I would be miserable again. Let's see if I can get under 268 without it. And I hope your kids are fine. Teen Boys can be the biggest babies.