Okay, so here's a thread for us. My story to start us off. Was overweight/obese my whole life. When I look back at pictures of myself as a young kid (7-8), I am surprised that I didn't look as fat as I thought back then. But by adolescence I definitely was. Had some hard life stuff (Mom got cancer when I was 8, friend in high shool died sophomore year, dad had stroke sophomore year of college, got diagnosed with PCOS, lost a few important friendships) - each contributed significantly to my weight gain. Then I just got so big, I felt like there was nothing I could do. I just ate worse and worse, because I felt so trapped.

I was banded about 5 weeks ago. I have lost a good part of my weight, still have a ways to go. I now find myself constantly looking at my body, trying to figure out what it is going to look like. Unlike lots of bandsters I see on boards who are 30+, I am not married. I worry about my body, about whether I will need plastic surgery, about if I will feel comfortable. About dating after losing weight but before PS. About doing this forever, even though I feel confident. About keeping this weight off forever. About what happens if I lose my band. About the fact that at 22, I'm really going to jump in and start my life, and whether or not I'm sorely behind.

So anyway, there's my story. Here's my stats:

9/28/05 (1st consult): 333

4/17/06 (2nd consult): 318

5/2/06 (Surgery day): 315

6/9/06 (today) : 278

Goal (I think) :170

anybody have plans for this weekend? I have a 3 day weekend and i don't think i am doing much :faint:

~Kristen

Hello all! Anyone still around? I'm 29 and I was banded 4 weeks ago. Anyone live in the Dallas, Tx. area?

Hello! I am 21, I am having surgery this Wednesday. I cant wait!!!

Anyone in the Southern California area?

Hi y'all

I just spent the last 20 minutes reading all 7 pages of posts. I'm really bored... not that the posts were boring. :clap2:

Quick intro to me:

28, single, teacher, live near Dallas

I've been banded for about 6 weeks now. I was doing pretty well, lost 35 pounds (I'm sorry, I have no idea how much that is in kilos) but I've gained 5 back. My first fill is coming up next wednesday so hopefully that will help. I also just joined a Curves gym.

I've felt fat since high school. Now that I look back I realize that my highest weight then was only 20 lbs. more than my goal weight. I wasn't as fat as I thought I was. I guess a lot of us have come to that realization. I decided it was time to get the band because I would like to have kids someday (and a husband would be nice too) and I want to be healthy for them.

Hiya Bandmaster, Jewels, and Kuita!

What a great tread!!!!!!

I started up a group for exactly this, I love to be young and young banded people have diffrent issues than the older people and also I love to make friends all over the world cause I love to travel!!!! I am heading to England in a few months then to cananda in time for their Toronto banding bash, I cant wait. .

If you are intrested in joining my yahoo group about this exact topic please do. . This is not spam and there are no naughty pics (sorry) he he he, just a great place for us youngsters to hang out on!!!

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/youngandbanded

hope to see some of you there

I got banded on my 25th birthday i love meeting banded people my age

Although I fit the "Twentysomething" age bracket, I have a 9 year old son, and call him a youngster! LOL He is a youngster to me! Or maybe I just feel old?

Thanks for the invite Colleen.

22 bandster here, done back at the end of july

I'm a student at the U of Idaho, other than that I'm pretty boring.

Nobody is boring LOL...

Welcome to the Group everyone

~Kristen

23yo here

I agree this is a great idea for a thread. I will be 26 in a month. I sometimes feel a little bit out of the loop b/c everyone has kids and is married. Not there yet but will be soon. I was banded in March of this year and know it was the best thing I have done in my life for my health. I thought my weight was bad in college when I weighed 155-170 and now I know that it was just the tip of the iceberg then. Looking forward to meeting all of you guys-Welcome!!

~Liz~

03/10/06

241/166/160

5'7''

Well, I am 20 and got my band put in 2 years ago. I can not begin to explain what has happened since then butI ended up having surgury again over the summer for some problem that still hasn't been explained to me by my doctor but whatever. I just have the hardest time dealing with everything, I mean I am so happy to get thin and healthy but I have been so miserable every since I had surgury. I don't know how to word this proberly but my biggest problem is with other people. When I was in high school, I had a lot of friends and they all loved me for who I was because they were all the most beautiful people ever but I never got any attention from guys and so many of my friends would tell me OMG YOU'D BE PERFECT FOR MY FRIEND JOSH/BEN/MIKE......... but none of them would ever want to date a fat girl. Now I am losing weight, and I still have more to go and I feel like I can't date anyone until I lose allllllllllll of the weight because I am affraid of being rejected and then I don't know. Does anyone even know what I am talking about? Like most of the time I dont even realize a guy likes me because I assume they are my friend, and like before, why would they want a fat girl. Mind you I am MUCH LESS fat now, but still fat and I just hate that.

I dont have kids, or a husband, or anything close so dont worry you are not alone

Colleen

Coconut, that's like the story of my life! I honestly never had a boyfriend until now. And it took a pile of bricks to make me realize that SOMEONE was interested. I never went to any school dances, never went on a 'real' date in high school, and hadn't even had my first kiss until I was 27 years old. Yeah, it's embarassing to admit that, but I think I'm not alone. I'm sure I have other issues because plenty of big girls date and get married. The question is, how do we address those issues?

Hi everyone! I am 31 but I feel that this is the group for me. I hope that is o.k. with everybody. All of my friends are married and are starting to have children and I am not even close. I was in a 8 yrs relationship that ended 6 weeks before we were suppose to get married. My Mother asked me if he cheated on my because I had gained so much weight. So to make a long story short, I understand where you guys are more then 30 somethings. i have always had a great self image until about 6 mths ago and thats when i decided to gat the band. I only told 3 of my close girls and they are so supportive. My mother found out because she saw my pre op paperwork on my table when she came to visit. Now all I hear is how " when you are skinny........" She thinks that the reason I am not married is because I am fat. Does she even take into concideration that I have had several bad experiences that might effect the way I look at relationships?

I am just curious about how the people aroung you feel about you getting banded

Coconut, that's like the story of my life! I honestly never had a boyfriend until now. And it took a pile of bricks to make me realize that SOMEONE was interested. I never went to any school dances, never went on a 'real' date in high school, and hadn't even had my first kiss until I was 27 years old. Yeah, it's embarassing to admit that, but I think I'm not alone. I'm sure I have other issues because plenty of big girls date and get married. The question is, how do we address those issues?

The question is if it is really an issue. I've dated a little bit, from junior high all the way until after my first year in college. It's all about confidence and esteem. If you don't love yourself, then you should be working on that before you try to get yourself into any serious relationship.

At the moment for me being single is the logical choice, as I'm going a lot through changes and may not come out the same person I was.

Another thing it could be is your personality, I've been tested to be INTP/ENTP (50/50 on I and E) which shows that I'm a pretty reclusive type of person some of the time. If you take a MBTI personality test , this should give you a good result: http://similarminds.com/embj.html

after you finish it should give you a four letter code, like ENTP or ISFJ or some combination of any of those 8 letters.

just type in that code in google and it will pull up some descriptions about the different personality types

Personally, I consider myself INTP.