How is weight loss for people over 50? Can we still expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week with the band?

BJean - There is no way that I would get to my destination with any bagels left. Bread the other frontier and gonna be my final frontier.

Dynamomini: Good plan. If there was a flesh colored duct tape, I'd give it a try.

You are in luck if bread is a weakness. Bread is one of the things that the band will discourage you from eating.:cry I've never been a bread lover so my wish was that the band would discourage me from eating ice cream. It tends to like it as much as I do. Aaargh!:welldoneclap:

The best bagels are found in Montreal. My city lost the big bagel competition!

As for the face lift, it is scheduled for the third week of June and is going to cost me a car. Good thing I've never learned how to drive and always take public transit, eh! lol :biggrin1:

And yup, I was banded last September. I have lost 30 lbs so far and now weigh in at 170. The lapband doc and his magic hi-tech computerized weighing machine say that my target weight is 150 and I am inclined to agree. I am not of a delicate build; I've got big boney hands and giant feet and broad shoulders. I still wear a 3X sweater thanx to my shoulders and a fondness for loose garments.

The plastic guy said that a loss of 10 lbs post lift isn't going to affect a face lift. And I will probably be down by another 10 by the end of June. I am very restricted right now. I can't guzzle water in my usual careless style. I've got to drink it daintily. And I can always postpone the surgery until the fall.

I am really scared of the pain and the recovery time. He wants to give me the full monte. I was kinda hoping that I could get away with a facelift lite! but it seems I am gonna have to have the old fart treatment....:phanvan

What did make me decide to sign on for a face lift was the positive results which I have received from the lapband surgery. :welldoneclap:

I should also tell you, BJean, that I had my jowls - they were really driving me nuts - hoovered by this guy when I turned 50 and I was delighted by the results. In fact my jawline still looks good. I guess I now have a positive attitude towards surgery.:Banane20:

As for my husband, he always has the same attitude: you don't need it, but if you want it I will support you.

Smart man, that husband of yours! Mine said that after I lose weight, if I still want one, he'll go for it. Yeah, a small car is right! But I've looked tired for quite a while. I don't want the grimace mouth or deer in headlights eyes, just something to make me look like I think I look. Until I see myself in photos, that is.

Have you heard of Thermage? I'd be up for that except that everyone who has had it talks about how painful it is. You will only be uncomfortable for a little while with the lift, right? It can't be as bad as a friend of mine who had a very extensive chemical peel. It wound up leaving scars. Her husband has more money than God, so I never understood how she wound up with such a stupid doctor. She was prettier before the peel than after. :cry

I don't know about thermage but I am getting this done by one of Toronto's big name plastic surgeons. He gets written about a lot and he is interviewed on television shows. I figure better to pay extra because you can't hide your face. If it is screwed up it is right out there in plain view. It is not like a botched tummy tuck. Although I could start wearing full Muslim, couldn't I?

And I definately don't want the caught in a wind tunnel effect. I am plenty nervous....

He's the same surgeon that did a little work on me when I turned 50.

Aaaaahhhh. The truth comes out. Green is no novice at this beauty business! Good show, darlin'!

How is weight loss for people over 50? Can we still expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week with the band?

Hi! I am 54 and was banded on January 8, 2007. I have lost 2 to 5 lbs a week but not every week. Some weeks I think your body just has to adjust to your new way of eating. I have lost 20 lbs. and I have been able to eat everything so far. I still didn't have a fill. I think I have been very lucky. I wish the same for you and all the banders.:mad:

BJean: My son is going to the National Circus School in Montreal. It is associated with Cirque do Soliel. He is an acrobat. He loves Montreal. He is finally learning French (classes are in French) and feeling that he might survive. How long did you live in Montreal? I loved visiting there. Didn't run into any great bagels (thank goodness).lol.

I love this thread and all the interesting conversations. Family's can be wonderful and heartbreaking. I guess we can only try our best with what we're given.

Green: I hope you'll share before and after pictures. I had thermage (a laser treatment) on my face. It's suppose to tighten your skin. The full effects take up to 6 months. My jowls are gone, my double chin is half gone. I would love to tweak my face more, but am saving for a TT and breast lift. I wish you the best. Please share pictures.

karey: I read on another thread that you were going to do the Thermage and I remembered that when you got back you posted that it was painful. Then later I read another post from someone else who also said that it was painful. I believe you also said you might do it again and that you're happy with the results. I don't remember the name of the subsequent treatment similar to Thermage that is now being done that is not supposed to be so painful. Do you know the name of that one? I can't remember which thread that was on.

I am glad to know that you are getting good results from your treatment. Do they predict how long the effects are supposed to last? Best wishes for your TT and B-lift. Will you have them done at the same time?

Cool that your son is enjoying Montreal!! There's so much about it that feels exotic and French and historical. Will he plan to work for Cirque de Soliel when he is finished? How long is that course?

We were there for only 2 years + a little bit. My husband was doing some consulting work for a company in St. Jean sur Richlieu, which is very French. I'm not sure I would have survived as well if we had lived there. We lived in the Anglo part of Montreal (on the west side) on the 18th floor of a high rise overlooking the mountain and beautiful old houses on the hillside. Do you plan another visit before your son comes back to the states?

HoneyLin: Great that you are doing well and happy with your band!

Hi HoneyLin -

I helps each time to hear someone my age go for the band and do so well. Thanks for sharing and good luck with continued success.

BJean: My son is going to the National Circus School in Montreal. It is associated with Cirque do Soliel. He is an acrobat. He loves Montreal. He is finally learning French (classes are in French) and feeling that he might survive. How long did you live in Montreal? I loved visiting there. Didn't run into any great bagels (thank goodness).lol.

I love this thread and all the interesting conversations. Family's can be wonderful and heartbreaking. I guess we can only try our best with what we're given.

Green: I hope you'll share before and after pictures. I had thermage (a laser treatment) on my face. It's suppose to tighten your skin. The full effects take up to 6 months. My jowls are gone, my double chin is half gone. I would love to tweak my face more, but am saving for a TT and breast lift. I wish you the best. Please share pictures.

Wow!!! The Cirque du Soleil is very, very prestigious!!!! Green is wildly impressed! And the francais that he will be learning will be more useful on this side of the pond. I learned mine through living in France and have great trouble understanding Canadian French, ironic because I am Canadian.

And yup, I am no newcomer to this business of vanity surgery! I inherited dewlaps from both my mother and my father's family and apart from them my jawline was getting awfully mushy looking. I also come from a family of no-lips and I wanted to wear lipstick before I died. What the surgeon did was excavate my jawline, give me lips, and fill in the creases that run from the nose to the mouth. This was all micro-surgery and seven years later I still look way better than I should thanx to him.

Now - alas - he wants to do big stuff and I was hoping for more micro. Big stuff means a longer recovery and pain! With the micro I had, a week later I was fit to celebrate Xmas and go out in public. It seems with this I will have 3 weeks of wearing the burqa.:cry Note to self: must remember to join local mosque down the street.:biggrin1:

green - you are too funny and very brave! I am impressed. About the burqa, I don't know if I'd be willing to go that far...... ha..ha... Good luck, whatever your decision and I'll remember you to be the cosmetic guru when it is my turn to be brave and my face looks like a prune due to thinness.

Chuckles,

green - you are too funny and very brave! I am impressed. About the burqa, I don't know if I'd be willing to go that far...... ha..ha... Good luck, whatever your decision and I'll remember you to be the cosmetic guru when it is my turn to be brave and my face looks like a prune due to thinness.

Chuckles,

Thanks, Dynamo. I am already committed to this surgery. I have already put a downpayment on the job. Whenever I take action of this nature it seems impetuous but usually comes after I have spent a period of time fretting over something which really annoys me. This is how I got myself banded; I made a preliminary appointment and when I heard that I qualified I immediately wrote a cheque. Of course a certain amount of blind panic sets in later!:faint: Then when the deed is finally done I end up feeling quite pleased with myself for going ahead with it.

In fact this is how I have managed to do a number of the most interesting things in my life. When I was 30 and single I decided that I would take a 7 month unpaid leave of absence from my job in order to live in Europe. After I had arranged to do so I was sick with panic. I didn't know anyone in Europe and I only spoke English.

And a year later when I was visiting friends whom I had made over in France I met and had a 3-week affair with a Frenchman. We decided that we were in love. I came home, quit my job, rented out my house, and went back to France in order to live with him. Again, I was sick with panic!:omg: And this business finally ended up very badly when viewed on the short term. I came home heart-broken and without a job. Now I am very glad I did it. It was a painful break-up but it was also one of the most interesting periods of my life.

It seems I am always juggling a cautious, almost timid side of my personality with a daredevil side. This is probably not a bad thing - I am 57 and I am solvent.:heh:

As for the facelift, I have been warned that I am going to look like a victim for at least three weeks post surgery. This is why I am thinking burqa. And I live down in the heart of the city.

As BJean can likely tell you from living in Montreal, Canadian cities are more like European cities or like the American cities of San Francisco and New York. That is to say that urban life is very lively here and our ghettos are more likely to be confined to certain suburban high rise zones. But although life is easy and lots of fun here it will, on the other hand, be much more difficult to hide my face while I am recovering.:cry That is gonna be a downer and very damn difficult.

And my mate will have to do a lot of gophering for me during this period of time. He is OK about this stuff. He has discovered that it comes along with having a mate and he has now become used to me, the older of us two by 9 years, presenting him with a fair amount of neediness. He saw me through the deaths of both my parents and of my younger brother as well as the realisation that I needed my first pair of reading glasses. And of course he hand fed me demerol after I had been banded. Nevertheless, I fear that my latest stunt will be tough on him.

This has been a long post but it has been a relief to get all of this off my mind. Thanx to all of you who have been patient enough to endure this.

Bjean: Puddin on "Lower Body Lift Fun," was going to get an alternative to Thermage. I don't thiink she has yet. My son's program is a Bachelor in Performing Arts so he as 2 more years. He has to take history of the circus, and French and works out 6 hours a day. He does triple back flips on the trampoline, the teeter board (a long board that you flip each other off of), banquine (pyramid building and acrobatics) and foot juggling (he juggles other people off his feet). I don't know where he gets it from. He may work for the Cirque. He wants to go to Europe, so we will see. I plan on going back to Montreal each Spring for the schools big program. I really loved it there. I have daughter in San Francisco who is an aerial dancer. She is dancing off a skyscraper on April 13th. I'm going to fly over for the day with my Mom and watch her. I'm pretty excited about it, since I've never seen her do it. She just made the dance troup right before Christmas. She has danced all her life and through college danced for the Tacoma Ballet. Check out her company's website at: projectbandaloop.org. One of my goals when I get fit and to weight is going to yoga retreats with her. She also teaches yoga. I don't know where my kids got all their bravery and altheticism but I'm sure glad. Maybe they won't have weight issues like their mom!