Hi November bandsters!

Let's keep this going to support our efforts though out the wonderful we are soon to begin. Let's start with the date we are being banded and where?

Our weight and goal weight...

My date will be November 7

Dr. Aceves

I weighed myself this morning and I have gained!!! :faint:

Starting weight 225 (highest ever!!! )

Goal 150

10/26 Jdru (Jessica) 215/215/125 Dr. Hansen (Honorary Nov Bandster)

11/1 melany72 Dr. Hargroder

11/2 DeniseC (Denise) 226/219/130 Dr. Carbonell

11/2 prbrooksie 252/252/150 Dr. Malley

11/2 Kym828 (Kim) 278/278/175 Dr. Ortiz

11/2 pebbles4388 249/249/150

11/3 Jess333 (Jessica ("Lil" Red)) Dr. Ortiz

11/7 AngelaT (Angela) 225/225/150 Dr. Aceves

11/7 Jackye 225/225/150-45 Dr. Rumbaut

11/8 L8BloomR (Karen) goal: -105 Dr. Francis

11/8 dpingl goal: -92 Dr. Hoehn

11/8 niecyrenee goal: -232, down 8 Dr. Pitt

11/9 Keekahari (Kee) 280/245/175 Dr. Moazzez

11/10 FullofGRACE Dr. Curry

11/10 alix_1 (Alix) 222/222/140 Dr. Garza

11/13 swilborn (Sherrie) Size 22/???/140 Dr. Rodriquez

11/14 ahaizlip (Amy) goal: -129 Dr. Liu

11/17 Asmallerchick (Kelly) goal: -200 Dr. Aceves

11/20 Diana_G 234/234/145 Dr. Huacuz

11/20 Veggestyle 275/?/150 Dr. M

11/20 Laurba

11/21 Jess02 (Jess) Dr. Rumbaut

11/24 aussie_bandit 153kg/153kg/75kg

11/30 Inner_me (Chris) 350/350/200 Dr. Cahill

MIsty...I am SO sorry to hear about your band...but I am happy that you will be healthy. That is the most important thing. You lost a lot of weight and you have learned now how to eat better and smaller portions so you can continue on your journey. Please update us and continue posting...you will ALWAYS be a November bandster! You are part of the family! A BIG HUG!!!

Your support mean so much to me. I knew you guys would understand what a mixed blessing this is.

Misty

Well, it is over.. my fabolous journey with my lap band. On Saturday at 8:30 am, Dr. Pucci needed to remove my band due to my body rejecting it. I ended up in the hospital again, if anyone is counting that is 4 times in 2 months, and I was diagnosed with gastric parisis...AKA my stomach stopped working.

So, They too out the band, and in recovery I was drinking, no throwing up and have alrady gotten back to solids. Very small amounts.. but, I feel so much better.

I am a bit depressed, I truly loved my band... but I love my life more.

I am very sore and just got home from the hospital... I will write more later.

Misty

I am very sorry Misty. Look at the bright side, you did lose 75lbs! That is terrific! It's now up to you and YOU CAN DO IT!

Well, it is over.. my fabolous journey with my lap band. On Saturday at 8:30 am, Dr. Pucci needed to remove my band due to my body rejecting it. I ended up in the hospital again, if anyone is counting that is 4 times in 2 months, and I was diagnosed with gastric parisis...AKA my stomach stopped working.

So, They too out the band, and in recovery I was drinking, no throwing up and have alrady gotten back to solids. Very small amounts.. but, I feel so much better.

I am a bit depressed, I truly loved my band... but I love my life more.

I am very sore and just got home from the hospital... I will write more later.

Misty

Misty, I am sooo so sorry for your removal. Thankful that the Dr. decided to go ahead and take it out because it would have just gotten so much worse. I am glad you are feeling better every day and you have been threw so much. Just be healthy and remember that you need to take care of you!!! Good luck and let us know how you are doing from time to time.

So where is everyone? It is so quiet here. SO, now that we are at 6 months, is everyone satisfied? I mean, we all had expectations, were they met? For me, I think this has required a lot more work then I anticipated. The lap band is wonderful but I thought it would be more like the bypass where you CAN"T eat. I have to rely on a lot more of my own inner strength and will power then I had thought. It is great tho. I would have liked a faster loss but then again, that was in my control as well. More excercise and better food choices would have yielded me better results. Overall, it is great and I am glad I did it! What about everyone else?

Marni, I am right where you are. I'm pleased with the loss, but I'm now having to really fight for any success, and I hadn't thought it would be quite so difficult. Many of my old habits are returning, and I'm really having to struggle. But even with the plateaus, I'm not gaining, so that's new for me! I do think the ads on TV make it sound sooo easy....and even having studied the process before I did it, I thought it would be a bit easier than it is. I've lost just under half the weight I wanted to lose, and I guess doing that within 6 months is nothing to sneeze at!

I am with you guys. I thought it was going to really curve my appitite a lot more. I am still struggling with hunger. My brother had bypass two years ago and keeps telling me that hunger is mental not physical and I need to look at it that way. The honeymoon per say is over with the band and now I too feel like I am reverting back into old habit like chips. I LOVE CHIPS!! Not a sweets person. Chips go down fine. So I find myself snacking on bad things such as chips. I am struggling with my weight loss. I have been between 225 and 218 for almost 2 months and 2 fills. 4 days ago the scale said 218 then today the scale said 224??? I want to get down to the 100's sooooooo badly. I am exercising a heck of a lot more than I used too. Trying to be good with food choices. Trying to not over do my portions. Reading up on weight loss and exercise that boosts metabilism. I am actually feeling exausted with obsessing so much on it. I know that if I back off even just a little then I will gain weight. I am trying to stay focused. I am trying. It is just a lot harder than I had originally thought when I got the band. I tend to see others on the site with much more lost and wonder what is wrong with me??? What am I doing wrong? Why is it so hard to get to the goal weight that I should be at. Why is it soooooo HARD to get there and if it is so hard to get there how in the world am I going to stay there. I am reading self help books to try to be happier with ME inside and OUT.

But it is the struggle of my life. I am a mom and a wife and work full time. I am a good person and try to be the best I can be but when it comes to just ME it is just sooooo difficult to achive my goal. Do you guys feel this way too. I do try to take it one day at a time and need to stop weighing myself in the morning because it tends to make me mad instead of happy most of the time. My brother lost 200 pounds from Bypass but has to deal with a huge side effect of dumping syndrome so that is one of the reasons I chose the band over bypass. My body is as stuborn as I am I guess. I will reach my goal...........I have to just keep repeating that to myself. It could be by next Sept. or next year.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!! I am traveling to Phoenix to visit a girlfriend who had a band and lost all her weight. Then had a tummy tuck and looks great. She is a big support for me and knows how hard it is to loose the weight. I have to look at her and say it can happen..........it can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One thing that really threw me a month ago was going to my lap band dr's support group. The 3 leader/role models who had lost all their weight each said that they eat about 600 calories a day. they said they don't deprive themselves, but it they happen to choose to eat ice cream for example, they know to go to the gym fast. They say they go to the gym daily or twice a day and treadmill for an hour plus other stuff. It defies logic that you can treadmill for an hour on 600 calories a day. And if that's what it takes to lose all the weight, I'm going to have to think really hard about it.....

How in the world can you live on 600 calories a day and feel like you aren't going to faint. I am really having a hard time with staying around 1200 calories a day and that is half. Everything I read up on weight loss tells you to not go under 1000 a day or your body goes in starvation mode and you won't loose weight because your metabilism stops because of it being in starvation mode. Our bodies are very tricky and in a need to survive it does really weird things. What was there example of their daily diet. Do they feel they need to be really tight to keep at the 600 calories and to not over due it? I am just going to move to India and live off of bugs and water!!!!! How can we do that in the city where good is so readily available everywhere we turn. Going out to eat and having food in the house??? What did they say they do to keep at the 600 and not over due it?

I thought the same things you do! One of them is really tightly restricted and likes it that way. One is barely restricted and likes that. It's really variable. These are all people who were banded 5-7 years ago in the experimental phase. I dunno. Maybe after that much time you just lose your interest in food..... I don't get it.

Wow, that does seem a little weird--600 calories a day? I don't know how many calories i eat a day, but I know its more than that! I don't count calories, really, I just try to make good choices and eat lots of protein. I am working with a personal trainer now, and she really stresses the importance of getting enough protein when you are trying to build muscle. I am debating about getting another fill though--starting to get a little hungrier in between meals again. And Misty, I am really sorry to hear about your problems--hopefully things will only get better for you now.

I know I am not one of those, oh I hate food, can live on nothing and get fulfillment out of excercising every day. I am actually glad that I am getting to the point that I am not obsessing! I just couldn't handle the pressure anymore! I'd love to be more filled so I can't eat as much because I can easily overdue it. Certainily much more than a cup of food! Other days, I have great control. I didn't like throwing up all the time becuase I was so restricted so I don't think I will get a fill any time soon. I used to walk into resturants and have to scope out the bathroom location before I started to eat just in case! I think I eat about 1000 calories which probably means a lot more.... I can't help it, I still like to eat "bad" things every now and then. I am human after all. So, since my last fill in March, Ive lost about 10 lbs. Thats good and Im happy with that. My sister has been seeing this doc and does these pills and shots and stuff and has lost 77 lbs since November as well. The pounds literally FLY off! However, she doesn't eat anything. I totally still can enjoy food, eating out, entertaining and a brownie sundae if I need one! So, I have released my obsession and I am trying to ride the flow. At least that is this week!

I wanted to WISH everyone that is a Mom Happy Mothers Day!!!!!

I wanted to share with everyone a picture of the reason I am a happy mom. My children are the joy in my life and they are the ones that make me want to be a better me. Our children learn how to be adults by example. So I want to be a good mom and be a good example and by doing this I strive to be a better me. My kids are a blessing from God and I thank him every day for letting me know the joy and love of being a mother. Being a mom is the hardest job there is but it give us so much joy, love and happiness it is always WORTH IT!!!!!!! Have a great weekend everyone.

:banana :cheer2: :bounce:

I am with all of you too, but I feel like I have been struggling the whole time. I want to get tighten up again, but my doctor can't get me in until July 16th...go figure! I thought this was going to be easier and I can't believe the way this band changes from day to day. Today your tight and can't even get a piece of chicken down and tomorrow you can eat 3 pieces of pizza. Same for the time of the day...mornings tight and night wide open...which is a huge problem for me...I"m a night snacker. I guess it's they way of life now. I'm sure as we lose weight we should lower our calories intake. Even WW does that... I probably should be at around 900-1000 and I believe woman have more cravings than men because of our hormones. I don't know...I wish there was a magic room we can all step into and come out skinny!

I believe woman have more cravings than men because of our hormones. I don't know...I wish there was a magic room we can all step into and come out skinny!

Men have hormones are cravings too, it's just not food center!

My problem has been my RA has been flaring (my milking machine died so I'm hand milking which flares it up) and the tissue around the band tightens so even though the band isn't overly tight, I get restriction.

And please don't hate me, but I'm actually trying to slow the weight loss down. I'm just under my first goal weight so want to stablize here for a bit and let the body rest. (Actually wanted to stop about 3 pounds ago. Haven't updated the ticker but am not at 222.) Once my body has had a weight loss rest, I'll lose the last 10-12 pounds. I never craved chocolate before (salty things, yes), but now that's my downfall. So far, I've been good about it. I buy low-fat, NSA ice cream with chocolate or get the snack size candy bar and allow myself one a day as my cheat. I figure if I can do things in moderation, I won't go off the deep end when I finally have it.

Tom