It's 4am, having my morning coffee(s) along with my Vitamins and a shot of Protein before heading to the gym when they open at 5....

Thinking about the day coming up...Thanksgiving...gonna be with 20 people +, plenty of food and drink all day long...and I just reinforced my thinking, finding it comforting to know, and getting more motivated by the minute.....

At first, I started to get nervous about what is to come today....but then, I realized.....

THE BAND IS THE BAND IS THE BAND IS THE BAND.......Does not matter today is Thanksgiving, Christmas, a day spent on a cruise ship..or any other day....the BAND STILL BEHAVES THE SAME.....it does not change by what is going on around me!!!

That's what I appreciate the most about this...it was SURGERY....something Physically altered in my digestive tract to change the way I feel about food and situations as today....it is ALWAYS THE SAME....I might be weak and cannot control myself, but the Band is always a constant!

I don't have to do anything special, get myself Physc'd up or motivated to do anything different...the Band is not going to behave any differently because there is something going on differently today....

Why on earth did I go through all this and have major surgery, spend $$ out of pocket, etc, if I did not expect things to be different? Changed?

I'd be totally "You know What" if I had to approach this day as if I did not have WLS...if I had to face today with uncontrollable hunger, with no limits as to what I can manage to eat!! Everything else(surgery) would have been a big waste of time....I expected Miracles with this and will except nothing less!!! And that is exactly what I have received....

So yea, maybe I am getting myself Physc'd up....definitely motivated with some positive thinking and reinforcement....NOT to face any challenges with will power or self determination....but to remind myself I am a New Person, living a New Lifestyle....NEVER having to worry about overeating again...the Band has changed all that....No Hunger....impossible to overeat! What can be better than that????

The Band is what it is...and I am now what I am.....set free from fear of food, over eating, fighting hunger and cravings....

Never again to be overweight, and go through the struggle of diets, etc....as long as the band is there doing it's job, how can that possibly happen??

Yes..it's 4am and I'm getting Physc'd....can't wait for the day...it's going to be a great day and I'm going to come out the other side feeling more better about myself than before..BRING IT!!!! I'm also ready to have a great workout this morning...gonna run for a full 60 minutes and see what it brings....

Today is going to be a great day!!!

This is so very true. I pat myself on the back for deciding to get banded rather than live the rest of my life either in constant diet (i.e. hunger and deprivation) mode or (worse) constant eating/searching for more food mode. When I check in on some of the blogs I used to read "for inspiration"--blogs authored by overweight/obese writers who document their "journey" to lose weight by traditional (non-surgical) methods, I shake my head at what an exercise in frustration that life used to be for me. Those bloggers continue to roll that stone up the hill--they weigh more today than what they weighed this time last year--and believe that one day, they will beat this thing with their diet and self-discipline alone.

I believed that for myself, too, for 30+ years. Then I finally admitted to defeat and researched WLS, deciding on a lapband.

This year, I'm not scared of the holiday season nor am I associating this time of year with a freefall into food and resultant weight gain. I weigh almost 50 pounds less today than I did at last year's Thanksgiving. But more importantly, I am not salivating at the idea of how much I will eat at the Thanksgiving meal, nor frustrated at the idea that I'm going to have to count "points" or starve myself all day so I can eat a bunch of stuffing and pie. And I know I can wake up the next day not hating myself because I didn't stick to my plan.

I am so very grateful to my band, and that I took the courageous step to have this surgery.

I too am not obsessing about quantity at dinner tonight. I have no room to put it in my small banded stomach. I love my lap band. I don't ever want to live without it!

Band life is.....liberating

It's 4am, having my morning coffee(s) along with my Vitamins and a shot of Protein before heading to the gym when they open at 5....

Thinking about the day coming up...Thanksgiving...gonna be with 20 people +, plenty of food and drink all day long...and I just reinforced my thinking, finding it comforting to know, and getting more motivated by the minute.....

At first, I started to get nervous about what is to come today....but then, I realized.....

THE BAND IS THE BAND IS THE BAND IS THE BAND.......Does not matter today is Thanksgiving, Christmas, a day spent on a cruise ship..or any other day....the BAND STILL BEHAVES THE SAME.....it does not change by what is going on around me!!!

That's what I appreciate the most about this...it was SURGERY....something Physically altered in my digestive tract to change the way I feel about food and situations as today....it is ALWAYS THE SAME....I might be weak and cannot control myself, but the Band is always a constant!

I don't have to do anything special, get myself Physc'd up or motivated to do anything different...the Band is not going to behave any differently because there is something going on differently today....

Why on earth did I go through all this and have major surgery, spend $$ out of pocket, etc, if I did not expect things to be different? Changed?

I'd be totally "You know What" if I had to approach this day as if I did not have WLS...if I had to face today with uncontrollable hunger, with no limits as to what I can manage to eat!! Everything else(surgery) would have been a big waste of time....I expected Miracles with this and will except nothing less!!! And that is exactly what I have received....

So yea, maybe I am getting myself Physc'd up....definitely motivated with some positive thinking and reinforcement....NOT to face any challenges with will power or self determination....but to remind myself I am a New Person, living a New Lifestyle....NEVER having to worry about overeating again...the Band has changed all that....No Hunger....impossible to overeat! What can be better than that????

The Band is what it is...and I am now what I am.....set free from fear of food, over eating, fighting hunger and cravings....

Never again to be overweight, and go through the struggle of diets, etc....as long as the band is there doing it's job, how can that possibly happen??

Yes..it's 4am and I'm getting Physc'd....can't wait for the day...it's going to be a great day and I'm going to come out the other side feeling more better about myself than before..BRING IT!!!! I'm also ready to have a great workout this morning...gonna run for a full 60 minutes and see what it brings....

Today is going to be a great day!!!

I agree banded life for ME, is like eating Thanksgiving every single day!

I often refer to my sweet spot like eating a Thanksgiving meal, I eat WHAT I want, in very small quantities and get satisfied, or sometimes extremely full...can't eat another bite. .

So as you say, bring on the dressing, turkey, mac_cheese, sweet pototae pie, ...because I will be eating tiny bites of it all...and it will feel as thought I've eaten an entire meal ..

I love my band!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Congrats B-52...and Thanks for continuing to tell your story.