Welcome to this new month's challenge all you April Bandits!

I think we should do the bronze silver and gold again so that we can accomodate all fitness levels.

Bronze - 14 sessions of at least 35 minutes

Silver - 18 sessions of at least 40 minutes

Gold - 23 session of at least 45 minutes

If you need to do more or less than this just put it in you signature what you personal goal is and let's go get 'em this month!

Woohoo! It's May! I'm going for GOLD this month, guys. I'm starting a gentle walk on the treadmill tonight and in a week I'll start slowly running short distances again. I can't wait to get with the program again.

Well, I lost 4 lbs on our one week calorie count/food challenge. I can't ask for more than that, I suppose, particularly as I ate over the goal 2 of the 7 days.

I had my yearly esophagram today and I go for my annual checkup with Dr. Fielding (and reading of the esophogram) tomorrow. I'm a little scared. I have no symptoms, but I fear esophageal dilation or a slip, just because they're always possibilities. I'm sure everything is fine, I'm just a worrier. The radiologist said to me -- while taking my pictures (so while he was looking at my band) "So, are you having symptoms? (pause, pause -- at least in my head) Or, is this a routine test?" Of course I took that as him seeing a problem, when it would be perfectly logical for him to ask that looking at a completely normal band.

Anyway, I'll feel better when tomorrow is behind me.

Happy May to all!

<p>First excersize session of May is finished! 35minutes of aerobics and I feel great!</p> <p> </p> <p>Yay Julie, way to get back on the excersize wagon <img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/happy.gif" border="0" alt="" title="" smilieid="60" class="inlineimg" /></p>

Oh and yes Julie it is normal to worry, I did too. I am sure everything is just fine, tomorrow you will be wondering why you were worried, hehe.

ONE session down. My first day back at the gym was uneventful. I was SLLLOOOWWWW on the treadmill, but I got my time in and I'm not in pain, so tomorrow I'll speed up a LITTLE.

Happy May to all!

Well, I am going to go for the gold as well. I had my first Pilates class yesterday and last night I had some port pain, so I called my doctor and he thought that I should probably stay away from Pilates for a couple more weeks - So, today I got on the elliptical for 45min and it felt good!

Julie - good job on committing to a 1/2 marathon. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. How did you start running and how did it progress? I have thought about possibly attempting that - but I am guessing, I will need to lose some weight before I can run 200 yards. I love biking and enjoy taking spin classes. I am actually going to participate in a 56 mile ride this August, but I am also interested in running as well. Any input would be great.

Betty - I hope you are feeling better!

I ran with my whole family tonight! It was a blast!

Looks like everyone is off to a great start!

I didn't do that great on the calorie challenge - but, I did manage to get below 170 lbs............(I'm back to weighing only once a week - on Friday mornings).........and it made me very aware of what really is going into my mouth and I have been so much more honestly compliant this past week - to myself!

I have a nasty head cold - did my walk to an fro Breakfast in the morning yesterday and then got into bed for the rest of the day. I'm taking the day off exercise today and going to Mah Jongg with the girls if I feel a bit better in a couple of hours!

Julie - welcome back to the world of movement! Congrats on your plateau breaking week! Jen, keep up the great work - please come and join me this week-end for a NIA class - I promise you'll love it - it's such a great cardio workout and FUN!

Hello girls,

I made the goal in April (bronze) so now I go for bronze again, although I would need some combination of the steps stated, cause I always excercise longer than 45 minutes but I just dont spent the whole month in the gym:-) so something like 14 sessions of more than 45minutes each would do the trick for me:-) any ideas how to call this goal?:-)

Jenny, I started trying to run when I was in te 240s. I didn't run a lot because I knew it wasn't good for my knees at that point, but I would run very short distances to get my heart rate up -- something like 60 seconds of running, then 4 minutes of walking, for about 30 or 40 minutes total. Then when I felt like my body was at a better weight to handle more consistent running, I did the "couch to runner" program that you can find under the "training" tab at coolrunning.com. If memory serves, it's a 12 week program, but I extended it by several weeks, meaning that anytime I got to a level and didn't think I could go to the next level yet, I just kept doing the level I was on until I thought I could progress. I really didn't want to get injured or push things too hard, since I was still quite heavy for my height. Anyway, by the end of the program, I could run 3 miles comfortably and I started running local races with some friends. Those took me to Onederland and now here I am about to train for a half marathon! You can do it -- check out some training programs and see which one fits you. I'm so impressed that you bike. I've never been able to. I'm a little afraid of the speed and a lot afraid of the bike seat (wink).

All, I'm not technically supposed to run for 5 more days, but I couldn't stand it last night, so I did a SLLOOOWWW jog for about 10 minutes. It felt SOOOO GOOOOOODDDD! It was wild to run and not to have my stomach flopping around. Strangely though, now I feel my thighs and butt flopping around and I never noticed them before. Tradeoffs....I slept without my binder last night too and slept great. I'm really on the mend.

I had my annual exam with my band doc yesterday as well. From my esophogram, he really felt my pouch wasn't emptying fast enough, so he took out .5 cc's, taking me from 10.0 to 9.5. I can't tell a difference in hunger, but I do seem to have a little less trouble in the burping arena, so he must be right. I could probably have another 1/2 cc backed out at some point to be super safe. All I want is long-term band health! I'd never had an unfill before (I'd been at the same fill level since week 7 -- last June) so it was a new, albeit uneventful, experience.

At his direction, we talked a little about my goal weight as well. The goal he had on his charts for me originally (just based on average weight loss, I think) was 204! He said that he thinks I fall into a particular "type" of patient and that he saw me losing quite a bit more weight in year 2. I asked him where he thought I'd settle and -- without hesitation -- he said "I really expect you may well settle somewhere in the teens."

THE TEENS?!!?

He said he thinks I'll get to the 30s pretty uneventfully, then will have the thighplasty that will take off probably 15 lbs in skin, putting me in the teens.

Yah, whatever. That's eeons away. I think I look pretty darn good in the 50s, so I don't even know what to say about someone thinking I could weigh in the teens. I'm going to just emotionally put that on a shelf and not worry about it. I'm eating like I plan to eat for the rest of my life and exercising like I plan to exercise for the rest of my life, so my weight will do what it wants to. Whether I lose 10 or 50 more lbs -- either is truly fine.

That's it for me! Hope to hit the gym again tonight -- making up for last month.

OMG Julie!!!!!!!!! the TEENS???? As soon as I am fully healed I think I'm going to try the alternating run/walk program... I can't imagine me LOVING to run... but you never know.

Sounds like everyone has a plan!

Hey, Eficka, what about going for the Bronze Plus (+), or Super Bronze, or Bronze Elite, or...anything else that could give you that little extra credit for the added effort?

We just want to feel good about what we do. Our goals are all different. It is a progression, and we need to keep challenging ourselves, no matter what level we are on. If we accomplish them, we are ALL gold winners.

I understand where you are coming from. I lead an active lifestyle. When I workout, I want to work really hard and push myself to the max. So I usually go for a good hour. I can't always do it everyday. Sometimes my body needs to recover. My goal is to count those workouts where I am really pushing it to the limit.

Maybe we just set our own standards of what we want to accomplish.

With that, I'm off to the gym! I have the day off!!!!

Wow Julie, I do have to say that you are not an average bandster by any stretch of the imaginiation, you indeed are a super bandster and an inspiration to us all. It's funny I was at 10 and it was way too much, now I am back at 9 after my unfill and can eat anything it's terrible! 9.5 I think really is perfet for me. You might be surprised at the difference even .25cc's makes when you are so close to restriction. The difference for me over .5cc's is wide open and on the tighter side of perfect. It does take some experimenting to figure our where "perfect restriction" is.

Efficka, call it whatever you want! If one of the 3 doesn't fit your lifestyle make one up! The bronze silver and gold are merely guidlines and ideas. There are lots of metals out there

Boo you really hit the point:-) I love the Bronze Elite:-) I will go for that one.So my Bronze Elite is 14 sessions each 45+ minutes:-)

Waterlilly I know we can set our own goals but I wanted to name it and tell everybody what my goal is:-)

Julie oh my! in teens? wow wont you be too skinny?I cant even imagine myself in teens.but of course it would be great!

Oh my gosh, Molly -- you're about to hit the 60s. Remember just last week when we were looking for you to hit the 90s? And yesterday when you were bound and determined to get to the 70s? The 70s flew by for you! WOOHOO!

My doc wasn't saying I was extraordinary -- he was saying I'm compulsive. Wink.

Hey guys, guess what. I have TWO dates on Saturday! One I met a long time ago (he's a lawyer too) but then met again by accident last weekend. We're going to the movies on Saturday. The other I met on match.com and we're going to a street fair and having lunch, also on Saturday. More dates than I've had in a year, all in a day.

I'm going for the Gold Grammy (23 days @ at least 1 hour)!

Yeah for all the April Bandits! Go Eficka, go Molly, go Boo, go Julie - and really have fun on those dates. Yipee - such excitement!

I'm feeling almost back to normal - just a bit of a drippy nose today - went on our usual walk to and fro this morning and I'm off to NIA in the morning...............