Greetings: Mimin, Ghost, BJean and I (Kareyquilts) are all September 2006 bandsters. We are all around 20 pounds to goal and we want to get there as close to our 2nd band anniversary as possible! Thus, the new thread. We are putting out to the universerve and you that we want to lose that last little bit that has been tripping all of us up for a while now! We would love your support, suggestions and help. I believe that all of us (not sure about BJean) have had some plastic surgery to get rid of excess skin, etc. We are of various ages and stages, but through it all we have supported one another. In fact, of all the September bandsters that started with us, in our thread, we are the last ones to keep up the chatter. I guess we will all state how we're going to try and lose the last 20 pounds. The challenge starts on July 1st. Hope you'll join us for the ride!

Jacquie: Your plan sounds really great. I'm so impressed with all you've accomplished, especially given your health issues. I bet you'll do a lot better with your surgery this time around. Being in shape really does make a difference! Instead of just plain jogging, why not just do intervals and jog for a while (minutes) and then back to walking. Research shows that interval training is the most effective fat burning method. Keep on posting.

Great advise from Karey (as always). When I got close to my goal I started doing intervals on the treadmill and my weight loss really picked up. I'm afraid to run outside on a hard surface, but my treadmill has shocks that absorb most of the impact, so I haven't had any problems.

Good luck to all of you. Y'all are doing great!

Renewedhope: I would tell your ps doc that your goal is 150 also, but than I would lose as much weight as I could before PS. The average skin weight for a tt is 4 pounds. I wouldn't count on the plastic surgery getting you to goal. You will probably lose weight, some do and some don't. Personally, I would just do the very best you can before your surgery. You are not going to be able to exercise for quite a while afterwards and a little cushion doesn't hurt. I think too, that after you reach the flatlands your motivation to lose weight goes down because you look so so so much better. Just some thoughts.

I'm getting so tired of this diet. It's really boring. Also, I've been pbing a lot. The chicken and fish might stay down and it might not. I"m not sure if I should get a little bit of an unfill or just tough it out, since I won't be on this but about 20 more days. I just felt like crying yesterday when I through up my fish lunch. It's about the 3rd time this week that I've had problems. I decided last time to just have a protien shake for dinner, even though it's not on this diet, and give my throat a rest. Not sure why my band is acting up, I hadn't had any problems with my fill level before the diet. Sometimes this band is so fickle! Anyway, hope everyone is doing great. Mimin, glad your water weight is starting to move!

karey, Sorry you are having a rough time. Our bodies are so amazing. Even the slightest change makes a difference.

hang in there

Hi ya'll. I'm back. Good news: 10 lbs. lighter. Bad news: almost died.

Aw I don't mean to sound grim. It was an awful 8 days, but I'm gonna be fine, they tell me. One interesting aside is that my LB doc was my colon resection surgeon. He's an expert in laprascopic surgery so I lucked out, big time.

I can't tell you how great it feels to be home and pecking away in front of the keyboard. They released me a few hours ago and here I am at LBT. Think this is addictive?

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers! Jacquie, my heart goes out to you hearing about your colon problems!!!! PM me anytime if you want to swap stories!

MinMi: It was great to read that you're getting back in the groove. And darlin please enjoy every minute of your life today. You're gorgeous and wonderful and do everything you can from here on out just being healthy and having fun! Sounds trite, but things can slip away in a blink and you have so much to be grateful for and so much life to enjoy.

Best wishes to all of you on your road to health and beauty. You are worth every bit of effort it takes and if you're taking care of yourself, it's all good!

Thanks everyone!! I am kind of scared of the interval thing - this week I will try to go from 30 second intervals to 1 minute intervals - see how it goes. It is kind of weird, but I seem to be built for distance rather than speed because whenever I start exercising, it kind of hurts for the first few minutes and eventually the pain goes away and I can go for quite a while!! My worst issue is my feet - I always have blisters and a bunion doesn't help. The more I pay for my shoes, the worse they seem to feel on my feet!!!

BJean - so glad you are home and on the mend!!!! Sounds like you had a really tough time, but hopefully the worst is behind you. Not the way you want to get rid of that last 20 pounds, for sure . Unfortunately, my bowel resection can't be done laproscopically . Make sure you take care of yourself, get plenty of fluids and lots of rest. How long do you have to take it easy?

Mimin - it must feel really terrific to lose that much weight so quickly and feel more on track!

Karey - our bands are fickle and hopefully yours will settle down soon. I think you need to make sure you are getting enough sustinance if you are PBing - the Protein shakes sound like a good thing. Only 20 more days - almost 1/2 way there!!!!

Jacquie

Karey I was thinking that losing the weight so quicly might be putting the body under stress and I know that my band tightens WAY up when I am stressed...both physicall and mentally. So perhaps that is why you are so tight. Good luck. You are doing fantastic.

salsa, I just read your blog and you are one amazing woman!!!!!! Wow!! That is all I can think of to say!

I saw those on tv last night. They were saying they don"t work....hmmm..let us know!

Ghost--I am sorry for all your troubles hun, please take care,

Karey--keep us posted on Bjean!

I saw that on TV also. They were saying that the "Fit Flops" does not really work you out more, they are just comfortable and you feel like walking longer.

What I have are MBT shoes. So far I love them. Here is the site for them.

MBT :: IDEA

Laura

Thought I'd check in after the weekend.

Living without most of my fill has not been as hard as I thought it would be, I even think I lost a pound or two though I've been so reluctant to get on the scale the last several months I don't rightly know what my weight really was to start. So I'm going to use yesterday's weight as my new "start" weight.

I don't plan on listing all my daily foods but thought I'd post my weekend foods anyway. I'm not sure of calories but this is what I ate:

Sunday:

Breakfast: 1-cup fruit flavored cottage cheese

Lunch: Outback: 1-1/2 crab cakes and 1/2 of a mash potato sidedish

Afternoon Snack: 3/4 cup sugar free chocolate pudding

Dinner: 1 cup fruit flavored cottage cheese

Late night snack: 1/2 cup fruit flavored cottage cheese

Saturday:

Breakfast: 1 cup fruit flavored cottage cheese

Lunch: 2 slices thin crust pepperoni pizza dipped in extra marinara

Dinner:1-small hard taco (meat, Beans, cheese, no lettuce or tomato) and about 1/2 cup of the taco filling on the side.

Evening Snack: 3/4 cup Sugar Free Chocolate pudding

I've never been great at mixing things up. Instead I seem to get on these tracks where I eat a lot of the same foods for a while then don't eat it for months.

BJean: So thankful your with us. I know that your family is too! Hope you're feeling better soon. Will keep you in my prayers. Do you have to be on a special diet while you heal?

Ghost: Okay, is your fruit flavored cottage cheese a special brand that you are purchasing or are you adding fruit to it? Just asking, cause I like to find new things to eat that are good for us. Sounds like your getting back on track and I'm really happy for you. Our bandiversay is coming us and it will feel so good to be at or close to goal. Finally!

Okay, I went to protein powder for 2 days to give my esphogaus a break. I lost 1/2 pound, instead of 2, but I think I needed to do that. I'm going to go back on the meat, veggies and fruit snacks today. Hopefully, with careful chewing, I won't pb, because I absolutely hate that feeling. If it keeps happening, I will call my band doc. Had a hard work out today with my trainer. I did dead lifts with 50 pounds while doing squats. I did about 100 squats today. Got a little light headed toward the end of my work out and my trainer gave me a little lecture about eating enough to work out. But, I just told him that for a few more weeks, he is going to have to take it a little easy on me and we'll hit it hard in August. Jacquie, thanks for the encouragement. I know only about 20 more days and then I can go on maintance. YEAH! I'm not that hungry, if I can only keep the meat down, it will all be fine. I don't even mind the injections. Who can complain with a 10 pound weight loss in 10 days? I'm going to need this group to help me maintain! Hope everyone has a great day!

Funny you should ask I've been trying to post a pdf of the recipe/nutritional breakdown for the last 20 minutes but my browser keeps locking up on me. I'll try one more time.

Let's see if it works this time. On my previous efforts it would lock up when I hit "Preview" so I'm trying this time without previewing.

FRUIT FLAVORED COTTAGE CHEESE.pdf

basically its just a dump and stir recipe. It tastes pretty good just mixing cottage cheese & fruit flavored crystal light (the one bottle size packet) but I like to add a little yogurt to make it creamier and I also like to add fruit to give me some variety in the texture of what I'm chewing. But if you are really trying to keep calories and carbs to a minimum, like I said you could just stick to stirring in the Crystal light only.

Diane: Thanks! Love to learn about new things! When I through with this extremely restrictive diet I'm on, I will make some! Glad your posting!