Hi everyone--I thought I'd listen to some advice from one of the other monthly groups and start one master thread in which we have an ongoing discussion/updates. I don't know about you all but I certainly spend most of my time on these boards on the pre-op forum and the general forum, not here. It would be nice to have just one thread to go to once in this forum.

We can maybe start out with introductions?

As for me, I'm going the "online privacy" route for now (paranoid that people I haven't told about this will somehow stumble across me on this site I guess, which is crazy, I know) but I can give you the big picture:

You can call me Penny, I'm 27, single and live in the Washington, DC area. I have a background in politics (which is why I live in DC) but now I'm a librarian which is much cooler and way more fun (trust me on that). Oh, and there's no "Marion the Librarian" thing with me either. One of the things I hear most frequently (besides the cliche "you have such a pretty face") is "but you don't LOOK like a librarian", which is another one of those bizarre backhanded compliments that you never really know how to take.

Personality wise, I'm kind of dorky, big into public radio and books and popular science. Oh, I'm also a little on the paranoid side (as you may be able to tell from earlier in this post). Beyond that I'm just kind of silly and friendly, VERY much so into traveling and I'm an aspiring "green" domestic diva (but that's not going so well).

Hi, I was banded on July 22 2008. I have been losing slow but steady. I just bought a treadmill and plan on using it 5 days a week. I hope that will help me lose a little faster and firm up. Denise

losing slow? 60 lbs is fantastic! give yourself credit girl. That's my band date too. I have a treadmill and it hates me, so I go to curves 3 times a week and walk one of my dogs for 30 min. on the nights I'm not at curves. guess I should step it up.

Hey All just checking in...

stinks about all the possible leaking bands.... man I cant say if my band was leaking if I would go through all that again. well I hope it sincerely works out for all of you!

I myself have been having a rough past couple of days. I went on a retreat and did pretty well with the eating thing.. there was a lot of snacks and crap and I did pretty well avoiding them. but then yesterday I must have made the wrong food choice from the start because I was running around so early in the morning.. because no matter what I was hungry all day... then breakfast turned into lunch and another not filling choice and then on to dinner and I had fish which always makes me hungry like an hour later.. so anyhow I just felt like crap about myself all day because I felt like I was struggling to keep it together. I just gotta know when I am hungry to make good healthy choices of food that will stay with me for a bit.

anyways.. I wonder if I need another fill or if I just had a bad day. its only been 2 weeks since my last fill... but who knows maybe I need a little more...

Hey ladies, anyone struggling I mean STRUGGLING to not snack between meals. I feel like I'm making good meal choices but I have to fight hard not to snack between meal, especially at work when I'm sitting at my desk. Probably old habits, but any suggestions?

When you want to snack just try to drink alot of water or try crystal lite and if you have to have something Atkins makes protien bars with only 2 net carbs and about 100 cals and not really bad.

just checking my siggy, it didn't show up on the last post

Update from my previous post.....Our surgeon is DEFINITELY on crack. My friend had her fill yesterday and her port has moved, so the surgeon did her fill while the PA did mine. The PA normally does all the fills. The surgeon wound up filling my friend all the way to 10ccs, completely full, but she was told she only had 7ccs. She told him it felt kind of tight (remember, he thinks we can lose up to 5 lbs per week:blink:). He said to wait until the next day and if it was too tight, some could be taken out today.

Well....she couldn't sleep all night. She couldn't even swallow her own saliva. She called today and the other surgeon in the practice's staff was rude to her and she found out our surgeon was doing surgery in another city 2 hours away!!! My friend spent the entire day at school today going to the bathroom every 15 min. to "spit". When the PA got there this afternoon and took my friend's fill out, (complete unfill i told her to ask for )she was furious at the surgeon and told my friend to not let him to do a fill again. She said to please wait for her instead. He didn't listen to the amount she told him the previous day, so he wound up overfilling my friend instead of bringing her up to 7ccs. He does an excellent job on the surgery, but is too aggressive on fills.

My friend is frustrated and I told her to let her stomach swelling go down over the holidays and enjoy her vacation next week and start her fills again after, and THIS time be more conservative.

So, for the people wanting a surgeon to be more aggressive with the fills, please be patient. It is much better to be conservative and not be sick, than to be aggressive and be very ill.

Hi Fellow July Butterflies-

I'm still here. I don't post much but I am with you guys. I have to share my news, I am on cloud 9 and am 199 lbs today!! Do we have a special phrase for that? I call it Wonderful. I am so happy to be able to see a long future ahead for myself.

I LOVE MY BAND!!!

Congrats Barb and welcome to ONEderland!

Hi Fellow July Butterflies-

I'm still here. I don't post much but I am with you guys. I have to share my news, I am on cloud 9 and am 199 lbs today!! Do we have a special phrase for that? I call it Wonderful. I am so happy to be able to see a long future ahead for myself.

I LOVE MY BAND!!!

Congratulations!!! You must feel awesome. :rolleyes2:

congrats that is awesome i cant wait for the day that i am just obese!!!!

but on a great note my experiment was a seccess since sunday night i have lost 4 pounds!!!!

so i plan on sticking to it woop woop for me i may reach my xmas goal after all!!!

Hey everyone. I'm new.

I was banded at the end of July. I am only 25lbs down and feeling a bit defeated. I expected to have beern at 40lbs llost by Xmas.

dont get discouraged sue you can do it 25 pounds is nothing to sneeze at how much are you eating at each sitting? i found that i was eating to much and when i stopped that i started losing fast. i now eat between 5-7 tablespoons of food per meal and 2-3 inbetween if i find i am hungry.

Hey, congrats on 25. That is no small feat, and should not be downplayed.

You ladies are doing great! Daisey, I think I'm going to try to down size the portions a little, My Doc told me to eat 1/2 a cup but the fill center told me to eat 3/4 of a cup. I've been doing it the fill centers way and I've been kinda stuck lately so I'm gonna try the Docs way this week and see if I can get that scale moving again.

Hey everyone. I'm new.

I was banded at the end of July. I am only 25lbs down and feeling a bit defeated. I expected to have beern at 40lbs llost by Xmas.

Hi! welcome.. its true 25lbs is great! I share your emotion however that I thought this would go much faster. but it does take some time to get things adjusted just right before you start losing consistantly. I am in that process. I was banded at the end of July as well and hoped to be down forty by Christmas, but hey,, even the fact that my size 20s are fitting loosely makes me happy. :thumbup: havent been below a 20 in years.

so hang in there..