I don't know if anyone has started this, but I thought it would be nice to have our own space. I get really discouraged reading about how some are losing really fast in the other thread and I thought it would be nice to start our own thread. I am losing slow, but I am still very happy to just be losing.

i agree with snaps on that one, i see the old me all the time BUT when i buy a smaller size it just reminds me ...the old me is gone! and to keep up the good work

Snap - I hear you and am in the same boat, except that I am JONESING to be a size 18 (I am a 22). I do know how you feel though. Maybe you need to up your thyroid meds? I used to lose like crazy when I made an effort and now, with the hypothyroid, it is almost impossible - they are still trying to regulate it, tho. It doesn't sound like you are eating enough to be gaining, but maybe that's just me. Good luck with everything!!!

Well this month is our 1 year bandiversary! How is everyone doing? I am so close to onederland I can taste it!

I haven't budged in awhile...I had a fill in January, so it has been 3 months....I scheduled one for next week hoping that will help...I think I can eat more now than I could back then.

My anniversary is 5/22 and I am 13 lbs from my goal. However, I have been 13 lbs from goal for about a month now.

How is everyone else?

I am happy where I am now as I aproach my baniversary. I am in overland. :smile: and hopefully within the next six months, I will be at goal. The slow losing has been frustrating, but my doctor said it would be a slow process, which in the end is better.

That's great!

I knew it would be a slow process for me as well. I have always lost slow so I didn't expect it to be any different with the band.

I think buying ourselves new, smaller clothes really helps us adjust to the weightloss. It has helped me to go out and buy some smaller items and to purge the larger items from my closet.

It's like a cleansing. We have to get rid of our old negative imagines of ourselves before we can fully appreciate the new "us".

I have caught my reflection in a mirror or in glass and sometimes I see the old "fat Erica" and sometimes I see the Erica that I really am. Wearing clothes that actually fit us and not hang on us like tents is a big part of changing our .thinking and our emotions, in my opinion, at least.

I now realize what your were talking about and it makes so much sense! I have sold a bunch of my clothes on ebay (and made really good money) and I am taking the money I made off them and buying new smaller sizes. I am loving it!

Edited May 4, 200917 yr by Carrie_C

I just wanted to thank you guys for starting this thread. I am so embarrassed by my slow weight loss and with my bandiversary coming up in a couple weeks I am mad at myself for not doing better than I have so far. I was banded 05/23/08 and was doing well until January where I plateaud and I have been at 45 pounds lost ever since (I gain and lose the same 3 pounds every week). I am so close to onederland that I can't stand it. 5 pounds is all I need (which consequently puts me at a 50 pound weight loss as well which was my goal for one year) but I can't seem to get to that point. I scheduled a fill for tomorrow but I almost cancelled the appointment because I'm embarrassed at not losing anything since January. I joined weight watchers 2 weeks ago so I can log what I'm eating and I realized that I do eat a lot of crap so I'm changing what I eat - but still not losing. About 2 months ago I started exercising about 3-4 times a week (biggest loser DVDs, slim in 6, dance away the pounds, etc...). I didn't lost a pound. So 3 weeks ago I started exercising 5 days a week with no excuses and still no loss.

Inside I am proud that I have gone from a size 22 to a size 16. Inside I am proud that I can sit at the baseball stadium in those tiny seats and my butt isnt overflowing. Inside I am proud that I got on a plane in February and for the first time in years I wasn't scared that I would have to ask for a seatbelt extender. Inside I do feel better overall. All my friends and coworkers say I look like I have lost a bunch more weight since I started exercising and although I'm not measuring myself I'm sure I have lost inches because my pants are looser and maybe thats ok. But heres my problem, I do have emotional issues with food that I have been trying to work through. I thought I would be on less meds after the band - not more. I stopped taking my 'happy' pills in november and I lost 10 pounds just by not taking them anymore. However, I was miserable. I had to go back to the doc a month ago and start taking a different kind (the other kind was not band friendly) and the new pills made me want to eat everything in sight. So now he has me on another medication (I take 7 different meds for various things right now and I'm only 33 - it shouldnt be this way). Anyway, my point is that just when I start to feel better about myself, I have another setback. I know with the 'happy' pills, weightloss is harder. Plus I had a complete hysterectomy 5 years ago and I definitely have issues with my estrogen (or lack thereof) which I know also makes it harder for me to lose weight. In addition, I normally feel good about myself daily and the progress I have made. However, recently I was at the movies with my family, and a guy was being jerk so I told him he was a jerk and he followed me out of the movie theatre to confront me and tell me that I was so fat he couldn't believe that people actually get as fat as me. I cried the entire ride home and tried to explain to my 12 year old daughter that I wasn't letting the stupid man get to me - even though he really was. This total stranger made everything I have worked for over the last 11 months seem like a total waste. I shouldn't let anyone take away what I have accomplished over the last year, but it's hard not to let something like that get to you.

I guess my point to this post is that I am ashamed that I havent come back to this board since last summer. It is nice to find others in the same boat and to know that you are not alone. It's nice to know that some of us really do struggle with this.

I hope all of you meet your goals!:thumbdown:

Welcome back Boxer.:thumbup: Don't feel ashamed about losing 45 lbs. I think that is great! We all lose at different speeds. You realize that your meds make it harder for you. That is a positive thing for you to know about. Keeps you from beating yourself up so much. Do you try to up your calories/ or drop them for a day or two? Do you keep a written food log? These things really help. Also I am a bouncer. I bounce up and down on the same 2 or 3 lbs. then I wake up and have lost them and start the process all over again. I have learned with me, my weight loss is usually towards the end of the month. That's when I stop bouncing for a few days and lose. If I don't lose then I look at what I have been eating and up or lower my caloric intake for a couple of days. With me my good caloric intake is 1200-1300 a day. If I go lower and stay lower then my body goes into starvation mode and hang onto everything I eat. After switching up for a couple of days I start to lose again.

Pat yourself on the back for losing 45 lbs and for coming back here.

Unfortunatly there are jerks all over the place. I know it is hard to ignor them. Try to remember that what you have accomplished, the jerks of the world can't take away. Love yourself. God loves you and made you. He also allowed for the LB to be invented to help us. Now start to love yourself. repeat it everyday while looking in the mirror. "I LOVE MYSELF!" Go ahead and say it, you can do it. Now don't you feel a little better?

I am sorry this was such a long reply.

Good luck and keep us posted hon.

I feel like going and slapping those women for you Fluffy!!! Grrrr....I just started a new job and got serious about my band again. Thank GOD I work with a lot of very supportive women. They are very encouraging and cannot wait until the scale really starts moving for me again. (Yes, I fell off the BANDwagon BIG time, even got drug by it for a city mile. lol)