Okay so we have been having a hard time and the thought has crossed many minds wondering if we are a dying breed. I say no way! I need you all, and I need to keep chatting away if I'm going to get anywhere near that finish line.

In one of the threads here it was suggested by another that we just create one master thread where we can communicate. Make it easier to stay in touch, and is something many of the other monthly groups do to stay in touch.

I know for me that is really important, and something we have never done before.

Please don't leave guys... check in! It doesn't even always have to be about losing weight or whatever. Just tell us all what's going on, whatever it is.

Hey Lil! Sounds like a very reasonable goal you have there. I want to be down about 40 pounds by February. It's about 13 pounds a month but I was losing close to that before. Really hopeful that I can do it. I want to go to Florida in February with my son and my mom and I would like to get my butt in the seat.

Yesterday I started the pre-op diet again and plan to stay on it until Thanksgiving. I did really, really well yesterday and was surprised at how much easier it was this time. My pre-op was 3-4 protein shakes a day plus all the clear broth, sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles and zero calories beverages I can stand. Only thing I'm doing different is that I'm allowing myself 3 tablespoons of creamer a day. Lost 4 pounds in 24 hours but I'm sure that was mostly water. Either way, I'll take it. If I get the 40 off I'll be about 15 pounds up from my low point and figure I'll be back in the groove, positioned for another good losing streak.

Hope the rest of you are doing well. It's been really quiet around here. Hope it's cause you're busy not struggling.

Hey Ezma! That is a really great idea. I have been doing that but only part time. I do all liquids during the day (added in 2 pieces of fruit) and for dinner I’m eating Lean Cuisine’s with a side green salad or tuna sandwiches or something lite to break the monotony. It’s been working pretty good too!

Doing the liquids really does help to shrink that pouch! I really can’t eat much already and I’ve been doing this for almost 4 days now. Well, today is day 4 and I already notice a difference in the amount I can eat until I get my full signal.

Not only that, I have a really bad sugar habit. I know how it came about, but getting rid of it hasn’t been easy at all. So far every day gets better and easier.

C’mon Ezma we can do this!! I’d love to hear you lose that 40 Lbs before your trip. J

Doing pretty well so far here. I caved to hunger yesterday but still did fairly well and managed to lose 2 more pounds. I'm still on it today. Hopefully if I get the hungers again I'll make slightly better choices. So far that's 6 pounds in two days and I know it's mostly water since I've been peeing up a storm.

I'm with you on the pouch shrinking Lil. I'm already full really, really fast. I have a doctor's appointment on the 1st since I rescheduled it and I really think I can go in there with a 10-12 pound lose. It will be the first month I've lost in over a year. Holy crud! Time is passing so fast.

Take care all and have a great, healthy day.

Ezma you’re doing so wonderful! Don’t discount it with it only being water. Even if some of it was, it’s still extra weight your body was holding on to. So, that is still great. J

I’m just still doing my thing. I worked out for an hour yesterday and stuck with my liquids during the day. I did better yesterday than I’d had when I first started this whole crazy thing. I think I’ll just keep sticking to this until it stops working or I just get plain sick of shakes! LOL Not likely. I do like them and sometimes will have a Slim Fast just because I like the taste so much.. LOL

I’m posting a picture of me when I was at my heaviest. I did find one and I just can’t get over this actually WAS me. I’m a little bit embarrassed of this picture, but really – in a way it’s kinda provoking me to try even harder. Maybe I should make a thousand copies and post them all around my house as “my little reminder”… haha!!

Hey everyone, Sorry I've been such a stranger lately, I just have so much going on. I've just been so unhappy lately, mostly due to marital problems. Things have been so difficult with my husband due to his depression and anxiety. I've been struggling to help him for years, he seems to be getting worse instead of better, and not doing everything that has been recomended. It really seems hopeless anymore. I'm trying to keep my head up so I must focus on what is good.

Also I might have to have another surgery. My doctor thinks I have a hernia. So I talked it over with my plastic surgeon, he said we can do a tummy tuck at the same time. :confused: I wasn't planning on doing the TT this soon, as I still have more weight to lose, but I think it will be ok. I don't think I'll have more loose skin after loosing a little more after the TT. So I'm kind of excitied about that. I will have a CT scan on the 28th to verify if it is indeed a hernia. On one hand it's like another surgery?!!!!! But on the other hand, if I can get rid of some of this belly I will be thrilled!:scared2:

I reached a new low of 195. I got another adjustment on 11-13-09, I'm feeling like LilMissDiva said, I don't get hungry, I able to stop eating with no effort. It is like a dream, I never thought that would be possible for me.

By the way, LilMiss, you look great! WoW! you have come a long way, You have much to be proud of. And you're on, I'll take a challenge for our bandiversary. I'm going to shoot for 180. That seems doable without killing myself. And yes, I know you can do it, you showed us the proof. Glad you're well. I'll try not to stay away so long anymore, I missed you all.

Jul - Sorry to hear things are so lousy at home right now. It really does make it so much harder to keep motivated. I know I always felt like I had been run over by a truck and was exhausted. But maybe focusing on you will help you get thru the tough times. Still trying to take that advice myself.

Lil - Wow!!! You really have come a long way. It's so fantastic! Glad to hear that you're still hanging in there on the liquids too. I'm with you on the "until it stops working or I get stick of it" part.

I'm still hanging in there on my slightly modified pre-op diet. Yesterday I had a small amount of Boston Market chicken for dinner. Other than that it was my one cup of coffee, protein shakes and sugarfree jello. Can't believe I'm starting my fourth day of this and I'm good. Feels like I can do this. I lost another pound this morning. That's 7 pounds in 3 days. I do love the results even if the diet is really boring. Best part is that I don't seem to be craving the carbs anymore. Cross all your fingers and say many prayers for me please.

Have a great day everyone.

Hi Ladies.

I'm all moved in. It was hard and exhausting, but I'm liking the new house. Okay, all moved in makes it sound like all the boxes are put away and that's certainly not the case, but we're doing pretty well.

My heartburn has been better with the Nexium I'm taking. I am still going to see my doctor on December 2 and I think I'll go ahead and get my fluid out at that point. I hurt most times when I'm eating and I'm frankly tired of it. I am still getting food in, but it takes me forever and is sometimes painful. I just hope I can still keep my pregnancy weight gain to a reasonable amount. I haven't weighed myself in more than a week. I'm afraid to. I know I'm going to be over 200 again and that's just rough.

I haven't been exercising much, but I did go the other day to the gym and run on the treadmill. I was glad I could still do it!

Good to hear that you're getting settled in Shiny. And it's great to know you can still exercise like normal. Too bad you won't have the band empty by Thanksgiving. Or maybe that's not a bad thing.

Have a great weekend ladies. Not sure if there are any men still out there.

Hey everyone! Hope everyone's week is off to a good start. I saw a new therapist yesterday, and she was really great. She gave me a lot of good insight. It renewed some hope for me, which feels priceless.

Wow Ezma 7 pounds! That is great! I'm so proud of you and Lilmissdiva actually going back to the preop diet. OMG i don't know if I could. Or at least not without looking like this :thumbup:

Not much else to report for today, just wanted to check in. So here we go preparing for Turkey day! At least Turkey is healthy, and has protien. YAY!

Jul - So glad you found a good therapist. Support is something we all need. Especially when a person has to deal with the stuff you have going on. It really does impact us when the loves of our lives are struggling. Hang in there, I'm sure the next good wave is coming soon.

As for me, the diet is still working and I'm soooo happy. I want to say that I wished I had known, months agao, that the pre-op was the answer to losing for me but I really think it came in the right time. I don't think I was ready to lose before or I would have done it. I do firmly believe in carb addiction now though. Before it was just something vague but over the last year it became a very, very real thing to me. Today has been 1 week on the diet and I've lost 11.8 pounds. Yay!!!! I needed the inspiration so bad. I did end up modifying it just a tad because I was so very hungry. I did 2-3 protein shakes a day and then for dinner I had some kinds of plain meat, egg and/or cheese. I am taking my vitamins and calcium just to be sure I'm staying healthy. I'm definitely going to eat on Thanksgiving but then it's back to very low calorie for me. I think I'll move on to more food though so I"m getting natural nourishment.

Hope everyone is doing well. Missing you guys.

Nice to hear you’re all settled SHM.

Jul thank you so much for all your lovely encouragement! I’ve missed you on here. You better stop disappearing on us.. J I am so glad you have found someone you feel comfortable with and is helping you sort out issues you have going on. I’m so proud of you for taking that step!

Congratulation Ezma!! Nearly 12 Lbs! I’d say you are definitely back on track girl! Hang in there; it only gets easier from here. I know that for a time it started to feel like you’d never get that mojo back – well now both you and I know it’s possible. Thank GOODNESS for our band huh? J

Back in the day I’d have totally gained ALL MY WEIGHT BACK, and then some!! Well, with my band I only gained 30 or so pounds. Well more than ten is already back off myself. As a matter of fact, I’ve not been the best bandster in the world in the last few days. Well thanks to my band I’ve held steady at 248.5. I couldn’t believe it when I stepped on the scale this morning and saw that. I was like… okay… good! Now it’s time to at least be super good for the next two days because I already know I’m going to blow it on Thursday no doubt… LOL J

Hope all is well for everyone else! Check in pleeeease. J

Yay Lil! Sounds like Lil got her groove back.

Wasn't it way easier to get back in the groove than you thought? Well, I guess if you count all the months I tried and just couldn't get it, then it wasn't so easy. But once I could get the mental click and start back on pre-op, it really was easy. The pre-op was so much better this time around. LOL - it might be easier since I'm actually eating one meal a day. Now that meal is very low calorie and carb content but it helps so much to have something to chew.

Hope you guys all have a fantastic Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to have time to post tomorrow but just in case. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ezma, great job! I do think that you always have to have the mindset of “I’m going to do this!!!!!” or else it won’t work. I would start to say... “I want to do this” but that just isn’t enough. The thought has to be definite, not wishful. So with that I totally agree with you!

I fell off the wagon for a really long time myself, gained over 30 Lbs. and lost so much confidence. Thankfully though, somehow, someway I got it back and I’m doing it. You’re actually doing better than I am! I really need to kick my carb addiction 100% like you have done. I did almost the same plan but not low carb. I shrunk my pouch and I get fuller faster for sure, but I’m still dealing with cravings I should really leave far behind. If I could kick that I would be at goal in 10 months. I have no doubt about that. I have a really good workout schedule and with the tiny portions thanks to my lap-band I would be successful.

So Ezma, I’m telling you this… I AM GOING TO DO THAT. Right after tomorrow of course! LOL, it is Thanksgiving after all. J

Black Friday I will be out there with the best of them. I won’t have time to sit around and think about eating all day, thank goodness! I will get back on track and my meals will be as such:

Breakfast: Protein Shake

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Slim-Fast Shake

Snack: Fruit (of my choice)

Dinner: Lean meat, lots of veggies.

Snack: Yogurt, or healthy cereal, or something along those lines.

No more bad snacks! This does include pretzels or Reduced Fat Cheez-its. The snack has to have some type of nutritional value above slightly! J

HAPPY THANKSGIVING VV’S!!!! This will be our second Tgiving being banded. Respect the pouch!

Hi there.

I am sitting here eating some Wendy's chili because I need something that will go down. My band is really tight and I'm having trouble getting much down.

This morning I tried eating a bowl of Chex with milk on it and ended up throwing it back up after a lot of pain with the eating. I am so tight first thing in the morning, it's really like I can hardly eat before lunch time.

I am really looking forward to getting my fluid out and being able to eat without pain. I have this fear that he won't be able to get the fluid out, or that the band will still feel tight without my fluid in. And I am very tired of the heartburn and reflux.

Sorry to be such a downer. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, even if I can't eat much. We're spending the day with good friends.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

Oh Shiny, sounds like you are having a horrible time there with your band. How soon do you see the doctor to get your unfill?

Did you all have a great Thanksgiving? I sure did. I put on 4 pounds but I'm going to try to get it back off today. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and would love to be back down where I was. I'm still down 5 pounds from my last appointment so it's good either way.

Gonna go see if I can find any good Cyber Monday deals at Amazon. I did a lot of my shopping from their Black Friday sales. It's the first year in a while I didn't go out. Just wasn't anything out there I could see fighting crowds for.