Only hit 300 and my goal is 450 - gotta kick some ass next week!!

284

Sorry I was out of town last week with no internet access. This week's weigh in was 283.2. No weight for week 3. Thanks!!

Good for you on your success!! I've been banded almost 2 years. I lost 60 lbs quite quickly with no exercise and then plateaued for 9 months (completely on me!). I knew that if this was going to work, I needed to change my lifestyle and I joined a gym and signed up for 6 sessions of personal training the first day. My original thought was that they would show me how to use the machines and then I'd be on my own. Well I then signed up for 54 sessions and have since re-signed for 54 more. The trainer has changed my life and provided a new sense of accountability for me.

If you would have asked me prior to training if I wanted an at-home trainer, I would have said yes. Since training at Gold's gym, I have become friends with many trainers and I continue to have strangers cheering me on and telling me what a great job I'm doing. I know that's not everyone's experience but it certainly has been the one of the best things I've ever done for myself and my confidence has improved tremendously!

The challenges I face that I think it would be great to have someone knowledgeable about WLS training me are the excess skin as I lose weight and how to reign that in :) Also, just the notion that WLS is the easy way out. My first trainer would get angry when we talked about surgery because he said we could have gotten that 60 lbs off with training. Sure, that may be true but I'm not so sure I could have kept it off. Most of us have been heavy most of our lives and for me, I was inactive for many years. Having a trainer that would start slow but still push me is important. I'm doing things now that I never thought I could do...and I love to exercise now!! Good luck with your certification :)

Brandi,

I was EXACTLY where you are about 9 months ago. My girlfriend got the sleeve (which I then decided I wanted) and I felt like a band failure after dropping 60 lbs fairly steadily and then beginning to eat around the band. I stalled for about 8 months and it was completely my own doing.

So, one day I woke up, joined Weigh****chers for accountability and joined a gym, signed up for personal training in March and never looked back. I've lost about 35 more lbs since then and even more inches. I'm still focused on the weight loss, but my body is changing and my stamina is increasing. THIS is what I'm trying to focus on and it's working. I'm doing things I never thought I would or could do. And I'm 292 lbs - YOU can do this!

Nothing anyone says here is going to get you to not eat around the band and get your butt off the couch - at least it never did for me. I tend to overthink things and that leads to excuses and reasons why I can't.  For some reason, when I joined the gym, I just did it and didn't think about it. I immersed myself into the environment there (the trainers helped with that) and faced such huge fears by just doing it. For the first 2 weeks of personal training, I cried on the drive home every time. I think it was a release of fear and years of failure at this weight loss thing. Now, it's part of my life.

I know my story is probably very different from yours and the financial commitment of training is significant and not possible for everyone. But there's always something you can do. Believe me, I NEVER in a million years thought I would be one of those gym people. But I'm changing my life and every day when I wake up, I just want to stay in bed. But I don't. I think the accountability of the weekly weigh-ins and knowing that my trainer is going to track my measurements, weight, body fat, etc. is a HUGE motivator for me. Find what works for you - don't quit - know that whatever you do to lose the weight, you will have to do forever. That part is hard to take sometimes but it really does get easier. Feel free to PM me if you need an accountability buddy. You CAN do this!!

I love this!! You go girl - stick with it and it will happen. I just got out of the 300's and I know what a psychological game this can be. Now my body just wants to chill out at 294 cuz it's been so long since I've been below 300. Kickin' it up a notch!!

Keep us posted!!!

Jumpin' in on this one...put me down for 2000. Thanks for doing this!!

Jennifer

Thanks for doing this!

I'm at 345 this week!!

Thanks for the info!! I was wondering how these were...I'm curious about the sodium.

Welcome back!! It appears we have similar journeys as we've both lost a bit and then stopped and got discouraged. I'm glad your back and hope you get the support you need here. I suggest you check out the board regularly and don't get discouraged by the band wars from time to time. Use your block button wisely! Good luck to you!!

295 FOR ME!!

Your post is so timely...

MY trainer put me on the elliptical yesterday and said we'd do 3 minutes and then back to the weights. I only made it 2 minutes. He had it on the arm blaster every 15 seconds which wasn't the hard part for me....the LEGS!! So I told my friend who's also heavy about it and she was shocked because she thinks the elliptical is easy and never goes on it at the gym because she  considers it "the ***** machine". Sigh. I'm glad to hear it gets easier cuz I swear it practically killed me.