Karen_S.
Still at it!
Apr 14, 2008
I've had a couple more fills since I last posted and have lost a total of 74 pounds now. I figured out (read the posts below this) that I wasn't tight enough and the PBing was indeed form eating too fast and not chewing enough. Now that I am at a better fill level I can't believe the difference! The band truly does work! I am much less hungry now and am full after a small meal.
I do still use protein shakes, mainly for breakfast when I'm headed out the door for work. It's hard for me to eat solid food in the morning but my job is very physical (nursing assistant) and I can't *not* eat something for breakfast or I just fall over.
Ironically my new job that I just mentioned is on the surgical floor of a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence and I help take care of post op bands, bypasses and sleeves! I'm going to nursing school in the fall and who knows I may end up working in bariatrics when I get my RN! Either way I am very excited to have a "new lease" on my band and my life. Before losing 74 pounds I wouldn't have been able to start a new career in nursing.
Fill.... and an unfill.... and a plateau
Aug 25, 2007
And I've not really lost anything in about a month now. I think my body has decided it's time to plateau. No biggie. I'm keeping at it and plan to start water aerobics so I'm sure the scale will move soon. It's not going up and that's important to me! At this point in almost every dieting effort I've made (about 60 pounds lost) I have given up and started to regain. Not this time!
I also have an appointment next week with a foot doctor to see if he can cure me of my plantar fasciitis. My left foot still kills me and I haven't been able to do much walking since June.
Ds started back to school this week and that was surrisingly hard for me. He's in 4th grade and this is his last year in this school. Next year he will have to transition to an all new building and all new teachers which is a big deal for him (he's autistic).
That's about it for now. Thanks for reading all my boring life stuff.
Another fill and Evil Frosted Mini Wheats
Jul 27, 2007
HOWEVER, I have now learned that mini wheats are a thing of the past. I got so stuck on the late last night I wanted to die. I never brought them back up, but I slimed for over an hour and when I tried to bring them up with a gulp of water all that came back up was the water and oh by the way, that hurt like hell!! The really dumb thing in all this - I don't even LIKE mini wheats! I was craving something crunchy and it was all we had in the house. (I've learned that I cannot keep chips or crackers near me or I will eat the whole bag).
My husband is going to finish off the box for me and when it's gone he is going to cut out the logo from the front of the box and post it on the inside of the pantry door to remind me of the experience. I think it'll be a great deterrant!
Here is the cute badge LaraNicole made, I'm so glad to have made it this far!
The great exercise bicycle saga
Jul 16, 2007
Another fill, up to 7.5 ccs now
Jul 10, 2007
My plantar fasciitis is better, the night splint I bought on Ebay is the most helpful things I've tried so far so I think I can get back to doing some walking later this week. I also got a stationary bike and probmptly broke it! Wasn't my fatness, the pedal broke off the first time I used it. Good thing it was free. I'm going to get another one probably this weekend.
My wonderful therapist's newest advice for me is to plan each week's meals in advance and also to email myelf with each day's meals so I know what I'm going to eat and when. I also came to the realization that eating the right things (at the right time too!) is like taking my antidepressants. They work when you take them, sometimes so well that you think you can do without but really you can't. I was thinking that if I skipped meals or delayed them that was good because then I would be consuming less calories. This only gives me the munchies late in the afternoon and evening. Once I realized this I was like DUH! Oh well, penny wise and dollar foolish goes the old cliche.
50 pounds gone but feeling bummed??
Jul 02, 2007
I started tracking my weight at home in February (was banded 4/20) and since then I have lost 50 pounds. About half of that was preop, which is why I'm a little bummed. I feel like I should be losing faster, given that my BMI is pretty high compared to most bandsters. I need to knock myself in the head and be positive about this! 50 pounds is a lot of weight, no matter when I lost it! I just keep thinking I should be losing faster. I see other people who have lost 50 as much or more than me and they didn't count preop weight. Why do I compare myself to other people if it only makes me feel bad about myself?
I've not been exercising because I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot and it's very painful to walk. And walking HAD been my source of exercise. So I'm getting a stationary bike to use while my foot heals. I gotta have something I can do at home. So Friday I am going to look at a used Airdyne (made by Schwinn) and see if it'll work for me and hopefully bring it home with me.
2nd fill, vacation, birthday party, OH MY!
Jun 17, 2007
I didn't lose anything during that busy, stressful time. But since we got back from vacation I've gotten back on the bandwagon and lost 4 pounds. My BMI is now below 50, yay me!!
My psychologist says I should focus on positive food behaviors. Meaning I shouldn't focus on what NOT to eat, but rather make decisions on what TO eat. So I'm working on that now. It makes sense, the avoiding behavior was exhausting and it wasn't placing the focus where I think I need it: making conscious GOOD food choices 100% of the time.
So that's where I am going into this week. My plans are to walk 4 days, make a meals plan for the week in my new software program and have some summer fun with my kids!
Had my first fill!
May 19, 2007
I found out I have a VG band. No big deal there either, I was wondering tho cause no one ever told me and I hadn't thought to ask any of the times I was in the office LOL!
In OT news - ds got his talking computer (he is autistic and cannot talk) and is doing fabulously with it! He is making complete and appropriate sentences with it, as well as some babbling and pressing a zillion keys just to explore the thing. I've gotten quite good at programming it, the speech therapist who is working with us was very impressed and halfway offered me a job! I poo-pooed it at the time but thiking about it later I wonder if I should look into it? I emailed her to see just how half hearted she was or was she more serious.
I started my next online class - I'm working toward going to back to school to become a nurse. I took Anatomy and Physiology 1 & 2 in 05-06 and now I'm taking Medical Terminology mostly just to keep up my student loan status and also because i think it'll be a good review. it's only a 5 week class and there are 16 chapers to get through so it's intense! We're on vacation the first week of June and in that time span there are 4, yes FOUR, chapters due! Dunno how I'm going to do it but I am determined to NOT do homework at the beach so I'm going to try to work ahead as much as I can. This means I may have to cover a chapter every 1 or 2 days for the next 2 weeks. YIKES!
Everything else in life is pretty good and very busy. We're planning the twins' 1st birthday party and I ordered the cake yesterday for it. There is a house around the corner that just went up for sale and we're seriously considering buying it. It'll be a good move for us, our current house is reeeally small. I love it but it's too tiny for 5 people.
Enough blathering on about nothing in particular. I'll try to say something more profound next time. ;-)
Met my first WL goal!
May 06, 2007
My weigh-in was great, I actually lost 5 pounds! I'm amazed because I've been having a lot of trouble limiting my portions to Bandster sizes. I have no restriction at all and the hunger is really hard to deal with! I keep telling myself that it isn't going to kill me, that I'll get restriction soon enough (my first fill is in 10 days, I'm sure it'll take more than one but hey, one fill is better than no fill, right??).
I decided rather belatedly that I want to set little weight loss goals to keep myself motivated and mark my progress. Losing 10% of my body weight seems to be a good way to start and VOILA!! I'm there already!
My next goal is getting my BMI under 50, which is just 5 pounds away! My goal after that is 24 pounds away, I'm hoping that it's not so far away that I lose heart.
Like Dory said in Finding Nemo: Just keep swimmin'!
2 weeks out was an exciting week in many OT ways....
May 04, 2007
One of my 11 month old twins landed herself in the ER for stitches on Monday night! She was puttering around the kitchen with me while I was cleaning up dinner. No big deal, we do the same thing almost every evening. This time she pulls one of the chairs (heavy metal) over on herself and the back of it lands on her face! At first I thought it was just a bump and she was crying from being scared but then i saw a little blood right beside her left eye (on the outer corner) and a small gash so off we trekked to the ER. To make a long story short, she is fine, there is no damage to the eye itself, she got 4 teeny little stitches by a pediatric opthomologist, they had to put her out for the procedure so she had an IV, the whole thing was pretty traumatic for both of us, we were there for almost 7 hours and didn't get home til after 1 am. Needless to say I was exhausted the next day because her twin sister gets up bright and early every day.
Now for the good....
My 9 year old son is autistic and is non-verbal. He's as smart as a whip and is very frustrated about not being able to communicate with us. On Thursday his long-awaited ACD (assisted communication device) arrived at the clinic at the hospital so again I treked down to Children's and had our first of many appointments for both he and I to learn how to use it. I, being the more tech-savvy one of the family, get to program it and put in all the customized stuff specific to Kevin's needs. Like he loves books so I loaded about 40 pictures of all the books he loves and programmed the keys to say the title when he presses them. That part alone took me about 4 hours, I have so much more to do but it's a start!
To get back on topic, I saw my therapist this week to start dealing with my food issues. I've seen this lady for about 5 years off anf on (more off than on though) and she has seen me though many other issues, but we've never worked on food. So I started with that. It is going to be great I think, in just that one appt. I learned so much from her. I will always struggle with an abnormal relationship with food but with her knowledge and guidance I believe I can learn to cope with it and work with my band to lose weight.
So today I am going to get back on the exercise horse, so to speak, and get my butt moving again.