Disappointment Again

Its been about a week since my 15 month follow up appointment and its taken me about that long to process the information I have been given . At my one year visit I had gained a few pounds. I have had no real significant weight loss since the 10 or so pounds I lost post first revision surgery . So on this visit when I had gained more weight and he asked me more questions about my eating habits how I am feeling I lost it and told him " I am back to square one , no hunger control, always hungry and gaining weight " His response " I saw this coming your last visit and would hope you could have maintained but you have not " I asked him " is this something I AM DOING  ?  am I doing this to myself ?" His response " no this is not your doing " I then asked him " are you seeing other revision patients have the same issues' His response " No , however its still early with revisions so its hard to say ?" In other words this revision surgery has failed as well .
So my doctor has been talking to another associate of his who is doing a procedure , or has done a procedure where they go in and make your pouch smaller from the inside through an endoscope. I am not 100% sure what all this involves however he asked my permission to speak to the doc more at length about me to see if its something I can do or be a candidate for . So we shall see what happens in the next few weeks or so . Is this something I would do ? Yes . I as well as the doc are concerned with long term weight regain for myself . I'll do as I always do and keep you informed .

Its been a while ....

Its now been over a year since my last revision ( from sleeve to bypass ) I would like to say I am at goal and happy with how things are going , but par for my course I am not .
At my last doc apt ( my year apt ) I found out im severely anemic and have to get Iron IV infusions.
I have had 2 infusions so far. The first one went great, only took about an hour and a half. They gave me a "test" dose to make sure I did not have a reaction to it , which I did not and things went well.
The second treatment should have only taken about an hour . I was hooked up to the IV and with in about 5-10 min began to have severe shortness of breathe, became flushed and had a very heavy chest. After a few attempts to get the nurses attention ,( They were busy talking to each other ) a patients husband yelled at them to help me and when the nurse got over to my I passed out !
They stopped the infusion and gave me an antihistamine and medrol ( a steroid ) and restarted it slowly and I was fine after that . Needless to say a scary situation ! So now my infusions instead of taking an hour will take 2-3 .

As for my weight loss etc, due to the anemia i have not been able to work out , walk or do anything, due to not having ANY energy at all . So the weight has been creeping back on slow or not so slowly!
I am also feeling like I can eat larger amounts than I should be able to again .
I am very fearful of my stomach stretched out again through no fault of my own  . I am going to be talking to my surgeon about this next time i see him . While I doubt I Could or would do anything about this , my husband would freak if i had another surgery , I have come to the conclusion that any help from WLS for me is not going to happen, The band did too much damage to me . So the very hard work on my part is about to start once i am cleared to work out . While I have always tried to be more active than before, working out has never been something I enjoyed. But its something I have come to the conclusion I will HAVE TO DO IT and continue to do it in order to not gain weight . After having 2 other failed WLS I feel as if this one has failed also . Which is hard to accept. I am not sure what is going on , but I feel as though the band caused so much damage that its just screwed up everything permanently, which is very hard to take  !

While I am not happy where i am now I do need to remember where i came from .

Before Lap band Surgery (250 Pds ) 

Dec 2014 After both revisions (190 ish pds)

Lessons Learned : 10 years & 3 Weight Loss Surgeries

WARNING: This is meant to be a post about what I have learned over the years. I would like ALL NEWBIES Esp to just LISTEN to it , Read it , do not take offense to it . Especially if you are a revision patient. PLEASE Just listen ! 

If you have not kept up on my story are are new to my story please take a moment and read my back story . You can read about my journey here. Over the past 10 years I have been on many a weight loss support groups. Most have been online. I have learned a few things over the years . Having to have had 2 revision surgeries of not fault of mine I have learned a few lessons and I would like to share them .

Lesson 1:
Its a TOOL: No matter what weight loss surgery you choose , its a tool. Its a tool that needs to be used, used well and used right . There is NO easy way you .
I will be the first to admit my lap band ( before it tried to kill me ) was easy. 125 pounds in 10 months from a size 24 to a 4 in 10 months was easy . I did not work at it one bit .
The sleeve was harder , due to weight regain from my band it was a harder tool to use for myself.
RNY , Again A tool, not easy but its work . Im working at it daily .

Lesson 2:
MOVE YOUR ASS ! This is probably the biggest thing i want people to listen to . Recently on message boards I have heard various people saying things like " Please like im gonna work out " " I wont become addicted to working out " . " 5 years out and I never lift a finger "
Let me say this about working out , moving , being active . This is KEY with ANY weight loss surgery. I work out 3-4 times a week now , if i do not work out at the Y I walk 2 miles a night. No I am not perfect and the last 2 weeks I have not worked out due to some stressful issues in my life but I will be back at it on Monday . Do not be so aarrogant to think that working out , becoming more active is " Just not your thing and you are fine" I thought that myself. However , you may be fine now , i was fine after loosing 125 lbs .. BUT If your tool stops working and YES that does happen it happened to me TWICE You have to have something to fall back on , to help you along the way .
You do not have to go to the gym find something you like, walking , running, yoga, Pilates, dancing FIND SOMETHING and DO IT ! If your tool stops working you will THANK ME and if it does not GREAT You just created a healthy life style. Had i worked out after my lap band I may not have regained so much weight. Maybe I would have but maybe I would not have.

Lesson 3:
A more active lifestyle is not enough : I fooled myself into thinking after my lap band that I was more active, i ran errands , i was at football games school activities etc . I was more active than before my surgery so "that was enough" . Its not . Being more active is a great thing, its one of the amazing benefits of WLS. HOWEVER , its is not in my opinion enough to sustain you long term when it comes to weight loss .

Lesson 4:
It wont happen to me : Newbies espically seem to be very smug when it comes to "weight regain". Its almost funny to hear people say " I am doing just fine Im 3 months out " that's amazing but listen to your elders ! Listen to those who have gone before you and tell you things like " eating a hamburger at 5 weeks out is NOT OK "
I am a model patient, I was a model patient with my band . IF I can regain weight anyone can .
If my band and sleeve failed anyone's can .

Lesson 5:
Its work : ALL weight loss surgeries are work . You have to work . You have to be diligent in  your plan in order for it to work . I am not saying you have to be perfect all the time, lord knows I am not but this is a lifestyle change you HAVE TO Change your life style !

I hope this all makes sense. I was prompted to do this post after seeing so many people be so smug to newbies about their journies. I get everyone's journey is different, but in my opinion people have to be honest with them selves and others for them to know what they will get them selves into .

My story: Lapband, To sleeve To Bypass Revsions

 PLEASE NOTE : I am still working on this post ,, Excuse the choppiness of it ! Still working on adding details ! 

I have had several people over the last week ask me what my "whole story was " for all my surgeries , why i needed one after having another etc. So I'll try to keep it short and put it in all one page so here goes :

The beginning :
As a young adult i was 130-150 pds .
My weight issues started about 15 yrs ago when I got married , became a stay at home mom and got pregnant the same YEAR !! Not a real good combo for someone's weight.
When i got married in 2000 i was about 140-150 pds. More than I had ever weight in my life.
In 2001 i became pregnant w/ my second son and my weight just came on and on and on ( I GOT HUGE ) . After I had him , the weight did not come off. Would not come off.
I'll be honest though I did not and have not tried every diet under the sun.
I tried Atkins , I tried weight watchers , working out a curves and eating better over the last 7 or so yrs. So did i try EVERYTHING ? Probably not .
I also have something called PCOS ( Poly Cycstic Ovarian Syndrome)
Here is the definition from Wikepedia
Polycystic ovary syndrome abbreviated PCOS or PCO (also known clinically as Stein-Leventhal syndrome, Sclerocystic ovary syndrome, Hyperthecosis, ovarian, Polycystic ovarian disease PCOD ) is an endocrine disorder that affects approximately 10% of all women .^[1] It occurs amongst all races and nationalities, is the most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, and is a leading cause of infertility.^[2][3] The principal features are weight problems, lack of regular ovulation and/or menstruation, and excessive amounts or effects of androgenic (masculinizing) hormones. The symptoms and severity of the syndrome vary greatly between women. While the causes are unknown, insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity are all strongly correlated with PCOS.

It became very obvious to me that my weight was not going to come off. Over about 7 yrs I lost 25 pds and that was IT !! So I gave up . I wont lie I did !

The Band ( Starting Weight 250 if not more Goal weight of 125 lbs hit in 10 months  )
In 2004 I started researching WLS with the encouragement of my long time OBGYN. At the time the Lap Band was " THE" Surgery to have , it was being sold as least invasive , blah blah . So i deiced I would check into it . At this time the longest anyone had the band I think was maybe 5 yrs ? So in talking to people who had the band for a while 1-2 yrs out it looked great ! People kept the weight off, no one really had anything bad to say about it , including my doc .
In 2006 I decied to take the blunge and get banded and was banded in July of 2007
Here is a link to my one year mark with my band ( oh if i had only known what was to come ) .


The day I hit my goal weight with my lap band I slipped my band for the first time .
That is where the end of the band began. Nothing really ever was right after that . I slipped my band again in July of 2009 !
As this stuff was going on I started to have some other funky things going on with my health . Those are all located here under Auto Immune if you would like to read up on them .
For the record I beleieve these issues I had were mostly if not all band related !
Now the kind of short story at this point is, my band was unfilled for nearly 2 yrs. My band got to the point where it could not be filled with out strangling my esophagus , I got to where i could not eat anything but mushy foods . You can read more about that here .

So my over view of the band now , looking back , Its an evil contraption that needs to be taken off the market ! They have a 50-60% Failure rate and have no business being in peoples bodies ! PERIOD







The Struggle to Remove the Band
At the time my band failed me and I knew I had to get it out we were self employed and in no way able to afford the removal of my band and revision to sleeve out of pocket . My only option after checking into it was to get pre existing insurance coverage through the government. I still had to pay over $500 a month ( I think it was ) for JUST ME being covered plus 20% . Long story short I ended up having a fund raiser and raised most of the money .

The Sleeve( SW 225 Lightest weight 190 )

I had a HORRIBLE experience with my first revision surgeron , he was ok but his office staff literally gave me panic attacks by just talking to them on the phone !
This guy was suppose to be " the best revision doc around " which by the way was 4 hours from my house . (Horrible doc experience )
I have been in the medical field for many years. After asking some of my nurse friends who had a good rep in the OR , who had good technique and who THEY would trust to do their surgery I found my awesome doc Dr Fass !!
The surgery it self was good but I had a few issues . Over all the recovery from band to sleeve revision was decent, harder than the band but doable . My story of my 5 days in the hospital post revision can be read here !

ANOTHER Revision ? You are kidding right ? (SW 215 Current Weight 205 )
At about my one year anniversary I started to feel like I was able to eat a ton of food . My doc thought I was being a little over paranoid so he suggested I get an upper GI . Turned out my sleeve was too larger and I needed or could have it revised .
That story is here !

My Last Revision and the roughest !

With a second hiatial hernia repair and the bypass my surgery , this last one was probably the toughest , I am still recovering from it .

5 Days Post op 

So that is the basic of all my issues, I will fill in when I feel like it , but feel free to ask me any questions !

Enough of Hospitals already !!!

The past couple weeks have been some I hope I never have to go through again . My surgery was a month on the 14th . I am down 22 pounds, I seem to have hit a stall at this point, which is common and I also feel like im eating a whole lot. I have looked into it and read up on it and it seems to be common for this stage in the game. I will feel better when i start loosing again . I also have a rash on one of my incision area's ( waiting for docs office to call me back ) its red , raised and itches ! That being said I am finally starting to eat some solid foods .

The bad part .. on December 10th my son who is 4 hours away in college called me and said his stomach had been hurting him . I asked him what it felt like and he said a sharp pain ... He said he was going to study for finals and go to the clinic in the am when it opened at school. A few hours later he said it really hurt , I asked him to push on it and see if it hurt worse, he said yes . I told him to go to the ER right away it sounded like his appendix . So he did .. he got there around 9pm at night ... he called back a few hours later and said his appendix needed to come out and he would go to surgery in the am . So we headed down there a few hours later. Honestly thinking he would be in surgery already or out . WRONG . We got there nearly 12 hours after he was in the ER and he was STILL In the ER alone ! No one checked on him for over an hour after we got there, They nearly OD'd him on Pain meds , I could go on and on . They finally took him in surgery around 11am the next day ! Why ? Because the doctor decided to finally get his ass there !
They removed his appendix and said he would be there a day ... The next day after he was told he had to stay another day due to bacteria in his blood cultures his friends came up to see him . They told him his friend was down in the ER with HIS APPENDIX , it ruptured ! 2 weeks before their other friend was in the ER with his appendix, got some antibiotics and send him  home. CRAZY HUH ?? The hospital staff was not great , esp after we had to yell at them and the doc for taking so long to get him into surgery .
Finally after 3 days in the hospital he was sent home, where he is now !

I do not wish to see the inside of a hospital for a long time !!!

Disgust, vent, rant , HELP !

I spent the afternoon trying to buy new clothes , shirts mainly . Why ? Because the ones I own now are too small and my fat ass cant fit into them . I bought 3 shirts and left the store in tears.
The only GOOD part about the day is Im still TOO BIG To wear Layne Bryant clothes. YAY Me right ? SCREW THAT ! I have not been this disgusted w/ myself in I cant remember how long.
HOW the HELL Did i get here again ? HOW DID I get to be nearly 200 pounds again ?
I cant tell y'all how sick I am . Why did my band fail ? Why did I keep gaining weight and WHY CANT I STOP SHOVING FOOD INTO MY FACE ? ??
I struggled so badly on the way home to NOT STOP somewhere and get something sweet, anything sweet to ease my pain . I have to do something I know . Im really going to try starting now. I have been in the process of getting my house organized for the first time ... well ever . I have a couple more rooms left .... This has to be done in order for me to get ME back in order .
I have for what ever reason been resisting weighting and measuring my food for a while now. And I think I am at that point where I need to now . I am going to have to go off ALL REFINED Sugar . NONE I just cant have it, I felt the best I have in YEARS after I had my band and didnt have refined carbs for years . I have been making meal plans for the week , I need to make HEALTHY meal plans for the week now . Sorry i am rambling, I spent all afternoon in tears . I cant do this anymore. I cant go and have a surgery again to fix my fat ass ! I have to try to keep from gaining even MORE WEIGHT . Its my fault this happened. If your reading this and you have a band, gastric, any WLS do yourself ONE FAVOR, MOVE , WORK OUT , get into SOME KIND OF ROUTINE, if you dont you will pay for it later if something happens to your surgery !

Oprah's at it again !

I just cant watch her anymore. She gets my blood pressure boiling.
I think she waits until she see's a book go to #1 on the New York Times Best
sellers list then acts like she had something to do with it or she discovered
them and has them on her show and does nothing but act like she
invented the shit ! I really just cant take her anymore.
Today's show was about a book " Women , Food and God
" The title for the show "

Why Oprah Says She'll Never Diet Again!

If you're sick and tired of being fat and miserable, this is the

show for you! Oprah just knows it's going to ignite a revolution.

Why you never have to diet again.

OF COURSE its going to ignite a freaking revolution cause

Oprah says it will and cause she says SHE WILL
Never diet again . As a former fatty forgive me but
" I dont think she's done any dieting by the

looks of her ! I get so sick of Oprah going on TV and ranting about

"The next new thing in diets , when everyone including her know's
they dont freaking work ! She promotes the shit out of it , then goes
on explaining why " well that didnt work " until she finds another one .

She does this and has to do this because for the last 10 years she's
done nothing but BASH weight loss surgery so , well shit for
her she cant have it now ! She had never had a positive
show about WLS on .

She has Carney Wilson on who as someone I once met whoo know's
her calls her is a " WLS Whore " (Love that by the way )
and will go on and say anything about WLS or Gastric Bypass if it gets her on TV but wont have good stories on from people who are success stories !
Ok i'll step down off my soap box. The shoes not even over yet
and i had to turn it off !

BAD NEWS !!! My band .....

First i just want to thank everyone for their great comments on reaching my goal !!!
I went to the doc yesterday after having refulx for a week or more ( FYI If you get refulx go to the doc RIGHT AWAY ) the past week i have been throwing up quite a bit but like i said did not have the money to go to the doc.

WELL, I went in yesterday after not being able to keep liquids down . And one look in the XRay and MY BAND HAD SLIPPED !!! Not only had it slipped but i was about an hour away from having to have surgery ! I was severly dyhradated as well.
The doc after totally unfilling me told me to wait and we'll do another X ray . We did and the band had not "Un done " Its self. ( It was also flipped , you know when you look at the band in flouro you can see the outer rim ? MINE you could see the INSIDE part that your stomach goes through ) So he said to wait until he was done seeing patients , In the mean time he was calling the hospital to make arrangements for surgery . $4000 !! Is what it was going to cost me.
He saw the rest of his patients and we did another x ray and BAM my band moved on its own !!! NO SURGERY . My doc told me " You are VERY LUCKY " he was not happy with me for waiting to come in !!!

SO NOW ... I have to be on liquids for 2 weeks , go back get it checked , if its still not moved or anything then i might be able to do mushies at that point. But he told me at this point to prepare for 4 weeks of liquids !!!!!

So that's my deal !!!!
Thanks again to everyone. I will up date again when i can !

Your too skinny , Stop losing weight ! SHUT THE *UC* UP

NOW my vent. MY MOTHER is pissing me off. Let me tell everyone right now , If you know some one who's losing weight( which is probably everyone reading this now ) dont tell them " You need to stop losing weight" UNLESS you think they are in danger of being anorexic or something. Every damn time i see my mother now she tells me " You dont need to lose more weight , You need to stop losing weight " her BEST ONE " If you lose more weight your FACE is going to be SAGGIER "
NOW Im not opposed to someone saying " Are you at goal yet you look great " and if someone says " No i have 5 more pds to lose someone saying " Well I think you look great the way you are " That's Fine for me . But DONT TELL Me " Your TOO Skinny You need to stop losing weight when im not even at my damn goal yet !! I have 5 more pds to lose to get to my MEDICALLY Supervised SET Weight loss goal . GET OFF MY ASS !!
I just think its aggravating to hear it every time i see her now .
I personally dont see skinny , let alone too skinny , and will never see WAY Too skinny but I realize that I dont see what other see. SO I AM and will stop at my goal weight. Sorry i had to vent !

Me tips. Our time is NOW !

Bel, Of the Miss Piggy Chronicles inspired this post . Here is her post that lead me to mine :
http://misspiggychronicles.blogspot.com/2009/01/me-whinge-never.html

Weather it be before surgery or after at some point i think we all get back to what we had surgery for . US , me , myself , I , numero uno !
After all if anyone is like me for so many yrs I neglected myself, put myself on the back burner. I was a mother first, a wife next and a woman last.
After I had surgery I slowly started to get some confidence . I slowly wanted to look better. But I realized too , i was not quite sure how to do that .
It had been SO Long since i had any style. The last " Style" i had was in high school and I was a "cowgirl" , or that was my style. Wranglers and Boots.
NOW , let me say this .. I am BY NOW MEANS a style expert. At ALL . I laugh really about giving any kind of advice in this direction . However, I think its a good idea to know where to start again .

My first venture , make up . It could be cheap ( or not) it did not require me to constantly buy new stuff as i went down in size.
So a friend told me about a few sites on youtube.com .
Make up tutorials if you will. A W E S O M E !
I dont have a ton of money to spend nor will i spend a ton on make up . If i get somthing on sale im SO HAPPY .
I found this one ... this guy tells you which paint brushes , every day brushes you can get that are exactly like MAC brushes. NOW If your like me and dont know WTF MAC is , its an expensive form of make up . The brushes can run $30 and UP for ONE ! 2 words for that .. HELLLL NOOOOO will i spend that on make up brushes , STUPID !
SO here is this site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9lPfKzQAXE&feature=PlayList&p=BC93C2326DC9FA07&playnext=1&index=6
He also has a tutorial on how to make brush cleaner ! As well as make up tutorials on cheap alternatives to MAC .


This one ,,, Awesome make up tutorials . She's so cute and funny . I wish I could do half the stuff she does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCmhj4NHylM

The next one is more "every day" looks that's just great.
http://www.youtube.com/scalmat

You can also just go on youtube.com and search "Make up " or make up tutorials"
Its very useful . Its a whole new world. Or at least it was for me .

Clothes. I am ALL about cheap clothes. I am REALLY all about CHEAP designer clothes.
Now the closer you get into "normal" size clothes ( non plus size ) the cheaper they get. The best advice someone gave me ( granted I am a stay at home mom So i dont need a lot ) is to get 2 or 3 pairs of pants and multiple shirts. Old Navy ROCKS for this.

Once you want to start buying designer clothes 2 words CONSIGNMENT SHOP !!!
I recently got 3 pairs of Seven for all Man Kind Jeans ( retails for $200 each ) for $20 each . Also got a pair of Lucky Brand Jeans again retails for over $200 for $15 at a consignment store. It takes digging and hunting but take the time it works !

If anyone else has any "ME Tips" to add feel free !

What is your blog spot ?

Ok Im working on mine but after seeing a post by Doc Sly who was inspired by Nola I thought this would be fun for all of us on here.
Post a pic of what your blog spot looks like . Where you sit to blog .
After seeing Doc Sly's cute little , clean office spot I am in the process of cleaning mine up . SO ill try to post mine by Monday .
Would love to see everyone else's ! OR if you do not want to show your office how about the favorite room in your house.
Mindy

Getting Back on Track : The Shame

I have not been a good bandster lately . I know its hard for me to admit that to ya'll because i preach so much to everyone about following rules ect.
But i thought maybe if i came here and admitted what a loser ( and not in a good way) i have been I would stop. As i mentioned in a previous blog about being in a funk lately. Well its not getting a whole lot better. It is and it isnt.
My eating is suffering. I either do not eat until late, late in the day because i have been in bed all day ( until my kids get home) or I am not eating the right stuff.
And the worst , my confession. Ice cream ! I have been eating a bowl of ice cream every night. I know its probably not a HUGE deal . But for me it is. Granted im not eating the whole thing, I have never been a binge eater. But Im eating 150 extra calories i do not need.
My youngest son has been suffering in my funk . He's always been a picky eater. But he also will try anything and eat some pretty healthy things. But in my laziness I have not wanted to make good dinners for him or my oldest.
I worry , since my youngest is not in sports yet ( I did just sign him up for baseball) that he will get over weight. ( just a fear of mine)


SO yesterday i went to the store. I told my youngest NO MORE , no more junk , no more waffles for dinner , no more waffles for snacks ( he would eat them all day if i let him ). I did get him 100% whole wheat with flax seed waffles he can have for breakfast and breakfast only . I got him yogurts , granola bars, fresh fruit and other healthy snacks. Also I got myself one pint of sugar free fat free ice cream and will allow myself one of those every month. ( If my kids do not get to them first)
I have got to snap out of this and start doing things right again .
Not only am I suffering but my kids are too.

On a side note our grocery store had these light whipped yogurts for 5 /4 packs for $1.00 each . I got 5 of them 5/$5 . I am not a big yogurt fan at ALL . But one flavor they had was key lime pie and it was VERY GOOD. So i think i might lets my kids have the ice cream and replace my midnight ice cream w/ the yogurt until i get it out of my system at least.

How tight is too tight ?

Ok so i dont spend much time on OH , dont care for them too much. But they have quiet a few good articles on the site today .
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/lapband/ADJUSTMENTS-Life-with-an-Adjustable-Gastric-Band-How-Tight-Is-Too-Tight.html

I am a bariatric surgeon who does gastric bands, and I have done a lot of them—over 1500 in the last four years. As you can imagine, I have had many thousands of conversations with patients after surgery regarding whether or not they have reached their “sweet spots.” When I ask a patient if he or she needs an adjustment, the answer is universally a resounding “Yes!” From the patient’s standpoint, more restriction always seems appealing, because it’s only logical that it would equate to greater weight loss, right? In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth.

What we are talking about here is over-restriction—the point at which a band becomes so tight that healthy, high-protein foods are no longer an option. Instead, the patient gravitates towards calorie-dense, high-carb soft foods: things like chips, pretzels and ice cream that taste really good and slide down really easily. I call this soft calorie syndrome. Patients who have this syndrome have suboptimal weight loss because they are not getting enough protein; their daily calorie intake can actually be too high, even though they can barely eat any solid food. This is because of these calorie-dense soft foods that don’t keep you full for any length of time.

When I see patients in this zone, usually they have gained weight or remained weight-stable since their last visit. It can be very difficult to convince a patient who hasn’t lost any weight that the band needs to be loosened and not tightened. What I always tell them is that they need to be loose enough to eat three-quarters of a cup of solid protein at one sitting. Meat is ideal. In fact, in my experience I find that band patients who are loose enough to eat most meats lose the most weight.

So keep this in mind when you are seeing your surgeon. Be straightforward and honest, and don’t try to skew things so that you end up getting more saline in your band. If you are over-restricted, you will be less successful in your weight loss and at higher risk for a slip or an erosion. You can be successful without being super-tight!

Trace W. Curry, MD, is medical director of the Center for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery and JourneyLite of Cincinnati. Visit www.thebanddoctor.com.

December 2008

Weigh In Starts on Monday

Come on ya'll I have 1 follower for the weekly weight in blog !!!
I need more . Lets go MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT !!! We all need the support !
Dont make me go drill sergeant on your ass' !!

COME JOIN !!
http://mindyntexas-wlsweekly
weightins.blogspot.com/

OMG A New "Before" picture of me

My mom found this "new" before picture of me ! Hold on to your lunches my friends !
My 7 yr old son said " EWWW MOM " when he saw it LMAO I am pretty sure I am bigger in that picture than my original "before" picture .
YICK ! Nothing like seeing that to perk ya up . Before pictures do not make me feel good about myself though. I am obviously I am glad i have lost the weight. But I do not like looking at them that's for sure ! Does that make sense ?

Weekly Weight In's ?

I weight myself every Monday . Its a habit I have gotten into since day 1 of surgery .
So I got to thinking if everyone ( who reads my blog ) would want to start a "weekly " weight in post . We use to do this on a board i was on . Kind of keep you accountable thing.
But we also set "goals " .
For instance , at the start of the month we would set goals for how much we wanted to lose and some would set goals for how much they wanted to work out ?
We can do this I can start a Weekly Weight in Blog for everyone ?
Since Jan, if half way over we can do what we can now and start fresh in Feb. It might help with "new yrs resolutions" anyone made ? Anyone game ?

I'll start working on a blog for it . If anyone is interested.
Mindy

Stop , Dont feed the piggie !

Ok So i am not a pig but damn do i feel like one lately . I told my dh tonight i have GOT TO GET A F'ing fill SOON ! I honestly have not felt this fat since i have been banded. I feel like everything i have put in my mouth im gaining and gaining.
I have not had to go this long w/ out decent restriction since my total unfill and let me tell ya'll it sucks big fat ..... well you know . It SUCKS !

Hubby swears i'll get one soon . But DAMN IT !! I know im bitching about this a lot . But unless you have had good restriciton for a long time then been this damn hungry for this damn long you have NO CLUE how badly this sucks. I refuse to let anything in this house that is junk .
I cant have it right now . The only thing close to junk food is granola bars.
I hate this ya'll. I get SO DAMN close to my goal then i gain and gain ! SON OF A BITCH !!!

Ok sorry i just had to vent !

My thoughts on the Biggest Loser

Ok ya'll can smack me , flame me , disown me off the blog sphere for this one . BUT I have some thoughts on the biggest loser. I caught it tonight for the first time in a long time.
Over all I like the show, i think it can be a great motivator , starter to lose weight. And most of ya'll should know ( if you don't i will say it now ) that I do NOT think that WLS is the only way someone can lose weight nor do i think that the Band is the ONLY surgery that works. Lifestyle change and working out works for some too.
Now, that being said, here are my issues with TBL. Its JUST NOT REALISTIC .
Ok here is why .. First off these people are working out 24/7 basically while they are there.
Ok fine, i can deal with that. But my biggest issue w/ TBL ... The weight loss.
Tonight someone lost 30 LBS in a WEEK . Are you freaking kidding me ? That's not even "Normal" for someone with bypass . I am not even sure its HEALTHY not to mention when someone else comes along and their "totals' add up to more, the guy who lost 30 lbs in a WEEK is disappointed and that number was no longer Good enough for him . What does that teach people ?
What does it teach people who are sitting at home wanting to change and they lose 3lbs in a week ( which is awesome) ? They are surely going to be disappointed . These people are losing DOUBLE Digit amounts of weight in a week . Its just not realistic.
THEN for that to not be "good enough " ! How sad !

I think this show is sending the wrong message . If your going to do a show like this lets be realistic . Make it realistic so people at home have something real to go by . Not this bullshit of losing 10,15, 25, 35 pounds in ONE WEEK. Correct me if I'm wrong , but i have yet to see anything on the show, a disclaimer that says " THIS WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT TYPICAL " Because we are working their ass's off 24/7 !

Im curious what others think of it ?
comments ?

Review: My Fitness Coach for the Wii ( DAY ONE )

I have a Wii and the Wii fit. LOVE it all. The only thing i don't like about the Wii fit work out routines is there is no " routine" . You have to start and stop start and stop .
So i asked hubby for the My Fitness Coach for Christmas. I had heard the Jillian Michael's one was crap so i did not even bother.
So I used the Fitness Coach for the first time last night . The first thing is does is ask you to do a fitness evaluation . OH BTW you do NOT need the Wii Balance board for this .
Anyway , it asks you to do some exercise to assess your fitness level . Jumping jacks, Sit ups, push ups, ect. It also asks you what equipment you might have to use at home. Balance balls, dumb bells, heart rate monitor ect. You check which ones you have to use and it incorporates that into your work out. Then you do a stretching move to test your flexibility . So after you do that it tells you what it thinks you should work on . It gives you options of cardio, flexibility, strength training and a few others i cant think of . It will then ask you how many days a week you want to do the work out and for how long. Then you begin the work out . I did 15 minutes of cardio .
I really like how you can do a full 15, 30, 45, or 60 minute cardio work out non stop and not have to keep selecting things like on the Wii fit . The work out I did was not easy . It was probably a jazzercise type routine . it was not easy at all . My butt muscles hurt today from it , and my legs.

So over all I really like this so far. We'll see how i like it tomorrow night when i do it again .

Ask me anything ?

OK I thought this would be fun ( Humor me im bored) I saw this on another blogger's site ( Ok i stole the idea from her LOL) . Granted she's got a HUGE following . But I thought this might be fun .
First I wanted to say that all the comments and emails that i have gotten lately are SO nice and very important to me , they keep me motivated. I want to say thank you to everyone .

NOW the "game" . Ask me anything ! I have noticed lately I have gotten comments from lots of newbies, some emails as well. So send me an email ( Or post the comment ) and i'll post it on the blog to answer your question the best i can . The whole reason I started this blog is because i was getting emails w/ the same questions over and over , I figured " lets put them in one place" .
Buts its become so much fun and therapeutic for me as well. Im not an expert but just enjoy helping others the best I can . So go ahead , let me have it .

Ask me anything , It does not have to be weight loss related if you dont want it .
Shoot Im an open book !

Mindy