46 Pounds Lost *** Yeah!!!

Yep that's right, I weighed in today, my usual weigh-in day and I'm down 46 pounds, but I love to document the milestone numbers, so I posted a picture of 45 pounds lost. I really can't believe it, but it has been a really tight week or so.

I am not able to eat very much and trying to stick to liquids for a few days to give my band a rest. I ate 1/4 of an In-N-Out Protein (no bun, wrapped in lettuce) burger the other night and it gave me a rough time, so I was doing a lot of liquids since they make my pouch feel better when I'm real tight. I know banders are not supposed to do slider foods, but honestly, I'm not eating much, and it's been like soup and protein drinks so.

I hope this is the beginning of a trend, meaning, I hope the pounds continue to fall off. I'd love to get down to 170 soon and then my first big goal will only be 10 pounds away. I'm also hoping that once I loose a little more, my band will loosen up.

Anyway. I'm ecstatic today and I have a feeling, that tonight's going to be a good night. Do you know that song? I love that one!!!

Gotta go......Have a good day everyone!!

Recent NSV

Okay, so after the last blog of constant complaining, I thought I should post some positive things. And also wanted to say to any of you reading that even with some of these ailments I'm experiencing right now, I still love my band and don't regret for a single moment that I did it. I just like to figure out what is wrong and fix it or prevent it if I can and I don't want to get an unfil if it's not necessary which I don't feel it is.

Anyway, so it looks like I am down 45 pounds, but will wait till Monday, weigh in day to be sure. I would have thought it would be an even bigger weight loss considering what my food intake was over the weekend. Let me give you an idea:

B - Iced Coffee Starbucks (must have coffee each morning to function)
1 McDonald's Yogurt Parfait

L - Steamed Rice 1 Cup

D- Cup of soup

That is about what I ate all weekend with the exception of the last nights dinner.

Anyway, on to my NSV:

---Hubby loves to take pictures and most of the time I hate every single picture of myself and this time, he was showing me the pictures he took and I loved most of them. I actually thought I looked great. I can't remember the last time I looked at pictures of myself and thought, wow!! I look good!!! I'm not trying to sound conceited, but it feels good to see yourself and not pick yourself apart.

---I, again, lounged around the pool all weekend not feeling uncomfortable an trying to hide behind a cover up. Hubby even took pictures of me at the pool and I picked out 3 or 4 that I actually like.

---I was telling my mom today that I am so happy with the way I look right now that I had set a goal to get down to 160 (about 15 more pounds) and would like to get there, but if I never lost another pound, I'd still be happy and feel good about what I have accomplished. Of course, if my scale stops moving, I'll be complaining for sure, but today, that is how I felt.

Anyway, I think there are more NSV, but I can't think of any right now.

I've Been A Bad Blogger!!

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I've been pretty busy and sometimes I feel like I just type the same old thing.

Anyways, to catch up on what I've been busy doing. We went to Vegas again from Sun-Wed and took the kids this time. Spent a lot of time by the pool during the day. The pool had a wave pool and a lazy river and we all had a blast. Took the kids to a comedy, magician show, which they loved and ate out, which my kids also love. They loved seeing all the hotels and stuff.

Anyway, so as you know my hubby and I went to Vegas alone about a month ago and I got so tight and was uncomfortable and had the reflux thing. Well, it happened again!!! It really bums me out because I want to eat with everyone else, but I'm so tight, I end up taking a couple bites and I'm done and feeling terrible. I finally felt better the last night there and we went out for a steak & shrimp dinner. Salad was fine, but only ate a little to save room one bite of shrimp and that doesn't go down so good, a few small bites of steak and a few bites of potato and I'm done. I was happy though because I actually got to enjoy my dinner that night.

So on the ride home, I notice as we are driving up one of the very steep hills, i start getting pain and pressure in my stomach and it's very uncomfortable, like when your sleeping and your back kind of hurts and you can't get comfortable for the life of you. Then I feel like I want to burp and keep trying to make myself burp, then we hit the down slope and I feel some relief and am able to burp a bit. Then it happens again the next hill, so that got me to thinking. Does altitude cause my band to tighten? When we got home, I felt almost back to myself. Still tight, but not uncomfortable. The uncomfortableness is in my back and just below my ribs. Anyway I decided to look at the altitude in Vegas and it's about 2100 ft and where I live, it's about 800 ft. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? If this is true, I'm scared to go up to the mountains or fly in an airplane.

So today, I went to lunch with my mom to Olive Garden and had a bowl or soup and we shared a pasta dish, which I took a couple bites and took the rest home, but finished the soup. We sit for about an hour and talk after lunch and so I drink my water, then we go shopping. So about an hour or so after lunch, I start getting that uncomfortableness, not really pain, but extremely uncomfortable, like I want to undo my bra and sit down. I drank some warm water and it helped, and I feel the need to make myself burp. I kept drinking water and it ended up going away, but I'm not sure what it is. Does anyone else experience this? Could it be gas trapped in my stomach and not able to get out so it causes pressure?? I think this might be the cause of the reflux thing too when I have food in my stomach and laying down. Hmmmmmm....

Sorry if this blog seems like a lot of complaining, but I was telling my mom about these things today and she asked if any of my blog friends experience this and I said that I didn't think so, but have never asked, so I'm asking.

Great Weekend, Great Food = Bad Scale

Okay, so I had a great weekend. We went camping, I drank a lot of wine over the course of the weekend. I ate a lot of chips, roasted marshmallows & great desserts. I over indulged this weekend and of course the scale shows. I'm up a pound.

So on the band front. My band is still really tight, but I seemed to eat a little more than normal over the weekend. Probably the fact that I was drinking and was very relaxed, it seemed like my band had a little more room. Plus the fact that I ate a lot of sweets. As soon as I got home, my band seemed to get really tight, Not the oh I hope I don't need an unfill tight, just a reminder that I need to take it easy. Funny how that works. On the way home from camping, we were hungry and we stopped and got an order of Fried Zucchini and french Fry's from a local restaurant. they are so good and huge, so we all split the two orders. I ate only about 5 or so and was feeling like they were hanging around in my throat so I stopped and then the rest of the evening, I was feeling extremely full, my head kept wanting to eat, but I could tell that I would get the reflux thing if I did, so I controlled myself. Today, I've just had my protein drink this morning and I think I'll have another for lunch. I'm still feeling real tight and don't want to overdo it.

I think I'm finally understanding this band thing. I can almost tell when I'm really tight, not sure why yet. I think it just has a mind of its own, but when I'm tight, if I take it easy and do some liquids, I don't get uncomfortable and get the reflux thing. I can almost feel my band now and eat according to how tight it is.

We are going to a friends house for a BBQ and swimming tonight, so I'll take it easy today so I can eat a little bit tonight.

I'm not loosing as much anymore and I know it's because of the food choices I'm making and my lack of regular exercise. I feel like I'm not eating a lot at all, it's just the choices and the amount of calories that I am eating are making up for the amount that I'm eating.

I need to get back to healthier choices and keep up with my kickboxing. I did two days last week and I'm going to do two days this week. Once school starts for the kids, I decided I'm going to try to get to the gym three additional days a week and commit to at least 1/2 hour of weights or cardio in addition to my two days of Kickboxing. I really want to get to 160 or less before my 1 year anniversary. After 1 year, I have to pay for my fills and unfills, so I need to get serious about the next 6 months and getting to a weight that will make me happy. After all, that is why I did this, I need to stop waisting time with poor food choices and get serious.

Other thoughts and NSV

Well, I finally got a chance to catch up on everyone's blogs. Glad to hear everyone is doing great!!!

I had a few NSV that came to mind and I forgot to share in my earlier post.

1. I actually went to Knott's Soak City (waterpark) and walked around in my bathing suit without a cover up and, not a skirted bathing suit which I would normally wear. I bought two new bathing suits and they are both one pieces with my full legs showing. I felt great and felt like I looked good too!!!

2. My 6 month bandiversary was on the 19th. Yeah!!! -43 pounds.

3. My friends couldn't believe my weight loss and kept complimenting me.

4. I feel really good about myself and haven't felt so normal in a long time.

I'm Back...

Hi everyone. I'm back from a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Palm Springs. It was around 110 degrees most days and the timeshare was wonderful. Several great pools, a water slide for the kids and a great wreck room to entertain them when they needed to get out of the sun. We also had a chance to take them to the big water park out in Palm Springs and we had several visitors come out and spend time with us. It was great!!

On the band front, I was quite worried to come home and see what my weight was going to be. My band is just perfect right now. Hasn't been too tight since the Vegas Trip, and it actually loosened ever so slightly to the point where I can eat just about anything (except pizza) and it goes down okay and I get full quick. My worry though, was all the snacks we had for the kids, I had trouble controlling myself when it came to chips, mini doughnuts and ice cream. I didn't bring my protein either, so I would have breakfast everyday, lunch and dinner with snacks, but my band was always working for me and stopping me before I ate too much. I was also having wine almost everyday. So, needless to say, I was worried about gaining too much weight. I waited until this morning to step on the Wii and I'm down another 1.1 pounds. Yeah!!! I'm down to 178.8!!! I'm so excited. I love my band!!!

Now that I'm back for a while, I'd like to set some goals:

I'm going to get back to exercising
**going to the gym for kickboxing and riding my stationary bike a couple days a week

I'm going to go back to drinking protein drinks

Try to eat more fruits and vegetables.

I haven't had a chance to catch up on everyone Else's blogs, but look forward to reading about what has been going on with everyone.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Well, I've been so busy the last few days getting ready to host Bunco and then going away next week.

It's funny how the scale changes from day to day. I'm back down to 180 today and yesterday I think I was like 181 or 182 or something like that. I really haven't been eating much at all. I'm so glad I didn't need to go get an unfill. I'm very tight and suspect it will hold me for a long time. I don't see me getting anymore fills anytime soon. I'm not really very hungry most of the time, but my head makes me eat, but I haven't been overeating. I'm afraid to eat a lot of things for fear of getting stuck. Also, food seems to stay in my pouch for a long time an then I get thirsty (it will be like an hour after eating or longer) and I drink and then I seem to get a little stuck, but I just wait it out and try to relax and it eventually goes down and then I can drink. I notice when I eat too much, I have a lot of uncomfortableness and a little bit of aching in my upper back area. I remember that feeling from when I was recovering from surgery. I think it means I should have stopped eating sooner. My hair is still falling out Uhhhhhh. I sure hope it stops or I might be bald when I hit goal. I get a little reflux here and there, but I take the reflux med and it takes care of it.

I got bad news this morning that my uncle is in the hospital. It's pretty serious and I'm very close to him. If things don't improve, I will probably put off Palm Springs for a day and go see him in the hospital tomorrow morning. I'm kind of just playing the waiting game right now as they don't know what is wrong yet. He's stable, but not out of the woods.