Not As Tight.

Hi all. I've been loving reading your blogs. Looks like everyone is doing so good!!!

Remember my theory on getting tight when I am about to start??? Well, I can throw that one out the window. I started today and the last three days, I finally started to loosen up a bit. It's actually a relief. If I stay like this, I think I'll cancel that appointment for the 11th, but I'll wait until it gets closer. It's been so nice to finally be able to eat things again, however, with my period came a craving for sweets and sugar and I have been over indulging, my mom made cookies and it was the first day I was able to eat better, so I had a few spoonfuls of cookie dough (I just can't resist) and about 9 cookies over the course of two days or so. I also made cookie dough at home (big mistake) I planned to make cookies for the kids, but didn't get a chance and I keep dipping into that cookie dough. I'm going to bake the cookies today when they get home from school so that we can eat them up and they will be gone!!! Gone I say!!! The kids started school yesterday and I can always remember a time when my mom was laid off her job and she was home when we got home from school and she would bake cookies often and the whole house would smell like cookies. A great childhood memory for me, so I want to do that for the kids, just have to get to baking today.

Anyway. I didn't weigh in yesterday because I'm about to start and don't want to be discouraged by my menstrual weight, so I'm going to put it off until next Monday and hope to get off these sweets by then. I'm still eating good, just no hurting or pain or reflux. I love it!!!

I guess I better be on my way, have to pick up the kids in a few minutes. Have a great week!!

Hi!!

Last night I went to a birthday dinner party and they had great authentic Mexican food. I was a little nervous about eating because I'm super tight and no one at the party knows about my band. So I served myself some beans, rice, salad and a bit of pork. I ate the rice beans and salad, but the pork seemed to tough to go down smooth. Everything was fine and I had a lot of water about an hour after, so I know everything passed through my pouch, but I got bad reflux again last night and tons of acid again this morning.

I decided that I should at least call and make an appointment to see the Dr. as sometimes it takes a while to get in to see him. Good thing I did, I can't get in until Sept 11th. So, I decided I am loosing weight consistently right now and the acid reflux comes and goes depending on what and how late I eat. It's only when I sleep and nothing too serious and I've had it before when it was constantly throughout the day the last couple times I was too tight. Anyway, I'm going to continue as I am and hopefully I'll loosen up some and be able to cancel my appt. Otherwise, if its still the same, I think I might get some taken out.

So, wish me well that I drop a ton more weight and then my band just loosens on its own.

Let me tell you some NSV:

I have these formal dresses in my closet from weddings that I have been in (2 to be exact) and I tried them on before surgery and both couldn't zip all the way up and what did zip was really tight. Both dresses were from after my first child when I was larger but got even bigger. Well, yesterday I decided to try them on and they both were too big. They look terrible now. I can pull like 2 inches away from my body when the zipper is all the way up. I couldn't believe it. I guess this means that my weight is somewhere around pre pregnancy right now. OMG!!!

I gave away a lot of my clothes I was holding onto from teenage years. I guess I thought, I'll never be there again why keep them. It always depressed me anyway, but I did save a pretty negligee from my wedding night and my Boustie (spelling???) from my wedding dress. I tried on the negligee and it fits, a little tight and my body hangs in different spots than it did back then, so I don't think it will ever fit the same, but it fits and the Boustie I can clasp some of the clasps but not all. That is my next NSV to fit completely in that again.

I love my band even when its hugging me tight!!! :) Have a great day!!

My Wild Girls Night Out!!

So I have to post about this girls night out I had recently. I have always been a girl who likes to drink socially and you all know I like to do Happy Hour, well when I was larger, I could drink all night long and never go overboard. Well, things have changed and it's very hard to change my ways. About 4 of my good friends and I decided to get together and go to happy hour at a local place. We ordered food, so we weren't drinking on an empty stomach or anything and I had a Screwdriver and then tasted one of these great fruity Martini's that tasted like a Jolly Rancher. Well, needless to say, I don't really know exactly how many of those I had (maybe 3 over the course of 5 hours) and I was way over served. This happened to me one other time at a 4th of July party at my brother-in-laws and I literally had 1 glass of wine and two fancy Red, white and blue drinks and I was drunk.

I've come to realize that it's because of my weight loss (I know, duh!!) I'm not able to tolerate nearly as much alcohol as I used to be and I need to go real slow or it hits me quick. Anyone else figure this out??? Or am I just a lush??? It's sort of like getting used to eating less and slow, drinking needs to be less and slow as well and the band doesn't remind you that you need to slow down. I figure it out when it's too late.

Anyway, we did have a good time and we had my friends boyfriend come and drive us all home. Everyone of us went overboard by the way, so I wasn't the only one, but when I was 45 pounds heavier this wouldn't have happened.

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.