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.

Down Another Pound

Well, I lost another pound since my last weigh in. I'm down to 182. Over the last week or so, I must have gained and then I started dropping again. It went up a pound or two since yesterday, but that's okay. I'm extremely happy with 182 and a 40 pound loss. I must say, I thought I weighed a lot more on my last weigh in and it is a little disappointing to only see a 1 pound loss, I thought it was more like 4. I think it's because I gained some after last weigh in and lost again. Oh, well 182 makes me happy.

I am feeling back to my old self as far as my band and it's sudden tightness and I didn't need to go get an unfill. I have just been taking it real easy and now my band seems to be right where I want it to be. Tight, but no reflux and no uncomfortableness.

My hubby has been so sick. Bad sick, scary sick. The kind of sickness where you want to just stay away so you don't get it. Anyway, he's home from work today and feeling a lot better than yesterday. I have a ton of things to do this week. I have Bunco on Thursday at my house and then on Friday, we leave for Palm Springs for a week with friends and family at a great time share with a waterslide at the pool for the kids. The last think I need is to get sick, so I'm trying to be very careful.

I also went shopping yesterday because I really need a new swimsuit. I usually have two or three different ones during the summer and this summer I only have one that fits and it's not looking so good anymore. We spend a lot of time near pools and the beach and stuff, so I really need more than one. I find myself in a difficult size for swimsuit shopping right now. I find myself in normal sizes now for clothes but for bathing suits it's hard. I'm kind of chesty, so all the regular size bathing suits don't quite cover the chest area at all and the plus sizes start at 16w and the look too blousy. I used to like that to hide my tummy, but now I want something a little tighter and a little more flattering. You know?? Anyway, I went shopping for hours yesterday and found two swimsuits that I liked. I had to get one pieces instead of a tankini (which I usually like) I'm not real comfortable with my legs and thighs yet, so I kind of like a tankini so I can wear the little skirt bottom. Well, I got the regular one piece, but I was glad to find them. I was going to take on back after I got my husbands opinion on which one looked best, but he said I should keep them both, so I'm going to. Yeah!!!

40 Yeah!!

That's right, I finally hit 40 pounds lost. Actually it's 41 pounds, but whose counting? Well, it's been an interesting week for me. From my last post, you know I was really tight and getting the reflux thing again and not feeling so good and thinking about getting an unfill. Well, I decided to go on liquids and mushes to kind of help keep my band from getting irritated and I didn't want to PB because I think that irritates and swells my band and makes things worse. Well, that has seemed to be doing the trick. I'm still very tight, but the acid reflux thing has subsided and if it does show itself, it's temporary. I'm able to sleep fine, not like before, and I'm keeping away from spicy and chocolaty things. Right now, I'm feeling fine an have no plans to go get an unfil. I hope it continues because I'm really seeing weight loss now and don't really want to go in for an unfill. So, I'm just going to baby my band until it loosens up a bit and as long as it stays as it is, its a keeper.

I'm the kind of person who wants to figure things out and figure out why this happens. I thought it was menstrual, but that's not it. So I was thinking about what I ate when it tightened up on me and I had eaten some Jalapeno Poppers for two days in a row just before I got tight. Could spicy things irritate my band and give me reflux? I mean, I know nonbanded people get reflux from eating certain types of things so why not banders? Hmmm, something to think about. Since then, I've stayed away from the spicy things.

Back From Vegas

Well I'm back from Las Vegas and we had a great time. My band, however, didn't want to have fun at all. I don't know why, or what happened, but it tightened up on me again. It started getting tight the day after 4th of July. I keep trying to think of why it happened. I did have a lot to drink on the 4th, but ate fine. Can drinking or dehydration cause your band to tighten up???

Anyway, on our way to Vegas, I could tell it was really getting tight and I was having trouble eating and not eating much. We got there on Monday and had a great night dancing and hanging out, went and shared some nachos and I managed to eat 4 or 5 of them and some of the meat that went with them. By Tuesday morning, I was super tight and starting to feel that reflux feeling, so I started taking medicine and decided I'd eat slider foods and nothing spicy or chocolaty that day to try to give my band a little rest. So I did real good, but had a hard time sleeping that night because of the reflux. We left on Wed and I pretty much had coffee that morning and a little oatmeal and drank water the whole way home. That night, I made myself mashed potatoes and the reflux was much better yesterday and I actually slept fine.

I'm thinking if this gets any worse or continues, I'll need to go in and get another unfill. My doctor is going to think I'm crazy. Last time, I was sure it was because of my period, but not this time, I had my fill done during my period and I was off when it tightened, so I know it's not that. I just wish I could figure this out. I'm going to keep on the medicine and watch what I eat since acid reflux for nonbanders is caused by eating certain types of food (i.e. chocolate, spicy). I need to eat slower and not late at night and hopefully keep this at bay. I'll keep you update on whether I get it unfilled again or not.

Okay. So for the good news........I'm down to 183. I really haven't been eating much and was sure I was loosing and I stepped on my Wii this morning and I'm down to 183. Yeah!!!!

Good Restriction

Well after a few days of trying out my new fill, I think this is good restriction for me. Dare I say, sweet spot? I'm not sure about it being my sweet spot, but it feels good so far. I've been feeling full after a small amount and staying full for quite a while. All is good. Now, if only i can stop eating late at night, I just might loose some more weight. It's that TOM for me, so my weight is kind of staying the same, it seems. I'm hoping to have a little drop on Monday when Aunt Flo is gone.

I got this kids cookbook for my kids and told them to look through it and pick out some recipes that they would like to try. So, last night was the first night that they wanted to cook dinner for me and hubby all by themselves from this cookbook. I just sat at the bar and watched and gave direction if they needed it and they did the rest themselves. Dessert too. We had a pizza quesadilla (cheese, peperoni, sausage) with some fresh fruit in yogurt. They served us and all. It was so cute and they loved doing it. I was only able to eat 1/2 of a small quesidalla and a couple pieces of fruit and I was stuffed. Tortillas seem to fill me up quick, which I think is good. For desert, I had to help a little more. We did ice cream. It was great, they mixed the ingredients in a bowl, we poured that into two quart size Ziploc bags (double bagged) and then put those into a Gallon size ziploc bag and filled it with ice and sprinkled rock salt on top. Then into a pillow case so they could handle the cold bag and shake for 15 min. Then we put in the freezer until we were ready to eat. It worked and they loved it. We sprinkled it with crushed Score bar. Yum. We will need to work on the recipe because it needed a little more sugar and it only called for milk, where as whipping cream or 1/2 and 1/2 would taste so much richer, but on a great note, it was band friendly since it didn't have a lot of sugar or fat. Pretty much just frozen milk. It made me think how I could use Splenda and really make this good for me.

Any who. We are heading off to brother-in-law's house today for a block party and pool party for the 4th of July. I'm sure it will be fun. We are going to stay the night, so we don't have to drive late at night and we can have some wine and drinks. Then, tomorrow I'm getting my hair done, colored and trimmed and then it's off to Vegas on Monday. I must remember to weigh myself on Monday before I leave.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July and be safe!!