Fill it up to get it down...

Well, well, well.... it's all about the minor adjustments, isn't it?

So the last time I talked to you I had just had a little unfill to get me to a more comfortable place. Well, I think it's just about perfect. I had been disappointed because I hadn't been sure that this little tiny bit would make that much of a difference, but guess what? It has.

My fill is currently about 5.2cc's or so. That .2 doesn't sound like much, but it's right on track for me. I'm eating less, but not so tight that I'm puking every day. Not to say that I haven't lost a lunch or two, but it was out of stupidity, not the band. I seem to have the most trouble when I'm eating with someone and am talking, I forget to chew. heh... which sends me to the bathroom to do a PB, then I can go back to eating, and pay more attention after that.

Prior to the fill, I was eating until I felt full and then just a little more, but then a half hour later, I was in pain because all that food was backed up and would pull my esophagus to the side if I leaned one way or another. This doesn't happen now because I get full faster, and stop eating sooner and I puke if I eat that "just a little more", so I get that instant feedback that I wasn't getting before this last fill.

Needless to say, I'm back into the 180's.. I would have posted on this sooner, but I didn't want to jinx it!! lol

I want to also say, how much difference 10 pounds makes in wearing clothes. A few weeks ago I was bordering around 194-200 and all my clothes were tight. Now, at 187, my clothes are all baggy and pants I've been avoiding because of the pudge now fit me again.

*Crossing my fingers* This is going well, here's to hoping it continues!!


Important note in regards to the fill...
For the last year, all my fills have been done with a certain size of needle/syringe that made it difficult to get a smaller number because it was harder to read, so we were moving up and down at a .5 or higher range. This last one was so small because the doc changed to a different one and was better able to read the amount he was pulling out. I would like to tell you all out there if you are having trouble with getting just the right fill and your doctor tells you that its too hard to tell if he's getting the right amount... Ask for another size needle/syringe!!! They do make them smaller for better accuracy! I did not know this. I could have saved myself tons of trouble last year had I known this to be the case!!

Current weight: 187lbs

Finally...

Well, I got a new fill last week. I'm up to 6cc's total at this point. I'm really tight, but I'm also at TTOTM. I got my fill the first day of it (last Thursday), so I'm watching to see that it loosens up in a few days so I can eat a bit better. In either case I've lost about 7 pounds since the fill. I'm stoked. I had gotten back up to 197 lbs, not too bad, but still not good. Now I'm back to 190.

I'm hoping to be back to 185 in the next few days. I'm still riding my bike to work a few days a week. Including this morning.

I'm beginning to think my bike is unlucky though. I've been late to work almost every time I've taken my bike to work. I've forgotten my badge, I've not had access to the bike cages, I've left a few minutes late because of bad planning... etc. This morning I was almost late, my chain slipped off!! Luckily I was coming around the corner about a block from work and I still had about 7 minutes left. (Better planning today. heh) I walked/ran to lock up my bike and made it in on time 'ish.

Anyway, I'm off to play Facebook games. Have a great day everybody!! :)

Current weight: 190lbs.

Short note

Rode my bike to work today, and several times over the last few days. Loving it so much!! :) Life is ok. Eating well. Not too much junk food. (Not none either.) Focusing on protein again so my hair doesn't thin again.

I'm getting back closer to where I was a couple months ago. Only about 10 more pounds to go.

Current weight:194 lbs.

Almost Bandiversary.

So the three months is up. I went in for more barium yesterday. Ick!! All is well in lap-band land. He put 3cc's back in. Don't think that's gonna do much, but it makes me feel better to know the net is back, even if it's a small one.

I've gained some weight. I don't know how much yet. Guess I should stop putting it off and weigh myself tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how that goes... maybe.

By the way, if anybody wants to add me on Facebook, lemme know via email. I'd put up a link, but I'm too lazy to do that right now. I have to revamp my pages anyway sooner or later, so I'll put it up then I guess.

Also, if you have an iPhone, iTouch, or iPad and use either We Rule or Words with friends, I need more neighbors/friends, so please... let me know!! My username on those is Gwydas. I wish there was a way to social network the Wii Fit, but I don't think there is at this point. If any of you knows anybody who works for Nintendo, tell them to get on the ball with the social networking stuff!

One more thing, the title of this post even... heh... my bandiversary is coming up. I think my total, if you include the weight I've gained back, was about 70 pounds. Better overall than what it would have been without the band *cough*gained 20 pounds*cough* but still disappointing. I was hoping for a hundred or so. Still, I'm skinnier now than I've been in over 10 years. So hooray!

Current weight: 280 lbs. ?

February!

Wow, this year is already speeding by. It feels like the day after New Year's and yet it's actually February 1st! I haven't been working out in the last week cause I've been sick. I had a bad cold. It was no fun. I'm feeling better today though, so I should be able to get into the gym today.

Since my fill my eating has been much better. I am not hungry all the time, which is great. I'm a little too much I think, because I've been close to PB'ing several times, I actually did like twice because I pushed it. One was at Olive Garden. It was just so good, I ate till I PB'd, paused, and ate some more. lol I'm bad, I know.

For the most part I've been good though. The hardest thing I've been dealing with lately has been getting enough liquids and protein. In fact, I'm eating eggs right now to get some of that protein!

So anyway, it hasn't been a good week because I've been sick, but I think being sick must have not been all bad because I lost several pounds this week.


Current weight: 186 lbs.

2 Christmases

I don't know how much I weigh right now. I'm guessing I'm 195, but could be as much as 200. Christmas candy and all that you know. Ick. lol Plus I'm not working out, because of the boob surgery, I'm not allowed to go above a slow walk. So anyway, just thought I'd come in and say Merry Xmas and show you a crazy picture.... this pic is of last year at Xmas and this year. Keep in mind, the last years pic is after chemo, and I wasn't fully healthy yet. Not to mention I was about 65 lbs heavier. Hahaha... What a difference a year makes, eh?




Oh, and before you think differently... that is not my baby. That's my baby-neice Mia.

Current weight: 195? lbs.

Back to where I was!

Number of pounds down:

Finally! I'm back to where I was before I had to have the band loosened. One-Hundred-Ninety-Three! Yay!! I'm gonna run tomorrow, the second day of week two (C25k). Been lazy, haven't wanted to go run in the rain. I have been exercising some at home though. I did 180 jumping jacks, day before yesterday. That was full awesome.

Next week will be no working out, except mild walking, because of the boobs. Wish me luck that I don't gain 10 pounds!! lol


Current weight: 193lbs.

Been busy

Haven't updated in a while. Xmas season is so busy, it's hard to keep up. My weight is finally coming back down again. Although it jumped about two pounds last week because I was eating crap. I'm back to 194, and if I don't eat stupid stuff I'll be 193 tomorrow, cause I'm just barely in the 194 range. Cross your fingers for me. heh.

Oh, and also, I did the week two. The one I was worried about... it was fine! No problems. In fact, I did it and added an extra 3 minutes of running at the end cause I didn't feel like I was done when it told me to do the cool down. I love running. So awesome.

That's really all I have. Life is going pretty well. I have my final boob surgery on Monday. I get two weeks off to recover, so that should be fun. Have to go buy a special bra today to keep my boobs in place while they heal.

Current weight:194lbs.

On the way down again.

I've been afraid, I've been petrified... oh wait! That's a song isn't it? lol (Think Diana Ross )

Anyway, I've been afraid to weigh myself. I've gained some weight. I know I have. I've been to the lapband clinic twice in the last 7 days. They weigh you every time you come in. Surprisingly though, I haven't gained as much as I thought. This morning, I was looking in the mirror, and felt like I was skinnier. So I figured I'd better start weighing myself again, just to know for sure. You know? So I did. And I'm back to 201! Whoop whoop! I'm surprised too. Because I feel like I've been eating an awful lot. Must not be though. I'm probably still going to ask for a new fill in a week or two though, because I'm definitely eating more than I should.

Ok, so on to the other part of this story. So, as you all know, I had all my saline taken out on the 3rd, and had some put back in on the 12th. Well, it wasn't enough, so I went back on the 13th... yes, Friday the 13th, and had some more put in. It was not a fun experience, lemme tell ya. So, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my port is slightly askew. It's tipped a little to the left so when they poke me for fills, they have to go in at a slight angle. Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be a HUGE deal, I can take a little bit of needling (heh) so long as I get the little pain shot first, but this. This hurt. Not fun at all. The needle going in wasn't the problem, because I had the local painkiller. Once it was under the skin though and he missed the port... that hurt like a motherf*****. He missed about 6-8 times. I lost track at one point because I was trying not to cry. He finally got it, and added more saline. He went back and forth on it and finally decided to put me back where I was before the removal - 4.5. I was surprised, but not unhappy about it. I liked where I was before, it worked well for me.

He had me drink a glass of water, and eat a cracker. Both went down without issue. I have more restriction than I did on the 12th, but still not enough. I'm thinking that prior to the unfill I'd been swollen for awhile. Also, I can't say this with authority, because I'm not a doctor, but I think all the puking may have pulled some of my lower stomach up through the band a bit and it was closing off the passage. When they took out the saline it finally had a chance to heal and go back to it's normal position. That's what I think anyway, in my personal expert opinion. lol

What all this leads to is that when the doc gets back to town (he's out for a few days this week and won't do a fill until he gets back) I will ask for more fill. I'm losing weight again, so I'm not sure how convinced he will be, but I'll try my darndest to convince him that I need some more. I'm eating about two times as much as I think I should. So I'm going to ask for another whole cc of fluid. Bringing me up to 5.5cc's. I have a 10cc band, so that's not too bad I think. I've read other people's blogs who had like, 7cc's in their band. I think enough fat has shrunk around my actual stomach that it's time to go up to 5.5.

Well, I'm outta here for now. Had a late night last night and all this typing is making me sleepy. Hope you are all doing well. :)

Current weight: 201lbs.

Lower but not as much

Ok, so I lost a little weight this morning, but not as drastically as the last few days. I've been able to eat a teeny bit more and it shows. I only lost .4 lbs this morning which isn't enough to bring me below 194, but it's very very close. I'm right on the line. So tomorrow, I should be 193! Yay me!

My teeny bit more food amounted to a few peanuts and a tablespoon of mashed potatoes. Everything else I ate was liquid or fudgecicle.

I went to goodwill yesterday to find a cute skirt. All the skirts I picked up were size 16, only one was slightly varied. It was a 16W from Old Navy. So the result was that most of them fit me, tightly, and the 16W wouldn't have even stayed on my hips. Why didn't they just call it an 18 or 20? Because that's basically what it was. It was huge. Well, compared to my current size anyway. A few months ago it would have fit. I love that it was so big on me. hee hee.

When I was waiting for the dressing room to try on my skirts I saw this cute blue and white striped shirt that's a little tiny bit tight on me right now, but still wearable. I look forward to that shirt fitting nicely soon!! :)

Well, that's all I have for right now. Have a great day everybody!

Current weight:194lbs.

Weekly Weigh-in

Well, not alot going on around here. I'm back to exercising. But wait, I think I already mentioned that. I went to a party on Saturday and got drunk, and danced and danced and danced. It was great. Wait, I already said that too, didn't I?

I did 40 minutes on the elliptical yesterday. My legs were already sore from dancing on Saturday, so it was a hardship, lol. I made it through though! I feel right proud of myself, lemme tell ya.

I'm going back to the gym on Wednesday for another 40 minutes. I'm debating on next weeks workout. Should I go for a full hour? Or try to go faster, and go for distance? Or should I go uphill the whole time? Or maybe, uphill and an hour together? Oh the choices. I could ask a trainer, but that would involve working with someone else. I do so much better alone.

So, for the rest of this week, 40 minutes tomorrow, 30-40 minutes Friday (depends on if I do it at lunch, or after work.), then hopefully a jog on Sunday. That's my plan anyway. We'll see how well it works out. Maybe I'll skip Friday and run on Saturday instead, that way my schedule stays pretty much the same next week. Yeah, that might actually work.

I also need to do my situps tonight. I was supposed to do them yesterday, and forgot. It was a busy day.

Ok, well that's all for now folks. Have a great day! And here's to lost pounds! Cheers!



Current weight: 198lbs.

ONE-derland!

Wowee-zowee! As of Saturday, October 24th I weigh less than 200 lbs. I am in ONE-derland. I saw it coming, but when it got here I almost didn't believe it. I should have taken a picture of the Wii fit screen. lol

Well, I'm gonna keep up what I'm doing and I'll just keep getting skinnier and skinnier. lol

Oh, in NSV's I went to a martini party last night, and the dress I wore was a size 16!!! Yay! So now I have a pair of 16 jeans, and a 16 dress. I am rockin' it. heh.




Current weight: 199 lbs.

Two-O-What?

For the last few days my weight has been rising a bit. I got back up to 205 as of yesterday. I was feeling pretty depressed about this, because since I can't really exercise there wasn't much I could do about it. I was thinking, "oh great, I'm just gonna gain back 20 pounds and not be able to do anything about it."

This morning, I woke up and weighed myself and got a surprise! I had lost over 4 lbs! Putting me at 201 pounds!! OMFG. I was shocked. I just sat there staring at the screen, stunned. I almost took a picture of it because I couldn't believe it. I decided that I'd save that for when I get below 200. Which I guess shouldn't be long!!

Current weight: 201 lbs.

NSV's:

1. Went to old navy, bought a new outfit... XL Sweater, and 18 stretch jeans. BOTH TOO BIG!! Yay! Going to trade for a smaller size today.

2. This...>

Hangin' Steady

I'm at 204. Only a few pounds away from One-derland! But I'm not allowed to exercise, so it feels so far away. I'm only allowed to walk, slowly, for 6 weeks. I'm done with 3 of those, so it's only a little longer. It just feels like it's draaaaaaaaaagging by. I finally have all my drains out. Not sure if I mentioned that already.

I'm looking skinnier. Several people have commented on that in the last week. I'm back in my size 18 jeans. They're a little tight, but not in a gross way. My tops are 14-18, or L-1XL, depending on the style. My neck is looking longer, and that's just awesome. I have on some super big hoop earrings right now, that I couldn't wear before because there wasn't enough space.

I'm not as scared about getting my picture taken, though, now the the fat is coming out, I have to worry about wrinkles more. heh.

So, overall life is ok. I'm still weighing myself daily when possible. I'm also out of old clothes, so once these get too big, I'll have to buy more. I'm ok for now though, since I'm not losing much right now.

Oh, also, on the food front. I'm still having trouble eating. Which is probably why I'm still losing even though I can't exercise. I'm still going to wait till I can exercise though, to tell the docs.


Current weight: 204 lbs

Feeling Crappy

Found out yesterday that my tubes will be taken out today. Big Plus! Awesome.

On the weight loss front, I'm doing alright considering I'm not working out at all. I'm down to 206, which will either level out or increase tomorrow, because they're putting saline in my boobs to increase them in size, so even if I lose a little weight, it'll balance out the boobs. If not, then according to the scale I will have gained. lol It's ok though, I know the real reason.

Trying really hard to get my liquid in for the last few days, because whenever I eat it's 1-2 hours before I can drink anything without feeling like I'm gonna puke. And this isn't even to the "stuffed" point of eating. It's just to the full point. I think there's a chance I may need some unfill, but it could also be because I ate too much at one point last week and it caused me to puke, which leads to swelling which leads to more puking... bad cycle. I'm trying to go easy on it now, and not even eat to full, and I'm trying to stick with soft foods. For the last two days the main portion of my diet has been cottage cheese. I figure calcium and protein. Good combo.

Well, feeling crappy or not, another pound down and closer to 199, so I'm happy I suppose. :)

Oh, one more thing... I was feeling kinda crappy about my progress because of the surgery I thought I wasn't going to lose any weight this month. Well, I was just looking at my weight on the 8th, compared to today... in 3 weeks I've lost 10 pounds. That's awesome. So really, I can't complain.

Current weight: 206 lbs.

Roller Coaster Ride

Total Pounds Down:

I'm back down again. Just over 5 lbs. lost. I've been avoiding the scales for fear that I would have gained weight but felt I needed to do it this morning and get it over with. I just took a look at my last post and realized that I hadn't updated that the 217 I had been at had only been temporary. I was back down to 212 a few days ago. The 207 is 5 pounds down from even that. So what I thought was going to be a horrible month for weight-loss turned out to be ok. Yay!

I'm still healing from my surgery, and still have tubes in my sides, so typing for extended periods of time is still not cool. This post is short, sorry.

I go in on the 29th to add fluid to my new fake boobs. So, I'll gain weight there, but not real weight. lol Fluid, not fat.

Oh, and I didn't go back to work Thursday. I'll be there Monday though.

Current weight: 207 lbs.
Current BMI: 35'ish

**Image courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/rehvonwald/

Boob Job!

Yay!! Well, sort of. I went to the plastic surgeon yesterday to get the ball rolling on my boob job, and boy did it roll. In order to finish by the end of the year, he's having me come in for surgery on September 21st. Yes, you read right, that's less than 2 weeks from now. Holy sh*t.

What he told me is that this is a two part process. Apparently I can't avoid the implants because I still have too much belly fat and my stomach skin is too far out of shape to work with. So he's going to take some skin and stuff from my back for the right boob, and put expanders in both sides to get them ready for the implants. I don't want very big boobs, so this shouldn't take too long. Once it's to the right size, I will have another surgery to put the actual implant in and take the expanders out. I'm hoping to get approval to do a tummy tuck too, because of a rash under my loose skin from my tummy, and maybe he can do that on the second surgery, that way I don't have to have a bunch of different surgeries.

On an NSV note: I am only 37 bmi now, which means I have been out of the "morbidly obese" category for awhile and didn't know it! Now I'm just "obese" and I have only about 40'ish (??) pounds till I'm just "overweight".

Current weight: 215 lbs.

Back to Losing!

Good morning! I have had a happy day so far! I weighed in at 221.2 this morning! Finally I'm back on track. I still lost a week of loss, but whatever, I shouldn't have been out drinking and off eating all that crap. That'll teach me, won't it?

Yesterday I still slipped a little foodwise, but I think it's because my band is too tight right now. So it's messing up my eating. I'm not gonna have any taken out yet, because I think it's tight because my stomach is irritated. All that bad food last week, I've really been mistreating my stomach, causing it to swell.

I'm eating better today. I have soup for lunch, and just had some boiled eggs with salt for breakfast. Minus most of the yolk (it's dry). Yesterday wasn't awful, but I should have been on all mushies, or better yet, liquids. I've just been too lazy to make protein shakes. I need to give my stomach time to heal. It's been growling even when I can't eat another bite, and based on all the other blogs I've read, it's a sign that the band is too tight. It's also been causing me lots of pain and I've been puking. I've only ever had 2 PB episodes, but I've been making myself puke because I've been getting stuck alot.

What I ate yesterday (if I remembered it all; I was snacking alot):

Breakfast - 1 SF Rice Pudding
Lunch - 1/2 cup of bite size chicken bites (breaded breast meat) w/bbq sauce
Snack - 1/4 cup of bite size chicken bites w/bbq sauce
Snack - 2 heaping tbsp cottage cheese, 3 bites of Nectarine (of which I had to puke back up some)
Snack - 2 bites of frosted banana bread, 1 bite of red licorice, 1 dorito
Dinner - 1/2 avocado with salt/pepper

Wow, looking at it here it doesn't seem like I ate much. When I was thinking back on it it felt like a LOT. If you add it all up its less than 3 cups of food total. Today will be a little more, because of the soup, but the calories will still be low, because it's soup. lol

Also, I jumped on the elliptical yesterday, and did two sets of 15 sit-ups. It was great. Both are getting easier to do, so I can do more/harder settings. I'm very proud of myself for that. I can't wait till I can consider myself an athlete. I would love to be able to do 50 sit-ups at a time!

Current weight: 221.2 lbs.

Life is Lovely

I had a pretty good day yesterday. I did my walk at lunch. No elliptical, because I forgot my gym bag. I ate ok till I got off work then I started snacking!

Here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast - Nothing
Lunch - 1/2 cup (or less?) of pumpkin-turkey chili
Snack #1 - 1/2 cup of pumpkin-turkey chili with 1 tbsp. sour cream
Snack #2 - FiberOne snack bar
Dinner - 3/4 of a small slice of pepperoni pizza *

* of which a bite or two came back out, the rest KILLED me for 45 minutes while it worked it's way down. Oh, it was awful. I should have stopped at a single bite.


So although it felt like I was snacking all day, I guess I didn't really do all that bad. The pizza was a bit much, but with the lack of breakfast, I guess that's where it took me. I would have eaten breakfast, except that I got up late, and breakfast was too close to lunch. So I figured my lunch would be my breakfast.


Current weight: 220 lbs.

Skipped over 225

It's my official Tuesday weigh in day, and boy what a surprise I got! I skipped the 225 mark entirely, and went directly to 224 by losing 2 pounds! How exciting is that??

I was telling my BF the other day that this is like a video game, a roleplaying video game, like Final Fantasy. I get positive reinforcement for doing the right thing, I "gain levels" or rather... Lose Levels! lol .. As long as I keep playing the game.

If you're curious about what I've been eating, here's a list of what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: 1 S.F. rice pudding cup
Snack: water.... lol - it's true! I was getting hungry so I drank water.
Lunch: a few bites of General Tso's chicken
Snack: 2"x2" piece of cake, with filling on it, and some frosting
Snack: 2 tbsp. tropical crab salad, minus some of the pineapple.
Dinner: 3/4 in. slice of giant hoagie sandwich, and 1 chip


Mind you, I don't normally eat cake. That was my leftover piece from the other day when we were watching movies. There's still some of that same piece in the fridge. And I overestimated about how much I ate of it. The rest though, is pretty accurate. Especially the breakfast. That sugar free pudding is what I have almost every morning, because my band is especially tight in the morning.

I discovered recently some foods that I cannot eat:

• Carrots. Cooked or otherwise, doesn't matter. They stick.
• Cooked Celery. Not sure about raw, haven't tried much.
• Overcooked pork chops.

On the exercise front, I did another day of the Couch to 5k program yesterday, well, actually the same day. heh. I redid Day 1 again. I'm still unable to complete all the run segments. I did 6 out of 9 yesterday. My legs were killing me. They hurt for like 2 hours afterward. Oddly, I'm not really sore today. o_O Weird.



Current weight: 224lbs.