Lab-Band Weight Loss

VSG Weight Loss

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Needed a small un-fill yesterday....

When I got the fill 7 weeks ago I was extremely tight, stayed on liquids for a week or 10 days and it loosened up by itself to what I consider to be my sweet spot.

Just before the weekend it got tight again... and on Monday it got so tight that I could not even drink a shake, could not eat dinner but was able to eat a small sample size of Pretzel M&Ms (maybe 7 M&Ms in it) at midnight. I do not even know why I ate them because they were so not worth it... While shopping I was donating $20 for abused/battered women and the lady was giving away those free mini-size M&Ms, which I declined to take but she was so pushy that I eventually took it. Anyway, I woke up 3 times that night and had bad acid reflux and woke up because I had blue/green colored liquid in my mouth (from the M&Ms that I ate several hours earlier). Then in the morning even my hot coffee would not go down sitting in my pouch for about an hour.

At first I didn't want to go for an unfill, but my husband really convinced me and now I am sooo glad that I did. Feeling sooooo much better. :-)

I can tell that I still have restriction because I just had a very liquidish pureed split pea soup (have to stay on liquids for at least 3 days) and I know that it is still in my pouch. Hopefully it will be just perfect by the time I can have real food again. And I really like to eat real food. I make much better food choices, that truly satisfy me instead of resorting to slider foods because nothing else goes down.

Last weekend we had a friend staying with us, that I have not seen since around Christmas... he was really shocked to see me and later asked my husband privately if I was sick or something because I've lost so much weight. Once he knew that I am fine he couldn't stop talking about how much weight I have lost, which was really funny, because it felt genuine. He brought some Pakistani Food (that was so extremely delicious btw) and I found the perfect excuse to explain my new eating habits. "It's all about portion control... I am eating very small portions but eat them so slowly that I can get real satisfaction out of it". I did really well... I don't think that anything looked weird or raised any questions or suspicions, even though I chewed what felt like a 100 times ;-)

I do not mind talking about the band with strangers and tell overweight people how great the lapband is and how it saved my life ... but under no circumstances do I want this to be known within my inner circles. 

I am not blogging a lot lately because I do not even know what to blog about... on the weight loss front all is going well. On Friday I was 98 pounds down and I am anticipating Friday to (hopefully) celebrate my 100 lb loss.

It still feels weird. I know I have lost a lot of weight and there are moments when I feel "small" and when I look in the mirror I see MY face that I have not seen in a long time. I am a true 14 bottoms and wear XL tops, which is great because I can shop in all the "regular' stores... but I also have a lot of fat days...

In 2 weeks I will be flying to Europe... really looking forward to see my parents, brothers, grandmas and my very best friends, to be spoiled in "Hotel Mama" and do all the European things that I can't do here.

I am sure I will blog before I leave and if not I will definitely post some pictures from my little vacation.

Hope all are doing well and losing weight.... can't wait to read your blogs and follow up with all of you.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

ONEderland :-)

What a ONEderful day :-)

I have finally reached ONEderland... and it truly feels ONEderful! I stepped on the scale at least 20 times to look at that ONE and I am sure by the end of the day I will have stepped on the scale at least 50 times ;-)

Not even a year ago It seemed sooooo far away, almost impossible for me to reach... and now here it is! Right there on my scale: 199.5

What is even more facinating is that I bought 2 pair of Gap Jeans on May, 25th. One in size 16 that fit perfectly at that time and a size 14, that did not fit at all. In fact I could not even get into it....

Yesterday I tried it on and it fit... :-)

Restriction-wise I am doing okay... there are days when I am extremely tight and other days when I could eat more than I should, but somehow my mind really adjusted to the new portion sizes and as long as I am not hungry I am fine. I am not counting any calories any longer and do not wear my GoWear Fit device neither. As long as I am losing I am fine, but still find these tools extremely helpful when the weight loss does stall.

The other day I was craving Chinese food and looked (for the first time ever) at the nutritional facts of Panda Express. Their Kung Pao Chicken has 300 calories and 19g of Protein (without the chow mein or rice). Very band friendly. I ordered a Panda Bowl but it was still too big, so next time I'll order from the Children Menu.

I am now 4.5 lb way from 100 lb lost and 9.5 lb away from being overweight (and no longer obese)

The closer I get to goal to more exciting this journey gets.

Sorry for not blogging and not leaving any comments for the last couple of weeks. I've been so busy with work that I just didn't have the time.

I'll be catching up with your blogs over the weekend and look forward to read how everyone is doing. I hope all are doing fine.