LapBand AP ~ Six Months Post Op Anniversary!

Well today is the half-way mark for me!  Six months past my LapBand AP@ surgery!  It is a milestone in two ways, I have gotten under 200 lbs for the first time in 15 years! (Pat my own Back)  And~~~~~~~I have managed to learn to adjust and live with the comittment that I made to change the way I eat since the Lap Band AP@!

I started out six months ago on a Journey and my first year with the help of the LapBand AP@ will be the best year for my weight loss because I will have the help of the "FREE" fills of saline in the pouch of my band, and I will get that restriction needed not to overeat at meals. So my goal on this journey is to get to my goal by the end of that year!

Well this all started off with a bang, and has suprised even me!  I am a July Bandster, that is what the "Bang" is about! Ha Ha!  Well I realize now I got a lotta bang for the buck! 

I for one NEVER imagined that I could lose 65 lbs in six months!  It is really good for a LapBand Patient I hear!  I am very proud of myself~again there goes the Pat Pat Pat on the Back!  But I MUST be a self patting motivator for ME, because it is really ME I am depending on the Listen and Learn and get to that Goal, I so desparately want~ Right? 

Well today I am 45 lbs from Goal and I have six months to get there.  But see, I have hit a hard plateau!  Stalled for 21 days now, only lost l pound!  I am a little discouraged, little depressed, little worried.  I had a fill and it was and still is good, good restriction.

But I think my body is content: am I crazy? How can a body be content?  Well it can, I read somewhere that when your body gets to a point where it thinks you are going to be sick, it will stop letting you lose weight too.  And I think there is a place where your body gets to feeling quite comfortable with where it is at for you.

I don't think I look bad anymore, and I don't hate the way I look, but I want to get to Goal!  Am I being selfish?  Shouldn't I be proud and just throw in the towel now, count my blessings?  Heck NO!

I will be really good next week, no munching or cheating and we will get this body moving down the scales again.  I talk to my body, and let me tell you we get into some arguments too!  I WILL WIN!  Bet on it!
Keep up with me as this last 45 lbs is SHED! Posting before and today photos!






                                                                AFTER The BAND

Thanksgiving in Mexico ~ 2009

Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving Cruise to Mexico~ 2009

Dec. 31st 2009 New Years Eve New Life too!  Louie my Bichon Frise, My Hubby and ME!

Jan. 18th, 2010 Down 64 lbs!

My Journey to Slim~Yes in The Golden Dayz~My life is changing for the Better!

Well I am finally here~Blogging~!  It seems to be a going trend these days, and I suppose it is helpful that I can blog each day to help myself and maybe motivate others! 

I contemplated the surgery, the Gastric Bypass Surgery for the last six years, that is all I did - contemplate!  At the age of 51, I recieved a phone call from a long lost friend who was reaching out to me from a location far from home.  She was in a hotel with her husband and the next day she was to have Gastric Bypass Surgery. I think she just wanted to talk to me one more time in case she did not make it, or maybe she wanted me to join her in prayer for the divine protection from God.( which I did)

Then two days later, I heard from her, she was doing well, walking, passing gas, well doing all the things she was suppose to be doing after her surgery.  Now my friend was a very beautiful, funny lady who I always loved to be around, but she was a very large lady!  She could cross her arms and let them rest on her gut!  She always laughed about her weight and she was the one who would bring up the subject of her weight, almost in an effort to keep others from doing it.

I felt she was self-sabatoging her health!  She had the big butt! (Literally you could sit a plate on it and she could walk around with it and it would never have fallen off!)  She was short and fat and in all the wrong places, especially around the middle.  I was afraid she might not live long if she kept gaining the weight, but I could not hurt her to tell her!  I SHOULD HAVE TOLD HER SOMETHING!

We lived over 100 miles apart and for a year or so, lost touch with one another, we sort of drifted together and then apart for years.  I had to go to the town in which she lived one day for some business, and decided to look her up and try to see her.  Got her number and called, she was cooking dinner and invited us to come by.  Now I had been on one of those diets that you take the pills in the am, fat blocker at night, lost about 45 lbs and looked great!  Had a new red mercedes convertible, life was great.  We pulled up in the driveway of my friends house, and I did not recognize her!  From a size 26W to a size 12!  She was AWESOME!  In her early 40's, eating what she wanted to, just a whole lot less, a closet full of beautiful new clothes (and one pair of jeans size 26W that she had kept to remind her of how heavy she was before), a new hair style, she was just a TRANSFORMED Woman!  Yes, I was jealous and I wanted what she was!

I knew I had to do something more!  My 45 lbs loss just did not measure up to what she had done!

Well a year or so later, all my 45 lbs was home to greet me again and brought a few of his extra pound brothers with him!  I was now a whopping 267 lbs!  Could not get into the Mercedes, had a closet full of new stretch pants and 3xl T-Shirts, and looked like crap, felt like crap, depressed was an understatement, I hated myself!   I did not want to see anyone~or have anyone see me!

I woke up hungry, ate a huge breakfast! It is the MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY! Right?  So I loaded up, if I wanted Blueberry Pancakes and Syrup, then I had them, with Bacon or Sausage, Milk, Coffee, Juice.  Then off to work!  My mind was always on what I would eat, where I would go for Lunch and which of my fat friends would go with me! 

By 11:00 AM my stomach was growling like a roaring Lion!  The Buffet at a Chinese Restaurant was calling my name.  Or how about that new double quarter pound burger with super-sized fries and a Vanilla Shake, NOW that was what I called a GREAT LUNCH!  Ha Ha!

That old saying "Once on the Lips; forever on the hips"  That one followed me home! 

Seems I found the Butt Plate Holder myself, and the arm rest too! 

Vacation Time rolled around and a trip to the Mountains for some cool air was planned, SOUNDED REAL NICE!  Here I am in The Golden Dayz of my life, ready to relax and spend some lazy hazy dayz of summer havin a lot of fun~~AND I AM TOO DARN FAT TO ENJOY ANYTHING BUT FOOD!!!!    I HATED MYSELF EVEN MORE!

No hiking for me, my feet were so swelled from just riding, I could not even get my shoes tied!  When it was time for photos, I hid behind every sign or tree or person I could!  The first time in my life I was so ashamed of what I had done to myself!  There I did ADMIT that I did it!

After my last child was born, I lost down on a good diet plan~ only 700 calories per day, and I had to work, take care of four children and a farm, on 700 calories per day!  Well that did not last long as I could not keep up the pace, so I increased and gained the weight back.

Over the next decade, I tried diets plans, many of the best, paid for them, the foods, the books, the pills, and so on and so on~~~~~the years rolled by, and I had to have two closets for my clothes, the ones I could wear for awhile, then the ones I would get back into after yet another unsuccessful diet!

After my friend was so successful with her Gastric Bypass, I talked to my husband about it, and even though he did not want me to do it, he gave in to my pleadings.  So I started the pre-op set of tests.  One of them was a Dr. ordered colonoscopy, my Father had died of Colon Cancer at the age of 54.  The Colonscopy discovered two cancerous polyps that were removed.  I was advised not to have the surgery as it was non-reversible.

Three years later, I was sitting at our Lake House, smaller than normal due to a recent diet, when a commercial came on TV for the LapBand AP@!  I got on my computer in the Bedroom. (when my husband wasn't watching) And I began my three year long research of the Band.  I KNEW RIGHT THEN AND THERE THAT ONE DAY I WOULD BE BANDED!

That day finally came  July 29, 2009!  The day that changed my life forever! 
My starting weight was 262.00 (huge!) The day I started the pre-op diet 257.5, The day of my pre-op bloodwork, 247.0 and today 198.8.  Not quite 6 months!

I am getting a closet full of beautiful clothes, (but they don't last long~so I am trying hard to limit my purchases) a new hair style, new make-up, new attitude, No More 24's W, I am in a size 14-16
and size L sweaters and some blouses a size medium.  (And I still kept my FAT PANTS~uggh I hate to look at them now.)

The best thing is I WILL NEVER GAIN THIS WEIGHT BACK!  The lapband is my new best friend.  It keeps me from overeating!  I feel satisfied with my meals and full and not deprived!

Loving the LapBand and The Golden Dayz of my NEW Life!  Come join me, and follow my progress!