So, what's your story?

Hello, My name is Sharon and I guess I will be the "grandmother" of this group. I am 58 as of June and I had my Band installed (lol) the day before Anna Nicole Smith died. Feb 7, 2006. I had my surgery done in Anniston, AL because , your not going to believe this but I was not fat enough for any of the doctors around my area.  I have been insulted on OH many times because several called me a "lightweight". I would post that it is just as hard to lose and keep off 50 lbs as it is 100. I weighed the day before surgery 180 and have lost down to 134. My height is 5'3.  A shorty, I am!  I gained 9 lbs. this Summer due to my Band tightening up on it's own,go figure?  Stress?  Who knows?  We had to drive the 3 hour trip to AL to get some taken out. It was a good thing to do though, I had not had a fill or seen him in a year that very week. He said to trust him and advised me to let him take out a 1.4   When your Band is to tight you cannot eat the way you should so you tend to eat things that you shouldn't such as Potato chips, ice cream,,,,,,the good ole stuff that we all love. I still and will always have issue's with food. It is something that I will forever have to work on. I am a Christian and I turn to God, then my sweet husband.  He listens and listens and listens, has for 35 years this December!   
     I have been making really good choices now days but the exercise,,,,,gota get more regular with that.  Really looking forward to the Fall weather.  
      I dearly love home and if I am not careful I will tend to hibernate.  We lived in New Orleans for 24 years and moved back to MS my husbands home town 10 years ago. We bought 50 acres  4 miles from the local Wal-Mart and built our home. We live on a dead in road and my house sits on a small hill. I can walk out of my door with my 2 little dogs and by the time I get down my driveway and to the end of the road I have walked a mile. I do that twice. This time last year I was doing 3 miles.  
      I belong to a Bible study group that meets for 6 to 7 weeks twice  year at our church. It is a community wide group so we get from all denominations and that makes for a interesting time. Besides that I have resigned from every commitee. 
         So my life may sound boring to everybody but I love it!  lol       
           So good to be a part of this group. My "Heart" loves Mississippi!   
                                 Sharon

Those head games are very bad!  The temptations are so strong and hard to avoid, but you just have to keep reminding yourself of where you are!  Food is my addiction and it is a hard one to break.... my eyes are still bigger than my stomach and when I put that extra spoonful of something on my plate, my hubby will give me that look - bless his heart!

I have started walking too and it has helped me so much - I just feel so much better after I walk!  I usually walk with a friend at work early in the morning about 2 miles.  Then at lunch we walk 2 more miles inside the parking garage!  It just makes me feel so much better now that I am doing this regularly!

I  am Myrtis.  I had lap-r-n-y in may 2007 with no complications. I weighted 240 lbs at my first visit, isn required diet for 6 mo lost to 210 lbs and day of surgery 205 lbs. Today I weight 125 lbs. and have not lost any for several weeks. I watch what I eat and try to follow the protien first rule at meals . My weakness is snacking and have to work not to snack which is a head game for me.  Dr. Michael King did my surgery and  see him for follow up care. As of now my labs are good and I take my vitamins and protien supplement dailey. I have had little hair thinning . Most day I walk 1.5 miles and do 10 minutes cardio and 10 minutes weights since I lost muscle . Some days I don't have time for cardo & weight but try to do 3-4 times a week. I have been able to eat most foods except for fried meat and sweets.  The surgery was life saving for me due to heart problems,  sleep apena  etc...   I read the board every week but have rarely posted.
I have learned some much from this board .

Well, I am glad that you came out and posted.  Congrats on your success.  I am right there with you with snacking.  Those head games continue to plague us.  I guess they always will.  We will just always have to be diligent in our efforts to fight them.  It is hard some days.  That is why I love this place.  I can get support and motivation when I feel weak.  I hope you will keep on posting with us, and maybe we can get this place more active.  Talk to ya later.

Melissa

My name is Anita.  I am going to have RNY on September 16, 2008 at UAB.  My doctor is Ronald Clements.  I have been working toward my surgery since March of this year.  I am told that the time from my first visit in May until my surgery in September has been a short one compared to many.  I smoked cigarettes and quit on May 22, 2008.  I can not for the life of me figure out why I smoked for 30 years....those things are nasty and smell nasty!!!!  I have been overweight all my life....fat for most of my adult life.  I have 7 grand(est)children whom I love and adore.  One day after attempting to play badmitton with them in the back yard I knew that if I didn't lose weight I was literally going to die.  I was too fat to play, and my quality of life was nill.  I decided right then and there that I didn't want to die, that I wanted to play with my babies as long as I could, I wanted to be able to walk to the football stadium from a mile away to go to the games, I want to be more active, I just wanted to live!  

Like most everybody, I have yo-yo dieted my way into morbid obesity, with co-morbidies of sleep apnea, IBS, diverticulitis, diabetes...you name it, I've got it and I'm miserable.  I am praying this new tool will help me to lose this weight and keep it off.  In preparation for my surgery I have quit smoking, I have an exercise regimen, take vitamins and calcium citrate and I swim a lot.  In fact, I've taught my 4 year old grandson to swim this summer.  I have tried to eat right, but failed miserably at that in this interim and am praying that won't effect my surgery date. 

I am committed to this surgery and my tool as if I'm getting married again.  I so want to do things right.  I so want to eat and play like everyone else.  I do want to eat to live as opposed of living to eat. 

I found this board in doing my research....isn't that the way most of us found it?  There is a wealth of information here!  From what I can tell, the pros can help us at every turn....real people who have been there and done that.  I love it!  More than loving it, I appreciate it....always an ear with someone who shares our struggles to hear us....gotta love it!

Hey,that's cool , we have the same surgery date...

Hi, I'm Tammy. I have been "husky", "big-boned", or fat all of my life. While growing up I kept hearing, "Your mom was 96 pounds on her wedding day" yet she became severely obese after her divorce from my dad. And all of my bad eating habits I learned from her.

I have a teenage daughter and I monitor her chats, e-mails, Facebook and MySpace page. Last fall she was chatting with a friend and they were shooting song lyrics back and forth. Her friend sent her a Veggie Tales song, "Everbody's got a water buffalo. Yours is fast but mine is slow." And my daughter's response was, "My mom's a water buffalo." Her friend laughed and asked, "Really?". And my daughter said, "Yeah, she's fat enough to be one."

Now I know my 14 year old did not mean intend to be hurtful towards me. However, those words really stung. And they were an eye opening moment to the hazardous lifestyle I was living. I had hypertension for the past 3 years, but nothing else was medical wrong with me. I was just fat. So I immediately started looking for a weight loss seminar. We went to Mobile and the whole experience was a disaster and I left feeling like a worthless fat woman who couldn't afford to get the help I needed. So I gave up temporarily.

I found this website and started reading the postings. They were inspiring, enlightening, and hopeful. This spring I found out about Dr. Avara in Ocean Springs and started e-mailing people who used him. I even attended a Support Group Meeting at Pine Grove. This past May I went on our annual Honduras mission trip, but this year neither my husband nor my daughter could go with me. So I went alone. I didn't have anybody to help me with my weight issues. I had to carry around a wooden chair with me all week because it was the only one that would hold me. And my eyes were opened to how much I had relied on my immediate family to help me with my obesity problems. And I came back from Honduras this year determined not to be anybody's burden. So I e-mailed Dr. Avara's office about insurance and self-pay issues.

My insurance will pay for gastric bypass but not Lap Band. So I looked at our budget and realized that my car is paid off. So if I took out a loan, it would be like making a car note. And we could do that. So I called the finance company that Dr. Avara's office mentioned and was approved. And the snowball just rolled downhill and gained momentum from there. Within a month I had a surgery date. I am now 3 and a half weeks post-op and just can't figure out why I didn't do this sooner. As wives and mothers we always take care of our family and for some reason we only allow ourselves to enjoy the tablescraps. Well - this was my birthday gift to myself and I have not felt any guilt, at any time. My husband and my daughter are both very supportive as are all of my friends. And I love posting on my blog and just telling my friends to go read it. That way I don't have to send out 100 e-mails every time something happens. LOL!

I am very cautious about my meals, because I don't want to ruin my surgery. I won't have my first fill for a couple of more weeks, but that's ok. I still have made a couple of mistakes and knew it immediately. My greatest problem is just sitting down to eat and staying focused on the meal in front of me. Not worrying about work, or anything else. I get distracted easily and foget to monitor my speed of eating and the size of my bites. But at least I am aware that is my problem. So I can work on it.

I've lost 10 pound pre-op, but should have lost more.
I've lost another 10 pounds since surgery
I've dropped 1 size, and maybe even 2 sizes.
I am off my Lasix (water pill) and my blood pressure medication that I have been on for 3 years.
I stopped using my CPAP machine last week.

And I know that God deserves all of the honor and praise for all of those achievements. Because everytime I tried to lose weight without his help, it just didn't work.

That's me in a nutshell. 

Thanks for listening,
Tammy