9 months since banding(1 week since its been working)

Its 9 whole long stressful months since banding.
Its 1 whole long stressful week since its really been working!

I was 18 stone (252lbs) when I had it done
I was 17 stone 12 (250lbs) when I had it re-done
I am 17 stone 3 (241lbs) today.

Loss = 11 pounds (or 9 pounds since it was re-done)

I am really chuffed.

Today's food...

Breakfast
1 pint s.f. squash for pills
1 coffee
2 weetabix
1 cup coffee
8oz milk for the coffee's
1 crumpet with 1 swipe of light flora and 1/2 tsp jam
half slice bread
2 tablespoons coleslaw

I had half a slice of bread because I sicked the other half back up again... tee hee.

I love my band!

I have just been really naughty, but then again, I have been very angelic for the week. I just ate about 20 sweets. Boiled sweets, so pure sugar. I know its bad, but for some reason i just NEEDED them. I don't have a particularly sweet tooth, but maybe not being able to eat much of the savory stuff either means my bod is crying out for something... anything!! :o)

So I had them, and I am sucking a lollipop right now. Yummy.

I am not doing it again, but when DS has sweets in the house its so awful. I want to throw them away really but they were a present to him. Grrrr.

I had a puke attack again today. I was peckish at about 4:30 and grabbed a slice of bread with coleslaw in it. Not a good idea. Bread seems to be another no no now. So i puked back half of that and I just keep thinking of the other night and that terrible choke and as soon as I feel it I'm like "oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" but so far it hasn't happened again.

I am having to have fish tonight, because TB's daughter is back from Russia for a few days and it seems she wants as much English foodstuff as possible. Yesterday I cooked a curry - Brit's No.1 food. Tonight its fish and chips with champagne. Goodness knows why the champoo, but there we go. I hate the stuff it tastes like sour off cider. Ewwww - give me a nice full bodied bottle of red any day.

Tomorrow its a pub meal and karaoke at Phil's mums pub. I think that's just about as English as it can possibly get. Well, I don't know, maybe crumpets and scones and tea and fruit cake and stuff too I guess. She can do that another day!

Today's food intake was similarly as small as the other days this past week. The calories were significantly more though because of the sweets. Still low though - 1300 cals today. Goody.

**HORROR WARNING **

NEXT IMAGE NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED

I found this picture whilst at my mums house. It is AWFUL. This is one for the hall of shame.

I think I was about my heaviest of 19 stone 2 (268lbs) here back in 2001. This is me plaiting my brothers hair. I live on a rich diet of fruit and veg and eat everything, my brother eats only pizza, donuts, cake, sweets, chips, burgers and weetabix. He refers to anything green on his plate as poison. He is 6ft 2 and weights 10 stone soaking wet. WHY????????????????????????
I look terrible. I look fluffy and bloated and ill. Its horrible. I have come a long way since then even before my band. I never want to go back here EVER.

'Men Only' Weight Loss Support

The New York Times had an article a few days ago about how men's weight loss efforts differ from women. They said that at Weight Watchers meetings, the women get emotional but the men don't. They interviewed a few men who attend male-only weight loss meetings. One guy says; “Without the women there you don’t have to be as masculine because we’re all in the same boat. We don’t have to show off for anyone. We can all be ourselves.”

See more at It takes a Big Man to Seek Help on Weight Loss.

Gradual Weight Loss Works for Sally

Diets were not working for Sally so she decided to take a long term approach and change her lifestyle, rather than dieting.

She says;

Because I've taken a gradual approach, I've had gradual results as well. At first I lost a good bit of weight, but now my weight loss has slowed to an average of about .5 pounds per week. I'm down 26.5 pounds from where I was at the beginning of January; I'm halfway to my goal. If I keep my current pace, I will reach my goal one year from today. Two years to lose 53 pounds--I never before would have found that acceptable, but I also never before could have managed to lose it at all!


See her very interesting story here and here.

Spicy Cranberry Sauce in Pinot Noir

Did you receive our LivingAfterWLS Recipe of the Week on Sunday? (If not, subscribe by entering your email address in the Free WLS Newsletters box on the left.) It was all about cranberries. Well, Elise over at Simply Recipes presents a great cranberry sauce using a Pinot Noir as the simmering base. Her food blog is one of my favorites, though not weight loss surgery oriented. She is all about

Word of Thanks

Dear LivingAfterWLS Friends:Just a word of thanks for all your support, prayers and kindness over the last few weeks. As many of you know my father has been critically ill and on Monday underwent open heart surgery to replace an artificial aortic heart valve which has given him life since 1969. Yes, 1969. Remarkable. He now has a new artificial valve and is responding well. Your thoughts and

Totally stoked!

Ok, I just could not resist.

My DH jumps on the scales 38 times a day. The first time he does this is in the morning, after going to the loo and completely nude. Its so funny what we do in the privacy of our own homes huh? We wake up and I can hear the scales from upstairs and the "Yeeees!" as I hear him lose another pound. Our scales talk to us. They actually say your weight so you don't need to look down. He has been doing slimfast for just over 2 weeks now. He went onto it when I had my last fill (20th october) and has so far lost exactly 1 stone (14lbs).

So as he is tripping lightly, nude, up the stairs dodging the semi open blind so our neighbours don't get a morning treat, I decide to have a go.

I hopped on and WOW. This morning in my nightie I was 17 stone 3.5lbs (241.5lbs) which is FAB. I actually hopped on those scales 3 times and each time they said the same thing. when I am in the high 17's they are not so accurate and they sometimes say different weights one after another as it fluctuates because of my hefty bulk, but under 17 and a half stone they seem to be dead on accurate. I love this.

So I know I weighed in yesterday, but I am adding this one in because its real, and has totally given me a boost of confidence!

So check my ticker a the top of the page - now lost 10.5 pounds since banding. 13 more pounds and I will have broken my pre-band-blow-out-weight! YAY

Obviously I will update this section, but I just had to share this because I am truly happy this morning for the first time in about 6 months!

Breakfast this morning:
1 pint of s/free squash to take my pills with.
1 coffee
1.5 weetabix with milk. I had 2 in the bowl, but only managed 1 & half before I pushed the bowl away.

Lunch:
1 cup of coffee
1 Tesco Healthy Living yogurt
1 small banana
home made chick pea curry and rice. No idea how many calories, but it had the following ingredients:
chick peas
tomato passata
garlic
onion
peaches
curry powder and other spices
boiled rice

I actually ate a larger portion than I thought I would, but it was still much less that everyone else.

I have kind of managed to work out the calories in each portion of what I ate for the curry, and today's total calories is roughly 970. Not bad again. I am probably over estimating, because before the curry I had only eaten 370... but 600 is not bad considering. It was yummy too!

I also died my hair black today. I really fancied a change and I didn't know whether to cut it or bleach it or what on earth to do to it really, so I was playing around with a programme called 'Face on Body' (which is really really cool by the way) and decided to use a good photo and change what I looked like. I picked a picture of Donald Trump and some strumpet and bunged my face on it just to see what I would look like with black locks. It looked really good, even though the picture came out a bit naff and I was now standing next to the most ugly man on the planet, so I just went for it!

Here's a picture of Donald and Me, and then a pic of the real look once I had done it. Well pleased!

All part of the new me!

Getting Up Early to Exercise

Katie lost an amazing 124 pounds off her petite frame over a period of 17 months. She now weighs 110 pounds.

She was slim on her wedding day 18 years ago but started gaining weight after her pregnancy. She tried many fad diets over many years. But nothing worked. Seventeen months ago she decided she was going to exercise early in the mornings. Real early. She started getting up at 3:25am to beat the crowds at her local gym. Her workouts are 90 minutes long.

See her story and some very inspiring before and after pics here.