4 months

So this Wednesday I will have been banded 4 months. I am down 45lbs as of this morning, lost 8 inches in my waist, and down 2 pant sizes..... Yippy, all great news. I have my 4th fill this week too. I have a 10cc band and 3 and a half cc's filled. I have been getting stuck alot since the last fill, no fun. So I have been focusing on smaller bites and slowing down. I chew very well, don't need to work on this.In fact I chew so well I chewed my crown right off...lol... going to get it put back on tomorrow.
So I have to say all is going well. I still crave all the wrong things but try to stay away from them. I still look in the mirror sometimes and not see that I have lost 45 lbs. I am hoping someday these things will go away.


Also on a happy note, my hubby who has now lost 58lbs, got a job promotion and we are moving home to California. We are very excited to be going back to our family and friends.

30 DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOO HOOOOO...... 30 lbs down, I feel great and am so proud I made the leap to get banded. 30 is the most I have ever lost and I can't wait to make it a bigger number.

I went to the gym today and took water arobics for the first time. I asked the instructor if it was ok that I was in her class, she said why wouldn't it be, I said the front desk told me this class was for older people. Well she was pissed and said know wonder no one takes her class, and then followed it up with a " Well I'll show them" Well, she showed me alright, she worked my pants off.... literally.... my butt was hangin out for all to see on several occasion's. I am now typing with jello arms, and loving it. I can't wait to go back on Friday. Oh, and I did go to Target on my way home and bought some smaller board shorts so my butt can stay in them next time ;-) I also just bought two new work out swimsuits on line so my boobs can stay in place too.

Last but not least, my hubby will be getting banded tomorrow. We have to be at the hospital at 5:45 am. I am super excited for him to start his journey. I love you babe and can't wait for you to join me in the land of  the banded.

Hope you all have a great rest of your day!

Thousand Word Thursday

Ok so I have so many things I can share but I have chosen two.

The first picture is of my mom, Jason, and I. It was taken December 2003, the day before her chemo therapy started. A friend of mine came over to our house and just started snapping away, while my hubby posed for his photo shoot ( being silly as always ) my mom and I laughed so hard and forgot for just one minute about the big bad C word. My mom lost her fight with cancer a year and one month after these photos were taken. I look at these pictures everyday and cherish them and the memory.

This is a picture of a ring containing diamonds passed down from my great-grandfather. He was a diamond merchant in Amsterdam and had given these diamonds to his son, my grandfather. My grandfather cherished these diamonds and kept them hidden for a period of one year while he was in a concentration camp in Germany. When he got out he found the love of his life who he had been dating prior to the concentration camp and soon became his wife and my grandmother. When they married he made this ring for her from these cherished diamonds. The ring has been passed all the way down to me and is something I hold very dear to me.

Someone "NEW" to follow!!!

My hubby started his own blog at http://bandeddad22.blogspot.com/. Go check it out and follow his journey as he will be banded on Sept. 16, 2010. He was originally supposed to be banded on Sept. 21, 2010 but that date didn't work out so they actually moved him up 5 days....YEA! Can't wait for us both to be on this journey together!!!

Check out his blog if you get a chance! Thanks!

bye, bye

I cleaned out my closet of all 24 pants, and 2x tops. I was so happy to pass them down to a fellow bandster. She will be banded in October.

So bye bye 24, and 2x I will never see your numbers again:)

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NSV and stuff

I am down 25 lbs and feelin great. I just wanted to share a few of my happy NSV's.
1. I am wearing my wedding rings again. I have not worn my wedding rings since April 2008... yippy I love my rings.
2. I had to buy new bras, and guess what I lost in my back size not cup...... how great is that
3. I am down one pant size
4. I found a pair of board shorts at the top of my closet that I had bought last year and they were to tight to wear. Well now they are big on me:)
5. Last but not least. I love to chase my son in circles around the kitchen. This is a game he loves and usally after two times around I am out of breath and just want to sit. Well now we run, and run, and run till we are both laughing and BOTH out of breath.

Hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Proud Moment....

I went to my first party today since being banded. Someone brought homemade chocolate on chocolate cupcakes. ( my fav ) I didn't eat one, I didn't even want one. I got something even better..... I got a chocolate kiss from my sweet lil boy and a proud moment :)

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Buh bye 22!!!

Almost 3 weeks post op and I'm officially down 22 lbs.!!! Wooohoo!!! Pants fitting better, clothes a little loser and I'm feeling great! Liquid diet is behind me and have fully embraced the "mushies"! Here is one of my favorite recipes to get me through this stage:

1 egg
1 tblsp of pureed cauliflower
2 shakes of parmesan cheese

Mix, cook until eggs are done and top with salsa....YUM!!!

I can't wait for my first fill in a couple of weeks as I am not feeling much restriction so doing it all on willpower right now. Other things I can't wait for joining the YMCA with the hubby to begin working out, breaking out the smaller clothes from the top of the closet and saying goodbye to my size 24's forever! Life is good! Jason has his meeting with the surgeon next Wednesday so hopefully he will be joining the banded crew in the near future!

Question of the week, is anyone experiencing hiccups with more frequency since being banded? I seem to get the hiccups more often now and not sure if it is normal or not. Not a big deal but is weird.

Well that is it for right now...hope everyone is doing well!!!

WARNING.....grumpy when hungry.......

I am 10 days post op and feeling great. Except I am starting to get hungry. I am on a liquid diet for 2 weeks post op, have 4 more days, feel like I want to eat my arm off and feeling a lil grumpy. I will drink my shake or soup and within an hour I have that empty hungry feeling again. Is this normal to feel hungry at this point? After the surgery my surgeon told me I don't have a lot of tissue on my stomach and will need a bigger fill for my first fill. Also I am down 16 pounds WOOO HOOOOO. 7 of that is post op and now the scale has not moved in 3 days, I'm not too worried about this cuz I know it will come off at some point...right??? I mean I have only had water, broth, protein shakes, and yogurt for over a week now. So this leads me to my last question, do you think it would be horrible if I started my puree's a couple days early?

Thanks for reading all of my whining ;-)

4 Days Post-Op

Well I am 4 days post op and feelin pretty good. The gas pain was the worst part for me... well watching Jason, Jaxon and my mother in law eat pizza the other night was pretty darn rough. But I got through that as well as the gas pain.
I am going to call the surgeon tomorrow because I have one small incision that is oozing just a tiny bit. It is not red and not causing me any pain. I think it might just be that my left boob is resting on the incision and it is suffocating. My girls just don't sit where they used to....lol

Thanks for all of the well wishes and encouraging words from my last post.

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My Family

Me and my boys at the beach.

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surgery in 4 days

So this is the wife Jaimie. I am a blogger virgin so bare with me. my husband Jason is really into vlogging on You Tube, you can find him under JayBand22.

 My surgery was scheduled for this Thursday the 29th and I was super excited. And then I got the dreaded phone call that it had to be rescheduled for the following week.... This sucked big time because my mother in law had already bought her tickets to fly out here and my hubby would be going out of town 4 days after my surgery. Knowing that I have a little one at home and am on 4 weeks lifting restriction they were able to fit me in on Wednesday so I can get all the help I need before my mother in law goes home and hubby goes on a business trip. 

YIPPY.... i will be banded on Wednesday July 28

So tonight Jason is taking me out for sushi.... Will I ever be able to eat sushi again.... who knows..... at this point it really doesn't matter..... cuz all I can think about is in a year from now my ass is going to be so much smaller, and I am totally ready to sacrifice rice, bread, pasta and all that jazz, for a smaller ass:0)

Goals...Goals...Goals

So, in the spirit of the World Cup today's blog is going to be about GOOOOAAAALS!!! Sorry...got carried away... Anyway, today's blog is goal setting.

In reading a bunch of other blogs, posts and speaking to the people helping us through (psychologist, dietitian, etc.) it seems wise to not only set weight goals...but size and personal goals as well...so tonight's list of goals is what Jaimie and I came up with post band. Mind you, neither of us have had the band yet, but it is never too soon to start setting goals...right?

Jason's Goals
199.9 lbs - I'm currently about 330 and haven't been at 200 since high school...this is a big goal of mine.
Size 38 jeans - I'm currently in a size 44 jeans and 48 suit pants. Wow! I again haven't been in a size 38 since high school. This would be awesome...and expensive as I would need all new pants!
XL Size shirts - Currently most shirts are size 3XL and I am forced to shop in the Big & Tall section or at Casual Male XL...not fun. Want to shop in regular guys stores again and have ALL clothes in my sizes!!
Booth Sitting - I want to be able to walk into a restaurant and be able to sit in a booth without fear of the table being too close and squishing my belly and being uncomfortable for the whole meal...not to mention embarrassed!
Mirror Looking - Not being afraid to look at myself in the mirror, or windowed doors, or anything that shows my reflection. Now when approaching when of these objects I look down in denial and shame...want that to end.
Amusement Park Rides - Want to be able to go to any amusement park and be able to ride any rides without fear of not being able to ride due to weight.
1/2 Marathon or Marathon - This is a personal goal and on my "bucket list". I have never been much of a runner but this is just something personal I want to prove to myself I can do...and I will.


My wife's goals will be next. She isn't as comfortable "sharing" as I am for where she is currently but she will share where she wants to get to in a number of categories.

Jaimie's Goals
Paint toenails...comfortably! - Phew!! Who else out there has attempted to paint their toenails and had to come up for air after each brush stroke. Not only do you feel as if you are going to pass out, but it takes 4 hours to do my nails!!!
Size 14 jeans
80 lbs. lost - When this goal is attained I want to treat our family to a weekend at Disneyland...which is where we got engaged and will hopefully fit into the rides at that time.
Size 13-14 dress - I want to attain this dress size and wear the new dress to renew our wedding vows in Hawaii.
Hike Silver Creek Falls - There is a great hike here in Oregon where 7 different water falls can be seen throughout a tough, 16 mile hike. I want to accomplish this...without dying!! Ha!!!
Lose the feeling of having to delete every picture of myself off of the digital camera - I currently have to "edit" each picture to ensure I approve of them being posted to Facebook or shared via email.
2 mile walk in 30 minutes - Currently I am doing this walk around the neighborhood in 37 minutes and have set the goal of getting this under 30 minutes.

So there they are...our current goals we are looking to accomplish! These will be posted to our blog and refrigerator with dates of accomplishment...wish us luck!!

J&J

The Decision

As stated in the "About Us" section my wife and I have struggled with weight our entire lives. We both have shared embarassing weight stories with one another from our childhood and years past. Such as me being "pantsed" in elementary school because my top button on my pants kept snapping open or her embarassing "fat banana" incident in 4th grade. As I am sure you know the embarassming moments continued far past the age of 13 and far beyond the playground. From having to always choose tables in restaurants for fear of trying to slide into a booth and in the process bruising my liver from slamming it against the "too tight" table. (Aren't clothes supposed to be tight...not tables!) Or gathering Lane Bryant frequent shopper points like airline miles of a world traveler. As I am sure you realize, the stories can go on and on and will be shared in later blogs. But all stories lead us to the inevitable...decision. The decision for a better life for both of us and in turn our family.

After thinking of going the Lap-Band route for some time and then seeing the incredible transformation of a friend who is in the midst of the process the decision became easier...but not easy. When truly thinking of what changes we would have to make we realized that food had become our LIFE. The topics of conversation always revolved around our meals and food! While I was walking out the door I would ask what was for dinner or while she was eating dinner she was thinking of the "goodies' in the refridgerator. Or the excitement I felt when the co-workers would pop into my office and say, "You got lunch plans?" and I would know it would be shear moments before that delicious, 3.5 lb, 1000 calorie Chipotle burrito would be touching my lips. Wow...what were we doing to our selves?

Other deciding factors were the health of our parents. My wife's mother passed away a few years ago due to cancer. Definitely not weight related but her mom dealt with weight issues her life as well. My father passed away last year and while again, not a weight related illness; due to his obesity, he dealt with many complications. One such being sleep apnea that kept him in the hospital longer then expected and inevitably lead to his passing. We did not want to end up like this.

The final deciding factor was our son, Jaxon. He is currently 18 month's old and probably terrorizing the dogs or climbing on the dining room table right now. He could also be chattering any of the 100 "words" he knows such as "bia" (zebra), "bink! bink!" (pacifier), "peas" (please) or "bocki" (broccoli, his favorite food...yuck!). But Jaxon has been one of the biggest reasons why now is the time for my wife and I to take control. We are tired of only being able to chase after him in short sprints due to our hyperventilating, or bending over to pick him up and realizze there is a 50/50 chance we might not make it back to the upright position, or the worst coming home from a long day of work and being too "tired" to play so the time spent is in front of the TV. We want to be here while he grows up, when he graduates high school and when he walks down the aisle one day. We have wanted kids for so long...we don't want to waste the time now that we have this beautiful child on the fact we are so overweight and out of shape.

So, there it is...the decision to move forward with this life changing event. My wife goes to meet the surgeon on Wednesday in one of her final "pre-op" meetings and I start all my appointments tomorrow and finish up next week. We cannot "weight" to get this journey on the way and hope that someone finds this blog helpful or at least humerous while following our journey.

Jason & Jaimie