SlimColaGirl

HAHAHA, no problem with BM issues! I do the fiber chewables and that helps immensely. :-) They're even a bit tasty! And I'll try Benefiber postop like tnm75 suggests. Thanks everybody for the well wishes and great advice. This has been much easier than I thought. Just needed to get over that initial hunger hump. It's nice to be back in control of my diet again. :-)

whimperingcat, I feel for you. By the grace of God in all his Splendor, I can afford to pay for this procedure outright. But before i knew that was the case I was willing to wipe out my savings and sell anything I had to. Save, save save!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sell your car, take on a second job, start a small business doing something you like... whatever! When I knew this was the surgery for me I was ready to go like yesterday. Of course the OCC in Mexico is incredibly cheap, but you have to take into account extra expenses like plane tickets, gas, etc, plus wls aftercare/fills and what you'll do if any complications come up with the band. I know it seems overwhelming but you definitely can do it. If you're still nervous about mexico there are doctors all over the country who are offering good prices, but do you research and check them out first!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck.

hey JazzyJude... I hear you loud and clear. Oh I just read your same post as an answer to another question on the forum. hehe :-) My body is definitely rebelling and I should expect this for the next couple days at the very least. don't worry I'm ready to fight the power! In fact, going into my third day now (starting another thread) and it's way easier. I got the same chewable fiber tablets that you have and they are relatively tasty and help out in the hunger department immensely.

So I'm am feeling so awesome today. I had my handy fiber chewables so today was much easier than yesterday. Wow, I got hungry... I popped one in... I wasn't hungry anymore. Awesome! Another reason why today was awesome... WiiFit! :-) I have discovered WiiFit again. So much fun, so cute! It scolded me a little for not playing in so long, but that's ok. I mean, the game was right... where have I been! :-D I kept it light and did 30 minutes of the different little games, made some points, and broke some records. It was the coolest thing to get me back into working out, especially since it's a bit cold for bike riding. I'm afraid of the cycling now because I've still got a cough from a cold I seemed to get forever ago. So yeah today was fun, I was a lot less angry and a lot less hungry. Also managed to get in a bit more water today. Special K protein water packets are very handy. Eating on a lean cuisine dinner now and feeling great about today, even though it's technically not over. :-)

A WiiFit is a fantastic Christmas present... congratulation! Have lots of fun, my husband got it for me about 6 months ago and I used it a lot in the beginning and then got bored. I guess the reason is that I knew I was steadily gaining weight so I was discouraged from using it. But now that I'm on the pre-op diet it makes alot of sense and can act as a great scale, and make things quite fun. Thanks for the reminder and keep losing weight! We're all in store for good things in 2009. :-)

Amanda, Yeah it is really hard. I'm low on energy, but keeping myself motivated by looking at lots of youtube lapband testimonials. Great stuff... really gives you the ups and down on weight loss with the band or GB. They have a great support system there, but you do have to realize that anyone can see your videos and I'm keeping my lapband private. Might come out with it someday, when I'm sure that it works and when I start getting very very small. Then people will think I'm on meth if I don't tell them I had the surgery. :-D But yeah expect this extreme hunger to pass within a few days, the fiber chewables are a big help today.

So yesterday was my first day on the preop diet and it was a hard one. Geez I have gotten used to eating so much food nowadays that I hardly knew what to do with myself when all I could do was eat slimfast shakes. My husband was around and I got so angry and snappy with him throughout the day. He is very understanding and supportive though, an absolute angel and gentleman. Not that he was happy about it, but he understood. I did great in the day time, but not so great in the evening, although I do think I made a great step in the right direction. So all day I had nothing but my shakes, some water. Cleaned my entire apartment yesterday because I needed somewhere to focus my frustration. So at least I have a clean house today. :-) However upon dinner we went out. I had lots of bread, butter and hummus. My entree was great though... grilled salmon with lemon/butter sauce on the side, topped with sauteed spinach. Fairly healthy. Baby steps I guess. But was ravenous all day long apart from that. Today I'm much better stocked. I got multivitamins and some great fiber chewables. Now I have something that can truly aid in my hunger management throughout the day. And tonight I will enjoy one of my lean cuisines. Also, plan is to do some bicycling today, which will get me in the mood for some weight losing! :-D Wow I did a modified fast for 4 months and don't know how I did it now. I was very fired up to lose a LOT of weight though... thought it was the last diet I would ever be on. Plus they weren't slim fast shakes, and I couldn't have food at night. I did have a LOT of frustration and hunger for the first week though, so I am going through that again now. To sum things up, I'm pretty proud of my first day on the preop diet, but know I can do even better today. Wish me luck! :-D

So my husband and I drove all the way from San Francisco to Stockton for my first preop/postop lapband meeting. Yup, I did all the driving. I missed the one in Petaluma which was much closer and a doctor advised not going to the San Francisco meetings because they're always practically empty. I'm so glad I went... learned a lot about both GB and lapband. Also asked the guy running the meetings, Dr. Cirangle from the Laparoscopic Associates of SF, about going to Dr. Ortiz in Tijuana. He said that even though he usually doesn't take patients that have had their surgeries elsewhere, he would do aftercare and fills with me. He only does this for surgeons he knows and trusts. I felt very good about that. My husband was very glad he went as well. He got to hear a lot of stories and also had his questions answered. An overall good experience. Hope to not have to do that drive again though. :-)

You can find me on facebook by searching Regina SlimCola. :-)

"Can you imagine waking up like that at 40? or 50? me neither and it really does happen." Yeah I can imagine, sadly enough. It's so easy when everyone you know does drugs and you enable each other. I used to smoke weed with some of my friends back in the day. Today some of them still smoke daily and they're pushing into their 30s and even their 40s with the habit. Most of them are unhappy and can't take a trip anywhere without being desperate for the stuff. I'm glad I got out of that too. If ALL of your friends are doing the same stuff it's uber hard to stop I think. I'm glad me and my hubby keep to ourselves mostly. The funny thing is I hear about the group every once in a while. People are moving away left and right. Of course there are the couples having kids and stuff like that. But others are just bolting and moving to LA, or New York or where ever else. Taking jobs in Japan. I suspect some of them are getting tired of the scene and just taking off. I was about to do that, but I'm glad I changed my mind.

Thank you guys so much for your well wishes. I am steering clear of the stuff, and over the 2 years it's gotten easier to truly do my own thing. It's funny that I'm 31 years old and talking about this, it sounds more like high school peer pressure type stuff. Haha, but you know some people never mature much past high school. All of my friends are late 20s/early 30s and make plenty of money and I figure a lot of this is just an attempt to stay young and wild. And the weird thing is that a little bit of social obligation weirdness is thrown into the mix. Other friends are getting tired of it too, but are afraid of challenging them and being seen as not fun or socially awkward. Strange stuff. It doesn't help that I'm a big woman either, since most of them are very slim and attractive. I've gotten some rude things said to me and some nasty looks over the years. I'm glad to drop them and not care what they think anymore. In the end they just weren't real friends. But yeah looking so forward to the surgery. I know it's gonna help me get a handle on my eating. I can't wait for cycling to become even easier. I start my pre-op diet next week. I decided to have at it a week earlier, and take christmas day off to have a fantastic dinner with the hubby. I'm gonna cycle daily to the beach and back, which should give me an hour a day of cardio. Rainy days means I pull out the treadmill. I'm already starting to look at tummy tuck surgery for 2010 if I should hit my goal weight by then. eeeehhhheeeee :-D

sorry to all those offended by this post. Maybe this is not the place or the time to put this out there. But I've been bothered about it for the past 2 years running so decided to rant. I don't like cocaine at all. It took all my friends away. I'm lonely these days, and angry at them and the world. I mean, I had this super cool group of friends to hang with. We were all yuppie/techies and went dancing, partying and could for the most part depend on each other for anything. Slowly cocaine came into the picture and slowly I saw things just get out of hand. I'm not passing judgement... God knows I've done my share of partying. But things change... I'm married now and we're saving for a house. I have an animation career that's finally blossoming. I wanna get banded and finally drop this weight, take care of my health, escape hereditary diabetes 2, and become a smoking hot cycling nerd and motion graphics artist. So many other cool things to look forward to... skiing, snowboarding, CYCLING, Russion River kayaking in a bikini, possible visual effects career. There's way more to life than the next joint, pint or line. 2009 WILL be my year... and unfortunately I'll not have many to share it with. Me and my new hubby are doing great, newlywed related bliss you know. But I do miss my friends. They're all jerks now, and I spend a lot of time dodging invitations to parties and coming up with excuses. All the parties end up the same... you end up talking to some coked out freak who thinks burning man is the greatest thing ever, or he tries to get you in on a threesome because he thinks your THAT drunk and stupid. Or you walk into a dark room to get a bit of quiet time, turn on the light and realize 10 people are sitting there in the pitch black snorting line, after line, after line. Scary and pathetic stuff. I decided I was officially THRU and stopped hanging out. Doesn't matter, I still get invitations to parties and I wish they'd stop writing me. Maybe they just want me to know I'm missing out on a good time. Screw their version of a "good time". Ok, so I fell in with the wrong crowd for a while. It made me so sad I almost moved out of the city. But San Francisco is more than druggy partiers... technology, art and culture are so alive in this town. Now I'm finally getting back to being myself... my extremely nerdy, goofy, fun loving self. Slowly starting to make friends that don't worship the bong or get coked out every weekend. Gonna start taking cooking classes with a friend. I'm tired of being mad at my ex friends... it's def time to move on. I know being banded will help me take control and gain self confidence. I'm so excited for the future. Happy Holidays and keep it real no matter what. :-D

awesome hi Erica. Lovely to hear from you. I wish you all the luck with your band and moving back to SF someday. I've been here for 14 years now and it's never a dull moment in this town. I definitely have a love affair with San Francisco. It's an expensive town, but I've lived here so long I have rent control and know hot to live on the cheap and still have fun. Us bay area girls have to stick together you know. :-) I can barely get anything done from all the excitement about getting my band. Everything is happy and feels like Christmas. I'm skipping around the house like an idiot. hehe, ok back to work. :-)

YAYYYYY, thanks for replying sarahrnrx! Yes I live in SF. I'm glad you're having success with the band and I wish you so much more! I'm looking forward to my own weight loss journey to begin... again... but hopefully I can keep it off this time. Hopefully we can meet up sometime for coffee. I'm eager to pick your brain on how you live with the band now. There's only so much I can learn from Youtube videos and forum testimonials. :-D

I'm looking for other Bay Area lapbanders. I'm having my surgery done on the 9th and are so excited. If you're having it done soon please write back. Hopefully we can keep in touch, visit, and support each other thru-out the process. Happy Holidays, SlimColaGirl

Cycling is the best exercise EVER! I recommend it to everyone. I'm not talking about spandex shorts racing $6000 specialty bike cycling, but rather more practical urban cycling and bicycle touring. I started seriously a year ago and now have about 2 years under my belt. I can ride in the street along cars and everything now. I use it to commute to work, go to the museum on the weekends, run all my errands (laundry, light grocery shopping, etc.), and leisure. My husband and I got foldable bikes last year and we can pop them into the trunk and take them across the bay to ride around in another part of town. Foldable bikes are also legal to carry on most public transit and they're fun as hell. If you don't have foldable bikes, you can put different attachments on your car for transport. You don't have to spend a lot of money despite what you might think. A couple hundred dollars will get you a decent second hand bike, or even less. Or you can dust off that old bike you have in the garage and take it in for a tuneup. :-) I love cycling. It's low impact, definitely NOT boring and you get better at it as you lose weight. It feels like you're flying and you get to see more of your neighborhood and all the great scenery. One of my biggest motivating factors in getting the band is so I can more easily tackle the San Francisco hills and take longer trips outside of town. Finishing a 150 mile scenic bike tour from San Francisco to Sonoma County (Waves to Wine) is one of my major goals for next year. I cannot wait! Sorry I know I sound like some kind of cycling nut/nerd, but I've fallen head over heels for it. You don't have to go fast and it doesn't even feel like exercising half the time, so it's a great way to get light/moderate fitness into your life without even thinking about it. If you want a heavier workout, just go faster or find the nearest series of hills. Our car culture in this country works directly against us lapbanders and other overweight people. You could say it's the single biggest contributing factor to our problem, right beside HUGE portions we eat. They are making strides across the country to improve bicycle lanes and bike commuting safety for people that want to live healthier lifestyles and stop driving their SUVs a half mile to the fast food drive thru. Get ridin! :-D

oh boy, you look gorgeous. I'm being banded on January 9th and looking so forward to starting a whole new life after that. Your story is very inspirational and you were so crazy brave to move to Cancun. Enjoy life to the fullest, you totally deserve it! :-)

YAYYYYY, I'm scheduled to get banded on January 9th and I'm so incredibly excited. Gonna start my pre-op diet officially next week, only breaking for eating anything I want on Christmas day. That should get some of those pesky pounds off. YEEHEEEEEE.