Banded Girl

I call this look Hurry up and take the picture already!

I found Ben Does Life several months ago after hearing about him in a LiveJournal community I belong to. Ben started his journey on January 1, 2009 at 358 pounds. He weighs significantly less than that today and has completed a slew of races (including an Ironman and several half marathons).

My exercise has been lacking, and Ben shows me that there’s no reason for it. It’s inspirational.

Go read Ben’s blog, if you don’t already. He’s awesome. And cute, 358 pounds or 230!

Don’t tell the Boy I said that!

Amy W. wrote a beautiful post today. Go check it out.

I’m trying to do this every three months or so: Post a link to your blog in the comments! You don’t have to be a bandster or weight loss surgery patient to participate!

Here’s the previous post.

If you’re on Blogger and want to follow a non-Blogger blog like mine, here‘s a guide instructing you how!

Mrs. Q, a teacher in the midwestern United States, has started eating the same lunches her children get every day. All I can say is EWWWWWW!!

I haven’t had a school lunch since I was in the eighth grade, which was close to 13 years ago. Things have changed since then. There weren’t prepackaged individual servings where I came from; our lunch ladies (all of them were actually ladies) actually made the food. I’m not saying that the food was the best from a nutritional standpoint, but I’d wager that it’s better than what kids are getting now.

Read Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project. Have things changed since you were in school?

I wish I made Banded Bloggers posts more often! The problem is that a rule I’ve made for recommending another person’s blog on here is that I have to read every post…. It takes a lot of time to go back and read archives!!

In any event, I stumbled across i heart the band not too long ago. Gen was banded in September and has lost as much weight as I have (I have a three month lead on her)! She’s rocking it by exercising and watching what she eats. She’s candid about her life as a telecommuter with four kids in a rural area with no lap-band doctors nearby.

That’s what appeals most to me about Gen’s blog–she lives in southwest Colorado, USA. I grew up within a 100 mile radius and lived in the city where Gen lives before I moved to Phoenix four years ago.

When I was banded, I accepted it as reality that I would never be able to move “home” again. The nearest lap-band doctors are, as far as I know, in the major cities in the nearest states: Denver, Salt Lake, and Phoenix (New Mexico doesn’t have any bariatric surgeons who preform lap-band surgeries, which means the closest city, Albuquerque, is out of the equation). To get a fill would require a long drive or a very expensive flight. Gen makes it work, though, and it impresses me. I feel reassured that I’d be able to make my band work if I ever lose my mind and decide to move back :)

Go check out Gen’s blog. She’ll inspire you no matter how close (or far) you are from her.

Seriously, go read Once Upon A Time…In the Land of Cheese and Sunkist, bandster Amy W.’s blog.

She’s awesome. And cute. And honest. She posts pictures and vlogs and recipes. She’s honest and tells about her journey with the band–both the good and the bad. She’s working it well and has lost almost 100 pounds since she was banded in January!

Amy, thanks for the blog, the information, and the awesome. I always look forward to your posts :)

Readers, do you have a blog you’d like me to tell others about? Leave a comment so I can check it out!

Okay, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but most of my previous posts seemed to be time sensitive and I pushed this back…and back…and back some more. But now I get to do it while sitting on the rooftop of my hotel!

I want to make a point of letting my readers know about other blogs relating to weight loss surgery, primarily gastric banding but also those that are about other types of weight loss surgery, plastic surgery after weight loss, and the like. If you have a blog or read any blogs you think might fit the bill, leave a comment for me so I can check them out!

So, I want to let you all know about Theresa’s Gastric Band Blog!

I discovered Theresa’s blog a few weeks before I had surgery; I read it from her first post from November 10, 2008 and then added it to my Google Reader so I can keep up with what’s happening in her journey. It’s a wealth of information from a woman who is using her band as a tool toward attaining her healthy lifestyle goals. She’s working hard to increase her activity and keep herself accountable for her food choices.

Things I love about Theresa’s blog:

• She tells about her bad days. If she binges on a candy bar or two, she lets her readers know. If she gets distracted while she’s eating and has a problem with food going down, she tells her readers about the experience. This contraption isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, and I appreciate knowing that I am not alone in my not great days.
• She posts what she’s been eating from time to time. Want to know what a successful bandster is doing with his or her diet, complete with calorie count? Check Theresa out.
• She shares the ways that she’s incorporated exercise into her days. Taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator, going on long hiking adventures with her husband, and swimming are all activities she’s started doing frequently.
• She talks about television programs she’s seen and obesity-related articles she’s read.
• She’s a fish eating vegetarian. I am a fish-repulsed everything else eater. I enjoy reading about different ways of eating.
• She responds to her readers’ comments. Have a question? Theresa will probably answer it for you.

Theresa is from the UK. If you’re from the US like me, some things are confusing sometimes.

• Have Google open to look up unfamiliar food items.
• She posts her weight in stone, then pounds. One stone is 14 pounds (or 6.35 kilograms). Think of it like height–feet, then inches. I am five feet four inches tall. I weigh 19 stone, 12 pounds (278 pounds).

Go check out Theresa’s Gastric Band Blog. It’s worth reading from the beginning, especially if you’re starting out.

Comments closed due to the amount of spam I got on this post.