A month of Mondays..

Me wearing an 18W, smallest ever!

 I can remember before my lap-band, always starting a diet on "Monday". My grandmother someone I love dearly has always been my biggest cheerleader. She also has been my biggest help with diet "stuff". I say that because if it's a new diet, she will buy it for herself, so she says.. Give it to me to TRY before she tries it..My grandmother is 80 years old, and 5 lbs over her HER! Ideal weight LOL.. Not the doctors.. The doctors think she is at a fine weight.. Not heavy, not thin so if she gets sick she has some fat to deal with. I've been on every diet A-Z, Atkins-Zone.. I've tried Jenny Craig, weight watchers, diet pills, and diet "coffee". I must say even though it didn't work, the diet coffee was my favorite lol. I had some luck with most of these diets. No sticking weight loss though. My biggest weight loss was either low-carb, or a diet pill called Redux. I lost 50 lbs in 2 months with that pill. My mother took me off of it, she said it worked great but that was to much weight to lose in 2 months. She was right, I've crashed dieted. I've know I've messed my metabolism up. So, when I got my lap-band and I lost weight and was doing great I was beyond excited. I'm still happy and excited, I just don't remember the road to get there.. So I found a website after a search and It came up with information that is helping me get back to what I should be doing! Which is eat my protein first, then veggies, then If I have room grains of carbs of some sort. Now, I don't know that I've explained the band before so here I go. The lap-band is a silicone band they put around the top of your stomach and they latch it in there. They do a few stitches so it will stay in place. The also place a port, on the left side of your body. This port is connected to the band. This is the way they "fill" the band. The fill tightens the balloon like band up around the top of your stomach creating a smaller opening, making you full faster and longer. The longer it takes the food to go through the fuller you are for longer. Helping slow you down and lose the weight. If you eat right, you get your veggies, proteins, carbs, fruit and good fats and stuff in. When I had the surgery in 2006, I was never taught the proper banded diet. I never seen a nutritionist, so I was on a losing battle. My diet consisted of whatever I could eat in smaller portions. So when I got pregnant, and they unfilled my band so I could eat more I ate more...not the right stuff either. So, as I gained my weight back, and drank with my meals which is the biggest no no with the band, or ONE of the biggest no nos with the band. I cheated it.. Now, I'm dealing with the fact I know how to cheat my band, but I do not want to cheat my band! :) So, it's a fight between good and evil, and Good will prevail, it will just take me some time to get back to my old self! So I'm ready, are you? I'm not wanting to be a skinny minnie. I want to be healthy, and have my husband not worry about my health.. I also have him to worry about.. :)