Almost a year!

The me on the left January 2010, the me on right March 2011.

Next Friday will be my 1 year bandiversary. I've been reflecting on the year, wow, it has flown by! When I got the surgery, I believed that in one year I would be at my goal weight. I am not. I read countless blogs before making the decision to have the surgery and I remember seeing some people who lost weight as quickly as if they'd had bypass and in a year were firmly at goal. I saw people who after a year had barely lost any weight and I saw people who after a year were about half way there. I fall in to the third of those categories and I'm not the least bit sad about it. My weight loss has been slow, but if I really stop and think about it, it has also been pretty darn painless. I have not given up any of the food or drink that I love. I have not obsessed over what I want that I can't have, I have not been inconvenienced at all. In fact, it's really been pretty easy, it has been a time in my life that I feel more normal than ever before. Once I got comfortable with my band, learned how to really chew and avoid puking, it's been good. I have not exercised like I should and although I keep saying I'm going to, I still haven't. I know that if I did start exercising in earnest and really watching what I eat, that the weight would come off quicker, but I'm pretty happy right now with the pace and the fact that I'm living, having a wonderful time and still managing to lose a little weight along the way. I do plan to step things up a bit for the second half of this journey, but...I just have to say again, I love my band, I'm so glad I have it and I'm really happy with my progress thus far. I'm still hanging on at 55 pounds down, I'm 45 pounds from my goal, 41 from the place that I think I might want to settle, I can't tell you how good it feels to think I may be happy with where I am in 40-45 pounds, that's amazing to me. For the biggest part of the last 20 years I have been at least 100 pounds overweight. So...this feels good.

The picture I posted above, of me, is a great example of how much my life has changed. The pic on the left was taken at a Super Bowl party last year and when it was posted on Facebook, I was mortified, I felt like it embodied just how badly I felt about myself. I looked fat, but even worse...I looked unhappy and I was. The pic on the right was taken over the weekend at my brother's birthday party, I think I look so much more confident and happy...and I am.

March 25, 2010 was a great day for me, one that I thought would never happen for me, I'm so glad that it did. The night before my surgery I had my husband take some pictures from several different angles for my befores, I can't locate them, because we had computer issues since then, but he says he saved them on a disc for me, I really hope I can find them so I can do a comparison. I'm looking forward to getting to my goal, I guess I'm going to have to step it up a tad if I want it to happen this year!

Have a great day!

Big Hugs!

T