Back to BAND business......

So, here I am---4 years and 5 months into my BANDED life and it is still as much a part of my everyday world as ever.
These days, it's like my arm or my leg.  It's just another  part of my body.
In fact, I think it might be my favorite part of my body.  Besides my blue eyes.  

Especially now!   

For the 5th New Year in a row....I am not resolving to lose weight THIS YEAR. 
In fact, my hopes and dreams have nothing at all to do with weight (I am not exactly sure what my hopes and dreams are but I know they have nothing to do with weight....).
It's a beautiful thing.  

Weight is one less thing I have to worry about, think about, obsess over.....
But, that doesn't mean I don't miss those days when every New Year diet article  gave me a little tingle of excitement and a whole shitload big shot of hope after 6 weeks of  careless eating and wreckless indulgence.
I've always been a diet junkie.....I love the thrill of weight loss promises! 

 

Speaking of a "shitload"......

As we glide into a new year, diets and weight loss programs and exercise regimens and magic pills are all the rage.   Every magazine cover is screaming something about weight. TV advertisements are either assaulting us with income tax commercials or weight loss promises---ugh.  Just what a diet junkie like me loves!  Yes, I read them all and even imagine myself doing them!
It's a sickness, really.
Not wanting to be fat is nothing new.  It's BIG business. 
And, I mean.....BIG.  BUSINESS. 
Income tax is a whole other story.....

I'll bet you that you could go into any store, any restaurant or any bar little cafe and eavesdrop on a conversation among 2 or more women and 99.9% of them will mention the word diet or say something about weight.    Go ahead, try this little experiment and let me know how it goes.   Although I wasn't doing any heavy duty research, I always find this to be true.  Even more so at this time of the year. 

Just the other day, while out doing a little after-holidays shopping, I ran into four different women and chatted with each of them.  All four conversations either started with the subject  of weight loss or dieting or somehow found it's way there.  A few good little fixes for a girl like me.   Now, you could argue that people just naturally talk to me about weight loss since you know....I lost all that weight.  But, really, that's old news, ya know.  I'm  pretty sure we would have entered into our chats no matter what.   One of the women said she had just joined Weight Watchers.  Another of them was "back on Atkins".   The third one had decided on Jenny Craig and the fourth one....well....she was doing the HCG Diet (a diet I wrote about here.....).  I'm pretty familiar with all of those diets. In fact, I'm pretty intimate with them---I shared quite a bit of my earnings over the years with them!  I'm a full lifetime member of Weight Watchers, an alum of Jenny Craig and a veteran of  Atkins.   My mother happened to be a victim of HCG.  As a matter of fact, once I figured out what diet this woman was talking about, I've been wrestling with sharing  my knowledge of my mother's experience with the program with her (a desperate dieting woman who thinks she hit the jackpot--eating 500 calories a day and giving herself injections while working 2 jobs as well as her having her own design business on the side).  I just hate to take away anyone's hope.  But....I figure saving a life is worth it. 

I'm not knocking any weight loss program.....I've done most of them that were available since 1974. So, who am I to judge?   And, I certainly  recognize that some people need programs or regimens or directions to help them with their challenges. And, some of us just like the thrill of new diets.   But, if I have learned nothing else on my Lapband journey, I've learned that I just ate too much damn food. That is why I was obese.  Sure, sure...there was the thyroid thing and the fat grandmother and the pregnancy weight and the busy schedule and all that other stuff--all of it very valid.  But, in the end--what my Lapband did was stop me from eating all that food.  That's how I lost the weight.  Believe me, I didn't exercise all that much.   My Lapband did not change my genetics or cancel out my fat grandmother or give me back a healthy thyroid.  It just cut down my food intake.  Too much food was my enemy.  So, if you look at it that way--it all seems rather simple...right?  Eat less=lose weight. 
Hmmmm.....not so fast.
I know that stopping all the overeating is not as easy as just stopping it.  Every body is different, every metabolism is different, everyone has different genetics and there's all kinds of different lifestyles. It's an entire combination of things that effect why you gain weight and how you lose it. 
My Lapband happened to  work for me.  I think it's the best thing I ever did for myself.  But, I don't think everyone should do it.  Well, that's not true.......sometimes I do have to stop myself from shaking people until they come to their senses and get a Lapband.   
Am I saying that everyone who is really serious about losing at least 100 pounds should do it?  
No. 
But, geez, it's definitely worth thinking about.
Let me put it this way....if you are currently thinking about what diet you want to pick or weight loss promise you want to believe, take a few moments to consider the option that changed my life......Lapband surgery.
But, only if you want to.