[GinaG]

Hey everybody just wanted to share my joy, I have never in all my years of dieiting ever got to my goal.
Gastric bypass has saved my life, my marriage and my sanity. I've gone from a size 26 to a size 4, I have more energy than I ever had in my 30's' I'm 48 now.
I finally feel free from weightloss yo yo. I know not to take this lightly I am vigilant on vitamins and protien and will be for the remainder of my life.
I'm still kind of in shock that I actually succeeded and I'm excited about the future about maybe having my own business or getting good job, I feel the world has opened up to me.
I hope all of you that are still on your way to your goal much success and feel as happy as I do now.
I will post a after picture as soon as I get a chance, my MIL is in the hospital for dehydration so not much time to celebrate right now, but she will be out tomorrow so I will post again soon.
Thanks to all of you who in the past have comunicated with me on this site, I couldn't have done it with out you

[club]

Congratulations!! Thats awesome!!

You sound so proud, it's nice to hear!

[stargzr]

Big CONGRATULATIONS! What a wonderful, amazing feat. You will serve as inspiration to many, and even some you don't know (like me).

[annie175]

Wowser...Rock on!

[L144S]

amazing! and i am glad you feel good at your goal, enjoy maitanance!

[sindurella]

Congrats Gina!

[pegdav]

Congratulations!!! I am so happy for you!!

[Mama]

How wonderful!!! Congratulations! You sound like you feel empowered to go and conquer the world - and I bet you can!!

I can't wait to see pictures!

[nanj]

Hey GG: YOU ROCK!!! YAHOO! YESSSSS!!

[30and300]

Awesome!!! Great job =)

[GinaG]

Thank you everyone!! I'm on cloud 9 !!

[Leenie]

YOU ROCK GINA !!!! Congratulations

[nomena]

Hi Gina, congratulations!

I have noticed one line that you wrote - you still can not believe it! I know that feeling and I think it stops me from loosing it. When people comment on my weight and tell me that I have loose some - I have a feeling that they dont see it right...because I cant believe it. Did you do some visualizations of yourself thin? How did you overcome it? I think if you cant "See it" - it cant happen. Any comment?

Also, I need your comment on my case. I did have Lap band at 15.09.2010.
Month later 15.10. 2009. I did loose around 15 pounds. They gave me the first fill - 2ml and the band is big to 11 ml. Doctor asked me to come 3 months later for check up. I gained around half of it - 7 pounds and he refused to fill me because he said he will reword me after I loose some weight. I have insisted but he refused saying that I will make my upper stomach bigger if he fills me and that the band will have to be removed than.

I am not sure am I right or not because in Euorpe its quite a new thing so I wolud like a comment from your personal experiance.

I think:
- that he should fill me up every month
- that the band has no purpose as it is empty
- they can take it out because there is no firkin point anyway
- if I could loose it by myself I would do it anyway
- i don’t think i would stretch the upper stomach if he filled me

He asked me to come in 6 weeks and I will be lucky if I don’t get some more pounds. I can eat whatever I like, in any quantity almost. (a little bit less, but a little!) If he refuses me again i will try to find another doctor to fill me every 4-6 weeks. That wolud be EXPENSIVE for me, but I dont see the point of all this if I dont do it. What wolud you do it if you were me?

Thank you for you comment :-)

And I have to give you congratulations once again! I am sure that world is now opened up to you! As you did that - you can do anything! Keep on !

[GinaG]

Dear Nomena,

Thanks for the congratulations and encouragement.

As far as not believing I got to my goal was because in all the years of different diets over many years this is the very first time I have ever met my goal. I did how ever gain confidence in my ability to lose once I got past the60 pounds of weightloss because that has ussually been as far as I could go on any diet.

Unfortunatly I'm not really up on Lap band and how it works, I was unable to have that proceedure due to acid reflux disease. I had gastric bypass where they make your stomach into a small pouch surgically and reroute your small intestines so you don't absourb some calories.
I wish I could be more help to you, you sound like a wonderful and deserving person to be treated better by your doctor.

One thing I can advise you on is the thing that help me alot, was to keep a daily journal of my calories,carbs and protien intake to make sure I stayed on track. A free journal that I used is called Fit Day and it will track your food,activities and wieght online.

Good luck to you on your weightloss journey stay strong and believe in yourself

[Duckslove]

I am so happy for you! its gotta be so exciting to reach your goal!!