I am a little late on this update since I was in Las Vegas last week without my scale. The good news is that this month my weight loss started kicking in again. My current weight is 210, 48 pounds down from the start of the pre-op diet. That’s an 8 pound loss for the month. My BMI is 33.9. I have lost 47% of my excess body weight.

I had my 4th fill 2 weeks ago, and it made all of the difference. I am at 7cc in a 14cc band. I have a lot less hunger, eat considerably less, and must really stay to the lapband diet. The interesting thing about the lapband is that the rules change monthly with the fills. I was able to eat just about anything prior to this fill. Now, I have to avoid certain foods, or they will be coming back up or causing me great discomfort.

I had some real triumphs over the past week. I came home from Vegas weighing 4 pounds less than when I left. I went to a Brazilian steakhouse Saturday night and had no issues. Add to that, I weighed in 1 pound less on Sunday morning.

I am now following the bandster rules pretty closely. Adjusting to the rules has become part of my life. I am very analytic and often when something just doesn’t work for me, I tend to retry it, perhaps in a different combination to see if it really was an issue. I really want to know what I can and can not eat. I now avoid heavy pasta, bread and most carbs. I eat smaller portions of protein. I am still exercising daily. I can eat many things some bandsters can not, such as sushi, rice and light pasta like angle hair. However, I only eat these in small portions.

In terms of my goals I established, I am a little behind where I thought I should be. I now realize I set these goals too aggressively and based on an even weight loss. I now see that it has plateaus and then times of greater loss. I think I will still come in pretty close to goal come next July. I doubt if I will reach my New Year’s Eve goal of 200 pounds. I may be close though. Tough times are ahead with our cruise and the holiday celebrations.