Slacking on the blog

I just realized its been about 6 weeks since I last blogged!  Clearly lots have happened since then as you know from my updates on Facebook.   Last month at my 3 month post-op mark I hit the 45 lbs mark, and three weeks later I hit the 50 lbs mark!  Things could not be going any smoother then this!  I still am drinking my 2 shakes a day, one yogurt or cottage cheese, and my small portion of dinner (3 oz protein & 6 oz veg).  I try and change things up so I am not eating the same things all the time and getting bored.  The amount I am eating is keeping me full for a few hours after I eat so I still have not gotten a fill.  Occasionally they say that a person will come out of surgery at exactly the right spot with the amount of saline in the band, I thank my lucky stars I am one of those people.  I have been warned that this feeling of satiety that I have now can change at any time and as I continue to loss weight the band my become looser around my stomach.  If the band becomes looser I will possible need a fill to make it tighter then, for now I'd rather leave it alone if its working properly. 
The way I eat now is drastically different then pre-surgery.  Now because the band is around the top of my stomach I need to cut my food into very small pieces (think toddler bite-size) and I need to chew, chew, chew everything very well so that it goes through the stomach opening (stoma) without any problems.  If something is not chewed enough or small enough it can get stuck.  Getting something stuck feelings like you are having a heart attack.  The food either needs to pass through or come back up.  I have been able to avoid this problem until this past week!  I was waiting for Peter to come home so we could head out to dinner and I had started to get hungry.  I went into the kitchen to grab a few little pieces of some kielbasi we had in the fridge, realized very quickly that kielbasi is no longer my friend and within a few minutes knew something was not right.  Getting something stuck feeling like you have something sitting in the middle of your chest, and I then started to feel the muscles of my esophagus moving (like it was trying to move the food ).  Then the nausea started because all the muscles are moving, then because something is stuck the saliva you are producing can not go down and sits on top of the stuck food.  At this point I was hoping the food was going to pass quickly but instead a little tiny bit came back up (coated in slime :-( ) This all took less then 4 minutes and luckily I was 100% ok as soon as that happened.  Any other bandster reading this avoid this feeling at all costs, its uncomfortable and gross!
Same thing happened on Saturday night at the food tasting for our wedding venue.  I took a bite of something, either filet Mignon or salmon, and it was apparently not small enough or not chewed enough and I got the same feeling in my chest & esophagus.  Luckily this passed through within a few minutes but at this point the lesson is learned! CHEW, CHEW, CHEW !!!!
 Here are some pics that I have been slacking on posting on here.
This was 3 months post-op!

And this was 4 months post-op, down 50 lbs!!!


This second picture was taken on 10/5/11.  We went out to dinner at Applebee's (where we had out first date) to celebrate that in 1 year we will be getting married!!! Even more motivation to keep up my momentum!  I have gone from a tight size 24 to a 16 in 4 months, the thought that I will not be a plus-size bride is almost unreal to me!  Can't wait to start dress shopping...after the new year :-)