Wow -- a hundred pounds. That is worthy of celebration! Congratulations! What a splendid and rewarding accomplishment.

Wow sums it up for me too. Congratulations on this significant milestone, and wishes for continued success on your journey.

Will, congratulations! I hope for continued good health for you!

Thanks for all of your kind words. Here is a little documentary evidence as of today.

I was in for another check up with my doc today. I'm off for another sleep study here in the next week or two to determine if I still need the CPAP machine. Hopefully, they'll tell me no though I have to say that it was a great great tool for me during the time that I used it.

I weighed in today at 213 pounds. That is officially 115 pounds of weight lost since I began this journey back in late 2005. My size 40 pants are too big on me now. They slip way down on my hips. I'm always concerned about having an SDritz episode, as described herein, as I walk through parking lots.They were the last size that I had kept as I put on weight. That means I have to start buying clothes now.

My weight loss has slowed dramatically now. I'm still dropping around a pound a week. The pound a day months are now long over. My doc says that the pound a week will likely continue for the next 6 months to a year as long as I'm careful about my intake of food and exercise. I could reasonably expect to drop another 30-40 pounds over a long period of time.

I cannot say enough about the absolute great care and support that Dr. Jeff Rosen and his staff of Lifeweigh Bariatrics (www.lifeweighbariatrics.com) have given me. I consider them all friends as a result of the great relationship we have developed in the past two years. When i visit them, I feel like I am visiting family.

This will likely be my last post on this project of mine for a while. I appreciate the tolerance and support of everyone here as I have gone through it. As you can see from my posts on Smak Tak, I'm eating more regularly now, just in smaller amounts. However, those meals are once every one or two week exceptions for me rather than the everyday occurences that they once were.

I'm pretty excited to be attending my 25th high school reunion this coming month. I'm hoping that lots of people will say, "You haven't changed much" when they see me.

So I leave each of you with my many thanks for all your support and my final before and after pictures. I note that the plant behind me has done quite well since then, too. Never fear, I'll still be participating in the great food forums here at LTH even as I bring this chapter of my life to a conclusion.


December 2005


September 2007

Bravo, and I mean that. Even the Puglieses can toast your success. May all good things go your way this fall and always!

Congratulations Will. You look great!

You look great! And even so much of a difference from June until now. Keep it up!

Will,
Simply put, congratulations. You may have had help but you accomplished an enormous amount on your own, having decided that this was important to you. Your accomplishments are truly an inspiration--and I do not say such a thing lightly--to many of us and we can take heart from your example.

Thanks for sharing so much with us all.

Dave

You look great--can't say the same for that awful plant behind you (it hasn't changed in years).

[Sorry, just read your entire post only after writing the above.]

Will, your transformation is incredible.

As an aside - I got to the picnic too late to have your namesake sandwich - something I deeply regret, as I've been planning to try one for some time.

This year, I celebrated my 5 year anniversary of my lap band surgery. I still see my bariatric doctor, Jeff Rosen, now of Lifeweigh Bariatrics regularly. He has become a trusted medical advisor and friend to me over the years.

I recently returned to Chicago to live again and visited Jeff's office, They weighed me in at 218 pounds. That's three pounds more than I weighed approximately one year after the surgery. 215 was my lowest weight post surgery. I have had my ups and downs putting on as much as 25 pounds once since the surgery. But, I have found it easy to get my focus back. I'm a weight lifter these days so I am much more muscled than I was when I wrote about my surgery in 2006-2007.

The nutritionist at Jeff's office said something to me that I found shocking. That is that. within 5 years of the lap band surgery. many folks put a significant amount of their weight, if not all of it, back on

To say that the bariatric surgery was a success for me is a huge understatement. I personally believe that it saved my life.

Going back and reading this thread was fun for me tonight especially when I see how uncertain that I was that this would even help me back in 2006.

Congratulations. Keep that weight off. Its a big struggle with me too, I need to drop at least fifty pounds soon and even more over time. I won't be getting the lap band, but going for lifestyle changes.

YourPalWill wrote:This year, I celebrated my 5 year anniversary of my lap band surgery. I still see my bariatric doctor, Jeff Rosen, now of Lifeweigh Bariatrics regularly. He has become a trusted medical advisor and friend to me over the years.

I recently returned to Chicago to live again and visited Jeff's office, They weighed me in at 218 pounds. That's three pounds more than I weighed approximately one year after the surgery. 215 was my lowest weight post surgery. I have had my ups and downs putting on as much as 25 pounds once since the surgery. But, I have found it easy to get my focus back. I'm a weight lifter these days so I am much more muscled than I was when I wrote about my surgery in 2006-2007.

The nutritionist at Jeff's office said something to me that I found shocking. That is that. within 5 years of the lap band surgery. many folks put a significant amount of their weight, if not all of it, back on

To say that the bariatric surgery was a success for me is a huge understatement. I personally believe that it saved my life.

Going back and reading this thread was fun for me tonight especially when I see how uncertain that I was that this would even help me back in 2006.

This is great to hear Will. I recently lost about 35 pounds and I've been incredibly focused on keeping it off. All I know is that I haven't felt as good as I do now in a long, long time and that is my main incentive to maintain my lower weight (and maybe even lose a little more). That and it's just really expensive to keep on buying new clothes.

YourPalWill wrote:The nutritionist at Jeff's office said something to me that I found shocking. That is that. within 5 years of the lap band surgery. many folks put a significant amount of their weight, if not all of it, back on

Someone I work with had the same procedure but has since returned to near his original size/weight. Glad to hear that hasn't been the case for you.

Thanks to all of you who were supportive both then and now.

Congrats Will . . . I know it must be tough, especially as a food lover. I'm always battling with what I want to eat, and working out to be able to eat what I want . . . never easy. Keep up the great work.

BR wrote:I'm always battling with what I want to eat, and working out to be able to eat what I want . . . never easy. Keep up the great work.

Sadly (for all of us)--if an article I read in a reputable source a couple of years ago is true--there is no amount of working out that can accomplish a weight-control goal unless eating less is also part of the mix. The Harvard nutritionist who wrote the article (as I recall) said that it's largely a fallacy that working out more allows one to eat more. The number of calories burned in even a strenuous workout simply isn't sufficient to make much of a dent in weight, and using working out as license to eat more (or all one wants), as so many of us do, is counterproductive. (She certainly wasn't arguing against working out for other health-related reasons, such as cardiac health and a host of others, but was making the case that it is not the path to weight loss unless accompanied by a change in dietary habits.)

I second (along with all of us) the congratulations to Will.

Good for you, Will, and good luck going forward.

riddlemay wrote:

BR wrote:I'm always battling with what I want to eat, and working out to be able to eat what I want . . . never easy. Keep up the great work.

Sadly (for all of us)--if an article I read in a reputable source a couple of years ago is true--there is no amount of working out that can accomplish a weight-control goal unless eating less is also part of the mix. The Harvard nutritionist who wrote the article (as I recall) said that it's largely a fallacy that working out more allows one to eat more. The number of calories burned in even a strenuous workout simply isn't sufficient to make much of a dent in weight, and using working out as license to eat more (or all one wants), as so many of us do, is counterproductive.

100% agree.

I've been able to maintain my lower weight for about 2 months. While I've certainly increased how much I work out, I still keep an eye on what I eat. Based on my height and activity level it looks like I can be at 2600 calories in a day to maintain, even with a solid workout (2-3 mile run) I still need to keep an eye on things to come in at or below 2600.

riddlemay wrote:

BR wrote:I'm always battling with what I want to eat, and working out to be able to eat what I want . . . never easy. Keep up the great work.

Sadly (for all of us)--if an article I read in a reputable source a couple of years ago is true--there is no amount of working out that can accomplish a weight-control goal unless eating less is also part of the mix. The Harvard nutritionist who wrote the article (as I recall) said that it's largely a fallacy that working out more allows one to eat more. The number of calories burned in even a strenuous workout simply isn't sufficient to make much of a dent in weight, and using working out as license to eat more (or all one wants), as so many of us do, is counterproductive. (She certainly wasn't arguing against working out for other health-related reasons, such as cardiac health and a host of others, but was making the case that it is not the path to weight loss unless accompanied by a change in dietary habits.)

This is very true . . . balanced diet and working out are both required . . . but if I had to rank balanced diet, working out and great eating in terms of preferences . . . I'll take great eating . . . hence, many days of working out and finding low fat, nutritious and healthy options in between!

Congratulations Will! You should be very proud of yourself

Congratulations on your anniversary and goal!

Congratulations, Will. It's great to hear from you. As you know, based in large part on your recommendation, my husband had a lap band with Dr. Rosen. His success has not been nearly as dramatic as yours, but it's three years later and he continues to lose a couple of pounds a month and is now down well over 100 pounds since the surgery. We, too, think the world of that practice.

This is Will's sister, Sally, and if you have not already heard, I wanted to make sure you all know Will passed away in Chicago last week.

Here is the obit from our local paper in NC:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gaston ... =155790312

The same obit will run in the Chicago Tribune on Thursday.