Hollee's Weight Loss Success Story ((in progress))

1. Happiness 2. Confidence 3. Health This photo was taken exactly a year apart: July 2012 I weighed 344 July 2013 I weigh 249.5 My friend in the photo with me has spent the last two years getting into better shape and losing 35 pounds. I'm so proud of her too! This photo is the perfect reminder of all that I've gained by losing!

I'd like to start by thanking each of you reading and making me feel better about the tutu. I am so glad I ended up going, it was one of the best/most interesting nights I'd had in a long time.  You were all right also, I liked my tutu better. I arrived in Charlotte and met up with an old college friend Kaleigh.  She is a runner but wasn't running the race with us.  Since she works in Charlotte and lives nearby, she joined the night's festivities anyway.  When Patrice and Alexis arrived in Charlotte, we went to the hotel to check-in.  As we were standing there in line,  a short, cute guy walks by with body guards. Holy Crap!  It's TI, the rapper!!! It was a brief sighting, as he was leaving the hotel for a concert.  But, this set in motion a lot of excitement for the rest of the night. We went upstairs and got ready for the race, wearing our ridiculous costumes with hats that had drink holders in them....  Here are a few pre-race pict...

In about 22 hours I will be running the electric run 5k with Patrice and 2 other friends. Exciting? I guess. I was really excited about my mini trip with friends until Wednesday...then my spirit got broken. When I first signed up for the electric run in April with Patrice, she couldn't stop talking about us getting together to pick costumes to run in. The VERY FIRST THING I said was "I don't care what we wear, just please keep my body type in mind." Patrice was insistent I'd be at my goal weight by the race, but I knew I wasn't going to lose 80 pounds in 4 months. As someone who has never struggled with her weight, I guess she has no concept of how difficult it is or how long it takes to lose a total of 150 pounds. Anyway, she finally agreed to be mindful of me with whatever she picked. Two weeks ago, she sent a link to a light up tutu one of the girls purchased for the race. It was cute....but it was "one size fits most", and according to the siz...

1.  I am procrastinating work, and although I know it is not Thursday yet, I have a bunch of little things I want to post about. 2.  My mom made her WLS consultation appointment for September 25.  I was really happy for her, until the person she talked to on the phone told her that the Lap Band was outdated and they prefer RNY or GSV.  I hope they don't talk her into doing something she doesn't want to do.... 3.  Last night I made a really good dinner for myself and the Banker.  Chicken Cutlets Procciutto Aloutte low-fat Spinach and Artichoke I put cut 3 chicken cutlets into 4 pieces each and then laid a piece of procciutto on top, just enough to cover the chicken.  Then put a dollop of the aloutte in the middle, folded the chicken over and stuck it on a skewer.  I baked these in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350degrees, covered with tin foil to keep the moisture, then baked another 10 minutes uncovered to let them brown ...

Happy Monday! I woke up...or rather, was woken up, to an unexpected compliment this morning.  My phone kept going off before 6am, so I woke up to find several facebook messages from a friend I made in March at Steffi's wedding in Germany- Ruth.  She told me she could tell I've lost a lot of weight and wanted to know how.  Explaining the Lap Band surgery to my friend and her husband in Germany was quite hard, and I don't think they ever really understood what it is or what it does, so I decided to just tell Ruth about all of the habit changes I've made-- no bread, no pasta, no rice, no soda, and lots of exercise!  It was nice to hear that people can tell just from pictures! I'm back at work this morning after my beach weekend, and thankful it is another 4 day workweek.  Electric run in Charlotte on Friday night! The beach was okay... definitely not what I expected.  There was a lot of drama...my BFF decided to invite another girl.  Since she was...

1. Lowest weight since high school alert! Sorry it's hard to read, that says 253.2 Yesterday was my 10 month Bandiversary, and I'm down 91.2 pounds! Today's weight is 2.8 pounds down from Dr. Yoo's recorded weight last week, but only .8 pounds down from a couple of weeks ago when I bought this new scale. 2.  Does anyone else feel a little star-struck when LBG  comments on your blog and gives you a compliment? It's like a Angelina Jolie just stopped you to tell you you have pretty lips or something. 3.  Random thought as I eat them, but Reduced Fat Wheat things remind me of what I think cardboard would taste like. 4.  Beach tomorrow! I have known my best friend for 11 years and we've never gone on vacation together, so I'm totally excited. 5.  Speaking of the beach, I got a new rockin Jessica Simpson bathing suit last week! 6.  It is hot as hell here lately! I went for a walk with a friend yesterday, and it was serious...

It's kind of ironic that I didn't start to find comfort in my own body until the last three years....at my highest weight ever. I was always the biggest kid.  Although several years younger than my sisters, I always looked their age.  I was as tall and big as them for as long as I can remember.  That is until around fourth grade, and I became taller.  I've been the same height, 5'9, since fifth grade.  In addition to my height, I was always the biggest kid.  It wasn't easy being taller and bigger than everyone else. Then in eighth grade, after not making the basketball team, I joined weight watchers at 220 pounds.  The truth of the matter is that I stopped eating.  I only ate egg whites and green beans, and OCCASIONALLY had a SmartOnes frozen dinner.  I drank cans of diet soda to fill me up in the mornings.  Looking back, I know that what I was doing wasn't healthy, but it worked! In 6 short months, I was 160 pounds. But I still ...

Do I really have to wake up in 6 hours? Ugh.... Yes I do. It was a long weekend. I went to my parents' house per my usual every 4 weeks routine. To accommodate my parents work schedules, I usually go when their schedules line up to both work all weekend so that I can babysit their 8 dogs. It is usually a nice vacation for my pup, as he loves to ride in the car and has 6 lady friends at their house. Here's my sweet pooch on the ride back to our house. Friday was my first day of real food since Thursday's fill and it quickly became apparent to me that my band isn't even close to as tight as it should be. I scheduled my next fill at the 5 week mark but I will be calling tomorrow to hopefully reschedule that. Saturday I ate a whole watermelon....by myself. At least it was a healthy option. My other food choices weren't the greatest. It is always hard in their house, but that may change soon as my mom has been thinking more and more about being banded. I...

I snapped this picture at the WLS office this morning: There's 12 fills (and an unfill) listed.  Along with my weights. If you calculate my fills in the net column, it appears I have 8.4 CC's in a 10 CC band.  I'm not sure if that's accurate... I always wonder if SOME saline does disappear somewhere in the body?  Would be interesting to find out. Anyway, as always Dr Yoo was happy with my progress.  I just noticed today's date is wrong on the paper...today is 7/11, not 6/11.  He said there wasn't much fat on my port anymore and mentioned maybe needing a lower profile port in the future.  I reminded him that we went for a low profile port the first go around, and he confirmed it once he looked under fluoro.  Dr Yoo said that before Allergan sold the LB System, they were working on an even lower profile port, which may be an option in the future.  I'm not sure I'd want to pay more money to get a smaller port though.  We will see...

Disclaimer:  None of this is WLS related So about a month ago, I was struggling with whether or not to try to move forward with Banker/Robocop.  I thought I wanted Banker but he seemed to disappear while Robocop was treating me like I felt I deserved.  So since the day I first saw Robocop, I didn't see Banker...until Friday.  And I felt terribly GUILTY.  Sunday when I saw Robocop, I could hardly even speak to him, because I felt that I was going to spill all my secrets and tell him I'd seen Banker Friday evening after work. So knowing all that, maybe I was just looking for a way out.  I'm not sure. Last night, Robocop came over and he was playing on his brand new Kindle Fire.  I noticed he'd downloaded the dating site app and I thought that was curious.  He took a nap and I decided I'd look if there was no password.  I know, I know....snooping isn't good.  I don't want to be a snooper.  But I did it anyway.  Instead of go...

Good morning! I really don't have time to blog... I have 3 big deadlines before Wednesday all on projects I haven't really started, but I needed to clear my mind, and blogging does that. I did a lot of reflecting this weekend.  I can't believe it has been one year since I first decided I'd be getting banded--one of the most important decisions of my life thus far. July 4, 2012, I laid on a beach in Miami and decided my life HAD TO CHANGE.   And I'm so thankful every day for that decision, and for my lap band. July 4 cookout with one of my best friends :) I took this yesterday, because a year ago, I never wore my hair up by choice.  I always kept my hair down, because I wanted to hide my fat face. I know that I am still a big/plus size girl, but I haven't felt so confident in at least 10 years.  I don't think losing 90 pounds looks as different as I might have imagined it would, but it sure does feel different.   Want a r...

So...how do you know you have lost enough weight that you NEED to buy new panties? When you're walking around Walmart in a dress and are terrified the next step is going to be the one that ends in your knickers around your ankles.... and then it does. Wow...I hope no one had their camera out waiting for a People of Walmart  moment, because if they were, I gave them one.  Standing there in the produce isle, suddenly my undies are around my ankles and I didn't know what to do.  I quickly stepped out of them, bent down, picked them up, and left (groceries in the cart left right where I was too).  So embarrassed! I thought that would give you all a laugh for the day, hope you crack a smile at my expense. Moral of the story:  Don't wait too long to buy new panties once you know they're too big!

Good morning everyone! I'm EXHAUSTED! Friday, a coworker invited me to join a 2 week free membership with her to Burn Bootcamp.  Her friend just opened a new women's only fitness center called Burn Bootcamp (it's a chain) and it really kicked my ass this morning! I never thought anything would make running seem easy! So here's the rotation we did, 60 seconds for each exercise, repeating reps as fast as possible: 1. Hot Potatoes:  squats while throwing a 5 pound weight from one hand to the other 2. Elevated hip bench presses: shoulders were on a padded block, feet on the floor, hips and back parallel to the floor, while 'pressing' two 15 pound weights. 3. Double ropes: making these heavy ass ropes sway like a snake 4. Single rope: "rowing" with the rope (body facing the rope) 5. Quick jump kicks: tapping a half ball with each food as fast as possible 6. Modified half squats and tricep extensions 7. Pushups on the exercise ball 8. Kn...