Friday, January 3, 2014

Hello, Please meet Eliza!

Hello, Hello, Hello again! Welcome back!

So everyone has gotten to know me over the last year, yes I have been blogging for a year. Roughly 14 months. I began blogging on 11/2/2012. Now I say a year because I was MIA for 2 months. So 12 months, 14 months either way, its around a year.

Over the last year we've laughed, we've cried, we've celebrated, and we have experienced a few setbacks. But, we continue! And as far as I am concerned, that in itself is an accomplishment.

As I was saying, you've gotten to know me, and I've gotten to know you. My reasons for banding, my struggles, my victories. And getting to know all of you has been a fantabulous (my new word for a while) experience. I am so thankful for the friends I have met here in blog land.

Today I want to introduce you to a very close, dear, and special friend of mine. Her name is Eliza! Here she is!
We have known each other for  about 15 months. She came into my life when I was in a dark place. I really needed help and she was there. We are inseparable! We have been together every day since 10/15/2012! She keeps tabs on me too. She yells at me when I eat too much, and growls at me when I don't eat enough. She keeps me in check during times of stress, and loosens up a bit if I treat her right.
 
Even though we have been together everyday for over a year, she has been very difficult to get to know. As a matter of fact, Eliza and I have really made major breakthroughs over the last 2 months. Maybe that's why I was gone for so long. I was so focused on getting to know her. She deserves my respect and I need to keep her happy.
 
Some basics about Eliza, she is a translucent white kind of color, made out of silicone and her home is around the upper portion of my stomach. She has tail or port attached to my abdominal wall, and she can be felt on the surface of my belly. She even sometimes has a noticeable appearance in my belly. Her tail allows the saline solution to travel to her home around my stomach and she tights up to help me eat less. Oh yeah, and she holds 10cc's of saline solution.
 
One of the most intriguing things I find about Eliza is that she is a Libra. How appropriate for her to be of the scale sign?!!

She has been teaching me balance over the last 15 months. And I have tried to ignore her in the past, but she has made her presence known. And she hasn't been nice about it. Eliza and I have been on the endless quest to find the "green zone". And maybe it's my sensory issues, but it took us a long time to get there and realize we were there. We have visited this place together twice. The first time was back in July, but then something happened and she had to release some solution. Well in October we put that solution back and that's where we have been for the last 3 months.  Eliza currently has 7.3cc's of saline solution inside her silicone bubble.
 
What does the "green zone" feel like for me? This has been a major struggle for me. (Sensory issues, I'm telling ya) But paying such close attention to Eliza over the past 2 months has helped me figure this out. For me, the "green zone" is that place where I only feel hungry every 4-5 hours. And when I am hungry 3/4 - 1 cup of food will hold me for about 5 hours. A place where I don't have a lot of stuck episodes, however I have to cut my food to about 1/2 the size of a since dice and chew that to mush to avoid feeling stuck. A place where I can drink the right amount of water, but not chug the bottle. If I chug, I feel stuck. A place here drinking 16 oz of water makes me feel full for a brief amount of time.
 
Over the last 2 months, I have learned that Eliza:
 
7.3cc's is our "green zone".
 
Likes her food small, portions about 1/2 cm X 1/2 cm squares.
 
She is really tight in the morning, to the point where I can only really have a protein shake for breakfast and I am good for about 4 - 5 hours.
 
She loves warm fluids, they relax her.
 
Neither of us really like ice cold water. If I don't feed her at least 48 oz of water everyday she is even tighter and I get stuck on virtually everything.
 
When I exercise, she is ecstatic! She loves it when I sweat and when I give her a gallon of water a day. She s nice and relaxed the next day and lets me eat easily.
 
When I am stressed or angry, she shuts down and she prefers only liquids.
 
She does however, allow me to overindulge and then she will punish me later with a stuck episode (slime fest galore)  or a PB (productive burp). We wont go into either of those in detail (TMI)...but EWWW!
 
She prefers it when I don't eat after 8 PM.
 
She favors me going to bed before 11 PM (Which doesn't happen often)
 
If we do have a stuck episode, breathing through it really does help both of us,
 
So Eliza and I are still working on things. The eating and workouts is our current project.
 
We are making progress. Tomorrow morning (Saturday at 9 am) we have an appointment at the gym with a personal trainer. Really hoping to get  workout schedule and some new exercise ideas.

We also have some stressful times coming up in the next few weeks and we are going to figure out how to get through them together.
 
There you have it. That is Eliza! She's pretty cool huh!?!?!
 
Call me crazy, I named my band. I think we have officially bonded.
 
Today I did intend to workout, but kept getting distracted at work and I ran out of time today, So tomorrow I start again! I attempted to log today too. Tomorrow I intend on getting serious again and really getting control of my eating.
 
My weigh in days I think are going to be Tuesdays. Mainly because that is the last time I weighed at a normal time of day. We will see what next Tuesday brings. At this point I am not expecting good results, but I hope I am wrong.
 
Anyway, I will leave you with this.... Lets do this!!


 
Thanks for stopping by!
~Chris~
See you tomorrow :)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


4 comments:

  1. What a cute post! I love it and I love that you and Eliza have "bonded" lol!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder what my sister's lap band is named ? I'll get back to you on that one;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You and Eliza are a cute couple. ;) I have not named mine, though I've sometimes been tempted to call it something like Nemesis or Bete Noire. But we are not pals just yet! And you and Eliza are going to be BFF.

    I hope the session with the personal trainer went well!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Welcome back..... I was looking out for your posts as all had gone quiet for a while! Love your post about Eliza, seems like you've got each other sussed out now....! Was reading your last post about zumba, and just thought I'd mention that I try and go 3-4 times a week and have finally found a form of exercise that I love and look forward to going to (never thought I'd ever say that about exercise lol!) Give a class a try, am sure you'll soon be hooked too! Happy New Year...x

    ReplyDelete