And in the beginning there was an empty page and a head full of thoughts, smoke, ideas, fear, dreams and on, and on, and on.

Please let me start by admitting that I am not a writer. Allow me to tell you that I won at this weight loss thing and then because of me losing focus I lost again. Makes me wonder if I really did win.

I put my self trough this serious and expensive procedure and underwent so many studies and tests and the paperwork battle with the insurance company only to prove that it works and then abandon it.   What was I thinking??

The Lap Band is a good proven tool. Not a magic wand. It requires you working with it in order to get the results. And I am here to tell you that this is not “The Easy Way”. It is hard. It requires you to re-learn so much and change so much. But it is worth it.

I am starting my second go-round. I know it works as it did work for me. And now I am working on making this changes I speak about a permanent part of my life.

I will as I document my day to day challenges tell you my story. Me telling you this is in itself a triumph as me as a guy as most guys am not particularly fond of sharing deep personal thoughts and feelings. But I am committed and I will share all my embarrassing and painful moments and my small victories to the best of  my abilities.  I hope, I truly hope that this will be of help to at least one more guy out there and if it helps anyone I will feel more than happy.

Here are my stats as a good start for anyone to see.

Highest weight:   361 #’s  Goal weight:  225 #’s  Current weight 280 #’s  Lowest weight since surgery 235 #’s That was at the time my goal weight.

I will start my process today 2/1/2014 and hope to reach my goal by the 5th of August of this year my birthday. I want that to be my present to myself.

My diet program will be a low carb high protein diet. I will start with the Atkins concept and slowly make the transition after the first  two months to the South Beach Diet Concept. I will adjust my eating back to the surgery prescribed portions and fluid intakes. I will start taking my multi vitamins (chewable) and I have decided to work on my state of mind by working out every day. I have 55 #’s to loose and 6 months to get there. That puts me at about 9 #’s a month. I know from my past experience following the program given to me by my doctor and the support group that I can actually reach my goal in a little over two months. But because I am working on a life long goal and not just a numbers goal I will take my time and do it right.

I hope this will be useful.