*Hot Summer Meltdown* Participants (working list)

Hey Pretty Ladies! Happy Memorial Day!!

I want to thank Jess for coming up with an awesome challenge name, I think Hot Summer Meltdown sounds PERFECT! And like Gilly said, sounds kind of dirty lol. Love you guys! Here is a working list of everyone who I have heard from that is interested in participating and received PayPal $ from, lots of newbies- which I love!! Please let me know if I'm missing anyone's names!

**CLARIFICATION** As for a scale picture, I don't need a body or face shot, just a picture of the scale and number! :)

1) Liz- Mine & Betty's LapBaNd JoUrNey!
2) Janice- Banded and Blogging
3) Grace- Grace's Fat Chance
4) Beth- I'm ready to become the woman I want to be for the Rest of my Life
5) Jess P- The Little Bandit
6) Fiona- The Incredible Shrinking Woman
7) Sally- Ramblings from the Other Side...
8) Maria- Last Train out of Fat Land
9) Carmen- I'm with the band...
10) T.J- Metamorphic Journey
11) Mary- Being a Winner by Being a Loser
12) Janelle- Lap Band Living
13) Heather- Am I actually doing this?
14) Bonnie- Wishing and Hoping and Praying for a Band
15) Suzi- A new me!
16) Jessica D- The Misguided Adventures of a Five Foot Foodie
17) Linda- Linda's Bandwidth
18) Samantha- Banded for Me
19) Leslie- Band Sweet Band
20) Amy S- The Self Examination of a Butterfly
21)Nicole- Better Banded
22)Katherine-The Secret Diaries Of....
23)Jenn W- Life's Little Journey
24)Sarah F- Losing Weight, Gaining Tons
25)Joey- Volume Control
26)Colleen- This time I mean it
27)Stephanie J- Dreams of Skinny High Heels
28)Alexis- The Swenson Family
29) Jacquie- Can't wait to lose it with the Band!
30)Robin- Robin's Band Theory
31) Kelly- Kelly and the BANDit
32) Gail- Gail's Journey
33) Camille- Living Large in C.C
34) Tanya- Life of Lively
35) Kristin- catchy title here
36) Stephanie M- Electric LadyBand
37) Tori- The Winding Road to Parenthood
38) Erini- My Big Fat Life Blog
39) Gillian- something something something Fat Chick
40) Amy C- Babbles of a Bandster
41) Lillie- LOVELY LILLIE LOSES IT
42) Heather- Beautiful Inside and Out
43) Perry- Pie in Progress
44) Tracy- One Foodie's Band Quest
45) Traviaun- HotDogs N HamBurgers...
46) Kelly- The new me is coming out
47) Jennifer S- A Southern Girls Journey
48) Bianca- Breaking free from my self imposed exile
49)Kim- My Pursuit of Skinnyness
50) Yana- Girl meets band

***those in RED I still need $$$ from*** xoxoxo

Florida with Pictures!

Last Wednesday Rick and I took off for for a mini-vaca to Jacksonville Florida. We had an amazing time, and spent it with amazing people. Here are a few pictures documenting our journey:
***This is the seat belt on the plane (jet blue)!! Look how much space I have :)

*** This is me in the pool on my first day there

*** This is Gail and I when we met up at movie night on the beach!! Let me tell you, she looks freakin amazing, and her accent is so adorable! She sounds like a southern belle, and I love it!

***Rick and I posing, after a day by the pool

While in Jacksonville we stayed with family, and had such a relaxing weekend. Rick's cousin underwent Gastic Sleeve surgery about a year ago and is down 130lbs, she looked phenomenal! We are about the same clothing size now and had so much fun playing dress up.

Rick's aunt is very conscious of nutrition, and cooked us amazing healthy meals. I think is my first vacation ever where I have actually lost weight.

She also had tons of different 'diet food' in the house, it was like heaven. She had these really yummy protein bars that have 15 grams of protein, 160 calories, low in sugar and high in fiber. They come in a bunch of different flavors, but she had the Cinnamon ones, and they were drool-worthy! As far as I know they are only available through mail order, but here is a link to the website. I had never seen this site before, but it looks like they have a ton of weight-loss friendly food items. They ever have protein packed puddings and jellos for the newly banded!!

I was sad to leave Florida, but am happy to be home. I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend as well! XOXO

Volunteer Needed

Can anyone make a widget or picture thing for the new challenge??

Jenny did an incredible one last time for me, and I think it'd be fun if we had another!

We don't have a challenge name as of yet, but if anyone has any ideas, I am open to anything!!

Thanks so much!

**SUMMER CHALLENGE RESULTS AND RULES**

Hey Beautiful Ladies!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

I just wanted to give everyone a head's up that since today was the last day of voting for the next challenge dates, I wanted to post the winner.

The next summer challenge will be Sunday, June 6th-August 1st. I will need anyone who wants to participate's information by this Thursday, June 3rd. I have added a PayPal button to my sidebar, where you can 'donate' $5 to the challenge fund. At the end of the challenge the person who win's the greatest % of weight will win a gift certificate for the total amount of money 'donated' to any store of their choice.

**FYI** The paypal account is set up in my fiance's name Rick Edwards...just so you don't get freaked out when it shows his name lol.


Challenge rules:
1. Challenge starts SUNDAY June 6thth. and ends SUNDAY August 1st.
2. Weigh in days are SUNDAYS, please make sure to email me (knwitham@gmail.com) your weeks weight by 8 pm SUNDAY night so that I can post your numbers for the week.
3. Please include a picture of you on the scale, on the FIRST and LAST week of the weigh in's.
4. The challenge prize will go to the biggest loser meaning the person who loses the most % of weight from challenge week # 1

I will keep an updated list of everyone who contacts me to let me know they are interested on my blog. Just leave me a comment on this post and donate to the paypal account and your in! E-mail me if you have any questions: knwitham@gmail.com

HAPPY LOOSING!

Signing Off :(

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to give you all a head's up that I will be leaving for vacation today and not returning until Sunday. Rick and I are going to Jacksonville Florida for a mini-vaca and to visit some of his family. I will probably have limited access to blogs, but am only an e-mail away if anyone needs me :)

I am sooooo excited to get away for a few days, lets just hope all goes well eating wise. Rick's cousin had gastric sleeve surgery a month before I was banded and is doing amazingly well and is very disciplined. I am hoping this rubs off on me for the few days I am there.

I am also potentially going to be meeting another blogger!!! Gail works in Jacksonville and doesn't live to far away, so we have exchanged #'s and will hopefully be able to meet up. So exciting!!

Hope everyone has a safe and fantastic memorial day weekend! I will miss you all! xxoo

**UPDATE on next challenge**

Just wanted to give everyone a head's up where the results were standing for the next challenge...we've received 30 votes so far, SO COOL!

June 6th-August 1st: WINNING with 14 votes

July 4th-September 5th: 3rd place with 7 votes

June 20th-August 29: 2nd place with 10 votes

Q&A and Challenge Vote!

A few of you asked to see the total amount of fat lost during the challenge. The answer is 357.3lbs! That's 33 girls over a period of 9 weeks! The weight loss ranged from 35lbs lost total to 2lbs lost, so we really were all over the place but averages to be about 10.8 lbs per person over the course of the challenge. Not to shabby!

Ask and you shall receive! I had a lot of requests for an earlier challenge, a lot of you suggesting June 6th. That is absolutely fine with me, but felt it would be nice to open it up for a vote! Vote below in the poll, polling will end on Sunday, May 30th :)

Week 9 Challenge Chart

Da, Da, Daaaaaaa, Final Challenge Results!

The #'s are in....The winner of the Memorial Day Bathing Suit Challenge is.....

JOEY!!!!

Joey lost 30lbs and 11.6% Can you say HOLY COW! She did absolutely amazing, and to celebrate all her hard work she will be receiving a $165 gift certificate to her store of choice!

**If any of the other challenge participants want to know how many lbs or the % they lost, send me an email and I will let you know!***

FYI I am still working on formatting the chart for the final week and will post it later today, I just wanted to make sure and let everyone know the exciting news, since I knew you were all sitting on the edges of your chair's waiting to know who won!

** Independence/Labor Day Challenge ALERT**

Hey Pretty Ladies,

It seems like we had a great response for another challenge. While I am working on getting the memorial day challenge results together, I wanted to post some ideas for the next challenge! Who said I wasn't a good multi-tasker?? lol

So I am thinking we take a little break and start back up with a 4th of July-Labor Day challenge, how does that sound? This way we give people enough time to decide whether they want to participate. We would keep the same schedule and do our weigh-in's every Sunday and the dates would be Sunday, July 4th- Sunday, September 5th. Let me know your thoughts on this. Do you want to do $5 into a Paypal account again?

For anyone who is new to challenges here are the rules:

Challenge rules:
1. Challenge starts SUNDAY July 4th. and ends SUNDAY September 5th.
2. Weigh in days are SUNDAYS, please make sure to email me (knwitham@gmail.com) your weeks weight by 8 pm SUNDAY night so that I can post your numbers for the week.
3. Please include a picture of you on the scale, on the FIRST and LAST week of the weigh in's.
4. The challenge prize will go to the biggest loser meaning the person who loses the most % of weight from challenge week # 1

**More to Come** as we approach the start date, just keep all of this is mind, and I will post a request for participants later on in June.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions! You can always post a comment on here, or e-mail me @ knwitham@gmail.com

xxoo

CHALLENGER ATTENTION!

Hey Girls! Just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow is the last day of the Memorial Day Challenge, so that means all weights must be submitted with a picture of the scale :) Everyone did a fantastic job and I'm so proud of you!

On another note....whats next? do we want to do another challenge? do you want me to host it (I def. don't mind) does someone else want too? I was thinking if everyone wants to do another one, we could do a 4th of July one! Let me know your thoughts!!

xxoo

***Florida Bandsters***

Do any of you live near Jacksonville??

I am coming next Wednesday and would love to meet any bansters if any of you live around there!!

I will be visiting Wed. night-Sunday for a little memorial day get away!

Let me know :)

Week 8 Challenge Update

Hey pretty mama's!

The results are in....duh duh duhhhhh. This week's winner lost 1.58%, and is a first time winner. Let's all give......
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Angie a big round of applause! YAYYY for Angie! She has been having a tough time ever since she went back home to Canada a couple of weeks ago, and has finally got back on track! Congrats Girly!

As a group we lost 28.6lbs total. Definitely not our best, but also not our worst! We only have 1 week left, who's it going to be? Hope everyone has an idea of where they want their gift card too!

Wedding Weekend Picture Montage

Hi Everyone, and Happy Tuesday!! Rick's cousin got married this weekend, and I wanted to share some of the pics with everyone....as you can see they start out fun, and end well....not so fun! Buttttt I think its important to be honest, and show everyone what happens when you drink to much :( I've really noticed how much my alcohol tolerance has decreased since being banded, and its something that I need to learn to deal with.

This is @ the rehearsal dinner. This is the new skirt outfit I got at Ann Taylor Loft a few weeks ago in a size Large! I love this outfit so much!

This is the day of the wedding....I panicked and didn't find a dress till the morning of the wedding! Luckily I found this one at Filenes Basement...and best part is it's a size 14 regular! wahoooo! I love this dress, and want it to fit forever!

Now this my friends, is me after the 'after party' my lovely fiancee decided to take this picture so I could remember how I felt and hopefully learn a lesson. I got two words for you... HOT MESS! Thank god he took my phone away from me and saved all of you from my lovely drunk texts!

Don't judge me! lol

XOXOXOXOXO

*Life Update*

Since I feel a little scatter brained this morning (what's new?), I think I will do another post in bullet fashion, I feel like there's a lot going on in my life right now, but nothing too big, I just need to let it all out :)

Mother's Day- My mom came to visit this past weekend for mother's day. This is a picture of the 2 of us. She is my best friend, and I am so lucky to have her. She lives 2 and 1/2 hours away, so it can be tough sometimes not having her close by, but it makes the time I do get to spend with her that much more special. We didn't get to do our 5K on Saturday, due to the weather but we did go to the casino!! haha. I won $20 so it was a success!

Job- Yesterday I got some pretty exciting news at work, I got a promotion! I started at my company (advertising agency) 2 years ago this July. I was hired on to do meeting and event planning, but my title was always Administrative Assistant. Our office has continually gotten smaller over the past 2 years, when I started we had about 20 people, now we are down to 10. I made it through the worst of it, proved myself, and have now gotten rewarded. My new title is Account Coordinator. This is basically a entry level advertising job. I will start working with our client more directly, and learn the basics of advertising. I'm not sure if this is something I want to make a career out of, but I am grateful to be given the opportunity to learn more about it. The way I see it, is I am still really young and its OK to not know what I want to do 'when I grow up.' This will be a great thing to add to my resume, and hopefully give me some insight as to what I enjoy doing. A little about my background: I went to college for event planning, and thought I loved it. When I graduated college I was recruited by Marriott, and placed into a managerial position. I wasn't prepared to be a manager, and was thrown into the fire way to soon. I burnt out quickly, and started to hate my job so much that I would cry daily while working. I quit one day, without giving it much thought and will never look back at a hotel career. I still love event planning, but this taught me I enjoy the corporate aspect, not so much the social aspect of the industry. Sorry for that rant :)

Weight- On the weight front, I am the same weight today that I was on my birthday, April 8th. I'm not sure how to feel about that...Yes, I haven't been eating the best, but I've also been making a good effort at exercising. 188 is a nice number, but I don't want to stay here, it's not where I belong. I have a lot more to lose before stopping. I was supposed to have a fill yesterday but I cancelled it. I felt that I had enough restriction, that it wasn't needed. Come to find out, I'm not so sure if that's the case....On Sunday night, I ate 3 slices of a large cheese pizza, WTF! I can't even remember the last time I was able to eat bread without getting sick. I'm not sure if it was just a fluke day of my band being loose, or if I truly do need a fill. I am going to wait it out a couple of weeks and see how I feel. Prior to this binge, I had been PB'ing a lot, so I don't want to mess around with things.

Relationship- GUESS WHAT?!?! Next Friday is Rick and I's negative one year anniversary! Meaning, one year from then we will be getting MARRIED! I am so excited. I feel like we've been engaged for so long, I am ready to get married and start our married life together. So much planning has gone into this 1 day, I am ready to see it come together. So far we have our church, reception venue, and photographer booked. We are looking to do our DJ soon, and thennnnnn DRESS SHOPPING next month! I am so excited for the dress shopping! Although, I feel like it may be difficult, because who knows what size I will be next May. I know the dress can be alliterated and all, but its still kind of scary not knowing how it will look when I am whatever size I will be then.

Challenge- Someone commented on the challenge post yesterday wondering how much weight we've lost as a group so far, and I wanted to answer that question. The answer is 281 pounds! Whenever you get discouraged, think about that! Truly AMAZING!

Love you all! xxoo

Week 7 Challenge Results

The winner this week was Dawn with a 3% loss! Great job Dawn! Welcome to Onederland!

I also want to give a shout out to Amy C, she lost 6lbs this week, and has so far lost the most amount of lbs this challenge. I know we are going by percent, but she is doing an AMAZING job and deserves a pat on the back!

As a group we lost, 32 lbs this week! My prediction of losing a lot one week, and a little the next was wrong, we stayed pretty much the same from last week to this week. We only have 2 weeks left of the challenge ladies, lets kick this up a notch! I say we set a goal to lose 45lbs next week, who's with me?!?

I know I certainly didn't help this week, with my .5 gain...I am due for a week with a good loss. I'm hereby pledging to do my part in making this a great week for us! Lots of love, keep up the great work! xxoo

Week 6 Challenge Results

The winner this week was Amy with a 5.1% loss! Great job Amy, we are so proud (and jealous) of you!!

As a group we lost, 37.8 lbs this week! Not too shabby, a little but more then last week so that's great! Keep it up girls, only 3 weeks left!!!

Week 6 Challenge Update

Hey Pretty Ladies,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am still waiting for about 5 weights for this week, so I don't want to post the chart just yet.....but I know everyone is dying to know how we did this week!

As of right now, we are down 40.8 lbs this week!!! FANTASTIC!

So proud of all you lovely ladies, I will post the chart as soon as I hear back from a few people, and it will let you know who the biggest loser of the week is!

Just a hint though....So far the biggest loser this week, lost 10 lbs....Can you guess who??

XOXO

What a Day!

I just did my first 5k of the spring, and it felt soooo good!

It wasn't an official walk/run event, it was just for 'fun'. Today it is around 85 in Mass. and pretty sunny and humid. There is a lake nearby that has a walking path around it, and it measures to be exactly 5k! So convenient! Not only did I get in some great exercise, but a great tan/burn!

It took me just about an hour, and I wore my hear rate monitor which said I burned 673 calories! WAHOOOO! I feel great!

My mom is coming to visit next weekend for mother's day and we are going to be doing the March of Dimes 5k walk in Boston. My goal is to break my pace of an hour, what are your goals for the week?

NSV for the day: I went to kohls and bought a pair of jean capris in the JUNIORS section! WAHOOO! I don't remember the last time I was able to shop there! Alrighty time to catch up on some tv. XOXO

Challenge Participants: Don't forget to send me your weights! xxoo