A New Day and Nicely a New Award

at the the banded lady gave me this award. Thank you! It is fun to watch these awards wind their way around the band-o-sphere among friends.

Answer the question: If you had one chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?

This is a tough question because like,The Banded Lady (I cannot find a name for you?) I am the product of my life, warts and all. If I Absolutely have to I guess there woulds be two things really-

one that I have lived more in the moment (appreciated myself when i weighed 170, enjoyed my kids when they were young instead of always looking at what I could do better (like weightloss) or what my kids were going to be like or do when they got older or reached the next milestone.

The second-would be to have learned the lesson-that doing something relatively small every day consistently is much more important in changing your life than doing big things perfectly. My whole life I have been a bit of a perfectionist and ended up either trying and failing and giving up or doing things in big chunks at the last minute. I think this failure to attend to the little things is largely responsible for my past failures at weight loss. Now don't get me wrong..I still maintain that the obesity game is mostly about the physical not behavioral..but adding little bits of exercise and changing little things (often band forced) has made a world of difference in how I live now. So much so that I am trying to carry those changes over into other facets of my life.

both of these things I had to learn with experience though. those trials and failures and hindsight are just the blocks that provided me this view from the top of the hill (I believe that is a metaphor for middle age isn't it?)

now to six awardees-I am picking those among my followers or who I follow who have less than 100 followers. These guys are great bloggers and you really should see their progress!

Dee and Kajun gumbo. She has been at this band thing for a while and I have followed her for a long time. I remember her surgery, her frustrations as she worked her way up to a good fill level and now her awesome success with the band and everyday work to share with us her life and band experiences.


Justine and Adventures in BandlandJustine is a fellow coffee drinker (do they have Starbucks in your new village justine?). She lives in the UK and just moved form the big bad city to a smaller village and is planning all kinds of home fix it stuff. I do love to watch the home fix it progress along with body improvements and Justine provides both on her blog.

Rick at Band TogetherRick just had his band installed in July. He has had quite the run around in getting a fill. He is new to blogland but is still losing weight even though he is fill free :) I also hear he works in the wine industry...gotta love a man that knows his wine.

Caroline and Lonicera's Lapband and Other Stories Caroline also lives in the UK and tells the most amazing stories with PICTURES!! She has had her band a while now and she is slowly taking off the weight. I think her doctor just gave her too big of a band because she has had trouble getting a good fill (she is way full of saline)...The weight is coming off though and she will succeed. Caroline is a photographer extraordinaire and includes some of her photos in every post. She also has another blog that his funny!

Stephanie at A New Me. Stephanie just found me and I found her back. She has a very pretty blog (I do love nice backgrounds). She is at the beginning of her journey waiting for approval. She needs all of our support and frankly..It is really awesome to think back to my early stage days and all of the highs and lows associated with that stage of the band game so we need each other!

Doc Sly over at The First Day of the Rest of My Lifethe doc is a fellow bandster and professor working in Education. She is also a fellow grandma. She has become a not so regular blog poster but when she does post they are good ones full of her life in the midwest, balancing work, leisure, health and her family.