CJ: "The weight can come back. I mean it… I don't know that it would come back. I don't know that I would ever gain 100 pounds again. But the weight can come back. And that's why it's so important to go to the support groups. And go and be productive in your research and all of that so that you can keep yourself on track, doing the working out because you can gain weight back, absolutely."

Stephen: "I was kind of lucky in the fact that my wife also had the surgery, a few months following mine. And that, both of us had to go through the changes. We just really instituted that into our family into our lifestyle and our children, they all now eat that very healthy role."

Melva: "The outcome has been positive with my family as well. Now we try to get together like every other Sunday taking turns cooking and now it's always… We're trying to out-do each other see who can cook the healthiest food, you know, and good quality food. And so we're always constantly looking up recipes and trying to outdo each other and just… It makes me feel good, because I have a lot of younger nephews and nieces. And, to be able to incorporate that now, at a young age, just makes me feel good that, you know, they're learning and not going to fall into the habits that I had prior to band surgery."

CJ: "Each day is a day and there are going to be good days, there are going to be bad days, there are going to be days that you work out, or days that you don't work out. You know, being farther out, the challenges, the weight gain, that is a huge part of my life, because, at this point, this is where, you know, it's the make-it or break-it stage, and I feel really confident."

Steve: "And again, I think it comes back to taking it day-by-day, one day at a time, you know. It would be overwhelming, if you just sat and thought about, 'Every day I could get fat again.'"

CJ: "Right."

Steve: "'I could put the weight back on again.' While that's a reality, and while it's always in the back of your mind, it needs to be in the back of your mind. And don't give it the strength and don't give it the power when you focus on it, and bring it to the foreground a lot. I think that's when you get that defeatist attitude and you bring that, you know what I mean?"

CJ: "Absolutely."

Steve: "You just need to realize that yeah, that can happen, but I'm gonna just take it day by day by day."

Melva: "I think at the very beginning it was kind of difficult. Especially being a gastric band patient. And the fact that you have to get adjustments in order for the band to work properly. And I know I was really hard on myself, but then I realized that you know its… I'm learning and I have to learn how to use the tool to make me successful and I have to not be so hard on myself. Because I think a lot of times we're our own worst enemy, and then that can kind of work against us in a bad way."

Steve: "Absolutely."

Melva: "It's just taking it day-by-day and realizing one, like you said earlier, we are human. And then two, our body fluctuates, and we have to get it readjusted to our weight. And, sometimes, we will hit plateaus and we may not lose, but there's nothing wrong with that, it's just, you know, having to get it readjusted to our new bodies."