♥LovetheNewMe♥

Corn is so hard to chew and digest, I have had it once and it was not worth it. I hate being slimmed had enough of that to last a life time. I even tried cutting it off the cob, nope it does not work. Funny though I can eat nuts and pop corn and have no problem.

I read this before surgery, the person who completed my psych exam has this as a required reading. Me being the OCD person I am read everything I could get my hands on before surgery and still do to this date. My thoughts are the more informed I am the more successful I am. When I wasn't losing weight as quickly as I thought I should be I did my internet research to make sure I was eating the right things. I keep reading we are only suppose to eat 3 meals a day, no snacks and we should be satisfied. I do not think I am at my "sweet spot" they talk about because I still feel like I have to tell myself, "No Diane, you have had enough calories today." The more informed we are the more successful we will be, the one thing the books do not say is the band has a "mind of it's own" Some days things go down and some days they don't. That's my two cents.

Sorry about the bad news but you can do this. Reducing your carbs will help your blood sugar. Our bodys turn carbohydrates into sugars to make energy but that energy does not last unless we eat complex carbs and protein. I love carbs but know that I eat them so infrequantly I feel so much better, the first few weeks of reduction was very hard but most days I don't miss them. It is important for you to get your sugar under control, there are way to many complications with diabetes. Good luck and I hope it gets better.

Welcome and good luck. The first few weeks are hard but remember it is just a step and you will move on to mushy and solid food soon.

Amazing how many of us are out her with very similar stories, you know you can lose that last 20 lbs. I have 40 more to lose but I already feel so good, but I agree I need to step up my game and my exercise. I even bought a tread mill to help me. My knees still limit me some, excess weight for all those years did its damage. We are all in this together and I really believe sharing our success and failure helps all of us. Good luck with that last 20 lbs.

<BR><BR><BR>Thanks so much~ I am really trying to focus on protein for sure I am eating about 50 g a day and hope now that i am gradually eating more solids this will increase. I also journal all my food including water and non calorie drinks (even ketchup <IMG class=bbc_emoticon alt= src="http://cdn.lapbandtalk.com/public/style_emoticons/%3C#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif"> I travel a TON with my job and am a tad concerned with making the right choices on the road<BR><BR><BR><BR>I travel with my job also and this is what I do, I take protein powder and bars for breakfast and lunch if they serve lunches that are too high calorie. For dinners I eat off the appetizer menu, there is usually always a shrimp or scallop option if not I order a house salad and get my protein on that. I always have my salad dressing on the side so not to add calories. Traveling is harder but over time as I have been banded longer I find it easier. I am very honest with people when I eat out, I tell them I had surgery and my stomach is very tiny and please bring me a togo book because I will never eat all they bring me. I have also looked up calorie and protein counts of my favorite places to eat so I usually have an idea what I can eat and how much. Most places have web sites now unless they are a mom and pop place. Good Luck!

Hi Debora, I by no means am an expert but here is my two cents worth. Sounds like to me so far so good. You say you are eating about 600 calories a day but how many grams of protein are you taking in? Just a warning the protein is key to a successful weight loss with lap band and keeping the feeling of satisfaction. Also protein is the key to keep your hair from failing out, with lap band we are not suppose to lose our hair but if we do not take in our protein it does start to fall out more than usual. As for suggestions for lunches, in the beginning I did well with deli meets, turkey and ham, cheese, canned tuna and chicken,(u can add a little mayo and some veggies for crunch to make it taste good) Lunch for me these days varies, sometimes it is Greek Yogurt, add a little protein powder or a table spoon of bare naked protein granola, a small salad about a cup with 2 oz's of lean protein. I drink lots of water, about 96 ozs a day. Water keeps me from snacking because I had a bad habit of munching when I was not hungry in the past. I also plan my meals everyday, I plan them the night before. I drive my husband crazy because I am always planning the next meal before the one we are eatting is over. If I plan, I don't worry about not eatting healthy. Also I suggest keeping a food diary, I use the one on lap band but also keep a paper diary in my purse, I write down everything I eat, I want to know what I am putting in my mouth, it keeps me on track. Good luck with your fill, you will notice a difference, make sure you chew chew and chew your food after the fill. What I could eat before a fill and after are different. I don't do well in mornings and breakfast during the week is a protein shake, I can do breakfast on weekends but the atomosphere is more relaxed and I am not rushed to get to a meeting. Hope this helps.

Gorda, I agree with Michael, you need to write down everything you eat all day long. Eating and not counting the calories will get you in trouble. I read in your blog that you cook a lot of rice and it slides down easy with sauce. Rice is a carbohydrate, not filling and full of empty calories. If you can eat rice you should measure it out and only have about 1/8 of cup and fill your self up with healthy protein. I am Italian and I love pasta and pizza and pretty much anything with sauce on it. I had to take a good look at everything I ate and how I cooked. I have looked for healthier recipes and converted a lot of my recipes. I noticed you said you were latino, I bet you are an awesome cook, look at converting some of your favorite recipes to a lower calorie count. You can still cook for your family but you need to learn not to taste while cooking, this was a big deal for me, I am also a taster and grazer in the kitchen and I have had a lot of bad habits to break. Remember it takes longer to break a habit than create it. Make sure you are getting enough protein in your diet and you will not be as hungry between meals and as tempted to graze. If you don't decrease your intake even if you exercise daily you may continue to maintain your current weight. Remember the lap band is only a tool it will not stop us from eatting, we still have to do that on our own. I hope I was not to blunt but I want you to be successful and feel the pleasure of weight loss that a lap band can give you. We all struggle and come here to vent and try and let others who struggle help us. Keep blogging and reading and I know you will be successful.

Michael, My physician has the same belief. If you are losing you do not need a fill. I have only had two fills in 7 months, 5cc's at 6 weeks and another 1.4cc around the 5th of May. The second fill I asked for because my weight loss was slowing and I was over zealous and greedy and wanted to loss quicker. I paid for that fill it was a pure 48 hours of hell, by the end of day two I had to go back and have .4cc removed. I learned my lession, don't ask for a fill or insist if you are lossing weight. I am ahead of the expected weight loss for a lap band and I just need to accept if I stay true to what I eat and exercise the weight will come off. I think it is great that you are able to keep your calorie intake aroound 750 and stay satisfied. My calorie intake is about 900-950 and I take in about 70gms of protein aday. You are doing amazing!

Congratulations on your first fill! Now the hourney really begins, I thought I felt restriction before my fill, but after the fill it was really different. Remember to chew,chew, and chew your food. I highly recommend the two days of liquids after a fill, you can eat but you have an increased risk of getting stuck and remember musheys have more calories. Drink your protein drinks and lots of liquids. The reason for the liquids for 48 hours is tightening the band is irritating to our stomach, causes a little swelling and it takes about 48 hours for that to go back to normal. Good Luck, look forward to reading about your success.

Welcome to the wonderful world of lap band. I have been banded for almost 7 months now and so far so good. I think the reality of the lap band really set in for me after my first fill. I had some restriction immediately post op but could pretty much eat anything if I chewed it well. After my first fill last December I really begain to realize what having a lap band meant. The one bad habit some of us fall into occassionally is letting the band do all the work. You have to become very in tune with your band. Always remember the band is just a tool, all those feelings and addictive behaviors we had before banding are still there, and believe me they will play with your mind and you can become very creative on how to get food to go down. I sometimes say the lap band is harder than any diet I ever participated in because it forces me to make healthy choices or suffer in the aftermath. My advice is stay away from slidder foods when on solids, a slidder is anything that will go through the band easily and add up the calories and you do not stay full. Stick with the 3 meals as it recommends on the web sites, it is easy to get into the habit of snacking between meals or grazing all day long. Because we can only hold small amounts at each meal if we eat the wrong foods or drink with meals it empties out our pouch and we are hungry. I know it is hard not to drink before, with and immediately after meals but if you don't do this as it recommends it really makes a differience. You stay satisfied longer and less likely to eat between meals. If you do feel the urge to eat between meals, stick with healthy snacks and stay away from carbohydrates. If you like sweets, find a good protein bar you like and that can be your sweet treat. I sometimes consider my gummy calcium chews and vitamins my sweet fix. They are small, I have to take them and I feel like I am getting a treat. A few protein bars that I have found good are the Zone Bars, Biggest Loser, Chocolatey Coconut ( I love german chocolate cake and this reminds me or it) also the Pure Protein Bars. All of these are low carbohydrate bars, I don't buy bars if the are over 200 calories or more than 16-17 gms of carbohydrates. The Prue Protein are very low carb but have sugar alcohols and in some that causes gas. Gas-x is your friend once on solid food, I got tired of the pills and chewables and found some strips that dissolve on your tongue in peppermint and cinniamin. Keep some protein drinks on hand they are great when you are in a hurry, hungry and don't have time to eat. This is a web site that I like for protein drinks. There drinks dissolve well and they dissolve in only 4ozs of liguid. There are recipies for some of them to enjoy them hot in the summer. I love the unflavored, I can add it to soups, drinks, yogurt and just about anything to get my protein. WWW.bariatriceating.com. Good luck on your journey, you will be surprised how many people actually will read your blog and be supportive. Good luck on your journey, remember we didn't get here overnight and it truely is a journey. Remember to celebrate all of your successes and DON't become a slave to your scale, all of us seem to loose inches along with pounds. Good Luck!:bananajump:

So sorry, I love my fur babies. They are the second love of my life next to my kids. I wish our pets could live as long as we do, I have lost many pets over the years and never seem to be ready for the hurt and sadness it causes. I am going to pray that your cat responds to the medications your vet gave her, keep her comfy, lots of love and pain free. Enjoy this weekend with her, remember she relys on you to be strong and take care of her. Thanks for sharing, I feel your pain.

I hate busy days, meetings start at 7am and go until 5pm. Not even a minute to take a pee break, I try to tell my assistant to schedule that in but some days it just does not work out. I have been home for 3 hours and I am still dealing with issues. Knowing it was going to be a busy day, I powered up this morning with a skinny latte from star bucks and added my 24 grams of protein powder to it. Total of 35 grams of protein that took be about 2 and half hours to drink. But it was yummy, I call it my high octane drink that carries me through a busy day, I consider it a treat. I did manage to squeeze in a small salad with some chicken and blue cheese but for dinner, not so well. I had a cup of popcorn and 4 ozs of white wine. OK, I know that is not in the any of our books but I just was too tired to cook, and as you all know fast food just does not work. i did sprinkle a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese on it, does that count and it was air popcorn. I guess I feel guilty, maybe I should run around the block a few times. I used to keep a few frozen dinners in the freezer for nights like this but my MD said, "Diane, frozen dinners have way too much sodium. Wonder what he would say about the 100 calorie pop secret and wine. Hey I just realized now why they call it pop secret, you can eat it and keep it a secret. I think they may call that stinkin thinkin, what do you all think? So this is my confession for the night, I ate a bad dinner, I feel guilty, my stomach feels like crap and I know by 10pm I will be hungry. I will tell you one difference in the old me and the new me, the old me would have never thought a thing about what they ate and ate another meal on top of the one she just ate. I would have felt a twinge of regret but would have never looked back. Thank you all for listening and be my second conscious. It's great to have others who understand how you really feel some days and you don't have to apologize for not being perfect. Hope everyone has a great weekend. To end on a happy note, I wore my second new dress today and I looked good.......................................

Stay strong, I read an ariticle on a physicians web site that said, "Your band is not worth a piece of pizza." I wish I had read it before I ate 2 small pieces of thin and crispy pizza with grilled veggies, cheese and chicken from dominos. It sat in my stomach like a brick for hours. Like you I love, love, love pizza. I think I miss it more than anything, I know it is a food group they left off of the pyramid. I like Judy s idea and think I may try it.

Yesterday I went shopping to make myself feel better, retail therapy is my new addiction, it always makes me feel good. My clothes are starting to get a little big again and it makes me feel better when I can buy something new that may be just a little bit smaller. Well here's how it went, I took several dresses into the dressing room ranging in sizes from 12 to 16. For all of you who don;t know me I started this journey wearing a size 24 womens. Now I am only 5'1" so I was pretty round. Not sure why I thought I could were the 12 but I just wanted to try it. I did get the dress on but the look was just not me. Now if I had wanted to add some 4 inch heels and work a street corner the dress may have worked. Sorry about that visual but sometimes it helps if I can laugh at my self. I did find two really cute dresses after trying on about 8 or 10. For some reason I thought I bought size 16 in both dresses but to my surprise when I was taking the dress off tonight, yes I had to wear it to work today, I noticed it was a size 14. Wow, I have not had a size 14 on in years. Still need to get on the stick and exercise. I have also developed a bad habit lately I need to break, eating almonds. I think they are my new substitution for salty snacks, so I threw them out tonight. I found my self grazing on these off and on and this is not something I want to start. My husband gets a little frustrated with me when I start throwing away the food in the house but if I don;t think I can trust myself, in the trash it goes. I know that sounds silly but I gotta do what I have to to remain true to myself and this journey. I will not allow myself to fall back into bad habits. I spent way to may years lying to myself about what I ate and never told anyone. I used to stop off at McDonald's and eat a snack on the way home from work and then come home and eat dinner. My addictive thinking was if no one saw me eat it, it did;t count. Well let me tell you that will get you a few pounds overweight real fast. Like I said last night, old habits die hard and we do what we need to do to develop healthy habits. Everyday is a new day and everyday I love the new me that is blossoming from within. My success is all on me, I have been given the tools I just need to continue to apply them.

We are all food addicts, some of us just are more willing to admit it than others. You have made the first postiive decision, you are doing something about your addiction. First you need to stop beating your self up, of course you are moody, food was our comfort our way of coping and when you take that way we have to cope with a vast amount of emotions. Support is key for all of us, some of us get it from family and friends and some of us get it from these blogs and forums. Just know we have all been where you are and are all here to help you through this journey. Your support is here, just use us and post what you feel. Feelings are better on paper or computer than bottled up inside of us. Think of this blog as your new addiction to finding that healthy person hiding inside. Good Luck

Just as an FYI, in the majority of the literature you read about lap band patients, they really do not expect us to loss in the first 4 to 6 weeks post op. Our bodies are healing and the majority of us have not had any fluid in our bands and we really have no restriction and can almost eat about anything. You will still fill hungry until you have your first fill, there are a few patients that fell restrictions immediately after surgery but they are rare. Don't expect to much the first month and don;t become a slave to your scale, if you stay true to the foods they have you eat you will lose, maybe more inches in the beginning than pounds but it will come off. I think the hardest thing for me to learn was patience and I work on this daily. And believe me some days it is harder than others. I have lost 64 lbs in about 7 months and my MD told me to expect the additional 30 lbs to come off slow. Most lap band patients lose about 40 to 50% of their weight in the first year, some lose more but none of us are the same. The band can be very fickle, and what we can eat one day may not go down the next day. You will do great, just make healthy choices and remember to get all your protein daily. It takes our digestive tract longer to digest protein so it stays with us longer helping to curb that hunger feeling. One day you will be able to eat the 3 meals a day and be satisfied without snacks between meals. I never believed it would happen but it does. The discomfort you feel when bending over is your port, that also gets better with time and now I don't even notice mine is there. Good luck with your journey and the best advice I can give you is to educate yourself about the band and the foods you should be eating. If you listen to your band once filled and not your head you will do great!

Ann, it takes courage for us to look at where we are and where we had hoped we would be. I think we can all lose site of what the band truly does for us, it offers a feeling of fullness if we listen and forces us to change our life choices and make a wiser decisions, again if we listen. Your post is motivating, we do own what we eat. Good luck and I know you will find the strength to make it to the end of your journey, we all just need to get our head in the right place. I keep remembering what my MD said before surgery, "This is only a tool, you still have to do the work" Best of luck!

How many days does it take to break a habit? A post from the internet: I always hear the statistic that it takes six weeks to make or break a habit. That may be true in cases like turning off the porch light in the morning, but I haven't had the same success in life when it came to overcoming various destructive habits of mine. Often I gut it out through those six weeks only to either give up, or quit that habit but replace it with something just as bad. I likened the experience to a stress-ball. I squeeze it really hard in my hand, and it may even squeeze through my fingers. Did the material in the stress ball disappear? Nope. What happens when I release the ball? It all goes back right where it was before. Compulsive and/or destructive habits seem to work in the same way. Why does it seem that every time we identify a bad behavior in our life and work to chop it down, that another takes it's place almost immediately? That is because we are attacking the evidence that there is a problem, not the problem itself. Identifying the root issue takes time, but it is well worth it. When I say "time", I'm talking about anywhere from a year or more. That's correct – to truly break the root cause of your destructive habits or addictions will take at least one year. Don't despair though, because that can and will be a very good thing. I am seven months post op and there are still some days when my eyes do not listen to my brain. For me I think food and eating is no different than anyones, addictive habits, mine was just legal and more acceptable to society. But honestly is it? I wake up each morning and remind myself that this is a journey and I did not wake up Fat one morning but did this to my self one forkful at a time. I am trying so hard to break old habits and develop healthy ones. My scales have not moved for several weeks now, this happens to me every time I drop into a new set of numbers. I know hat I need to do is exercise, I sometimes wish that people would tell me I was fat instead of "You look great!" I need the push to make me do what I know I need to do. Today I went to see my family doctor, we discussed my BP meds, I take 3. My BP was 128/80 for me this is awesome. I used to be consistently 140-150/90-100 on meds and over 200 without. We discussed reducing my meds, I told her I would like to drop 20 more pounds before we do this. I think part of me just wanted to make sure I was going to be successful. Kinda like been here before but didn't stay. So to all of us our their trying to develop new habits and change old ones, Good Luck!

You are doing great, keep up the good work!

Funny what pushes us over the edge. I agree the message was delivered wrong, but seriously all of us have a mirror and no one needs to tell us how we look. I think my favorite is, oh, she has a really pretty face. I laugh now becasue people say to me, boy you are really getting skinny, I weigh 180 lbs and am 5" 1", now in my book I am still fat, but if you look at pictures of me from 2009, I do look skinny because back then I was really Fat.. I can say that about me, but I can lose weight to fit into that pretty face but your boss he is just plain damn stupid and you can't fix stupid. Enough about me, back to you. No matter how hurtful your bosses comments were, he gave you that little extra nudge you needed to make a choice to live a healthier life. Keep your head up and celebrate your success along your journey, you will be successful because you really want this for YOU! IGood luck in your journey!