bigtom1948

Update on the exercise and continued slow weight loss. Well I added 1/2 hour of walking per day last week and at first it was a bit tough. I started out at a fast clip but by the end I was shambling along. I still was able to do about a mile though. I did notice something funny though, no knee or back pain like there was when I was at my highest weight of 390 pounds (that's why I stopped walking in favor or the stationary bike). At 339 that pain is now mostly gone.... I can only imagine what joy in movement I can expect when I am finally under 300 pounds. My average blood pressure is dropping too so good things are already happening. I am going to see the surgeon later this afternoon for my first fill, I hope it's not a stingy one as I can now eat most anything and could eat more that I am supposed to if I wasn't careful. I am starting to get hungry now that solid foods are on the menu again, strange I wasn't all that hungry till recently but a meal doesn't stave off hunger 4-6 hours at this point and it feels like the food is just slipping through the pouch pretty quickly. The not drinking before and after a meal is harder than I thought it would be. It takes a lot of will power for me to do that. I would drink 2-3 20 oz tumblers of Water with every meal before the banding now just a sip only if necessary. I'll report back on the fill in the fill thread I noticed for our group and let you know how it went. Keep thinking good thoughts and remember to HUT Hut hut in the exercise as well as watching the food intake. Bye for now.

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Hi I am new here and was wondering if I am doin something wrong because I am eating soft foods now ! I was told to eat soft foods the second week . I was banded on feb 25th and i am eating pudding and middle of baked potatoes and hard boiled eggs.... i have no problems with my band but it is empty doc says he would fill till 9 weeks. I am keeping a food journal however. I am wondering why so many people are still on liquids on second week??? I hope I am not messing up my band or something .l feel fine but i am scared now. No, all the doctors seem to do things differently, I am sure that you are being advised properly based on your doctors evaluation of your case. My doctor advised me to eat clear liquids first week, full (runny but with substance) liquids the second week, mushies the third week, soft food the forth and then regular foods well chewed (Just starting them this week Yea!! ) My first fill is next tuesday but I still don't have any great hungar and the diary i'm keeping shows 900-1100 calories a day. Wesght is starting to come off with my return to the gym, doctor approves but no abdominal exercises like crunches till he clears it for me. Hate crunches anyway, no big loss . I'll let you guys know how the fill goes next week.

I've lost 40 pounds and Now I wear slippers and a sweater all the time, before I was hot all the time. Nice to Know that this too is normal and will in time pass. Thanks for shareing.

10 days till the first fill on 3/15

According to my surgeon. Whether or not the moobs reduce to normal male proportions is dependent on many factors overall musculature, size and length of time the moobs have been around, your age and basic elasticity of the overlying skin. Significant reduction is atainable but based on the above factors some residual tissue may remain. Depending on how much of this tissue remains, cosmetic surgery may be indicated. That decision, of course, would strictly be a personal choice. I'm personally hoping exercise does the trick in firming up the moobs but being over sixty, well who knows

That's the real problem about medicine in the USA you have no idea of what the real value of the proceedures being done. The physicians quote an inflated price knowing that the evil insurance companies are going to slash the payment to 25% or less of the billed service. Most of the insured folks have deductibles and co-pays so the insurance companies pay even less than that. You must also keep in mind that the AVERAGE cost of 80/20 coverage with a $1,000.00 deductible policy is around $10-14K anually with most of the paid for by your employer as deferred wages while your actual wages creep up at just under inflation. It's been that way here in the USA for 30+ years ever since insurance companies followed Medicare's lead in the Diagnostic Related Grouping (DRG) payment scheme. Doctors real incomes on a per patient basis have been going down while insurance profits have skyrocketed. That's why most PCP's see 8 patients an hour just to break even.Yepper, the USA has the best healthcare in the world (icy sarcasm here, not my real belief) I wouldn't mind paying the physician/surgeon a fair amount, but what is that? Who knows.... Sorry if this ofends anyone. It's not a political statement. The simple truth is that we are not getting what we are paying for the services we are buying when all the costs are considered. And, the self pay people are the ones getting hauled over the coals the most in the whole system. Nuff said..

Well the scale is moving again although very slowly. 2 pounds in 10 days is not that impressive but it is in the right direction. I've gone back to the gym and doing the stationary bike for 1/2 hour and 15-20 mins of weight training. Next week I'll add 1/2 an hour of fast walking on the track and boost the weight training levels too. Maybe that'll kick loose the logjam of fat going down stream.

Neat recipe, gonna try it myself but i'll leave out the 1 teaspoon of added salt cause the chicken broth and ham and the hocks will put plenty of that into the soup. Love the bright green color of the soup in your blog. Was it better the next day? Here are the nutriant values based on 10 cups of the soup wo/ the added i tsp. of salt and using lower sodium chicken broth. I couldn't cut back on sodium in the hocks (The food values below do not include both the ham and the ham hocks only the value for the hocks is in the calculations) To lower the sodium load perhaps a substitution with only the 16 oz of low sodium smoked turkey ham and droping the hocks altogether could drop it by 250-300 mg but it may not be as satisfyingly smokey in flavor. Values per 1 cup serving of the soup, assumes approx. 1.25 oz of the hock is included in each serving: Calories 198 Total Fat 10.23g Sat. Fat 3.01g Carbs 11.85g Fiber 3.76g Sugar 4.44g Protein 14.75g Sodium 902mg Cholesterol 25.72mg Potasium 491mg

Well, a whole week passed and not one pound fell off me to the floor... Hurumph! But seriously thanks for the good words, encouragement and the sharing about your experiences. Its easier when you know that what you are going through is normal and can be expected. Still I liked the precipitous drop after surgery but didn't like only having broth and other clear liquids. So I will be happy with any moderate weight loss once my system balances and figures out whether or not its starving . I don't feel any great hunger yet and its 2 weeks till my first fill. So if I can lose 1-2 pounds a week wo/ feeling hungry till the fill, I will feel very fortunate . Thanks again guys for the support.

Thanks for the encouragement I really appreciate it and you are probably right about the body wanting to hang on to what its got in reserve. I'm sure I am like most folks though just impatient and wanting to be thin as soon as possible.

Well I was hoping that the post op weight loss would continue. However, now that I have progressed from gruel to thicker gruel it's stayed the same with no more daily steady drop. Grrr. Tracking the calories and it's about 1,000 per day give or take 50 and I have returned to the gym. I can't say that I have any great hunger yet and eating is not something I enjoy like before the surgery, I do it just because I need to. Really looking forward to my first fill in three weeks and a return to normal foods where I can CHEW something. It's strange though according to all the charts in order to maintain the weight I am I would have to consume between 2300-2700 calories a day (depending on whose chart you use and what factors are punched in) so at about 1,000 Cals I should be loseing 2+ pounds a week. Maybe it's just on hold due to the fact that immediatly post op I had a real problem getting even 500 calories in on clear liquids. Probably balancing out and weight should begin to drop again soon, I Really Hope So for the sake of my morale. Has anyone else experienced this lull?

Hope that the mystery is cleared up soon and you are cleared to proceed. It's better that you are here though so take care.

Checked out your blog. The Falafal Burgers look great and the recipe looks simple enough so I am going to try that middle eastern favorite. Thanks

I'm 9 days post op and have moved on to full liquids and some mushies. I'v tracked the calorie intake and bearly reach 1,000 calories a day. As yet I am not hungry and still dropping poundage. Next step real foods in about a week and finally something to chew. I never looked at other heavy people judgmentally but always with sadness. No matter what they may say they don't want to be heavy, that is just a lie to themselves in self protection. But when I see the amout of food being put away....well its too painful to observe and I see my former self as being just like them. So no stones tossed no judgements made only an underlying sadness I am so happy that I have taken this step and wish myself and all of you too success and happiness.

Super job, you are on your way.

After the forth day that pain was very minimal for me. Hope that yours passes quickly.

Getting better every day, I did have a slight breakdown in will power and ate a saltine. I just had to chew something Well it went down OK and so far the band isn't upset. I did sorta feel it stay above the band for a bit and then whosh right through. Funny feeling but I guess that's what real mealtimes will be like. I can see how you would get ques from the band when your full and I intend to listen for them. Anyhow doing well and hope that you and the other 02/2011 bandsters are as too.

Tried it a couple of years ago. Very Salty and very expensive. Bought a months worth and finished it but vowed never again. Yuk!

They are just trying to get you to eat small bites. For steak I would follow that advice as lots of folks get that food stuck fairly often mostly from too large a bite not chewed thoroughly. My surgeon said that I should get a set of infant silverware and take bites based on the amount of food that the fork and spoon could supply. This is just until I get the idea of how much food that is and then I can use regular silverware. The 20-30 chews per bite and wait between bites is part of that he said my meal should take 30 min. Heck I used to consume that amount of food in 1/10th that time. So adjustment is in order at least for me.

I've looked through the cookbook and don't think that the difficulty level is too challanging, most of the recipes are straightforward and use ingrediants found in most kitchens. 8-10 ingrediants including spices isn't taxing for most folks. The book does have a chapter for what should be in the weight Loss Surgery patients larder or pantry and again I didn't find the food, spices or condiments to be very exotic. That said if you are a person used to throwing a meal together from whatever is at hand any cook book could appear intrusive. Personally I like to cook both ways and have created some real good keeper recipes and also the ones where every one said they liked it until I ask "do you want me to make it again?" Heh Heh So as a good guide for most Lap Band folks, I still think it's worth buying.

Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner. Yes it does include plenty of simple recipes as well as some more complex ones. It also covers recipes for all the post surgical stages liquids, full liquids, mushies etc. It offers menu guides as well for a wide variety of calorie levels 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600 & 1800. Here is one of the recipes in the book that I copied for you to see Home-Style Meatloaf with Tomato Gravy If you’re a meatloaf connoisseur, this recipe will definitely make your top five list. You normally wouldn’t find much Fiber in meatloaf, but thanks to the added wheat bran, Which has more fiber than other kinds of bran, you do in this one. The accompanying tomato gravy not only is easy to make but also perfectly complements this meatloaf. Stage: Regular foods Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 11⁄2 hours Yield: 8 servings (6 ounces each) 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 medium onion, diced small 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons dried thyme 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper 2 pounds lean ground beef 1 cup wheat bran 4 tablespoons ketchup 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1⁄2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 2 large egg whites, beaten Tomato Gravy (see the following recipe) 1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-x-5-x-3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. 2 Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet. Saute the onion and garlic until translucent but not brown, about 5 minutes. Add the thyme and pepper and saute for 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool. 3 Combine the ground beef, bran, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, and egg whites in a bowl and mix well. Stir in the cooled onion mixture. 4 Fill the loaf pan with the beef mixture. Bake the loaf approximately 1 hour 20 minutes, until the internal temperature of the meatloaf reaches 160 degrees. Top meatloaf with Tomato Gravy (below). Tomato Gravy 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 cup chopped onion 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper One 16-ounce can no-salt-added tomato puree 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley 1⁄4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme 1 Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes. 2 Add black pepper, tomato puree, parsley, and fresh thyme. Bring to a light simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over meatloaf. Per serving: Calories 290 (From Fat 130); Fat 15g (Saturated 5g); Cholesterol 75mg; Sodium 210mg; Carbohydrate 16g (Dietary Fiber 5g); Protein 26g; Sugar 6g.

Good luck with the surgery and I hope your weight loss goes as planned and further I wish you joy and happiness in your life.

From a guys prospective - I say you are asking for a lifetime of misery to stay with this man. There are better choices than to tie yourself to someone who thinks so little of your pain and feelings. It's so sad but he won't miss you when you'er gone and will never think he could possibly have been the problem. I wouldn't want my daughters in that situation and wouldn't wish for a marraige where both of you are in love with the same person, namely Him. It's horrible for any person male or female. My mom married three guys in a row like that and I watched her live a life of anguish. These guys are oh so charming to get what they want and know how to butter you up but they don't deliver on what we all need, love and respect, that they reserve for themselves. I feel that it's better to live alone than to empower an emotional leech. Good luck with the surgery and I hope your weight loss goes as planned and further I wish you joy and happiness in your life.

Gad's you are doing the triple career thing full time mom, housekeeper and a job too. You are squeezing in the exercise and run out of time when it comes to sleep. You must be exhusted. From what you wrote, you are on the go all the time. I don't care what anyone says living on less than 6 hours sleep a day isn't healthy it's worse than sleeping too much. It lowers your immune systems ability to fight off infections it saps away your mental resiliance and good humor leading to depression and with that a search for something to compensate and perhaps slip back into the comforting arms of food. I am sure that you can't step away from your obligations to family and work so take an hour in the middle of the day for a nap, if the kids are old enough ask them to help a bit more to relieve some of your stress. Talk to your doctor explain your concerns and how anxious it makes you when the progress seems so meager against the effort you believe you are expending. Have a real lovefest with the slow cooker its a life saver for someone as busy as you are. Heres a link to a really neat blog in that vein. You will have to be careful and watch the calories but dinner is in the pot. http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ Check this one out too: http://lapbandeating.blogspot.com/ Good luck