Bandme1

I made some homemade meatballs with half ground turkey and half lean ground beef and I used parmesan cheese as the binder. they came out scrumptious

I will have to try your method as well!

I posted this in the Post Op section but I wanted to put it here too!!

The best thing I ever bought was a candle warmer [or you can use a coffee cup warmer]. I got mine from Michael's for $3.99. I even invested in some really cute little plates [$1.49] and a tea cup with the strainer and lid [$4.99]. When I microwave my breakfast/lunch/dinner I turn on my mini hot plate and then put my coffee cup or little plate on it and it stays nice and toasty until I finish eating, which everyone knows takes quite a while when you're first sleeved!! I'm at work right now with my chicken and mixed veggies on a pretty little pink plate and everything is still bubbling hot!!!

Just thought I'd share!!! Toodles!!!

You, my friend, are a genius!

You guys are allowed gum?? Kaiser Richmond spends SOOOO much time saying "No Gum! No Gum! Repeat after me: NO GUM!" LOL. They said they have so many patients come in who accidentally swallowed their gum and had to have it removed with a tube down their throat.

Oh, Kaiser and their scare tactics.

Ooooo, I will have to give these a try! Thanks for posting about them. Also, they have a smaller pack available on Amazon. That way, if they don't appeal to your taste buds, you haven't wasted as much money. http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Noodle-Shirataki-7-Ounce-Packages/dp/B004CLCEDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1308260773&sr=1-1

Glad to help!

*races out to buy license plate*

Alright, alright. You can have it.

If you create an account at allrecipes.com, you can enter your recipe and your serving size and not only will it save your recipe and archive it in your personal recipe box, it will create a handy dandy little "Nutrition Facts" just like on all food products. I print out the recipe and the Nutrition Facts and I keep them all in a binder. I even bought the clear sheet covers at the office supply store to keep from getting food all over the recipes Hope that helps. I love my recipe binder!

I like Sultan of sleep the best. I'm gonna use that one.... lol

So Bummed. Went to Rita's tonight to Celebrate my birthday a day early. I figured being 6 weeks out it would be the best thing for me.

So we went think I would would have the sugar free ice in a kids cup.

My Husband even brought candle's to sing happy birthday, I took one bite of the tasting and spit it out. Too Sweet. So then I would try the sugar free custard took 2 bites and had to give it to my daughter. So no singing for me.. I'm so sad... This is our faviort summer thing and now I can't even have a lick. I guess it just suck's even worse because it's my birthday. If it was any other day I may not have gotton so upset.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do for tomorrow on my actual birthday it's the big 35 so I want to do something.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Kim

Sleeved on 5/9/2011

Start weight 287

Weight now 258

Well, try to find something not food oriented Family bowling night, mini golf, or if you want something with food, have a fancy dinner out but order something small that you can have and just enjoy your family's company and skip the dessert since it tastes too sweet.

I have Kaiser in N. Cal, too. I have my first consultation on May 10th and it cannot come fast enough!! So what do I do from there? I don't have to take the 12-week class? So far, I know they weigh me, I have to lose 10%, I have to schedule all the pre-op appts. (did you have to do the swallow and the sleep apnea test?) What else? Share your wealth of knowledge with me. lol

It seems to me that people with conditions like PCOS that make i hard to lose weight should have a lower requirement- if you could lose the weight that easily you would not need surgery!

The little devil in me thinks you could to what the manipulators on Biggest Loser do - push the Water intensely before your first weigh in so your weight is artificially high... ;-P

lol, it's funny you say that because the morning of the orientation where they weighed us in, I ate a really salty Breakfast and drank a TON of Water. I had to pee SOOOO bad but I was holding it. My friend was there with me as my support person and I told her "I don't want a couple extra pounds to just go down the toilet.... literally." LOL. I saw people walking into the bathroom before weigh-in and I just kept thinking "Noooo, don't do it!" ha ha.

I've lost 10 pounds since the initial weigh-in and I wonder to myself how much of it was just my salty Breakfast and water Oh well, 10 pounds is 10 pounds! I'll take it. I find out my "magic number" tomorrow. Hopefully they don't give me too much more to lose, because this PCOS is such a little devil.

More protein! I also like the Fage brand. I buy the ones with a little fruit on the side that you pour over it and I put some granola in it too. Yum!

I used to buy those too but I'm in the phase now where I'm doing my pre-op diet and trying to lose weight quickly. The sooner I lose my weight, the sooner I can have surgery I gotta watch those carbs and sugar and the fruit mix that comes with the fage containers has like 14g of sugar or something like that. They are delicious though. So I substituted the SF jam so that I can get these last few pounds off faster and still enjoy my yummy greek yogurt.

hi! thanks in advance for your help!

i keep hearing about greek yogurt (which i like anyway), and i'm wondering why it's so much better than "regular" yogurt?

It's in the way they make it. They end up squeezing a lot of the Water out, which means there is more of the milk Protein in it It's delicious with sugar free jam added. Fage is my favorite brand.

I am in N. California too and did this diet for 6 months while going thru the progam and lost 55lbs!

IT WORKS!!

Best of luck to you!

Kelly

Wow, Kelly!!! That's awesome!! It makes me even more determined to stick with it

Daaaaaaang!! You look fabulous!! I hope I look that good a few months after surgery.

Dr. Park was EXCELLENT- Very clear about everything, answered ALL my questions, very straight and to the point.

I know that she's one of the TOP doctor's there in Richmond for this specific surgery, I read up on her credentials all on Kp.org..

It gave me peace of mind "knowing" i was in professional, safe, good hands

That's awesome! How much weight did she tell you that you had to lose pre-op? I have heard that Dr. Fisher is the most strict when it comes to that.

Thank you everyone for all your replies.. they helped me out. I'm having my surgery done at Kaiser Richmond with Dr. Park. I was actually scheduled to have this surgery last year.. but because of personal issues, it was delayed.. I had my casemanager appointment on Wednesday and now I'm set! I have one appointment for my final physical and then a class... I've been waiting for this surgery for a LONG TIME.. and after one of my very good friends got the band and after seeing all the complications shes having with it.. I too decided VSG is the way to go for me. Actually when I spoke to my casemanager she told me i was more on the smaller side and Lap Band would be ideal for someone my size.. but she DOES NOT recommend it due to all the problems they've been having with it. Well..its Friday.. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

How did you like Dr. Park? I was scheduled to have my surgeon consult with Dr. Im on June 30, but I called and they had a cancellation so my appointment is now on June 14th with Dr. Park.

I tried the Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% whey in the "cake batter" and "cookies and cream" flavors. The Cookies and cream was pretty good, but the cake batter was DELICIOUS. It tastes like the birthday cake remix milkshake at coldstone. MMMMMM.... I added it to 8 oz. of milk and stirred with a spoon (I don't like to shake them because I hate the foam). Then I added some crushed ice on top and used my emulsion blender just long enough to crush the ice (again, not too long because you'll get the gross foam). It was sooooo good. I actually woke up this morning craving one!

I got a sample of the cake batter, cookies and cream, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate from Vitamin Adventure. I haven't found anywhere online to get the sample packs. I've read a lot of good reviews about the caramel toffee fudge flavor. These are the least "dirty sock" tasting shakes that I've tried so far. I think I've found a winner

Good luck, girl!! You'll do fabulous! Keep us updated on how it goes as soon as you're up for it.

Has anyone tried Profect? It's made by Protica and I read on some workout site that it tastes like candy in a gel form. It’s only 2.9 ounces and has 0 fat, only 100 calories, 0 carb, 0 sugar and 25g of protein! It also has 100% of daily value of Vitamin C and lots of other Vitamins in it.

I am just curious if anyone has tried this or heard anything about it from their doctors? It seems like a pretty easy way to get in Protein post-op.

http://www.protica.com/Products/Profect/ProfectNutritional.htm

Northern California

Optasia, I agree. We all KNOW how to lose weight. We have the knowledge. It’s just the execution that’s hard. And sometimes, it’s not even all that hard to lose the weight, it’s the biggest battle to keep it off! I’m sitting at my desk right now watching my co-worker eat a buttered bagel and I’m drooooooling!! I’m not hungry, I had scrambled eggs and an apple for Breakfast. But dang, that bagel looks delicious. You’re totally right. It’s a head thing. I had to get on this website and distract myself, quick!! Lol. Besides, talking with you guys is better than a bagel anyways. Or at least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself

Nannie, you’re right. I don’t know if I can do this whole “never” thing. Yikes! But if I start out telling myself “Okay, not for a year. Anyone can go without junk food for a year.” That sounds a heck of a lot better than never. Then we’ll just see where things are in a year. I have to play those mental games with myself. It’s sad, I know…

At my Kaiser class I received a list of things to NOT have. The teacher didn't say one day we could have these things. It was NEVER.

1, Sugar

2. Caffeine

3. Salt

4. Carbonation, etc......

So....I have a problem with Never, Ever. Obviously.

I know I've seen people on here who eat regular food and drinks, but in moderation. Why does the teacher at Kaiser say "never"? Is it because it will harm my stomach in some way (I have not yet had the surgery) or is it that it will keep me from losing weight? I can handle having it in moderation, but not ever.

So, I need to know why I can't have these things on occasion? I have to be honest. I love Diet Coke. I think it's the carbonation more than anything. Not sure how to work through this.

HELP! and THANKS! : )

I think the reason they say "never" is because there are so many people who have a skewed version of moderation. The lady sitting behind me at the orientation came back at break with a massive doughnut and a Starbucks frappuccino. I would be humiliated to walk into a class about weight loss eating a doughnut and drinking a coffee milkshake! She also complained throughout the entire seminar that she doesn't want to stop eating bread or sugar. I wanted to turn around and tell her "Then go home. There are plenty of people on the waiting list that woudl love your seat". If you tell someone like that that they can have sugar in "moderation" do you think she's going to have it in what we normal folk consider moderation? No. It's easier for them to just say "never" than to try to say to take it easy. Because some people's version of taking it easy is a doughnut and milkshake. lol!

That is awesome!! I just went to the orientation at Richmond on May 24 and I am waiting for my surgeon appointment with Dr. Im on June 30! From the time I got a referral, they told me it would be up to 3 weeks for them to call me. They called 6 days after my referral! Good luck!! If you want to check out the pre-op diet they give you, I just made a post about it. So far it's not so bad.

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/19102-kaiser-pre-op-meal-plan/

The required Kaiser pre-op diet is low carb but also Portion Control. See my post about it http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/19102-kaiser-pre-op-meal-plan/

So Kaiser requires a pre-op diet and at first I was pretty nervous about it, thinking to myself, "Dang, I don't know if I'll be able to eat such small amounts!!" but you know what? This has really not been nearly as difficult as I originally anticipated. I pre-measure out my meals ahead of time so that they are handy and convenient. If they aren't convenient, I will just grab whatever delicious, carb-filled treat is near me when I get hungry. I have been on this diet for 2 weeks now and I am down 7 pounds. Not too shabby, especially compared to how little I have lost on diets in the past. Honestly, it is very easy to stick with once you get the portions down right. And it is good practice to be measuring everything I put in my mouth. It has really opened my eyes to just how much I was eating before.

I went ahead and attached the meal plan and I also attached a little file that I made myself called the "weekly diet". I wanted to be able to write out my meals ahead of time so that I could get them prepared and put in baggies to take to work. Like I said, so far so good. If anyone else is going through Kaiser and is on this diet, let me know! I have a few recipes that I have come up with that use the foods that are allowed and I would love a recipe buddy Anyone else just looking to lose some pre-op weight, feel free to give this a try. It's a very do-able diet. Actually, it is suitable for post-op as well. Anyways, just thought I would share with everyone!

meal.plan.pdf

weekly.diet.pdf