Fenton

A-Dub, I agree with Penny's diagnosis of your problem, and have actually pinpointed the root cause: you're clearly suffering from withdrawal after finishing The Book. Your productive belching shall be my motivation to complete A HARD DEATH asap! I'm not 100% sure I follow you, though: if you're PB'ing everything, is anything staying down? Because if it's not, that would explain your situation - your body is HUNGRY! Are you able to get your Protein in? Welcome back, Christine - and great news on the imminent breach of 250! It won't be too long before you're zeroing in on Onederland, too... Lynn, I'm incredibly jealous of your Water aerobics class! That sounds really great. I'm staying with friends who have a pool next month, and I think I may try to develop my own version of water aerobics. Amanda, I think your trainer's advice sounds really solid. The idea of just focusing on the August event, getting yourself into tip-top shape for it, seems ideal!

AND, on the subject of inspiration, I've watched this video several times today. I have to say I love it - it really emphasizes how similar we all are, all over the world. The commonality of human experience, the vast potential of human creativity. Plus it's funny. This is for the HD version, so give it a few seconds to load properly before pressing Play. And you can turn it into a fullscreen thing by clicking on the button to the right of the time line... Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) on Vimeo

Yay Amanda! That's fantastic! Inspirational, even!

Whoa! That's GREAT! First we have K-Pod with the kayaking and the bicycling, and now we have you, Amanda the Triathlete! When's your first event?

Evelas! CONGRATULATIONS!!! We need some kind of special emoticon or logo or graphic thing for when we hit Onederland. And we need it STAT! We've got some Onederlanders coming around the corner...

Thanks, Amanda - maybe a year or so down the road, when I'm the only Shrinking Shamrock left, I'll go over there, but for now I get the support and info I need here! GROUP HUG, Y'ALL! I had sangria at lunch; I appear to have been possessed by Britney Spears. And look at all of you heading into Onederland...!

Indeed, that's a very common pattern - both my brother AND my girlfriend had it. But it resolves when you come off the drug - you only take Chantix during the period when you're actually fighting the nicotine addiction, for perhaps a couple of months. As you say, forewarned is forearmed, and it's unquestionably worth a few weeks feeling crappy and sad in exchange for freedom from a severe smoking habit. Indeed, I don't think it's possible to stop smoking without feeling some strong emotional impact, no matter HOW you do it...

Gosh, Scrappy - 37 lbs! Keep up the good work! As far as smoking goes, my brother AND my ex-girlfriend quit on Chantix after having tried dozens of times to quit using other methods. Lots of people get good results with the patch, but Chantix is an effective back-up. It's not without side-effects, though!

I think that you have to recognize that the Dairy Queen HURTS you. You go there, and you think it's nice, but it's HURTING you, it's damaging you, it's stealing from you...

Yay for the patch! Between weight loss and kayaking and no longer smoking, I'm expecting you to be doing some kind of Iron Man event later this year... Also: How great to have TWO shamrocks racing towards Onederland! k-pod! K-pod! K-Pod! K-POD! K-POD!!! K-POD!!!

In the grand "physician, heal thyself" tradition, I'm going to take my own advice. I've set myself a mini-goal: I'm heading down to Naples on July 19th - three weeks from now. If I can lose 13 pounds before I go, I'll have hit my 100 lb loss marker, which would feel cool. So! For the next 3 weeks, stricter consuming, and more exercise! MINIGOAL: 13 Pounds in 3 weeks...

Sure as hell sounds like it! Congratulations on a smooth entry into the world of the banded!

Sharona, I sympathize - I ADORE ice cream! And I make the BEST ice creams and sorbets at home. However, I'm avoiding ice cream, because it's a classic Band Buster - it's soft, so it slips right by. I think you have a couple of options: 1. Pure will power, slam the door shut, no more ice cream 2. If you're going to go to Dairy Queen, go online and find out EXACTLY what it is you're taking. No, wait, I've done it for you: each small chocolate-dipped cone is listed on the DQ site as 340 calories. That'll be a conservative estimate, I suspect, to lull the customers into security - I'd bet it's more like 380 - 400 cals. OK, so know that each time you go to the DQ, no matter how "scrumdiddlyicious" it is, that little excess is costing you 340 plus calories. If you ARE going to have those cones, then you're going to have to figure out a way to burn those calories - and it won't be easy. SO much extra work just to get you back to a manageable intake/consumption status! 3. If you need to have ice cream, find a lower calorie brand - I think the ones discussed aren't bad, actually. The other advantage is that you can eat those and have a clearer sense of your caloric intake. 4. Substitute a non-ice cream treat - some fruit or a bowl of Cereal with skim milk and sweetener. Either of those are attractive examples because they'll keep you full longer because they have a lower glycemic index. Well, certainly the cereal will.

A Mars bar is indeed like a Milky Way, K-Pod - like US TV, many of the best available chocolate bars are knock-offs of British originals, only not as well done. The actual cocoa content of US chocolate is so low that most of the bars couldn't legally be called "chocolate" in Europe; the ingredients are better quality, which is why people here will pay $2 for a UK chocolate bar the American equivalent of which costs 75 cents. But even UK chocolate is becoming poorer quality, I think.

I've never actually frozen a Mars bar. The other half is cooling in the fridge - I'll have it late tonight. I try to eat dinner early, 6-ish or so. I like that I have another 7 hours to burn up the calories - I usually go out after dinner, walk for 45 minutes or so.

Also, you should bear in mind that for the first six weeks or so post-surgery, you should try not to lift more than 15 lbs. The surgical site heals pretty quickly, but you don't want to stretch it and develop a wound hernia there.

Well, I have now had and enjoyed my half-Mars bar! And I have no regrets! Pat, I'm not sure that there IS a specific time frame for everything. The Zone Diet and Atkins usually recommend something just before bed - I think that because our livers, since they're in a chronic fasting state, have less starch stored, so it might be harder for the body to regulate the blood sugar without that late night snack, but I'm just speculating wildly. I think the issue is how YOU do with or without something before bed. Someone here - was it Amanda? Chica? Someone here browbeat me into having Breakfast every day, so now I have breakfast every day. And that works for me. My surgeon, who is banded, doesn't have anything but coffee for breakfast. YMMV! Personally, I have just primed my system with the chocolatey goodness of a half of a Mars Bar...

Hey, Tonty, welcome aboard! Congrats on a GREAT decision! Feel free to ask anything that comes to mind - we've all been through it, and we'll all do our best to help you!

I have been pretty good today in terms of total cals consumed (1400) and burned (3500 or so, according to my bodybugg). I am seriously craving a Mars Bar (one of the great things in NYC is that you can get anything you want whenever you want. A few blocks from my house there's a deli that sells chocolate imported from England, so, if I feel like a Mars Bar at 4AM, I just have to grab my umbrella and head out the door.) But that'd be about 220 cals, and I don't want to do that. So I'm making a promise here: I'm going to pick up my Mars Bar, and I'm going to have half of it tonight, and the other half tomorrow. And you must interrogate me tomorrow as to whether or not I stuck to that plan!

Now THAT is one motivated bandster!

Well, I think mostly it was because my companion forced me to go out to dinner with her; with other friends, or by myself, I'd have eaten a little differently and been a bit happier. I did my exercise, and my weigh-in this morning was fine. But, I know what you mean. I'm losing somewhere between 5 and 6 pounds a week (don't hate me - it's because I started at such a high weight, and take a lot of exercise!), and these excursions are a part of that weight loss. I'll have to radically alter them when crunch time comes, down the road a month or two...

BB, it's not so bad. You just have to commit to liquids only, and get on with it. It helps to know WHY you're on a liquid diet. Two reasons, basically: 1. When you eat solid food, your stomach gets stretched. If you're a hefty fellow, chances are you've been eating solid food for some years now, and your stomach is big and dilated. A few days on liquid diet will mean your stomach has time to get used to holding smaller volumes; it'll probably get a bit smaller before the surgery, making things a bit easier. 2. More importantly, the body stores a lot of fat in the liver, making the liver swell up in size. Since the liver sits on top of the stomach, the bigger the liver is, the harder it is to do the surgery: you want to make things as easy as possible for the surgeon, because that means less work for him, and less discomfort afterwards for you. Worse, a fatty, swollen liver is also more fragile and can be damaged during surgery. Finally, one of the fastest periods of weight loss is while we're on the liquid diet - you'll jumpstart your weight loss, and get a sense of how it feels to lose weight quickly. So, I guess, three reasons. Suddenly switching to liquids is a bit of a shock to the system - you may have hunger pangs, but if you do, just tell yourself that that feeling means your body is burning off fat. Good luck with your diet - come back and post often! You're among friends here.

A-Dub: I thought that in Australia "you drink to excess!" was the highest possible compliment? COuld I be mistaken? Re: your Bush-style posting - I see it less Bush-style Shock & Awe, and more like going quail hunting with Dick Cheney, where we end up peppered with "friendly fire". I'm glad you're reading hte book, though. Encourage friends and neighbours to pick up their own delightful copies! Angelic, the Peanut Butter is called "PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter" - a google search will find it for you instantly. It may not be locally available, in which case youll have to pick up a case of four. I think after my case is finished, I'm going to try the reduced fat PB at Trader Joe's - not QUITE as few calories, but I'm thinking it might be closer to the flavour I want...

A-Dub! Where have YOU been? You're usually so garrulous - I assume because you drink to excess - that when you're silent, I notice IMMEDIATELY! In other news, I managed to buy a Wii! Next up: Wii Fit...

And Lynn, BNLisa's right: we're all waiting with baited breath for your triumphal entry into Onederland. You must post immediately upon your arrival!