Fenton

As you've learned by now, Texas, this thing is, if not a piece of cake, a piece of meatloaf. I hope you'll be back and posting once you're on the other side!

I've ALWAYS had a harem! That's how I roll! Although it would be nice to have another guy in here. Y'know, someone who I can talk about, like, guy things with... guy things... like how great it is to have one's belly hair grow back... NOTE: If any of you ladies feel the urge to talk about how great it is to have one's belly hair grow back, STIFLE THAT URGE!!!

The Learning Channel - or is it the Discovery Channel? - is broadcasting a series called I CAN MAKE YOU THIN! It is a 4 part series where the British answer to Tony Robbins - a motivational speaker/hypnotherapist named Paul McKenna - takes a studio audience through a kind of "retraining" of their eating habits over a 4 week period. He claims a 72% success rate (although he doesn't really define "success"). Now it all sounds like hogwash, but I watched the first episode, and I have to say he is EXACTLY right, and what he says is EXACTLY what we bandsters should be doing. Unfortunately, the show is put together like an infommercial, with a lot of shots of audience members nodding firmly in agreement and going "Woohoo!", but I do think he's got it 100% right. Here are McKenna's Four Golden Rules - his entire diet plan: 1. When you're hungry eat 2. Eat what you want 3. Eat consciously 4. When you're full, stop The first thing he does is have people go into their refrigerators and pantries and throw out anything they don't look forward to eating. Diet frozen dinners? You don't like 'em, throw 'em out! And he has them keep what they like, from chocolate cake to hamburgers or whatever. Then, when they get hungry, he insists that they eat. But they can't just grab their chocolate cake or their hamburger and sit down in front of the TV set: eating has to be conscious, with no disturbance. He has them sit at a table, nothing in front of them but the food - any food, french fries, whatever. He has them take a bite, but then they must 1. Put down the knife and fork 2. Chew that mouthful for a minimum of 20 times 3. As they chew, focus on the flavor of that food, really concentrate on tasting it, on the texture of the food in their mouths, on its saltiness or sweetness 4. When they've swallowed and appreciated that mouthful, they may pick up knife and fork, and have another bite, and continue as above. After a while, they pause, and he asks them if they're full. If they're not sure, he has them take another bite, focusing fully on the food as they chew. When they've swallowed, he asks them again - fairly quickly, they begin to feel full. And when they feel full, he has them stop eating. And using this technique, he claims, he's gotten many people to lose huge amounts of weight. And you know what? I believe him. He started the show with an observation: that overweight people may love food, may obsess about it, and dream about it, but when it actually comes to EATING it, they almost become unconscious, ploughing through their plates, mindlessly shoveling in the food, not truly savoring it. I recognize myself in that. I have kind of dual eating modes - sometimes, particularly when I'm in a good restaurant, I concentrate on the pleasure of the dish. How it looks, what it smells like, what's inside it, how it tastes, if it relates to other dishes I've enjoyed, if I can figure out what inspired the chef to make this dish, if it's an ethnic food, what other foods or culture or history played into the existence of the dish. But when I'm eating mindlessly, I sit in front of the TV, open the Cherry Garcia, and then it disappears; sometimes, about 1/2 way through, I may pause and say, "I should probably save the rest. It wouldn't be so gluttonous, plus I'll have some tomorrow morning." But that's usually a temporary pause, and the Cherry Garcia carton is quickly finished. And it's the opposite of conscious eating - it's ABSENT eating. So I'm going to give Paul McKenna a chance. I'm going to watch the next three episodes - in which, I suspect, he'll introduce techniques to break the established patterns of eating behavior - and I'm going to try to do it his way. I'm trying to be more focused, but I know I can do it better. I know I HAVE to do it better. It's the best way to make small amounts of food hugely satisfying.

I am (he thundered pompously) something of a "foodie". I love food, particularly good food, and I detest bad food. I'm loathing the Slimfast shakes - people say they're good to have around in case you run out of things to eat, but, crimminy! I don't want to drink them any more. I'm actually looking forward to figuring out how to eat well under this particular set of limitations. One of my heroes, the musician Brian Eno, is of the opinion that great art is often the result of a response to specific limitations. So I'm looking forward to figuring out how I'm going to eat with my band. I think the first order of the day is CONCENTRATION - at several levels. I'm going to concentrate first of all on the texture of a food - is it something that I can eat, or is it something that will get stuck? Then on the flavor, then on the calorie content, and then on the Protein content. I'm not afraid of high fat or high calorie food: I think there's a place for everything you love in your diet, just as long as it's part of a balanced plan. So, gorgonzola dolce. I love cheese, and I'll continue to have cheese, just less of it. Gorgonzola dolce is a young gorgonzola, an Italian blue cheese. When the cheese is mature, it's white and blue and crumbly and fairly pungent - one of the cheeses that some people like to think of as "stinky" (although, in the world of smelly cheeses, gorgonzola is a ROSE, I tell you!). I love a piece of blue cheese - a Stilton or a Roquefort, for instance, with fresh pear and toasted walnuts; since I was on mashies, I picked up some pear sauce from Trader Joe's. I absolutely LOVE this stuff! It's a little too sweet, but it has a beautiful texture, liquid with just a bit of pulpiness, and a slightly caramelized flavor. And when I tasted it, I thought, this would go well with gorgonzola dolce (which has a fairly mild flavor, for a blue). And indeed, it's a lovely combination. I think that, after a month of liquids, I appreciate the flavors more. And I'll discover more of these flavor combinations as I try foods I don't normally eat. And I'm hoping that's the pattern for the rest of this process - if I'm eating less, I want to enjoy it more. And I really do believe I shall. So, I'm excited about this! I'm curious to learn how I'm going to eat when I go to restaurants, to try all the great things I've ignored in my rush to the steak or the lobster. More fish, for a start - and that won't be a hardship. So yay! Here's to great food, and less of it!

k-pod, superfast bandster, don't worry! That gurgling you hear is your stomach working, and gas moving from one area to the next. I found that sometimes when I was walking I'd have this fantastic feeling of froth moving inside me, like a rush of champagne bubbles, followed by a wave of relief. I don't know if you're so looped out on pain meds that you can't walk, but walking is really great for you. I think it gets everything moving inside, and it keeps up the blood flow through your legs, which is really important, and it helps ease the gas pains, plus it's what our bodies want to do - the more active you are, the more you accept that you can be active. I think the thing is that - partly because of our size, partly because of all the hoop jumping we have to do - getting the band installed seems like Major Surgery. And of course, from our perspective it is! But really, to surgeons, a lap banding is a nothingburger - most of us (Rhonda, I'm thinking of you!) are all fixed up in less than an hour; a neurosurgical procedure, by contrast can run twelve hours! We come out with tiny little incisions which we (Fenton, I'm thinking of you!) obsess over, whereas the woman across the way from me in recovery had a patchwork of stapled incisions, as well as drains filled with blood dangling off her as if she were a peach tree. What we get is a simple surgery, a short surgery, with very very little in the way of surgical complications - I believe it is genuinely extremely hard to damage the band or to damage the port by rolling over or getting up, yet it's something we all worry about. I think we can relax a bit. From all of my reading, the important things in the post op period are: 1. Keep moving your legs so you don't develop a clot 2. Keep breathing deep so you don't develop pneumonia - use that spirometer! 3. Keep sipping Water so we don't become dehydrated 4. Get moving as soon as possible - it helps with the gas pain and the not-getting-leg-clots and the breathing and the sanity 5. Don't overdo our intake - we don't want to rush things, cause retching or vomiting, and jog our band into the wrong place during the healing process; and we want to learn how we can feel full with less food/liquid 6. Concentrate on keeping your Protein and Fluid intake up 7. Follow the guidelines our docs set for us. One thing I've realized is that different TYPES of band have different guidelines for when you can advance from one stage to the next, and, even within the same type of band, different doctors will have different guidelines reflecting their different experiences with the bands. I think the surgery itself demands relatively little from us. It's not hard for us to get our bands to heal properly, all it takes is a little patience. And then, once the bands have healed, we can really concentrate on the weight loss part of this journey.

POD 12 I finally got bored of my steristrips and took them off. The skin underneath was smoothly scarred and pink. The strip covering the right side of my port scar came off after one week to expose a slightly raised, red and crusty wound. The scar underneath the covered side, by contrast, is smooth and even and red. I'm not sure if the raised crusted end of the scar is that way because the strip came off early, or if the strip came off early because the scar was raised and crusted. Anyway, the scars look great, and will be pretty hard to see when they heal properly, and my hair grows back. Which reminds me: am I the only dude posting here? Am I, like, completely surrounded by chicks? Otherwise, I'm pretty fine. I'm not even gassy in the mornings any more. I've transitioned pretty abruptly into soft foods, and it's both good and bad. As the swelling has gone down, I've had diminishing restriction, and hunger is gradually returning - I'm beginning to see why at NYU Dr. Fielding starts with two weeks post-op liquids, then two weeks soft foods and then does a fill at the start of the 5th week before the patient goes on to solid food. I think yesterday I passed the 1000 calorie mark for the first time in about a month. My menus have settled down to a pretty similar sameness - unsurprising, since I'm getting most of my stuff from Trader Joe's. I'm not having Breakfast. Here are my menus for yesterday and today (the latter part of which, obvs, is projected): Yesterday: Lunch: Creamy polenta with broth, bacon, minced mushrooms and a poached egg - 350 cals 15 g Protein? An apple-melon Isopure - 200 cals 40 g protein Half a peach yogurt smoothy 100 cals 5 g protein Yogurt 120 cals 10 g protein Clam chowder 160 cals 10 g protein Pork carnitas meat 170 cals 18 g protein Gorgonzola dolce with pear sauce 250 cals 10 g protein The hard part is the pear sauce - it's insanely good. Today: Two eggs scrambled, some pork carnitas, spicy black bean puree (fat free!), corn and black bean salsa - 360 cals, 33 protein Yogurt with pear sauce - 200 cals, 10 g protein iSopure - 200 cals 40 g protein Dinner: Blue crab and corn chowder 200 cals 10 g protein Half peach yogurt smoothy 100 cals 5 g protein I'm going to try to keep to 1500 cals a day, see how I do with that. And, for some reason, I want to see how long I can go without getting a fill. If the hunger becomes bad, though, I'll go and get that band inflated...

Rhonda, if you feel OK, I doubt it did you any harm physically. But as I understand it, we're trying to get used to smaller volumes of food, trying to relearn how to feel full. Perhaps next time you make that you should work through half of it slowly, then put the second 10 oz aside and drink them later.

Congratulations, all you 3/19-ers! We'll see you here soon. Juli, thanks so much for dropping in and saying Hi - what fantastic weight loss you've had! It's really inspiring for us to have someone show us just what we can accomplish with a band and a bit of effort.

Yeah, you're going to slow down to more like every other day or every third day. The process is easier if you are using something like Benefiber; bear in mind, though, that Benefiber works by drawing Water into your intestine. If you go with one of those products, be sure to try to increase your water intake. And with constipation in general, movement and fluids are the key answer. I don't know how you've been doing with exercise and water, but more of both will get you going again.

Woohoo! You newbie bandsters: get walking! You'll see how much better it makes you feel... Congrats!

Wow! It's a shamrock EXPLOSION out there! Yay you upcoming bandsters! And welcome back Rhonda and Harley! You guys are much more switched on than I was on the Op Day - I think I missed a couple of days before posting, feeling a bit groggy and non-contributory. How fantastic that, in the immortal words of the late, great Mr. James Brown, you hit it and quit! Good to have you back among us...

Harley - don't let idiots harsh your mellow! There'll always be morons to doubt you or second guess you or make you insecure. Just don't let it get to you - you're there for yourself, buying something you need to make your life work better. For me, the biggest satisfaction would come from continuing to go to that GNC, letting the clerk see your continued weight loss; sooner or later, they'll "get it". You run away now, uh, "they have won". Oh, you're probably already banded, in the recovery room, even as I type this! YAY! Congratulations!

At 473lbs starting weight, with a target weight of about 200 lbs, I got wrapped into the band process in late February. With the preop liquid diet, and banding on 3/6, I've now lost 38 pounds; things are going in the right direction. But what to do about exercise? I know I have to start slowly, so I'm starting by walking the mile to and from work every day, but at my size, I'm too big for almost all gym equipment, most of which has a 350 lb upper weight limit for use. I'm wondering what the 200 lb+ goal bandsters and future bandsters are doing for exercise. Anyone have any tips?

Rick - I'm glad to hear your wife is there for you, even with what she's going through. SHe clearly understands that what'll be great for you will be great for her too. And don't worry: I've been doing plenty of TV watching, too!

Have fun tomorrow, uh, Paige! I'm so used to calling you Harley that I'm not sure that I can switch...

Grr! I just lost a long post, and now feel compelled to reconstruct it! I moved towards mashed foods today, encouraged by my doctor. I'm still going to try to stay with liquids, but damn I hate these Slimfast Optima shakes! I'm also realizing that I'm not a morning eater - I don't have anything even remotely resembling an appetite much before noon. Which is sad, because Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day. As I stay, I started mashed foods today, but I thnk I went more solid than I'd been intending... 1. Half tom yam goong Soup - including two shrimp! - 90 cal 5 g Protein? 2. Half Slimfast Optima French vanilla - 90 cal, 5 g 3. Some pomegranate-raspberry juice - 50 cal 0 g protein 4. Trader Joe's corn and crab chowder - 200 cal 10 g protein Then I was worried about my poor protein intake, and went pretty solid: 5. Half cup Trader Joe's Carnitas with some southwestern salsa - 200 cal 20 g protein And to finish: 6. Half cup of pear sauce with some gorgonzola dolce - 200 cals 4 g protein Disappointed that GNC was closed when I went by to pick up some iSopure; I won't make that mistake again.

Well, we're having quite a flurry of bandings, aren't we now? Tomorrow I'll be beaming soothing vibes of hippy peace to El Paso and wherever the heck Harley's getting her band, and generally radiating positivity all over this great land to Shamrocks banded and yet to embrace the holy mantle...

Yay Christine! Glad to hear that you got the thumbs up. I figured that since weight loss would be so good for whatever other health issues an overweight person faces, they'd be keen for you to go ahead with it - I think I told you that the cardiologist at NYU congratulated me on the decision to get banded. Tamra! Welcome back! The gas pain gets easier - it's pretty much nonexistent for me, except after eating, and that's only occasional. It responds pretty well to moving around and burping - sometimes changing position helps you get the gas better lined up or something so you can more easily expel it. As far as vomiting goes, obviously it's not something you WANT to be doing, but I doubt your episode did any harm. Besides, it resulted in a rush of gas out, which is always a good thing. If you're getting those pains, and the retching feeling, perhaps you could try eating a little more slowly? That might help. Plus it's good practice for What Lies Ahead...

Yay! It's a good day for the Shamrocks! And, as you say: get in early, get out early...

POD 11 Well, I'm back from my check-up - everything's fine. I lost 11 lbs in the last week, a little to my surprise, much to my satisfaction. We talked about foods, and the doc suggested I try starting pureed foods. On the one hand, Oh yeah!!!! On the other: I've done so well on liquids that I'm a bit worried about going back to, y'know, *food*. I think I'm going to slowly transition - I've already been having yogurt, so I guess I'm already transitioning. In the next week I'm going to enjoy two dishes I've been almost DREAMING about recently: 1. A raviolo with butternut squash and apple, with brown butter 2. Creamy polenta with poached eggs and mushrooms They're appetizers at two restaurants I like; I probably won't eat them all, but I'm so happy that I actually CAN have them. Even as I transition, I thnk I'm going to drink at least one Isopure a day. I think I do have some restriction due to the swelling and healing, but that's easing - and I kind of don't want it to! I want to try and ride this as long as I can without restriction, and build up restriction as I start to have problems with hunger. Anyway, my tom yam goong awaits. Which reminds me... Whimsy? Where did you go?

Rhonda and Special K - we'll seen you soon, when you're well and truly bandsters! I hope your ride is nice and smooth.

Hey, Rick - good to hear things are progressing towards your winning that band! I'm pretty good. I have my follow-up today, so I'll be weighed. I'm not expecting to have lost a lot, though - while my intake since banding has been of the order of 1000 calories a day, I've been more sedentary than I should have been. I've gone out every day, but I've been a bit of a wuss, haven't felt like dealing with bundling up to go into the cold, or walking long distances once I'm out there. There's no pain; I can even bend pretty comfortably - although I do it gingerly, with visions in my head of sutures tearing out or some damn thing! So far, the only one of my wounds I can see is my port incision, which looks clean and pink and flaky - the others are all still hidden with steristrips, which I suspect will be rudely yanked off today by the doc. I'm still not 100% used to the Alien in my belly, but getting there. I'm not as low grade queasy as I used to be. The only thing is that I wake up each morning feeling pretty inflated, and have to let off a salvo before I get up.... :mad2: And that's me. I'm glad I took the time off - I've taken almost two weeks. It's a slightly luxurious convalescence, but I've found I spent it... convalescing. I'd hoped to get some things done around the house, catch up on some stuff that I'd been meaning to do, but I found myself a bit bushed, and grateful for an opportunity to just relax. I did, however, make it to the movies last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which was great. Back to work Wednesday - my face lighs up with naked joy! Uh :cool: And there you have it: my first and last post with emoticons... Good luck with the hoop-jumping, Rick - it's really worth it, as I'm sure you know.

Have we had any word from NadiaN? I hope she's doing better. Christine: I'm sure the cardio people will polish you up pronto. It sounds like you needed to have a serious talk with the cardiologist to get a clear sense of what's going on, although he or she may need to do a couple more tests to give you clearer answers. No matter what the diagnosis, weight loss is sure to help. I've never tried unjury - what's the big deal about it. I get my main Protein Drink fixes - iSopure and the ProSlam concentrated Protein shots - from GNC. I like the iSopure - it doesn't taste too protein-y. The ProSlams are so concentrated that they can be a bit hard to get down. Also, about 15 minutes after I pound down a ProSlam, I get a weird prickly feeling in my face. And how great that tomorrow we'll have two new bandsters!

Great weight loss, Harley! It'll be good to have you in the post-band camp...!!! A massage sounds like a GREAT idea, too.

Yay Special K! If you run around a lot buying stuff and washing stuff and tidying in preparation, by the time your head hits the pillow, you'll pass right out. I had no problems sleeping the night before my banding. I brought pyjamas and a robe, but never used them. Bariatric facilities have extra large gowns that will fit you fine. I had one on the normal way, another on backwards, so at no point were my privates infringed.... In fact, I regret bringing just about everything except my mobile phone and a laptop loaded with videos; of course, if you're not staying over night, the laptop is unnecessary.