Lola Granola

Oh..... Good luck in surgery, by the way!! I bet you are all finished by the time you get around to reading this!! Please let us all know how things went!!

Slim Time is sold by Minogue Medical and is supplied to them by a company called "Bartiatrix". It is supposed to be formulated specifically for those who are on what is called a "very low calorie" diet for weight loss before bariatric surgery. I got the idea to compare the nutrition information for Slim Time with Ensure because it is also often "prescribed" by doctors (although for different reasons). At any rate, I was surprised to see just how close the nutrition information really was. Three shakes per day works out to be something on the order of 700 calories. I am supposed to eat steamed veggies with a low glycemic index to fill in the remaining 200 calories that I am supposed to be getting during the 2 week pre-op diet. No butter or sauces..... yuck!! hahaha.... I have asked the clinic about Ensure and am waiting for them to get back to me. I will soon see what they have to say, I suppose. I suspect that Slim Time will be preferred (I think it is thicker), but that Ensure will be an acceptable substitution. md finch.... I would be so happy if I lost a little on the pre-op diet!! I am glad to hear that you did so well.

Volume for volume, the Ensure had 5 fewer calories, 2 fewer grams of protein, 2 fewer grams of carbohydrate and the same amount of fat. The vitamins and other nutrients were almost identical, as well.

My doctor has told me to buy something called "Slim Time" for my 2 week liquid diet. The stuff costs $189 for a 2 week supply. I found the nutrition information for the stuff on the manufacturer website and compared it to the nutrition information for Ensure "high protein" and found that there does not appear to be a hill-of-Beans difference between the two products. However, the Ensure only costs about $90 for a 3 week supply. Anyone drink Ensure during the liquid diet phase??

That sounds terrible!! Does this happen often???

Okay.... what is sliming? I have read several posts with this term in them. We need a glossary of lap band terms at the front end of this forum, I think!!!

I don't have a band yet, but I still tend to agree with Mis73's comments. I have been most successful on low carb diets in the past (although still not successful enough,... that is obviously why I am here). However, I decided to give low carb one last go before deciding to have the lap band surgery. This is something that I have noticed that I had never "really" had any "data" to support in the past..... until now. I kept a VERY elaborate spreadsheet of everything that I ate (weighed and measured everything.... NO cheating). First, I found it was difficult to eat enough calories. I was eating a lot less than I would have expected. I averaged about 1000 calories per day for a little over 4 months. I lost 5 pounds. I gave up on my diet (who the heck wouldn't, right?) and began to notice that rather rapidly dropped about 8 pounds..... doing nothing but eating a few more calories. I didn't go "hog" wild or anything and I continued to monitor what I was eating because I didn't want to start eating sweets again. I noticed that I rather modest increase of about 200 calories per day (I basically let myself have some bread) was what did it! Weird, huh? At any rate, the calories do continue to gradually increase..... I would estimate (totally scrapped the spreadsheet after 8 months) that I am right back to eating something in the neighborhood of 2000 to 2500 calories per day. Still not eating sweets, however!! I have not put the 13 pounds back on, but I am sure that it would eventually find it's way back to me.... That experiment was about all I needed to cause me to decide to have the surgery. I researched the band, decided to give a diet one last go, totally crappy results..... and LOTS of hard work..... and then I scheduled myself a date for surgery. Moral of my story..... I think that there is definately a calories in calories out component to all of this, but I do think that we can slow our metalbalism down by not eating enough. That is what my data would suggest.... at least in my case.

Honk... nice name, by the way.... I have sort of figured out the part about it being a will power diet in the begining for a lot of folks. It seems that there are others out there who report having restriction right off the bat. My doctor explained to me that it will be different for everyone, but he did mention pretty much exactly what you just said about measuring food and being prepaired to have to have some fills before you really start to notice that a lot has changed. I guess that is why it is going to be so important to keep up with the fills and to look for the signs that you need one. Right?

Wow! I had not expected so many people to have so much to say! I think that I have had almost every thought and feeling that I have read in this post at least once or twice. I teeter back and forth with telling everyone and telling no one.... then telling 2 or 3 people, etc. I sort of like the "need to know" basis idea for now. I think I have similar fears about failure. I look at all these posts on this forum and it seems like every single person on here (save for newbies like many of us) has managed to lose something in the neighborhood of 100 pounds (give or take a little). I want it to work, but I keep thinking.... what if it doesn't? I sometimes feel like that is just how my luck rolls..... I actually think that I will have and okay time because I do have a relatively sound diet (not that much junk at all really) and I actually used to be an aerobics instructor!!! No crap-o-la.... I just never seemed to lose any weight. That may be what worries me the most. I have put in some MASSIVE efforts over the years and have not been able to lose more than about 30 to 40 pounds. Obviously it all comes back, too!! Again, I think it all goes back to the idea that you can have to much of a good thing. Just choosing fruit and salad and lean protein is useless if you hork back 2500 calories worth of the stuff over the coarse of a day. I absolutely think failure is my biggest concern......

I have been fat all of my adult life. I had my oldest daughter when I was 18 and managed to gain 100 pounds while I was pregnant. I figured she should've weighed about 90 more pounds than she did when she was born!! At any rate, no one in my current life (apart from my 2 brothers) has ever seen me without all of the fat. I was 130 before I had my daughter and am 225 now. My goal is to get back to that weight if at all possible. I have heard some folks say that people have been worried about them, think they might be ill, etc. I just wonder how to confront situations like that (or others) without disclosing. I have arthritus in my back pretty bad, so I won't be able to play the "I went to the gym" card, but I do plan to walk and ride my bike. I guess I could just chalk it up to that.... and eating less. I actually don't have a terrible diet. I just eat to much of whatever it is that I am eating.

I have only told a few people about my choice to have surgery (May 25th). I don't really want people to know because I think that they will judge me. In fact, one of the people that I did tell told me that they didn't think that I needed it. I know she means well. She is a large gal, as well. I know she knows what it is like, but she is a good deal bigger than me. I considered the idea that I just don't look big to her because she is bigger than me. Does that make sense? Don't get me wrong, she wasn't cruel to me or anything. She just felt that I was doing something radical. The other 2 people I have told are very supportive and totally understand. I do wonder what I will tell people once I start losing weight, however. I have contemplated making up something a little more "natural" sounding as an excuse for my sudden weight loss. What are you folks doing? Who have you told? What did they think about it? Please share!

I like to read things like that.... I have heard a lot of people say they enjoy their food more. I am just worried that the thing(s) that I may find that I cannot tolerate will be among my favorite things and it sort of makes me feel uncomfortable. I have noticed that there are plenty of folks that seem to have very few items that they cannot eat, but there are also a fair number who have lots of things that they can't eat. Just makes me wonder what side of that fence I will land on..... I suppose I will find out before long, hey?

I just joined the site yesterday. I am going to have my surgery on May 25th. I am scared to death about not being able to eat things!!! I am scared to death about what it will feel like. I am scared to death that the whole thing will give me a huge panic attack. At any rate, enough about me.... I just posted this in some other topic in response to this gals problem with missing the way she used to eat. I know I don't know anything about any of it.... yet.... but I sort of thought this might help someone (myself included) think about what we are getting ready to do or what we may have already done. Here goes.... Me and food have a pretty dysfunctional relatinship in general, but I too wonder what it will be like to have certain items that I just can't eat.... EVER. I am getting my band in May. I have been over and over the choice for over a year now and keep coming back to the band option. I watched this youtube video by some Australian doctor called "the 8 golden rules" and thought to myself, "Self... you can do all of that.... without a $16,000 dollar leash for your out of control appatite. With that.... I decided to grab some baby forks and spoons and eat on a tiny plate following a modified version of the Atkins diet (75g of carbs per day). Here I am, about a year later, still eating on the tiny plate with the tiny spoon, but I have not been able to keep up the full low carb routine on my own and....drum roll..... there is nothing stopping me from filling that little saucer over and over and over and over!!! I have managed to lose about 10 pounds in the last year, but that is all. I think the idea with the band is supposed to be that "we" have a maladaptive way of eating and "we" need something to help us out. I have been trying to think of it like a governor on a vehicle. The governor keeps the vehicle from exceeding a certain speed.... no matter what. The band is supposed to keep us from overeating.... no matter what (more or less). You still get to drive your vehicle, you just can't go fast. You can still eat food, you just can't be a total hog about it. The governor keeps us from getting a moving violation and the band keeps us from developing obesity related illnesses. I just keep reminding myself of this......

Me and food have a pretty dysfunctional relatinship in general, but I too wonder what it will be like to have certain items that I just can't eat.... EVER. I am getting my band in May. I have been over and over the choice for over a year now and keep coming back to the band option. I watched this youtube video by some Australian doctor called "the 8 golden rules" and thought to myself, "Self... you can do all of that.... without a $16,000 dollar leash for your out of control appatite. With that.... I decided to grab some baby forks and spoons and eat on a tiny plate following a modified version of the Atkins diet (75g of carbs per day). Here I am, about a year later, still eating on the tiny plate with the tiny spoon, but I have not been able to keep up the full low carb routine on my own and....drum roll..... there is nothing stopping me from filling that little saucer over and over and over and over!!! I have managed to lose about 10 pounds in the last year, but that is all. I think the idea with the band is supposed to be that "we" have a maladaptive way of eating and "we" need something to help us out. I have been trying to think of it like a governor on a vehicle. The governor keeps the vehicle from exceeding a certain speed.... no matter what. The band is supposed to keep us from overeating.... no matter what (more or less). You still get to drive your vehicle, you just can't go fast. You can still eat food, you just can't be a total hog about it. The governor keeps us from getting a moving violation and the band keeps us from developing obesity related illnesses. Maybe you just need a montra to tell yourself when you are having these feelings?? It couldn't hurt to try.

I just decided to get the surgery, as well. I am really nervous about what it will be like to swallow things. I have a little bit of an anxiety thing . It looks like my surgery day is going to be on May 25th. Anyone know why my ticker doesn't show up??