Daisalana

I figured it out! I took the dilemma to DH and he said we can wrap them and give it to his parents. DUH! Why didn't I think of that? Sometimes it's nice to have a DH hehehehe.

Hah! If you won't enable me, I won't enable you Seriously though, I keep looking at them. If I break the seal, I have to eat them all. I have to do something with them.

Banded April 16th. I lost weight.. then restriction wore off, I was hungry, and I had bad moments (I was working on my wedding), and I still lost an average of 2lbs a month. I never got a fill till Sept. when they fixed my port. My weight loss wasn't constant.. For example, in June I lost 0lbs. I didn't gain a single pound (WOW!) but I didn't lose a single pound. Then in July, I was on my honeymoon, wedding, eating lots of left-over wedding cake and restaurants in Vegas.. and I still lost 8lbs that month. Then 16lbs in August. So for the 3 months, I averaged 2lbs a week.

Ohh Violets, what do I do!!! I had asked the boss for 2 extra boxes of White Tiger Paws to send to my friends out in NM. Each box is 2lbs of these white chocolate turtles. They told me last week we ran out of them, so I decided to order one of them a wine basket. I already sent that.. well, they brought me 2 boxes today saying they moved things around so I can have 2 boxes. I sent one box to the person who I didn't decide what to get yet, but now I have an extra box of 2lbs of white chocolate turtles.. NUM NUM NUM. I have them on my desk and I occasionally lift up the box, I can't believe how heavy it is. What do I do with it?! All my family got one already, only other person I'd send it to is my best friend that moved to the Carolinas, and she's on a permanent diet, so that would be cruel of me. Help!

We have raspberry ice flavor & fruit punch flavor of crystal light in our stores. Unfortunately, the only CL flavor I actually like is pink lemonade (aquired taste, growing up that was our lemonade, I never knew it was a 'diet' drink). But if you like the others, maybe you'd like the raspberry & fruit punch.

I bought my husband a star for his birthday about 5 years ago. I have seen the own a piece of mars, etc. too...they're cute gifts. I named the star Sahara (hotel we met at in Vegas). And I got it in the Leo constellation since that is his birth sign thing.

Husker has an excellent point!

I eat b'fast maybe 2 times a week. It consists of a yoplait key lime whips yogurt (num num).. or about 8 grapes mixed in 1/2 tbsp of cream cheese & a dash of brown sugar. The rest of the time it's either coffee or a Slimfast Optima royal fudge if I remember to grab one out of the fridge. Normally don't eat lunch, but if I do, I get a soup or pick at DH's appetizers at a restaurant (Chili's, O' Charleys, TGIF's etc.). Too tight and still not majorly hungry yet, so very little. For dinner, I make something for me & DH and I work around what I can eat. For example I made pot roast last week.. couldn't eat the meat, but I made mashed potatos with it.. so I put a small scoop of potatos in a bowl and ladeled the pot roast juice on top. Made it very soupy and it filled me up. Or if I cook something with chicken, I eat mushy veggies with a sauce from the chicken. Sometimes I heat up 1/2 can of a campbell's soup for me if DH is going to order pizza. Sometimes I'll pick some veggies off of the pizza (pizza mushrooms are the best some reason). I have a hard time with solids for the most part right now, and I know there's something to eating solid foods because they keep you full longer.. but I've found with the restriction I'm at, liquids fill me up just as much as solids did before I had this restriction. So it works for me!

I keep bouillion cubes for cooking, so I planned to use those for the liquid diet. When it came down to it, I was really bored with broth. I did add the seasoning packets to it that you get from Papa John's. DH ordered pizza lot, so he would ask them for packets of seasoning. It's spicy and added a lot of flavor. But then I got lazy and the best liquid IMO was the liquid out of campbell's soups. My favorite was any of the chicken noodle. I'd drain the liquid out, heat up the liquid and enjoy.

Restriction is undeniable. I thought the band wasn't working for me for the 5 months when fills weren't going in. When they fixed my port and filled me up, there it was!! I didn't believe I'd feel like that. Then it seemed too much, got a little taken out and I was back to not believing I had band in me! I went and got it put back in, and now it's soup & protein drinks for me. If I even look at meat I choke up hah! Hang in there guys

Bandster I know you're in a funk and needed to vent, but I honestly think it will get better, you just need to regroup and refocus. So much is going on, it is probably hard for you to maintain a diet without restriction.. You need that fill!! Anyway you can call and demand they get you in sooner because the band isn't working for you? I don't know how other places work, my doc will get me in whenever I need (although that means I have to drive 6 hours). If it wasn't pre-paid, I'd say find a new doctor stat, but since I too was self-pay I understand the importance of going to where the fills are free!! ((HUGS)) Hang in there!!!!

Oh! When I got home last night I had some more Xmas cards! Kat & Jen had the exact same cards!!! What are the odds??? Opposite sides of the country, all the cards that are out there.. I guess great minds really do think alike!!

Kat- Hah!! I looked at 2 models, one is like a chair hanging from the ceiling, the other is just.. kind of like cushioned ropes that you get into. I picked the ropes for whatever reason, looks like more positions available. You crack me up though, I'm going to have to go get some bright red hooker heels for that outfit!! And thank you for info on hanging it up. I finally found a website that explains it, I am going to have DH find the joists and install it.. and I'll see how sturdy it feels. A whole life of being overweight, I've gotten a knack for deciding if something is going to hold my weight or not! If it seems like it's not strong enough, we do have an attic on one side of the house that we could add reinforcements too. Whew, all this for sex?!

There's one contradiction I wanted to point out, in case you don't take meds out of fear or something. If you need a fill, you can get medicine down. So if you have migraines, take your meds!! I am really really tight and can barely eat right now, but I can still take my B/C, Prilosec, and sometimes sleeping pills. The sleeping pills give me discomfort for a minute while it goes down, but if it was that or migraines, I'd definitely take the meds. But I 100% DO NOT need a fill, so if you think you need a fill, I don't understand why you don't take your meds??? I watch those Judge shows every day, and I can tell ya co-signing for a loan is a doozy. It's done though, and it seems like the best thing to do is have him either re-finance on his own, or have him sell it and get your name out of there. Financial stress seems to be one of the biggest fights for couples. Do you think after the New Years and holidays are settled down things will get better? You said yourself why you weigh more than pre-op.. cheeseballs, candy, crap food, etc. I can't resist those things, I will eat them when I visit my parents because I have NO will power to them. The band keeps me in check with normal foods, but junk food.. forget it. My solution is that I DO NOT HAVE THEM IN THE HOUSE!!!!! Throw them out!! If your DH or kid wants them, have your DH have a stash HIDDEN FROM YOU. Tell him not to let you see where it is. Let them have it, but don't tempt yourself. My DH hides Mt. Dew on occasion, and he drinks it when I'm not around. I don't know where it is, and I don't want to!

Good morning Vi's!! Just finished catching up. denise, the pic you posted of you won't load for me.. I wanna see!! Repost!! Your DD is beautiful! Well our trip went.. like our trips normally go LOL. We were leaving at 8am on Saturday. DH & I struggled to be up, showered and ready by then, we ended up at my parents house at about 9am. Last minute, while we're drinking coffee and heading out the door, my mom decides she wants to go after all. So we wait for her to pack, we hit the road. It's been 70's in Florida, so we were anticipating walks on the beach. My g'parents needed their 2nd car brought down, so me & DH drove their lincoln, and my parents led the way. Not 30 minutes out of town, it starts pouring.. raining cats & dogs!!! It's normally a 6.5 hour drive.. it took us nearly 10. We hit thunder storms everywhere. The lincoln's windshield wipers didn't work well, and the headlights don't seem to shine on the ground.. so we held our breath a lot, hoping we lived to get there. Somewhere around Dothan, AL we hit a tornado warning. Cars were pulling off, so we found a Barnes & Nobles to hang out in. I was soaking wet by time we got inside. I found Rosie O'Donnell's new biography of what happened with the View, so I got that.. and then another biography called Stolen Lives. Rosie's one is just sad, she is so 'out there' for me (I am republican and she is just a liberal looney toon). But it was interesting to see her take on what happened. I am 3/4 through the 2nd one, and OMG.. it's a true story about the family of a general in Moscow, and the dad tried to assassin the King.. the King killed him, and imprisoned his family (Mom, 5 kids.. ages 18 years old to THREE years old) for 20 years before their release. Not a normal prison. A place in the middle of the desert, they starved them, beat them, isolated them from each other.. the 3 year old grew up and never knew what life outside of this was. I am to a point where they are breaking out of one of the prisons. The 3 year old is now 17. It's horrific, I can't believe these things can happen. I plan to try to finish it before work is over. Ok back to the trip.. we cross into Florida and the news comes on the radio saying Tornado warning in Bay county. IRONICALLY as we hear this, we pass a sign saying "Welcome to Bay County". UGH. We decided to just keep going.. 35mph in terrential rain at night with no good headlights or wipers. We finally get there, and the rain has stopped at the condo. It's in the 70's, feels great. We went to a fancy steak house.. I got some filet mignon medallions with shrimp, lump crabmeat & bernaise sauce on them. NUM NUM. Each medallion was 3oz.. I ate 1/2 of one (slow slow slow) took me an hour, but I was determined to eat it. I also ate 1 of the shrimp. We went to bed, tired from the day. We wake up the next morning with plans to go to the beach.. and it's 30's!!!! IT WAS SO COLD AND WINDY!!!! BAH. DH Has never seen a beach. We went to some souvenir shops in the morning, then we went to lunch.. then we went putt-putting (in big coats). Then me, DH and mom went walking the beach.. in the freezing cold. We even got in the water to our waist (was suppose to be knees, but the tide came in). Got some seashells.. was fun.. and cold! On our way back to the condo we got in the heated pool to rinse the sand off and warm up. Then we watched the survivor finale. Poor Denise!!!!! I almost cried for her, poor nice lady. I can't believe Todd won. But out of Todd, Amanda and Courtney I didn't want any of them to win. I couldn't believe how much weight Courtney put on after the show, she finally looks normal!! Then we drove home yesterday. Lots of sunshine but still cold, and it's cold back home now. No snow weather of course, but it's so cold it hurts. I did have an NSV in Florida.. I have never been able to wear girlie jewelry.. they don't fit my wrist or neck. But at some of the beach shops, they had really pretty leather bracelets for women, and the woven ones, etc. And every single bracelet I tried on, even the buckled ones.. FIT! I'm wearing one now. I was so excited I bought 3 different leather ones.

I'm doing great, how bout ya'll?

I was self-pay in Alabama, and it was $15,000. That did not include the psych evaluation or the pre-op testing ($150 & Co-pay respectively). Also, anesthesia (they have hosed me all along) billed me an additional $500 for 'whatever' reason.

I have an office job. I was banded on a Monday and took the whole week off, was back the following Monday. I probably could have gone back sooner, but I ended up pulling a muscle from not taking pain meds and straining in funny positions.. so I was in more pain than normal.

I got recliners months after the surgery. I probably would have loved to have it! I had a hard time getting in and out of bed.. but I managed. I propped a lot of pillows up.

(They photoshop what they're putting it together with before putting it together so I can say if I like how something looks or not, that's why it looks kinda weird in spots). My flowers were a dirty rose color, not purple.. but, if they ended up purple after preservation.. oh well hehe.

Lets see if this works, never tried attaching a pic. Got my 'proof' from the people who preserved our bouquet in a shadow box. I love it!!!

Hey Panda! Are you preggers yet?!?!? And Judy...:Cry::drama::scared: :biggrin1:

Good luck new bandsters-to-be! The nervousness is normal, hang in there :scared:

Welcome to bandland!! I had the sciatic nerve problems too, and 2 months post-op all my major back woes were GONE FOR GOOD!!! Now, take it easy and TAKE YOUR PAIN MEDS!! I pulled a muscle not doing that, and believe you me, that's not something you want right now.

I actually need to change my vote, I'm voting for Thompson.