Duhs9919

I can have a protein shake (20 g of protein or more each) for breakfast and lunch. Then I can have a small dinner, 3 oz lean meat, 1 cup green veggies, 1 cup of fruit.

Banderama, I would absolutely die if I could only drink protein shakes. I'm on 2 diets a day and then 1 meal at dinner. Dinner is 3 oz of lean meat, 1 cup of green veggies and 1 cup of fruit.

Yes Fostermomma!!! We have to think positively!! But I agree, I will be beyond disappointed if I wake up and no band. I'm super jealous that your surgery is Friday. Please let me know how it goes and how you feel!! I am also True Results!! Good luck.

Thank you guys! I am just a worry wart and freaking out. I have followed the diet perfectly. Just want this so bad, I dont want anything to stop it from happening. And as of this morning I am down another lb for a total of 11!!

Been following them to a T. Just nervous, its not like I can take a peek and see if it's getting small. Just worried that this might be the last road block to the band.

I have been following the diet to a T but I am still really nervous about making sure my liver has "shrank" enough. I'm just terrified that my surgeon will open me up and find a big fat liver and close me up. Anyone have any tips/pointers/advice? Thanks. Surgery is Sept. 10.

I really hope so!! Thanks LiveStrong!

So after not having great success with the numbers on the scale going down all weekend, I woke up this morning to discover I had lost 2 lbs!! Its better than Christmas morning...well almost anyways. Today I am 6 days out until surgery. I am getting more and more excited as the days go on. I go on Thursday for my pre-op appointment at the surgery and to do my final weigh in at the surgeon's office. So woo hoo. I will definitely be working out during lunch tomorrow. I have been craving pizza something terrible lately. I ate it a good bit before I started my diet but still having a hard time kicking that habit. Today at work we had a safety meeting during lunch and they ordered pizza. I have to admit that no one asked me if I wanted any, which they are famous for doing, but while they were eating their pizza and I was drinking my shake I felt left out. However afterwards when I realized I had kept my mouth to myself I was proud. I have to really get used to not eating all of the bad things when the whole group is eating bad. You can ask most people, I am really not a follower, but when it comes to food I am very much a follower, it is usually pretty easy to get me to fall off the good choice bandwagon. Attached is a picture of the pizza party and my shake there in the middle. Woo hoo me!! The hardest part right now is controlling my bite sizes. I am supposed to be taking a bite the size of the first joint on your pinkie finger and chewing excessively. Also I am not supposed to be drinking liquids while I eat. This is to keep from washing my food down my stomach quicker so I feel full longer. Whenever I go out to eat, I've never been the person who gets 100 refills of their drink. Usually I barely make it through one. But for some reason now that I am trying to monitor this its become extremely hard. Tomorrow at dinner, I am not even going to sit down with a drink. Maybe this will take away the temptation to drink. I've pretty much decided on only making healthy choices and not eating carbs, but its the little things I am worried about perfecting before surgery. Such as the small bite, excessive chewing, and no drinking while eating. What if I can't master these things? I think I mentioned the baby plates and kids silverware that I bought. I have been eating smaller portions but starting tomorrow I will bust out the plates and silverware. I have also attached a picture of the broiled tilapia and spinach I had tonight to show my portion sizes. This is the smallest plate I have besides the baby plates. This will force me to seriously monitor my portions and the silverware will make me take smaller bites. I know this is an ongoing process, just have to keep working on it until it becomes second nature, just like eating terrible food did in my "past" life. That and I know the first time (or probably second and third time too) that I have issues with how big of bite I took or washing my food down, I will really feel the effects and focus on following the rules. So to summarize, do not be a food follower, be a leader and make good food choices, continue working on fine tuning lap band eating habits until they are second nature, and do not give into temptation. I can do this, tomorrow is only 5 days until surgery!! Until tomorrow, Amanda

So I haven't posted in a couple of days. Here is the summary of my wacky adventures this weekend: Thursday- went out with a couple of coworkers to steak night. I managed to get by without completely blowing the diet. Friday- came down with a sinus/ear infection and went to the clinic in Walgreens to get some antibiotics. Had to get that cleared up before surgery which at that time was 10 days out (feeling much better now). Also I was exhausted from the aforementioned steak night and also having to make a middle of the night run to the ship yard for work. So I was in bed relatively early. Small victory- I did manage to find these protein shakes that taste yummy called Pure Protein at the Vitamin Shoppe. I had wanted to try the other flavors before making a financial investment by ordering a case of them. By the way, the banana and vanilla rocks!! Oh and stay away from the cookies and cream, it should be called yuck in a can. Saturday- AKA Day 1 of Hell- Up until this point I had managed to stick to my diet and was holding steady at 10 lbs lost. The day started out crappy with a wake up call from my boss at 730 a.m. to which resulted in having to call several members of my crew, waking them up and finally another trip to the fleet and then the ship yard. Luckily I was home by 930 and back in bed for a nap. My day gets worse. I saunter across the street to see how all the out of town family guests are doing and what they are doing. Of course, being the good time having people they are, they were all drinking and eating really yummy things!! I was able to stave off temptation for a while. But eventually gave in and tried a cracker with jalapeno jelly on it which led to a couple of chips with salsa. At this point, I decided that I was going to go outside and swim 50 laps in the pool so at least if I was going to have a few things I would at least have worked out. I swam the 50 laps and also treaded water for 5 minutes straight. This afforded me (in my mind) a spoonful of Spanish rice with dinner. I stayed away from the alcohol though, the whole not shrinking my liver enough for surgery thing really worries me. If I make it all the way to the operating table and the surgeon opens me up but doesn't do surgery, I will be intolerable. Saturday night was our fantasy football draft and I have to say probably the most annoying thing ever. Everyone was drunk, except of course me and very obnoxious. I guess when you are on the outside looking in, it is not as fun. On the upside, my new found hobby of not drinking has revealed another talent, designated driver! Sunday (today) AKA Day 2 of Hell- I woke up and weighed, and thanks to some miracle I was still at the -10 lbs I had been at all weekend. Part of me was really excited that I hadn't gained any weight but I was also really sad that the scale hadn't moved down either. I decided that the little cheats I had given into the day before were really stupid and that I needed to pull it together, turn the cheek to temptation and be motivated to see the numbers on the scale drop. We all went to Galveston to enjoy the "beach." I can say that I stuck to my diet very strictly. No cheats. I had my shakes and even on the way back from the beach, stopped to pick up my 2nd shake at a gas station, I had to settle for Muscle Milk, which I am not normally a fan of, but it did the trick of tiding me over. I also swam some in the pool and treaded more water. At one point I did have a melt down and attacked Nick over sampling some of the cucumber I was very deliciously enjoying while reading a book (book = distraction from copious amounts of drinking). It just sent me over the edge, that I had my small bowl of cucumber and that he, who could eat anything he wanted was "stealing," my allotment of cucumber. In my head it was no different than me walking up to his plate and stealing his potatoes. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I had been surrounded by temptation all weekend and was doing my best to ignore my growling stomach, the fun being had by all, and all of the bad food items around. It was like an alcoholic working in a bar or a crack head living at a crack house. I snapped and went off on Nick, telling him to pretty much F-off and go eat his own much more tasty food and to leave the starving girl's cucumbers alone. This resulted in me having to go home, have a melt down and refocus. I eventually rejoined the party, apologized to Nick and stuck it out on the diet. Tomorrow will put me exactly 7 days out from surgery. I am really really excited but nervous, the light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel. I feel like I am carrying around a very fragile expensive vase that I am trying to transport across country ensuring that it arrives in 1 piece. I don't want anything crazy to happen before the surgery to make it not happen, I just want to make it across that finish line. I am resigned to sticking to the diet, working out more this week, being very strict with my portion sizes and hopefully watching the scale move downwards. My goals is to be a total of 17 lbs down by surgery. So we shall see if I end up at my goal. My advice to any of you going through a similar situation, when surrounded by temptation, no matter how bad you want to give in and have something bad just remember, you are doing this for a reason and that reason and it's direct result is greater than a momentary lapse in judgement. Also the guilt the next morning is not worth it. Keep your eye on the prize. Until tomorrow, Amanda

Lost 2 more lbs this morning for a total of 5 lbs since Monday. Woo hoo!! Got in 1.25 miles on the treadmill while on lunch at work. Managed to stay on my diet even though I really wanted to eat a cheeseburger. I can say that it is getting easier. Slowly but surely. Emailed the surgeon's office today and got my questions answered and the nurse practitioner told me that they might move up my surgery. I am sure she means a few hours, but my hungry, food deprived brain took that as a few days. I know I seem to be in a rush, but I am just tired of feeling hungry. If I could deal with this normally I wouldn't need the band. But surgery day will get here eventually. I did saute some really yummy squash and zucinni tonight along with a 3 oz portion of top sirloin. I cut it into really small bites and ate very slowly but it still didn't mush up a lot. So I am wondering if I might be at the end of the line for steak. We shall see. I have also backed off drinking while I eat and I can say that it does help me to stay fuller longer. Anyways, I am watching one of my fav shows, Necessary Roughness so my rambling will be reduced for tonight. I'll post if my exercise increased my weight loss tomorrow. Oh and my headache did not show up tonight, after 8 bottles of water!!! Until tomorrow, Amanda P.S. Someone ate the banana....

I too had to wait the 6 months and then had to seem like jump through hoops to get True Results to send my file to the surgeon's office. But out of the blue last week they called me with a surgery date, I wasn't expecting the call until this week. But either way, I have surgery scheduled for 9/10. Trust me it will go by quickly. Seems like now I have the date it is crawling. Best of luck.

Let me give you the important stuff first, when I weighed myself this morning I had lost 3 lbs from the day before (Monday). So you could imagine my excitement this morning. My boss decided it would be an excellent idea to cook bacon wrapped pork loin in the office today. It was absolutely torturous sitting at my desk smelling it cook ALL day, who doesn't love the smell of bacon cooking? I am happy to report that I managed to fight off my growling stomach and only have my shakes at work. I also managed to stay on the diet all day. Woo hoo! With that being said, I met the surgeon today. I had done some research and had a pretty good idea that it wouldn't be a one on one appointment but more of a group situation. I was correct, there were about 12 people there to meet the surgeon. Well about 8 patients there were some spouses/support people. It was very weird to look around the room and be the skinniest and youngest person in the room. I was also surprised that it was equally split between men and women in the room. I am glad I didnt wait until I was in my mid 40's-early 60's to have this done. Dr. Hollis is very nice, easy to talk to, and seems very knowledgeable. I liked that if things weren't perfect going into surgery he wouldn't proceed. Made me feel good to know that he wasn't operating a "surgery mill." I asked several questions, but anyone who knows me, knows I had a lot of questions, some I didn't want to ask in front of the group so I plan on emailing the office tomorrow. I asked about my nightly headaches, he said it was from not drinking enough water. I've been drinking 6-8 bottles of water a day. Any more and I am going to just have to sleep in the bathroom or get a catheter. But I will increase and see if they go away. Anyways they went over the diet again and all of the do's and don'ts and the what to expect nexts. It was nice to be one of the only people in the group who already had their surgery date. Dr. Hollis' stressed the importance of the pre-op diet and how beneficial it is for your liver to shrink. Apparently if the liver doesn't shrink enough and get out of the way it opens up the potential to cut the liver during the procedure and cause bleeding. Dr. Hollis said that usually when he gets in there if he finds this situation he will close up. This has provided extra motivation to maintain on my diet. I am not going to make it all the way to the operating table and not end up with the band. Went to the grocery store to stock up on some fresh fruit tonight, I am supposed to have 1 cup a day. I didn't have that hard of a time looking at all of the food as I thought I would. I went with my mother-inlaw for moral support/basket patrol. But I did end up with a banana in my basket (she didnt see it). I really miss them. They are too high in sugar for me to have but they taste so good though. It is sitting on my counter, lets see if I can manage to keep my will power and not eat it. So that is where I stand. It was odd to just leave the doctors office this afternoon without making another appointment or a lot of direction. Next stop is my pre-op appointment at the hospital on September 6th. I am also to go back to the surgeon's office that day to do my official pre-surgery weigh. Oh and I made the appointment for my first fill which is October 9th, same date as my post-op appointment. Anyways, here's to avoiding the banana staring at me on the counter. And yes I know its all my fault its sitting there. Until tomorrow, Amanda

When I originally started the pre-op diet back on August 1st I had a hard time concentrating on anything but food. I felt like the world was going to end if I couldn't shove things in my mouth. However, today was much easier. I don't know if it was easier because I knew what to expect or if it was the fact that I have a surgery date and there is no wiggle room. The dietitian called today to remind me to fill out my food tracker, set up some appointments to come in and weigh. Oh and surprise, I have more paperwork and videos to complete. Anyways, she sounded very annoyed when she asked what date I started the diet on. I explained that I was on it but had gotten off the diet and had started back today. I didn't have the energy to explain why I had stopped, which I should have because she got a major attitude with me. She informed me that I had to stay on it and that there could be no cheating because if on the day of surgery my liver wasn't small enough the surgeon would close me back up and I wouldn't have surgery. Either way, I am not going to let her bother me, I know that I can do this, and that my liver will be appropriate size on the day of surgery. I can say that I did manage to go all day without cheating. I had a grilled chicken salad for dinner tonight, but did have about 10 potato chips. All and all a good day. Tomorrow I am definitely going to have some coffee, which is allowed, just without real cream and sugar, I will suffer through it though to avoid another major headache like this. I did drink no less than 6 bottles of water today, which means I will be a zombie tonight making my many trips to the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning. I might have lied last night when I mentioned that I would post my before pics today and my beginning weight today. It seems that I have chickened out, they are some really bad pictures and whats more personal than my actual weight?! I've decided to wait and post my pictures when I have something to post with them, showing a loss. And I will also report the weight as soon as I have a loss, (fingers crossed that will be tomorrow). Hope that is a suitable compromise. Anyways, tomorrow I will have lots of info to report after my appointment with Dr. Hollis. I need to get more protein powder, so my mental debate between now and then will be do I buy the high priced stuff from his office or just use the regular old whey protein you can purchase at Wal-Mart. Either way, "food" for thought. Until tomorrow, Amanda

Seeing as how this is my first blog, I thought that I would spend a little bit explaining who I am and why I and doing this. But seeing as how it took me an hour to set this dang thing up, that has eaten into my rambling time for this evening. So I will give you a BRIEF overview of the who, what, wheres, and whys. I am a 31 year old married woman who currently resides in the Houston, Texas area. I decided in February of this year that I was going to start a journey, I was going to stop fighting the battle of the bulge once and for all and get the Lap-Band surgery. I was a normal sized kid, a chubby pre-teen, and then a skinny competitive swimming teenager in high school. After high school, I stopped swimming, however didn't change my eating habits. When one stops being active 4-5 hours a day they must watch what they eat. Anyways, the pounds over the past 10-12 years have just crept on. It should be tattooed somewhere, "A minute on the lips is a life time on the hips," because its true it goes on a lot easier than it comes off. After seeing several TV commercials and doing some research on a place called True Results, I decided to go online and fill out their online form to see if I had any insurance coverage. After waiting a week I decided that since I hadnt' heard from them that I did not have any insurance coverage and that this surgery was out of the question. However, I called anyways and found out that I did have coverage!! I scheduled my first appointment for mid February to come in and find out the details. Long story short, I had coverage but my insurance required me to do 6 weight loss visits and a whole lot of other crap before I could have the surgery. Feeling a little deflated that I couldn't get the surgery the following week, (not a patient person) I started the process. Six long months went by of me faithfully going to my monthly appointment, getting on the dreaded scale and meeting with a dietitian. Finally on July 26th I had completed all of my weight loss visits and the other required items and was ready to submit all of my hard work to the insurance company for final approval. Do to some insurance hiccups I didn't get my final insurance approval until August 10th. But I finally had it!! Woo hoo!! I figured that it would be smooth sailing and I would get a surgery date immediately. Nope. Not the case, I had to patiently wait for my chart to be sent from True Results to the surgeon's office and for them to review my information, schedule me for an appointment, and make me fill out another mountain of paperwork. However, I have my first appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Ken Hollis on this Tuesday, August 28th!! I had originally hoped to have surgery on August 23rd, however this was now clearly not going to happen. Last week I got an email from one of the very helpful staff members at my surgeon's office, sending me information on some videos I had to watch prior to my surgery day. Later that afternoon, I received another email from them with my surgery date!!! I was over the moon because I was under the impression that I would not be getting my surgery date until at least my appointment on August 28th. My surgery was scheduled for Monday, September 10th. Having the surgery date just finally made the surgery seem real. Like there really was a light at the end of the tunnel, that this was within my reach. I had originally started my pre-surgery diet on August 1st. But when it quickly became apparent that surgery was no where in my near future I got off the diet in mid August. In case you are not aware, the pre-surgery diet is very strict. True Results had told me the diet was 1 protein shake for breakfast, 1 protein shake for lunch, and a small dinner consisting of a healthy meat, a green veggie, and a serving of fruit. I will tell you that this is one of the hardest things ever, we are so used to chewing that not "eating" food is soooo hard. Well now having a surgery plan I am to start my diet again tomorrow, August 27th, which is exactly 2 weeks prior to surgery!! This time I will be having 3 shakes a day and a small meal at dinner. I think the extra shake will really make a difference in making it seem less impossible (that and a large package of sugar free gum) I did the diet before for a week and I thought I was going to start eating my co-workers. I've been told its a genetic trait in my family, that missing meal time causes extreme grumpiness. YIKES!! I did a "Farewell Food Tour" the end of July, getting all the really horrible bad foods I have enjoyed over the years out of my system. I feel satisfied that the tour took away the "I wish I would haves...," for later, since many of the items on the tour are things I won't be able to enjoy after surgery. Since getting off the diet earlier this month, I haven't been horrible with my food choices, just mostly eating larger portions than I should. However, tomorrow really starts my journey on the yellow brick road on my way to Oz. There is no extra week of cushion to allow for my cheats, the surgery date is written on the calendar, it is go time. Tomorrow morning I will weigh and get my official "starting" weight. I have to lose 10 lbs between now and surgery. Earlier in the month I lost 9 lbs in 6 days and I had some cheats. So I think this will be easy to accomplish, well the numbers on the scale part anyways...I may end up with a few less co-workers if they don't leave me alone. I'll post the numbers and my "before" pictures tomorrow. Finally the reality that my journey is really starting has kicked in. I would be lying to say that I am not a little bit nervous but not because I don't think I won't be successful after surgery. I just hope that after surgery, I won't be wishing I had some ruby slippers so I could go home, just the natural fear of the unknown. I have come to far and want this too bad to turn around now. This yellow brick road only goes one direction to Oz...I have a date with the man behind the curtain. I'm off to see the wizard.... Until tomorrow, Amanda