phyllser

I haven't had the experience of being too tight. I'm a little nervous about getting another fill... have my one year followup appointment on Wed., and may ask for a fill. I don't want that to happen. Most say to give yourself a "rest" for several days... keep up the liquids for another day or two.

Ah!! Thank you!! I'm going to bookmark that because I can never find it when someone needs it!!

Yes, and it is renewing my committment and my discipline. The first two days were tough, but feels good now. The bacon sounds okay the way you describe it. I guess I won't stick you with pins if you have some. I felt so stuffed all day yesterday that I didn't get in enough liquid. The first two days I felt like I got my exercise running to the bathroom to pee. Yesterday there was a dramatic change in that! It was hard to make myself drink because I felt stuck almost all day and all I had was about 800-900 calories.

Pouch test... I think originally for bypass people to get them back on track. Some LapBand people, according to the "Living After WLS" website, use it to test if they need a fill. I sort of get that now. I am doing it partly out of curiosity, but mostly as a gesture of recommittment. Not that I feel I'd slipped in to bad habits, but wanted a new start. I'm almost at the one year point. What I have learned, as I enter day four of this adventure, is that I DO have pretty good restriction. After two days on liquids, even though I had only about 800-900 calories yesterday, I felt stuffed most of the day. I had 1/4 cup scrambled eggbeaters for breakfast and was just beginning to feel hungry at noon time. Then I had 3 oz of tuna with a tbsp of Lite Miracle Whip and I could barely get it down. I felt kind of "stuck" for over 2 hours. Again, did not feel hungry at all until about 5pm. Then I had 5 1/2 oz of baked halibut and again felt stuffed most of the evening. I probably would have been well satisfied with 4 oz and should have stopped there but I have a tendency to eat what is in front of me which is kind of dumb! I finished off the tuna around 9 pm, but I felt so "full" all day long that I didn't get in all my liquids. Intend to do a better job with that today. This is my 4th day and I get to eat firmer protein, like ground meat, so I have a small meat loaf ready to go in the oven. But, only protein... two more days. Looking forward to steak tomorrow... we're having a family get together. I will look the other way when the rest of the food is laid out and just enjoy my steak!! This is really a good renewing of my discipline! YES... I highly recommend the Wii Fit. I LOVE mine! The scale is very accurate and gives you your BMI. I'm not too good with some of the exercises because of my bad knees... can't get down on the floor, but I do whatever ones I can, walk in place instead of run, and I LOVE the balance exercises... soccer, skiing, tilt table, etc. On the Wii Sports, box, baseball, bowling, golf, tennis... do a little bit of each, but not every day. It gets me up on my feet and I always work up a good sweat so I'm burning calories!

Hmmm... IMHO, the LapBand has much more potential to "work forever" than bypass if you are faithful to get fills when you need one. Bypass.. you can stretch your pouch and there's no provision for a readjustment. Either one you can eat "slider foods" and all the wrong things and sabotage your efforts. And, one of the BENEFITS of LapBand is that, yes, if necessary, you CAN have it taken out. Bypass is NOT reversible, and you lose all that absorption and are much more dependent on supplements to get the nutrients you need. I feel it's a much healthier choice. Did someone ask about "PB".. productive burp. It's not quite the same as vomiting. Happens when you eat too much or too fast or something that just doesn't want to go down. I'm almost one year out and had it happen once on chicken... something I often have problems with.

First, on the ticker site, right click to "copy" the bbc code. Okay.... on the thin blue bar above, click on Quick Links. Then scroll down to "edit Signature". A box will pop up where you can format a signature that will show up on every post. "Paste" the bbc code in that box and add anything else you want to add.

tickerfactory.com There is a tutorial with pictures, but I can never find it when I want to reference it to someone!

It's on the Living After WLS website. This is what they say: Have you lost control of your weight loss surgery tool? Today learn and live the plan that is sweeping the surgical weight loss community. If you are asking: Does my pouch still work? Have I broken my pouch? Am I doomed to be a failure at this too? Can I lose the weight I've regained? Is the honeymoon period over? I never made it to goal weight and now I'm gaining. Help! If you are asking these questions then the 5 Day Pouch Test is for you. In 5 Days you can rediscover your pouch, get back on track and lose weight with your weight loss surgery tool. You have not failed! You can learn to use the tool again! Take me to the 5 Day Pouch Test! I'm not sure what made me decide to do it. Partly that stupid orthopedic surgeon, I think, who made me feel like I'm done and this is all the weight I'm going to lose. First time I saw him he quoted the stats... LapBand patients typically lose 50-60% of their excess weight. So I all of a sudden got this "I'll show you" attitude. That was part of my motivation. I honestly have to say... I am "REDISCOVERING" my pouch because after two days on liquids, I can barely eat today. Those first two days were tough and I was hungry most of the time. But today I have honestly not been hungry at all and I'm just about right at 700 calories. The 5 day test I think was originally supposed to be for bypass people who needed to "shrink" their pouch because they were eating too much.

Hey, Ruby.. how's the pouch test going??? Any more M & Ms???? I got through the two days of liquids and moved on to soft Protein today. I've had 700 calories today, but over 100 gm of protein!! Had 1/4 cup of eggbeaters for Breakfast, then 1/2 can of tuna for lunch... It kind of got stuck & kept me feeling full until about 4 pm. I couldn't drink much today because I have felt so full all day. Had 5 1/2 oz of baked halibut for dinner and that did about the same thing. It was real moist so it shouldn't have done that. Then tonight I ate the rest of the tuna. I've probably popped about another 100 calories of Papaya tablets trying to get the fish to settle down!! 'm going to have eggbeaters for breakfast again. I have a meatloaf ready to go in the oven for dinner. Cheating a little with that because I put in a couple of mushrooms & about 1/2 can of diced tomatoes. Thanks for the message from Candice, Steph. Sounds like she's enjoying her getaway.

congratulations!!! you look great!!

You obviously have the determination and the motivation do do this. You're going to be crossing those things I put in red up there off that list one by one!! I promise! I've eliminated one cholesterol med and one of my two BP meds is now half the strength it was. I hope to get off the CPAP machine eventually, and get my knees fixed! Then I'll race ya!! Thank you, Nancy! You're so sweet for saying that. I have grown to love fish so much that sometimes I eat it three times a day!! I had baked halibut for dinner. It was sooo good! Wish I could join you all in FL!! DH & I have a very favorite fish place in Palm Springs when we go south for the winter!

Well, done!! You're on your way. Just a few definitions here: psychiatrist = the "shrink" (of course), not to be confused with the "nut", and that is the nutritionist. Easily confused because at times one seems to be just as "nuts" as the other. The "schnazzy scale thingy".... your ticker, you did very nicely!! Fasten your seat belt... you're ready to go!!

You're kidding about the bacon, right?!!!And I will stick you with a pin if you eat any more M & Ms!!

Glad to see you didn't fall off the face of the earth. If I didn't see a post from you tonight, I was ready to pick up the phone! I know you must be missing your family now that they're so far away. Nice they were able to visit. August will be here before you know it! We had a little visit with our DIL & two GDs from CA today. We spent some time shopping at the mall. We'll see them again on Sunday. They're coming up to see our condo and we're going to have a family get together at DD's. Pouch test is going okay. I'm starving, but I"ll live! I've had two Protein Drinks today and a mug of tomato soup. This is just about the end of the second day, so tomorrow I get to eat soft Protein. I'm going to have eggbeaters for Breakfast, maybe tuna for lunch and I'm going to go buy a piece of orange roughy for dinner. Mmmm! Karri, You've had quite an adventure!! Were you taking a really hot shower when you passed out?? With the heat, plus your body recovering from major surgery, then hot shower... probably just an accumulation of all that stress. Your BP is okay, right? And no temp. Nap is good. Rest and recuperate!

I had them once probably 7-8 years ago, on the right knee. I probably should've asked the doc about doing that for the left when I was there this week. As I remember, it didn't help a lot. I had better results from a series of steroid injections. It relieved the pain for about 6 months. Well, sort of... It's kind of to get you back on track, away from eating "slider foods", etc. For me, I thought it would help to renew my committment to this new way of eating, maybe get me off a plateau. I have a tendency to lose pretty well for about 3 weeks, then stall for maybe as long as a month. There is a website that gives you a lot of information about it. Just google five day pouch test. Try LivingAfterWLS, too.

Where the heck is Janet????? The last time she posted was yesterday at work when she said she hated her job??!! Maybe she ran away!!???

OUCH!! OUCH!! OUCH!! Hey! My Wii says I'm down 2 lb since yesterday morning! I'm in a really nasty mood, but the scale is going down. But it could be DH who is in a nasty mood. It may not be me at all! I made it through DAY ONE! I think I had four of my EAS protein drinks and one DH made with Whey Protein, skim milk, pkg of splenda and about 1/2 cup of strawberries. I had Campbell's Healthy Request clam chowder for dinner. I survived! I'm back to logging everything in my FitDay software. I'd been slacking off on that. Have a GREAT day everyone!!

That has happened to me a few times in the past, but not tonight!

Interesting to note... the problem with the partial in my rt. knee is that the hardware is coming loose due to the weight loss. That's apparently what is causing it to begin to collapse down. But, YES, I will do this! Before I moved here, I lived in OK & ortho surgeon there did the partial on the rt. knee when I weighed a lot more than I do now. Maybe I should've asked him to do injections in the left knee. I have very little pain in the rt. It's the left one that hurts when I walk. Standing still for more than a few minutes bothers both. But I can work on the Wii and Wii Fit for up to an hour with just an occasional sit down for a few seconds without pain.

Okay, this is what the science teacher on our other thread says: "Yes, protein will turn to sugars through the digestion/metabolism process... but it is a VERY LONG process and most of the proteins are broken down into amino acids(building blocks of proteins) to help form DNA, enzymes, and muscle fibers in the body. Once the body has reached the level of amino acids that it needs it will then convert the excess nutrients in to sugars which are stored in the liver. Here is the thing though... it takes a LOT of energy to break down proteins and even more to convert them into sugar so your body is using more energy than it would need to break down carbohydrates. Fat is the only thing that can't be converted into sugar. That is why when you plateau on Atkins they tell you to increase your fat levels and decrease your protein levels. My opinion based on biochemistry is that proteins should be eaten with carbohydrates as it slows down the digestion process but proteins can be eaten by themselves. Hope this wasn't too technical. Please feel free to post this on the other site."

Our train leaves some time in the morning. Janet leaves around 2 pm, so you can hang out with her for a little while.

Did you see my post about the Kashi Go Lean on sale at Target this week.. 2/$5. Don't know if you have a Target near you or not, but good price. Website looks good. Did you make your train reservations yet?? Yeah, that was my thought, too!! Bunch of HOOEY!! Where do they get these NUTS from anyway??? Medicare.... opt for the rehab center if possible. I think that's the new Medicare byword for nursing home. Go for it if you possibly can even if it buys you just a few more days of care. Do you have anything to say about the decisions being made?? Strongly advise you be an adamant advocate for rehab! Then the next step is to push for at home physical therapy. If the doctor says she needs that, I think Medicare will pay for at least a few days a week of nursing care... caregiver, not nurse. Congratulations!! We are July 2007 people, but you are welcome to visit any time. There are several threads for July 2008 people that you might want to check out. Yes, we are looking forward to the trip. So sorry you can't join us. We're talking about Vegas for our "bandiversary" trip next year.

So sorry to hear about your fall. Hope no damage was done. A gal on the 50+ thread posted something I wanted to run by you, since you are our resident scientist: "I spoke to my dietitian yesterday. She said that I should eat carbs with my protein, otherwise the protein turns to sugar. I note from a lot of posts that many of you think that carbs are from hell and you try to avoid them as much as possible. What do you think of my dietitian's advice - do you buy it?. When she talks about carbs, I think she means rice, pasta and potatoes, not sweet things."

Sorry... wrong thread... Karri is too young to be here!! Think I"ll pose the question to her though. She is a science teacher and understands all that stuff better than I do, even though I'm an RN!!

I put a little of that in my protein drinks sometimes, too..... sugar free raspberry in a chocolate protein drink is really good! In fact, that's what I had for lunch today! I started day one of the "Five Day Pouch Test", so I had protein drinks for breakfast & lunch and one this afternoon. At dinner time I had a cup of blended clam chowder soup. Didn't realize cream soups, sugar free gelatin & pudding were allowed on Day 1 & 2 until I looked at the list again tonight. I've had a few bouts of hunger off & on today, but not too bad. Yeah, the Wii Fit judges your age so differently every day. Yesterday I was 64. Then I did it again this morning & I was 36, I think... you'll have to look at my signature to confirm that. Forgot to post this yesterday, speaking of sizes... I rode through Target on my scooter trip through the neighborhood yesterday and found a pair of pants on the 75% off rack that I decided to try on ... size 20/22, and THEY FIT!! Smallest I've worn in well over 20 years, maybe 25~! They're 6 yards too long, but they fit! I might chop them off to capri length. Heck, I'll probably have enough fabric left over to make another pair!! :redface::biggrin::smile2: Liquid diet... yeah, sucks... but I'm tolerating it okay... one more day and I can have soft protein. I think this is good for me. New start, cleansing, renews the mind, etc. DH was impressed when I sat through lunch at Primetimers today sipping on my protein drink! And they were eating BBQ pork sandwiches! I LOVE anything BBQ! But, I was STRONG!! I really think this is renewing my determination. In fact, I was kind of pissed after seeing the orthopedic surgeon yesterday, and now I have this "I'll show him" attitude that is also strengthening my determination! After mulling over what he told me about my knees, I've come to the conclusion that he thinks I will not lose any more weight. He does not want to do my knee replacements until I get my BMI down to 40. So he tells me that as long as I am "getting by" the way things are, he'll just see me every year or two to make sure the partial in my right knee isn't "collapsing". He commented when I saw him two months ago that most LapBand patients only lose 50-60% of their excess weight... Where have we heard that before??? Since I'm almost at that point, I think he thinks I'm done. I'm sorry, but I'M NOT DONE, AND..... I'm not content to live like this... scooter and cane !! I want my knees back so I can walk comfortably, thank you very much!! Okay... I"m done ranting about that!! As for the standing on one leg, it does say that you can hold on to something if necessary. I use my cane and it really helps. Also, I close my eyes for that one legged test and it seems to help me to stay balanced if I'm not watching that line waving back & forth! I got on it this morning mainly to check my weight since I was starting this five day thing. Our bathroom scale was finally carted off to the trash bin because it was weighing us so irradically!! Hmmm... the protein turns to sugar??? I don't get that. Maybe Karri will chime in here and give us her two cents on that! Karri??? I don't know about carbs being from hell, but by the time I have my protein & veggies, not much room left for carbs. And I know the more carbs I eat the slower my weight loss will be.