ssankofa73

Ruby Thanks for telling your sliming story. I hope to God that it nevers happens to me. When we let each other know whats happening to us, especially in instances like this, it helps us to be reminded not to do certain things. Your story will serve as a lesson to all of us to realize that when we've had enough we need to stop or our bands will make us stop. I grew up with the "finish your plate" mantra being said over and over again at dinner when I was a child. We weren't allowed to get up from the table until everything on the plate was gone. I remember my cousins and friends would be outside playing and I still had rice and peas on my plate so I couldn't join them. Now that I'm an adult, I struggle with letting someone take my plate from me or anyone else I'm having dinner with when something is left on it. This is so ingrained in me and eventhough I'm conscious of it, I still have a hard time dealing with the feelings that are attached to it. I'm going to attempt to describe the feelings I get...I know I feel a weird kind of frustration that makes me want to wring my hands and a feeling of being wasteful and arrogant (that may not be totally correct but I can't think of a better phrase...Whats a good word or phrase to describe being wasteful and arrogant in a "Paris Hilton" sort of way?) Then when I do finish the food on my plate I feel contented but then thats quickly followed by regret or remorse. These last 2 feelings happen when I cheat on a diet too. All this mental space is being used on some dag on food!! I can't bare to see food thrown out. If I can't finish a meal (which I'm sure will happen everytime time I go out now for dinner) I ask the waiters to wrap up the leftovers. The leftovers remind me of my night out when I go to eat it later.

Ribearty (u posted this on the recipes thread) Does anyone still experience pain where their port incision is or where their port is attached to their stomach? I am still having pain at times and am wondering if anyone else is. It doesn't last long but it hits a few times a day. Please let me know. Thanks. My surgery date was 7/20. I only feel pain when the waist band of my pants press against my stomach or when I wake up and realize that I've rolled over on my stomach.

I just had my 1st mushy meal and it was delicious. I made tuna acovado salad. It's basically the same ingredients as guacamole with an added Protein twist. Tuna Avocado Salad 1 chopped avocado 4 scallions 2 medium tomatoes low sodium salt (to taste) garlic powder (to taste) pepper (to taste) 2 or 3 cap fulls of lemon juice 1 can chunk lite tuna Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Mash the mixture a little but leave some chunks of avocado for you to chew on. Mmmmmmm. So good! You can add a little unflavored Protein Powder to pump up the protein level and add cilantro too boost the flavor.

Lynette I have to remember to add protein powder (or some sort of protein like cottage cheese) to all my food so that it will keep me from getting hungry. Chim Confession is good for the soul! I know its helped me out a lot since being banded. When I tell you guys what I've done I end up not thinking about it anymore which makes me not what to to say to myself "well since I've eaten this, I might as well eat that." Trust when I tell you, this is still a daily....no no, meal by meal struggle. You know what you have to do now is to just keep lookng forward (don't look back because whats done is done). You are going to do very well during your next meal. I just had my 1st mushy meal and it was delicious. I made tuna acovado salad. It's basically the same ingredients as guacamole (chopped avocado, scallions, tomato, low sodium salt, garlic powder, pepper, a few cap fulls of lemon juice), but you add chunk lite tuna and include lots more tomato. You mash it a little but leave chunks of avocado for you to chew on. Mmmmmmm. so good! I plan on having the rest of it later tonight with added unflavored protein powder and cilantro.:whoo:

Only4Me I think I must have a bigger band than you because nothing's been getting stuck with me. This may sound a little twisted but, I'm a little jealous because that means that your restriction is really good where as mine is not so hot right now. Still though, like everyone keeps saying, we are all different. My situation might mean that they'll give me a fill sooner than 4 weeks away. Did you try the egg salad? I just came back from the grocery store and I'm psyched to make my 1st "legal mushy meal!" I'm gonna make either tuna and avocado salad or turkey salad. YUMMMMMMM lol Walking record I walked around my neighborhood for 35 minutes and actually walked to and from the grocery store. This is a NSV for me because I almost NEVER walk to get groceries.

Only4Me Today when you went for your post op appt. did Dr. Geiss or his PA say anything about when you could get your first fill or whether they did it under flouro or not? What about your stitches?.....Did all the steri strips come off yet and have you noticed the ends of your stitches coming out (like clear strings sticking out of your belly)? Only 1/2 of my steri strips came off and 1 of the incisions look like it was only a scrape.

Only4Me Congratulations on the HUGE weight loss!! 21 lbs is amazing and I'm impressed. I hope I get good news from the Doctor when I go on Friday. Everyone Today is my first "legal" mushies day (I wrote "legal" because I'm a notourius liquid stage cheater") and I think I'm gonna make turkey salad by doing a twist on lynette's chicken salad recipe. What has everyone on mushys been eating with their protein?

Hi Everyone. Just checking in. Did 45 minutes on the treadmill today and 30 minutes yesterday. I'll be on mushies soon!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!

Lynette Thanks for telling me about the lucky 7s recipes page. There are a bunch of good dishes on it. I can't wait for the mushies stage!!!! My mother was having tuna fish last night and it smelled so good to me, lol. I have a question for everyone. It might seem silly but I have to ask. Once we get our fills, will we be able to have Soup as a meal? I know we're not supposed to have liquids with our meals because it will make the food slip thru so does that mean soup is out? The only time I've seen seasoned bandsters mentioning soup is when they've just gotten a fill and they go back to the liquid stage for a day or 2.

The band is made of silicone.

Congrats to everyone who can fit into the old jeans again!! Lynette Please share your chicken salad recipe again. I'm going on mushies in 3 days and I want something good to eat finally that i can chew.b

Today is the first day that I didn't go for a sustained walk (outside or on the treadmill). I started my period and I was in pain. I'm hoping this will pass soon so that I can get back to business.

Congrats on holding out at happy hour today.

LaNalga. I feel like I'm having the same type of recovery as you. No problems with tolerating any liquids (nor the couple of solids that tempted me either). I'm only 11 days post op. I haven't called my Dr. either because thankfully, I didn't have a need to. I am supposed to be on whole liquids for 2 weeks (3 days to go until mushies!!!) and then on to another 2 weeks of mushies then solid food after that.

Caolin Thanks for posting what you said to your husband. The next time my mother brings up excercise, food, etc. I'm going to say the same thing you did.

I've only told my close friends and immediate family (except fot 2 cousins and an aunt). The only person who hounds me about it is my mother. She happens to be obese too. We went for a walk together last week and since then everytime I talk to her she asks me if I've excercised, asks me about my food and she tells me to be careful and blah, blah, blah. So you know what? I give it right back to her! If she's gonna pester me, then I'm gonna pester her. Before banding, anytime I dieted and told her about it she pestered me and after a while it made me overeat, stop exercising, etc. It's like a weird form of reverse psychology. This time, I'm going to have to say something to my mother about her nagging because I can't have her sabotage me. This is my last hope and I'll be dog-goned if this goes wrong because of my mind not being able to handle my mother's mouth.

It took me a such a long time to read thru all of the posts. This thread is poppin! lol To all who found out that they lost weight.... CONGRATS and KEEP IT UP!! Keep those recipes coming guys!! I need to try the Italian ricotta cheese Soup. To those who haven't excercised yet....how about doing 10 minutes of walking in place in front of the TV? Chim How does an excercise challenge work? Do we all come up with a plan of what to do and then see if we can stick to it? Its hard to keep motivated. I had to talk myself into staying on the treadmill today and I felt good when I was done (45 minutes). I hope and pray that I can get to the point where I feel out of place if I don't work out. I'd love to get addicted to it so that I won't have to continue to feel like I'm forcing myself. Here's a shocker for me....I finished 3 cups of blended steak and potato soup today within an hour. I felt stuffed when I was done but I wasn't emotionally comfortable about being able to have all that food. I don't know why I was compelled to finish the soup because I could have stopped after the 1st cup. I just didn't. I'm scared that I'll be able to eat around my band. From reading everyone else's posts, I see that I'm not having much trouble tolerating liquids as most folks. There are times when I've jumped to solid foods to feed a craving and I haven't had issues either. I know I haven't had a fill yet but this really does scare me because I'm only 9 days post op and I feel like the only thing that reminds me of being banded are my sore belly from the stitches and my burp parade. I'm not asking to get things stuck, or start sliming and PB-ing but I'm concerned that my band may not work. What a difference fom last week.

Jackie It does feel really good to finish exercising despite being winded. It feels like a real accomplishment. For Everyone.... Tonight I went to dinner with a friend ( I had soup of course) who is a doctor and I told her about our little web group and some of the things we've been going thru. She said 2 of the reasons why our post-op diets include lots of Protein Shakes is for the healing benefit but also because they are low in sodium which decreases Water retention (I knind of forgot that). She said if we want to make our own Soups, use low sodium salt or buy low sodium canned soup. That way we can get a little of the salty taste, but not all the sodium that comes with it. Only4me... How are you feeling?

Hi Chim and everyone here! I'm doing well. I had a bout with hunger earlier today for about 3 hours while I was out. My belly was making all sorts of noise and I actually had "real" hunger pangs. I was able to squelch it with some tomato Soup laced with Protein Powder. Now its burping time. I've become the burp queen since my banding. I did the treadmill for 45 minutes and felt a little tired and winded but kept pluggin away. Hey Cazulay! I had an uncontrollable urge for a few olives a couple of days ago. The olives were sooooo good but meanwhile, they were never a big deal to me before surgery. I was told that I was lacking sodium due to all the Protein Shakes (they have sugar in them but not much sodium). As Chim said though, we're putting the sutures around our bands at risk when we give in to foods that aren't liquids or mushies (depending on the stage we're in). I REALLY needed that reminder and I'm hoping I didn't do any damage to mine. In the meantime, I decided to add more Soups with added Protein powder or cottage cheese blended in to take care of my salt craving. It's been doing it's job for the last 2 days so far.

Hi Azqueen! I was fearful about being banded too. I'm 8 days post op and doing fine now. Only a couple of days ago my sister had a BBQ and I hid my new eating habits from those who know me by nursing a "half eaten looking " plate of food for the majority of the day. Worked like a charm and no one questioned me.

Only4me In the research that I've done, the weight loss is more like 1 to 2 lbs per week. Of course, this weight loss is always paired with excercise and the appropriate food choices. That's the 1st time I've heard of such low numbers per month.

Wow Jackie!! Thats almost 2lbs a day!! congrats!

Please let us know what ur doctors says about that pain inntha back. I'm curious about what it could be.

Anne Can you have white grape juice and white cranberry juice? Yours is the most restrictive diet I"ve heard of so far.

I'm glad that you're doing a little better.