Cassy

I get a brand with 13 grams of protein and low fat from Fresh and Easy...mix with either chopped nuts and raspberries with a little bit of honey....deelish!

Chewable Papaya Enzymes work pretty good for pushing it through if you don't want to force it up. Usually if I just bend over toward the floor it will come back up and sure enough I can tell that I didn't chew it well enough.

I am 4 days shy of my one year and I'm right around 75 lbs lost so far. If you hit a plateau, I highly suggest the no sugar, high Protein liver flush. If you do this for 7-10 days...you will lose a ton and it stays off. Your liver stores up a ton of fat when you eat badly and cutting out sugar burns it out of there first which gets all your other systems back in check. My doctor recommended this prior to surgery and any time I hit a plateau and it works. Stay away from anything with sugar in it and you will be AMAZED! I stick to no sugar meats, eggs, cheese, Atkins products and stay under 50-75 carbs a day for at least 7 days. Plenty of Water too and teas. Oh, and don't forget a ton of veggies and whatever flavoring you want except anything with sugar in it. Fiber helps the flush in any way you can get it. Aim for 35 grams a day.

Lap Band Surgery $10,000 cash Needle $1.00 Sterile Saline $5.00 F*cking up your band all by yourself...PRICELESS

I am very interested in finding out if anyone has gotten pregnant on their own after losing weight as a result of the lap band. I have almost decided that I will not pursue fertility drugs because of my age but I'm wondering if there is any chance that it will happen without fertility drugs.

Can I ask a bizarre question? Have any of you noticed that there is an equally large group of strange people that either stare at you or talk to you about random things vs. those that spoke to you before when you were heavier? I used to always get the misfit people who would talk with me or would make eye contact for whatever reason and now I get people who would not normally have spoken to me but they say or do the strangest things. It is throwing off my whole perception of normal. I think I liked the first group better. Is it just me? :thumbup:

I hear you 110%...I thought about the surgery for 5 years, in the last two years of that time I saved every bit I could to get the surgery with Dr. K. I maxed out my flexible spending account and send him small payments to set aside the money. I even borrowed from people and sold some of my stuff. I did whatever it took. Whatever amount of time it takes you to get there will be worth it - I can assure you of that. Plus, I think if you have to work harder to get there then you will put in the work necessary to lose the weight once you have the band. I started with Dr. K's liver shrinking diet and practicing chewing and putting down my fork and lost 20 pounds in one month. Maybe try that on and off to get a jump start. Really, if you start getting in lean Protein at about a half gram per pound of body weight and you eat around 25-30 grams of Fiber a day with tons of Water...you will lose weight. The only added value of the band is it physically keeps you from overeating at any one sitting. You can do it!

I just realized I've gotten really lazy since it started getting hot. I've been blaming it on the heat and I'm really just being lame about it. I hear others talking about being 5 pounds from goal and it makes me cringe. I'm at 9 months and barely at 65 pounds. I better get on it!

I just realized I've gotten really lazy since it started getting hot. I've been blaming it on the heat and I'm really just being lame about it. I hear others talking about being 5 pounds from goal and it makes me cringe. I'm at 9 months and barely at 65 pounds. I better get on it!

I can't see your tracker at livestrong. What is a typical day of meals and exersize for you?

Vegas...can you tell me more about the sleeve? I am interested in hearing about this. I see it mentioned here and there but I don't understand how it works.

I used this site and a few other websites related to weight loss surgeries in addition to medical background tools online. You can also find out a lot from calling the doctors offices and asking questions. I tended to trust my own personal experience when calling the doctor coupled with experiences of people on this site. My Doctor, Kirshenbaum in Colorado had successfully helped close to a thousand people who were on this site which made it a pretty easy choice but I didn't find him until I had done a ton of checking in Mexico and the US.

You are always welcome. This is a great group and no one will have an issue with you coming at all. We're all here to support each other in our own journey...whichever path we decide to take.

Try salad greens, feta, blue cheese, or gorgonzola, a sprinkle of dried cranberries, walnuts or almond slivers, balsamic dressing. Yummy! ...and chicken breast