bandster_1007

i feel awful for posting that i was depressed now. i realize that i am really blessed in my life right now. i have a beautiful son, a good job, and a husband that loves and cares for me deeply. money is a little tight right now, because of me and dh missing work for my surgery, but we will make it. we always do. i have been sick and missed work a lot the past year (probably 2 months total), i'm happy now that my pains and Migraines have allowed me not to miss much work with the exception of time off for my surgery..and my son was sick.

thank you all for your responses. i am happy to report, that my energy level has increased substantially, and i'm not feeling so gloomy anymore. i think it is due to exercise, as i have gone consecutively for the past 3 days (that's HUGE for me). i'm still fighting head hunger, and i eat no sugar added fudgsicle's and 100 calorie carrot cakes occasionally. i've gotten away from yogurt as much. i'm having trouble finding low calorie high Protein foods, any advice?

my typically daily menu is 2 turkey sausages, or 1/4 cup egg substitute, for lunch i have 6 pieces ham lunchmeat with one slice of cheese, and for dinner i have meatloaf and broccoli. according to my calculation's that is only about 36 grams of Protein. i'm not supposed to drink Protein shakes anymore.

thank you all, i will pray for those of us who are facing this battle, be it with weight loss, or personal affairs. we will get through this, we just have to lean on one another and keep faith. there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I use Calorie Counter, Diet Tracking, food Journal, Nutrition Facts at The Daily Plate

wow, they have a lot more food than the other sites that i looked at...they even have recipes...that is cool

i was banded on thursday, back to work the following tuesday for 1/2 a day. worked wednesday, thursday, and 1/2 friday, then the next week i worked monday and tuesday, 1/2 day wednesday and was off thursday and friday with a sick child. i caught a REALLY bad head cold a week out from surgery and that hindered me. plus i had this pain come back on my left side that was sharp and would take my breath away, but it would go away whenever i would lie down..so.....

my clothes still fit, my tummy is still really bloated from surgery. i plan to give my clothes to goodwill. sometimes the local curves has and/or weight watchers has an event that they schedule where everyone brings clothes that no longer fit them and they basically swap..free of charge. it's cool.

ok, well now i know i'm not alone. i told my mom about it yesterday and she said i'm depressed because i'm dwelling on it and food is all i can think about. my response to her was "well, you used to be an alcoholic, how long did it take you to stop dwelling". she said it took about 2 months for her to stop "dwelling". She said that she had to do something to distract her. i have noticed that i have the most problems when i watch tv. i had never realized before, but apparently i was snacking a lot while watching tv, because i think about something to snack on every time i sit down. lately i've been making myself do something throughout the show that i am watching. my house is much cleaner, but i'm not feeling better quite yet.

this is hard. the tired part makes it worse. i didn't make it to the gym yesterday because dh had to go into work early. i'm going this afternoon instead. my goal is to do either the gym or treadmill for 30 minutes each day until i can build up. hopefully that will help me get over this slump.

i am very very very very very tired and depressed. anyone else feel this way or have any pointers?

well, SGACX, the post op diet may be easier for you because you have to do a pre op diet. my doctor's office only makes people do a preop diet if there BMI is over 45. My liver was not swollen.

It has been hell for me these past couple of weeks because it is just SSSSSOOOOOOO hard. i never realized the control that food had over me, and i'm having to deal a lot emotionally with how much food is involved in my life. i wasn't expecting it...and now i'm dealing with it. i've been very depressed.

however, with that said, i had minimal pain. i actually find it very easy not drinking with meals. i mean, yeah, for the first few meals i would reach for a drink out of habit, but then after that it is no big deal. i suck on a sour sugarfree candy, brush my teeth, or use mouthwash after i eat. that helps.

i am having trouble following the post op diet. for some reason, now i want to eat hard candy..and i didn't have that problem before. i am not having a problem with hunger though, and sometimes i feel like i could just not eat, but i do because i need the Protein.

For me recovery was very fast, at least as far as the extreme pain. however, i am very tired now....very very very very tired. i'm going to work out today. hopefully that helps.

it's still worth the weight that i have lost.

WAY TO GO LINDATA (i haven't been able to access the site for a couple of days) how is everything going?

my blood pressure had been high for about a year prior to surgery. i, too, to the hctz for the blood pressure. i talked to my surgeon about this prior to surgery and he told me to discontinue the medicine. he said that i would be fine within a week from surgery. i am happy to report that he was correct. i haven't taken the hctz in 3 weeks now and my bp is exactly normal 120/80 and that was for a dr's appointment (always gets high), so i'm thrilled.

i still have some swollen days in my upper extremeties, but i'm finding that it has to do with eating a certain kind of food.

i'm scheduled for November 28. i'll be good and eating solids thru Thanksgiving, but i will have my 3rd fill by Christmas..which tends to be the worse.....

my first fill is at the end of the month. i was surprised yesterday when they told us that the put in 7cc, close your band off, then let you sit up and drink Water. if it goes down, you keep your 7 cc's. that seems like a lot when there are a lot of people on here who say they only get one.

my doctor says majority of people are at their sweet spot on the 3rd fill, but for some people it takes 6, 9, or more. i feel blessed that my 3rd fill will be before Christmas. My first is the end of this month, and then they are scheduled every 2 weeks.

they gave us the fill guidelines yesterday and i was really surprised by them also. we, too have to go on Clear Liquids for 48 hours.

that must have been a wonderful feeling. my first milestone was when a girl at work told me she could tell that i had lost weight and she said i look really good.

no one had said anything before...even when i was begging. my dh said that he thinks i lost all 12.whatever pounds in my face ...lol.

i had my follow up appointment at the doctor's office yesterday and i have "officially" lost 12.8 pounds. i'm really proud because i have definately had weak moments. i try to counteract them, but that sets up a whole new thread of bad behaviors.

i was talking to dh last night..and i was telling him that i couldn't beleive that he couldn't see a difference (i can). then i was telling him that i have already lost in 2 weeks what i spent a month trying to lose crash dieting and exercising a few months back.

we decided that the weight loss i had when exercising was way more noticeable. i agree with him completely and i think i was even down in smaller pants. i think the weight loss that i have had after surgery has been a lot of Fluid and i'm sure a lot of it is internal. therefore, it makes sense that the other weight loss was more noticeable.

i can feel that the weight is off of me in my whole body (although my stomach still seems to be a bit swollen). it's weird, i wake up and stretch, and i can tell that i have lost weight by the way my skin feels on me. i think that has to do with having an eating disorder when i was younger...people with eating disorder's learn to "read" their bodies because scales are normally taken away.

but..needless to say i'm back to Curves to get that bod that i want. i also told dh that i feel TREMENDOUSLY better since surgery. this is the first time in a year that i have gone 2 weeks without a Migraine or all over body pains (from fibromyalgia)..i'm still struggling with my blood sugar, but my bp is down and i feel wonderful. exercise can only make this that much better.

i have not been banded long enough to say that i felt the way that you do, but my doctor told all of us that we would feel the way that you feel. they said it is very normal.

when were you banded?

i had asked my pcp about alli before considering the lap band. she said that she took it while she was in med school, and she quit taking it because she was tired of buying new underwear. she was being very serious. she said she had to carry clean underwear with her all the time.

i needed this post so much.

first of all, let me say that your daughter will be in my prayers. it is not something that i can personally relate too, but any time one of our children is faced with something that we can't "fix" for them, the emotional roller coaster is tremendous.

i needed this thread, because i do not have much "common sense"..lol duh..if i planned my meal, i probably would have much, much less trouble following the doctor's orders.

the other day, i'm in the take out line for wendy's and the thought that they may be out of their chili crossed my mind..i almost freaked. i realized then, that i had no back up plan and would have eaten a potato instead..bad choice. lol..luckily they had chilli.

thank you for posting this. i'm definately an unguided grazer. that is my biggest downfall. i hate planning meals, because i hate cooking.

luckily tonight my meatloaf is in the oven, mashed potatoes and green Beans are cooking. this is the second time that i have cooked since surgery, and this is the first time it was for myself.

i had to use capital one care credit. it has a fixed rate which was nice. i was able to get 10%..which is still high to me, but low compared to other credit offers.

is there someone else at his office that you can speak to? you were refered to my thread, where you will read that i got a good lashing for cheating.

my dr's office is fully aware, but they did clear me for mushies..and their mushies are just soft foods, like lunchmeat, ravioli, etc. however, each doctor is different and there are some very good points in the thread "i'm cheating...already".

i went through the exact same thing...about my son. i thought about journaling the whole day right before surgery..and i even considered leaving a note for dh to find if something happened. i didn't "let" myself do those things though because i was trying to push the thoughts aside and not embrace them.

i think that is completely normal. the funny thing to me was that i have had several surgeries before and i was not afraid of any of them, but i was terrified the day before having this done....terrified.

the meatloaf and the chili are both the recommendations of my doctor. i can also eat lunchmeat like turkey and ham. all of these foods are considered mushies by my doc and i sure couldn't eat them without any teeth. LoL.

my doc has had one death, one slip, and zero erosion. he has done over 1000 lap band surgeries...he was one of the 1st 50 doc's in the U.S. to be trained and has been doing it for several years....

i didn't see a nutritionist because she was sick on the day of our appointment and my surgery was 2 days later. there wasn't a mention of a reschedule.

i haven't had any problems with any of my mushies. my doctor's office told me specifically that i would probably have problems with shrimp. they said shrimp does not break down very well. the said shrimp, asparagus, popcorn, celery (popcorn is the only one that i hate to give up).

my doctor thinks that popcorn is evil and no one should eat it. he says that it causes diticulitis (sp?) and IBS, etc.

you are right, i do need to find something to distract me...the thing is..i cheated at work. lol..i should already be distracted.

that's what we are all here for. lord knows i need some help. i'm sure you read my cheating post on the general questions thread. i'm not sure if i feel more guilty or better since i posted.

i do not intend to justify cheating. i needed exactly what i got from this thread and that was a wake up call. i do not want to continue doing this obviously.

i made the decision to tell my doctor about my cheat so i would be held directly accountable (in real life). i did, i got griped out big time and they told me they are going to put my picture on the bad patients board. they told me that my cheat more than likely did not cause any problems, but that i need to consider myself lucky and understand that it can/will cause a slip if i continue to do so.

they also gave me a formula for Protein and told me that 100 calories needs to equal 10 grams of Protein. that is not that easy, so i went to GNC and got the unflavored whey protein. i added it to my chilli for lunch.

i completely understand the fact about cutting out carbs. i wish that i would not have added the sugar to my diet, but i did and that is over now.

i do not have willpower, that is fairly obvious by my being overweight in the first place. this is hard for me as has been any diet that i have ever attempted. i'm a food addict, i was having withdrawals, and i satisfied a need, which means, i'm going to have to face that decision again, probably tomorrow and i need to be better prepared.

it sucks that i did it, and i feel really really bad, especially after considering wasa's comments about post op diets and the failure rates. it all makes complete sense. that of course makes me worry even more about going on to mushies early. if my damn hunger would have just left me alone last week, i would still be on liquids, but i'm not. (and i was eating protein).

i'm trying to live a new life, with the same old cravings and thoughts in my head. it's hard, i'm sure that a lot of you guys out there have faced this same dilemna, and maybe by looking at my failure you will avoid the same problems. if i had read this post beforehand, i likely would not have eaten the Cookies.

so damn the Cookies, and damn food..i hate it...it is evil, and even though i am banded, the problem is still there. 6 weeks or not, every day is a battle..be it life long..or hour long..

(oh yeah, i have lost 15 pounds since the 18th and my body has begun ketosis...having some side effects..so hopefully, i am still on tract).

thanks wasa...i guess i just needed a good stern typing to...

i kind of wish i hadn't been cleared for mushies early because now i realize how easy everything goes down. i eat the healthy choice Soups with the chicken, rice, etc...it goes down fine. so then i know that i am able to eat the other stuff that i don't need. my doctor has not made any mention of the possibility of messing up my sutures, or harming the adhesion process..i wish he would have.

i will go back to my chili for lunch and meatloaf for dinner..i have a whole new day tomorrow.

i have a question though, what is the defining factor between mushy food (i.e. chili, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, ravioli, lettuce, etc. and mushed up shortbread Cookies. i know, obviously, that the latter containes processed sugar, etc., but the consistency is the same before it leaves my mouth. why does the body work harder on it, compared to something that has much harder foods in like meatloaf, that contains green onions and onions, and chili with the Beans and all? i'm not a doctor and i'm not in the medical field at all, but the logic isn't there for me. why does my stomach squirm more for something that is softer?

well..i don't understand the human body and that is why i should stick with the dr.'s orders. i just need a swift kick in the a**, and if dh knew that i had Cookies, it would be coming.... swift and hard.

thanks to all of you who have replied, i'm already having a renewed since of committment.

thanks lynn...that's what i need to hear. i'm afraid that i'm just making excuses though.

crispy..i was cleared to go on mushies last week. i have not eaten anything that is hard. the Cookies were complete much by the time that i swallowed them, but they are by far the hardest thing that i have eaten. you know the conistency of a brownie...they were pretty mushie.

i eat chilli for lunch, that is one of the recommendations from my doc, and tonight i will either have ravioli or meatloaf for dinner.

i'm not hurting...and i'm not eating until i'm too full. i'm just making bad food choices...and that sucks..i should be all motivated right now and sticking to the plan, but instead, i'm cheating already.