Apples2

I noticed last summer that over-doing the sodium had a great effect on the intensity and the amount of hot-flashes I got. I picked up my old "salting" habit last summer for a bit and the hotflashes came back and then some. Laid off the salt...all is fine.

Here's a great one
Pot roast
3-4lb chuck or top round roast
2tsp. minced garlic
1 16 oz low fat Italian dressing
32 oz jar pepperoncini peppers, sliced...do not drain juice
Just throw everything on top of roast in CP and cook on medium for about 6 hours.
Tortilla Soup
4 boneless chicken breasts, diced (raw)
2 14.5oz chicken broth
2 14.5oz stewed tomatoes
1 cup salsa
1Tbsp ground cumin
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Combine everything in CP except cilantro. Cook on low for 8 hours.
Top with cilantro. Can also top with LF sour cream and a few baked tortilla chips
Greek Chicken
1lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2Tbsp virgin olive oil
1 onion chopped
1tsp lemon pepper
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Cook all ingredients in CP on low for 6-8 hours. Remove chicken just b/4 ready to serve and shred with fork. Return chicken to sauce and stir. Can be served alone or on a pita.
Indonesian Turkey
3 turkey breast tenderloins (about 2lbs)
1 1/2Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
Sprinkle all ingredients over turkey. Cook on low-med. for 7 hours. Remove turkey. Stir in Peanut Butter. If sauce looks too thick, add 1/3 cup Water. Slice turkey and drizzle with sauce.
Fruited Pork
2lbs boneless pork loin roast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruit
1/2 cup apple juice
Place pork in CP. Sprinkle with salt and papper. Top with fruit. Pour apple juice over top. Cook on low for six hours.
One more
Spanish Chicken
8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
2Tbsp virgin olive oil
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup lite soy sauce
1tsp garlic powder
4 6" cinnamon sticks
Pour all ingredients over chicken. Break cinnamon sticks into several pieces and distribute among chicken thighs. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.

At the gym, YMCA, dance class, Community Education courses (hmmm...pick a class...same interests...), walk your dog or walk yourself in a busy park, when at Walmart make sure to make a walk through the hardware dept with a perplexed look on your face....so many options other than the bar. Annd if all else fails, go to the bar once in awhile with some friends and enjoy ! Good luck!

Way funny comment, Dave.

I watched the show and thought that Dr. Oz did a fair job of putting forward the works of the band and band surgery and interviewing the two guests that are contemplating LB surgery. What I did think was not a realistic portrayal of the "norm" was the amount of food eaten by the two guests that have had LB surgery. Not saying what they laid out on the tray is not what they eat on a daily basis...just saying I doubt it is the norm. The one showed that she ate maybe 4 small teaspoons of yogurt for BF, 1 cup of broth for lunch and what looked like 4 small teaspoons of pudding for dinner. By far.... way less than I eat on a daily basis almost 3 yrs out.

CherylAnn....put your GLASSES on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I definitely can see a huge difference. You have developed a very nice shape. Keep at it, girl. You are on your way. Congrats!

Hey KAB...One of my favorite recipes to use PB 2 in is a chicken Thai stirfry dish.
Just take about a lbs of chicken (dark or white meat) and dice and saute in a little olive oil. Add about a tsp of minced garlic, stirfy veggies, 1/8 cup lite soy sauce, 1/2 onion either diced or strips, and add a couple of tablespoons of PB 2 to the mix. It gives it such a nice flavor.
I also use PB 2 in a lot of my Protein Shakes.< /span>
Hope this helps

Lost a long post...I am going to PM Alex again. I have noticed such a change in posting on threads and not many new threads. I think he is losing ppl left and right because of the fact that this site is sucky.

Hi guys. I had my lap band done February 2010. To date I have lost 84 pounds and sooo glad I did this. I just wanted to post for all of those that r suffering and thinking u may b too tight, go to ur doc and get checked out. I started noticing problems the week b 4 Christmas. Well I finally went to the doc this past Tuesday. They did the fluro and the nurse was shocked to c that barely ANTYHING was going through. She took out Fluid and wants me to let my stomach rest for 3 weeks and take something like pepcid.
My sinuses had been acting up so I just kept fighting and saying "oh it will get better". Well if ur ever in doubt.. go to ur doc and get checked out. I am so thankful I did. I feel like a new woman. The only upside is that I couldn't eat all of the good fattening stuff, lol. Seriously though, there is no need to suffer. The band is to help not make you miserable.
Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year. Oh and I just am so proud to say this is the first year I can ever remember that weight loss isn't a new years resolution. I feel so liberated!!!
Best of luck to everyone. We're all in this together!

Just got home and found an email Great had sent a little after 8am this morning. She asked me to send out for prayers for her DD. She went into premature labor. She is in hospital. Gosh....I feel so bad with things like this. Later.

Bob, you've been my role model here since I first found this place. I am immensely proud of you and what you've accomplished in such a short time. I'm finally being banded the day after tomorrow, so am where you were a year ago. I hope I can report such an excellent journey as yours a year from now. I wish you nothing but continued success and a rapid, painless healing from this latest surgery. Good luck!
As for the cigarettes, if I can offer my personal experience: I quit smoking eleven years ago after more than thirty years as a heavy-duty 2+ pack a day smoker. I had quit a hundred times before then, for varying amounts of time, from a few minutes to as long as seven months. But I always went back to them. I finally realized I had never felt like an ex-smoker, always that I was in-between packs. I always felt when I'd stopped smoking that I'd be smoking again at some point. And I always did.
The turning point for me came the day I came to the thundering conclusion that I didn't have a smoking habit. I realized I was a nicotine addict. Just as bad (to me) as a heroin addict or being an alcoholic, and I was just as addicted. And just like that, I quit. I ddn't STOP smoking, I QUIT. And I haven't lit one since. I have absolutely zero desire, because I know, just like an alcoholic or a heroin addict, that I can't have just one cigarette, or I'll be back at it. Changing my frame of mind from thinking of myself as a smoker to accepting that I was a nicotine addict completely changed my entire attitude. No drug was going to control my life, and that was that. I've never looked back.
Good luck with all of it!
Dave

Doctor who slept with ‘hot’ twin patients skips reprimand hearing Posted: May 12, 2009, 7:02 PM by Rob Roberts
By Joseph Brean, National Post
Ten years after Jacobo Joffe started sexually abusing women on whom he performed obesity surgery, including the “hot” twin sisters he described as “every man’s fantasy,” the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario today delivered a blistering reprimand to an empty desk.
The no-show of Mr. Joffe, once a respected bariatric surgeon at Toronto’s Scarborough Grace Hospital, was an awkward and perplexing first for the college, which regulates doctors in the province.
But Mr. Joffe, having already received the college’s stiffest punishment of license revocation, had little more to lose by skipping his public reprimand, other than any hope of future reinstatement.
Discipline panel chair Dr. Marc Gabel said he was “dismayed” and uncertain what to do, so he stuck to a script that denounced Mr. Joffe for his “shameful” behaviour and “obvious knowledge of the wrongness you were involved in.”
“You have not only damaged and brought into disrepute your own name and reputation, but cast a shadow upon the whole profession,” he said. “We can only hope that in future you can find a way to correct your moral compass.”
The panel last year stripped Mr. Joffe of his medical licence after he pleaded no contest to sexually abusing four women, including the sisters.
All were his patients for operations, such a gastric bypass or laparoscopic band surgery, designed to treat their obesity.
The abuse spanned 1999 to 2006, and included various sex acts performed in the hospital and his office.
In victim impact statements, one woman spoke of going to him at a time of “personal desperation.”
“When my life began to get better he took advantage of my feelings of thankfulness toward him,” she said.
In the case of the twins, the judgment says Mr. Joffe went to a 2003 Christmas party for lap-band support patients, where he told the twins they were “hot” and kissed them on the lips. From then until 2006, he “attended their home approximately every two weeks and almost every week during the summer months where he engaged in various sexual acts with them...”
He also engaged in illicit drug use with the twins, using street drugs he asked one of them to purchase.
Mr. Joffe was also ordered to pay college legal costs of $3,650, and $40,000 toward a fund for his victims’ therapy, but a college spokeswoman said she could not confirm whether these payments have been made.
Mr. Joffe is also facing a class action lawsuit, filed last month, which also targets the hospital, alleging it “knew or should have known about Joffe’s substance abuse and his predatory sexual behaviour.” The hospital denies the allegation, saying in a statement that it only learned about Mr. Joffe’s misconduct in 2007, and took appropriate steps.
Mr. Joffe has reportedly been living in Mexico, where he went to medical school, but keeps a Toronto apartment with a girlfriend who was once a patient.

I feel for you and the struggles you are going through...especially wanting to stay for your children and the good times. But, if those bad times outweigh the good, it's time to take a really good look at how this affects your children. Children can be very protective of their mother and it is sending the wrong message to them that you are putting up with his treatment towards you.
It is so important to recognize ahead of time if you feel physically or emotionally unsafe (your children's safety also) and to pull yourself out of the situation. Have a plan. Check out your options ahead of time so you have some place to go should the necessity arise. Easy to judge not being in your situation. Just keep in mind....a person does not have the right to lay a hand on another person. To belittle them or to force sex upon them. Clear case of abuse and he needs to be held accountable for his actions.
Wishing for you strength as you deal with these huge life decisions. Hugs

Great...just looked at our MPLS newspaper. High of 24...low of 8. Cloudy day with chance of snow late. You shouldn't run into any troubles. You realize that there are MOA shuttles. Just go onto their website for when they run. I think it is every 1/2 hour.
It was 5 degrees when I left this morning but by afternoon it was 15 with the sun shining so it felt fairly warm. You most likely won't be outdoors at all except to catch shuttles and they are pick up and drop off just outside the doors in a parking garage.

This is a photo of the day I started down the long road to a new mouth

Why is it that when you click on an attached photo, it is soooooooooooo big. You can see nose hairs. But, I will have to say that I like the way my eyebrows lay that day. Darn that's a big me face

Thanks for the teeth comments Laura and Great.

There are lockers back by security...look on their map. They are by one of the entrances but not the one you will come in. Get a big locker for shopping. Have DD bring an empty carry on so you can fill it!

I am hoping my freaking users manual will show up in my mail box today

Nutrition testing is important for PS. This will give an indication of how well your body will heal after the procedure. Nutritional deficiencies are much more common after other types of bariatric surgery (gastric bypass, duodenal switch). Testing just requires basic lab tests which are very standard.
I am suprised that you will have to pay out-of-pocket for this bloodwork. Generally, my patient's insurance covers bloodwork (even if it is for a cosmetic procedure). You may have to go to a laboratory that participates with your insurance, or have your primary doctor draw the labs for you.
Another thing you should all be aware of...when the skin is removed, it must be sent to pathology. This is a law (and might vary between states). This allows the pathologists to examine the tissue and make sure there is nothing unusual...and is extremely important with breast surgery. You will likely get another bill from the pathologist and it may be around $100-$200 per specimen. This should also be covered by your insurance as long as the pathologist participates (even for cosmetic surgery).
Again, some of these rules may vary state-to-state, and you should check with your insurance carrier.

Snuffy - Even though you are in R&R, please abide by the forum rules. Your comment above is "insulting" which is not the same as "debate".
Members will treat each other with courtesy and respect, especially when they disagree. We understand that bright, intelligent and educated people may not always agree, but personal attacks in the form of insults, abusive language or other means of obvious harassment will not be tolerated.

My husband was less than receptive of the idea of me getting a band at first too, for basically the same reasons you have expressed. I tried to explain to him that it isn't like that with the band, but he didn't really get it until he went to an appointment with me and heard it straight from the PA. He has also realized that by my being more healthy, we will be able to engage in activities other than eating to spend time together because I will be able to do more physically and won't get tired so fast. Remember, you are doing this for yourself, not your DH. Good luck and I hope things go well for you!

When I get the urge to eat, just for the sake of eating, the first step I take is to get a glass of ice Water, and try that. If the thought still doesn't go away---I head out for a walk or hit the elliptical.
Sometimes brushing my teeth helps----but moving is the only way I have truly found to squash the urge to eat. There were times in the beginning, I would take 3 walks a day, just to have a plan in place to avoid food at non food times!!! Not super long walks----just enough to break a cycle of thinking I needed to eat if I sat down in front of the TV for instance.....
I WISH I had the answer to head hunger, I would be well loved!!!
Kat

There's nothing yet to suggest it was band related. It's just terrible though. :wink_smile:

My doc highly discourages the use of liquid calories for 2 reasons.
1. They are not stopped by the band and therefore MOST people do not get full or stay full from them...thus causing them to be hungry and overeat.
2. This doesn't teach you how to eat properly. Drinking my meals is not something that he anticipates most people will want to do for the rest of their life and by having them do this once they have graduated to real food, provides them with an innacurate sense of a lifestyle change.
Now stating that I know a lot of people that do drink a Protein Drink everyday either because they are too tight in the morning or because they have a hard time getting in enough Protein. However when people ask me what they should do because weight loss has stalled the first thing I tell them is to get rid of the Protein Drink.< /p>
As for the amount of protein...I usually get in around 100 grams a day, but that is because I am an Atkins girl at heart and that is just what I like to eat. If you want more Protein you could substitute in a Protein Bar. I use Pure Protein Bars...190 calories...20 grams of protein. I get them at wal-mart. Also I found buffalo/beef sticks at GNC that were really good. 80 calories for 10 grams of protein and very filling.
Sorry I just noticed this was the "Men's room" Hope you don't mind a girl dropping in...I just was going through the unanswered posts!