Tricia K.

We bowl on Tuesday nights and tape the show to watch when we return home. We're sitting down to watch it now. I'll let you know my thoughts once we've seen the entire show.

In the nearly 7 months that I've been banded, I've PB'd 5 times. So, that's an average of .7 times per month.

Not individual coverage, no. But thankfully, I'm still covered by COBRA. However, it will end next February, which is around the time that we are going to try to get pregnant. I wanted the individual coverage with a pregnancy rider so that we wouldn't have to pay for the delivery/hospital/etc. out of pocket. The sad thing is that the COBRA I have now only covers me and is more than what the individual coverage (high deductible HSA) would have been for both me AND my husband. BCBS of Louisiana did say that I could re-apply after I've had the band for a year and they "may" cover me. So, this coming October, we'll apply again and see what happens. I'm not sure about your other question. I don't even think Louisiana has that type of coverage. You may wish to call your state insurance board to find out. Good luck!

I'm literally in tears reading this thread. I absolutely LOVE animals and wish that we had a big enough place to have more. Bless you for taking them in and providing them with a warm and loving home. I'm so sorry to hear about LuLu. We have 3 cats, two (Smokey & Patches) that were adopted from shelters, and one (Simba) that we found (declawed) while walking the lake front of Lake Pontchartrain. We recently took in a stray (Morris) that we have been feeding for a year. He is a tomcat and kept getting into fights. The last fight tore him up so badly that one of his claws was ripped completely out! We decided to take him to the vet, get all of his shots, neutered, etc. and bring him in to stay. He's been in the house for 3 weeks and is adjusting quite well. He's had a few accidents, but that's to be expected. He has been an outside cat for so long. I'm attaching photos of all of them. I love them all so very much. Smokey & Patches Simba & Morris

You're very welcome.

Have you tried the South Beach High Protein Cereal Bars? They have 140 calories and 10 grams of protein.

Congrats, Margo! :biggrin1:

This came as a total shock to me, but I'm down 5 pounds, as of today.

I've never had sesame dressing but came across the following recipe from a Panera (one of my favorite restaurants) cookbook. Panera Bread Asian Sesame Dressing 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil Combine all ingredients except canola oil in a medium mixing bowl with a wire whisk. Once ingredients are combined, slowly pour in the oil while whisking to form an emulsion. Makes 1 1/4 cups Source: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/140008041X/ref=nosim/thekitchenlink]The Panera Bread Cookbook by Peter Reinhart[/ame] NOTE: From what I've read, most people who have tried this recipe are disappointed and say that it tastes nothing like the restaurant's dressing. However, someone did recommend another pre-made dressing - Trader Joe's Lemon Ginger Sesame Dressing - that is supposed to taste very similar to Panera's. Below is the link to their locations. http://www.traderjoes.com/locations/index.asp Here's another recipe I came across. Sesame salad Dressing This salad dressing has some unusual ingredients for an outstanding flavor. The small amount of steamed zucchini gives the dressing some of its texture, and the combination of garlic, lemon juice and soy gives the dressing its zip. It is great on a salad of Asian or baby greens, or try it over steamed asparagus or broccoli. 1/4 cup sesame seeds (buy raw hulled seeds and toast them in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly) 1/4 cup sliced, steamed zucchini 4 tablespoons Water 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley 1 clove garlic, chopped 1. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until browned. 2. Combine the sesame seeds and remaining ingredients in a blender container. Blend until smooth. Serves 8 Nutrients Per Serving Calories: 29. Protein: 0.9 grams Fat: 2.3 grams Saturated Fat: 0.3 grams Monounsat Fat: 0.9 grams Polyunsat Fat: 1.0 grams Carbohydrate: 2.0 grams Fiber: 0.9 grams Cholesterol: 0.0 mg Vitamin A: 68.6 IU Vitamin E: 0.1 mg/IU Vitamin C: 3.4 mg Calcium: 10.0 mg Magnesium: 18.6 mg

I typically track my food intake on fitday.com but I'll try to contribute to this thread as often as possible. Here is today's (4/11/06) rundown. Breakfast: 16 oz. vanilla protein shake made with skim milk Snack: 18 oz. latte with whole milk and 3 Splenda Lunch: 4 small meatballs in tomato/basil sauce with 2 slices yellow american cheese Plans for the remainder of the day: Snack: 1/4 c. premium blend nuts (pecans, cashews, macadamia, almonds) Dinner: 1/3 Lean Cuisine (not sure what kind yet) Total Calories: 1197 Total Fat: 61 grams - 46% Total Carbs: 68 grams - 22% Total Protein: 97 grams - 32% P.S. I've been eating more calories than normal the past week. I typically average around 800-900 per day. I've been having too many lattes!!

You're very welcome.

I've never had a problem with irregular periods but did gain a lot of weight from the time I hit puberty. After being diagnosed with PCOS roughly 5 years ago, I took Metformin for about 4 years and it didn't do much for me, especially in the weight loss category. It has helped some people with PCOS, but not all.

Mine is in roughly the same spot. Now that I've dropped 72 pounds, it's much more pronounced.

I have 2.8cc and am losing an average of 2.5 lbs. per week.

You may wish to try the plateau busting diet, found on the following link. http://www.digitalhorsewoman.com/plateaubusting.htm

I have PCOS and have been banded for nearly 7 months. Please visit the following thread for PCOS/banding info. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=15654&highlight=pcos

If you have a photobucket account, then, yes, you can post pictures side-by-side. If you open up a new post form, click on the Insert Image icon (it's yellow and looks like mountains with a small stamp in the right-hand top corner), and then paste the URL (web address) of your photobucket image, and then click ok, it will paste the image directly in the post. Then, if you click to the right of the image you just posted and hit the space bar a few times, you can paste another image to the right of the first by following the same steps. Just make sure your images aren't too wide that they end up one on top of the other. I recommend no wider than 350 pixels. Did I just confuse people even more?? Here's a sample picture that I have on my photobucket account. If you right click on the image and choose Properties, it will show you the location of the URL.

You're very welcome, Diane. First, I use a program called Adobe Photoshop to reduce (crop) the size of the photos so that they're not so big. Then, I upload them to my web server, and hyperlink them so that they show up in the post rather than having to click on a link and open a new window to view them. If you have a web server, I can walk you through it.

Diane Before @ 258 and After @ 202

Diane After @ 202 in original pants

Diane Before @ 258 and After @ 202

I noticed that PhotoNut hasn't responded yet so I'll do it for you. Give me a few, ok. P.S. You look GREAT!

Thanks, Txblue & Gurly. Txblue, my weekend went well but was, for the most part, uneventful. My husband and I went bowling on Saturday night and then hung out at home for the remainder of the weekend. Gurly, I'll be doing the happy dance with you soon!!

Congrats on a successful surgery. You look wonderful. I'm happy to see you back here.

LOL....that's ok. It's a common mistake. And, thank you!