HeatherO

I would think most likely a virus because it sounds like everything else pertaining to your band is in good shape.

Couch to 5K is awesome . . . I tried to start before I knew about this program and I really had a rough time of it. I was gasping for breath in no time and thought I would never get there. I just needed a program to get started.

I terminated a 7 year relationship and remember how rough it was. No-one was abusive, cheating, not a lot of negativity. I just wasn't happy and knew I needed more, but you can't have more unless you make some decisions for yourself. I feel for everyone that is going through this now. Makeing the plunge to seperate is so hard and painful . . . but once you are on your own again it is amazing how quickly and easily things look up.

I have one that I never used. I also don't like to draw attention to myself. I usually order a small salad and eat part of my dh's entree. I have looked at the children's menu before in restaurants . . . and now I see why we are such an obese country. Options are like grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, burgers and fries, chicken nuggets and fries, etc. There is not much healthy on most children's menus at most restaurants. Why is that???

I am doing good but not really losing weight just maintaining. I am pretty much at goal anyway so I am OK with this and my doctor told me not to keep losing since I am pregnant. I did however notice that my size 8 pants are getting tight in the waist. I know that pregnancy can do that, lol . . . but it has been so great watching my clothes get smaller and smaller and smaller this year. I was working my way into a size 6, but I know that won't be happening anytime soon.

Good luck - and to be banded on New Year's Eve is really something. You can have fun with your resolutions this year.

Until you get closer to your sweet spot, you are going to be hungry and there is not too much you can do about it except to try your best. Almost none of us have decent restriction this far out from surgery. Don't worry, as long as you keep getting adequate fills it will happen. It is only a matter of time.

I have a sensitive stomach, so if I pb I am prone to do it again in the near future. The only way I can keep it from continuing to happen is by going on fluids for a day and mushies/softer foods the next. What are you eating after a PB? Also have you identified any specific foods that you are pb'ing on regularly. I know that something like bread will cause me to pb regardless.

Lapband prevents you from overeating by having a "hard stop" in place. It makes you feel full quickly with a lot less food and we all get triggers that tell us we are full. However, if we chose to ignore the triggers that tell us we are full, and cram in a few more bites after our bodies have already told us we are finished, we will get sick and vomit or slime or pb. Our bodies will reject the excess food . . . . and it is not pleasant. For many of us, a couple of episodes of this keeps us from wanting a repeat and we are trained to become more careful. Some of us keep testing ourselves. It is kind of like a small child with a hot pot. You say "don't touch" and maybe some children will listen, most won't and they get burned at least once in their childhood. Sometimes getting burned is enough to prevent them from touching a hot pot in the future. Sometimes they forget the initial lesson and do it again. Sometimes they feel like they want to test it and touch many pots during their childhood. For those of us who have become obese or morbidly obese, food is an addiction. Most people can't just say one day, ok I am done with that and I will no longer eat more than my body needs to survive. You have to relearn old habits. This takes time and effort. The first months are a bit of a struggle for all of us, some more than others . . . but you get past it for the most part and move on. So if you know that two more bites will make you very sick . . . do you indulge or not, it is a personal decision and you won't know for sure until you get there.

That is a very interesting point. I had a choice on bands but when i spoke to the doctors they could not give me a solid preference either way. I then talked to nurses, other banded people and they could not give me a real preference either. I then tried some internet research and other than J&J thinks their band is best and Allergan thinks their band is best . . . I still could not find anything solid to base my preference on. Therefore my final conclusion was that they must both be good bands and either one should get me to where I want to go. I went with Realize and have reached almost 100% excess weight loss. Would my current weight be any different with the Allergan band - I don't know but it would probably be similar.

What a nifty idea!!! Thank for sharing. It will definitely make it easier for others to see pictures.

Confession . . . I have been soooo thirsty but not drinking enough water, so there is milk, orange juice, coffee, tea, grape juice, etc, etc, etc. I haven't been slacking on liquid calories, thats for sure!!!!

I haven't had more than a couple of the "lights" in the thick and creamy over the past couple of months - the normal ones are 180 or so. The whips aren't light at all, but at only 140 calories I can live with that. I was also told that sugar substitutes are generally OK in small quantities. After banding, I cut out almost all artificial sugars. I read some scary things about all of the 4-6 daily diet pops I was consuming pre-band and I thought it really isn't that healthy. My coffee is creamer only, if I drink Juice it is the real thing just in smaller quantities, tea is also with creamer only and I just drink tons and tons of water. I will have an occasional Splenda in tea - but only half a packet. Yogurt is occasionally light but I wasn't eating it much until the past month or so. I only buy diet ice-cream but I might have bought it twice in the last year. I probably only have a couple of diet sweeteners a week at the most instead of the multitude daily I used to have. I tried to see is Splenda was healthy with pregnancy and there was nothing conclusive anywhere. It seems like there is just not enough information out there yet.

I think it is our pre-programming to be the caretakers, lol. I love help when I am too busy to breath but I can easily feel guilty when I have extra time and my dh is helping out, lol. If I have someone coming to clean - I always have to do a once-through to make sure it is not too embarrassing, lol. I feel like I need to pre-clean for the cleaners.

This is the hardest part to work through. It isn't healthy to eat until you allow yourself to get sick. If you do it regularly, you can get have slippage issues. I worked through it by telling myself that I can have more of whatever it is in another hour if I am still hungry - but by the time an hour rolls around, I am not hungry and have lost my desire for whatever it was. It is just the need to eat everything at the time you are there that you have to battle. Another way I have worked through this is to put as much as I know should make me full on a saucer - never put more than I think I need on the plate. It is a lot different to go make another trip to get more when you are already full then to eat the last 1 or 2 bites that are staring you down. You just have to be strong and get in the habit of doing the right thing. Counseling can definitely help, but this is still something you will have to face at every meal.

I have been indulging in my daily small bowl of cereal, which other than the milk and a bit of fiber, isn't doing anything special for me. Other than that, I am making good food choices most of the time (It is only that occasional 5-10% that I am ashamed of, lol). I am tired of same old, same old bandster choices. When I was in heavy weight loss mode, I swear I was eating the same things more or less constantly but now I am sick of them. I have really mixed up the menu quite a bit. I have been eating salad with home-made guacamole, making egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad from time to time with a touch of lowfat mayonnaise and lots of mustard. I have been eating a lot of protein lately whether it be chicken, steak and I have been cutting back on the fish. I want fish all the time but I know I am not supposed to eat a lot of it during pregnancy. My family is Turkish so we eat mostly meditteranean dishes with the occasional American, Mexican, Italian food thrown in when the mood hits me. One of my favorite standbys lately has been really good steak cut into small baby bite size pieces cooked with onions, tons of sliced portabella mushrooms, a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper paste and tomato paste with water. I make homemade chicken enchiladas with low-carb tortillas. This is great because my family loves it and makes great leftovers (one of the few things that can be better the second time around, lol). I have been making homemade soups, but two are the primary. One is a red lentil soup with chicken broth, shredded carrot, a whole small onion and potato pressure cooked, mixed to blend the onion and potato into the soup and served with red pepper and fresh squeezed lemon. The other is a yogurt soup with chicken broth, a little flour for thickening, a tiny bit of cleaned rice for texture, 1 egg yolk mixed in (good for texture but you can't taste it) and salt. When it is finished it is topped with fresh mint sauteed in a little butter, and red pepper flakes. It is not only yummy but is pretty in white with red and green flecks. I make chicken with okra in a tomato based chicken stock with onions. I pan fry salmon with fresh dill and lemon in just a tiny bit of olive oil with a sauce on the side that includes yogurt, dill and very finely chopped cucumbers. I make a fresh homemade salad almost every day with finely chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, parsley and lettuce. Sometimes I chop some red cabbage really small. This is always topped with fresh squeezed lemon and a little olive oil. Sometimes I will put a spritz or two of grape vinegar in it. This salad is always eaten throughout dinner and is basically my filler food. Anyway, those are the things I eat fairly often. There are not many carbs (if you forget the cereal and the carbs I have are not usually a main ingredient quantity-wise). I also do eat fats, but mostly olive oil in limited quanitties. Mostly they are whole foods that are non-processed and I think healthy for me, the baby and the rest of my family as well.

The pictures were very helpful and I was happy to see the indentation marks. Thank you for taking the time to post the images. Out of curiousity and in your professional opinion, do you have any specific preference between the Realize and Allergan bands in general?

I can lose on less than 1000 . . . but only for a couple of days and then I stall. Most of my weight loss to take me to a normal BMI has averaged between 1000-1200.

I think it also took me around 30 pounds to go down the first size . . . but now it seems to only take 10-15 to move a size down. When you get closer to a normal BMI, you skip through sizes very quickly. The beginning is always slow where it would take me a several months to drop to the next size . . . closer to goal it seemed like it was almost monthly. I am 5'3 and a BMI of 40 (225 pounds) was size 18/20 and XL tops, BMI of 25 (141 pounds) is a size 8 and Medium tops.

I went to Mexico in January at the beginning of this year . . . so I am already done and have lost the weight. :0) I went through Belite Weight and had Dr. Corvala perform the surgery in Tijuana at Hospital Angeles. I had a great experience there and they were very professional - it was a very nice hospital as well. This may not be the cheapest option, but if you have any questions for someone who has been there and done that, just let me know.

I am very sorry about your initial denial, but don't lose hope. You may still be able to make this work if you are persistent. Can they tell you exactly how much counseling they think you would need to turn it into an approval? Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with this. I had a WLS exclusion so I was self pay and skipped the insurance hassle. Just a suggestion . . . there is a forum on here for insurance and financing. You may want to post a thread there stating "Denied Due to Need for Additional Counseling" People will give you lots of suggestions there . . . and perhaps some people may answer that have had this specific problem and overcome it. This Ohio thread isn't very active and only a small number of people see it. By the way, we are neighbors too . . . I am from Mayfield Heights which is just a hop, skip and a jump down 90/271 from Willoughby :0).

It sounds like it must have been a fun gathering of the Violets in Texas. . . and I recognize just about everyone in the picture on TracyinKS's signature line :0) Laura, your Craigslist story is so funny . . . people just amaze me. The nursery is going to be soo cute. mdrai, no cereal???? . . . but I love cereal lately, lol. Sunshine2, you are going to feel awesome after you recover from surgery and your women problems dissappear with a nice flat tummy to boot. Piehole report: Dinner (yesterday night) - Eggplant Mussakka - yummy Breakfast - Slimfast and a banana because I ran out of time. Lunch - Mushrooms and eggs with a little cheddar cheese. Snack - 2 chocolate dipped potato chips here at the office (I really didn't like them that much). Dinner - hmmm, not sure yet.

Lol . . . I have been on a Reese Puff's or chocolate Lucky Charms or Frosted Shredded Wheat. I don't just want cereal . . . I want sugary sweet cereal and it is like a dessert for me. I have also been on a fruity yogurt kick lately. I like the Yoplait Whips or the Yoplait Light "Thick" yogurts. I like the different textures, there is plenty of calcium and not too many calories. Almost all of my indulgences are milk/dairy related. I certainly don't need any calcium supplements right now, lol.

You are soo right . . . it is just so much fun to speculate. :0) I just can't wait to see my baby for the first time, lol.