DonnaB

I feel for you Sylvie, I've done it several times myself. Hang in there, log your food, keep working for it - IT WILL HAPPEN! It's frustrating but this tool is meant to help over the LONG haul and you've got to give it time. Good luck on your weight loss journey.

Under a 1000 calories per day? That's really, really low - please be careful. You need to make sure you're gettin in enough protein - as I lose more and more hair every day, I realize how important ALL the nutrient requirements are and I can't imagine that you're get enough at 500 - 1000 calories a day. www.FitDay.com is a great site that offers a FREE food journal and a $20 downloadable food journal. The $20 journal works better and has been the best $20 investment I've EVER MADE IN MY LIFE. I wish I'd done a food journal before banding. Good luck overcoming all obstacles - including your mother! - and on your weight loss journey. Let me take a moment to say "Thank you Mom for not putting that kind of pressure on me, back then OR now!"

Hey Linda, Good for you! I too have cleaned out my closet, but I haven't yet given anything away. I haven't made that brain leap that says I won't gain that weight back again! Maybe soon.

Hi Cathy, I'm so sorry you had to have your band removed after such a short time. Good for you for having such a great attitude and making a plan for the future. Good luck and make sure you let us know how you're doing.

Hi Koko, Welcome to LapBandTalk. Do yourself a favor and don't stay on the 'Complications' thread for too long. It's a good idea to know what kinds of things CAN happen, but the actual rate of complications is pretty low. When you read that thread - everyone does! - try to remember that a support forum get's more people experiencing complications than people who have no complications and are out there just living their lives. I'm not trying to deny that complications do happen, just that the percentages are skewed on a support forum. Good luck on your weight loss journey.

Thanks everyone. It's reassuring just to hear everyone elses stories. I didn't plan on actually not showering - lol - I'm just never going to look forward to a nice, long, hot, shower again. I'll be dreading every second and worrying about how much I'm going to lose during this shampoo, and if I'll start to see bald spots on my head. Right now I can definitely feel the difference when I style my hair and the part in my hair seems to be wider than it's ever been. After the nightmare clump/loss I've decided it's time to let my hair air dry and figure out how to tame the natural curl into something I can be seen in public with. Blow drying and straightening are now things of the past. I know I should just stop freaking out and let happen what's going to happen but every time I think about it I start to meltdown. Take a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out. The good news is that I have not (yet) consoled myself with my best friend - food. Leatha - I went back through my FitDay logs and my daily Protein actually averages out to about 85g per day. So far no problems, but when I see my doc in about a month for my annual exam I'll ask her to take particular note of my urinalysis results to see if I need to adjust. Ricanlady - so you had massive hair loss for about 2 months and now it's stopped? Are you doing or taking something that might be having this effect? Particular Vitamin or shampoo? What treatment did you try? Nioxin? I'm thinking of giving it a try. It can't hurt. Thank you hairagain, Morsaille, LittleBird, vinesqueen, and nightingale2u - your support, encouragement, advise, anecdotes, and prayers are all sincerely appreciated. You think stress may be adding to the hair loss? I'm going to (finally) go to college starting on August 28th and I had to take a bunch of placement tests two weeks ago which really stressed me out. I have a severe math phobia for which I might actually be declared disabled - how weird is that? I could be able to graduate from college without having to pass a math course because of my 'disability.' Of course I'll have to go through another battery of tests to have this exemption. More stress - but at least it doesn't have to happen for awhile, and belive me, I'll put it off for as long as possible. Heck, I put off college for 27 years because of math - what's 2 or 3 years of math test avoidance? Thanks again for all of your words of wisdom. I guess I have to ride it out - I don't really have a choice do I? Edited to add: the irony of ironies - I'm going on Monday to have laser hair removal on my chin and neck! This just sucks.

I have IBS too but it doesn't follow a regular pattern - if you'll excuse the pun. I can't go and can't go, then when I finally do, it starts off difficult and ends up in a rush - if you get my drift. I have NO IDEA how to deal with that, my doctor doesn't seem to know either. I take Benefiber but I haven't noticed it making a change in my situation, and I take between 4 - 8 teaspoons of it a day! Shredded Wheat helps if I eat it EVERY DAY, but I don't want to take in all the calories of the milk. Even skim milk is pretty high. 1/4 of a cup of raw almonds every day helps a bit, but again, very high calories. How does Fiber One cereal taste by itself? Eating it as a snack. How many calories does it have? *sigh* I've been like this for most of my adult life and I worry about colon cancer as a result.

I've noticed that not many people use the chat room even when it's working properly. That's a shame - I think it would be fun to talk to each other in "real time."

That was hysterical - or maybe I am. Hmmmm. LOL, thanks Vines.

Ya, I know it's gonna get gross if I don't do it, but . . . I don't want to wash my hair anymore. I lost a huge clump of hair in the shower yesterday and now I'm afraid to wash it, comb it, touch it, or look too closely at it! Seriously, I lost enough hair in the shower that it clogged the drain, and then, while I was rinsing out the conditioner, I felt something slide down my leg. I looked down and a huge clump of hair was on my ankle. I felt nauseated and dizzy - almost like I was going to faint. I totally freaked out. I've only lost 40-something pounds. I have another 90-something to go. At this rate I will be bald in a month. I get a lot of protein every day, sometimes as much as 150 grams. Never less than 65 grams per day. What am I going to do? I can't be fat AND bald. I can't believe I'm crying over hair loss. I'm so depressed. I really want to lose the excess weight, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it.

Thank you Vines! I feel certain that Jachut never meant for anyone to feel put down by her post. You've hit the nail on the head - this is an argument based on miscommunication and knee-jerk defensive reaction. You always seem to be able to 'cut to the chase,' if you know what I mean! I think you're just naturally more empathetic than a lot of people - or at least you're more able to express it. You're always willing to look for the good before seeing the bad. An excellent quality.

I'm 5' 9" and according the the BMI, my "normal" weight range is 125 - 150. That's a pretty broad stretch and, honestly, what IS normal? I wear a size 12 when I'm at 150 pounds and that's what I'm shooting for. In all honesty I'd be happy to be 175 or so, while 135 - 140 is my ' wake-up-you're-dreaming' weight. LOL

Doing laundry in a shared laundry rooms just sucks all the way around. Lugging clothes to and from. Waiting with it or wondering if someone is touching your stuff if you don't. Yuck. Worst of all, laundry rooms can be dangerous places. Bad stuff happens in them frequently. Be careful argon.

I buy rotisserie cooked chicken from the grocery. I wrap it up in foil, with it's juices, breast side down, and put it in the oven on 250 for an hour or so. It comes out so tender it's falling off the bone, and because it was breast side down, the breast is very juicy. I do still have to take small bites and chew, chew, chew. But that's true with everything.

I've been banded since March 7th, so my expertise on being banded is limited, but I can honestly say I have only been truly hungry a few times since then. The problem for me isn't true hunger - it's head hunger. I've had a couple of weeks when my brain isn't constantly nagging me to eat but, sadly, as I approach my time of the month, the head hunger is starting to win out again. Nag, nag, nag, eat. Are you sure you're not experiencing head hunger? It's a pretty big monkey on most obese peoples' backs. Like, King Kong sized.

Whew! What a relief. I was beginning to think you were Wonder Woman! Seriously, you're doing so much more than I have even considered. You're taking your life by the horns and twisting it in the direction you want it to go. That takes a lot of courage and strength - both of which you clearly possess. It's a relief to know that even Wonder Woman needs the support of her friends every now and then! lol And here I was, all proud of myself for finally facing my math demons and enrolling in college! Meanwhile you're helping to shape a nation! I'm in awe.

Not a big fan of Jayaseelan. He's probably a good surgeon - I know he does a lot of them - but his bedside manner sucks. Oh, he's nice enough, but his fill was painful and he didn't do what I asked of him - in fact, he did the opposite and then didn't inform me. That really pissed me off. Read my LBT journal if you want to know more. P.S. I had my surgery in Mexico and use Jayaseelan's office for aftercare. I would take my business elsewhere but his PA, Arlene, is FABULOUS. I highly recommend HER! Best wishes on your journey.

My sister was a GS leader when her daughter was about 9. She LOVED it. They had a great time making huge glitter messes all over their house! lol My sister took her troop to a GS camp for a weekend along with LOTS of other troops. While she and another leader had their girls out on a nature walk/picnic, the other leader had to go back to the campsite for some reason and left her group with my sister and her group. My sister was so involved with keeping the other group from killing each other (there were several problems with that other group) two of her girls wandered off by themselves and got lost. It took hours and hours to find those two little girls. Thankfully, the pair were found, safe and sound, just a little scared and hungry, but my sister never got over it. She had panic attacks for months over losing the two girls. She stopped being a GS leader shortly thereafter. Too nerve wracking. It really wasn't my sisters fault, the other leader never should have left her girls with a virtual stranger, especially knowing she had some problem kids in her troop. She should never have left my sister to care for that many kids without another adult to watch them all. Whether is was her fault or not, it REALLY messed my sister up for a long time. She still gets that panicky feeling when we talk about her time as a GS leader. Sad.

I ABSOLUTELY agree with Elisabethsew. I feel bad for the guy because it probably will damage his relationship with the company, but you really don't want his wife's accusations damaging YOUR relationship with the company. Document, document, document. WITH a third party. (Was it at least an ego boost? - Is the guy cute? LOL I'm kidding.)

ALL of them I think.

I found this article on AOL about food and genomic interaction. There's not a lot of new information here, but it's never a waste of time to possibly gain a new perspective - maybe turn on a lightbulb over our heads! Awaken Your Fat-Burning DNA Dr. Mark Hyman discusses the interaction between genes & weight-loss. Listen to Dr. Hyman's Podcast Dr. Mark Hyman, author of 'UltraMetabolism,' talks with AOL's Book Maven Bethanne Patrick about the role genes play in your diet and weight-loss plan. Here are excerpts from the interview: Bethanne Patrick: Oh, it's great to talk with you and this is so exciting. Your book is about nutrigenomics, can you explain to us what that is and then we'll talk a little bit more about your background. Dr. Mark Hyman: This is a whole new wave of medicine that's emerging based on science and nobody's hearing about it. It's really how food talks to our genes and turns on messages of health or disease, weight loss or weight gain, and it's called nutrigenomics. Get More Health Advice Mark Hyman discusses how to achieve greater health and vitality and lead an age-defying, disease-free life. Listen to Dr. Hyman's Podcast Interview Podcast Interview: Read Your Body's Manual How Does Inflamation Affect Your Weight? chocolate and Other Fats to Help You Slim Down Download a Free Sneak Preview of 'UltraMetabolism' Buy ‘UltraMetabolism' Get More Health Advice From Dr. Hyman Find More Self-Help & Wellness Interviews More Tips and Advice From AOL Coaches Bethanne Patrick: Wow that's something I don't think any of us ever really thought about. Is that why I love bacon so much? Dr. Mark Hyman: Probably not. I don't know if it's sending the right messages. Bethanne Patrick: So explain to us, when you say 'food talking to your genes,' what kinds of messages are you describing? Dr. Mark Hyman: Most of us think of our DNA as sort of locked in our body, waiting to be passed onto our children, but in fact your DNA at every moment is interacting with your environment, interacting with every bite of food you take, interacting with your thoughts, your feelings, and various things, so when you take a bite of food, literally, the information -- beyond the calories in the food -- goes right into your cells, into your DNA, and switches on genes, or turns off genes based on what information is in that food. Bethanne Patrick: So, DNA is interactive. Dr. Mark Hyman: It's like the software for your body. If you are not giving it the right messages to start the gene activation that leads to your metabolism, it's going to lead to weight gain and disease. The whole book Ultra Metabolism is based on the notion of this revolution in medicine -- that if we live in a way that's in harmony with our genes, we can fit into our jeans. Bethanne Patrick: You use the analogy that putting the wrong food into your body is like putting diesel fuel into a regular car. Dr. Mark Hyman: Exactly. I mean, would you think of feeding your dog French fries, a Big Mac and a Coke? No. We know that there's something wrong with [feeding] that to a dog. Yet we feed that to our children. These foods are not what [we have] adapted to from an evolutionary point of view. So if we live in a way that's more akin to how our bodies were designed then everything takes care of itself. Bethanne Patrick: Tell me about how you found out about nutrigenomics and ultra metabolism. Do you have a lot of experience in this field? Where does it come from? Dr. Mark Hyman: Well, I always call myself the accidental weight loss doctor because I never started out seeking to help people lose weight. People came to me with health issues, and I saw people who tried everything. My job was to be a medical detective to figure out the underlying causes of their problems. When I took care of the underlying health problems based on this new science nutrigenomics, the pounds took care of themselves. People just lost weight, without even trying. For example, yesterday I saw a woman who came to see me in November because she was tired and fatigued, had digestive issues and had many, many, many other issues and she was overweight. Three months later she came back and she lost 37 pounds. Bethanne Patrick: Wow. Dr. Mark Hyman: I didn't even recognize her and I didn't tell her to lose weight. I never tell people to go on a diet or lose weight, I said 'here's how you eat in a way that works with your body, rather than against it' and when you do that the natural intelligence and wisdom of the body takes care of the rest. Bethanne Patrick: [What are] these seven myths about obesity? What is the starvation myth? Dr. Mark Hyman: The starvation myth is the idea that if we eat less and exercise more we will lose weight, and unfortunately, when we do that, when we starve ourselves or restrict our calories, we trigger a primitive survival response that drives us to compensate by overeating. We all have the experience, for example, of starving yourself all day, skipping Breakfast, light lunch or maybe not at all, and then you get home and what happens? You clean out the refrigerator. Bethanne Patrick: Exactly! Dr. Mark Hyman: And then you feel sick. Of course, we've done that over and over again. Now the first time you might do it you might think, 'Oh well, I shouldn't do this again because it's going to make me feel sick.' But how many times have all of us done that? Why? That's how our bodies are programmed. So if you eat less than your basic needs, if you starve yourself, you'll always backfire, you'll gain the weight back, and you'll probably gain back even a little bit more. People gain an average of five pounds for every diet they go on. Bethanne Patrick: The second one is the calorie myth. What's that about? Dr. Mark Hyman: If you look at how calories actually work in your body, different foods have different properties beyond [their] calories. For example, if I [drink] a Coca-Cola which is pure sugar, it goes straight to my bloodstream. It turns on messages that make me gain weight. If I eat a diet that's full of Fiber and whole foods that has the equivalent amount of calories it has a different effect. Doctor David Ludwig, one of the top scientists and researchers in obesity in the world at Harvard, did a study with three different groups of kids and gave them three different breakfasts: oatmeal, field cut oats and omelets, exactly the same calories. What's fascinating is that the kids that ate the oatmeal were hungrier, they ate 80 percent more food that day and their biochemistry was different; their cholesterol was higher. Bethanne Patrick: Really? The oatmeal eating group? Dr. Mark Hyman: Oatmeal enters the bloodstream quickly. The omelet group had sort of a slow-burn effect. In other words, the calories were released slowly into the bloodstream and they didn't trigger these hormonal responses and these genetic responses that trigger us to eat more and be hungrier. Get More Health Advice Mark Hyman discusses how to achieve greater health and vitality and lead an age-defying, disease-free life. Listen to Dr. Hyman's Podcast Interview Podcast Interview: Read Your Body's Manual How Does Inflamation Affect Your Weight? Chocolate and Other Fats to Help You Slim Down Download a Free Sneak Preview of 'UltraMetabolism' Buy ‘UltraMetabolism' Get More Health Advice From Dr. Hyman Find More Self-Help & Wellness Interviews More Tips and Advice From AOL Coaches Bethanne Patrick: The third one is the fat myth. Dr. Mark Hyman: The fat myth is the idea that if we restrict fat we will lose weight. The Women's Health Initiative shows us that low-fat diets don't really help. And I think that the real important point here is that it's the type of fat that you eat that makes the difference. I think one of the things we don't realize is that if we eat a diet full of trans-fat or the steak fats that are in processed food, it really goes to a part of our genes, turns on messages that make us gain weight, that slows metabolism, that makes us have more inflammation, that makes it more likely that we get diabetes. If we eat the right fat [like] Omega-3 from fish oil, flax seeds, walnuts and seaweed, they will turn on the genes that make us lose weight. Bethanne Patrick: The carb myth is sort of is the same thing. Dr. Mark Hyman: I say to people that carbohydrates are the single most important thing you need for long term health and weight loss. That goes in the face of what a lot of people are saying right now. The reason I say that is carbohydrates are the source of all the Vitamins and minerals and what we call phytonutrient or plant chemicals that help us stay healthy. Things like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, Beans, nuts and seeds -- these are all carbohydrates. Bethanne Patrick: But they're good carbohydrates. Dr. Mark Hyman: Absolutely. It's the ones that are processed and refined and full of sugar that are bad for us. Bethanne Patrick: The sumo-wrestler myth is about skipping meals. Love that name. Dr. Mark Hyman: Yeah, well sumo wrestlers are made, not born. The way they're made is actually the way most Americans live. Like a sumo wrestler, they wake up, they may skip breakfast, they do a little activity and then they eat a huge meal and go to bed. When you skip breakfast and eat dinner before you go to bed, you're going to gain weight because your metabolism slows at night. When you fall asleep with a full stomach you're guaranteed to gain weight. Bethanne Patrick: The French paradox myth is myth number six. Why is that? Dr. Mark Hyman: Well, we think that the French are healthy and don't have heart disease because they drink wine and eat butter, and that's not true. Actually, they're getting more sick and more overweight because we're not only spreading Democracy, we're spreading obesity across the globe, including in Europe. What they used to do was eat real unprocessed and whole foods. Bethanne Patrick: So that's the key -- the unprocessed. Dr. Mark Hyman: They ate fresh food. They went to the market place every day and walked, because that was how their villages were set up. They also enjoyed their food. They didn't have the two minute lunch, they had the two hour lunch, and when we have pleasure and enjoyment with food our digestion and metabolism is geared to burn more calories than when we're stressed. When we eat at our desk, we're actually going to shut down our metabolism. Bethanne Patrick: The final myth is the 'Protector Myth.' What is the protector myth? Dr. Mark Hyman: The protector myth is the notion that government regulations and policies around the food industry out there is helping us to stay healthy and protect us from harm. I think that's unfortunately a very sad notion. The food industry makes up 12% of our gross national product and employs 17 percent of the labor force. And it spends 33 billion dollars a year marketing junk food to consumers. Only 2% of the 33 billion dollars is spent on marketing fruits, vegetables and healthy food. We're in a crisis because the only thing you can buy when you go on the road is food that's highly processed, devoid of all nutrients, that's full of calories and that actually turns on genes that make you gain weight and get sick. The entire food industry – the restaurant industry, the diet industry, hospitals, drug industry -- everybody profits from people being sick and overweight. The whole system's backwards. We need to stand up for policy changes that can help, such as getting junk food and vending machines out of schools and stop advertising of junk food to children and so forth. Bethanne Patrick: If people are interested in this, where can they go to get more information? You've got a great website. Dr. Mark Hyman: Yeah, www.ultrametabolism.com/aol, they can actually download a free sneak preview of the book. I've convinced my publisher to offer this online which allows people to get a sneak preview. If they're interested then, they can go ahead and get the book. My DVD is available for the UltraMetabolism PBS show, which they can watch on their local stations or get a copy as well.

Well, um. Ya. I guess you COULD do that. Boy do I feel dumb. lol Oh, wait. If you do that it's insurance fraud. Insurance fraud carries a pretty stiff penalty. 10 pounds is not worth going to jail for. I stand by my original post.

It cost me $10,600 to pay for my surgery in Mexico. Plus airfare. If gaining 10 pounds - or even 20 pounds - would have made my insurance pay for the surgery, I would have done it. I expect my response will get a lot of negative feedback, but in reality, if you're willing to pay more than $10,000 to lose the weight, a relatively small weight gain to save that much seems like a no-brainer to me. Now, if you have to gain 30, 40, or 50 pounds to make the cut, that's a different story. At least it is in my Fairytale. Good luck with your decision - let us know what you decide.

I think you may be confusing the size of the actual band vs. the capacity of that band. People who have a 10cm band, have a band which will hold a capacity of 4cc's of saline. I'm not sure of the measurment of the bigger band, but it holds 10cc's of saline - more than twice the capacity of the 10cm band. cm refers to the measurement of the actual band cc refers to the amount of liquid the band will hold Does that confuse the issue further, or does it make sense?

I've had the black tongue - after taking Pepto Bismol. I had no idea Pepto did that and it scared the crap out of me.