anonemouse

I have to drive between 5.5 and 7 hours (depending on if I'm driving from my parents' house or my apartment), one way, to see my surgeon for fills. I would LOVE to only have to drive 3 hours. It's totally doable, you just have to be careful about scheduling stuff.

I feel like throwing my doctor's scale out the window. It always seems to give me 5 pounds of extra weight.

Bandster_1007, has your doctor evaluated you for Cushing's syndrome/disease? Cushing's and PCOS share a LOT of symptoms, but Cushing's is extremely severe. If he/she hasn't yet, ask your gyno/pcp to do a complete hormone profile, including cortisol levels. That should not only give a definitive answer as to whether you have PCOS, but also either rule out or confirm Cushing's.

I noticed a reaction to it fairly quickly. It really sucked. This is probably way more information than you wanted, but I had very unpredictable diarrhea the entire time I was on it. It's really one of the things that pushed me into having lapband surgery. I knew that if I didn't lose weight, I'd be stuck on that crap forever. Talk about motivation!

Unless the fill kicks in more, I should be good to go. I've been getting soup down just fine. I'm tight enough that I have to sip (which I've never had to do before), but not so tight that I PB on what I'm sipping. I'm going to stick to soups and stuff for another couple of days, though, just to be on the safe side. I've been able to get thick, chunky soups down easily, so I doubt I'd PB on soft food, but I don't want to take the chance right now.

I've not seen it at Walmart, but if they have it, it would be somewhere in the frozen food section. I've looked in the section with the regular veggies and didn't see it, but I didn't have time to really search for it, either. If you have a Kroger or another grocery store with a frozen health-food/organic section, you could probably find it, though. I've always gotten mine at Kroger. You're welcome! They're an incredibly yummy healthy snack. I've not had any problem hitting my Protein goals since I've started eating them for Snacks. I've even thought about buying the shelled edamame and putting it in homemade Soups and maybe even my bean salad recipe. I bet you could even make a hummus-like dip out of it, maybe add some garlic and other spices. I saw someone on TV make dumplings out of it, too, using pureed edamame in wonton wrappers.

I had a fill yesterday, and my doc put in .5 cc. That's a pretty big fill, considering I already had over 2 ccs in my band. I'm TIGHT. I had hit my sweet spot with the last one, but lost enough weight that I had been really loose recently. I was even eating bread! Not tons, of course, but when I've got good restriction, I can't even nibble on bread. Right now, I'm having to sip, sip, sip everything. But that's fine. My doc says that as long as I can get liquids down, I'm good.

I feel so sorry for all of you on metformin. I was on it for several months and my body never got used to it. I was completely miserable, especially since I was doing the fieldwork for my thesis at the time and didn't have quick access to a bathroom. I was having to carry TP with me and constantly kept on the lookout for a decent bush.

Oh my GOD, the Rapid Blast things are disgusting! I tried one the night before my surgery because I was starting to get a headache, and I nearly threw up. The actual mint flavor wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't combined with that nasty bitter tylenol flavor. It's like they just combined crushed tylenol with some strong mint flavored stuff, compressed it into a chewable, and called it done. ICK! And if anyone should be tempted, never EVER open an ibuprofen liquigel and squirt it into your mouth. I wanted to rip my lips off and stomp on them.

Oh, I LOVE Iron Chef and the Food Network competitions. Or at least, I'd much rather watch them than Giada, Rachel, or that horrid Sandra Lee.

Told you it was yummy!

Remember, the only thing that is ABSOLUTELY required at a wedding is that you two get married. Everything else is extra. If you are really short on money at the moment, you can always have an extremely simple wedding and schedule the reception/party for some time in the future, when you'll be better prepared to pay for it. That's what my brother did.

I've read Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, and I thought the majority of the recipes sounded either pretty bland or outright gross, honestly. Tofu scrambles instead of eggs? *shudder* I think there were maybe two recipes in the entire book that I'd be willing to try.

Janie, don't worry, it will definitely change! It may not change with your first fill, but you'll definitely start losing again once you get decent restriction.

I asked about that at my pre-op, and my surgeon said she saw no reason that I couldn't wear a normal underwire bra if I wanted to, since the edge of the bra wasn't anywhere close to my incisions. The closest incision to the edge of my bra is still a good 4 inches away.

*sigh* I wish I could buy clothes at Lane Bryant. They seem to primarily run on the principle that wider always equals taller or bigger all over, though. Even at my heaviest, I had a very hard time finding clothes that looked halfway decent on me there. Even their petites were generally too long.

At the moment, that sounds both wonderful and terrifying. I keep getting flashes of, "That would be an amazing experience." Then I get flashes of, "What the HELL am I thinking? I'd be going into what is quite likely a male-dominated culture, with few to no other Americans around, a language that I don't speak, and incredibly primitive surroundings." :phanvan I keep thinking no, yes, no, yes. Sigh. It's a good thing that I have a while to think about it. There'll be an information session held at my university in late February, so I'm probably going to go to that. Hopefully, I can make up my mind by then.

I eat the frozen unshelled edamame by Seapoint Farms. They also sell frozen unshelled edamame in a Dora the Explorer package that contains 6 snack-size bags that you can defrost individually. I've thought about buying some of the shelled edamame and using it in soups or as a side dish. I had teriyaki ginger chicken sausage last night, and that would have been good sliced up in some brown rice, mixed with shelled edamame and a little grilled pineapple.

Ooh, that sounds pretty good.

The 100c Sandies are YUMMY. I'll sometimes have those or boil some edamame to eat.

Wow, Wheetsin! You're kind of a changling, when you consider the rest of your family! I think you probably lucked out with the parents you have!

If you've ever been in the rants and raves forum, you probably know me. I've been hanging around here for a while, since it took me about 9/10 months to get approved and have surgery. I'm 24, banded 7/3/07 in Memphis, TN. I'm basically a 50/50 resident of Kentucky/Tennessee (getting a MS in Biology in Kentucky, but spend a lot of time with my family in TN when I'm not working on my thesis or teaching). Ha! You wish! Ain't NO ONE seeing this fat chick naked until I'm a heck of a lot closer to goal! :eyebrows:

Hi, guys! I'm 24. Like someone else said, I decided to get the band because I wanted to experience life while I was still young. I'm in a career field that is really biased towards people that are physically fit (as it should be, IMO, because it's heavily rooted in fieldwork), and I wanted to be able to apply for any job that I was interested in, without wondering if I was too fat to fulfill the requirements. I also wanted to be able to go clothes shopping for once in my life without being forced to stay in the fat section of the store ('cause it SUCKS to try and find clothes if you're fat AND short). I knew that if I didn't do something soon, I'd wind up with a lot of severe conditions. I already had very high cholesterol and diabetes and heart disease are very common in my family. I didn't want to turn out like my mom, with diabetes and a double knee replacement.

Have you tried switching from regular salt to sea salt? I think sea salt is supposed to either have less sodium in it or a saltier flavor (resulting in less needed), I'm not sure which.

I've found a very good brand of chicken sausage, and it isn't half-bad for you, either! The brand is Al Fresco. So far, I've tried the teriyaki ginger, and if you like teriyaki sauce on stuff, you'll love it. It's not super-strong flavored, but it is yummy. I just can't eat the casing (hard to chew it enough), but the sausage itself is very good (IMO, better than regular sausage because it has a better texture). In fact, I had it for dinner tonight, along with some edamame. A serving size is one sausage, but I've never been able to eat an entire one. They range from 130-170 calories per sausage, depending on the variety, and have 15 grams of Protein. Here are all the varieties of their dinner sausages: Sweet Italian Style Teriyaki Ginger Roasted Garlic Sweet Apple Spicy Jalapeno Sundried Tomato and Basil Buffalo Style Mango Chipotle They also have smaller chicken Breakfast sausages, too (60-70 calories per sausage, depending on variety): Apple Maple Country Style Wild Blueberry So if you're ever in the mood for sausage, these are a pretty decent alternative to a lot of other sausages.