KartMan

I never really doubted that Jesus existed, or that he was a prophet, and every indication is that he was a great man. I do doubt that he actually performed any miracles or was the son of god (if there is one).

I was banded 2/18/09 and have kept it pretty boring but satisfying for me. I like the foods, so the lack of variety has not bothered me much. I have kept it simple mainly because when I eat this stuff I already no the calorie and Protein content. Breakfast about 300-350 calories 2 eggs scrambled with diced onions, tomatoes, and about 1/3 chicken breast with ¼ cup shredded cheese on top lunch about 300-500 calories 1 to 1.5 cup of chili (with Beans and meat) or some other high protein thick Soup Or 1/3 to ½ diced chicken breast sautéed with onions, tomatoes and sprinkled with 1/8 cup cheese also ½ cup of refried beans with 1/8 cup of cheese dinner about 300-500 calories Pretty much the same as lunch I was filled today so I will be hopefully modifying these portion sizes down a bit.

Ok this may be TMI but did anyone have to do #2 a lot after a fill? I had my first fill this morning going from 0.6cc to 3.0cc and have had to go to the bathroom 3 times already today. I haven’t gone like that since pre banding and eating 3000 calories a day. I didn’t eat anything unusual yesterday, in fact it was a smaller than normal portion day for me (about 1000 calories).

Whoa now, there you go again. Time is NOT calculated by the coming of Jesus. Time is calculated by a precise scientific relation of the Earths rotation around its axis (hours and minutes) and its relative position around the sun (months). BC and AD are frames of reference on the Julian and Gregorian calendar (but not used at all on the Hebrew, Moslem, Hindu, American Indian, etc. calendars), but his birth and death have little relevance to the way time functions. In fact, BC and AD are not all that precise since the historical record doesn’t really show exactly when Jesus was born. Even the bible is conflicted on this topic. Matthew says he was born during King Herod's reign (Herod died in 4 BC) Luke says he was born during the reign of Cyrenius in Syria which began in AD 6. Which is right? Which part of the bible should we have faith in? This little example is a great illustration of the many inaccuracies and inconsistencies contained within the bible that make it hard for many of us to believe in it. The four gospels are often considered the most important part of the New Testament, yet they actually are riddled with inconsistency, omissions and historical inaccuracies such as this one. Where do all those bibles go anyway? I'm not sure people are reading them, if they did they might be even more confused than they were before they read it.:thumbdown:

People love to talk. Some people like to talk about other people. I know you feel hurt, but you opened the door by talking about it at all. I have been quiet about my surgery too. But I realized that once I told one person outside of my inner circle the word would get out. The percentage of the population that have had WLS is still pretty low, so we are still a bit sensationalized in what we have done - that makes people talk. Just tell her that you prefer she not talk about it, or at least if she does need to talk about it she should get her facts straight. But you cant expect her to give up gossip altogether. In fact, I would guess the more you dwell on it the more the chatter will continue. If you really want to confront, you could tell her that at least you did something about your weight and that maybe she should do something about her “insert problem here”.:biggrin:

Hmmm, You should be careful with that train of thought. By that same reasoning David Koresh and Jim Jones may have been god too. They told their people that they were, and their people followed them to their deaths. In the case of Jones it was some 900 people. You can't use actions of the followers to validate the “facts” about god or jesus.

Or to eat a cow :tongue_smilie:

No! No! No!:tongue_smilie::cursing::ohmy: You (like a lot of us) are barely into this process and way too early to do something so self destructive. Think back to all the diets you did before… They worked at first right? While you were following the program that is. Then one day you splurged, and it wasn’t too bad on the scale. So then you did it again, even sooner the next time. Next thing you know you were back to your old eating habits and fatter than before. That’s when you discovered the band and signed on for a change in your lifestyle. Look, if you are like most of us you have a problem - once you indulge you can't stop. You paid the expense (or went thru the insurance hurdles), suffered the anxiety of the surgery, lived thru post-op, and are enduring fine thru bandster hell. Don’t sabotage all of that for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. If you cant tell them the truth of why you are eating less, then just lie. Just say you are recovering from a medical condition that reduced your appetite, I’m sure you can get creative. Honestly, I think you are looking for an excuse to splurge. Why do I think that? Because I think I might be tempted to do the same and so would a lot of us on this board. Resist the urge, stick with the program, and love the new you.

Count me in the lucky camp too:thumbup:. I was banded 2/18/09 and have felt restricted enough to have cut may portion size way back from pre-band days, enough so that I have lost 30+ lbs. I go in next week for my first fill which I'm hoping will cut my portion size by yet another 1/3. I have been eating 3 meals a day of 400-500 calories per meal. I rarely feel hungry between meals. I have been doing great with not drinking during or after meals. I do drink a big glass of water just before breakfast, if I miss out on that one I have a hard time drinking my full amount during the day. Yesterday I had my first real stuck/PB episode on some eggs and chicken that I had for breakfast. It wasn’t quite as bad as some of the horror stories I read on here, but it was a wakeup call to slow down while eating and to chew chew chew.

Yes! That certainly is something we can agree on.

You are misinterpreting what I said. I was talking about MY own way of looking at it. I have a very hard time believing something that does not have a basis in facts. Especially something as big and often misused as religion is. If at any point here it sounds as if I am bashing someone’s religion, I apologize – that is not my intent. I think it is great that people have faith, if it makes their day brighter or makes them a better person, then for me that is a good thing. I really draw the line though when someone’s faith (or more likely religion) encroaches on someone else’s beliefs or lack of beliefs.

Well, I don't know it very well yet as we've only been together 5 weeks - but so far so good. I can tell you this, I have never been 5 weeks to any diet that I felt as good about.

Well that’s an easy one (at least from my perspective). Very little of science is based on faith, very little of religion is based on fact.

Or if you really like stats, you could consider that you are probably more likely to get in a horrific car accident on the way to surgery than to die as a result of the surgery. I don’t mean to make light of it, but it really is a fairly simple procedure with relatively low risks. If you are really concerned about your kids (I was about mine), consider the risks you are putting them in by you continuing to be obese. The longer you stay fat, the higher the chances are of you dying due to complications related to obesity.

I would never go so far as to call myself an Atheist because that would be the firm belief that there is NO god or power at all, which is a faith based belief itself (and also not supported by fact). Wicca turns me off for much of the same reasons as other religions do, in that they seem to get caught up in all the ceremony and hocus pocus in the same way as other organized religions. I choose to refer to myself as an Agnostic, one who really does know what if any power is out there (and frankly doesn’t care). I do have a firm commitment to try be the best person I can and to be good to the planet and my fellow man. For me that is enough to make me sleep well at night.

Just to clarify a point... I don’t think the Bible claims that God wrote anything in the Bible, but that it was written by man. Those men interpreted what they "believed" to be God's laws. The Quran claims that Mohamed (who was illiterate) was the instrument of God and that the verses came directly from God to Mohamed’s hand without any input from man. The closest thing to that in the Bible was when Moses went up to the mountain and came back with the Ten Commandments (which if memory serves me right were blasted onto the tablets by God himself, or was that part just in the movie?). It's interesting how Christianity and Islam have chosen to take some of those "laws" and profess them to be the word of God and that all who disobey are disobeying God directly while at the same time some of the less palatable laws or topics that don't suit their needs get little or no attention. The video from a few posts back was great because it reminds people like me (agnostic, indifferent, whateveryouwannacallus) that we can and often do do good things all on our own without a book, a Priest, an Imam or even God telling us to do it.

I am only 4.5 weeks in with no fill yet, so my only restriction is due to swelling – but I do feel some restriction as described above. I never have felt the band itself. You may think you would feel it in the same way you feel a watch on your am, but really you don’t. As the others have said, I can feel my port. It is sort of a “thicker” spot in my skin just above the larger of the scars, but it doesn’t hurt at all. I have had the sensation of two distinct stomach growls when I get hungry or shortly after I eat which is a bit odd, but not bothersome.

I went to Dr. Martinez at the Gastric Banding Center. http://www.gastricbandingcenter.com/index.html Everybody there was fantastic and the surgery went great:thumbup:

I really don’t know if there is a God or not, I guess that makes me agnostic. I also really don’t care. I believe in trying to be good to my fellow man because it seems like the right thing to do, not a rule to follow because a priest or a book told me so. While I don’t know the answer to “is God real?", I do know that there are religions and I am sick of them all. It seems that all of them are corrupt in some way or another. I just wish that all of you that are religious would just be happy with what you have and leave everyone else alone. It seems that religion is far too often used as a tool or justification for one group to oppress another. I am so sick of this religion looking down on that religion or a people using “gods will” as a justification to do their evil bidding. I love my country and its people (and I served it honorably in the military) but I don’t believe god or any other power makes us great, we have to do that on our own.

So far so good, down about 28 lbs after about 4 weeks. The first week was a little rough due to gas pains, but it seemed to pass fairly quickly. My doc wasn’t real specific on what to eat post-op. I stayed on clear liquids the first week, thicker liquids the second week and have been on thick mushy stuff since. I find that I eat a lot of ground chicken, refried beans, scrambled eggs and shredded cheese. Only the chicken has caused me problems and only if I eat too fast. I haven’t had a fill yet, but I have been pretty satisfied with 3 400-500 calorie meals a day. I am losing .2 -.6 lbs per day and it has been pretty effortless. I haven’t really exercised much, but I know I need to start. I did go on a pretty long bike ride last Sunday that almost killed me. I had eaten my 400 cal breakfast at about 8am and started the 14 mile canyon ride at about 12:30PM. About 4/5ths of the way into it I was completely spent. Back in the old days I would have had plenty of energy to complete the ride, but now with so few calories in me I just ran out of steam. The lesson I learned was to make sure to have something in me before undertaking something like that again.

Fitzie, I’m not very far into this journey, but I have my own internal plan for success (which basically is to dramatically reduce my daily caloric intake). My problem has always been with volume. I have eaten my share of bad foods that helped to get me to where I am but the one thing that really packed on the pounds for me was the quantities that I would eat. I am looking to the lapband (and so far it working) to help me drastically cut my portion size down. One of the things that always contributed to my diet failures in the past was the restrictions – can’t eat this can’t eat that. I know there are restrictions with this lifestyle, but they seem more palatable to me than what I have gone thru in the past. Since my portions are much smaller now, and I seem full longer, I feel like I am less likely to go overboard. I fell like this tool lets me eat the food I like (within reason) and the band keeps the portion size down. I have been eating between 1200 and 1600 calories a day (with what I consider to be tasty meals) and have been losing .2 - .6 pounds a day (which might actually be too much too soon). Some days I have eaten meals that are not physically bigger, but do have more calories. On those days, my loss usually stalls or I gain about half a pound. For me, that one day stall is ok about once a week just to give myself a little satisfaction. The trick for me is to not overdo it during that one meal, and to make sure not to let it go past one meal. I want to give myself a treat, not start a trend. I also am a big fan of weighing myself daily. If I did treat myself the night before and have a stall or gain, I let the band help my get things back in control quickly.

I had the pain for the first 3-4 days, then it seemed to go away for 2 days then came back for 1 day. When it did come back it was right after I drank something heavier than water or juice, esp if it was more than I should have drank. I am 12 days out now and it is totally gone. My dr said it is actually referred pain rather than actual pain in the shoulder. He said the gas is actually in the diaphragm between the abdominal cavity and the chest cavity. When the stomach swells up from too much liquid it presses on the gas which irritates the nerves, those nerve endings though terminate in the shoulder rather than in the diaphragm hence the pain "in" the shoulder.

Day 6 and 8 were fine for me:biggrin:, no problems. I would just say don't try to be a contortionist.

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It could happen, friends don't have to agree politically. But then again, you may consider me snobbish since I have already been banded.