isaviolinist

Okay here are my stats: Name, real or screen: isaviolinist Age: 28 Weight on January 3rd: I'm not sure, I was still on vacation, so I'll update my weight on Monday. My current weight is 201.6 Goal Weight for January 31st: 193.6 Exercise Goal for January: Keep up the intensity (1.25-2 hours a day/6 days a week with one day of rest or low intensity exercise) Dietary Goal for January: Eat mindfully instead of compulsively Personal Goal for January: Eat mindfully instead of compulsively Date Banded: June 18, 2009 Total Weight Loss Since Banding: 81.5 pounds Looking forward to joining this challenge!

I paid a 300.00 or so program fee (I think thats what it was). Seems pretty standard. Although, Im still not entirely sure what I got for it (not that I regret it, I love my surgeon and his office, but I had to pay for all of the copays for my preop tests and some of the tests weren't covered by my insurance).

I'm writing this from the waiting room of my eating disorder therapist's office lol. And I'm looking forward to discussing all of my holiday food issues with her - compulsive overeating really took over for me during these holidays. Everything we had been talking about in therapy just went out the window for me. I've found that beating myself up, telling myself that this is the start of yet another failure with a diet, etc is a SURE path to self sabotage. My therapist has said that this is the time that we really need to be good to ourselves. So I'm trying to give myself credit for a small loss over the holidays (I was also afraid to get on the scale, but life cut me a break w a small loss). So give yourself a break and just get back on track today!

I'm in!! I love challenges!! I was hoping to hit onederland by Jan 1 and missed it by just 1.8 pounds (but ill still be happy to get there in Jan). I'm out so ill post my stats when I get back - just wanted to bookmark the challenge!

Good for you! I'm a faithful food logger too. I use fitday.com. I also hate writing it by hand and haven't done that since I was 10 or 11 years old. That bar code scan app sounds awesome! Do you have an iPhone? I don't think I can do that on a blackberry (I'm waiting for iPhone to come to Verizon). I think there is an app to take a picture of a bar code for bb, but I think its for comparing prices. Anyhow, that sounds awesome!

Oooh congrats!!! I hope to be joining you in Onederland very soon What a great feeling that must be!!

Hi ck - congrats on your surgery! How are you feeling?? I had dissolvable stitches and they were inside of my incision so they were never removed - they just dissolved. The incision was also kind of glued together. And my first fill was about 6-7 weeks post op. Good luck and take it easy!

I'm jumping in too. I recommitted back in sept and have lost almost 55 pounds since then but lately my eating has taken over and I feel that I'm no longer driving this bus. I started going to therapy for binge eating disorder and I'm going to really focus on making the most of my therapy sessions. I've been playing with the same 3-4 pounds for the last 2 weeks, and with the amount of exercise I'm doing, that shouldn't be happening. I'm just a few pounds from onederland. I don't know if it will happen by new years but if it happens in the beginning of January, that will be great too. I'm exercising so much, I don't want to waste it with crappy food choices. So count me in! Also, alien - where are you going for vaca? Were meeting my fiance's mom in Hawaii tomorrow! I'm so excited to see her and also to get out of this horrible weather. And were also returning Jan 5th!

Yay! Im so glad The edamame burgers are so delicious (my fiance, who would eat red meat 3 meals a day, said he prefers them to regular burgers) and the lasagna was also so delish! If you scroll through old posts, you'll be able to see more recipes (I usually put in the title something like "Recipe:..." or "Edamame Burger Recipe!"...something like that). Let me know what you make and how it turns out!!

Crecia1975 - I'm so glad that tracking your calories has helped you! That's awesome! I really do swear by my food logs. When I'm not logging my food, its because I don't want to think about what I'm eating at all.

I'm so sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling great but YOWSAH! Congrats on onederland!! Hope to be joining you there soon.

I also have the cookbook Eating Well After weightloss Surgery and I love it. I'm kind of a passionate cook and I post a lot of recipes on my blog too (I'm posting from my phone so I can't paste the link but its in my signature). I take many recipes that are not designed for WLS patients and alter them. A few tips for cutting out calories in recipes (baking recipes are a little different and you just have to experiment to see what works): use 1/4 of the amount or less of oil a recipe calls for. Its amazing how little oil you really need to cook. Substitute things like eggs (use egg beaters or whites), sugar (use splenda or agave nectar). If you need flour, use a little less and use soy flour for extra protein. If a recipe calls for red meat, why not try to make it with fish or tofu? There are many little tricks but take a recipe and see what you can omit/substitute without cutting out flavor. Be creative!

Calories in vs out is science. There are many on lbt (and in general) who like to debate it (at which point I remove myself from the conversation...I can deal with a lot, but not enabling...I hate it). I count calories anally and make sure i'm at a significant deficit everyday and I lose weight steadily. When I'm not at a deficit I don't. It's a super simple formular - everyone should follow it (like really follow it...the snacks at the supermarket and the tastes of food while you're cooking count as part of your daily calorie intake). Good thread!

I'm pretty sure they weighed me. Can't remember for sure but I think they did. I definitely weighed myself before leaving for the hospital.

For some reason, I didn't get erased. Last time, my name got duplicated a bunch of times but the original one was left. Anyways, I recorded my loss for this week. Hopefully there won't be anymore shenanigans on the spreadsheet for the final week. Also, don't forget - there is also the New Year's Challenge (link is in my signature). The format is a bit different (should someone erase everything, you'd only need to re-enter your starting weight and current weight and goal weight...you don't need to remember your loss for each individual week) but I actually prefer it to weekly recording because you don't need to remember all that stuff should someone mess around with the spreadsheet. Anywho, good luck to everyone in the final week!!

I don't have a problem with popcorn (although I have heard that some bandsters do and my nut told me that its not a band friendly food). I really like the 100 calorie bags of popcorn. Its like 4 or 5 cups of popped popcorn. Yum!

I am totally addicted to Reese Pieces (my cat is named Reeses actually), Peanut Butter cups, any other candy with chocolate and peanut butter, peanut butter out of the jar. Peanut butter in general. I was in the baking aisle yesterday and those bag of peanut butter chips were really calling my name lol. I think I said out loud "Get out of my face". People in the aisle must've thought I was crazy. I really like PB2 to help ease my peanut butter craving. But I do allow myself to enjoy what I like now and again. The other day, I got a box of butterfinger snackers. I think it was 170 calories. I just factored it in to my calorie intake for the day. The suggestion to get a small bag of candy and bring into the movies is a great one. Movie candy is HUGE. Over Thanksgiving break I got a big box of reeses pieces at the movies too (and of course ate the whole thing). I'm working on not beating myself up if I have a slip up (slip up is not so much eating the treat, but actually overeating it compulsively). My therapist was telling me that even though our inclination is to beat ourselves up when we have a slip up/binge/whatever, that is the time that we need to be good to ourselves. Maybe the kinder and more forgiving we are to ourselves, the less we'll feel we need to use food for comfort ?

Before I go out, I try to check the menu before we go. That way I can plan what I'm going to order. I try to stick to the Proteins and stay away from pastas, rice etc. (not that I don't ever eat that stuff, but not at a restaurant because I have no idea how they prepare it). This is what I did with a menu item last week. From the menu: "Fresh fillet of salmon rolled in coarsely ground black pepper, sautéed and seared with a lemon-chive beurre blanc, with potatoes". I asked for the salmon to be broiled without any oil or fat instead of sauteed (I also asked how many ounces the salmon was...I'm anal about knowing these details). I asked for the beurre blanc on the side and I asked for steamed veggies without butter instead of the potatoes. All in all, it turned out to be a really healthy meal. We went out to dinner this evening and I had King crab legs. They were already prepared steamed without butter, but of course the butter comes on the side. Instead of butter, I asked for aioli on the side. I used a coffee spoon and scooped approximately a tablespoon of the aioli (and left the rest) and dipped my crab in that. Again, many people don't fuss with all of the asking for things on the side, or asking restaurants to prepare foods without oil or butter, and they just eat the food as is. But I prefer to have a little more control over what I'm eating when I go out (I cook decadently but I know what the nutrition facts are of what I make). So thats how I handle it. Now and again I just have what I want (special occasion or whatever). But in general, that's what I do and it works pretty well. If I can't eat everything on my plate, my fiance eats it or we take it home. If there is an appetizer portion of something that is meal-like, I may order that (but often appetizers are not the most nutritious items on the menu).

I do an hour of cross training 4-5 times a week and 1-2 hours of cardio (arc trainer and elliptical) 4-5 times a week (so somedays I double up and do two workouts). And Im eating 850-950 calories a day for the most part.

Make sure you are injecting yourself in fat and not muscle. If you're injecting into muscle it will really hurt a lot.

Lol - no, for real. I was driving when I got this notification on my phone and started laughing so hard I couldn't focus on the road. Especially when you yelled at me with capital letters. Hm, are you a policeman (you said you were helping other police and firemen)? You're not a Philly police officer, are you? Your aggressive disdainful and grandiose attitude would fit right in on the Philly police scene (although if you're no longer obese and you don't like to spend most of your day perusing the pretzel and hot dog bars at various WaWa locations around the city, you'd be in the minority in that respect). Anywhoo, glad to hear you weren't lost among the interwebs and you actually are on LBT because you've had WLS. And of course, congrats on your weightloss!

Not that I care to engage in this discussion, as I really don't think either side is right (and I think all the folks in DC are acting liking petulant children), but ariscus - according to your post history, you've only posted about conservative political news stories in the Rants and Raves section. Have you had/are you considering WLS? Because I feel like there are many other forums on the net which would give you much more lively discussion of these topics. While this IS an off topic area, I think most people are coming here for support with their band.

Nice congrats!! Bet that's an amazing feeling!! I have 3 pounds to go until I join you! Keep up the hard work!!

Good luck to everyone starting and to those who have already started the preop diet!! For me, the first few days were hard but then it got much easier and I stopped thinking about food. My fiancé (who was my boyfriend at the time) also did most of the preop diet with me which was helpful. When things got hard, I would just think about how much weight I was losing on the diet and that would give me renewed motivation. Good luck to everyone!! You can do this!

I hit 80 pounds lost today. 3 pounds to go until I'm in onederland (hopefully before the new year!), and then hoping to be joining you all in the "100 pounds lost" club, shortly thereafter! (in addition to losing weight, I also love bananas lol)