Humming Bird

I do agree with many of your points. I think part of the problem today may be that both parents have to work and our lifestyle is so fast paced. McDonalds is so fast and easy. I know in many cases food that is less healthy is also cheaper. IMHO, I don't think it's a good idea to make kids clean their plate before they can leave the table. I have seen this happen and feel it leads to obesity as well. I do think there should be balanced meals offered and less junk in the house. I don't think there is anything wrong with having things like birthday cake, but have also seen households that offer this type of stuff too often. I think a topic like this may ruffle a few feathers because you/we are telling people how to parent. I'm not saying that anything said was wrong in any way. I'm just saying that even I had a sense of "who is that person telling me how to parent?" My youngest child is older than the OP and I have a grandchild. I do think we all need to take a look at how unhealthy we may eat and teach our kids. It's just a touchy subject when we try to tell others how to parent.

ice cream isn't clear, so it would have been a bad thing for me on day 4.

We did learn about this in the many science classes I had to take, but it has been many years, so I'm not good at explaining it. The sister who had the tightness may also have some air in her band. The pressure of any gas, including oxygen will increase as the altitude increases. It has something to do with Boyle's Law. I was trying to find a good explanation about shampoo and lotion bottles when flying, but have not found a real good one yet. The Fluid in the band will react the same way.

It depends on how tight you are and what altitude you are used to and several other things...... Think about what happens to shampoo bottles when you fly. I didn't have trouble when I went to see relatives a year ago and my band was pretty tight. I did find that I could eat more when I was there because I live at a 8,500ft. and the place we went was a great deal lower in altitude. When I go up over 9,500ft. I can hardly eat anything. It has to do with the pressure of oxygen.

I did try a sample in a Walmart. It tasted great at the time and the lady said it is great in coffee and cereal and oatmeal. All they had were very large ones, so I went ahead and got it. I tried it in coffee and oatmeal.....yuck

What a great idea! I got some almond milk, but don't like it much. Maybe this is what I will try to use it for.

Hang in there folks. It gets better every day. Follow your doc's orders. They are all different, but it's best to just follow what they say. My post-op was 7 days of ice cold clear liquids (the cold to help with swelling)...... anything you can see through. I guess I was pretty lucky that the hunger growling didn't start for me until week 3. When I could go with stuff that wasn't ice cold I found sipping jello (strawberry banana) in it's liquid state was heaven.

I can feel my port, but can't see it. It's located in the center of my torso about 1-2" below my sternum. My BMI is 24 now, so I'm pretty sure the port is in a good place where it won't show if I drop a few more pounds. It doesn't really creep me out at this point. It is kind of like having an extra little body part that I'm used to now.

Melody, I hope you are feeling better by the time your surgery day comes. It sucks to be sick anyway, but when you have big plans it sucks much more. I found a different job. Wooo Hooo! The stress at the other one was no longer acceptable. Greed had taken over and they were doing some illegal things with my pay. They were treating me very bad. I guess they didn't know me well enough to know that I don't tolerate being treated that way. Life is too short to put up with that sort of thing. Anywho, life goes on and I'm fortunate to have changed jobs without skipping a beat in this job market. I had been playing around with 2 pounds during this time and they are back off this morning. Yay!

LOL, so true. Those were both foods I ate when I got the OK. When I could eat a bit more solid stuff I started adding tiny pieces of broccoli to the Campbell's cheese soup. I still eat that. It tastes so much better than soup that already has broccoli in it.

Yes, it can be done, but sometimes it is better to set mini goals. Do it 5 or 10 pounds at a time. Look at milestones like getting to Onederland or fitting in the next size down in clothes.

This thread is an interesting read. There are many good points, including Spartan's, that make me think of my own journey. Yes, there are foods that I avoid just because they cause me pain. Health was not my number one reason for getting the band. I try avoid most fast food because it is both unhealthy and it causes pain. Wendy's chili is one fast food I still eat sometimes. I was a fast food junkie and that played a big role in my former obesity. I loved it bacause it was fast and tasted good to me. Now it doesn't even sound good. I'm glad the band has helped me with that. If I wasn't eating food from the drive-thru I was frying everything at home. I can fry anything! Well, after being banded, I can no longer tolerate anything breaded or fried.

I hate to tell you, but yes, eating makes it come back sometimes. It was my "full signal" for a very long time. Just go very slow and when you start feeling it in the shoulder you may need to stop eating for a bit.

I'm right there with you on this one. I gave up softdrinks years ago, but recently made the mistake of buying flavored "sparkling" Water instead of just flav. water. A couple drinks with carbonation and I did not like the feeling one bit.

I had a hiatal hernia repaired during my lapband surgery as well. I also had severe left shoulder pain that lasted for months. I don't know if it was from the hernia repair, the lapband, or both. I don't know if the pain went away from general healing, from weightloss, or both. I feel for you. It took months for my phrenic nerve pain to go away. At about 20 months post-op I still get a twinges of left shoulder pain now and then. When it was really bad the only thing I found that helped was putting a pain patch on the tip of my shoulder in the evening and wearing it overnight. I used over the counter equate menthol pain patches from walmart. They did not take all the pain away , but helped enough to get me through.

You won't really know by compairing to others because we all gain and lose weight so different. We all carry it different. I've seen other gals post that they weigh more than I do, yet wear smaller sizes ............... Here goes anyway ......... I am 5'7", so a bit taller than you. I am 46 years old, so that also might make a difference. I lost 111 pounds and went from a BMI of 41.3 to a BMI of 24. I did quite a bit of tanning in my younger years, so my skin is damaged and not very elastic. Some people who lose a great deal of weight have a hanging stomach and need to have that removed. I have only had one baby and was a teen mom, so don't even have stretch marks. My stomach is not bad at all. I'm sorry to tell you that my arms turned out the worst. I not only have the hanging "bat wings", but the skin under my arms looks like it is 100 years old. I even have bags of skin hanging in my armpits. This does not mean yours will turn out the same way. The full sleeve tattoo might even help your situation. You should go look at lellow's photo gallery. Here's a link http://www.lapbandta...-ducks-journey/

You may have to make a choice ..... get a small unfill so you can keep eating steak, or stay at the same fill level and give up steak. Steak is at the top of the list of food that gives bandsters trouble, right up there with bread. I chose to give up steak.

If I were to deny myself of simple things like iced tea or hot coffee, this would have been a very long journey. IMHO some people make this much harder than it really is or than it has to be. A simple 5 calorie drink is not going to doom 100 pounds of weightloss.

I get these comments often as well. "You're done losing aren't you? You don't need to take off anymore. You're going to waste away." These are also people who are not being catty. Sometimes it is almost like a compliment. I think people just get so used to seeing us as much larger people that is is a shock to their brain after a large amount of weightloss. I am by no means too thin at a BMI of 24, but people are shocked to see that I am a much smaller person than they thought I would be at this stage. I remember a gal that I worked with when I first had the surgery. We were talking about the sizes of our scrubs. I was wearing a tight 2X and she wore medium. She said "You will never be in a medium, you're just not built that way." She was not saying it to be mean. She was just making a comment like I was just bigger boned or a large person anyway. Well, I wish we still worked together because I now wear size small scrubs and they are not tight at all.

I take all mine in the morning all at the same time. I don't really think it matters and if it doesn't bother you with reflux at night or anything I think you should be fine. Now that I think of it, there are 2 vits. that you should not take at the same time....... maybe it's calcium and vit. D? Maybe someone else who knows which 2 they are will chime in and help. The ones I take every morning are Adult Centrum chewable, D-3 gummie, vitafusion fiber gummie, sublingual biotin, sublingual B-12, and sometimes chewable iron.

I have lost more than 100% of my excess weight and have a normal BMI of 24. I dropped 100 pounds in the first year. I would say that means I am taking weightloss seriously. From the day I was banded I have not counted calories. I drink coffee and tea daily since the day I was banded. I guess cutting corners works!

It sounds like it could be either one, slightly stuck or you ate one bite too many. IMHO in that situation it would be better to wait it out. Throwing up should be avoided if you can because it can cause your band to slip. Even when people refer to throwing up as PBing, there is still a risk of a slip.

Thinking of Denise and the big waves yesterday ...........

I don't bother with decaf. I drink the real stuff. I'm sure the decaf would be better.

I drink quite a bit of tea and you bet I count it as water/fluid. I drink very little plain water. I have never had a problem with dehydration.