ElfiePoo

Oh yeah...and hi everybody! Sorry for being MIA. I had a sudden 'spring cleaning' urge and actually had the energy and ability to do something about it this year so I've been cleaning out and rearranging kitchen cupboards, scrubbing carpets and walls and uprooting spiders for the last several days. My son says he thinks I lost it because I'm going around with my sheepskin duster singing, "Moving day, guys!" as I swipe out a cobweb. I did go in for a fill last Thursday. I wasn't sure if I needed one since I do get stuck on quite a number of things, but after talking to the doc, he said 'getting stuck' is not necessarily an indication of restriction. So after an additional .25cc, I have only been able to eat about 1/2-3/4 cup of food at a meal, which makes me happier, and I'm going to pay closer attention to...and avoid...those things that cause me to get stuck...or to slide. Pasta, beans and rice when eaten alone are slider foods for me. They go right through and I could eat just as much (literally several cups) in 20 minutes now as I could pre-band. If I have it with my evening meal, I'll just have 2 Tbs and eat it last so it sits on top of the things that take a while to go through. I haven't lost anything in 2 weeks. Still sitting solid at the same weight. Not complaining though since I lost 18+ pounds the previous 3 weeks. If it all averages out to 2 lbs per week, I can easily live with that. Now to read through this thread...boy y'all have been busy! .

I'm guessing she misread the article. It's equal parts maple syrup and lemon juice and then you take 3 Tbs of that and dilute it in 8 oz of water and drink it every 3 hours (5 glasses *total* per day) with a couple shakes of cayenne pepper in each glass. I calculated it out and it's not even 1000 calories per day. It's actually not gross. Tastes like lemonade with a maple flavor...not bad if you like maple. Have to admit though that I lost 10 pounds in one week and never felt hungry or craving. I think it's the maple syrup keeping the blood sugar stable. I do this particular fast when I'm feeling sluggish since I get a boost of energy within hours. Haven't felt sluggish though since I got restriction and my carbs have been seriously restricted. .

I'm not a big fish person so I wish that was my problem. I'm the opposite. No problem with white fish (tuna is out), but I get stuck with chicken every time. I'm bummed because I love chicken. Pasta is a no-no for me because it slides right through. I can eat just as much pasta in 20 minutes as I could preband. I'm reaching the point where eating is just not as enjoyable for me as it used to be. Probably a good thing. .

Congratulations, Chris!

J's mom...I discovered that there are tons of Zumba classes around here. I e-mailed the one instructor and asked her what the chances are of me coming out of this without a broken leg or arm...given that I can't even keep in time with Richard Simmons. She said everyone 'gets it' eventually. Ha...she's obviously never met me. So I'm thinking DVD's cuz it does look like fun! However, when I looked them up, it looks like they're over $100. :w00t: Was I looking at the wrong thing? .

BT...good luck tomorrow. I know you'll do well. You have a really good attitude and that goes a long way towards healing. .

Leigha & Jens...congrats on the weight loss. Hey, Leigha...a pound down is still a pound down. Good on you! .

Wait a minute...isn't cortisol the thing that causes you to put on belly fat rather than overall? Great...I'm *never* going to get rid of this buddha belly. :w00t: .

Yep...usually I'm up at 6 a.m. and crash around 10 or 11...but this morning I was up at 4:30 a.m. so I'm going to splurge and go back to bed for an hour. I've been sitting at the computer for about 30 minutes and my feet are like ice. I'm gonna go put 'em on my foot warmer and listen to him yelp...since he's done the same to me. :biggrin: .

I'm ba-a-ck. Wow on the pain patch! I actually slept for 6 hours straight the first night and then 7 hours last night and I'm an "up 2-3x a night to go to the bathroom girl". I feel sooo much better. It's Monday *and* the first day of the month and feeling like the Energizer Bunny...everything is conspiring to remotivate me to get back on track. I kind of derailed a few days this last week. I realize now it was due to pain and tiredness. I've been reading through this thread and am inspired by all of you! I'd comment more but it's only 6 a.m. and I think I'm going to slip back to bed for another hour. Those who can sleep...do. :biggrin: .

roflmao...

Hey ladies, This thread is just what I needed. Despite losing 18+ pounds over the last 3 weeks, I feel like I'm losing my motivation. I'm almost sure it's just my usual February into March cabin fever. I am soooo over winter by this point and I want to get out in my garden but it's buried (literally) under 3-4' snow drifts. The constant pain from my shoulder hasn't helped either *but* my husband went off and bought some of those pain Patches, so I'm looking forward to some sleep tonight and I'll be back to my posivite self in the morning. In the meantime, I think I'm going to catnap next to the fire place in the recliner... .

Your english is just fine. :wink2: Every time you get a fill, the band will get tighter. You may be too tight for a week or two after a fill due to temporary swelling, but at some point there you should be able to sip Water (not gulp) with no problem. You should also be able to eat about 1 cup of food. I eat 2-3 oz of Protein, 1/4-1/2 cup of steamed vegies and 1/4 cup of carbs (potatoes, rice, Beans, Pasta or fruit) and by the time or maybe before, I am full. If, after eating, you feel as if your food is in your throat or have a pain in the center of your chest, you're either eating too much or something is stuck. Maybe you could give an idea of what you're eating for your meals? .

By day 8 postop, my doc had me on mushies or soft food (can't remember) and salad would not have qualified. A week later, I was back on solid foods. That said, I doubt you did any harm.

I agree with everyone else, but the above reason is the main reason I wouldn't mess with my band. Just because I have restriction now at 8.5cc, it doesn't mean I'll have it again if I get an unfill for a vacation. If you get an unfill, you could spend weeks or months trying to get to where you have restriction and it's probably going to take you the next few months just finding what that point is. Do you really want to mess with it once you do? As someone else said, there will always be a reason why we want to stuff ourselves. It's why we needed the band to start with. As has been said in so many other threads...nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. .

Maybe you could find a bariatric somewhere near you where they will do your fills for you? That's what I'd do. I used to be able to eat tuna and certain types of crackers (like melba toast). Now, I have a hard time with tuna and I've always had a hard time with saltines. If you can't gulp your water, but you're able to drink, you probably have some restriction. I'm not sure what you mean about you were able to eat small portions before but weren't losing. If you were only able to eat small portions, it seems like you should have been losing. Why do you think you weren't? How many cc's in your band and how much does it hold.?

If you're hungry and/or able to eat to excess, make an appointment for a fill. You may find that .25cc is fine and you may find that even though .5 was too much at once, you still need another .5 or .75 or 1cc to get to the sweet spot. I had 3cc, 3cc and then 2cc and they had to take out 1 because I was too full. A week later though they started putting it back in .5cc at a time and now I'm sitting above where I was when I was too full. .

One of the things that helped me was to run my stats through the Harris Benedict equation to calculate how many calories I would need to eat to maintain my goal weight of 140 vs my current weight. There are calculators on the 'net but some are off by hundreds of calories so I prefer to do the calculations myself. It just puts a figure in my head that I know I need to adhere to if I want to lose/maintain. I have a very set structure to my eating plan so that I don't have to do much planning and preparation beforehand. I keep it simple and I keep to a schedule which I posted in two different threads. If someone wants to see it, I'd be happy to post it again, but basically I eat my meals and mid-meals (protein shakes) at the same time every day. Breakfast is always a Protein Shake. lunch and dinner are the same: 2-3 oz of Protein (grilled, roasted or pan fried in 1 tsp olive oil), 1/4-1/2 cup steamed vegies with a pat of butter or sprinkle of parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of starch carbs (potatoes, rice, Beans, pasta) OR 1/4 cup of fruit. The fruit is a new addition for me because I've been craving it, but I choose whether to have my carbs this way or through starch carbs...never both. I weigh and measure everything when I'm at home. I thought I knew what 1/4 cup was but I'm always underestimating or overestimating. The under isn't so bad. The over results in waste because I can't eat more than that these days. When I'm out, I never order my own meal. I always take my portion off my husband's meal since restaurants routinely overload the plate. If I want a bit of tomato sauce on my Pasta or sour cream on my potato, I have it. I'm not on a diet...but I use moderation. Instead of 1/4 cup of sour cream on my baked potato, I'll put a tablespoon. Occasionally, I'll have an oddball lunch like a cup of tomato Soup and 1/2 grilled cheese sandwich or a slice of pizza with a small side salad but I try to keep this type of meal for when I'm just sick of the protein/vegie/carb routine because it doesn't seem to stay with me as well. One of my favorite radio psychologists is Dr. Randy Carlson who talks about intentional living. When I first heard him a few years back, he was talking about how *we* cause most of the stressors in our life. We get angry when we get a speeding ticket...but if we had been living intentionally...thinking about what we were doing *in* that moment and making the decision to not speed because it *might* result in a ticket or accident, we wouldn't have gotten in the ticket in the first place and bypassed the whole angry/stress thing. It's the same with the way we eat. We shovel our food in our mouth while sitting in front of a tv, computer or book. We barely register what we're eating. Stop. Put some candles on the table, pretty placemats and napkins and 'dine'...even if you're alone. I've actually gotten to the point where I clean off the top of my desk in my office, lay out a placemat and candle, napkin and real cutlery, put on some enjoyable music, put my phone on mute and shut my door with a 'do not disturb' sign. My employees know someone had better be bleeding if they're going to knock on my door. I'm intentional about what I'm doing in that moment...and find that my satisfaction after eating is much more than those days where I think I'm too busy to sit and instead I'll eat while I'm doing paperwork or some such. .

Hang in there...the PB'ing and sliming becomes less frequent. After my last fill, I'd say for the first week I was doing the whole pb'ing and sliming pretty frequently. I thought about going in for a slight .25cc unfill but chose to just tough it out and give up those things that were now a problem. Turned out it was just temporary swelling because after about a week, I could eat most things (still not bread) without a problem. Congratulations!

Not yet. I should've gotten them Thursday but I was too tired to drive into town (30 minutes) after my sleepless night. I meant to go Friday but we had a winter storm. Caught me unawares. That's what happens when you don't watch tv, I guess. At any rate, my husband and I are doing our weekly trip into town today and they are at the top of my list. I hope they work as well for me as they did you! .

I eat about 1200-1400 calories per day. I do drink Protein shakes or Protein drinks between meals and one in the evening so I'm getting around 100gm of protein just in my drinks. I haven't lost any hair and, in fact, my husband commented the other day that my hair seemed fuller and shinier and was a more vibrant red than it has been. I think it has more to do with the protein than the calories I'm taking in. I like the EAS protein shakes but when I get tired of them, I drink a fruit flavored liquid Protein from newwhey.com. My favorite is the fruit punch, but they also have blueberry and other fruit flavors. You can drink them straight or diluted them in Water (which is what I do) .

Greg, If joining WW is what you need to do to get yourself back on track, then do it. Don't waste another moment! I found my motivation waning the last few days despite losing 18+ pounds over the last 3 weeks. Don't ask me why cuz I haven't figured it out myself. All I know is that I wanted to hit Carabbas and eat a big old bowl of Rigatoni Martino all my myself...even though in the past my husband and I always shared. Thankfully, it doesn't matter what I want. The band has other ideas. Hang in there. Go join WW and find your motivations! .

Well I was on solids 2 weeks after surgery so I could've eaten anything. I guess it depends on what diet her doctor has her following...what stage is she at? .

I think I'm one of the oddballs. I don't journal my food. However, I also believe in the K.I.S.S. principal (keep it simple stupid). When things get too complicated or task involved, I find I drop them fairly quickly so it's best to just k.i.s.s. I tend to be a creature of habit so my meals are at the same time every day. 6:30 a.m.: 1 cup hot green tea 7:00 a.m.: Breakfast and it's the same every morning...double scoop EAS Protein shake in 2% milk. 9:30 a.m.: EAS ready made protein shake (110 cal, 3 carbs) 12:00 p.m.: 2-3 oz protein, 1/4-1/2 cup vegies and 1/4 cup carbs (rice, potatoes, Pasta, beans) although lately I've been swapping the starch carbs out for 1/4 cup fresh fruit. 2:30 p.m.: EAS ready made protein shake (110 cal, 3 carbs) 6 p.m.: 2-3 oz protein, 1/4-1/2 cup vegies and 1/4 cup carbs (pasta, rice, potatoes, beans) 8:30 p.m.: EAS ready made protein shake (110 cal, 3 carbs) If I'm really craving a sweet treat, I'll have this about an hour after my shake. Many times, the shake takes away that craving enough that I can say, "I'll have it tomorrow if I want it." I'm in bed by 10 or 11 p.m. so I don't deal with cravings (if I have any) for too long in the evening. I do not count may shakes as part of my 64 oz liquids to I'll fill up my 20 oz Water bottle (usually with crystal lite of some flavor) and I make sure to drink one between breakfast and lunch, one between lunch and dinner and another in the evening. My Proteins are pan fried, grilled or roasted and when I pan fry I use minimal (like 1 tsp) of olive oil amounts of fat. Vegies are usually steamed because I happen to like them that way and I don't usually add anything to them except a sprinkling of parmesan cheese or a pat of butter (pat similar to what you'd get in a restaurant). I know this probably sounds boring to some people, but I don't have to think about my meals beyond "Do I have protein and vegies in my fridge?" and there's little to no planning of meals...or journaling.

Congratulations! Now stay off that scale for a week! :eek: .