LisaA

wow lyla, that is fabulous, I can only dream of that at this point, congrats.

I thought this article was interesting regarding not losing like you want. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp?id=1605

Oh Pooky, I'm so sorry, that is very frustrating, do you lose and gain back? How often do you weigh yourself. Here are some of my amateur thoughts. But I would say you should talk with your doctor. but first before you go, maybe make the appt, and in the mean time vigilantly track everything you are eating, this means measuring carefully also. I like the online free counters, my fit day. http://www.fitday.com/ it gives great charts on all of your nutrients. and I do a lot of cooking, so I also use spark people http://www.sparkpeople.com/ for their free recipe calculator, which is quite a service. Spark people also has a free food tracker, I haven't used it though. This way you can print out what you are eating each day and show it to your Dr. and/ nutritionist which your dr. should have available to you. This is a pain but it will help you get a real handle on what you are taking in and how much. Perhaps your carbs are too high for example, trying to keep a 60 on your Protein and a 60 to 70 on your protein might be a reasonable goal, but a nutritionist would be better suited to talk about that. Other tracks, if you can't bare to track (and now that I"m used to it I can track like 3-4 days a week. anyway another way is to follow a plan for a while. I like the Instinct diet, many great recipes, and a fast food track as well as a home cook track. Another thought is your calories are too low, try averaging 1200, where one day a week you go down to 1000 and one day up to 1400. Another thing I've heard people talk about is that they don't lose if they aren't drinking enough Water. 64 oz per day I think is a goal. Another one of course is exercise. and I've heard if you are plateaued to change up the routine, like if you do yoga switch to pelotes, or if you do it in the morning switch to a different time of day, that type of thing. Lastly, I don't think that being too tight is a silly thought at all and you should talk to your Doc. do they do flouro fills? can you go to a place with flouro, that's sort of nice to see it on the xray while you drink. Having a conversation and showing a detailed food log, and discussing maybe a slight unfill to try it out are all good ideas too. Oh and weighing your self try daily for a while, and track it, just to see if you are gaining and then losing. What were you doing on your pre op diet, try doing that again for a little while, it looks like you lost then, just to see if you can get the ball rolling. I'm sorry you are going through this, good luck.

wow Joany, a trainer, cool! that sounds great. I'm there with ya - I'm at 45 lbs lost, am hoping I can get to 50 by March 10, but my loss is slow indeed compared to many. But you are absolutely right about it being 45 or 50 more then it would have been so let's celebrate. Band Camp hello, I hear ya on the stress eating- also have a holiday thing I'm finding- Valentines was a bear. and excercising is my problem, well that and carbs I think, oh and drinking enough. this thread is not from one location, we are all folks that were banded in Sept 2010, but anyone is welcome. good luck everyone.

hey all, how's it going? I hope you all are doing well. Happy Valentines Day. I am still only getting 4 days on the treadmill, my goal is 5. I'm down to 256 today, I'm hoping to hit my 50 lb mark by my birthday March 10- that will be 8 lbs to go. Lisa

ok, I'll try it, yeah in my thing from the nutritionist she says 1 peice of fruit, but 1 banana counts as 2 pieces. I do a lot of apples and grapefruit this time of year. I like Lyla's jerkie and cheese idea too. I'll look for carbmaster, we do have krogers here. although I'll need it sweet too. my carbs have been like around 100, I like the idea of gettign them to 65. I just can't imagine doing 40. that's what these docs said. that seems pretty low.

Tiffany, I hear ya, it's so hard to see the difference. I'm only at 42lbs gone, but I know I'd feel the way you are feeling. One thing I can say is keeping track of measurments helps me in times of feeling like it's not showing. Also taking a picture of yourself at certain times, standing the same. I saw a really cute thing someone did where they wore the same outfit basically, only it was obvious she had it in smaller sizes in that outfit. I'm going for jeans and a tee shirt, but maybe more form fitting is better. Anyway I feel I am still wearing the same size, but I am for the first time, buying a belt. My goal is to not buy clothes until I can no longer reasonably hold up my current clothes. which I imagine is more like 2 sizes smaller. but I feel like also maybe I was pushing the limit of my current size, like on the tight end of it. I do know that last night when I was at yoga for the first time since my surgery that it was shocking how noticeable it was that I could more easily like sit cross legged, and reach my feet sitting down, like there was definitely more room, I wasn't straining against my stomach and boobs. It was a great feeling. Do you have any memory of defferent weights in your life when you were wearing different sizes. That's how I'm thinking of it. There are times that I remember knowing my weight, and feeling like I was wearing a certain size at the time in my life. Like I think when I was like 225 ish that I was somewhere between a 16 and a 18. Can't believe I think of those as good days. been above 260 so long. LOL. not anymore, 258 today, yeah. Anyway there are differences, it's just hard to see. you are doing awesome, remember that.

Ok so I have a low carb question. my doc was like I should keep my carbs to 40 gs. that seems extreme to me. I am trying to at least keep it below 100, and would like to work toward 65-75 so when I look at my food log, one place I see high carbs (besides my piece of fruit, which I'm not willing to part with) my yogurt is high carb. I like it because I do that instead of the cup of milk I was told to do. it's also got protein, which I like in a snack. plus it's very tasty. So I'm wondering what other folks do. My nutritionist in Mexico felt that I should get 1 piece of fruit per day and 1 cup of milk. I don't like milk much. But I do prefer to eat my nutrients in food. Plus with the fruit there is the fiber, which I also pay attention to. So what are some other snacks low carb people do, or what do you think about all this. Lisa

Alright Monica, that is great. I hit my 40 lb mark last week, can't wait to get to 50. Joany, if you ever decide you want to do some home cooking (as for me boredom leads to cheating) anyway I love the free recipe calculator that Spark People offers http://www.sparkpeople.com you have to get an account but it's free this is the page within spark people that you go to http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp anyway you put in the ingrediants and the quantity you put - or someone else puts in the food, then you decide how many portions that makes. So if you made a pan of lasagna and you decide you want to have 1/8 of the pan for your portion, you say 8 portions, and it will give you all the nutrition information. So then you say go back and try if you did 1/12 portions, then you could see how much is in that portion etc. or say you go back and reduce your oil in half, or use fat free cheese or whatever. you see what I'm saying. It is for the ocd but I too am obsessed with food. Another option that I use is to follow a laid out plan. I highly recomend the Instinct Diet. It's a book you can get on Amazon. tons of recipes, and daily food plan that includes snacks and meals, includes vegetatian or meat, includes home cook or fast prep. Even if you don't use the detailed meal plan, the recipes are great and already have nutrition calculated for them. Well anyway, everyone is doing great. Lisa

Hey all, I just went to a Barrix Clinic in Groveport Ohio for a fill. Groveport is right south of Columbus. I am a Tijuana bandster and have had trouble finding someone to take me. These guys were great. very friendly, the fill was 150$, and for that price i could also go see the nutritionist., it was a blind fill, but they seemed very experienced, and I can go back in 3 weeks to get more. They want to be aggressive, which is good, I want that. The main Doc even came in to meet me and was very nice. When I called the 1800 barrix number that lady was like oh we don't usually do that. Then the receptionist at groveport was like oh sure and it's 150, I thought oh there's going to be a catch, nope, all true. friendly and easy and experienced. and no judgment for me being a mexico patient. Love it.

these pictures are great of 300 calorie meals, although at this point with my fill it's hard to imagine being able to eat the meals on the left. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1260

so far my fill is definately keeping my portions and my hunger down. I have pb'd twice since then though, very nasty. so anyway, you are right zen about how different, that's what I love about this forum, so many different perspectives. dainde, water is a huge problem for me too, I usually drink with meals, now that's eliminated. If you haven't seen it, with home cooked I use spark people.com, they have a great free recipe calculator, so you put in your recipe and how many servings and it calculates your nutrition, so then you can play with it, what I if had smaller/ more servings, or what if I left of this or that. Honestly since the fill I haven't felt a need to count too much because my portions are so small before I feel good, maybe this will change. Hang in there Joany, it's worth it to figure out some better sancks, lowfat yogurt, baby carrots, even those yoplait delights, maybe if you are armed with a few good healthy snacks you'll make it through the temptation. Just realize how great you'll feel if you let it pass. even if you say keep a sugar free candy thing, and limit one, like a russel stovers are tasty but small and still many calories and carbs, but its good to reward yourself too some, I still like the sugar free fudgecicles too. very helpful to me. that and yogurt on hand, course you might not have access at work to a freezer, but anyway, you can mmake it past these urges. I had a rough time over the holideays, still do, I'm just trying to get smarter that's all. hope you all have a great week, man I need to get back on the treadmill this week, I took the whole weekend off. Lisa

HI I'm a mexico bandster too. Don't know if this will help you but I just had a great experience at a barrix clinic in Groveport, OH, which is just south of Columbus. it was a blind fill, but only 150, and I could see a nutritionist too for no extra money. And they will be aggressive, the facility was great, and they seemed very experienced. good luck

Hey all, just back from my semi local fill. wow, it was a great experience, very responsive Dr.s no problem with that I'm a Mexico girl. blind fill, I liked the flouro fills of Mexcio, but I like having this place so close, and the fill was only 150, wow, and I could have seen a nutritionist for that same money. They are going to be aggressive, and will give me more if I want in 3 weeks. hey if you even hear someone in the midwest looking for a fill, I recommend them, they seem way better then what I"ve heard about fill centers USA . I've been so hungry since new years I really need to get back on track. I hope this helps. although now I have 7 ccs in my band, and a dinner ladies night out. worried. before now I could eat anything. Zen great to see you back. you are doing great! 77 lbs lost, I know you lost a lot before surgery, but still that's great. Oh it's interesting, these Docs were like don't worry about calorie counting, count carbs, and if you can keep them to 30gs, wow, I'm no where near that. my Protein is like 60 gs, so then my carbs would be like half my protien, that's different then any recomendation I've seen. Any of you diligent low carbers, is that what you do? what's your protein? Lisa

Hi everyone, tomorrow I go for my first local blind fill, I hope it goes alright, I've been feeling hungry and also like I can eat anything since new years, then today during lunch I pb'd- so I guess that's not completely true. Purplevic, you are doing great, I'm stuck at 38 lb loss, keep losing the same 2 bls again and again. I'm getting a fill, we'll see if it helps. I've also read some stuff about shaking things up a bit, change your work out schedule, or like if you have been doing the same thing, try something a little different, or the time you eat, before the holidays I was doing mostly 1200 cal days, with one at 1400 and one at 1000 each week, and trying to mix that up in the week when it happened. just to keep the metabolism moving a bit. Moni, it's funny, my scale isn't digital, so I can' barely see 1 lb difference. you will be at 50 lb loss before you know it. Lisa

Ok so some of my friends on the banded in Sept thread wanted to help support each other in exercising. :thumbup: Of course others are welcome if you want to join a support thread for exercising! I think some of the idea is to be able to state goals (no matter how small) and have encouragement when achieving those goals. Of course other talk about excercise woes and ideas are welcome. I'll start, I was banded on Sept 27 2010. I'm from Ohio. Before band I was walking about 5 miles per week at a rate of 3 miles/hour. and going to yoga once a week. I have a short term goal of walking 7 miles per week by Thanksgiving. Maybe upping the speed a bit but I'll work on that later. Also I'd like to do 20 minutes of yoga/ stretching 3 more times a week by Thanksgiving. This morning I walked a slow .6 miles- still moving slow after surgery.:thumbup:

thanks, great info, toe is better all the time. I did 6 days last week 20 minutes each day, and so far this week every day also so it's going well. This saturday my yoga class starts, I haven't been to yoga since the week before my surgery in Sept, so I'm anxious.

that is so awesome Rambunctious. I would love to dive, and when I took my son to Mexico a couple years the snorkeling we did reminded me how much I wanted to, I thought when he gets a little older that will be a great activity for the family, but I feared the wetsuit, especially at my size. Same deal with horse back riding, and kayaking, I never go when we've rented Kayaks on vacation because I was so worried it wouldn't hold my weight, I know there are kayaks for heavy weight but I was always to afraid to ask in front of my family so I just pretended to not be interested. so I've been on the treadmill 4 days now, and 2 of them were with shoes. I want to start the couch to 5 k, but I want to be walking normal in shoes and not favoring my toe so much. I have always hated running, we'll see how it goes, I'm up to 3.5 mph for 20 mins now and my toe felt better today then any other day so far. I can't wait to hear how the c25k goes for you Rambunctious! I'm very nervous, the idea of me running is hard to grasp right now. Lisa

yeah, it's 1/3 c high fiber cereal 1 squar, 10 grams dark chocolate 1/4 cup raspberry (or any berry) 3 oz plain/ greek/// or nonfat vanilla artificial sweetner yogurt

Hi all. You are right Joany, you can eat all the icecream and candy you want, no restriciton will stop it, to bad we don't have a quick super fill, close the whole up when you are near stuff like that, then let it out- ha ha. The other problem with the sweets is they make me even hungrier once I've had the sugar. my instinct diet book is big on desserts with fiber and fruit and protien- all three if you can, so you feel more full and satisfied. My favorite one is a 100 calorie- light and fit vanilla yogurt (the low cal kind- with aspertame or whatever, my yogurt during the day is a live active yogurt, and has more cals, but this is dessert) high fiber cereal, frozen raspberries, and melted dark chocolate- the portions work out to 100 cals- and it is so satisfying - and feels like a real dessert. not really pretty, I wouldn't serve it at a party, but for me it's great. so Joany I am self pay, no coverage- I have an HSA that I use for this, I hope the IRS doesn't mind. This blind fill place I think should be good, I hope, and if not they are close enough to not be a problem. I guess some blind fill places say if you have to come back for adjustment within 2 weeks it will be 50$. so hopefully that will be the case. I love the OCC dr's in Tijuana, very professional, and they do a great job. Thier fills are tops for sure, wish I lived in the area. But for me it's a day off work, babysitting, plus probably like 500$ in flying, parking, ground transport and other fees. I know some places charge almost 400 for a fill, so this 150 place is exciting prospect and I won't have to take off work or get a sitter. well have a great day all

Ok guys, on the treadmill for 3 days last week, still can't do it with shoes. this day already 2 days. I'm trying for getting on every day for 20 minutes right now.

Danielle, that is great, I am with you on needing to refocus. Ms Joany, that is great, I'm glad everything is ok. Why did he say that about the fill, I mean if you are hungry and feeling less restriction, what was his reason to not fill. I'm curious because as a Mexico patient I have to make this call myself, if I do or don't need one before I get filled. Anyway being more hungry between meals, and able to eat more was my bench mark- well that and not losing weight. I have found a local place that will do a blind, none flouro fill for 150, can't believe it. I have been really hungry today and yesterday, and over ate at a potluck last night. This local place is much closer then Tijuana, and while I trust the tijuana fills as being better, for the price hopefully it's worth it. it's a barrix clinic in Ohio. if anyone knows anything about them/ Anyway hears to new beginnings getting more on track, and leaving all the holiday junk food and parties behind.

Hi all, so I broke my toe, messing around on my treadmill I just got that same day. So finally I am back on, I walked a mile yesterday and today, a bit slow, but not too bad. I am also doing dumbell exercises from my office chair a few times. Nest month I want to start the couch to 5 k plan, once my toe feels a bit better. and I am down 5 lbs since 11/23- I was terrified because of the holidays and a week and half ago was was 1 lb higher then I was on 11/23- plus I wasn't doing any exercise. I am now 4 lbs away from a 40 lb loss since the beginning. And I'm back exercising. Let's all encourage each other to meet our excercise goal. It's so inspiring for me to read the progress and the the stumbling. It helps me feel not alone. thanks everyone. Hope you all survived the holidays.

yeah, so I finally got on the scale today because I wanted to see where I was now that I'm back on the band wagon. I'm down 272. last week when I started complaining, I was up to 278, which is where I was when I got my fill, I had gotten down to 273, but now I am down one more from that. so I've lost 6 lbs in a month and a half with 2 major bad food holidays and a month of cookies and candies in the house- and a broken toe so no exercising. hurray. I've walked 20 minutes on the treadmill both today and yesterday too, I'm a bit slow with the toe, but back on track, but now it's not even 10 and I already feel hungry, drat! Lisa