Angera

chicken salad, tuna, and chili are always my go-to meals. I am able to make a lot of it on one day and store it in small containers for lots of meal throughout the week. When I can, I like to prepare extra meat with dinner to make sure i have left overs. I also keep kashi oatmeals in my desk for emergency breakfast situations. Another thing I do once a month is boil some eggs and keep them in the fridge, always ready when i'm in a rush and need something FAST! Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone, it just really threw me off that my family was weird about it! I figured living 5 hours away from them and physically not seeing them in 5 months, they would've had some sort of reaction! It's o.k. though, my mom is really happy about everything and she was just thrilled about my progress. Mommy always knows best

WOWSA thanksgiving kicked my butt, I kept grazing! I wasn't eating a lot at my meals, but i found myself snacking a lot on turkey, ham, cheese, and bites of desert! All that snacking without even being hungry was probably not the best choice! I think the grazing is the reason my weight loss has stalled for the time being. I feared i'd gained weight but when i hopped on the scale today, it was the same. I've committed this week to getting back on track! I've only had one fill so i'm thinking my appointment before christmas, I will definately be getting a tiny fill!! In the meantime, i'm going to keep working my BUTT OFF to get this weight loss going again. Being with my mom over Thanksgiving was scary. I wasn't in my element and she had so many temptations in the house!! I was so glad to come home where I don't buy extra stuff (food) lying around the house! Anyone have citrus problems? I didn't have time for lunch so I grabbed a grapefruit i had on my desk, holy cow it made my stomach hurt!

Good grief, thanksgiving made me feel like i'd fallen off the wagon! I didn't eat large meals, but I did find myself grazing on cheese, pieces of turkey, and bites of desert. I'm scared to get on the scale and see what the damage is! I am getting back on track today and going to try and detox my body, so to speak. I am back in my own home, my own elements where I KNOW I keep no temptations! I'll check my weight on Friday instead of Monday! Tonight, i'm hitting the walking trails! Good luck everyone, we're entering the final month of our challenge! Keep up the hard work and push yourself just a little more! I know I am, it will be so worth it

3 Month Post Op Update: Hello all! Things have been going great on my end. I've been working hard to learn this new lifestyle. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a bite of halloween candy or other little indulgences. The difference this time around is I don't eat the whole bag of halloween candy and i'm not having 2-3 additional servings of indulgences! I still don't regret this decision at all! I look forward to meeting my many goals down the road. As of 11-12-2010, I am down 86 pounds, which includes my pre-op preparations. I've updated some pictures in my album, check them out!!! I hope everyone else is doing great on their journey! Good luck, it's a long road ahead but so worth it :thumbup:

Same thing happened to me last week. We had a luncheon with a pharmaceutical company we were starting up a new project with. Our administrative assistant ordered Italian food. A huge pan of Pasta loaded with alfredo garlic sauce, italian bread, brownies, and salad. I picked out the chicken from the pasta and had some salad. I was so sad though, they rarely order Italian and when it was my project assignment.........BAM pasta! You did great though, you avoided all the bad stuff :frown:

I am freezing as I read this. I've been cold everyday. I work in a room with four cubicles. We have our own thermostat, I'm always making it warmer. The other girls are always hot, one even keeps a fan running at her desk at alllllllll times! I find myself drinking more hot tea to keep warm and taking extra walks in the building to warm up!

I have blue cross blue shield also in texas. Mine was covered. It was covered as long as I followed proper guidelines they set forth. 6 month nutritional counseling, and a handful of other things. You may want to find a doctor and have them contact the insurance for you and inquire using the proper billing code. I wouldn't throw in the towel so easily. The band will help you with consuming mass quantities of food when you have proper restriction.You will have to do your part to control what you put into your mouth and your emotional binges. It's no easy solution, but it's not impossible and it can be done! Good luck!

I was craving sweets. I attributed it to the mashed potatoes that had come back into my diet during the mushy food stage and the small amount of bread creeping back in. I decided to go cold turkey again with those carbs and it's gotten a lot better!

I love these stories since I am one who also has about 200 pounds to lose! Congratulations on your amazing weight loss!

So, i've set a small goal for myself to hopefully be down a total of 100 pounds for the year 2010. That means from now to then, I need to lose 30.........oh boy! let's see how it goes! Anyone else have a new year goal?!

Thanks Pat I've always been told I am "well-spoken" and very responsible for someone my age! Here's a little more of my "whole story" on how I decided on weight loss surgery. I've been overweight since as long as I can remember. The only time I know i was skinny was at age 3 because i've seen it in pictures! I grew up with a family where EVERYTHING revolved around food, parties, holidays, funerals, everything! My dad was a large man with many many health problems. He had diabetes, thryroid issues, heart disease, kidney failure, hypertension, the works! He had heart surgery in his 40's to clogged arteries, it was the first time my family all took the initiative to "get healthy", for his sake. Well it didn't last long! He was a stubborn man. He went back to his old ways, gained more weight and ended up on insulin and then gained about another 100 pounds after that. He even discussed gastric bypass with his endocrinologist. He was told he wouldn't be a candidate because he was just too unhealthy. On December 22, 2005, we celebrated an early christmas because I had to work on christmas day. My dad insisted we go to the bank so he could give us all our annual $100 and insisted we go buy my brother a BBQ pit :tongue2: He started getting irritable and asked that we hurry up and go eat dinner. So we picked a place and went assuming that his sugars were running low. I remember sitting with him outside the restaurant and telling him i'd found a store with 5x and 6x shirts we could get him. He said "well, i need to work on this weight, it's not good to be this way, i don't' think i'll need those 6x shirts". Table was called and we went inside. We were at a steakhouse and my dad ordered a veggie plate! I thought it was strange, but he barely touched it. He just sat back and watched all of us eat. Thinking back on it, his eyes were so glassy. He told my mom he had "indigestion" from some tamales he had earlier. He asked her to go with him outside because he was not feeling well. My mom came inside and asked us to pay the bill and pack up because he wanted to go to the hospital. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the hospital.........he died en route. I got to the hospital, walked passed the trauma room and all I heard the nurses saying were "he's flatlined". I was in shock. I couldn't believe it, we had all thought it would be like all the other times where he would go in for a few days and leave. He was 54. I was 20. His highest weight at that point was nearing 450lbs. I was already weighing 340. Experiencing his death and illnesses scared me enough to realize I needed to change. My mom begged me for years to take care of myself because I was heading down his path. I wouldn't listen, i was being just as stubborn as him (I am just like him in every way!). I needed to make this choice to take control when I knew I was ready. Nobody else could do it for me. My mom says he's been my guardian angel getting me through all of this. This has absolutely been the best decision I have ever made. It was a scary one because i'm young.........young people should be able to handle this! But I realized this was a lifelong problem that I needed a lot of help to get under control. Part of me accepting my choice was accepting that I could NOT do this without surgical help and support. All my other diet attemps failed, i'd go back to my old ways. And it's because it was just that, a "diet". I was not making those "lifestyle changes" that I needed I truly look forward to the future I have. I look forward to having children with my husband, being able to play with them, and being healthy Now as far as spokesperson goes, that would be a "dream job"! Once I got down to goal of course! I love public speaking and motivating and encouraging other folks when I can. I had my co-worker convinced, she's now started her journey and she thanked me for that! It was very flattering :tt2: :thumbdown:

Where are the San Antonio people?! lol, so many of you in the Houston area! i'm jealous!

older post but i resurrected it because I thought of another one this morning while driving to work jamming the radio. I can't wait to be able to "drop it like it's hot" while dancing without fear or not being able to pick myself back up!!!!hahaha!!! The thought came to me as I listened to "single ladies" by beyonce. ahhhhhh yes, the ease of dancing without excess weight!

Great website, I took a brief peek! Thanks for the tips everyone