hah131

laurajean1, i COMPLETELY understand. after my first and second fills, i felt like i could eat much more than i could beforehand. it was almost like i went on a binge. i have three fills now (not one since late january), and i can't say that i have restriction. i just have to use a lot of willpower. i have good days and bad days. i am a total carb addict, so i have to carb detox and really restrict myself with carbs to keep on board with what i need to do. hopefully you reach restriction faster than me, but if not, use all the willpower you can muster to do this...it's not an easy journey by any means, but i'm sure you can do it!

harddddd week - down .4 pounds, 199.8

i'm a complete carb addict. i could live off of solely carbs and never give a thought to anything else. that's been my biggest struggle. i'm learning, little by little though. as far as meat substitutes, i'm partial to morningstar b/c i like a lot of their products. i've had all the brands and don't think any are bad. the only veggie burgers i don't like are the ones that are just plain soy, no flavors, etc. they are just too 'meaty' for me. i would try out a lot of different ones until you see what you like. i try to stay away from the black bean burgers (although i love the way they taste) because they are the highest in calories and carbs.

as far as tofu goes, you make tofu what it is. alone, tofu is nothing...no taste, etc. a lot of times when you get tofu at a restaurant, it'll be fried. obviously, that's not the way we should it eat often. if you like asian-type food, tofu is great with soy sauce or curries. by putting pam into a pan and leaving the tofu sit with herbs on it, it'll brown and firm up. it NEEDS to have some type of seasoning. i would not recommend you try it without. that will probably turn you completely off. when i was younger, i wasn't a fan of tofu, but i've grown to appreciate it. i'd just play around with it a bit. if you end up buying a whole package of it, you need to keep the remainder in a plastic container with the Water it comes in. otherwise, i think it goes bad fast.

again, good luck!

i didn't have an extensive pre-op diet like most people...BUT the first two weeks post-op were all liquids, and i felt horribly weak, dizzy, etc. I wasn't getting any/enough sugar, so I started making sure I had at least one serving of sugar free applesauce a day to get some natural sugars into what I was eating. That helped immensely, at least for me.

i've been a vegetarian for 13 years, although i've tried to incorporate fish into my diet since being banded. i don't have any recipes that jump out at me, but i'm very simplistic with most of my eating...i put pam in a pan and 'stir fry' tofu with spices (adobo, pepper, garlic, etc) and fresh basil i grow in my aerogarden. i LOVE morningstar's vegetarian sausage patties (or links). i have a lot of low fat cottage cheese and normally one hard boiled egg a day for Protein. i actually try to keep my veggie burger/veggie sausage pattie/etc consumption pretty low - only a few times a week b/c the carbs will add up pretty quickly if you eat them frequently. and as much as i absolutely love most Beans, especially chick peas and black Beans, i try to limit them to once a week or once every other week b/c they are very carby as well.

if i think of any great recipes that i use, i'll email you them, jackiedi. since it's a friday morning, and i've already been at work for an hour, my brain isn't functioning at top speed

i'm 6 months out, so i can give you my 3 and 6 month info so far...

my starting weight at surgery was 269 (highest weight 289), i'm 5'9'' tall.

3 months - 40 pounds

6 months - 70 pounds

i absolutely know i'm going to have a lot of sagging skin; i already do. i'm at the point in my life where i'd much rather have sagging skin than the fat, so i'll take it. i'm 32 years old.

so far, there's nothing i dislike about the band. i have no yet reached a place where i feel like my restriction is adequate, so a lot of the weight i've lost has been through sheer willpower. that's been really difficult, but i have high hopes that i'll soon reach the appropriate restriction level.

breakfast - 1 hard boiled egg, 1/4 c. low fat cottage cheese (13.5 g Protein, 120 cals)

snack - Protein Shake w/ 1.5 tblspn PB2 (30 g protein, 175 cal)

lunch - protein shake (26 g. protein, 140 cal)

dinner - 1.6 oz leafy salad, 1/4 c. low fat cottage cheese, 1.5 oz tuna, 5 small green olives, 1 tblspn low carb greek dressing (approx 17 g. protein, approx. 190 cals)

today's weigh-in, 200.2, down 4.4 pounds since last week. sooooooo close to onederland!

i take a chewable Multi-Vitamin and 1200 mg of chewable Calcium per day. i also take a B12 2-3 times per week. your dr's team should be telling you what the expect you to take everyday, but the Multivitamin and calcium are standard.

the time frame for your surgery largely depends on your insurance requirements. i had to do 6 months of a monitored diet beforehand, and my surgeon required at least a 10 pound weight loss beforehand. i also had appointments with exercise physiologists and nutritionists along the way. overall, it took me a little over 7 months from beginning to surgery. my nutritionist had me on a 1200 cal diet, which wasn't bad. i only had one day of liquids before surgery, although i hear a lot of people who have a few weeks of it.

there is no magic number for weight loss. i'm 6 months out and have lost 65 pounds. i've seen others who have lost a lot more than me and others who have lost a lot less in the same time frame. everyone is different. it's hard to generalize much of anything with lap band because every surgeon does things differently, and each person has a different experience with it. i can say, however, that i'm really glad i did it, and i'd do it again in a heartbeat. good luck!

baycitybandster, glad i could help, even if just a little. when i do a day or two of liquids, i generally stick with Protein Shakes, broth, sugar free Jello, and sometimes cream based Soups that are either blended or strained. i also make sure i drink LOTS of Water. sometimes when i'm craving 'bad' things, i just force myself to drink a big glass full of water. then i'm so stuffed, i can't eat or drink anything else. everyone is different, so i keep trying new things to see what works for me. good luck!

i'm a complete food addict. i can't have it in the house, or i eat it....i've tried to learn to substitute my desire for sweets with a chocolate Protein shake that i think tastes decent. as far as salty, i try nuts, but i get a little out of hand with those too. i have my good days and bad, but i find that, when i'm having a ridiculously bad spell, if i do a day or two of liquids, i can get my cravings in check. i also find that, if i force myself to work out when i'm craving something really badly, the craving goes away.

i'm only 6 months out from surgery, so it's a day-to-day learning experience/struggle. i'm at a conference for the next three days for work, and there are so many Snacks that it's killing me. i ate three soft pretzel sticks, two brownies, and two Cookies today. all i wanted to do tonight was go somewhere and get something horribly bad for me to eat. instead, i forced myself to go to the hotel's gym and run/walk for an hour and a half. now i don't even want dinner. i don't know if the bad desires will ever go away; i just have to figure out the best way for me to handle them.

i was really apprehensive before i had surgery, but i knew i had to make a drastic change because i was miserable with my life mostly due to my weight. some of the changes have been tough, but all-in-all, i'm so glad i did it. tomorrow will be 6 months since i had surgery, and i'm down 66 pounds, 86 from my highest. i have good days and bad days, and i know it'll be a journey i have for the rest of my life; but i'd do it again in a heartbeat. i hope that helps, at least a little.

204.6, down 3.4 pounds since last week! thanks!

congrats! i LOVE my mizunos!!!

i use it in my Protein shakes...that's all i really use it for, but it bumps up my Protein Shakes to 30g and helps me get in the protein i need each day. it does need to be stirred several times before i finish it, or it'll settle to the bottom; i've been using it for several months and appreciate the Peanut Butter flavor in my shakes.< /p>

for me, running is the absolute best exercise for weight loss. i've built up to doing about 5-7 miles, generally about 3-4 straight with a little walking break of about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile and then another 2-4. i can eat the exact same thing on two different days, one where i run and one where i do an alternate workout - jump rope, 30 day shred video, etc, and i always lose more the days i run.

i definitely feel stronger...i'm also supplementing with a fair amount of strength training since that's my weak point.

thanks for the advice! i'm going with my cousin, who has been doing zumba for over a year, and a friend, who has a background as a dancer; so i'm a little uneasy and just wanted to try to get a headstart knowing some of the steps. my workouts are really intense, so i'm not worried about that part; but i tend to be a little uncoordinated; and i'm DEFINITELY not a dancer by any means!

I'm starting a 2 day a week Zumba class at the end of March. I feel VERY uncoordinated, and I was wondering, since you're an instructor, if you have any tips for where to learn the basics (online or somewhere?) before I start classes; so I'm not completely behind everyone else.

I know it's late, but hopefully I can join too!

Name, real or screen~ hah131

Age~31

Weight on February 28th~ 208 (as of March 8)

Goal Weight for March 31st~ 200

Exercise Goal for March~ try to incorporate more variety in my workouts

Dietary Goal for March~ less carbs, less 'free for all' on the weekends

Personal Goal for March~ get out of the 1x's!

Date Banded~ 09/28/2010

Total Weight Loss Since Banding~ 61 pounds

I run 5-7 miles several times a week and just received a pair of Mizunos for my birthday. They are supposed to be great running shoes. I just ran 5 miles with them yesterday and definitely felt a difference from my old pair. They are pricy but well worth it. Here is the link to the paid I have. http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/MIZ705/

I'm 5.5 months out of surgery and have pretty much always had a slightly tender port area. Lately, however, when I work out, I have been having sharp pains at my port site. I work out hard, most days doing either intense cardio videos/weight lifting/or running between 5-7 miles. I wear a compression shirt whenever I work out to keep my skin from bouncing so much. It's really only been happening the last maybe 3-4 days, and a few hours after my workouts are done, the pain isn't so intense any longer. Has anyone else had this happen?

my nutritionist said he expects me to have at least one Protein Shake a day for the first year after surgery. i aim for at least 80g Protein a day.

I am by no means an expert, but I thought I'd try to answer some of your questions, as well as your last post. I, too, was like you. I really didn't feel full until I basically ate until I was almost sick. The biggest thing that has helped me with the band is eating SLOWLY...whether it's putting my fork down between every bite or just entertaining myself with other things to make me eat slower; the slower I eat, the more I allow myself to feel what I'm actually eating. I can't necessarily say I feel 'full' with the band, but I'm slowly learning how to note when I should stop eating.

I noticed that people don't talk about how they feel after eating as in depth as I thought they would:

• What does it feel like after eating the 1/2 cup of food? I actually do try to stick with 1/2 cup or 4 ounces (depending what it is) of food per meal. I'm only 5.5 months out from surgery and haven't yet been given the go-ahead to increase my portion sizes. I have had many meals that have been more than that amount, but I try to stick with that as much as possible. I also supplement in between Breakfast and lunch and then lunch and dinner with a Protein shake. I'm a vegetarian, so I make sure I have at least one Protein Shake a day.
• What does it feel like to be full? I tried to answer that above. I don't necessarily know if I have the feeling down yet, but I can definitely tell when I'm at the point where I shouldn't eat anything else.
• What does it feel like to be stuck? I've had the stuck feeling a few times...to me, it's a pain in my upper chest, and I can feel the food like a big dough ball in that area.
• What does it feel like before you throw up? I've only thrown up once, when I decided it was ok for me to eat a bunch of triscuts; my mouth started watering like crazy, and I went to the bathroom to spit it out in the sink...I bent over and all of the sudden I just threw it all up. It didn't hurt; I didn't wretch. It just happened. And then I felt fine afterwards.
• What does it feel like when you drink Water and if you drink it too fast? I was told over and over at the dr's to sip my Water. I am a gulper, always have been. I actually have no problem gulping water like I used to. I don't eat 15 minutes before or an hour after I eat, so my stomach is generally empty when I drink. I don't feel anything different when I drink fast.

• How do you exercise during matinence? For example if you do 2 hours of exercise per day while loosing weight do you have to continue to do that much exercise during maintenance to keep the weight off or do you pull it back a bit so you don't continue to loose weight? I, obviously, am not at goal yet, but I'm only 40 pounds away (fingers crossed that'll happen soon); on the exercise front, I just wanted to put in my 2 cents. I exercise basically everyday (with rare exceptions) for at least an hour, sometimes more. I fully intend on continuing with the exercise when I'm at goal. I might back down to 5-6 days a week instead of 7, but I think doing an hour a day is feasible for the long haul.

i'm not in the ft. launderdale area, but i just turned 32 on tuesday; had surgery september 28 and have lost 61 pounds since then. i have to stick to my dr's prescribed diet strictly, and i work out pretty hard almost everyday...but it's been soooo worth it. 40 more to go...

i'd be more than happy to email if you need someone to bounce things off of...