I was banded 10-21-2010. At my 1 month appt I received a fill. I saw my surgeon yesterday and I didn't receive 1. He told me I had good portion control, but it seemed like I needed to break some old habits. I am going to the gym every other day doing some sort of 30min cardio, I am down to 2 meals a day with a lite snack but my weight is slow to come off! I do drink alot (coffee, tea, juice, smoothies).........is this slowing my weight loss down?

The juice and smoothies might be a problem. One of the cardinal rules of eating after banding (once you're past the healing stages) is no liquid calories except for 1 or 2 servings of skim milk/day.

coffee may or may not be an issue, depending on what you put in it. If you can drink it with 1 tablespoon of fat/free half & half or 1 tbspn f/f evaporated milk, etc. and splenda, it should be fine. It's the large, unmeasured doses of creamer and sugar that make coffee unfriendly to weight loss. You'll also find some folks who will come along and say coffee is dehydrating. Maybe if you're drinking a whole pot a day.. but at normal consumption of 2 to 3 cups, dehydration should not be a concern.

Water is absolutely the best thing to drink. But it's hard this time of year with it being so cold to want to drink just water. Try squeezing some lemon in your water or floating some cucumber.

I use crystal lite sometimes when I'm tired of plain water. It has a little bit of calories, but not too much. Also look at fruit20, Powerade zero, vitaminwater zero, etc.

Some people like Sassy water:

2 quarts or 2 litres water (about 8 ½ cups)

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1 medium lemon, thinly sliced

12 small spearmint leaves.

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight.

Drink the entire pitcher by the end of each day.

Sounds like you're on the right track with exercise and the meals. Just drop the juice and smoothies and up the water and see if that doesn't make a difference.

I find that hot broth with an envelope of Knox gelatin disolved in it is low calorie low fat and quite satisfiying and the vegitable kind has 20%RDA Iron per 8oz. serving and the Knox has eight grams of protien!

Studies show that overweight individuals who are trying to lose right need to do at least an hour of cardio every day....not the recommended 30 minutes. Try upping your workouts....and also switch up your workouts....sometimes doing the same thing day in and day out will stall the loss. Also it has been recommended to me to do your weight lifting before your cargo workouts. Keep up the god work!

One thing that jumped out on me is that you're eating only 2 meals a day. You really need to be eating 3 meals a day, then with a light snack thrown in if you need it.

As another poster mentioned, drop the smoothies. They are usually full of a lot of calories and sugars. If you got rid of those and ate a meal instead I think that will help as well.

As noted above liquid calories really add up. I don't drink fruit juice ever but if I really want it I would look for a reduced sugar version (yes I know artifical sweeteners). Another big yes about calories in coffee. Poor coffee is so innocent with like NO CALORIES; but what we do to it is sad! I used to take my coffee cream and suger. Years ago I switched to black with equal. I can go without the milk but I have to have it sweet. "They" say splendra is better for your body than equal so that's what I use now. Also are your smoothies Protein based or just milk with fruit? If you are having a Protein shake to up your protein consumption that is one thing. Having a fruit frappe/milkshake is another; esp if you are using something other than fat free milk.

I do think you need to up your exercise. I shoot for 7 days a week so that if I slack off at least I exercise 6 times that week.