Hey everyone going through Kaiser Richmond!!

Where are you in the process?

LOL, Nicole! I just noticed my shadow a few weeks ago and was laughing with Bri at how much smaller both of our shadows were. Pretty cool!

Its nice:D We look like size 3 in our shadows:D

We lookin good oh yeah!

LOL, LOL, LOL

Shadows Nicole your funny!!!

Your guys are distracting my from work this morning!! LOL

I have been so close to the 90 for so long - when I logged my weight on www.caloriecount.about.com this morning, I had lost a whopping .6 of a lb. over the last 18 days! I gained 4 back - seemingly overnight - then had to slowly lose that again - it did not come back off overnight!

Tina yes, I am back to 100% vegetarian again now (ovo-lacto, although I can't tolerate milk - the lactose OR the whey - but I do love my cheese and eggs!) but I am considering pescatarianism because I find that fish works REALLY well with a lap-band - and it does not seem so much like carcass to me. I could NOT do this program vegan, that is for SURE.

So for any vegetarians lurking out there who are considering weight-loss surgery, lap-band is the way to go for sure! You can do this. In the beginning I committed to eating meat for 1 year during my rapid weight loss - although I told Robin it was only gonna be meat in cans - canned tuna & chicken - and she was totally fine with that (I did not know she was vegetarian at the time!). So I started eating meat again in November 08 - talk about irregular, BOY did I have issues around re-introducing meat! - and ate it until I went and met with Robin for my 1st fill, she looks at my logs and I was getting 200% of the protein I needed. She said that the body stores extra protein as fat, same as it stores extra anything, and I could transition back to vegetarianism at any time! So I ended up eating meat for only 6-7 months. There is a bunch of vege stuff that I can't eat - I have a wheat sensitivity so I cannot tolerate seitan at ALL, and even the lightweight meat analogs have wheat in them so I have to limit the amount (veggie brugers, etc). And you necessarily get a LOT more carbs on a vegetarian diet than you do on a regular diet where you can restrict them more, so the weight loss IS slower . . but also healthier! Oh and I could not do it without tofu!! I love good-quality tofu, and the firm stuff works really well with the band, too. I now average about 80 grams of protein a day, more than I need. I do have a concern (which Robin shares) with the high amount of soy protein that I eat, since I am adopted I have no idea if I have a family hisotry of estrogen-related cancers (breast cancer, etc) and people who have that familyhisotry are advised to limit their soy. I have soy (milk, tofu, edamame) everysingle day, so that worries me a bit. BUT I remain convinced that a plant-based diet is much healthier for anyone, and heart disease is more of a threat for most folks than soy.

That's my lecture for the day!

Thanks Riley well put!! ANd I do think my slower weight loss is around my not eating me............but if I can be veggie and still lose than I am happy. And I have done both. I did try meat several times but just not a go for me. I couldn't do it!! And yep I am lacto ovo too!!

Hi Ladies,

GO RILEY, IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, GO RILEY... or however that shit goes... LOL. 90lbs - you just lost a little person LOL. Eat more, exercise less, lose weight - gotta love that!

No Nicole, I haven't started week 3 yet - I've been sick the last few days - some how I got "e Coli". On anti-biotics but my lower back sides (kidneys) hurt like hell! That's why I've been mostly lurking and not posting - when I feel like crap I'm not usually very nice and you know the saying - if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

BUT... Since I'm here and opened my big fat mouth - I have a few RNY friends - all over 5 years out and all have gained ALOT of their weight back. They all say the same thing... RNY loses the weight for but doesn't keep it off for you! No restriction, no nothing! One of my girls described it as this... It's like when she was younger and never appreciated all the crap her parents bought for her - she never took great care of it but now, as she's an adult and has to pay for it all herself - she takes care of it. If she had to work at losing the weight - she would have taken care of it - appreciated it more. You take pride in the things you work hard to accomplish -

Sorry Sheena! I don't mean to imply that you will have the same problems - I wish you nothing but great success! Personally, for me, I NEED the companionship of the band - I can not be trusted on my own after the malabsorbtion with the RNY is gone.

I'm afraid to weigh in next Tuesday at the endocrinologist! It's a 1:30 in the afternoon and Kaiser scales already jack up the weight - grrr... Since I've been feeling like crap and don't want to put the effort into making food I haven't been eating as well as I should be. I had soup the other night - my brother made it (he really should have been a chef!) anyway, very very high in carbs - lots a carrots & noodles. I had a bunch of it over the last few days!! Why can't you do a "virtual" weigh in at home, naked, in your own bathroom - can't we find a way to hook up our personal scales to the computer???

Sorry, ladies, about the crappy job situations!

Since I'm on the cranky roll... I have a girl - Ah, Nicole, who is giving me a dress to salsa in - anyway, she said she has a bunch of pants for me - sizes 14 & 16 because she's now in a size 11 - hmmmm! I know what an 11 looks like - It looks alot like Nicole & Riley... She's nowhere close to that - I mean like, she should not be giving away those pants just yet. So, why do you think she's doing this? Should I just take the pants and shut up about it because I really, really had a hard time biting my tongue.... Any thoughts on this? Could it be that she's telling the truth and I'm just a jealous, bitter bitch who can't see past my own issues?

Yea Candra your back!! Hope you get to feeling better soon. E coli is no joke!!

I would say take the clothes but I usually keep my clothes until they are huge on me just to be sure I have something to wear until I am SAFETY into the next size!! LOL. That is just me. I like to know I have something to wear if th next size doesn't fit well yet..........but take the clothes if she wants to give them.

My work is still ok just losing more and more people which means eventually my number will come up in a matter of speaking.......I am waiting for the state budget cause that will determine what happens in September for me.

Well ladies back to work. ..............have fun camping all!! While I sit here in Sacramento blistering away............but I am not bitter!! LOL.

Donna you go with your bad self and that electric slide!! LOL. I wish I had been there.................so you ready for the 25th?? I will be there!!

I am so excited!! Kim @ Richmond Kaiser called me, my orientation is July 28th @ 7:30 am! woo-hoo that was so fast!! She told me I WONT be weighed in that day, it's when I meet the surgeon the next appointment, yet they want me to diet starting the day after orientation?? Thats confusing because if they wont use that loss towards the amount they want me to loose, doesn't it hurt me? or DO they count that?

Tamra

YAY TAMRA!!! So SOON! Well unless Kaiser Richmond has REALLY changed their program, you will definately weigh in @ orientation! Just to be safe tho, you could go to your local Kaiser and ask them to weigh you and get it in your chart . . your doc can email Richmond that was your official weight on that day - and they will accept that.

Yea it might be a new thing now to take the pressure off. But I agree weigh in at Kaiser so you have a starting weight for yourself. That should be your starting weight on your journey.

I bet you will weigh but lots of things have changed since I started out in December.

Tamra, I think Kim lied to you LOL when you walk into the Orientation room there are two scales right up front! Or did they weigh you in at your class you took? Either weigh (get it; weigh instead of way) congratulations on a new beginning to the rest of your life!

Hey Tani - did you just weigh in at your orientation?

Am I the only one not progressing here! (see, I'm cranky)

Donna, did I miss something...? Were you out getting your grove on girlfriend? Did Tina just say you were doing the electric slide?? I will need to go back thru some of these pages!! I will be there on the 25th too! Are we hangin out afterwords??

Oh, ok ladies - see Nicole this will prove my scatteredness & lack of memory - I have been meaning to tell you girls about yourselves! Did none of you realize that I had on two different earrings at Mimi's! Or did you just let me sit there thinkin I was cute and didn't bother to tell me?? Regina! You let me shop like that!! That is just sad! The two hoops I had on were not the same size or shape! When I see girls on the street lookin all jacked up my first thought is that she's lonely - that she doesn't have any friends because friends don't let you look like that! LMAO

Tina I am SO happy to not be eating carcass again, but I am seriously considering fish . . . it does not give me the same sense of wrong that meat does . . I mean, we can catch & kill fish with the tools that God gave us, not have to rely on meat/killing farms and such . . seems much more natural to me (eating carcass from an animal that I could not have wrestled to the ground and killed on my own has always seemed wrong to me . . as has drinking the milk of another species - but hey, I love cheese so what a hypocrit!) . . . I raised my kids on a beef ranch, BTW, so it's not like I got brainwashed into this, LOL. Yet on the other hand, I am highly allergic to shellfish (iodine actually, as you guys know from my bad surgery & fill experiences with Kaiser and their damned betadine!) so my fish choices are really limited. It's just that salmon, halibut, tilapia, and cod (only ones I have tried) have REALLY worked well with my band - 2 oz. and I am satisfied for 4 hours. Tuna does NOT seems to work for me - but it works for Pam! Maybe other things will work that well when I get another fill, too . . .dunno. What do you think about fish, Tina? You don't eat any at all do you?

I bet Tina would have told me I look like a hot mess if she was there - wouldn't you have Tina??

I just opened an advertisement from Coldwell Banker that was in the mail - an obvious marketing scheme... Anyway - in bold, turquoise lettering across the top is a quote from James Beard:

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience"

Really, is this what it all boils down to - even the banks trying to shove food in my face?

Sorry, guys, I am rambling about absolutely nothing that has to do with anything but I'm HUNGRY and I'm trying not to focus on food then I open this junk!