I get up every morning at 5:15 and surf the web for about an hour.

I head to the bathroom, get undressed and weigh myself, then I take my shower.

I wake up the wife, then head to have my 4oz Breakfast.

About 9:00 at the office I have a HUGE cup of coffee with artificial sweetener and very little artificial creamer.

At 10:00 I have a 16.9oz bottle of Water with a Special K Protein packet added (Pink lemon aid - YUMMY!)

At noon I have my 4oz lunch.

At 1:00 I have another bottle of water with Special K protein added (lemon iced tea this time around).

At 3:00 I have another large beverage - usually coffee or water.

At 6:00 I have my 4oz dinner.

This routine seems to be working - I'm going down about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound minimum daily since I've fallen into this.

Anyone else have any routines they want to share?

When do you start your mushy phase?

Basically right now I get up in the morning and have a glass of Water. Then once a work have my small bowl of oatmeal. An hour after the oatmeal and before lunch time I will have a glass (16oz) or two of water. Have something for lunch usually either a can of tuna or chicken with lots of low fat mayo. Then wait an hour again and before having another glass or two of more water. Then in the evening have another small portion of food followed up an hour again after eating with either water or some calory free drink. Pretty much I only drink water throughout the day and in the evening I might have some iced tea or crystal lite drink.

We started our mushies on Monday. Breakfast is either some soft scrambled eggs, some grits or a Protein drink (they've grown on me - BIG TIME!), lunch is either some chicken or tuna salad, dinner is either another Protein Drink or various soft mushy food.

Pete - what's your loss since you got banded? I see your ticker but it doesn't indicate if it's total weight loss or if it's post-banding loss.

I am surprised your allowed the protien drinks now that your in the mushy phase. The doc told me no liquid calories once in the mushy phase and on because they just go right past the band and will leave you hungry. But if it's working for you I'd say go with it.

I can't remember the number, but we're supposed to have X number of grams of Protein daily. The Protein drinks and protein Water basically are to help us reach that number.

The shakes we stick to 4oz, but the protein water only has 30 calories. I'd say we're doing a total of 500-700 calories a day (if memory serves right - I could be wrong!).

That works. I am enjoying beans now days. LOL

We started our mushies on Monday. Breakfast is either some soft scrambled eggs, some grits or a Protein drink (they've grown on me - BIG TIME!), lunch is either some chicken or tuna salad, dinner is either another protein drink or various soft mushy food.

Pete - what's your loss since you got banded? I see your ticker but it doesn't indicate if it's total weight loss or if it's post-banding loss.

What kind of Protein shake do you drink. I can't find one that doesn't make me dry heave and I have 2 weeks left of clear liquids! I can't mix mine with milk either only Water which doesn't help the taste

Its amazing how things vary from Doctor to Doctor. All of my paperwork says absolutely NO grits during the mushy phase and protien drinks everyday. My paperwork is for 8 weeks. Right now my stuff says to add in tuna and fruits. Milk makes the protien taste so much better! I couldnt stomach it with Water. My nutritionist pushed protien more than anything else so I picked up a page of recipes and add ins to help change things up a bit.

I have no routine what so ever and that is making this harder for me to 'get'. Im home all day so I have nothing to give me an outline for the day. Im hoping once my daughter is back in school I'll be able to get into a routine.

The one we are taking mixed with either milk, Water, or "your favorite beverage". We use 1% milk, which I personally can't stand by itself, but mixed with the shake is pretty good! We also put a small amount of either vanilla yogurt (me) or strawberry yogurt (wife) into the mix, and then Peanut Butter (me - I'm a peanut butter freak!) or real strawberries (wife) and a small bit of banana. We throw it all into the blender with ice and whip up our drinks! We got the idea of the peanut butter or strawberry and banana while at Nature's Table in the mall while ordering a Protein smoothie before the surgery. Tastes great!

We found it at Walmart where they keep all the weight-loss stuff, and is probably geared more towards body building, but it has a great amount of protein in it.

It's called EAS Soy Protein. It's available in vanilla or chocolate flavor.

Thanks for the tip!!! I will try it out

Its amazing how things vary from Doctor to Doctor. All of my paperwork says absolutely NO grits during the mushy phase and protien drinks everyday. My paperwork is for 8 weeks. Right now my stuff says to add in tuna and fruits. Milk makes the protien taste so much better! I couldnt stomach it with Water. My nutritionist pushed protien more than anything else so I picked up a page of recipes and add ins to help change things up a bit.

I have no routine what so ever and that is making this harder for me to 'get'. Im home all day so I have nothing to give me an outline for the day. Im hoping once my daughter is back in school I'll be able to get into a routine.

It really is amazing how much both the pre-op and post-op diets very from surgeon to surgeon. Like my surgeon said for the post-op diet 4 days Clear liquids, 9 days full liquids, then like 15 days mushy foods, and then finally 1 month post-op can start solid foods.

I think the rules different surgeons give a slightly different too. For example my surgeon told us to drink a glass of water right before eating to moisten the throat making it easier to swallow foods.

Interesting. Seems that over the weekends when I am not able to follow this routine I "hover" at the weight I was from Friday evening's weigh in. Go figure?

How often do you weigh yourself? I weigh myself once a week. Because of body water weight I will not weigh more then that knowing that weight fluctuates from day to day. I figure that going week to week is a good measure as to the weight loss.

I actually weigh myself twice daily. I have a spreadsheet that I update each morning that I am going to turn into a graph eventually, showing daily change and total loss. I weight myself about 30 minutes after waking up each morning, and then in the evening when I get home from work but before dinner. Sheer, morbid curiousity, ya know? I've heard it before though , "it will discourage you!". No - but if I hear that again I'm going to go through the roof LOL!

Seriously though - nothing can discourage me now - this is the fastest i've lost this much weight EVER. Not even Marine Corps Recruit Training at Parris Island took this much off me this fast!

I won't be the one to tell you that simply because everyone is different in how they react to weight changes. Like I said the only reason I do it weekly is because I know weight fluctuates constantly. Eat a meal it goes up. Go out and run a mile it goes down. LOL

I do know what you mean about military training. I went to boot camp at Ft. Dix, NJ in the summer of 1990. In the 10 weeks I was there I went from 225 down to 185. So yes a rapid weight loss but it went back on just as fast too. And then after I was out it went up quickly.

I won't be the one to tell you that simply because everyone is different in how they react to weight changes. Like I said the only reason I do it weekly is because I know weight fluctuates constantly. Eat a meal it goes up. Go out and run a mile it goes down. LOL

I do know what you mean about military training. I went to boot camp at Ft. Dix, NJ in the summer of 1990. In the 10 weeks I was there I went from 225 down to 185. So yes a rapid weight loss but it went back on just as fast too. And then after I was out it went up quickly.

Hey Pete,

My hubby went to basic and AIT at Ft Dix too, but a couple of years before you. He got there on New Years Eve 1987 so started off 1988 at Dix. He just had his anniversary....21 years. He lost quite a bit of weight while he was there too, but alas, it didn't stay off. He says he's going to lose some weight and work out lots while he's deployed this time...here's hoping. I also will be cooking for two so when he does get back, there won't be lots of food for seconds (or thirds) and that should help too.

My routine has developed into:

5:30 - shake on the drive to work

7:30 - half an instant oatmeal or yogurt with splenda or cottage cheese

9:45 - lunch ~ Soup or tuna, chicken and veg...something soft

12:30 - the other half of oatmeal or sometimes the rest of lunch if I couldn't eat it all

3:00 - off work and then I drink another shake or have a Protein rich snack

6ish - dinner

I know some say not to have more than 3 meals but I could not make it through the day without having the extra small meals/snacks. I go to bed between 8:30-9 so I don't want to eat much later than 6. It seems to be working...I'm not losing lots but it's still heading down slowly and until I get my first fill next week, I'm very happy that I'm not stuck or gaining any as some do during this time.