One of my favorite book series is from a husband and wife team, David and Leigh Eddings. There are 12 books in the series and throughout these books there a two “primal forces” in their universe that meet for battles and events. Often in these books the battles are very small, at other times these are cataclysmic, however in every one of these events the winners is ultimately decided by an individual choice between stasis and progress. A single person has to decide the fate of the universe. To me, in many ways this defines the lapband process. Every day we are faced with moments of choice and if we choose properly we win the battle…but it is a new fight every day if you want to avoid stasis and make progress.

Since I am an engineer who became marketing guy and that means for every problem I like to build a checklist of how to solve it and turn it into a visual diagram with simple steps so it is easy for people use and implement. I spend most of my days doing this for technology products and I was thinking about how to apply this to the lapband last night while I was on the elliptical machine. What are the key moments and choices for each day’s battle? I am sure the list will vary for most, but here are my moments for lapband success:

1. Choosing a High Protein Breakfast with supplements

2. Packing a good set of 8oz meals for the day before I leave for work

3. Eating the right midmorning meal, I brought to work

4. Choosing a High Protein Lunch

5. Eating the right late afternoon meal with pre-work out supplements (NO-Xplode)

6. Stopping at the gym everyday

7. Going into the Gym working hard

8. Drink a good high protein, low carb post work supplement drink (ISOPure Low carb…)

9. Choosing a High Protein Dinner

These nine moments are like the recurring battles between those”primal forces“in the Eddings books. They only require an instant of choice, but they make the difference between stasis…or progress.