♥LovetheNewMe♥

I use the Bell Plantation with my Pure Protein Vanilla Creme Powder, I add the entire packet most days (only 890 calories and 10 gms of protein, so half of a serving of real peanut butter and more protein) plus, 1/3 cup 100% Liquid Egg Whites. I mix mine with 6ozs of water and a cup of ice. To mix it up sometime, I use half a banana and only half packet of the PB Powder and 1 Tablespoon of real Peanut Butter. The only reason I use the Bell Plantation is because of fat content of real peanut butter. I like my protein shake to be between 25 and 40 gms of protein if they are going to replace a meal, that way they keep me full longer. I also add unflavored Pure Protein (from Bariatriceating.com to my hot or iced Starbucks Skinny Carmel Machhiato) I try to mix my drinks up as much as possible so not to get board. But by far the peanut butter in the vanilla or chocolate powder is my favorite. I think you are fine using real peanut butter as long as your under your fats daily.

Sweets and Cookies, I also know that we should not eat these foods, but this is not a diet but a journey to healthier living and an occasional dessert whether it be cookies, cake or ice cream I feel is OK. I think the key is serving size and moderation. As far as the inner thigh thing I agree, I have lost 90 lbs and I am exercising my legs off to correct as much as possible, I know it will never be perfect but I am determined to correct as much as I can. I think I read somewhere that it can take the skin 1-2 years to adjust to the weight loss, so I will remain optimistic and look into the u-tube floor exercises. Thank you DaybyDay. Good Luck and have a great weekend.

Pep talk time! Kat, instead of thinking "i have only lost 48 lbs", you need to think, WOW I am 48 lbs lighter. During weight loss our bodies go through periods of plateaus as the recover from the weight loss and adjust to redistribute the weight. Did you take your measurements? I sat at a plateau from June of last year until this past January, I exercised, I ate right most days but the scale never moved. Than in January I got an adjustment and started losing again. Now I lost 15 lbs than in the past 3 weeks I have sat at the same weight, I exercise and eat right and still the scale stays the same. My point is I am losing maybe not as quickly sometimes as i would like but I am not gaining. I know you have only lost 5 lbs in 10 weeks but you didn't gain. Also as we lose large amounts of weight it becomes harder and harder to drop the weight and the less you have to lose the slower it comes off. Please do not become discouraged, discouragement can sabotage our journey. Keep doing what your doing and take pride in your success to date, reward yourself with a new outfit or piece of jewelry for your accomplishments. Be happy with yourself and believe in yourself, you will get there in time. Good luck I know you will be successful.

Congratulations and great job, keep up the good work and yes it is good to have someone there to help catch you and force us to get back in the game.

Well guys it is almost Friday and I don't know about all of you but I am so thankful. It has been one hectic week here in SC. Today and yesterday are my first two days in weeks that I have managed to get all my protein in, now that being said, it is only because I am making myself drink one protein shake a day. I have not exercised like I should, I made a decision not to go back to curves. It just isn't working for me. Last week I went twice and when I went on Thursday I was in one of my moods (someone at work pissed me off) and I over exercised and got my other knee hurting. You would think I would learn but for some reason I have to do everything the hard way. I have been debating something for weeks and finally made a decision today and a commitment. I was talking with a friend at work about needing a trainer, someone to help me focus on my problem areas, show me how to work out effectively one on one. I told her about a local place I had contacted but was frustrated because they had not returned my calls. The nerve, you have a business and don't return calls. She gave me the guys name and number and I called him. Well he said he would take me on as a client if I was willing to listen to him, monitor my eating habits and commit myself to 90 minutes of cardio 3 times a week. I laughed when he said, would you be willing to eat healthy. You see, at first I didn't tell him I had, had WLS, I wanted to feel him out to see what he was going to recommend. He told me now you will have to eat a lot of protein, oh yeah I know about that. You need to cut back on your carbohydrates, no problem there, they don't go down. I would need to give up sweets and snacking, ditto already done that. So next week I start, I am both excited and nervous. It is going to cost me $25 a session but I am going to give it a month and see how it goes, I don't have to sign a contract so if it doesn't work out I am not out anything but my time and some money. I have a point I want to prove, which I know is probably ridiculous at my age, I want to see how much I can actually tighten up. I don't want to have surgery to tighten up my skin I want to tighten as much as I can with exercise. I know this may be totally impossible but I gotta try and I feel that a few months with a trainer is cheaper than surgery and less risky. I know you don't ask but my main problem area is my inner thighs. I have given up on having boobs, too old to care and that is why there is Victoria Secrets, push'em up and make them look like their big. Think that's all for now, so a big cheers to all of us who are working our boom-booms off. (I also ordered the Brazilian butt video work out today from beach body, I thought it could keep P 90x company on the self.)

Make your snacks protein between meals, this may help carry you over. Agree with newlife. Make sure you are drinking your water and if you want some taste flavor it with some Crystle Light. Good Luck.

First, Welcome to the Blog! I am sure if you stick around long enough and read and take all the wonderful constructive encouragement we all give you will get back on track. As far as your comments, we all ask our selves at one point or another what did we get our selves into. The belching, the burping, the fills, the unfills, the vomiting and just the pure frustration with finding the green zone. As far as advice with diet, going back to basics may seem frustrating but that is what works. Protein first, no drinking immediately before, during or after meals. Eat off a small plate, drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. Keep an exercise and food journal. Oh and yes along with the exercise journal, you gotta move it off the couch and do some type of exercise 60-90 minutes a day. Park further away at the shopping centers, take the steps, etc. I also have band joints, knees especially and have had surgery for repair since being banded. Exercise for me is pure hell sometimes but I want this so band I willing to endure the pain. Ice Bags are my best friend and icy hot. As far as protein powders, Oh Yeah makes a good chocolate, Pure Protein Vanilla mixed with peanut butter or fruit is not bad. Bariatriceating.com has my favorites but they are a little pricey but low in carbs and only require a small amount of liquids. For the summer Isopure is not bad, it comes in koolaid flavors and is 40gms per bottle (GNC) I also am a coffee person, Starbuck to be exact. I put a scoop of my Vanilla protein powder in my skinny vanilla latte, this is my breakfast and my coffee in one shot. I call it my one cheat for the day. To measure my intake I use myfitnesspal, this is an on line app, a lot of us are on there and it is a way for us to hold ourselves and each other accountable. Again welcome and best of luck, believe in yourself and your abilities. The power of positive thinking can be half the battle.

Hmmmmm...now I say to myself do I respond or not. Since I am a lot like you, I chose to respond. You can lose this #$%@^ weight in 5 years, actually I think you will lose it 2-3 years. Secondly throw the damn scales away, I personally hate them. They are frustrating and in my OPINION (as you know we all have one) the can drive us absolutley bonkers, Especially when they don't move or only move a tiny bit. Take your measurements, my experience with the band is that I have not always consistantly lost like they said I would, by the scale, but I have lost inches when the scale would just sit there. I never thought I would get below 200lbs. I would drop to 199 and than right back up to 200 plus again and believe me I would watch everything I put in my mouth to the point of obsession. On the temper tantrums, I think I still have one at least once a week. Yesterday was my day, I woke up feeling like an absolute shrew... My husband told me I looked just plain evil and you know what I was evil, if the wrong person crossed my path I could have chewed them up and spit them out and never thought a thing about it. Give your self time and just keep venting, the weight will come as long as you are true to the plan but you have to feel satisfied with what you eat and the amount in order to stick with the plan. You ask how does this so and so know I will make it because like you said you want it so bad you can taste it. Guess what success doesn't cost you any calories on intake and neither does temper tantruims but they sure do burn calories. Oh and I hate math also, it is kind of like calculating your hourly wages when you work salary it is always depressing. You go girl, I place my money on you not only to place but to WIN!

congratulations, glad it went well.

Well it has been a few weeks since I have posted. Nothing really exciting going on in my life. Still sitting at 158 lbs. It seems every time I get a fill I have an immediate drop in weight and than plateau again on the scales and start losing inches. I had my measurements done 3 weeks ago and next Saturday will be measurement day again, so we will see. I know I don't need a fill because I am not hungry between meals and barely eat 1000 calories a day. I have been working really hard on drinking the water and making sure I get all of my protein in. I only went to Curves once last week but did some distance walking. My other knee started acting up, last Tuesday I had a really bad day and work and went to curves and took it out on the machines but instead I think the machines took it out on me. So I have decided to look at alternative gyms and find a personal trainer to help me lose this last 26 lbs. I contacted a local gym here in my area and they charge 35 dollars a session with a 175 dollar planning assessment and nutrition plan. The training sessions are usually once per week and you have access to the gym 7 days a week. Has anyone else ever used a trainer and does this seem like the going rate. I know I should be happy with my weight to date but some days I just find it depressing to work so hard at eating healthy and nothing happens. You would think being this far post op I would get over myself and just be happy with my results to date. I think this is the time when I usually sabotage myself and say, "oh what the hell you might as well eat what you want your not losing anyway." This is when I thank god for my band because it makes me think before I act. I am still liking my Fitbit, it does make me very much aware of how much I move during the day and today I have not been moving. Took the day off from work, feeling a little under the weather. The wonderful GI bug going around at work and it has not been a very pleasant 24 hours. Lap band and GI Bug do not mix well. Enough for now, keep you post on what I do about the trainer and the gym. Just not sure about the cost.

Thanks for allowing me to rant earlier today but i have been having a lot of bad days lately with eating solids and I just needed to vent. I had a yummy dinner tonight of solid foods and it all went down and it felt good to eat. Drinking only protein makes me grumpy sometimes and I knew you guys would understand. I bought my Fit Bit today and have set it up, I am really excited to wear it to work this coming week and to exercise. It will be interesting to compare how much I burn all day during my daily activity and how much more I can do. Hope everyone has a great week.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and a wonderful relaxing Sunday. The day is beautiful here in SC, sun is shinning but it is still a little cool for the south. I don't know about everyone else but I can't wait until spring. I have so much more energy and motivation when it is warm outside. I find the winter months to be a little depressing and I do not feel as motivated to be outside and exercise. I am proud that I have went back to curves a week ago and have met my goal of going on Saturday mornings, and Tuesday and Thursday evenings after work. I need to set a new goal this week of at least doing 30 minutes of exercise daily of at least walking or something. I need my tread mill moved so I can use it, my son moved in late last year and it is in his room and a little hard to use. My husband says he has to take it apart to get it out of the room and has not done that yet. First thing that ticks me off lately. I go back to see my surgeon next week one , I had my last fill on Jan 30th and I am still struggling with solid foods most days, I do eat but it is usually late in the afternoons and evenings, I am getting all my protein in but with supplements. I keep thinking the band will loosen up a little and some days it seems to and others like yesterday, I just gave up and ate Greek yogurt and drank protein. I am still holding at 160 lbs, so at least I have slowed down on losing for a while. On the 30th I was at 175 which was up 5 lbs from before Christmas. I did find something good to eat this weekend, we ordered take out from the local Chinese restaurant and I ate a tofu stir fry, it was yummy and the tofu was silky soft and slide right down. I was only able to eat about 1/2 cup but it was yummy. I went out today and purchased a fit bit and tied it to my fitness pal account so I could track my activity and calories burned. I will let everyone know how that works out. I have been a little lazy lately and feeling a little frustrated with food and eating in general. I haven't felt this way in a long time but it is just so frustrating when one day things go down with out problems and they same things don't the next day. Welcome to bandster hell, I guess. The last thing that ticks me off today is people who use this site to promote sales of products. I was reviewing the forums and blogs this morning and found a blog that someone had started yesterday, she said she was 2 years out from lap band and had lost 150 lbs but was promoting a protein drink diet to get back on track. I thought to my self, every lap band patient knows that gimmicks don't work, diets don't work and getting the lap band has to be about changing your life and behaviors. Not sure why it pissed me off but it did, I feel we all work so hard on trying to live with lap band and trying to change out lives and live like others and the last thing I needed was someone telling me I could lose weight with lap band drinking yummy protein shakes. SERIOUSLY! I drink the damn shakes because nothing else goes down some days and this is not how I intend to lose my last pounds. I want to eat, enjoy my food portion. So shame on you if you are a lap band patient for encouraging us to drink protein to lose weight instead of change our behaviors and learn to live with lap band. I know we all have the freedom to post and believe what ever we want but SERIOUSLY give me a break. Ok, I feel better now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well stated!

BrowneyedBandit, Learning to track everything we eat and do is hard. Our past behaviors do not always go well with be accountable to all we do and eat. Tracking your food now and after surgery will need to become part of your change to a healthy life and progress in weight loss. Even after banding it is still easy at times for us to not always judge correctly. Most people on a diet underestimate the portion size by about 30% that is why measuring and weighing of portions can be very important in the beginning and during plateaus. There are several apps for droids, iphones and blackberry's to help you track your calories and exercise, myfitnesspal, spark people are two that I know right off had. They both have an endless food library and it only takes a few seconds to input your info, you can run reports and show them to your nutritionist or physican. It you enter the food as you eat it you are more likely to be compliant. Developing some patterns of good habits will help you post surgical because believe me the surgery does not fix everything. If we are all honest we have all went through a great deal of emotional loss in the early weeks and months after surgery. The long term success of WLS is; tracking your food, your exercise, drinking your water and keeping your follow up appointments with your MD. Good luck and I hope you get your approval soon.

Being at a stand still is frustrating, I have been there many times along this journey. I have been banded since October 2010. If you have not already done this do it now, take your measurements. What I have found along this journey that I have many standstills the more weight I lose but I continue to drop sizes. I read something interesting on another physicians web site on lap band progress and plateau. Sometimes after dropping large amounts of weight the body takes a rest period to get used to the redistribution of the weight loss. Now this seemed kind of silly to me but honestly the one thing I have noticed since being banded is I have lost weight much differently than I ever did when I was on the numerous diets over the years. I weigh 158 now and most people think I weigh much less. My point is take notice of the inches you lose and they will help you to keep focused when the scale is not moving. Also remember this is not a diet but a healthy life style change and that is why this will work when all the diets failed us. Good Luck to you.

Kaylyn, I am glad you are on your journey and doing so well, keep up the good work and remember this is a life style change and we are all looking for progress and not perfection. It takes time and patience to undo all the bad habits and behaviors we have all had for years, reward your self along the way and enjoy each pound you lose. Good Luck to you.

LOL, I have also heard of people who snap the rubber band when they do something they shouldn't have. I am afraid if I did that I would have one big bruise. On a serious thought, I bought a braclet from my gift shop at work (CountMeHealthy) and I love it, not only is it fashionable but it is also useful. I use it when I am walking laps on the track to help keep track when I reach a mile, 12 laps is 1 mile and I slide them from side to side. I actually did buy two, one to help me track exercise and one for water. Here is the web site, I bought the silver ones, I bought them as a gift for myself for reaching different mile stones along this journey. I used to eat to reward my self for stuff, now I buy jewery and cloths. http://countmehealthyjewelry.com/shop.cfm) How to use your Count Me Healthy Bracelet Using your Count Me Healthy Bracelet is easy ... here's how: Choose a health goal you would like to track. Once chosen, decide the daily target number for your healthy goal (For example, if you are tracking glasses of water, you would aim for eight glasses of water a day. Your target number would be eight). Next, turn this daily target number into a bead count. You do this by dividing your daily target number by the number of beads (12) on the bracelet. Water is easy, because each bead would count for one glass of water. Throughout the day, just slide the beautiful beads (one at-a-time) toward you from one side to the other. The patented jump-ring at the top of the bracelet acts as a marker for your progress. Once that bead is pulled or pushed over the jump-ring, your goal is counted for the day. The beads have been specially designed to move easily along the cuff, and won’t fall back-and-forth unless purposely moved by you. At the end of the day, remove your bracelet and write down your progress. You can track your progress using our Health Counts Cards. Then slide all beads back to the starting position for tomorrow. Good Luck and keep up the good work!

Guilt is a funny thing, we inflict this on our selves because we do not live up to our standards or someone elses. First and formost, forgive your self and learn from what happened. Remember this is not a diet, we can eat and do anything within moderation, just sometimes some choices are better than others. It is hard to change behavior, we have all had bad eating habits for a very long time or none of us would be here pouring out our inmost thoughts and feelings. It takes time and a lot of strength to say no to friends, no to family and still feel like we are part of everything. I am sure all of us could tell you a story about, drinking to much, eating the wrong foods and feeling remorse. Learning new coping behaviors for when we are frustrated or made takes time and patience. We will all get there, look how far you have come and the difference is you recognize where you went wrong and instead of ignoring it you announce it to the world. I think instead of feeling guilt you should feel proud of your self for admitting you made a mistake, you have taken a hugh step in being accountable to yourself. Good luck and remember, never beat yourself up if you’ve slipped on your journey. Pick up where you left off. Life isn’t about perfection, it should be about enjoyment and appreciating what the higher power has given you.

I flew to Baltimore 1 week post op and did fine, I took my protein shakes with me and my shaker and just mixed them in my room and drank them through out the day when my friends were eating their meals. It was a little difficult being around all that food at first but I managed to stay true to my goals. Enjoy SC that is where I live and we are suppose to have a beautiful weekend here.

That is awesome, congratulations on your success!

Looking good, keep up the good work.

Excellant encouragement for the start of the weekend. Thank you!

I was one of those fortunate bandsters and i have had some type of restriction from immediate postop. You are correct in that we are all different and we should never compare our fills or how much we have in our bands. For a month I have been tight and rarely have been able to eat 3 meals a day but today was good and I enjoyed all three meals. I will say even though I felt some restriction from the beginning I could tell a difference after my first fill.

Glad your back on track, and glad you found a physician you can work with. Have a good medical support is improtant with WLS patients. The lump you feel in the back of your throat may be the sensation of how some of us feel after a fill. You need to ease your self back into the program and remember to always eat your protein first, chew, chew and chew some more. Drink plenty of water, eat off of a small plate and learn to work the plan with smaller portion, if hungry between meals grab some low calorie protein and stay away from sliders and junk food. Good luck to you.