FurEllie

OK, it's been 2 weeks and 2 days. Late last week I got a massive feeling like a "pull" where I'm assuming my port is. When looking down, it's about an inch to the left of my "big scar" and about 2 inches to the right of where I think the port scar is. I can feel a lump right there which again, I'm assuming is part of the port line. Tonight it happened again. I was laying on the sofa and had a TINY little cough.......OMG, I swear, it was like someone stabbed me. I couldn't even lift my left leg. I had to roll over to get off the sofa (which the dogs thought was great fun). It still hurts, though not the screeching pain like before. I'm VERY gassy - even though I've lost 16 pounds since I started pre-op, my jeans are still very tight at the waist - even tighter than before the surgery and I usually lose in my waist first. I've been eating GasX strips and I THOUGHT they were doing their job. I'm really, really working on convincing myself that it's just gas, but should it be this bad this far out? I have an old heating pad but didn't think I'd need it - I'm rethinking this now!! Thanks for any advice from the oldster bandsters!

I did a search and couldn't find anything. 3fatchicks.com gave a good review on it. The nutritionalist at my Dr's office said to eat 3 MEALS a day - not to use Protein shakes for meals - and I don't cook, so it seems like a good solution to me. I ordered the 7 day w/o the Snacks. My thought is that I'll eat some protein for Breakfast (egg beaters, veggie sausage, etc) and use the "breakfast" as a snack. I may drop to the 5 day no snack as I will HOPEFULLY have some leftovers on the meals. The only thing that concerns me is all the chicken, which seems to cause problems with some people. But I'm going to try it and you can cancel at any time.

Got the food already! The nutrition values seem to be on the "main" foods - the chicken, chili, fish, etc. and there are vacuum packed veggies with them. At a quick glance, each main food seems to be around 230-300 calories. They ARE small portions (duh, that I didn't realize I wasn't getting a big dinner for 1100-1400 calories a day) and some of the breakfast items look to be store bought, i.e. a bagel, Quaker Oats, etc. Everything except the oatmeal, some melba toast and the hot chocolate was frozen. I can't eat solid foods for another 6 days, but once I start on this next Monday, I'll keep everyone informed :welldoneclap:

From their site: How many daily calories is the Full Plan? The Diet To Your Door Plan provides an average of 1,200 calories per day for the full plan (3 meals and 2 Snacks per day). There is some very important information to keep in mind while looking at this number: The calories come from lean Protein and complex carbohydrates which are essential for your body to function properly, feel full and balance its chemistry so you can lose the weight. Some programs focus on calories only, but very often they are “empty calories”: simple carbohydrates and fat which do your body a major disservice We say an AVERAGE, and this is a very important part, as we medically prove that if you stick to a strict 1200 calorie/day diet everyday of the week, your body gets used to that making it harder and harder each week to lose weight. With the slight increase and decrease of calories on a day-to-day basis your body and metabolism do not have the chance to get used to one set point. Thus, in turn the weight comes off easier and in the end it is easier to maintain your weight. Though, even if you are getting the same amount of food every day, we are changing calories intake every day for you, ranging between 1,100 and 1,400 per day. I'm not getting the snacks so I'm assuming it will be 100+ calories lower per day. I PROBABLY won't be able to eat everything on one day either so I'm going to aim to have 1/2 or 3/4 of it and the rest the next day and keep rolling over and stop shipments for a week or so while I "catch up". From what I can tell everything's frozen so it should keep. Oddly they don't have nutritional values listed. If they aren't on the food, I'm going to raise heck with them

See, I can spend well over $20 a meal It's not cheap, but it's complete - meat, veggies, fruits, carbs - and no thinking. I like that I tried Nutrisystem before the band and besides the food just plain sucking, you had to buy additional veggies, fruits, bread, etc. in order to make complete meals. I'd end up just eating the crappy Nutrisystem meal. Yes, I'm that lazy, lol.

About $20 a day.

That's the thing - I'm not going to suddenly start cooking now that I have a band and when I eat out, I eat poorly. Plus the crap that's in frozen foods like Lean Cuisine can't be good for the body 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. I'll post back after being on it for a week and let folks know how it goes

Try Amazon - they seem to have them all (from other sites).

Try making cheese crackers - I forgot the exact time, but you pile about a tablespoonful of parmesan cheese on a plate (make several piles :welldoneclap: ) and heat them in the microwave. They make little cheesy "crisps".

I have a friend who is getting gastric bypass surgery instead of the lapband. He has several health issues and his doctor has told him he'll lose more faster with the GBP. His doctor said usually after a year someone with LBS and someone else with GBP who started out the same weight will have lost the same. He's just having some really bad health issues and needs to get as much off ASAP. He'll be in the hospital several days and out of work for 6 weeks and not able to drive for 4. I wonder how often she eats 2 oz - that seems like such a TINY amount!!

Books and magazines. I spent a LOT of time recouperating and reading, reading, reading

Yeah, I've tried crushing them myself (and made a mess - I'm sure the staff at the hotel in Mexico thinks I do cocaine) and never could get it to mix. Now that I'm being more adventurous on what I'm eating, I'm sure the SF pudding won't be worse for me band-wise than the FF fried beans I just ate Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I have been chewing all my pills. It tastes NASTY but no sliming or PBing. I chew up as many as I can that will make a small "bite", then fill my mouth with something that has flavor (I've been using Gatorade). If I have to take more, then repeat. Then I wash the Gatorade around in my mouth to get as much off my teeth as possible, swallow and then grab some gum to chew on to get rid of the taste. It's a royal PITA and you may have some pills that aren't meant to be chewed, but so far, so good. (and me say again, they taste NASTY, NASTY, NASTY, lol)

OK, time to fess up (again): I've eaten peanut butter. I get like a teeny tiny little bite and turn it into a near liquid in my mouth before swallowing it. It's just so darned good :success1:

Clothed. I don't have blinds on my windows and I really don't want to scare anyone who might drive up :success1:

Hehehe, I pointed that out to him too :success1: He said he can have one when he needs to and proceeded to show me he was right! Great staff, great place.

Wow, that IS flexible. I've been told no Jello for 3 weeks. In fact, the nutritionalist said she'd rather me drink a McD's milkshake than eat Jello. Which is a GREAT coincidence since I'd rather drink a McD's milkshake than eat Jello too

I have been using it for YEARS. Started because of acne and continued when I heard about the wrinkles RIGHT NOW I'm less wrinkled than my friends - then again, there's a lot more fat in my face too. So it will be interesting to see how it pans out. Others have problems with sun - I don't. I'm bad about sunbathing too - I love having a tan. Some salons will not wax your face if you're using Retin-A. I've been getting my eyebrows tweezed for as long as I've been using the Retin-A!

Well crap. I thought it was just so you weren't pushing the food down I'll try once or twice with ONE glass of wine and see how it goes. Would be a shame to waste an entire meal of wine if it's just going to come back up. Thanks for the warning!!

A trick I learned from a friend (who really does need one) for hotels with no fridge - tell them you have a medical need for one (well, you really do.....). They have tons of them for this reason and usually will have one waiting for you in your room Order something you know will be OK cold - a "medically necessary microwave" might be pushing it

I have it but have never used it and probably never will. I don't cook so leftovers are a special treat for me

I stopped talking to my mother several (10+) years ago because of this. I send her cards and gifts, but I can't talk to her. Nothing anyone does is right. My SIL and I used to have a game when I'd leave the room as to how long it would take my mother to bring up my weight - even when I would lose it she'd HAVE to say something, lol. Keep her at a comfortable distance. She's not going to change but you also don't need to be subjected to it. What's funny is because of this, I'm very close to my stepmother and other friend's mothers

We were told no drinking for an HOUR before or after. That's going to be one of the hardest things. I will admit I'm going to cheat if there's a wine pairing dinner, but that only happens about twice a year

BB, did you have to pick the bones out of the salmon in the can first? That was alway my "job". My mother not only used canned veggies but THEN cooked them all day in backfat. I didn't know a green bean was green until I was in college. And we always had LeSeur peas. The first time I saw a big green pea I thought it was some kind of mutant.

OK, sorry, I was totally offbase with what I thought they were (though they look GREAT and I'll be trying them ) I was referring to the single serving sized whole pieces of tuna and salmon that come in a light sauce and are in vacuum sealed foil pouches. I have zero idea what they're called since I thought they were Tuna Sensations, lol!