winifred76

hi all-checking in! banded in sept 2011. I am down 75lb. and am yoying on the last ten. i also had the plication. I have almost no worries about eating the wrong things because if I do I regret it imediately and can not keep it down! I guess it is a plus not to be able to deviate at all. I recently had to start adding the protein shakes because I have been really losing hair. Lucky I had a lot of hair to start. any really great recipes? I have not been good at all at exercising. I need to start toning up. It is good tohear others are

congratulations! I bet you really are excited. It's good to know that there are good things to come!

My port is flipped, but because of the position right now they are just accessing it from underneath. I had a few moments of stinging and a long visit because he had to xray where exactly the port was in order to do the fill, but other than a little soreness and a few small bruises the next day or two, nothing major. Gosh I hope it doesn't cause problems down the road!

Hi! I've been out of town in cool and (snowy) Boone North Carolina! Yes they had a snowfall while I was there (though it burned off by Sunday morning it was a treat for a Floridian who never gets to see snow. On the food front, it seemed to be easy traveling and making food choices. Some things didn't turn out as expected, but overall I was able to stay low carb and to top it off on the three day weekend I dropped 2 more lbs. We did a lot of hiking and exploring nearby Blowing Rock. I can't believe that I started this on August 27th (preop diet) and here it is November 1. In just 2 short months I've lost 24lbs. Wow - it's amazing what a different person I already feel like. I'll bend over to pick up something and then go wait a minute, I haven't been able to do that in a long time without issues! Then there is the feeling of clothes that fit instead of being about to pop a button at any moment. I'm really trying hard to rely on the several sizes of clothes in my closet instead of going on a spending spree when I know (isn't that funny how I know instead of wish) I will be going down more and they will be too big before long! I found a book on my sister's bookshelf I hadn't seen in years Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution and read it from cover to cover on the airplane to see how his theory's fit with my new Doctor's low carb philosophy and got a couple of recipes in the process. I'm so glad we put this group together because it really helps to share with everyone!

This will be great as once again I was out of town on Saturday for the Halloween challenge! Name, real or screen~Winifred76 Age~ 53 Weight on November 1st~ 189.5 Goal Weight for November 29th~ 181.5 Exercise Goal for November~ 5 days a week walk for at least 20 minutes Dietary Goal for November~ find new Breakfast ideas. Personal Goal for November~ keep working the plan! Date Banded~ September 29 Total Weight Loss Since Banding~ 25 lbs! Anyone have ideas for something besides eggs and sausage/bacon for breakfast? Remember low carb solutions...........

Breakfast:: fast food southern style chicken breast 150 cals and 8 carbs Lunch: some type of high Protein with a side of veggies - today a premade salad from publix with hardly any carbs - 270 cals and 5 carbs dinner - probably a low carb salmon patty and a side of green Beans or cauliflower 200 - 300 cal and 3 - 4carbs total. It varies, but usually either beef, chicken, pork or fish and a side of some type of green vegetable. I usually don't snack at night, but if my tummy is growling before I go to bed I either have a wedge of laughing cow cheese (35 cal and 1 carb I think) or a sugar free icepop. Total for the day is usually around 800-900 cal's. I really haven't missed carbs that much at all....

Name, real or screen~Winifred76 Age~53 Weight on October 1st~195.5 So Far =- 192.0 as of Saturday! Goal Weight for October 29th~188.5 Exercise Goal for October~walk 3 times a week Dietary Goal for October~learn to work the band! Personal Goal for October~find other stress outlets Date Banded~9/19/11 Total Weight Loss Since Banding~23.5! I'm motivated! Don't know if I'll make the 188.5 by Saturday - but I'll be happy with 190! and keep moving!

did you ask if they had a waiting list for canceled appointments? Maybe they could squeeze you in that way?

Here are some things you can do: First, don't let whether or not you get a fill be the determination of your success. Remember you are in control not someone else. How can you creatively work around this small wrinkle? Low carb high Protein may help you feel satisfied longer. Also are you getting 6 to8 glasses of Water per day? Maybe next time you feel hungry, instead you go for a walk around the building and say to yourself, "If I'm still hungry after this walk, I'll have a piece of babybel cheese or one of thos small slim jim things to chew on" Also, in regard to what others said about retraining your body, my nutritionist is empahsizing taking no more than 15-20 minutes per meal, putting your fork down between each bite and waiting a full 30 seconds before you pick it back up even if I have to time myself" I think that is so my brain has time to actually register that I"m getting full instead of stuffing until I'm uncomfortable like I used to and then going wow I ate way too much. I don't know if these are good suggestions or not, but I'm learning to remember that I can decide whether to let the situation take control or try to take control of the situation! Don't give up!

You bring up some good questions. I haven't heard about the 1 cup rule. The rule my nutritionist has is 10-15 minutes from when you start to eat and when you finish and put your fork down between bites and wait 30 seconds before you pick your fork back up. As for liquids, 30 -60 minutes after eating. Try to do 20 ozs between breakfast and lunch and 20 ozs between lunch and dinner and 20 0zs after dinner (but not too close to bed time. I'm struggling with the 60 ozs myself. But after talking to the nutritionist, I have made sure I get 40 ozs in by dinner and then whatever I drink after dinner is what I do and not worry so much about it.

I guess different surgeons have different preferences. My surgen put it just above my belly button and upside down! But I'm thinking as I lose weight it will be hidden by the belly button (I hope)

wow no one told me no Advil! I have had a little trouble with pizza but that's it. I haven't tried rice because I didn't care for it before I've only had one fill so maybe there will be others. The interesting thing is that I did the high Protein low carb thing before the surgery and things I've "tested" after have such a different taste, I don't really miss them. Anyone else notice a difference in flavor?

That's a great idea! Hadn't thought of that. I also get these premade cobb salads at publix - they are 2.49 and include the dressing - usually no more than 11 carbs for the whole salad. I have checked out some nurtrition websites for food that isn't high in carbs - Zaxby's kid meal iwth coleslaw instead of fries is pretty low carb and calories and yesterday we went out for a coworkers lunch at Longhorn. I ordered cheese stuffed mushrooms and a side of asparagus (pricey but good). I still have half for lunch today and total it's about 342 calories. I probably would have got off a little less with broccoli, but since everyone else was splurging on carbs, I thought I'd treat myself to the asparagus.

my sister had gallbladder surgery a while back. she called me about a month later with excrutiating pain and I had to rush her to the emergency room. They found that the doctor didn't do something correctly with the bile duct - apparently you still pass gallstones after you have the gallbladder removed and the stones were getting stuck at the end of the duct. They had to go back in and correct it. Don't know if this is you but since it has been such a long time maybe not.

Are you noticing any other changes? Inches, smaller sizes in clothes? i know what you mean - I was banded on 9/19 and had lost 20.5 lbs. At my first fill on Tuesday I was up 1.5 lbs! But I had decided the first month after surgery not to sweat it. As of Today I am suddenly down 2.5 lbs! I don't know if the fill had anything to do with it or if the negative calories finally kicked in! All I can say is keep plugging!

I've been told that the band will slowly stretch the first few fills and that's one of the reasons they need to adjust. my doc also said you might have some swelling when they do the first couple of fills and then as the swelling goes down there is more room again. He did mine with a xray machine too and put 4cc's in at first then had me drink barium and it wouldn't go through so he took out about 2 cc's - it was kind of cool to watch!

Update - I get out of the shower this morning and I actually have purple black and blue bruises where he tried to find my port! Go Figure! I'm a little sore to but nothing major - and I've started to lose again! down 2 1/2 lbs since Tuesday! hurrah!

First fill this morning. Am showing up 1 1/2 lbs : And although it should have been easy, my doc's partner did it. He wasn't sure exactly where the "sweet spot" on the port was and after poking around 4 or 5 times and numbing me because he was poking so much, he took an xray. It was very interesting how it looked. Turns out my port is turned around and you have to actually go in underneath to add saline. I have two bandaids, a little blood on my shirt and am a little sore but overall a very interesting morning..... He made a note on my file and took a picture to put in so that next time they will already know how to access the port. He also had me do a barium swallow to show me the difference between the band wide open and after he added saline. Pretty cool........

Peg so sorry you caught a bug! I'm glad your back at work but I'll tell you stamina was a big thing for me the first week back! I took a 15 min quiet time in the morning and afternoon and put my feet up. It made all the difference! Take care and keep us posted!

Hey - how do you cook the spaghetti squash?

I too take the Vitacrave Gummies - two a day

Anyone run into this? I had surgery on the 19th. Normal recovery, but suddenly this weekend, I started having really bad gas pains, and all day yesterday, I burped, burbed, burbed to the point of painful (very embarrassing at work too!). Even after eating dinner last night. I finally decided to try a gasx strip to see if that would help. That calmed my stomache enough to sleep, but then I woke up hungry as can be at 3am and of course since my tummy was empty that seemed to cause more gas pain. I didn't sleep the rest of the night (I've now woken up 2 nights in a row at 3am and been starving. I haven't eaten anything different, just transitioning to real food but high Protein, low carb. I'm not sure what's up with that. I can't wait until the first fill......

I agree the iv fluids and gas cause a temporary weight gain. Give it a few days and you will see the scale move.

See! Congrats on the weight loss too! You are awesome!