Pats Fan in MA

Both Beth Israel (a Center of Excellence where I'm having my surgery) and Brigham & Women's are both excellent hospitals in Boston and they both charge a $500 "program fee". This covered things like the psych visit, nurse visit, gallbladder ultrasound, urinalysis and blood work. I would have gotten it back if I didn't go through with the surgery for any reason.

Yes, this is definitely a big part of it. It's so important to educate yourself on the proper food choices. My nutritionist and surgeon are psyched I'm keeping a food journal and have a daily calorie intake goal- they say it helps so much in lap band patients being successful with losing weight as opposed to those who don't really pay a lot of attention to their nutrition. They see patients who expect to eat whatever and have the band "tell" them they've had enough, and it just doesn't work that way. Essentially, you are changing your diet for the better, just as you presumably would with a diet without the band, but you are (when acheiving the right restriction) a.) able to eat smaller portions of good foods and be full b.) be full for longer periods of time and not constantly fighting hunger (this is why I always ended up bailing on diets) and c.) you have a lot more invested-going through major surgery and going back to old habits is just not an option! Although I made my decision months ago and my surgery is two weeks from today, I just got my copy of the book Bandwagon from Amazon. It is a fantastic book and would help anyone considering lap bad surgery or who is already on the journey understand the process better.

I have an issue with sweet stuff too- and of course most of the Protein drinks taste sickly sweet to me! I bought a 2lb tub of Jarrow's Unflavored whey Protein (at Amazon) in order to blend it with Soups like tomato, creamy chicken, plain yogurt, etc. So far I've used it in creamy chicken Cup 'O Soup and it only made the soup creamier- it didn't have any taste that I could detect whatsoever! Today I'll be having a scoop of it (18g protein) in a can of tomato soup. I hope that works as well. I chose Jarrow's because the reviews said it blended really well with hot and cold foods, and it does. I will say though, you have to mix it like you were making gravy or a roux- start with a small amount of the hot liquid, then whisk in (I'm at work so I used a plastic fork and it worked fine) the powder until smooth, then add in the rest of the hot liquid slowly as you stir. If you don't do it this way you will end up with chunky bits floating on top- so gross!

No, believe me I got it. And technically, you are supporting your children with help from the government in the form of a tax credit per kid. Could you do it without the tax credit? Maybe so, but you're getting help nonetheless. And it's a tax credit you get "because you spawn". I think you missed my point.

Okay, that is very low-carb, especially if you cannot incorporate any whole grains, and have to limit your lowfat milk & yogurt to two servings per day. Even though they say to avoid cereal, you can have All-Bran? I think if you can stick with it you could very well lose more than 13 pounds in 6 months. I also think I personally would go a little crazy on this diet for that period of time. It is interesting to see how different everyone's requirements are.

Interestingly, my pre-op diet is about carbs, Protein and calories. My book from the program has an outline of 1000 calories/day for women, 1200/day for men. Protein at around 100 g, and Protein shakes with 20g or less of carbs per serving. Though I have to say I am not sweating it if I have 25-30g of carbs in my protein Meal Replacement. It's the calories that have been so hard to stick with. I can't imagine calories have nothing to do at all with the pre-op diet. I mean, one could eat the targeted protein while consuming 4000 calories/day, which definitely wouldn't shrink the liver....

So I'm guessing your surgeon's version of the liver-reduction diet is low carb? Did they give you a daily calorie intake target? It's hard to set something up to know your proteins/fats/carbs without knowing the calories you should be eating in a day. Fitday.com is a site many posters use to log food and exercise. It's great in some ways- tons of foods in their database, more things to track like mood, etc., but I personally prefer to use fitwatch.com . Here I've entered my calorie goal for the day (oh yeah another thing- fitwatch doesn't allow you to have a goal under 1200 calories) and stipulated what percentage of Protein fat and carbs is my goal. Right now I have it set at 1200 calories, with a breakdown of 40% carbs, 30% protein & 30% fat. If I were using fitday that would work out to be 480 carb calories, 360 protein calories and 360 fat calories. Of course you don't need to worry about calculating those numbers constantly- when you add foods to your daily food log the program will give you a running tally of your grams of each, so you'll know by dinner if you need more protein, less carbs, etc.

Getting excited now...the nurse from the bariatric program just called to go over and confirm my medical history, medications, my pre-op appt with the anesthesiologist, etc. And I'm in Day 2 of the two week pre-op diet- I started a couple of days early! (and yes, I'm so hungry, but this phone call helps with motivation!) November 9 is coming up soon!

Let me preface with: I was a regular smoker for many years, then for the past year or two was down to 1 per day, sometimes skipping a day. Still hard to give up that one/day. Other than the obvious, it being bad for you in general, it increases your risk of developing a blood clot or clots during and immediately after surgery (that's scary stuff), and it inhibits the healing process. Look, my best friend, smart, beautiful woman that she is, didn't completely give up smoking with both her pregnancies. She has two healthy kids. She did have all sorts of healing complications with her C-sections though. Yeah, you could be the person who doesn't develop a blood clot or take a longer time healing, but it will be because you got very lucky, not because it doesn't happen. Take care!

Agreed- it's totally time to get rid of that Child Tax Credit. I mean, if you can afford to have kids, why should the government give you a $1000 tax credit per child? /sarcasm I'm thinking I should get a tax credit for NOT having a kid.

Yeah, well, in my head anyway! Vulgarity is regulated here, so you may see a lot of asterisks in my posts until I'm over a few hurdles....I started my 2 week pre-op diet today. Such a good little student.....no really, I started it two days early. I woke up this morning and was like, "F*ck it, start today!" I think because I've been totally dreading it, it was just easier to start than to deal with two more days of anticipation. It's definitely going to be a test of will. You see, I like real food-healthy food. I don't mind the challenge of counting calories, protein, carb and fat grams. Of exercising on a treadmill and obsessively maintaining a 70% max heart rate for x minutes.....I think it's the OCD in me (which I think everyone has- have you met your inner OCD child yet?), but I like a challenge and proving to myself, or whoever, that I can do something, even if it's wicked hard (ok so wicked may come up here and there too- what can I say, I live in Boston!). Anyway, the problem with this liver-shrinking diet is that other than the "free" foods (carrots, cukes, peppers, spinach, etc), there is no wholesome, non- (or at least minimally) processed food to be eaten for 3 out of four meals per day. Let's see what the label of the protein meal replacement bar I ate this morning says: Whey protein, palm oil (ok), enriched flour, sugar, palm kernel oil (the oil must be extracted from the pit with a gasoline-like hydrocarbon solvent. In short, palm kernel oil is a cheap, unhealthy fat!-Dr. Weil), cocoa, fructose, soy lecithin, caramel color, salt, stevia. Actually, that's not too horrible. I can't wait to see what's on the label of the high protein Ensure shakes in my pantry. Yuck! I'm not a big sweets eater and am hoping the "unflavored" whey protein that's coming in the mail will work when I add it to some chicken broth. So I was across the street from my temp job at the grocery store to get a salad and was overwhelmed briefly by the thought that I couldn't do it, and then, my inner Bob Harper roared to life and said "F*ck you, hunger!", and I headed to the salad bar, got my allotted veggies and a fresh protein drink and was on my way. Yes, I realize I'm only on Day One, but the title of this post didn't mention anything about rainbows and unicorns, did it?

Ok, you're cool on so many levels but also because you said "Xyphoid Process". I love the name of that bone- always have. Thanks for this kick-a$$ post on loving life down 86 lbs 8 months out! You have a lot to be proud of, and we so appreciate hearing a positive experience. I'm new to the blogs so now I'm going to check out all of your past posts! Yay!

I love your post! Brought tears to my eyes. In part for happiness for you! Also in part, for mourning what we can lose from being overweight. I know I've lost so many things over the years because of my weight and the effect it had on my self confidence. I am looking forward to getting that back more than anything. Go YOU!!

Have it was diagnosed at age 23 because of missed periods and then through an ultrasound, and I'm 39 now. Was on birth control all those years until I stopped in July to prepare for surgery (didn't want the added blood clot risk). Oddly enough, I have been ovulating and having the most regular periods of my life since going off the pill. Don't have any of the other symptoms though.

Make sure you're drinking plenty of Water between meals to help fill you (and hydrate you!). Do you have any issues with sodium, like edema or high blood pressure, or hypoalbuminemia? It seems like this would be a reason for your doc to tell you to stay away from broth, as the high sodium content has nothing to do with burning the fat around your liver (here's just one link.) If anything, it will make you retain water, which you can counteract by drinking enough water throughout the day. Also, you can always make your own chicken stock, and keep the added salt to a minimum! Just keep remembering, it's not forever- you can do this!! (just started the pre-op myself and put in a blog entry about it today). Good luck!

I know what you mean about all the people out there who don't understand the struggle with weight. I deal with it too, even in my own home. BF is totally supportive of the surgery, despite the fact that he has no clue about how hard it is to lose weight. Seriously, I've been asked "why don't you just stop eating?" So clueless I know it wasn't meant to be hurtful, nonetheless.....of course it was. Good luck to you- I'm right behind you with surgery on the 9th!

I'm Nov 9th too!!!

Good luck and just keep telling yourself- it's not forever! It's a means to an end, and this too shall pass. Hang in there!

If you really can't eat foods like eggs and cottage cheese, and especially if these foods are making you throw up, they should be offering you substitutions for your Protein needs. There are so many sources of lean protein out there, it seems rather short-sighted and narrow-minded to not work with you on this. I hope you can sit down with them and explain the problem so that they understand this is not a lack of will on your part. Would they be forcing you to drink milk if you were lactose intolerant?? Nobody has said the pre-op diet is easy, but throwing up every day seems more unacceptable than finding a different protein that gets you through the day while still staying within your calories. Of course you should follow the instructions of your surgeon, but you aren't a child. You, your surgeon, nutritionist, support group, etc should all be on the same team. Just my 2 cents.

Cheri, I so appreciate your advice and sharing your experience with the band and being banded in November. It's reminded me how incredibly important it will be to stay focused on working out as much as possible after surgery to maximize my weight loss. It's not the ideal time to be banded for me, living in Boston where I hate to be cold and tend to get a little depressed and hibernate in the winter; I will have to really fight those SAD tendencies to be successful. I am lucky in one regard: my family doesn't live near me and the holidays are very low key with just me and my guy, and he's not a big eater anyway! I'm having surgery on the morning of November 9th, and start my 2 week pre-op liquid diet next week. Let's do this, people!

So glad you posted this. I've met with a couple of registered dieticians over the years and they all give the same advice. Create a calorie deficit through diet and exercise, but not so much that your body shuts down and holds on to every ounce its got. For me, successful weight loss (without the band) only happened when I was doing strength training 2-3x/week, cardio 3-4x/week (60-80%of max heart rate) and eating roughly 1600 calories per day, with a breakdown of 40% protein, 30% carbs (complex carbs mostly) and 30% fat. I lost an average of 2 pounds a week for many months, and I was concerned that my calorie intake would be too low with the band, but when I asked the surgeon he said my target should be 1400 calories a day. This reassured me that I can be successful with this, while incorporating the knowledge I already have about exercise & nutrition.

Welcome! I'm getting banded on November 9th, so we'll be November Bandsters together! Best Wishes!