donna12

which brand and which ones taste like pop tarts, oh lordy i sure would like to get ahold of those...lol I was at GNC today too to get powder.

that is too funny!

Got into a smaller bra, sorry guys out there but to us girls it's a big thing. And the best part was it was on clearance at Dillard's, it was a Wacoal, originally $48, I got it for $15, yup, I did. Then I hit Belk's and bought a 1X shirt, yes I did, and it was on sale got it for $7, it was my day, oh and I tried on some cute jeans at Belk's size 22, they fit but too darn long and they said short, I was so disappointed and they were on sale, I should have gotten them and had them altered.

Anna ur so funny, of course we'll go shopping! Granny is fun to go with, she'll crack you up.

Sharpie, I do regret not buying the jeans now that I'm home and it's today, bummer. I was so excited that they were size 22 and so bummed out that they were too long. dang it. maybe I can talk my mom in to going back down there tomorrow afternoon after church. They were a dark wash just like I like too.

I agree with everyone here and can't say much more but will add this, I lost a good friend over my surgery, had known her for 20 yrs, we were best friends. She too had weight problems. Hadn't spoken to her in a year until I saw her at Target last Sunday and ran into her so she was forced to say something to me, she looked a little embarrassed that she hadn't spoken to me but we talked and she had a lot of issues going on in her life and told me that her eating had gotten out of control and yes she had gained weight, she did tell me I looked great, I thanked her, we hugged and I told her I'd be praying for her family as like I said she had had some serious family illnesses so maybe we have a future, who knows. We'll see. But keep in mind, you are doing this for yourself and your future and your health.

My doctor says I'm in the green zone, maybe so but I feel I need a fill. I can go at least 4 hrs between meals, good I know but at mealtime I feel like I could eat more than a cup worth and sometimes do, not very often but today at lunch I went overboard and knew it. Also for some strange reason, keep in mind I'm a little over a yr post op June 13th '12 and all of the sudden I can tolerate bread, rice, toast, eggs, chicken, just about anything whereas before, I'd say 6 months ago I would get stuck on those things. I don't eat these things in excess i.e. bread, rice, toast with the exception of tonight I had a half of a sandwich for dinner and a little snack cup of apple sauce. I just don't understand why I can all of the sudden tolerate these foods and before I couldn't. I don't see him again until July 11th at which time I am to discuss a colonoscopy with him to have done within the next few weeks, I know you're saying I'm not 50 yet but my brother has colon cancer and the kind he has is hereditary and I am to be checked every 3 yrs and this is my year, ugh! I'm hoping for a small tee tiny fill because I really don't feel restriction, the only thing I feel is my soft stop which is a hiccup, is this the same as restriction? Or is restriction considered not eating more than a cup worth of food or eating less than. The scales hasn't moved in 8 weeks and I've teetered between 228 and 226 and finally got back down to 226 this morning, thank you Jesus! I've tried exercising but it is very hard on me on the treadmill due to a bad knee and 2 knee surgeries, it gives me heck. Even riding a stationary bike hurts my knee at the gym. The trainer there doesn't seem to get it about my knee. I feel silly going in and working my arms, abs and thighs for 20 mins and leaving, that is literally all I can handle physically. My arms are so big and heavy on me now that any exercising of them physically drains me, I have no strength in them. It wears me out just to dry my hair because of the loose skin. I seemed to have hit a plateau I guess. Thanks for listening.

thanks catfish my fellow wildcat kentuckian,I will try my best to increase my cardio. Yes Tom I will email you for the dip and try to increase my Protein. I put everything into my fitness pal yesterday that I ate and I only had 41 grams of protein, NOT enough no wonder my hair is falling out. I have a hard time getting protein in. I've had my share of Protein shakes and they about gag me now. This morning I had oatmeal with 2 pieces of bacon, not a lot of protein I know but a little. I just feel like I'm going about this diet all wrong. I mean my nutritionist is very young, fresh out of college and never has worked with bariatric patients and she tells everyone to eat 3 oz of protein a day and that's it, I thought you are to do protein with every meal, maybe not 3 oz but like an egg for Breakfast, lunch some protein and dinner maybe fish or chicken. And my surgeon agrees with her but then he tells me to up my protein due to hair loss. I already had baby fine thin hair and now its super thin and I mean that literally. Thanks guys for your suggestions, much appreciated.

yea sounds like you over done things a bit, sorry. Hope you get some much needed rest tonight.

my drug of choice when eating out was Sprite or sweet tea, oh how I miss it, but now I look at it as empty calories and I'd rather eat my calories and savor the flavor of food rather than drink it. But a good Sprite sure would be good, just sayin.

congrats girl! Welcome to bandland, hope you do well with the gas pains, they can get bad but walk around so it will work its way out and also a heating pad helps too.

where do you get these? I am interested in buying a box of all flavors to try them because I have a hard time 1 year out getting all my protein in and I'm losing hair big time. Also how many calories does each have and is it like crystal lite, does it make 1 water bottle or a pitcher full? thx

I love it love it love it!!!! Congrats to you, that is on my bucket list, is to fit into a plane seat without my bottom end spilling over into the next seat or the arm rest having to be lifted up. So happy for you and safe travels.

Your TT looks amazing, thanks for the pics, I too will have to do this plus my legs and arms when I hit goal weight although my belly hangs now.

I'm curious, did you have symptoms and what caused your band to slip?

I'm an every morning girl, keeps me accountable and also whether or not I'm retaining fluid and need to take a Lasix which at times I have to.

Thanks everyone, glad I asked, whew! I will ck Walmart out first. I did get some cliff bars from there and I like them but was looking for ones with more protein. I didn't like the cliff ones that have more protein, it was nasty. I just like the regular ones peanut butter crunch I think it is.

if you are only 3.5 weeks post op and getting stuck, please be careful as you don't want to vomit and tear stitches or have your band slip. You are still healing. I too have had my share and plenty of people on here will tell you, of stuck episodes, plenty and most I say most were due to not eating properly. By that I mean tee tiny bites and chewing the heck out of it. This past Sunday morning before church I was eating a hard boiled egg and toast and I'm not sure whether my band was being finicky cause pills that morning went down kind of hard or I took too big of bite but I got stuck and here I sit telling you this 1 year and 1 week post op. It's a learning curve on how to eat, still learning. We are so used to gobbling it up and shoveling it in or at least I was and thinking it was my last meal, sheesh, now I taste food for the first time in my life and enjoy it for what food really is, nourishment. Do I cheat, of course, tonight I met a fellow bandster, local, for the first time, she and I were so excited that we met on here and we lived close to each other so we met up and went for a treat, we got frozen yogurt, yes it was low fat but that was my treat for the day. do I do that every day, no, but it was great to have that treat tonight along with great company. I eat to live now instead of living to eat. Your portions should be about 1 cup.

Thanks for sharing, what an inspiration you are and always have been to me. So thankful you lived thru it all and continued to succeed in all that. Godspeed to you in your healing process and many prayers to you and your family for your loss. You are a mighty warrior, girl.

I can only answer 2: hospital stay, I think it's up to your surgeon, for me I was in and out same day, no complications. Insurance question, I had BCBS-MI at the time with my ex and it was running out due to divorce so they pushed my surgery thru quickly so it would be covered. Within 2 weeks I had Anthem BCBS-KY and they do cover my fills and office visits but my independent paying insurance isn't as good as my old one was.

did you have plication with your lap band?

I agree portion sizes are way out of control in America and no wonder there is an obese epidemic in America today. We each too much and that is what got me in the shape I was in pre band. Now I'm able to control it. I usually share a meal with my mom or order a kids meal, like today we had lunch at Chick Fil A and I had kids nuggets, apple sauce and choc milk, was totally satisfied. We need to choose healthy choices and get up off the couch and move, get healthy, after all isn't that why we all got the band, to get healthy, I sure did.

I'm 3 hrs from Lexington

I know here lately I've posted and sounded down and maybe I am, I've got a lot going on in my life. Tonight I was watching an episode of I think it's titled "my 600 lb life and where are they now", well I live with my mom and have lived with her for the past year for several reasons, one she's 74 and needs me but for the main reason, I can't find a job and I need her as much as she needs me because I can't make ends meet on my alimony alone since my divorce 2 yrs ago and live by myself. Well, while watching this show I could really relate to these people who had had gastric bypass and their eating issues so I paused the DVR and said to my mom "you know I really need help with my eating issues". Just yesterday or last night I posted on here that I crave something sweet after meals and it is an awful feeling and I didn't know how to deal with it. Her reply was harsh, guess I wasn't ready to hear it and wanted her support. She basically said to deal with it. My feelings to the issue is, this is a real sickness, people are addicted to food as some are addicted to alcohol or drugs. I need to learn how to channel those feelings of wanting to eat at non-eating times to something else. I am paying for my own health ins and it costs a lot over $500/mo for me and my deductible is $2500 and I've had to stop going to my psychiatrist because each visit was going towards my deductible and I couldn't afford to pay out of pocket. I'm crushed, I've been a patient of his for 7 yrs. I did find a psychologist here where I live but she keeps pushing me to do things that cost me, like hobbies and although that is fine and dandy I can't afford it. Now lets talk about exercise: Mom says tonight "I'll pay for a membership to a gym if you'll go", great I say but she doesn't understand that I can barely walk around the block here at home before I have to walk in the door and take a pain pill to kill the pain in my knee that I've had 2 surgeries on. I just feel like she doesn't understand or I feel all alone in this right now. Yes, I've come out of the closet yesterday on here that I'm Bipolar, I take meds for it and they leave me hungover the next day so I usually sleep in till 10:30 and cause insomnia so I'm up till the wee hrs of the night/morning going to bed and the one drug that knocks me out causes some weight gain and cravings but its the only thing that will put me to sleep at night and control my moods. Going back to my psychiatrist, he kept a close eye on me and my bipolar and all my meds, now my reg dr handles all my meds. I have a feeling some of this is mild depression going on, but I just don't have the money to make an appt with my old dr right now. sheesh. My Lap Band dr has me come in once a month for fills and that has been costing me over $100 a time, I'm up to my eyeballs in medical bills. No wonder my hair is falling out. Going back to exercise, I tried to do a Burpee, omg, I couldn't even accomplish that, couldn't squat because of my knee. I thought I was going to have to call the fire dept to get me up. Thanks for listening. Donna

Thanks Tx and Anna. You all will be happy to know that I get to see my Psychiatrist again. He agreed to see me every 3 months and also treat me over the phone since he is in Nashville, woohoo, I'm elated. To Tx, you are right about the SSI, I make too much with alimony for that. So far as the law goes with SS disability here in KY I do not qualify because of my work history since I haven't worked in 15 yrs, you have to have worked in the past 10 yrs to qualify. I did however write my Congressman about the laws, probably won't do any good but just wanted it to get out there. Here lately I've been eating fresh fruit as something sweet, cherries, grapes, pears, apples. Thanks all of you for your support. Donna