2012

I was advised to do 1 cup per meal. Sometimes I can actually do this and other times, I cannot. I just tried to eat a protein bar and could only eat half, it fluctuates.

Name, real or screen~ Amy Goal weight for January 29th~ 184 Weight on January 1st~ 192 Age~ 35 Dietary goal for January~ Keep eating good and tracking Exercise goal for January~ To exercise period Personal goal for January~ Get finances straight and work toward big 2013 goals. Date banded~ July 9, 2012 Total weight loss since banding/pre op diet~ 69 lbs. What is your favorite New Year Activity?~ Not working

I tried a couple of wines recently and keep running into carbonation, is no one else running into this problem? And for beer, do you let it go flat before you drink it? I was primarily a beer drinker before lapband, but have not touched it since surgery due to carbonation, so I tried wine, and keep running into carbonation again.

The left shoulder area of pain is usually gas, I had it for about a week after surgery, it lessened as the days went by, but it was there. Some say gas x and a heating pad will help, I did take gas x, but not sure if it helped.

Here's a virtual high five! I cleaned out my closet and dropped off a lot at Goodwill recently too and it was fun . I loved trying all of the clothes on the closet floor (always throw them there when they did not fit) and they all fit and most were too large, woohoo!

Do you have another web browser you can use? I use firefox and can access it just fine. For me, internet explorer does not work half the time.

I like the Celebrate cherry chewable multi-vitamins, they don't make me nauseous like the Vitaband vitamins. I notice that when people around me are getting colds, I do not, and I know for a fact that my immunity system is not 100% (past smoker). Hair and nails do seem better, but I also take biotin, so I'm not sure which to contribute that to as biotin is supposed to be for that purpose.

Lap band hell is the time after surgery where you are following the band rules of eating (liquids, mushies, solids, 1 cup, 1/2 cup, whatever your doc tells you) and you don't have any restriction to help you get through this. Some people really struggle with this because they are hungry and are having to adjust, so they refer to it as "hell". My personal experience is that it was not totally terrible (I believe because they put saline in my band at the time of surgery), but was an adjustment none the less. As far as gaining weight after surgery, I personally did not, but some do. It could be a matter of eating/drinking above what your NUT recommends, which would cause gain, but you also have to remember after surgery the focus is on healing, not losing, it will come (if you follow the rules) in due time.

Good luck to both you of, you will do just fine!

Ricotta cheese and pizza sauce. Chicken broth and refried beans. Tuna or chicken salad in a food processor. On the tuna/chicken salad, I would ask your NUT what all this can contain, I was permitted relish, but I know of at least one person was not, so listen to whatever they say.

Quite honestly, and don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you were a guy from the picture until you started talking about having a c-section. But it's funny none the less

Thank you Cheryl, I'm at a stall right now and this helps put things back in perspective.

Well, I love sugar and carbs, that is where my weight gain came from. This is horrible, but I'm going to put it out there, but it was nothing for me to eat an entire cherry/chocolate/you name it pie by myself in a day. I was getting tired of buying bigger clothes and continuing on this downward spiral. I'm not even that old yet, but felt like I was 80. Years of in dabbling in raw foods, optifast, weight watchers, so on and so on, I finally decided it's time to do this and I did. My insurance did not pay for it, so I did and really want this to come up with this big chunk of change. The first few days of liquids are rough and personally I went through withdrawal, I was not a happy person without my sugar and carbs, but I powered through and here I am almost 6 months out and 69lbs down and could not feel better. I'm smiling a lot more and am happy for a change in a long time. I too got in the bad habit of drive thrus, I'm too tired to cook, it's too late, blah, blah, blah. But now, I want to cook and find it hard to eat at drive thrus. I'm not saying lap band is a super miracle, but it sure as hel* did something to me to get away from those sugars and carbs and the cravings have calmed down big time. Just giving you another perspective on things. I would make a goal for yourself to do the liquids for a week, instead of just a day and make yourself do it. Read success stories on here, whatever works for you to keep you motivated, or just shoot me an email, I'm on here every day and I can check on you and then you have some accountability. Then see how you feel after that week.

Jack, I just gotta say your post cracked me up , too funny.

My port site was sore a few days and then for the next couple of weeks if I bent too far one way or another, it was a little sore, but not really painful or anything.

I didn't get a binder and I never even heard of one until on here when people have mentioned it. Though, it would have been nice for the first couple of weeks. I was always worried about my pants rubbing my belly, but all worked out.

Merry Christmas! I love sweet potato marshmallow pie, but my mom did not make it this year . Great job at the dinner and that was really thoughtful (and supportive) of your sister to do that with the desert.

Smaller plates are also nice, most people call them salad plates, this way your plate looks full compared to a regular plate. sugar free popsicles were big for me right after surgery. My throat was sore the first couple of days and these helped sooth and were just good in general. Have a pillow around to press against your belly when you get up from a sitting position. I also have the Bella and it works pretty good, inexpensive (and probably on a big sale right now or this week) and does the job.

Hi, in the beginning I was very moody and got mad pretty easy, it was crazy and I thought something was wrong with me, but now everything has evened out and all is good. Just give it some time. I was a sugar/carbaholoic before surgery and dropping that way of eating quickly and add in no caffeine right before and after surgery, I don't think this helped. But it will get better.

Join me and several others (from LBT, just search the forums on LBT for myfitnesspal) on myfitnesspal and you can see the tracker every day I'm 2012ALM if you join and want to be friends. It's totally free and I have only had to enter 1 food that I could not find. Super easy and has an app too, I just use my laptop.

Don't be worried, track your food and then you actually know what you are eating At least that is my lifeline for now and I'm very fortunate and it's been a consistent loss since July.

Depending on what part of Indiana you live in, and if you are close to Cincinnati, I paid $13,000 with Dr. Curry.

Actually, this might be a better option: http://allthingsd.com/20120821/a-chance-to-call-15-friends-to-video-chat-in-high-def/. That Skype article I had above was older and after looking into it further, it looks like there is a fee for multiple callers on a video chat. This article in this message is from August 2012 and says it's free and you can have up to 15 people and people can be sent invites to join the video conference, but I have no experience with this program.

Honestly, I'm not that well versed on Skype, but I found this online to help shed some light on the topic, it looks like you can get at least 10 people on at the same time http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/09/10_way_video_calling.html. I do know Skype is free, but I've only used it once with my mom and that was fun (she is not tech savvy at all )

Hi Tomander, I'm just throwing a thought out there and not sure how much interest or if it's even a possibility, but it would be neat if you had a skype type option where others could join your coffee group from different locations. I'm in the US, but would like to be a part of this and I'm sure there is free WiFi at a coffee shop and some type of free setup to do this (hey Alex this might be nice to add to LBT ) My support group is not all that great and people don't show up, I never get the updates when they are having it (they say it's computer glitches) and when I did finally make it, I was the one and only person who showed up, hence I'm on LBT all of the time for support or just to hear what others are experiencing.