Daisalana

Good restriction for me, is when I can take home at least 2 meals worth of left overs. I get so giddy when I eat meals I ate pre-band, knowing what I ate THEN vs. what I eat NOW.

Mine just talked and asked about how I, my family and husband feels about all this.. Then he asked me what I would have said to myself as a child, and if I would have hugged me. I got a good kick out of that.. then he told me to watch The Kid.. it's on my to-do list, but I haven't yet. Mine was $150 if I self-pay but my insurance DID pay that (but not a dime for anything else )

I thought about weight loss surgery for years.. And I put it off and dieted more because RNY scared the bajeebis out of me. I thought I will be the one who dies on the table! I dunno why, I just will! Hah.. But Dec of 06 I was just gaining and gaining and re-evaluating my 'dieting'.. and decided I am going to die if I don't get a hold of myself.. so was willing to take the risk. In my research I came across the lap-band for the first time. It sounded so much better, so here I am. I'm happy with the decision, and relieved I didn't have to do RNY!

I'm not much of a fancy tea drinker, but I watched Unwrapped and they covered Chai tea today.. and I remembered this thread. I'm gonna try it! They mixed theirs (Oregon Chai brand) with 1/2c of milk and made them into lattes.. looked yum.

The one I make has brown sugar in it, which is relatively low calorie.. It's a combo of different bbq recipes I've tried, and ended up liking this concoction.. I eyeball all the measurements, but here's an estimate.. 1 tbsp of mustard (I use spicy sometimes, sometimes hot & sweet, and sometimes plain yellow mustard), 1/4c of vinegar (I never knew which one to use..) so I have used normal white vinegar, and balsamic vinegar.. 1/2c of ketchup, 2 shakes of worstershire sauce, dash of salt and I use about 1/2 tbsp of brown sugar.. mix it all together..then I water mine down with about equal parts of water to the rest of the mix.. doesn't look like much (or smell), but when it's cooked into a meat (I've slow cooked different kind of beef in it) it is absolutely wonderful and the meat falls right off the bone. Edit to add.. would probably be just as good without the brown sugar since it has ketchup.. if you have special needs like diabetes, etc. where you do not want any sugar there's an idea.. but I guess ketchup has sugar in it too..

My dog Cassy. I'm one of THOSE people who put Halloween costumes on my dog

I don't know why that's any different from any other piercing, but it's like if someone told you about sticking a needle in their toenail, that just creepy ick feeling thinking about that anchor.

I have had just about everything pierced that can be pierced at some point.. I still have some of my secret ones.. but this one actually kind of grosses me out, how odd is that? If you unscrew the gem, the anchor is just.. in your body and you pull it out? All my piercings are in one hole and out another so I know where it is, I guess the anchor is throwing me off. Makes me think of a splinter.. I like how it looks, but makes my skin crawl to think about having it in!

Ok.. is this my imagination?! I'm on my period, which I am cramping way more than usual.. and feeling BLOATED.. But today for work, I wore jeans (which are now baggy woot), with a t-shirt.. and I swear I LOOKED fatter than normal. Anyone else actually LOOK bigger during TOM??? Everytime I passed my reflection I was bummed.. and normally it makes me happy.

I had 2 weeks of liquids, and I really wasn't hungry so it was not a big deal most the time. It was toward the end of those 2 weeks and DH and his damn pizza boxes.. It was a day old even. I was watching tv, and I wanted pizza so bad.. and I HATE pizza.. so, it was definitely a mind thing. And I sucked on a crust of a piece he already ate.

Health and risks aside, being overfilled just sucked. I literally threw up anytime I tried to eat normal healthy food.. I just didn't want to drive all the way down there knowing I had to go back for my 2nd post-op a couple weeks later. Day 2 just as sweet! No signs of PBing or pains. Just the sweet sweet satisfaction of being 'just full'.

I think my worst 'cheat' during post-op was my delerious moment where I sucked on a piece of pizza crust. It was certainly a crazy moment, but it sure made me happy.

Panda- I'm NE Alabama (Huntsville). It takes me 6 hours about to get to Panama City Florida, it's a straight shot down 65, if that helps at all as to where I'm located. Those are great pics! I'm in for antiquing, drinking, chatting, uhm.. I like nature walks too as long as it's nothing steep.. I have a bad central balance and I fall quite easily. I loved horseback riding, then in high school my friends pointed out the 'poor horse' in a picture of me riding.. and I've never gotten back on one since! Hopefully by April I'll weigh a decent enough weight to be on a horse! Ohhh and SPA! I'm all about spas.

That's right. I am OFFICIALLY OBESE TODAY! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. No more 'morbidly obese'. My BMI is 39.9 now. :peace::wow2::humble::banana:Banane20: Next stop.. just fat. :biggrin1:

Tracy- I saw the same way with DH's credit report. I worked so hard on mine since I was 16!!! He didn't 'believe' in credit cards, due to his parents having debt problems.. so when we started gettin serious I explained how credit is important for buying cars & houses and he needs to get on it!! So he started out small with me as a co-signer, and built it up, and then somehow they got his ss# confused with his dad and had a 15k debt from the 70's on his credit report. It's such a headache, and who had to fix it for us to get a mortgage? WHO ELSE?! And he still can't get a good CC on his own, I always have to co-sign. We went to get new CC's from our bank so we could close our old ones in NM out.. and I was approved and he was declined.. He gets frustrated, but it's because he's so new to the credit thing. Anyway.. today's been hectic for me. On top of needy customers with special jobs today, our billing lady is out due to her father having a heart attack.. and I'm the only one who knows back up for billing (before I really worked here, I did billing part time over holiday vacations here).. so had to run back and forth doing her job and mine. DH is getting sick again (argh!).. I thought I was getting sick the other night, wiped my nose with Zicam q-tips and it went away within 10 hours. Now he's getting whatever it was, and the Zicam isn't working like magic on him. I told him he needs to start taking vitamins with me, I have yet to get sick since banding (knocking on wood!) except food poisoning on our honeymoon. We need to go to the store again too.. I'm out of dumpling mix, 100 calorie ice cream (eek!!), and my cereal. I feel bad making him go with me, but I've been without my ice cream and cereal for like 5 days and they're my snacks/b'fast that keep me satisfied and not munching on a bunch of other junk. Hope everyone else is having a saner day than me!

And I do the same with buffets.. only time I go to a normal buffet is at casinos, and I'll get a little of a lot of different stuff, and take a tiny bite of many different things. We do go to a chinese buffet nearby once in a while, and I like to get about 1tbsp of 7 different things.. I notice my plate looks very colorful

TGIF's has 'smart portions' menu.. near the back, some of their popular items at half-sizes. Price isn't drastically lower, so I normally still get the normal portion of whatever and take the rest home. Nothing wrong with left overs, I make pot-luck dinner for DH sometimes when I don't feel like cooking.. couple left over items from different places, heated up!

The OP I really think if you get a fill, get a small one. I probably could eat 4 of the nuggets and the coleslaw (YUCK!!) hehe, if I ate that. But you do NOT want to only be able to eat 1 or 2 bites. And about eating healthy vs. not healthy.. If it works for you, let it be. I indulge maybe once in a week in food I shouldn't eat all the time, and that's great IMO. I use to eat it 2x a day 7x a week. Chic-Fil-A also is not too bad in comparison. They cook in peanut oil, and it's chicken and coleslaw!! Not like she was asking about how she ate an entire Big-Mac & Fries (That is NOT possible for me).

In the Lap-Band Removal and/or complications area I think some people have mentioned going from band to RNY.

I was around 270lbs in high school. I am better than you guys, I am reaching my high school weight! Hah hah. Yeah, that's not my goal. I wish I had a normal weight day in my life..

I was banded by Dr. Freeman in Anniston. It's pretty close to Auburn, and I love him!

Well I think the bottom line would be this. You have to overcome your head problems. Justifying being an alcoholic would red flag me if I was a doctor. You could get the band, and when you eat chicken you could only eat 1 piece. But the flip side? You could go home and eat a gallon of ice cream and a whole slew of chips without batting an eye. Yup, you can.. even with the band!! So you have to be able to make choices. The band helps as a tool. But it sounds like you want it to be a magic wand, which I assure you.. it will not.

Hey.. at 275lbs I'm wearing 20/22.. I could possibly be in 14's if I suck my gut in at 250! Don't crush my dreams!!

Let me clarify, it takes a lot of work to eat 5-6k calories..

Then why do you need banding?