Fight4Light

as others have said, cook the same meal just vary the portions. Healthy is healthy, no matter what. At least you're lucky, my boyfriend flat out refuses to eat anything if he finds out it's lapband friendly. Then again I do like weird things at times like meat substitutes and he doesn't like that. It's been kind of rough though, he seems to be finding all the weight I'm losing (thankfully he's a fairly skinny guy) because I cook and he refuses to eat and goes to get fast food. What can you do? The ultimate thing it boils down to, if he doesn't like what you make, he better be learning how to cook for himself :oP

I love muscle milk, I don't even bother with the light stuff, the regular stuff is only 220 calories a bottle. They are filling and come in so many flavors. My favorites are banana, strawberry, and cookies & cream. They aren't cheap, but when I'm hungry and in a bind, I know I can go to any convenience store or gas station and get one chilled and ready to go for about 3 dollars. I usually get them on the way to class when I'm looking at 10 hours of class

Ignore this post, for some reason it double posted

When food gets stuck the body secretes mucus to help it go down, since its stuck already, it just makes it worse and won't stop until the blockage is gone. It's also known a as pb (productive burping). If you want a sense of what is like, look up the hag fish on YouTube

No problem, I'm quite a bit of a chef but the same old stuff gets dull so I love using flavors too jazz things up

Usually I get stuck when I'm hungry and end up eating too fast. It's always my fault, I think my band is at the right tightness though. Usually what happens to me, is I try to tough it out, but I get progressively more nauseous until it comes up on its own. I sometimes encourage it because the feeling really hurts and ruins my meal. I find that after I throw up, I take a minute or two, and some small sips of my drink and I end up resetting and I can attempt my food again, this time slower and more controlled.

Ads are generated from previous search results and history. Not implying that you are visiting those sites, but do you share a computer with anyone else? Maybe a family member, roommate, or significant other? Sites like this don't control ads, they sell space to advertising programs that give you ads they feel you would be interested in, they don't get there by accident. Just use a program like adblock and it removes all ads.

If you'll notice, I updated my ticket again, and the numbers are making me happy. My weight today is 267, down from 337 back at the end of December. I have lost 70 pounds in about 4 months and I have only 67 pounds to go until I reach my goal weight. I am more than halfway there. Some small, but important clothing stats to me: - I started at a size 3XL-4XL t-shirt, I now find 2X are starting to become baggy. - I started at a size 44-46 pants, now I need a belt to keep size 40 up. I'm not quite a 1X shirt yet, and not quite 38 pants, but I'll get there, maybe by the start of June.

Yeah most places don't care but a few, especially like buffet places do care. I have been too a few regular restaurants that won't let you order off the kid's menus if you're over 12.

Also thanks for all the support guys, its been great.

Its been diet honestly, I didn't even have a gym membership through the first 3 months, but I haven introduced the gym now and just do full body workouts when I can, this last week though I was sick with the flu. They recently changed the site but call 1-800-LAP-BAND and ask about the card. It comes with personalized info about your surgery (great for emergencies because the first thing health care providers will do is look through your wallet for info in the event of an accident and you can't talk). but it does also say basically "note to restaurants: this person's ability to eat has been severely reduced, please let them order from childrens menus or at a reduced cost"

Thanks! It's been an awesome journey and though it's frustrating at times, I wouldn't change it for the world. I had an awesome dinner last night too. One of my favorite foods is Korean Barbecue, but it's all you can eat and like $20 a person for dinner. Its not a bad deal, but not really something I can justify with how much I can eat. I did get the lapband card that lets restaurants know I can only eat a small portion, but I called ahead and explained the situation and the manager was very nice and actually let me eat for the kid's menu price (50% off), it was pretty awesome.

Here is my favorite thing to do and it's so simple! It's called "sandwich chicken" and it's my creation. Basically any type of sandwich you can make into a chicken dish. For example I made "cuben sandwich chicken" the other day. And that consisted of: 1 lb of chicken breast (1 large breast), pounded even and cut into 6 chunks. 1 package honey roasted thin sliced ham lunch meat 1 package light Swiss cheese 6 sandwich sliced dill pickles 1 table spoon extra light mayo mixed with 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard. All you do is par cook the chicken breasts on a tinfoil lined cookie sheet until its 10 minutes from done, pull it out, and smear the chicken breast with the dijonnaise, then lay one pickle slice over each, fan out 6 slices of the thin ham over it, and then top with one slice of cheese. Then you just finish it off in the oven. It's great because its massively Protein driven, about 250 calories for a single piece, low in fat, and just about 2 grams of carbs. Similarly I've done "pizza chicken" which is just what it sounds like. Chicken par cooked then topped with pizza sauce, non fat mozzarella cheese, and turkey pepperoni and finished in the oven. You can do anything to and any sandwich, even pb&j, try an Asian spin with grilled chicken skewers with a plum sauce and a peanut sauce. Good luck! Also I'm Fight4light on Pinterest, I have a popular lapband board where I have compiled a list of lapband recipes, you could check that out if you like. And remember, any recipe and be changed to be healthy.

To be honest I stopped counting calories and I've been just fine through everything. I average around 900-1000 calories, sometimes I go all the way down to 600 calories. And I'm a 24 year old 5'10" tall guy. Just remember Protein first, I average about 75 grams a day, then veggies and then fruit. Portion control is important but only to prevent you from over eating and hurting yourself. Also remember that your body doesn't work the way it used to. We all hear that a diet shouldn't go below 1200 or you will go into starvation mode. But that isn't true for us. For an average stomach, you go into starvation mode because less than 1200 calories would cause the production of ghrellin which is what tells your body you are starving. That's why lapband works, the band inhibits ghrellin production because your stomach fills quicker. So for now, especially since you're healing and just starting out, forget the calories, just make sure you are hitting your target for protein and portion sizes.

I like the challenge. To feed myself healthy, to fill my sweet tooth, etc with healthy things. It's fun for me. The only thing I miss is All You Can Eat Korean BBQ. I COULD still go if I wanted but what's the point? Too expensive for what I can eat. Once you start losing, (I'm almost 3 months in and 52 pounds down) you'll see how it's just not worth it, there are tons of healthy stuff I can eat, and quite a few unhealthy stuff I can treat myself to.

I just do the cauliflower thing. I have receipts that sub out pizza crust for cauliflower, and recipes to sub out and make Mac and cheese into cauliflower and cheese healthy. Also I do indulge occasionally. Hard because I work at Pizza Hut. Sometimes ill let myself have a thin crust pizza. I usually can't finish it all (including leftovers) before it goes bad. And I can only eat a slice of it at a time, if that.. And I have to chew tons because I get stuck super easy now. Literally if I eat, and take even a sip of Water I throw up. So I have to be careful. But to make a long story short, try cauliflower as a substitute. It's guilt free, tastes great, and it's usually easy on the band.

If you're a fan of Pinterest look me up (fight4light) i have a lapband board have compiled quite the list of band friend stuff. It's weird. I've learned a lot about myself now that I have the band. I love eating healthy. I LOVE substitute foods. Making things look bad and unhealthy but really be good for you. I've also gone semi vegetarian and tolerate more vegetables than I ever did before. On top of all that, I can tell myself "no" now. I can tell when I'm hungry or just bored at home. It's an amazing feeling and just good to know ill have my happy ending.

Bandfriendlyrecipes.com has a riced cauliflower fried rice recipe that looks delicious but I haven't tried it yet.

On the left you have me on thanksgiving 2012, and the right is day before yesterday.

Hey guys, I've been experimenting and came up with these delicious little bites. Ingredients: - premade wonton wrappers (you'll need more than 60!) - a package of ground turkey (1.25 pounds) - a package of cheese (2 cups) - a small can of diced jalapenos (4 oz), drained - a package of of taco seasoning (i used low sodium). Directions: 1) brown turkey meat and prepare taco meat according to the directions. 2) mix in the drained jalapenos and let the meat cool. 3) once the meat mixture has cooled, stir in the 2 cups of cheese. Now comes the tedius part. 4) place 1 teaspoon in the center of each wonton wrapper, wet the edges with Water and wrap it up to make it look like a little bomb. 5) place on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray and cover with a damp cloth as you go. When you finish wrapping them you can freeze them, they make over 60 or more wontons! To cook them... If they are thawed: -- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, spray the tops of the wontons with non stick cooking spray and cook for 10 minutes. If they are frozen: -- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, spray the tops of the wontons with non stick cooking spray and cook for 14 minutes I eat about 6-8 in a serving, the nutrition facts depend on your brand of meat and what cheese you choose as well as the taco seasoning. You can dip them in salsa or non-fat sour cream. The non stick spray helps give them a cruchy fried texture. Also, if you want the same taste but simpler time prepping, make the same filling and put them in egg roll wrappers instead, you'll get less but it takes a fraction of the time.

Sodium isn't the largest concern for me as I have really good blood pressure now, but I actually did use a low-sodium brand, so I would suggest that if that's available to you, otherwise though salsa would be good, but being that it's fruit and veg it may increase the carbs.

So I had a doctor's appointment a few days ago. I'm officially in the 200's again. I started December 25th at 337 lbs and I was 298.7 at my doctors appointment on Tuesday. My scale finally came in the mail today which I'm happy about. Super accurate and I am 297.6 today. Only 97.6 pounds to go.

Thanks for all the replies! I've finally broken through the plateau I was on.