Marimaru

HAHA that zipper is hilarious. That's awesome. I have 3 sets of ear piercings. I had a tongue piercing, but it closed up when I took out the bar for my band surgery, and I haven't had any interest really in getting it redone. It was cool for a while, but now that it's gone I don't miss it. I had my belly button done twice, but it never healed right (that was the part about me lying to myself thinking that I wasn't so big). I haven't decided when I'll get it done again, either at onederland or at goal, but I'm definitely having it done again. Haven't really decided on any others. I don't really care to have TOO many holes all over the place, lol.

Before banding, I never thought about a food high, but now that I pay attention to my body I think I know what it is. Before banding, when I got the feeling, it was like "wow, this is sooo good, I want more!" and now, it means more like "Wow, that was sooo good, I'm full!" I think my body was always trying to tell me that I was happy because I'd had enough, but I just read it wrong the whole time.

I did that with full fat yogurt not too long ago. That is most definitely an NSV . Congrats!

Good to know. I'm likin' this Dr. Billy. lol. My doc never really said anything either way, so I use my tummy to tell me what's ok. I figure that if something makes me sick or uncomfortable, then having alot of it would be a bad idea. I do have carbonation. It's almost always in the form of diet soda (I'm liking Diet Rite, they are sodium free too). Sometimes a winecooler, or something like that at a social occasion or whatever. Some days, I sip on it and my tummy feels all tight, so I stop. Other times, it's no big deal. I do try to stick to 1 or less a day. I don't have one every day, or even every week, but if I feel like I want something other than water or crystal lite, a diet soda is nice.

The 'truth' is that it's different for everyone. I never had it so bad I'd call it 'reflux', but I used to get heartburn at least weekly, if not more than that. I have not had a problem with it once since surgery, accept for 2 days right before I was getting an unfill when I was too tight. When I had heartburn before, I'd take a couple of Tums or Pepcid, or Alka Seltzer makes a heartburn one also that I found to work well. Most recently I tried the Rolaids chewy things that they just came out with and those seemed to work well too on those 2 days I had heartburn.

My doc told me nothing 'strenuous' for 2 weeks, in which I included sex. And then I told my boyfriend (who was counting the days, I'm sure), that we could try, but if it hurt I was going to have to stop and he'd be out of luck. Warning in place, everything was fine, we just took it slow.

Wow, what a great thread. I've been working hard on being honest with myself, let alone anyone else. I made up excuses to not exersize for a few weeks, and now my ankle is sprained. I can't tell if I'm using that as an excuse, or if I really truly should stay off it for a while. I should get out my arm weights and at least do that. We can always do something, right? As for portions and calories, I HATE how they add up. Around lunch time I think I'm doing really great because I usually have had about 600 calories or so. It's way too easy to pack in another 1000 by the end of the day. I try to stick to 1200 to 1500. I usually bump 1500 on most days, and I know I do go over on some days. My eating for the holiday weekend was actually pretty good, but I'm sure the drinking took me WAY over my quota. I didn't bother to count. I actually don't count calories for the most part, but at any point during the day, I could do a tally. I'm VERY aware of what I'm taking in and how many calories something has these days. After that, it's a matter of whether I'm willing to eat _______ and take a chunk out of my allowed calories. I think Dr. Billy has something going with the idea of being fully aware of the portions sizes, etc, and then deciding if you still want to eat the whole bag, or whatever it happens to be. I was caught up in being too tight for a couple of months because whenever I thought about having fill taken out I just beat myself up saying that I just wanted to eat more, but things got even tighter and I lived on liquids for about a week and gave in. I haven't PB'd since, which is a good thing, and I don't think my portion sizes when I eat are all that bad. Snacking of course is the problem. bleah

Well, technically your husband is right, your band can't get tighter on it's own, it's usually your stomach swelling, but for us it's easier to say "my band is so tight today!" If you PB'd a few days ago, and you've been eating regular food ever since, you could have some extra swelling going on. Usually after a bad PB episode, you should stick to liquids for a day or so, and ease back into solids. This is true of anything that happens that would irritate your stomach, like throwing up (not just a PB, but really throwing up), etc. Also, Water retention can make you tighter, so if you are about to hit that time of the month, or maybe you drank a bit over the holiday weekend, that could cause you to retain water as well. Even the weather or stress seem to do this. Hope you feel better.

food is still satisfying. I do sometimes get that high. It's a good feeling I get that I used to equate to "Wow, this is good I want more!" and now it means "Wow, that was good, I'm full now". The band helps you not ignore the signals your body tries to give you. If you do ignore the signals, you'll end up in the bathroom, you know? I've done that plenty of times, especially when my band was a little too tight. I have not had a problem since I had a little saline taken out of my band about 2 weeks ago. There have been times when I've been depressed even that I can't eat more when I want to, but that's the type of thing I need counceling for, and not a 'fault' of the band, you know? And that doesn't happen much anymore. I think I'm finally getting my head wrapped around the idea of savouring slowing instead of stuffing my face with more food, lol. I don't really think my taste buds are too different. Although, since I eat less on the whole, it takes less to satisfy me, even of the things that slide down easy, like icecream or chocolate. It doesn't take much now, maybe even not a full serving *shock*.

Sometimes I wish I could eat more, but that's more in my head than anything else like "This is good I want more" etc. My port bugs me sometimes for no apparent reason, but not much more than noticing it's sore for a while. I can definately see what Jenna is saying. I went to a buffet at a restaurant while I was on vacation and definately did not think I'd gotten my money's worth. At that point I seriously considered asking the manager for the kids price and showing my lapband card, but at the same time, I felt like it really wasn't their problem I guess, you know? *Shrug*

I don't wear any foundations or anything. I have a few different eyeshadows, usually browns, and neutral colors, then eyeliner. I don't usually do mascara. Then I use my lipstick, kind of a plum/muave color, in the long lasting stuff. Max Faxtor is the best long lasting lipstick I've found, but Cover Girl is pretty good too.

My thoughts are with her as well. Thanks for updating us.

You could give your surgeon a call just to see what he/she thinks. Personally, I would think that taking something like that for a week or so until your ankle starts to heal up wouldn't be so bad. It's not the same as taking something every day, you know? But definitely check with your surgeon.

Well, like the other's have said, don't let the doc get angry with you because you question his stupidity. If he's too dumb to know what band he installed, or if he didn't install it, what band he's working with, then of course you are going to have somethings to say. Quite often the first fill in the Vanguard band is 5cc's. And then people get 1 or 2cc fills after that, and then smaller and smaller with each adjustment. You need more fill, YOU aren't doing anything wrong with the band, it just CAN'T work for you if it's not restricted right. You DO have a responsibility to make sure you get those fills, but your doctor definitely has a great responsibility to know what he's doing as well. Keep us posted!

I was 22 when I was banded, 23 now. I know that for me, despite everything that I read that said that the first 6 weeks was for healing, that real weight loss doesn't start until after you get restriction, and that the average weight loss is 1 to 2 lbs per week, in the first month or so of banding I was really irritated at the rate of my weight loss. Silly my, I lost 25 lbs in the first month! I've since lost another 25 lbs, and my average is just about a lb per week. I've hit some long frustrating plateaus, and I've come to grips wiht the idea that no matter what I want to tell myself, I HAVE to exersize. I think that some of the depression is from the anesthesia more than anything. Hormones don't help either, lol. I think it's really great that you as her mother are supporting her so well and learning everything that you can for her.

The foods that you can't eat so much of are the ones you should probably be sticking too. Otherwise, measure out the portions so you don't overeat the other ones. Even the magical 'sweet spot' isn't the stop all of eating bad things. Obviously there are going to be nights when Tuna Helper, or the like, is what's for dinner, but for the most part, you should try and stick to something like meat-veggie-carbs, and eat them in that order. And the carbs at that point are optional, only if you have room for them.

You might consider throwing in an extra protien drink if you think you can stand it. How's your Water intake? Your body is freaking out a little from the surgery, and probably a good deal from the total drop in calories! Maybe some more fruit juices? (real fruit juices, not that sugar loaded crap ). You WILL feel better.

You *can* but it's not generally recommended. Eating that stuff is what got us here in the first place right? Yogurt and things like that are more recommended. And broths and things the provide protien.

I had surgery on Friday and back to work on Monday. I have a desk job tho. The actual driving might not be so bad, but getting into and out of the car is going to be tricky for a little while. You are going to realize that we take our abs for granted!

It's all the way under. For me, I was in the prep room, and then I woke up in recovery. I have no memory of an entire conversation that I had with a doctor, then I apparently handed my boyfriend my glasses and was wheeled into the OR. Surgery was about 45 minutes I think, and my doc said everything went perfectly. I was suprised to wake up in pain, mostly I think because my brain didn't record the part where they put me under for surgery. Once I sat up a little and woke up a little more and stuff I was sore, but not in as much pain as I thought I was originally.

The only machine I've read a recommendation for is this one: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004SUHY/ref=ase_heidiswanson-20/102-8022975-1520903?v=glance&s=kitchen]Amazon.com: Salton YM9 1-Quart Yogurt Maker: Kitchen & Dining[/ame] it seems to have good reviews on the amazon site as well. And it says for frozen yogurt, just freeze the yogurt (duh), lol

For those that like yogurt, I found out you can buy yogurt makers. The 'starter' is just a cup of whatever yogurt you can buy at the store that has live bacteria in it. I'm going on vacation next wee, but then I think I am going to order a yogurt maker. It'll be something fun to do maybe, and a good way to get the dairy in.

What do you mean by "but the one that has some rerouting done with it." ?

He's right in the sense that you probably didn't eat 3500 calories worth of food at one sitting. That doesn't equal a pound in weight of food, but a pound in caloric worth I guess you could say.

I do the thing with the jeans and the tank and the over shirt. It was my staple for a good long time, and I'm falling back into it again (at about the same size I was last time I did it). The big frumpy shirts do tend to make one look big and frumpy. I hate that, they are so comfy.