Vex

My sister used to work at a Starbucks and she says that they have Protein powder (similar to the unjury I have just recently discovered), that you can have added to any drink! Personally, I love the sugar-free non-fat Cinnamon Dolce lattes myself. 90 calories for a tall! I am going to try to get one of those with some Protein Powder added to it. That would make me very happy.

Oh my gosh. unjury is my New Favorite Thing. Seriously. I ordered some, and this morning I made my first Protein shake: a small (6 oz) juice box, about 8 frozen strawberries, a heaping tablespoon of Splenda, and a scoop of Unjury unflavored. I have an insanely poweful blender, and the result was more like a heavy whipped cream in consistency than a smoothie, which is what I was going for. It tasted awesome, though. Kind of reminiscent of a malted strawberry milkshake. It made SO MUCH though, I haven't even gotten a quarter of it down. I plan to work on it periodically throughout the day. Tomorrow I think I will make the smoothie first, then gently stir the Unjury in.

To tell the truth, I have no idea what the last thing I said before surgery was. My doc gave me a sedative before taking me in to the OR and it had already knocked me for a loop. I remember bits and pieces of the 15 or 20 minutes or so before surgery, but not the conversations. I do have to share this, though. Shortly after my surgery, my boyfriend was sitting in my room with me, and I woke up. I said, "how did I get in this bed?!" and snatched the heart rate monitor off of my finger, and tried to get up. Of course, alarms went off when my heart rate monitor stopped registering a heartbeat. A nurse and one of the doctors came running, and I greeted them in the doorway with, "what happened to my alien?" The doctor, not missing a beat replied, "Oh, he's fine, we banded him too." Hahahaha! My alien?! What?! I don't remember any of this but my boyfriend has relished every opportunity to retell it over the last few days.

Also it sounds like they meant 14% of total weight, not 14% of excess weight, which seems to be the unit more commonly discussed with the results of weight loss surgery. So a 200-lb person who lost 14% of total weight would have lost 28 lbs and be at 172 lbs 10 years later, for example, and that same person, and if we assume their ideal weight was 140, would have actually maintained a loss of 47% of excess weight over that period. The numbers aren't even really comparable since starting weight and ideal weight are so different for each individual and can't be inferred from total percentage of weight lost.

I have been blogging on a personal blog for a long time; I find it really therapeutic and it also helps me organize my thoughts. I really enjoyed reading about the experiences of others when I was initially researching the lap band so I decided to start my own lap band blog: Bandy Land I haven't even been banded yet though-- a week yet to go!

I also saw the WiiFit demo and I really, really want a Wii just for that when it comes out! My fiancee has been lusting after one since they were released, but has managed to restrain himself so far. I think I'm going to get him one soon, though, before the Christmas insanity season sets in.

I love the Couch to 5k! I've done it several times. I'm getting banded in two weeks. I am currently a runner-- albeit a very, very slow one. My friends and I have an annual race we sign up to do together, the Army Ten-Miler in Washington D.C. Its the first weekend in October. To prepare for this race, I keep to a steady mileage buildup, running 2 to 3 days during the week and a long run each weekend. How much time will I need to take off from running post-op? I assume since it is a higher-impact activity than walking that I will be need to be careful to let my stitches, etc. heal before returning to my regular schedule?

Hello, fellow Augustans! I will be getting my band in two weeks-- August 22nd with Dr. Ortiz. I am nervous but thrilled!