Vex

I have a 4cc band, and since 12/1/2007 I have had 4 ccs in it. I have lost exactly 1.4 lbs since then, and have basically just yo-yoed up and down two or three pounds each week. I have what I'd call "moderate" fill. After each of my fills (three total) I've had really good restriction, with hopes it would continue, and each time my restriction faded to moderate. By moderate, I can only eat in the morning after a cup of coffee to open me up. I can eat lunch about 2/3 of the size of what I'd normally eat. I can eat 3/4 or more of a normal-sized dinner. I have to be very cautious of bread and rice as both can cause BPs. But that is not enough restriction to keep me losing, only maintaining. At my third fill, the fill nurse removed all saline to check to make sure I wasn't leaking-- and I wasn't. It was all there. A couple days ago, I double-checked with my surgery clinic to be sure that I do have a 4cc band. They advised that I come in for a check-up. I can't afford the time OR money to do that until after my wedding (March 22nd) and honeymoon (March 23rd to April 5th) but I also don't want to just "forget about it" for another 2 to 3 months. Can I/should I go back to my fill nurse and try to get her to put more than 4 ccs in my band? How much more can I safely get?

I'm trying to decide if I should call and schedule another appointment with my local Fill Centers USA fill nurse (who is awesome) and try to get her to give me more fill. I'm nervous about going over 4 ccs but I'm really, really frustrated with my lack of progress. Yes, I'm still not progressing, partially because of my extreme disappointment creating a bad attitude about things, but also because my fill is hardly restricting me at all.

HOW TO GET A WII FIT: Step 1: Find a store (like Target) that is advertising the Wii Fit in their Sunday circular. They will keep a few on hand to put on the store shelves Sunday morning so the ad isn't misleading. Step 2: Get out of bed early on Sunday morning and be there when the store opens, make straight for the electronics department, and grab one off the shelf (or ask for help if they are locked up). That's how I got mine two days ago! I LOVE the freakin' thing, seriously. I have jumped out of bed the past two mornings to use it. Monday I logged 33 Wii Fit minutes (took about an hour) and this morning I logged 60 Wii Fit minutes (took about 90 real-time minutes). I think where the game really shines is in the yoga category. The very first pose you are taught is deep breathing, and the game even uses an expanding and contracting circle to help you breathe in time with the virtual trainer. The poses are organized in increasing difficulty and the game is designed to encourage you to maintain perfect balance, which, if you are doing the pose correctly, your body will be inclined to do naturally. I have tried yoga before and found it intimidating but the way the Wii Fit breaks it up into small bites makes it really accessible and fun. And, astonishly, I’m actually pretty good at (the easy poses so far) it right out of the gate! The strength training is actually pretty hard and I think I’ve only done three of those so far. They are all exercises done with the resistence of your own body, such as leg extensions and push-ups. They are well-chosen, from what I can tell, to target different parts of your body, and as you get better at them (for example, I’ve done the leg extensions twice with high scores), the game “rewards” you with a higher number of reps next time you do it. The aerobics starts off with three options: hula-hooping, running in place, and step aerobics. All of these are a blast. I was surprised that the hula-hooping was actually a good workout, and my sides are sore from hooping last night! The run takes you around the virtual Wii island and probably most shocking of all, I didn’t find it boring, although I completely expected to. I run regularly and loathe the treadmill. I’d rather pound the pavement outside in mid-teens winter weather than be sentenced to a treadmilll with even the most enticing entertainments. But somehow the Wii running is fun, I guess because you virtually pass alot of people and scenery. (It also made me look forward to Zelda-style games where your ass has to run around instead of sit on the couch!) Last but definitely not least, the step aerobics are really fun. I am entirely without rhythm so its challenging, too. This morning I unlocked a boxing exercise in the aerobics category that is So. Much. Fun! The balance games I didn’t even try until this morning, and I only tried the first two, one in which you try to “head” soccer balls as they are kicked at you from different angles, and another where you ski downhill, trying to get through gates in the snow that require you to ski back and forth by leaning on the balance board. These (first two, at least) aren’t very challenging in any kind of way that makes me feel like I’m “getting a good workout” but I can see the appeal just as a game. My husband, natch, loved these. They are his favorites. The appeal of the game is, I’ll admit, partially due to its newness. But, I’ve tried several workout videos and they have always been extremely boring to me. The interactivity, and instant feedback, and the ability to compete against yourself and other family members is a definite motivator. You literally get to stamp a calendar for every day you workout. You get to see your progress on the exercises as you get better at them. You get to “bank” minutes for the exercises you complete (my goal is 30 Wii Fit minutes a day, right now) which earn you new “unlocked” exercises. There are other games coming out that will utilize the balance board, which will hopefully be fun and encourage fitness in a similar way. I have critiques about the game (using BMI is lame, forcing a weight loss goal instead of a fitness goal is lame, you can’t design routines, the game tells you to warm up but doesn’t offer any warm-up exercises, you can’t buy two boards and workout with a partner simultaneously, I can see the game getting boring once you’ve maxed out on the unlocked exercises), but I can see lots of room for Nintendo to improve with Wii Fit 2 or downloadables or something in the near future. In any case, I think its well worth the time and money for me!

Wow, thanks Mick! I really appreciate the advice and timely response. I am sorely, sorely lacking in attitude right now, which has crept into my eating behaviors. Believe it or not, I exercise a lot*-- that 30% is nailed down. (* I run with two Galloway groups for a total of three runs a week, walk my dog 30 minutes a day, and work in other fun activities-- right now I'm doing Wii Fit 30 - 60 minutes a day also, on the weekends my husband I am take our dog hiking, etc.) Here's the discouraging post about the Emory Bariatrics support group I mentioned: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f31/support-groups-11573/ I called them-- oh, back in February?-- and got the bit about folding the lap banders into the gastric group because of low participation. It was a receptionist or something, not a doc, that I talked to. It looks like the Emory group meets the second Monday of the month, meaning that June 9th is a meeting? I, unfortunately, have a Galloway group that I am currently run with that meets on Mondays at 6:00 p.m., so I guess the timing is an issue, but I'm going to seriously consider it anyway, given your encouraging response. I guess I had hopes that this process would be easier than it was. I have had 3 fills and am now at 4 ccs in a 4 cc band, and I do not have enough restriction! I can easily eat 2/3 - 3/4 of what I normally would at a normal meal, and even without drinking anything, my pouch is empty 1 - 2 hours after eating and I'm hungry again. I'm so frustrated at myself (and my husband is frustrated at the surgeon and thinks we should go back to Tijuana for a follow-up) that I think my attitude is getting in the way more than anything else. I've done all kinds of portion-control and calorie-restriction diets before the band, and the reason they failed most of the time was that I was constantly hungry. I thought for sure the band would at least help with that. Thanks again for your help and I think I might take you up on the emailing.

It seems as though nothing ever came of this proposed support group? I was banded last August and have been a miserable failure of a bandster ever since. I've read another post saying the Emory support group-- which I researched and was considering joining-- was not very useful as it was mostly geared towards gastric bypass patients. This does not surprise me since I called a few months ago and they told me they had recently killed the lap-band specific group and folded everyone into the gastric bypass group because of a lack of participation in the lap-band specific group. I really need some commiseration and support right now, does anyone have any local suggestions? I was getting my fills from Fill Centers USA (and very much liked Darlene), but my last fill was December 2007, and my husband thinks I should ask her about a local group.

I do get my fills locally, from Fill Centers USA. I've had several now, and I really like my fill nurse. I think she does a good job. But when I hit 4ccs, she said she hoped that this was it, because its the nominal maximum. In fact, I believe she said I'm the only one she's filled up to 4ccs in the smaller band. I emailed my surgeon's office to ask how much over 4ccs I could go and they replied that I needed to come to them. I do get my fills under fluoro with the barium swallow. I always feel good restriction for a couple days or weeks after my fills and then it erodes back to almost none.

Heh. Believe it or not, when I went in for my last fill I had 3.2 ccs. My fill nurse-- who I think does an excellent job-- withdrew all 3.2 ccs to check that they were there before filling me up. And I did have restriction in the beginning. Its just gone now.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Frustrated. I want to not be eating so much food. But I am HUNGRY, and even when I am trying, it seems like the band is no help at all. If I were good at eating small amounts of food infrequently, I wouldn't have needed a band to help me enforce that. I drink tons of Water. I keep a 32-oz bottle on my desk and fill it up twice a day, and that doesn't count what I drink when I run, which is typically half to all of a 20-oz bottle. I also DO walk my dog every day for about 20 - 30 minutes, AFTER my run (if its a run day). I'm trying to work in 30 minute non-running workouts on my "off" days, mostly boot camp-style exercises (I did a boot camp for two months last year and it was really fun): situps, pushups, squats, etc. I'm really not trying to just shoot down everyone's suggestions. Its just that I feel like I am managing everything well, except the eating, and the band is being NO HELP in that department, and my frustation level about that is just through the roof. I mean, seriously. Today I had coffee for breakfast (Splenda, a wee pour of no-sugar creamer) and then a salad for lunch. I am trying for a little bit of South Beach action this week since bread is really the only thing left that disagrees with my band, and its not any good for me anyway. So I packed 4 cups of lettuce, cukes, tomato, 1.5 oz of lean turkey and ham lunch meat, 1.5 oz of lowfat provolone, and 2 Tbsp of Ken's Steakhouse light balsamic vinaigrette (50 cals for 2 Tbsp). I ate the whole f#%$ing thing. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY THIS IS SO UNFAIR. I didn't break any band rules. I hadn't had a sip of water or coffee since about at hour prior to lunch, and surely didn't have any at lunch. I ate slowly and chewed well, sure, but I didn't go to any special efforts. I feel comfortable now, but at no point did I feel full. I finished inside of about 30 minutes, with time in between bites spent talking to my two girlfriends at work that I lunch with every day. Why should I feel so terrible about eating such a virtuous lunch? Because I should be getting full on WAY LESS THAN THAT. I have FOUR CCS in my FOUR CC band. I only really feel restriction first thing in the morning anymore, and breakfast was never a dangerous meal for me. I emailed my surgeon's clinic and they told me to come in for a follwup. I can't afford the time OR money to fly to San Diego right now. I need another fill, obviously, but I'm not sure my fill nurse will give it to me. I am so at the bottom of the abyss when it comes to willpower right now because I have staggering amounts of anxiety about my imending wedding (26 days away). And I hate myself with a white-hot heat for not losing any weight before wedding like every other woman on the planet manages to do. I don't understand what's wrong with me. Why this isn't working for me. Or, failing that, why I was so retarded to have spent $10,000 on something that isn't working. What kind of idiot am I?

So my primary care physician is a very nice lady in her late 50's or early 60's. I have been going to her for many years and she's wonderfully kind and supportive about just about everything under the sun except my struggles with weight loss. For years she has given me bogus advice. Once she sent me to this super-crunchy-granola nutritionist friend of hers that made me answer a 10-page survey about my poop and pooping habits. Then tried to tell me I was 80 lbs overweight because my gut flora was all out of whack and all I needed was hundreds of dollars of her special-order supplements each month. Thanks but no thanks. Then my doctor recommended going to Curves. While I'm sure that is a fabulous suggestion for many sedentary fat people, I am and have been for several years a regular runner. Periodically I get involved in some other kind of activity too-- flag football league with coworkers, a couple months of boot camp, lifting weights at the gym, etc. In other words, her recommending that joining a gym is my solution came across as kind of insulting. I kinda have that angle covered. For years I have begged her to prescribe me medications to help me lose weight, to no avail. She is, for a standard-issue medical doctor, awful conservative when it comes to such things. She'd never agree, for example, to Xenical or Meridien or anything like that for me. I knew she'd never, ever countenance the thought of recommending a lap band for me either, but I went and got one in spite of that (in Mexico, on my own dime). She got really, really judgy when I went to see her in December for my regular "well woman" exam and told her about the lap band. I expected it but was still kind of hurt by it. In any case, I think it is time for me to move on and find a better doctor. One that will be a little more understanding than she is, and possibly one that will explore the possibility of some kind of appetite suppressant medication for me, at the very least. Any ideas of how to perform a search for someone like that? I live in Atlanta, so if there are any Atlanta-area folks that have a fantastic doctor they'd like to recommend, I'm all ears.

Thanks for the advice and help. I'm not going to say I'm totally virtuous, but I am sure, two months out, that my lack of restriction is not TOTALLY diet-related. Most days, I am very good about not drinking with meals, with preferencing Protein and veggies over "junk" foods, and otherwise following the band rules. I am definitely not cheating the band on a daily basis. I don't always make the best food choices, and I am still working on that. But I feel like if I were mostly making good food choices, AND had decent restriction, I'd be doing great. I also started running again at the end of December (after a post-surgery hiatus that I just let go on too long) and really had high hopes that a month of running, plus making more efforts at choosing the right foods, would make the difference and I'd start losing again. I have, of course, been disappointed. Typical Breakfast for me is a cup of coffee with sugar-free creamer (about 30 cals' worth). Then 30 minutes later, a low-sugar Quaker Cereal bar (like a Nutrigrain bar but with less sugar and 10 fewer calories). Then lunch is typically a Lean Cuisine and a couple clementines or small bag of grapes. Snack is either a Weight Watchers yogurt with canned fruit or maybe a banana and a pre-measured 1/4-cup bag of trail mix. dinner is usually "real" food like pot roast, chicken and veggies, stir-fry, etc. but I usually avoid, for the most part, any carby things like bread, mashed potatoes, etc. The thing that sucks the most about dinner is that by the time it rolls around, I am generally (a) pretty close to famished and ( pretty "open"-- I can usually put away nearly as much as I could pre-band, even without a glass or Water or *sob* wine. I can't lie and say that a cookie here and there, a brownie after dinner haven't crept in to my mouth... but I know my slipups are not my only issue. I think I will go back to my fill nurse and try for a few more CCs. I am almost ashamed to go back to her and tell her. She was kinda amazed I made it up to 4 ccs in the first place.

I was banded on 8/22/2007. I lost 16 lbs in the period I had to be on a liquid diet-- the week before surgery and three weeks after. I was so stoked keep losing and so very, very disappointed when, in the month after I was paroled back to solids, I gained 6 of those 16 lbs back! I wanted to just throw myself in front of a bus! My first fill was two and a half weeks ago, 2.4 ccs in a 4.0 cc band, and again, I was disappointed. It wasn't enough, and I was so disappointed that I just didn't even try very hard. I gained 2 more pounds! This past Saturday, I got my second fill of 0.8 ccs, and holy cow, what a difference! I am so thrilled to have restriction. I am so thrilled to be eating 1/2 cup to 1 cup per meal and walking away and being fine for hours and hours. Since Saturday, I've lost those 2 pounds, too. I just wanted to say, just a couple days ago, I could have written your post. And now things are working and I'm on cloud nine. So be patient! The fills will kick in and you will be amazed!

I just wanted to chime in and say that I had my second fill with Darlene Zebley of Fill Centers USA on Saturday, and she is awesome. Her son and daughter assist (daughter is the receptionist and son works the fluoroscope) and they really take the time to put you at ease and let you know that they care. Darlene does a great job with the stick and fill, and even though I came away with not enough on my first fill, I'm doing pretty good with the second (though I'm pretty sure I need another). She really looks for a balance, so you don't go away overfilled. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to know I have someone competent and close-by to take care of my fills for me. So, so thrilled. (Also, her son is really hot, probably late 20's or early 30's, any ladies on the market for cute one?)

Glad to help! I don't have a tofu cheesecake recipe that I have personally made and can recommend. I'll have to dig into my archives for more good tofu recipes. I have one that I love that is a garlicky Pasta recipe, but I'm not sure how many of you bandsters are looking for a pasta recipe. Vegetarian cookbooks seem to be big into that. I'll look to see what else I have and come back with 'em.

Glad to be able to be able to help! I also love Ken's Asian. Yes, I imagine a lot of people do do that. I'm not vegetarian, but I did it for one year on a bet (long story) and got to try alot of stuff I normally wouldn't have. I love tofu and eat it pretty regularly, now, and even I don't usually care for straight up raw tofu, unless its in a strongly-flavored Soup. Its really bland like that and reminiscent of very bland, unsalted cottage cheese.

Don't worry about plate-squishing your first go-round. This is the basic recipe for roasting, and if you use extra-firm, I bet you'll like the texture just fine. 1 lb extra-firm tofu 1 1/2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce 1 tablespoon dark or toasted sesame oil 1 teaspoon canola oil 1 tablespoon dry sherry (you can omit if you don't have any on hand) 1. Slice the tofu into 1/2-inch thick slices. Lay them on a clean cotton kitchen towel or on paper towels and pat very dry (little squishing here is okay-- start off gentle though). Cut the tofu into cubes, triangles, or any shape of your choice (I like mine in small cubes about the size of dice). 2. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, canola oil, and sherry in a large, shallow (I recommend glass) baking dish. Add the tofu, and very gently toss it with the marinade. Let marinate at least 30 minutes, or cover and chill up to 24 hours. (I toss periodically during marination, about every 5 - 10 minutes.) 3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Make sure the tofu is tossed one last time, and resting in a single layer in the bottom of the baking dish. Bake 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden all over. shake the pan after 15 minutes to prevent the tofu from sticking. Serve warm, or better yet, cool the tofu then refrigerate until very cold, at least 2 hours. Sometimes I add minced garlic, freshly grated ginger, and/or red pepper flakes or freshly ground black pepper, depending on my mood. I think the basic recipe is usually best though! I love this stuff on a regular salad with off-the-shelf sesame ginger dressing. Good with a cold Asian-style noodle salad, too.

Well, for starters, even extra-firm tofu is pretty soft, about the consistency of a good, thick cheesecake. I doubt even a very restricted bandster would have trouble with extra-firm tofu. That said, cooking method changes the texture. So, for example, pan-frying extra-firm tofu with oil would result in a pretty chewy texture, but most of my recipes are baked and so the result is still pretty soft. I almost always buy firm or extra-firm. Soft is so very soft, moist, and ready to fall apart that its really only good if you are blending it up for something, in my opinion. Firm is good for things like chunked up in brothy Soups where you aren't trying to get a denser texture. Anything else (like the baked Thai tofu I love so much), I get extra-firm for. Alot of people have a hard time getting over the texture of tofu, and so using extra-firm and a cooking method that improves the texture (pan-frying, baking) usually makes it more palatable for tofu newbies. For salads, I would roast extra-firm tofu in cubes in the oven, probably with vegetable oil, sesame oil, and tamari soy sauce, and refrigerate. Those little cubes are pretty darn good, and have a nice chewy (but still moist) texture. The real difference between the types of tofu is Water content. So extra-firm tofu has more water squeezed out of it than soft, and so it has more tofu per unit: the calories are a little higher. What changes the texture as you prepare it is removing more of the water content. Sometimes I'll buy firm if that's all I can find and then let it sit between two plates, with a few heavy cans on the top plate, and let some water squeeze out for a couple hours, before I use it.

My sauce usually turns out pretty thick, too. It melts well in the oven, though, but I also have been using this recipe so long that I play fast and loose with the proportions-- I might use a little extra lime juice to thin out the sauce at the end if it is too hard to work with. I also get my Peanut Butter from a similar place, my local farmer's market, and they make it fresh in the same way. Glad you enjoyed it!

I am a total Unjury convert. Its really, really, really good compared to the others I've tried. Not cheap, but right now (full liquids stage), my food costs have gone way down so its not a big deal.

I made this Soup last night for supper. It has helped me maintain what little sanity I have left, 12 days after surgery and still in the full liquids phase, now that I am hungry and near-desperate for "real foods." Also, I have a big sweet tooth, but have wearied of so many sweet Protein shakes, sweet yogurt drinks, sweet popsicles and juices. So coming up with good, savory Soups has been really important during this stage for me. baked potato soup 4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds) 2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces) 6 cups 2% milk 1 cup (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extrasharp cheddar cheese, divided 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I had ground white pepper so that's what I used) 1 cup reduced-fat sour cream 3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided (I omitted) 6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled (I omitted) 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce potatoes with a fork, bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes, coarsely mash. (I didn't want to take the time to do this. I peeled and quartered the potatoes, and boiled them on the stovetop in well-salted Water. This also made them a lot moister and, I think, easier to mash into oblivion. However, I think this recipe would work awesome with leftover baked potatoes from a previous evening or, for bandsters, on a night when they are baking potatoes for their families.) 2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly, about 8 minutes. Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat. 3. Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon. Garnish with cracked pepper. Yield: 8 servings (I made a half-recipe as my boyfriend does not care for soup. I had it for dinner last night and lunch today and I haven't even eaten a whole serving yet.) Calories: 329 (30% from fat) Fat: 10.8 g (sat 5.9 g, mono 3.5 g, poly 0.7 g) Carb: 44.5 g Protein: 13.6 g Fiber: 2.8 g Chol: 38 mg Iron: 1.1 mg Sodium: 587 mg Calc: 407 mg Stolen from September 2007 Cooking Light issue, page 140.

I'll join the Exercise Choir. For me, the extra energy comes with a regular, challenging workout routine, whether I've lost weight or not. Typically, for me, losing weight coincides with such a workout routine, so to me they are nearly one and the same. I enjoy how much better my body works when I am physically fit. Losing weight promises me the opportunity to look fitter and therefore, not have some of the confidence issues that have prevented me from throwing myself wholeheartedly into certain athletic pursuits. That said, I'm less than two weeks out from surgery, still under advisement not to do anything more than walk, and I'm physically exhausted from the minute I get out of bed until the minute I get back in it. I am hoping that that will go away in another week and change when I am allowed to get back into my regular workouts.

Oh, Darragha, the hardest thing I had to do while on the pre-op was go to an all-day party/barbeque for a good friend of mine. He was celebrating a huge accomplishment so I felt I couldn't miss it. His wife makes incredible homemade barbeque, the table was groaning under the weight of many treats, and the patio was brimming with icy buckets full of beer and wine. It was hard, hard, hard. I only managed to stay a couple hours. Good job on staying away from that potluck and outfoxing that pizza!

And I'm not a vegetarian, I just like it. Here's my personal favorite tofu recipe, and the one that always knocks the socks off of my non-tofu-eating friends! Baked Thai-Style Tofu The Marinade 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce 1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil 1 tablespoon canola oil 1/2 teaspoon minced gingerroot 1 garlic clove, minced 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 pound extra-firm tofu, cut into 3/4-inch cubes and patted very dry 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips, 1/4 x 2 inches The Sauce 1 tablespoon natural-style Peanut Butter 2 tablespoons lime juice 1 scallion, very thinly sliced 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil, or 1/4 teaspoon dried 2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint, or 1/2 teaspoon dried 1. Combine the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the tofu and red pepper to coat them evenly with the marinade. Let sit 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to 8 hours chilled. Toss occasionally. 2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the tofu mixture and any remaining marinade in a large, shallow baking dish so that the tofu rests in one layer. Bake 15 minutes, tossing once with a spatula after about 7 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, make the sauce by stirring all its ingredients together with a fork. Remove the tofu from the oven. Spoon on the sauce, then, using a spatula, toss the ingredients together until everything is well-coated. Return the dish to the oven and bake undisturbed for 10 minutes. Let the tofu sit at least 10 minutes before serving it, for it is better when warm, not piping hot. Notes: Be sure to use toasted or dark sesame oil– they also sell a regular kind that doesn’t taste as good. I used the mint once, but personally, I’m not a fan. I omit it and use double the basil. I also usually make this with two peppers instead of one, because there is enough sauce to go around and it fills it out nicely. I usually make a simple cous-cous to go with this: 4 parts chicken stock to 3 parts plain cous-cous, with extra chopped basil and garlic thrown in. 4 non-bandster servings

My boyfriend isn't banded, and I've only been banded a week. I will say, though, that he is all over my instructions not to lift anything heavy. He keeps reminding me not to carry the grocery bags or move the suitcase from the bed to the floor because of my $10k stitches! So I think maybe a month in between bandings might be ideal, especially in case one of you has more trouble than the other with the healing. You wouldn't believe the daily things I used to do that I haven't been for a week: changing cat litter, carrying a pot heavy with Water to the stove, carrying cans of Soup from the grocery to the car, emptying the trash can, etc.

I am 5'2". I have a large frame. I don't mean that in the way that people say that fat girls are "big-boned," I mean I literally have a larger and more musclular frame than most girls, period. I have thick joints, muscular calves and thighs, biceps and shoulders, etc. I always have; I (unfortunately) take after my dad's stocky, athletic side of the family. I was weighed at the clinic on the day before my surgery, on of those scales with electrical impedance that measures your body fat percentage, so the nutritionist gave me my lean body mass: 131 lbs. Lean body mass is, supposedly, muscle, bone, and organs-- any tissue that is not fat, basically. This is not unusual for me; I've been tested several times at different places (the gym, a boot camp program I did recently, I have my own body fat % scale, at the school clinic when I was in college) and that number is just about the same that I always get (upper 120's to low 130's would be the range, I'd say). Which is, of course, really funny because at my height and age (28), 131 is nearing the upper edge of the "healthy" weight range (104 - 137). A woman with the healthy, recommended percentage body fat percentage of 20%, with 131 lbs of lean body mass, would actually weigh 164 pounds total! Which is actually a BMI of 30, which puts that person at obese. Not overweight, obese. I am a runner, but a casual one. The longest race I've run is a 10-miler, most weeks I bang out 10 - 15 easy miles. I don't lift weights, but I do jump around from activity to activity, such as spending a couple months doing a Boot Camp in my neighborhood, to doing the gym routine, to just doing the running thing and a few at-home calisthenics. I am in no way a serious athlete. So here's my question. Am I going to lose lean body mass as I lose body fat? I have no intentions of limiting my exercise routine; in fact I hope to get more serious about my athletic endeavors as my body works better. The nutritionist indicated that losing 50 - 60 lbs would be ideal for me, putting me at 161 - 171. But that is really, really, really big for a 5'2" girl. Laughably, my goal when I used to go to Weight Watchers (sporadically for years) was 129. Hahahaha, yeah right! Is my goal of 149 lbs reasonable? Am I analyzing this problem properly?

Thanks Julie, thanks, uh... UnBubble! So I infer from your goal, Julie, that you are also pretty short?