jjsmiles

Shannon I know this is probably extra freaky for you since you know more than most of us what surgery entails, but you can do this. I think you will find it easier than you thought, and if not, the surgery is quick and the recovery is way easier than any other surgery I have ever had (and I have had a number). Just remember, knowledge can be power, but it can also scare the crap out of you! The amount you want to lose seems like a great deal, but take it in small steps and remember every pound you lose is a pound less to lose and a step closer to where you want to be. If you want, go look at some pictures I posted on the general surgery forum under "before and after pictures" near the top of the threads (I think it should be renamed to "before and during"). My pictures are on about page 10 or 11 by now (I posted them on April 10, 2008, so you can look by date). I never thought I would ever post pictures, but I thought, why the heck not? (plus it was a snow day and I couldn't get out of my drive way to go to work, so I played on the computer most of the day) :tongue: I am not saying look at the pictures because they are anything great, but they are a representation of me at about 350 (and probably more) and me at about 220, about a month ago. They just show that massive weight loss is possible. This morning I weighed myself and I was down to 208 and I know that I am nowhere near done my journey. I have no idea of where I can actually go - my goal of 180 was just a number that I picked that was below 200, but I am now believing that anything is possible. As hokey as this may sound, by believing in yourself, you CAN make your dreams come true . I think many of us kind of gave up on ourselves, and forgot to dream and believe in what we can do and instead invested ourselves in other people, our careers, or in food. I know I did. Do this for you and you alone.

Hi Snuffy, I am not disagreeing with the symptoms you talk about - I certainly did feel them, but at what cost? I couldn't drink dairy, eat more than one small piece of certain fruits a day, couldn't eat carrots or many other vegetables and had to limit my vegetables to stay under 20 grams a day. There was no bread, Pasta, rice or potatoes in my diet. I also had very bad breath :biggrin: I would argue that Atkins is not a successful long term weight loss tool, although it certainly does great short term. How many people do you know who have kept the weight off? If the low carb lifestyle was so sustainable, why does anyone eat carbs and why do we have morbid obesity and the need for WLS? I don't mean to sound anti low carb, I am just saying beware of what the pros and cons are and what you are prepared to do to take the weight off and keep it off. I know lots of people on this forum are going low carb and I realize that it is incredibly important to get enough Protein in your diet, but I also think we took the drastic step of WLS to change our lives permanently and to build healthy lifestyles that are forever sustainable, particularly when we reach goal. I did a quick search on the internet and came up with the carb counts of foods that are all considered healthy in any world: 1 c. skim milk = 12 carbs 1/2 c 1% cottage cheese = 4 carbs 1/2 cup non fat yogurt = 9 carbs 1 c cauliflower (raw) - 5.3 carbs 1 c. broccoli = 5.84 carbs 1 cup carrots = 12.26 carbs 1 cup squash = 5.25 carbs 1 tomato = 5.84 carbs 1 medium apple = 19.06 carbs 1 banana (med) = 27 carbs 1 wedge of melon = 8.32 carbs 1 cup raspberries = 14.69 carbs 1 cup strawberries = 11.67 carbs To me, it is unacceptable (and not promoting healthy eating) that I can have a cup of skim milk and 1 cup of vegetables a day (but no fruit) to stay under 20 grams of carbs. Or I can have 1 piece of fruit and maybe a cup of vegetables (if I stick to melon), but no dairy to stay under 20 carbs.

I agree with Wheetsin and Jachut - I eat lots of carbs and I think I can be considered reasonably successful. I do make sure I eat lots of Protein, and I avoid white flour, white bread, etc. I do eat quite a bit of high fibre, whole wheat products, which I find help to fill me up. oatmeal is a staple breakfast for me. I have posted this before, but for me, cutting out most carbs is a recipe for disaster long term. I went into this process wanting to eat as I plan to eat for the rest of my life (maybe I can eat a little more down the line :biggrin:), which includes eating all foods in moderation. I didn't go into this journey planning to endure my diet until I got to goal and then I would go back to "regular" eating. Regular eating got me to 350ish pounds for most of the 2000's. My problem with restricting carbs is that for me, I have done Atkins or atkins like several times (the first time when my mom put me on it when I was about 11 or 12) and I have lost weight very successfully (probably true for many obese people - which is probably why Dr's recommend it). However, once I started to reintroduce carbs into my diet, I was like an alcoholic or a drug addict and I couldn't seem to stop myself from eating and eating and eating. This of course led to me to gain back all my weight plus more. No thank you - not this time!!!!!!! As Wheetsin posted, I don't think people realize how many carbs are in our food and get confused by the messages they receive (should I eat Beans or not?). Fruit and lots of vegetables can also be quite high in carbs and I have a problem with eating plans that limit your fruit and vegetables. For me, I would recommend having a plan which includes all food groups, with a concentration on natural foods (i.e unprocessed). There is some really interesting reading and newer research on the glycemic index (GI) that you might want to google for more information. I really enjoyed the book, The G.I. Diet, by Rick Gallop. Rick makes his case that you should include low fat protein with every meal, but he also says that including low glycemic index foods "are slower to digest so you feel satiated longer", and they "keep insulin levels low which inhibits the formation of fat and assists in the conversion of fat back into energy". My WLC does not advocate low carbs, but does advocate choosing low GI foods whenever possible.

Great post Salsa. Thanks :biggrin:

Congratulations are your excellent beginning. It's also wonderful that your gall bladder could be removed "pre cancer". Sometimes things happen the way they should although the journey getting there may be confusing and challenging.

Copied from PreventDisease.com BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) Your BMR, or basal metabolic rate (metabolism), is the energy (measured in calories) expended by the body at rest to maintain normal bodily functions. This continual work makes up about 60-70% of the calories we use ("burn" or expend) and includes the beating of our heart, respiration, and the maintenance of body temperature. Your BMR is influenced by a number of factors, including age, weight, height, gender, environmental temperature, dieting, and exercise habits. Because of the increased activity of cells undergoing division, the younger the person, the higher (faster) the metabolism. And the taller and heavier a person is, the faster their metabolism. Because of the greater percentage of lean muscle tissue in the male body, men generally have a 10-15% faster BMR than women. Restrictive and traditional diets may cause your BMR to drop as much as 20%. People living in tropical or very cold environments generally have BMR's 5-20% higher than those living in more temperate climates. In general, depending on the intensity and duration, consistent exercise will also increase your BMR. Note: BMR calculators should only be used to provide a rough guideline on daily energy expended. Actual values cannot be attained using such calculators, and may be quite inaccurate depending on several factors such as geographic location, body-type, diet, body composition, supplementation and some genetic factors. Values which extend +/- 15% above and below your calculated BMR may be a more accurate representation of your actual BMR range as daily fluctuations are constant and your BMR is rarely the same on a daily basis.

Sounds great Alex. How many servings to get 151.84 calories per serving?

chooselifegail You haven't said what you weigh at this point, but you may find that you can't actually eat 1500 calories a day and lose weight (especially if you are not physically active). You can do a search on google for BMR (can't remember what it stands for right now) and can enter your stats and can find out how many calories you need on a daily basis just to stay alive - I think mine (can't remember right now and I did it a while ago when I was heavier) was around 1650 calories. Now do the math - if I ate 1500 calories per day and didn't do any extra activity, I would be at a deficit of 150 calories per day. Science says that to lose a pound you need to use 3500 hundred calories more than you take in. At 150 calories per day, it will take me 23.33 days to lose 1 pound. (My body doesn't totally believe the science, but it is the accepted version of weight loss at this time). Most nutritionists recommend that you look at your BMR and cut out around 500 calories daily from your BMR to lose about a pound a week (500 calories per day x 7 days = 3500 calorie deficit = 1 pound). If you want to lose more, you need to cut out more or increase your physical activity significantly. My second point is, and I say it a lot in this forum, a simple way to start getting on track is to start journalling or logging everything you eat (including the quantities and if you are counting calories the number of calories). You may be shocked to find that what you think is 1500 calories is actually higher. I also find it works very well for me in controlling my eating, because if I am having to write everything down, I have to make a conscious choice to eat it and not just eat it and pretend I didn't (or maybe even I forgot that I ate it). I find this simple tool helps me make better choices (do I really need that piece of cake - will 1 cookie or something healthier do?) and makes me so conscious of what I am eating, I may choose not to eat anything, but go do something or have a glass of Water instead . I may still choose to eat the cake, but at least I have done it consciously and I try to account for it through the rest of the days menu.

Oh and I forgot to say but any weight you lose by doing this (and depending on the number of last meals you had if you didn't do a pre-surgery diet you can lose a number of pounds over night) is not a true weight loss, since as soon as you eat anything, you will start collecting in your intestine and the weight will be distressingly back).

I didn't have to drink it for this surgery but have had to in the past for the other procedures. I think DancingLamb gave great advice for a horrible experience. I would recommend taking it earlier as well. I mean once your bowel is clean and you don't eat more, you won't be collecting more either . Disney-Freak, the stuff you drink for this just cleans out your entire bowel, by forcefully expelling it from your body in a matter of hours and dr.s don't recommend taking it without discussing with them first, because the more stuff you take, the more risk you have of creating a dependence on laxitives and these preparations to go to the bathroom. It empties your small and large intestine, but doesn't do anything else, so I am not sure it would help with bloating.

Thank you Gwen for your copy and paste. I have been thinking that something is wrong with me because I don't pb or slime (unless I am not paying attention and eat dry meat too fast), I can and do eat more than 2 oz per meal, and I can and do eat anything - in moderation. What I have found the band helpful in is hunger control (not head hunger), but actual hunger. I can actually go hours without eating and often times it is just the clock telling me to eat or I get the sore, achy post surgery shoulder telling me I am empty. I have been saying that I haven't been overly restricted, but reading that dr's stuff, I would actually say I am at my sweet spot. YEAH! :thumbup:

I haven't done Curves per say, but I did join spa lady at the end of November (all women all the time) and they have a sprint circuit series of machines that are supposed to be similar (in two lines so you only have to look at others if they are directly across from you, but the sweat is still an issue :eek:). I do 20 or so minutes of elliptical (about 1 and 1/2 miles- I work up a really good sweat), then the circuit (24 minutes) and then 25 minutes of tread mill (another 1 and 1/2 miles). Just doing the circuit wouldn't be enough of a work out for me. I loved doing aqua size in the past, but can't go in the Water right now for extended periods because of other physical issues. I am not sure it would be enough cardio though great resistance. How about deep water running? I know you are intimidated by mixed sex gyms, but can you gather your courage and go to a gym that has both pool and dry land equipment? Believe me the hot bodied men at the gym are checking out the other hot bodied men and women at the gym and aren't paying any attention to us :thumbup:.

I think many food providers, and in particular cereal makers, are trying to cash in on the high fibre, higher Protein craze that is supposed to satisfy you longer and make you feel fuller. They are also trying to get into the "snack" market, pretty successfully as far as I can tell. For example, your serving of the smart start has 6 grams of fibre and 8 grams of protein compared to you rice krispies that has 0 fibre and 2 grams of protein. Unfortunately, just like when you start working with the products, you usually replace one ingrediant for another. Low fat products are notorious for replacing fat with sugar. What is better or worse for you? What is irritating me is oatmeal. I eat a package of instant oatmeal every day (I am too lazy to make from scratch and I usually eat it at the office). Anyways Quaker sells 12 packages of regular oatmeal, 10 packages of 33% less sugar oatmeal and 6 packages of weight control oatmeal - all for the exact same price!!!!! The weight control oatmeal has only slightly more protein (6 compared to 4), and slightly more fibre (6 compared to 3) and a little less sodium, but costs almost double. The marketing people have it all figured out let me tell you! :redface:

I started with Weight Watchers as my preparation for the band and I still count points, although I don't eat as many points as I am allowed (I try to stick to 20-22 points per day). Because I am also obsessive, I also count calories and log all my food on the daily plate (which does not count ww points). I generally stick to about 1000 to 1200 calories per day (which is close to the ww points, just depends on how much fibre you eat). I really like ww because it is based on eating all foods and on a balanced diet. I have done very well on atkins in the past, only to react like a crack addict when carbs were added in (I ate and ate and ate and couldn't seem to stop myself, starting the whole destructive scene all over again). I wanted to start this process as a way of life that I could follow forever, not a diet to be endured until I lost weight. You would be surprised at the numbers of recipes for sauces that you can find online and in low fat/low calorie cook books that are delicious and good for you. For example I just bought a cook book "Company's Coming: Diabetic Cooking" that has some wonderful sounding sauces i.e. Vegetable Gravy (29 calories for 1/2 cup) that can be used for stroganoff receipes, creamy Pasta sauce (95 calories for 1/2 cup), Roasted Red Pepper sauce (52 calories for 2 Tbsp), Tzatziki (12 calories for 1 Tbsp). Mnay of these recipes call for skim milk, skim evaporated milk, low or not fat yogurt or sour cream. I think you will find many bandsters who will say that they don't use the low cal, low fat stuff. Because they are using so little, they prefer to go "full strength", which they say makes them feel more satisfied. I still try to go low fat etc, but that is just me! By the way, my new way of eating - slower, smaller bites, chewing well has changed my tastes and I find that I am much more interested in quality product over quantity. As weird as it sounds, I think I enjoy eating way more now. I think in the past when I ate, even while I was eating, I was anticipating the next thing I would eat. I am also appreciating vegetables in a whole new way. New faves: saute asparagus or zucchini in a tsp of extra virgin olive oil until tender crisp and a little blackened and sprinkle on a tsp of parmesan and I am in love!!!!:redface: Good luck!

First picture is from around Christmas of 2005 - I weighed around 350 ish (navy blue geometric blouse). Second picture is from March 2008 - I weigh about 220 (blue and pink t-shirt)

A fairly simple way to make some changes is to get a little coil notebook and start documenting everything you eat and drink. Carry it around with you and whenever you are ready to eat or drink anything, no matter what it is, document it, along with how much you ate and or drank. When you first start, you don't even need to calculate calories. This was a very effective tool for me for a couple of reasons: 1. I became much more aware of how often I was eating and how much I was actually eating (gulp!) 2. I became much more aware of what I was choosing to eat instead of just stuffing it in my mouth with no real awareness that I was eating until I was done (and maybe not even then). 3. Because I made the committment to write it down NO MATTER WHAT (I was only lying to myself by not doing it), I found almost immediately that I started to question my choices - eg Am I really hungry or do I just want to eat?, will only the mountain dew satisfy me, or will something else do? 4. Writing everything down takes a little bit of time and distracts me - sometimes even long enough to change my mind or eat less - I was all about instant gratification You can do this - you are not a failure. Make a committment to yourself and begin again!

You are so close. Your dreams are coming true and I am so excited for you. I am guessing, but I think that this is likely a pretty emotional time for you. You have achieved SO much, probably more than you thought was possible, and now you are about to see a tangible reward of a newer body to match your achievements (I guess if you can call it a reward to have your body basically cut in half ). You are almost at goal, you have been so successful in your journey and now your outside person will soon match your incredible inside person. I am looking forward to hearing how it goes for you. Remember to take lots of pain meds and look after yourself. Thanks for the thoughts and words you have given me. Jacquie

thanks Ogre. I really thought that it was common to not experience hunger with the lap band. Maybe its all in my mind, but I am o.k. with that, after all head hunger is all in my mind too. Whatever works! :huh2:

You are right Steph. My life has been so complicated for such a long time, that I am hoping my karma has finally changed for the better and it can all happen and I can get my entire life back!!! I know that I am very fortunate if I can get this surgery covered, because in Canada, with universal health care, plastics aren't usually covered, unless you can prove medical necessity, and most surgeons won't deal with the hastle. You can't buy (to my knowledge) private insurance to cover it, so most Canadians have to foot the entire bill (as I have seen is the same for most of everyone else) :thumbup: Sometimes I wonder if this was all meant to happen, in the nightmare way it went down, as I was also able to get my lapband covered by health care, which is almost impossible in Canada at this point. Thanks. I will count my blessings. :crying:

Huge pannus hannging there only just begins to describe it :redface:. One of my worries is putting too much hope into getting it all done at once, only to wake up from surgery with "only" a bowel resection. I know, I know - selfish thoughts - keep positive. Thanks!

Who told you that? If it was your wlc, then yes it is true, although I wasn't held to that BMI for my surgery (I was a 55 at the start of the process, around 50 at the time of surgery, but the surgeon didn't know that until I weighed in about 30 minutes before surgery). The issue with a BMI over 50 is the concern of complications due to high BMI. On the other hand, usually the lapband has way fewer complications associated than gastric bypass, and is considered a safer surgery. I wouldn't go by anything else than what your wlc tells you. I would hate to find out that I based my decisions on what somebody told me and then later finding out it wasn't true. If it is true for you, then you can develop a plan of attack to get to 50.

Thanks Kat, I really enjoy reading your posts, you always tell it like it is, but in a very kind, supportive way. I know you are looking into ps yourself and I am sure looking at your pictures that you will be a fabulous success! I am the first to admit that nothing about my body is pretty :thumbup: and I am ok with that. After all I was the one who carried over 400 pounds on my body at times, and I knew going in that there was no way my skin was going to "bounce back" (I didn't know how bad it would be though). My list of things I would like to change, now that I am losing so much weight grows (the biggest are the arms, the breasts and the tummy), but I wasn't even thinking in the now. My understanding is that in Canada, Dr's are reluctant to look at ps unless you have been at goal for at least a year and considering I am far away from goal (and the goal I have posted here isn't a normal BMI), it wasn't more than a wish and a future dream. My understanding is that my bowel surgeon will be talking to the plastics guy and arranging for the referral and my role is just to show up, be evaluated and they will take care of the rest if they decide it is feasible. The plastics guy is one who operates out of the hospital I would be going to and the bowel guy is the chief of surgery at the hospital, so hopefully he has confidence in the dr. he is referring me to. I have been obese and have hidden my body my entire life, so I have no expectations of being a bathing suit model, but I would like to be able to wear a 1 piece without shame or a big cover up :biggrin2: Thanks again, I appreciate the support!

I haven't read the entire thread, so I may be saying what has already been said. For me the band is really helpful in that it stops me from being hungry between meals and helps me to manage my portions- in fact, I am usually not physically hungry at all. I still have head hunger, but because I don't really have the physical sensation of hunger, I find it very manageable. This is entirely different from my previous experiences. I would do very well on a diet, would lose weight, but once I gave in and had some food that wasn't part of my diet, I would completely give up and eat ravenously and uncontrollably. For example, I used to do very well on atkins, but as soon as I had some carbs, I would be like a crack addict and couldn't get enough carbs, throwing me into a cycle of gaining weight, feeling bad about my failure and eating even more because it made me feel better for the moment I was chewing and swallowing (or it at least made me numb). I firmly believe, at least for me in my experience, that my success in this journey so far (in my 10th month now) is because I made the conscious decision that no food is bad or forbidden, and I need to start eating the way I plan to eat for the rest of my life (i.e not to cut out carbs or to only drink my meals - not realistic or doable for me forever). I journal everything I eat, what I do for exercise and when I eat Cookies, cake and pizza, I do it planfully and purposefully and account for my choices. This is the first time I have consciously done all of this and it has really worked for me (who would have thought that planning to eat cookies would be a weight management tool :frown:)! It is ok to eat all the above foods on occasion and in moderation. Thin people eat this food all the time, they just somehow know what is a portion and when to stop! By setting myself to be a normal person (not a fat person on a diet) in my eating, I think the sky is the limit in how much I can lose. It is all about my choice and my attitude! :drool:

I lOVE the question and the answers so far. I was once part of a weight loss program and lost 30 or so pounds and the clinic made me pick up an equivalent bag of flour and I remember thinking, as I heaved it up - where did the weight go, and if I can barely lift this, why don't I feel that much different for not having to lug this much around with me anymore? :frown: I certainly can tell the difference now, but I still have the question - where did it go and how do I make sure that it doesn't come back! Kind of like my question - if the spray butter topping doesn't have any calories or any fat for a "portion size" of 5 sprays, when I spray for the 6th time, does that mean I am up to 100 calories? I read somewhere (I think it was hungrygirl.com), that if you use 20 sprays, then you are up to 20 calories - not a lot, but not zero either!)

It may help, it may hurt. Do you know what your triggers are for an episode? What kind of diet do you follow? If you need to follow a high fibre diet, you need to ensure that you can get the fibre that you need, post band, which may mean that you can't get filled to your sweet spot in order to get all the fibre you need (fibre can take a lot of room). You will also need to be very careful that you always drink enough fluids. For many bandsters, their BM decrease dramatically once they are fully into the program. Will that be an issue for your IBS? Do you currently have constipation issues? You would need to figure out what your sytem can tolerate (preferably pre band). On the other hand, by eating less and eating less high fat foods, your IBS may get way better (see poster who is only drinking shakes and hasn't had an episode). Finally, have you actually had a colonoscopy and been diagnosed with IBS? I thought I had IBS for years, but with the dreaded test, I found out that I actually had diverticular disease, which is different (same pain) and which can sometimes be treated and relieved with antibiotics and a high fibre diet (didn't work for me, but that is a different story). :drool: Be really open and honest with your Dr. and really know what you need to make your life comfortable in terms of diet, so you can have the surgery (or not) with really clear expectations. Good luck! :frown: