coolcrystal

Yeah.. it's awesome! I still eat it .. I love it! I dip lettuce in it and multigrain crackers too.. but just by itself is good too.

Sorry to hear the news. Is there any way you can get that documentation and try again or perhaps get one of those medical loans. My friend pays 300 a month for her lap band payment..

I had more hateful things said to me as a thin person than I ever did at this weight or at 300. People would make fun of me and call me anorexic... toothpick... they would be like, "gross you are too skinny" and act like it was a compliment... they thought I wanted to hear that. Women hated me.. treated me like crap. The only time I was ever prejudiced against as a larger woman was when I was in my 190's (which isn't even big) this guy wouldn't stay with me because he thought I was too fatm but he liked size zero women.. other than that.. people have always been nice to me...

GRATZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!! HUZZAH!! :thumbup: That 299 will be here before you know it and then you'll be counting the next 50 pounds to 250! then onederland!! :biggrin:

Ezma - you brought up another great point that I didn't mention! When somebody is eating a lot more than they should, I would guess that 90% of that is because they need a fill! many of us are not at our proper restriction.. I'm just now reaching it after three fills. When you are wide open you will eat more... and going up and down 2-4 pounds is totally normal. I usually play with the same 4 pounds for a good two weeks and then bam, I will go down 4 pounds and play with those 4 pounds.. and so forth.. so it's like I will lose 4 pounds every two weeks. I think that's perfect weightloss for me.. as I'm not looking to lose more than 8 pounds a month... heck, I'd be happy with 4 pounds a month.. I have a banded friend who is so discouraged right now because she has no restriction and she's hardly lost anything... but once she gets that restriction, everything will change. And once you get that restriction you need Ezma, you will see that 3 pounds fly off! Don't dare feel guilty! we have all come too far to get this surgery to get discouraged .:biggrin: PS: women can gain 2-5 pounds on their T.O.M. last month I gained 3 ..and as soon as it was over, bam, I was right back down... so make sure that's not what it is as well.

I'm very excited!!!!!!! Can't wait!

I guess I'm somewhat confused.. I do love this thread, but I don't see anything wrong with every now and again having chips and salsa, a small piece of pie, or an enchilada here and there. For me, it triggers my system back into weight loss mode and even my doctor says that if you deny things like these, it just makes the cravings worse. I didn't get the lap band to count calories and be scared for the rest of my life, I got it to eat less and stay away from breads and pastas as those were my biggest downfalls. I work out every day and for the most part I eat very healthy.. chicken, tuna, Protein shakes, veggies, etc.. but sometimes I might have half a chocolate shake or one of those mini twix candies... For me, by having this little treat every now and again isn't going to send me off on an eating binge to get back up to almost 300 lbs. My life has forever changed and so is my way of thinking. Don't let that mean person from earlier make anybody feel guilty about what they eat.. but it also saddens me when I see people saying "get back to being a lap bandster".. dont' we all just want to live pretty normally? How can you live a normal life when your whole life is about logging your food intake every stinkin day and feeling guilty over an icecream.. we are all doing fabulous!!

Can you just go ahead and let me in since you are there anyway? I know I'm not in onederland yet, but I could pretend! I can wear one of those bathing suit covers with the skinny girl on the front.. yeah, that should fool everybody :-)

My fills: Surgery - Primed with 3cc's (lasted for almost 3 weeks). First fill - 2cc's (was awesome.. felt great restriction for 9 days) Second fill - 1cc (did absolutely nothing. Only lost like 3 pounds due to sheer willpower and exercise) Third fill - 1cc (finally feel some decent restriction since the beginning). I feel more tight in the morning and by evening I could eat way more than a cup if I wanted to. Have to wait like 3 more weeks till my next fill. I'm totally okay with that for now, but we never know how long the restriction lasts for.

Count me in! I'm in the DFW area and would totally help with anything you need. I'm also a pretty decent speaker, so if you need any of those, count me in. Maybe by that time I will have lost TONS of weight and can be one of those success story people. lol

Hey, I'm the second slowest loser.. :-) And guess what, we should be happy!!! Like the others said, we are less than what we use to be, so that's all that counts and we are consistently losing weight. I haven't lost more than 40 lbs like most of the others have, but I'm still happy with what I have lost. Sorry about your hand! It made me cringe when I read that. lol. OUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hope - I totally agree with you. I wrote a post similiar to this a while back. I notice people are constantly counting thier calories and keeping track of all that stuff.. I didn't get this procedure to live my life like that. I won't. I'm not going to sit around writing every bite of food down on a stupid chart and tabulate that. I did it for a week once and I refuse to live like that. I do eat mostly healthy stuff, but every now and again I'll have half a shake... on my cruise I ate a bowl of fruit loops... I even had some cheesecake... a normal person would eat this, why can't I... granted, I do mostly eat tuna, veggies... major protein stuff... but, my doctor says that if you have a craving for these things, don't deny yourself or you will just sabotage yourself and he's right. When I have that little bit I dont' crave it anymore..

Yep that crap happens a lot. I bugged my insurance every two days. But when I called the first time they couldn't find my stuff either, then the next day they magically found it... interesting.. My doctor's office told my insurance that I needed to hurry up and get approved because I had my surgery set for "X" date and they approved me in 8 days. Funny thing is they totally lied just to hurry up and get me approved. LOL. But, it worked.

NO. In my opinion its not normal. Of course there are going to be people on here saying "listen to your doctor.. bla bla bla". but come on, nobody is still doing liquids or mushies 7 weeks out. Shoot, most people have already had 1-2 fills 7 weeks out. I had 2 fills by 7 weeks out and was already eating regular foods 3 weeks out. One of the first solid foods I tried was tuna mixed with a little bit of miracle whip light, and on multigrain crackers.. it has to be multigrain, not regular white crackers. That mushed up really good in my mouth and I took small bites. I was eating that by day 7 or 8 and my doc said it was fine. I could only eat less than half the can and three little crackers, but it was very filling and didn't hurt me at all. I'm not saying this is perfect for everybody 7 days out, but my doc constituted it as a mushie. And somebody mentioned that eating something bad or whatever might not work, but I doubt the trainers on Biggest Loser would lie to millions of people when they said that eating something a little bad does help once a week. Our bodies DO go into starvation mode.. when you have two weeks of not losing anything and you eat something naughty and then lose three pounds, thats your body allowing itself to move on and continue to lose weight. Granted, that doesn't mean eat a bunch of pizza, Cookies, icecream and whatnot. I usually will have 4 chips and salsa with an enchilada for a lunch one day... thats enough to bonk my system back into shape.

I know~! it's so weird.. I do crunches everyday.. leg lifts.. all sorts of stuff and the upper stomach is still just pooched out. The lower belly is even firming up nicely. I wish I knew why..

Did anybody find out if it actually blows up into a triangle around your stomach when they fill you? I remember there was one thread about this.. the self anchoring system and how the band is just like an old swedish one and when you fill it, it goes into a triangle and not a circle around your stomach. My doctor refuses to use them... I'm sure they work great, but I remember getting upset at my doctor for not putting one in me and then I did more research on them and glad he put the AP in me. This is just my opinion and question though, so nobody get all crazy up in here.

My doctor primed me with 3cc's. Then my first actual fill I got 2cc's. I originally thought it was 4cc's, but he told me two weeks ago it was 3cc's. I think it might depend on how big your stomach is and which band they use. Since my doctor only uses the 10cc and 14cc AP bands, he primes it to fit you comfortably.

Exactly! that's what irritates me.. my husband said they were making fun of people in that line of work, but that one scene in particular made it "not funny".. it was serious. She made it serious when she said all that. They were clearly saying a size 8 and above is not pretty and that's not fine with me, especially when it was marketed for young teens. Luluc- was that line from the movie? i think it is.. that one secretary lady says it I believe.. yeah! ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!

After a few days when I just couldn't eat another sip of broth or Isopure clear, I went to that Campbell's select butternut squash soup. As somebody else stated, there are other flavors too, but this stuff saved me. I would add some milk to it to make it more runny, but man, this REALLY helped out a lot. Good luck!

Did I say to eat a bowl of icrecream or mac and cheese? no.. that's not what I'm saying at all... what I'm saying is, that proper restriction and doing this band thing right is actually being able to eat half a cup to a full cup of food..IE.. chicken, fish, veggies, tofu,fruits, etc. That is achieving the proper amount of restriction. If you are only able to eat 1 tablespoon of healthy food, that's not being healthy at all. You are starving yourself and your muscles. People UNFILL when they can't eat because their fill swells up after a week, which happens quite often.. or vommiting in their sleep or constantly getting stuck and uncomfortable... not because they want to eat "bad stuff".. give me a break.... they aren't failing and feel like they need to eat more. You SERIOUSLY need to go to your nutritionist and have a talk with her. What's sad is that people were cheering you on up above and congratulating you for not being able to eat... PEOPLE, THIS IS NOT WHAT THE BAND IS ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think its WHACK that your doctor still has you on liquids 5 weeks out?? WTF??!! My doc did a week of liquids and a week of mushies... and some might even do 2 weeks of mushies.. but 5 weeks??? Give me a break. The reason why eating something bad triggers yourself back into weightloss mode is because your body goes into starvation mode when it doesn't get all the calories its use to. If you watch Biggest Loser even the trainers mentioned this and said that once a week the contestants eat something bad and it actually helps them lose weight. Wether its nachos, or enchiladas, or chips or just something to shock your system into saying "oh hey, I'm not being starved, it's okay to lose weight". Anytime I reach a plateau I do this and it helps.. bam, I'll drop 2-4 pounds from it. Later on when you get more fills and you have real good restriction you won't be able to eat that pizza most likely (except the toppings).. right now you are just wide open and everything goes down quite nicely for you. Good luck! :thumbup:

I guess not one person knows what the heck I'm talking about. lol

Take pics of the rashes and date them too. That will help you build your insurance case. A&D Ointment helps a lot too!! it was the only stuff that helped clear my sister's up. Good luck sweetie!! :wink2:

Is eating just one bite of banana exactly healthy? it sounds like you are too tight. You should at least be able to get your nutrients in. Nobody can survive on just one bite of something for each meal and you are rejoicing about not being able to eat "anything". That's almost like being anorexic. I hope you are drinking Protein shakes or something else for calories and protein. :wink2: Eventually your body will go into starvation mode and you won't lose anything. Your signature says you are on your way to "healthyville" but that's just not very healthy. I'm not trying to be rude or tell you how to live, but I saw my dear friend Dawn get the band and become anorexic. One time she didn't eat for 4 days and passed out. Then became bulemic and slipped her band. Please be careful. Just worried.

We waited 3-4 weeks and we did it from behind. lol. not to be too graphic but i didn't want him laying on my belly. After 5 weeks it was fine though any way we did it.