Bigfluffykitten

You could make them yourself.... Cube up some plain bread and sprinkle with dry spices like garlic, onion powder, oregano. Put on a baking sheet and toast in the oven around 300 degrees till light brown and crunchy. When I do them I check them and toss them around every 10 minutes to toast on all sides. No added fat. Cool and store them in a zip lock baggie at room temperature.

I was banded on Feb 3 at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia PA. I haven't had any nausea, but tons of gas and gas pain. It is just starting to go away. I am a week out of surgery at this point and slowly drinking all day trying to get in my fluids. I am getting average about 5-6 cups of fluids down in a day and about 40 g Protein, averaging 500 calories. Hot drinks --tea, thin cream Soup and broth go down better for me than cold drinks. I use unjury Protein shake powder I ordered off the internet mixed with skim milk (by my doc's recommendation) it tastes alright. Hot V8 juice saved me during the pre-surgery liquid diet but I have been afraid to try it again since tomato is so acidy. Maybe next week. My doc said the shoulder pain --oh my gosh was it bad--was from the air they use to inflate your abdomen during surgery. Apparently it goes up into your shoulders after. I had my hubby rubbing them gently and used a heating pad on them. Pain Killers were essential for me the first few days. If you cannot get liquid pain killer you can crush the tablets,

I am one week out from surgery and still on liquids for another week. Then soft and pureed food. It is comforting to see what you are all eating. It makes me feel more like this is something I can do too. So many people eating nuts and rice surprised me since they are on my Doc's list of problem foods. Thanks for posting!!!

for me the biggest fear is that it will not work for me somehow and I will fail. With 'regular' dieting no one has to know you are doing it and although money is spent it isn't thousands of dollars (insurance or not). I have been a big person since puberty and nothing I have ever tried has worked. Its very daunting to me that it has come to surgical alteration for me to win over my body's instincts to eat, and because of past failures I still wonder if I am going to disappoint all my friends and family (and myself).

My band surgery date is also february 3rd. I am on the liquid diet right now and feel kinda nervous about the whole thing but I also feel I have alot of resolve and I am really ready to make changes and do what needs to be done.

One of the exercise things that I have done is water aerobics at the YMCA. Where I live it is 35 dollars for a 1 year associate membership (only allows you to take classes) and then 30 dollars for 3 months of water aerobics class. It is low impact and cool since it is in the pool. It burns more calories than land exercise and here classes are offered 1-3 days a week.