ShrinkyDink

What sizes are they?

Oh gosh I could never walk around like that **blush**

hmmm, so exactly how do you carry out the spanx pee?

last week 247 this week 247 **kicks scale**

I don't like yogurt at all for the tart taste of it, is this enough different of a taste that I should try it? Also remind me please, what is the benefit of it over regular yogurt?

Blund, It could be called a form of reflux, since the mucous is supposed to be going down, but it hits a log jam and comes back up. It doesn't contain stomach acid though so it's not the same effect as regular reflux which can burn your esophagus, it's basicly just saliva. Most say the food is getting stuck in the band when this happens, but to me it feels like it's getting stuck in the sphincter at the end of the esophagus/top of the stomach, but maybe that's just me. This has happened to me twice now, both times were on the first bite I took after not eating for several hours. It's like my stomach spasms on that first bite. Once I slime for a while the little bits of chewed food come back up and I'm fine. It's never a large enough chunk to have actually been stuck, which makes me wonder if it is a spasm, at least for me. I've learned to take my first bite and wait a few minutes to be sure it's ok before continuing.

I want to go to that class too! Hehe that looks like fun. I'm only down a pound this week, but I haven't been feeling well so I didn't get much exercise. Just got my third fill yesterday and I'm hoping I'll be at my sweet spot now! Last week: 248 This week: 247

Actually a kids cheeseburger with only the smaller bottom half of the bun has become a staple for me. It's just the right amount of food, high protein, easy to get down, reasonable amount of calories. Kind of high in fat but if the rest of the day balances it that's ok. Don't beat yourself up! About the metallic taste, I had that issue too, for about a month after my surgery everything had a funky bitter taste. Thank goodness that has passed :crying:

Wow really? I'd never heard that, by that rule I'm only getting about 2/3 what I should be, thanks for the tip!

Josephine you are so sweet, thanks for the info :tongue2: I'm eating mostly protein from meat, some veggies and fruit, very little bread and crackers. When I had this awful attack the other night I had eaten a chicken leg and about 1/3 cup of mashed potatos with a tiny bit of gravy. From the gas causing foods I do eat broccoli, but not in large quantities, maybe 1/4 cup at a time and not every day. No beans except green beans, some cheese but not a lot, one small glass of milk per day, no other dairy. I ate all those things before in larger quantities without any gas problems. I'm wondering if something about my other vitamin supplements could be causing this, I didn't take any before.

Think of it this way, before you would have eaten that today without a second thought, and eaten similar things tomorrow and the next day. You are still way ahead, enjoy your treats once in a while and be proud of the changes you've made :crying:

No burning in my stomach thank goodness, it's all at my waist and lower. I can hear and feel the gas rumbling around and when I feel it on the side where my port is I have terrible sharp pains from the pressure. Gosh this has to get better!

Last night I ate my dinner a little too fast and got that horrible stuck feeling. I've had it before but it's always passed on through pretty quickly. After a few minutes of the chicken dance it was still stuck and hurting and I starting feeling like it was trying to come up, but instead what I got was a flood of saliva. I've seen people describe it but you don't understand it until it happens, it was so weird! It was like my esophagus was full and overflowing, no gagging or throwing up type feeling, just a solid stream of yuck coming up from my throat. Thankfully it was clear and tasteless, there was just so much of it and so slimy! After a few minutes a few little bits of chewed up chicken came up and it was over. Very strange experience that would have scared me to death if I hadn't already read about it on here. I sure learned my lesson to chew chew chew!

Yeah there didn't seem to be any after effects, but I'm doing protein shakes today just in case something got irritated. I did have to wonder why my doctor never mentioned this could happen. If I hadn't read about it here I would have been in a total panic.

Josephine I had exactly what you describe last night, I had such sharp pains I was afraid something was wrong, it felt like something was tearing loose, I was in tears and awake for four hours in the middle of the night. It's been bad but never this bad, and all I had for dinner was a chicken leg and a small serving of mashed potatos. I finally passed enough to at least go to sleep but I'm still uncomfortable today. I'm going to call my doctor on Monday, this can't be normal.

weight: 248, down 2 pounds from last week exercise: 20-30 minutes in the pool 5 times eating: controlled portions of regular food, lean cuisines

Ah, I had never heard that! I'll take my gas pain as a sign of my fat melting away then! That makes it a little easier to take hehe

My problem isn't trying to hold it, it's trying to get it out! It just rumbles away in there and hurts like the dickens sometimes but won't come out until it's good and ready. GasX doesn't help, but I tried not taking the fiber for 2 days and it's some better. Now my problem is not taking in enough fiber. Anybody know of a fiber supplement that doesn't blow you up like a balloon?

I use the Atkins Advantage protein drinks from the grocery store, they are a thinner consistency than others I've tried which makes them easier to get down for me. They taste very much like chocolate milk in my opinion.

For me, the difference in a diet and the band is this, losing my weight was such a huge task that a diet seemed to crawl along at a miserably slow pace. I was hungry all the time, wanted to eat what my family had, etc. Having so far to go and it being so hard made me give up over and over. With the band, I eat what I want but in much smaller portions and I'm satisfied on the amount I would be eating on a diet. The liquid preop diet was do-able because it had an end point. I could do it for 2 weeks even though it was nasty and I was starving because I knew that at the end of those 2 weeks help was waiting for me. Huge difference in that and a year or more of hunger and depriving myself stretching out in front of me. The post op liquid phase was actually very easy because of the swelling from the surgery, I had trouble getting enough in and didn't have any temptation to eat more. The only trouble I had was feeling weak and shaky the day before I moved on to full liquids, and the couple weeks on normal food after the swelling was gone but before I got my first fill when I started to feel more normal levels of hunger coming back. Again, with the fill date only 2 weeks away, I was able to get through on my will power knowing help was coming.

I eat 250-300 calories every 4 hours which comes out to 4 times per day. Sometimes it's 4 full small meals, sometimes some of them are a snack type food. If I want to eat something higher calorie at one meal I balance it by making the one before or after it smaller so I come out to 1000-1200 calories per day. It keeps me full and I'm losing so it must be working

yikes I hope it's not lactose intolerance for me! I can't live without cheese!

I'm having a really hard time giving this up as well, I still sip while I'm eating but I don't drink so much that I'm stretching the pouch or really washing the bites through. I try to drink at least half my glass before I eat so there's less there to tempt me.

I wasn't hungry at all the first week on clear liquids even though I was getting very little down, but on the last day of that week I started to feel the headache/weak/shaky feeling of body hunger. Once I was on full liquids it stopped and I haven't had any more trouble. I'm surprised that I don't have trouble with this because I got the hunger headaches quite frequently before. I think it's related to what your body is used to taking in and now that I'm used to the lower intake, I've adjusted. If you spread your calories out over the day and don't go for long periods without taking anything in it should be fine.

Maybe try a beer at home first so you know if you can handle the fizz, if you can, then enjoy a couple out with your friends but drink them slowly just in case.