Wheetsin

See my (very old) thread on a similar topic: Would paying for someone else's band be offensive? My payment would have been out of pocket, not eating into my 401k or anything, but it's still a weird spot to be in. Fortunately their provider has since approved the band and they've both submitted the paperwork. Maybe instead of jumping straight to the payment, look at the prereq stuff. Have they been to an info seminar, and what were their reactions? You say they want to be thinner, but maybe they don't want to be banded. Can they pay for it? Or are you the only financial option?

Woah woah - so much here, so little time. First, there's no magic number of calories that everyone should be aiming for. The number of calories I need to lose weight, the number you need, and the number OP need are going to be different numbers. We should eah target our individual number of calories based on BMR and AMR. Second, "less than 15 grms of fat"... based on what? Recommended guidelines (USDA) are 65gm in a 2000 calorie diet, or 80 in 2500, and that about 33% of your calories should come from fat. So if you're telling people to eat under 15gm fat/day, please validate that a bit. Why that number? Are you talking about monounsaturated? Polyunsaturated? Trans? There is no "you should be averaging..." If she was banded with 500 lbs to lose, her average weightloss will be totally different than if she was banded with 50 lbs to lose. I can't guarantee it, of course, but you probably don't have a defective band. That shouldn't even be under suspicion at this point. I'm not even sure why someone would bring that up. I mean, for that matter, it could be amassive tumor that's growing at a rate equal to that at which you're losing weight. *sigh* And umm...telling someone they should compare their weightloss to others' banded around the same time? That has to make my top 10 worst pieces of advice list. This is not a competition. There is no winner for the most pounds lost, what others are losing is a function of their bodies, activity levels, diet, etc. and has nothing to do with anyone else's loss. See direct responses below in blue. Hope this helps. :eek:

I do some, but not as much as I could, and I'm aware of it. We have weekly recycling of paper, plastics, glass, etc. I use reusable shopping bags, and get the funny looks when I tell the cashier not to bother bagging my pack of gum or already-packaged tomatoes. We have CF bulbs in about half our fixtures including outdoors, while I prefer true full spectrum lighting for most indoor fixtures - bathrooms being the exception. We have a reverse osmosis filtration unit and have started tapping into the waste Water as miscellaneous household water (watering the plants, etc.) I know people who have their systems rigs so that it feeds into their washing machine and outdoor reservoirs, but we're not that far into it. Things I'm working on - baby steps. Using sponges to clean instead of paper towels. The thought still disgusts me but I'm trying. We go through a lot of pillows, and have to find a way to recycle them other than giving them to animal/people shelters. I drive an SUV and hubby drives a truck. To help offset this, we carpool together to work. I would love to have a compost and grow our own fruits & veggies, but we aren't allowed, it's against neighborhood code. Although I can use patio pots for smaller tomato varieties. :tongue:

In the FAQ forum, sticky #8 or so, will list our more common terms, abberviations, etc.

Completely normal. I had two moments of panic around my surgery, despite having been considering & researching it for nearly 5 years. The first was as I walked out of the consult with my surgery date. Everything I had done had been leading to that moment, really, and nothing about it surprised me, but I still had this completely surreal time-slows-down "oh shit" moment as I headed out of the surgeon's office.

Pretty much. Played around with the tahini and lemon juice to get the right consistency. It didn't taste like hummus, but it was (IMO) really good.

True story: On his show-business low point in 1988, which prompted him to enter politics. He had a hard time getting work after the failures of his marriage to Cher and his TV show, but finally landed a part on "Fantasy Island.'' He was to have one line: "It's a nice day, Tattoo.'' He angered the diminutive TV star Herve Villechaize by calling him ''Pontoon'' rather than ''Tattoo'' during filming.

I think before and after pictures are as much cathartic for the poster as they are informational and/or inspirational for the viewers. I don't think that posters "owe" (for lack of a better word) anything, including accuracy. If a highly flattering picture is what it takes for someone to feel comfortable with that catharsis, that's fine by me. I would rather see someone reach the point that they're comfortable sharing pictures with the caveat that the pictures are flattering, than have them remain insecure and withdrawn and not willing to share. I know what 50 lbs lost looks like, and if you look like you lost way more than 50 lbs, so be it. At least you had the courage to post *something*, while so many others can't yet find that comfort. I've seen a ton of before/afters that were obviously photoshopped. It doesn't make me mad. I figure - if that's what they need to do to feel comfortable sharing, let them do it and have their moment.

I'm not sure when it's on, check the A&E website. I just do the keyboard search and record it that way. Plus we have A&E on demand, they usually have 5 or 6 episodes accessible anytime.

Just be glad it went through and you didn't have to PB fly. You'd pretty much have to post a pic of that one.

Being tighter at different times of the day is very common. Check out this poll. Over 40% of respondents report restriction changing based on time of day.

About 90% of the time I fly, I will have issues with fluctuating restriction. I'm normally much tighter than normal upon landing (actually, in-flight, not just after I land). Sometimes I adjust while there, but normally it lasts the entire duation (I have a little theory brewing that this also has to do with where I'm usually going). Upon departing, I will be tight when I return but usually not as tight as I was before I left, and in about 2 days I'm back to normal.

One of the ladies (one of my cousins' wives) told me they smear Vaseline on their teeth, and just try to slurp-swallow to keep from swallowing the Vaseline. They do it because it makes their teeth look shiny on tv. *barf* Edited - I think I was on crack when I typed that. Sorry for all the boo-boos.

I have to disagree. I don't think you can say we're all here for the same reason. Especially We have had a hard time losing weight for years and years. I have an easy time losing weight. I could lose weight with my eyes closed. I never even had to work at it (I work at it MORE now that I'm banded, than I did when I wasn't), I just had to shift *something* about how I ate, ideally paired with shifting *something* about how I lived my life. I'm here because I could never maintain the loss. I spent 8 years either actively losing weight or actively gaining weight. There was no maintenance at all. I would be losing, get near where I wanted to be, then start gaining. I lost all of my excess weight about 4 times over, without significant effort. And that's not a "yay me" - it's just an illustration of how we're actually here for very different reasons. That being said, I still think WW is to weightloss programs what televangelists are to the neighborhood churches. And I fully understand that's not everyone's opinion. :cursing:

I know a few women who comete in pageants and they all either pay $$$ to have their tans airbrushed on, or have someone in their family who has learned to do it. I don't know any who actually tan, but they will stand there posed for 3 hours while someone airbrushes each individual shade, muscle countour, etc. on their bodies. Usually on top of a sunless tanning product. The stain kind, not the turn you orange kind. I think pale is beautiful.

There is a difference between someone posting a vent/"attack" about something in their life, and memboers of our board making personal attacks about each other. "My husband is an idiot, why do men do this shit..." "You are an idiot Sarah (Sarah being a board member)." Very different scenarios. So instead of trying to call double standard when you'er so new here, please do familiarize yourself with not only our rules, but perhaps even our "mood." It's certainly not a requirement, but may help make your time here more enjoyable, as well as expedite acclimation. On that note, are you banded, or just here to... post? If you are banded, share your story. We love to hear others' stories.

Yeah, "full" has a lot of head connotations with it. We're obese, right? Our definition of "full" is not really full. Usually it's something like "overeaten to the point that my gut is aching, and I equate that ache to fullness." Need to get away from full. When I was in the first few months post-op, I would take a bite, and literally after every bite I would stop and "listen" to my body, and really try to answer "Am I still hungry, or am I no longer full?" Full and no longer hungry are lightyears apart from each other. If you no longer feel true hunger, stop eating -- you can always get more later, and your band will thank you. :rolleyes2:

I don't remember my first meal, but my first meal out was Cracker Barrel grilled chicken tenderloins and mashed potatoes. I hate Cracker Barrel, but they have the best grilled chicken - always moist, so I figured it would be safe.

I'm not sure. WLS isn't right for everyone. IMO he needs head help before anything else. Not years and years of it, but enough to give him the best chances of success possible.

My answers are below in blue. Having read your post, your father doesn't understand how the body works, or how the band works (this one being understandable), and is letting a lot of "urban legends" steer him away from something that just might work for him. See below. <!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Do you mean you are looking for doctors in St. Louis, or you are looking for people in St. Louis and want to know who their doctor is, regardless of where they live?

If you need hot water, just use the in room coffee maker and omit the coffee. Or have your room service bring you a pitcher (they will have it - it's what people use for hot tea). Chances are they can also bring you stock/broth, since they will have it in the kitchen. For the airports, there's usually a place with soup. Get a broth-based soup and just drink the broth. Same for meals out - most restaurants have 3 soup choices, and almost always one of them will be a broth-based soup. Good luck. :redface:

I do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) and Green Acres. Some of the items are definitely worth the price, and some are not. Things that I can buy anywhere, like my edamame or soy milk I will get at Target or the local grocery store, but soups, grains, fruits & veggies (I mainly buy the ones you can't find anywhere else), and often meats I will buy at the organic stores.

It's hard not to spend money when you have it to spend. I work hard for my money, and part of the point of having it is to spend, aka enjoy (IMO). We are DINKs and we both bring home salaries that are well above average, so we have a large amount of discretionary income. Either of our salaries will cover our current monthly expenses. We live in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house and find it's "too small" so we've been looking at something larger. Do we need something larger? No, but we like it. But we also like our easy mortgage payment we have now. At the same time, it's still so tempting to get exactly what we want. My husband was laid off after 9/11. It only took him a month to find another job, but that month scared the crap out of me and really changed how we did things financially. We weren't in any danger and had plenty of money, but when you don't know how deeply you have to tap into that "plenty" or when it will be replaced, it's scary.

I didn't know that you couldn't. I DON'T, because I'm a LOT tighter while I'm retaining fluids, which for me starts about 4 days before and ends about 3 days after. The difference is very noticeable, so having a fill during this time would not give me a good idea of how my restriction would be normally.