Wheetsin

Ok puddin, you mentioned earlier that you have no cellulite on your thighs, etc. -- and it certainly doesn't look it from the bathing suit pic -- but did you before? Were you a "smooth" big girl or a "lumpy" big girl? As in - overweight but "firm", or overweight and "jiggly"? I'm not asking that right, but I hope you get my drift. Because - wow, I always assumed one would need lipo or something to get thighs & buttocks away from the "sock full of quarters" look, and even then it probably wouldn't be gone, just less of it... but if you were "lumpy" before, you certainly can't tell now!

I don't budget or really track expenses, so as much as I hate to say it - I don't know. The logical conclusion would be "yes", but let's see... When we eat out, I order the same meals as I did before. This cost is the same, but I'm now getting 3 or 4 meals out of it instead of just one. Before surgery, DH was a big steak eater. I could take it or leave it, but since he liked it so much I frequently made it. That's about what, $25 for 2 steaks? (DH prefers Angus porterhouse or thick-cut t-bones, which I think are more expensive than the strips I always preferred). Now I don't eat any red meat, and 95% of what I cook is chicken. Two chicken breasts costs what, $3? (Ok, this is how bad I am... I don't even pay attention to what things cost at the store, so I can ony make a rough guess about these prices). I used to eat Breakfast out most days, and lunch, and dinner. Now I rarely eat breakfast period, rarely eat lunch out, and am about 70/30 dinners at home/out. There has to be some kind of savings there. So really all I've done is ramble. I should probably let someone who's more responsible with their money and spending answer this question. :nervous

Yup. veggie does not equal salad. Here are some ideas that I make frequently: Bruschetta - saute a large minced garlic clove, a half tsp of thyme, 3 or 4 sliced shallots and a small can of sliced button mushrooms until the shallots are sweated and the mushrooms are done popping. Sprinkling them with Kosher salt when you add them will help pull out the moisture. (I watch too much Alton Brown). When the sautee is done, add a large can of chopped tomatoes, drained. Cook until the tomatoes start to dry down a little, then top the pan off with chicken broth and reduce, repeat until you've added & reduced the whole carton. Slice a baguette in very thin slices. Top with a sized piece of provolone. When the tomato mixture is done cooking (e.g. all broth is reduced out and tomatoes are "gooey"), place on top of the "croutons", and top with another piece of provolone. Bake until the cheese is brown & bubbly. Veggie kabobs - one of the greatest ways to eat them. I use mushrooms, onions, hubby adds a few others. Just mist with evoo and grill. Wrapped asparagus - wash a bundle or two of asaparagus and dry. Coat a cutting board with evoo and roll the asparagus in it (like with your hand on top of them, moving back and forth... like how you roll playdoh into a "worm"... whatever, you'll figure it out! ) Sprinkle with garlic powder. Gather into bundles of 5 or 6 stalkes and wrap either a piece of bacon around them, or a piece of proscuitto. Fasten with toothpick, and grill until done. These are just a few, tons more out there. Don't let veggies be limited to "salad"!

I will not lose weight if I do not hit my Protein values. There aren't many things in ly life that are "sure", but that's one of them. Work on hard Proteins. By "hard" I mean proteins you have to chew, with bulk, that will fill your pouch and not run through. Having food sitting in your pouch is what makes you feel full, so the longer the protein is there, the better. Example - fish over a Protein shake, or a Protein Bar over cottage cheese... heck, even large curd over small curd cottage cheese. String cheese over yogurt. Eat your proteins first. If you want a vegetable, don't automatically think "salad". Most lettuce is nothing more than crunchy Water. Nutritionally that does you no good. If you want a salad, make sure you focus on the darker leafy greens, such as the outer leaves from a head of romaine, or spinach. They at least have some nutrition. If you're eating iceberg, you may as well be dunking ice chips in dressing. Better than salads - some raw or steamed veggies. Beans are good for you and have protein. Yes, there are carbs in beans, but they're "good" carbs (as opposed to something like a candy bar or orange juice). I enjoy some cold sliced Jicama, and it keeps me full. Or look at veggies that will supplement your Fiber intake. I think you're well aware that your food choices aren't good ones. I honestly will not buy things like pop-tarts because if they're in the house, I can eat them. I do buy snack foods, but I make them band friendly. Here's one of my favorites: Buy a pack of Turkey pepperoni. Hormel makes it and it's usually kept with the regular pepperoni. Looks like the same little package only it has "Turkey" in a green box, or something like that. Very high in protein, very low in fat and calories. Put them single layer on a paper plate or about 6 paper towels, and microwave until they stop popping, about 1.5 mins, but watch to make sure they don't burn. As soon as you take them out, press them with a wad of paper towels to absorb the excess grease from the top, and push the bottoms into the paper plate or towels. This will also "dry" them and make them crunchy. I eat them plain, or with a little cream cheese (particularly tasty with the garden veggie kind), or even use them as scoops for my cottage cheese. If I'm going to the movies, or travelling, I will bring a bag of them with me for snacking. And they can make a pretty good meal substitute in a pinch. I always have a bag of them in the fridge at work, ready to go if I need them. Nuts make a good snack, particularly almonds (which, go figure, I don't like). The key is to buy raw ones whenver possible. A lot of extra oils and saturated fats are added during some of the processing, so always opt for plain old "shelled" when you can. 1.9cc fill in what size band? Why haven't you gotten another fill?

I drink with meals, unless I'm just not thirsty. For me, it has never changed the amount of food I eat, I will eat the same when I drink as when I do not. I only sip, and feel each sip out before going to the next. And I only drink a little bit, not glasses & glasses. The only time drinking has an adverse effect is when I'm stuck, or gummed up. Holy moley, don't ever get it in your mind that "I little sip might help"! * ETA - I don't want to give the wrong impression. I don't chug a glass of tea with my meal. And most meals I don't drink because I'm just not thirsty (I used to drink a TON with meals, and was surprised to see that thirst diminish). But if I'm eating and I get thirsty, I will have a sip of something.

Whoops! Sorry! I just cleaned it out so resend whatever didn't make it the first time. Hey Cate! It's great to hear from you, and you're looking fantastic! I've been lazy with my eating lately. It's hard for me to stay motivated when I'm not seeing any changes (seriously - since late summer I have this pattern of losing NOTHING for a few months, then dropping something ridiculous like 3 lbs). How is life down there? Everything going well with the job and the wine? The food obsessions may always be there. And they suck. I've caught myself eating a few times "just because". I don't want to sound like Sabapathy, but have you noticed particular times that your thoughts go to food, or is it constant?

That's our brains doing that, not the mirror. When I look in the mirror, I do not see a "big picture" difference, but I notice smaller differences. My collar bones are sticking out, my stomach is droopy, fat rolls are disappearing. But overall when I look in the mirror now at the whole enchilada, I don't see a distinguishable different from pre-op. However, simetimes when I see a picture of me now, I'm like - That must just be a really flattering picture because there's no way I actually look like that, I'm way too fat to look like that! (Not that I'm skinny by any means, but it's relativity...) I was not fat my entire life. For most of my life I was very athletic and fit. And when I dream, I'm "regular" me. And oddly enough, even at my highest weight, when I put an outfit on, the mental image I'd have was thin me in that outfit. So seeing the harsh reality of what I had become had a very potent sting known as "reality check". I know there's a difference, because people who have no idea I had the surgery, that I haven't seen since I had it, are speechless. Everyone is noticing, even our tax preparer that I only see once a year. And I know that if I was someone who knew me, and had seen me lose ~130 lbs, I'D see a big difference in me... but I don't now. The mental fat block is still there!

40 lbs a year is not the average, it's people who - for whatever reason - are falling below the statistics. I would say "extremely" slow process, but it is (usually) slower than other WLS alternatives. Mostly because a great many of the other options are malabsorptive procedures. Of course you're going to lose weight quickly, you're starving (in the medical sense of the word) and malnourished. And yeah, for a VERY VERY small number of people it doesn't work, but this is true for every surgery I've heard of. There is an element of responsibility with the band, that some of the other procedures don't require, but I'll take that responsibility in exchange for the safety any day. I was 29, 5'10 and 382. Now I'm 30, 5'10+, and 254. I have a long way to go still, but it has been more than worth it to me.

BJean, my mother is Catholic, and I believe that had she followed her church's course of action, I may not be typing this because she would have been murdered long before I was born. From another thread (to save typing): When she sought help from her church she was told to look to god for the answer, but remember that marriage vows are intended to be forever. Lots of help, huh? She said that the undertone was very, very strong that everyone make mistakes, and yes - the man needed to own up to his offenses, but it was her wifely and godly duty to be there for him and support him through his hardships (hmm, must be hard to do that when you're trying to recover from a coma he put you in). To date she's not a "good standing" memeber because she didn't have an anullment of her marriage through the church, she just had a legal divorce. Through the eyes of the church this means she is living in sin - a married woman having a child and sexual relationship with another man. And until she receives a church anullment, she cannot participate in - I'm not going to call it the right thing - but church services such as communion and last rights. Once she looked into the anullment, but when she saw how personal some of the questions were, and some of the actions they try to take (e.g. contacting the ex, if you know their contact info), she decided it wasn't worth it, that what they were asking her to share really was no one's business but her own, and came to the conslusion that - ultimately - there was only one "being" that really needed to know what happened, and it already knew.

I think they lied to me. Here're the very last things I remember: I'm laying on the table, they're still trying to make the table long enough and someone else is putting compression thingies on my legs. Anesthesiologist: I'm just going to give you some oxygen... (mask goes on crooked) Thinking to myself: Great, with the mask on crooked I'm NEVER going to go under, all the gas will leak out. Doesn't he know what he's doing? What a dumba...... zzzzzzz... (I never had "oxygen" put me to sleep before.) BTW, the Happy juice they gave me kind of removed what little filter I have to begin with. And made me a "little"...weird. I was apaprently being very sarcastic and very critical. I don't remember much of this, but I hear it from my husband and parents. I had my surgery on Ash Wednesday, which has no significance to me so it's not something I was really aware of. Add to that the effects of the medication. I had two nurses near me with the ash crosses on their foreheads. Apparently I told one of them her tattoo was stupid and made her look like Charles Manson, she shoud tell her tattooist they owe her a lot more than a refund. The other was in recovery, and I kind of berated her, but I have only the faintest memories of it - telling her that she should be ashamed of herself, working in surgery and coming to work that dirty... grime smudged all over her forehead... and I told her she needed to go wash herself before she gave me an infection. :rolleyes

Search for fundoplication. Someone else brought this topic up maybe a week ago, probably less, and I'm thinking they received a good handful of responses.

Coughing as a cause of slippage came up just the other day. One of my surgeon's patients had to have her band removed, due to slippage, that was attributed to coughing. I can't say whether that was true or not, and I guess it is possible that "slippage" looks better on a record than "incorrect placement", so who knows - but that's the story I got. The symptoms I've always heard associated with slippage are more along the times of extreme inability to keep food down, or no restriction at all. As well as acid reflux, etc.

Would you like to move this to RnR for you? Granted we aren't recovering from a totalitarian dictatorship, but "spoiled" implies a lot more than the financial status of a country or its internal systems. I would agree that we're priveldged, but I would not say we're spoiled.

Oh, yeah, NOW I know that. I didn't when I got my band, until I was in there and he told me to scootch on over. So I did, and I was too tall for the table, and some of my last conscious memory is of the anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist arguing over how to make the table longer.

BJean - no sweat on my end. I come across as a know it all, when in the real world that's not the case at all. I just carry strong opinions, and a fair amount of knowledge, and have no problems speaking up. Including when I don't know something. I'll be the first to ask about it so I can add it to my repetoire. And it's the best when two "know it alls" disagree on something! :biggrin1:

Two sisters I know were banded in 2001. Both still have their bands. One is having some problems (believed to be caused by the materials the bands were made with then), the other is doing just fine. One has gone from larger than a size 36 to a size zero, the other went from a 28 to a 14 and is now back up to a 22. (Roughly, anyway - I haven't spoken with them in a while so things may have changed since)

Sliming, like "PB", is one of those things that 10 people will probably define 7 or 8 different ways. To me, sliming precedes a PB. It's the period of excessive salivation before you actually have the PB. The saliva is thicker than normal, and "ropey" (aka can create a rope from your lip to the sink without breaking). Yum! I've heard several others refer to sliming as a PB where only saliva comes up. But to me, if I've "yakked", it's a PB, I don't care if saliva, food, or my missing sock comes up. So - you tell us what it means, and we'll add it to the list of possibilities.

Uh... yeah, same here. If they'd said to me, "You can wear underwear, but we'll just take them off once you're out" my panties would have been off faster than if I'd just seen young Sean Connery giving me bedroom eyes. Here's my perspective. And one of my worries: How the heck are they going to get my ass off the gurney and onto the operating table? Gumby on a cracker, good thing I won't be awake for the humiliation of them not having enough nurses on the clock to heave-ho me over there! So now add to that... Not only do they have to heave-ho me over there, but once that's been done, they now have to find a few people to.. ahem... elevate my buttocks enough that my panties can be pulled down. Or they'll just say "F*** it" and shear the damn things off with the scalpel. And then probably bill me for it, to boot!

Artificial sweetners don't adversely effect me at all, but they are a known cause of weightloss stalls. There are a lot of people out there who truly cannot get below a given threshold of weightloss while consuming artificial sweetners. BTW, with the FDA labeling, the same is true for most ingredients. Take carbs for example. You can list something as "0g carb" if it has less than 1 full gram. Sometimes manufacturers are honest and will mark ">1g", but there are plenty of foods out there with .99g carb in them, being sold as 0g. My rule of thumb, if it says 0g carb, I still count it as 1g. And if it says 0 calories, I still count it as 5. Not that I really count or keep track, but I do try to pay attention.

I don't like or watch football so I didn't see any of these, but I read that they're pulling the candy bar ad. After receiving several complaints they decided the commercial had strong homophobic undertones, because something "manly" had to be done to counteract something "gay". Anyway, like I said - I didn't even see it, so I have no idea. Just thought I'd spread the word.

Is that kind of like, "I'm not a nurse, but I play one on tv"? :heh: :heh:

I've never taken it, but when I went in for my annual physical last week, my doctor had a flyer on her wall - she was looking for people to volunteer for an exercise challenge, and if your BMI was over 30 and you accepted she would put you on phentermine for the duration. I was curious, but didn't have time to ask about it. I will probably call in the near future.

Then shame on her. If she sees that trend, it's her responsibility to follow up for aftercare, and what she eats and how much - again, only one person is making that decision. Don't think this applies to all people who are banded. Possible - but so what? Bumping into something can give you a blood clot. I got them from BCP. Of course if you're having surgery yuor risks go up. I'm not even at high risk and they gave me heparin. Sometimes the best thing you can do is smile and walk away. Yeah, I'm going to have excess skin. But give me a choice between weighing nearly 400 pounds, or having a droopy body, and I'll give you the same answer every time!

This is 100% true. There are deep psychological roots behind rape, virtually all of which will stem directly from aggression. About 75 - 80 percent of rape victims who fight back get away, even though they could have been overpowered. According to the rapists, it's because they had to fight, and they didn't want to fight, they wanted to dominate. Just like robbers. They don't want someone who's going to put up a fight, that could get you hurt. They want someone they can overwhelm. DIfferent motivators, same target group. When I was in school they used to advise us to "just go along with it" if we were ever being attacked. I remember sitting in a session and having the advisor tell us that if a man grabs us and threatens rape, we should fondle him and rub against him like he's just the best thing since sliced bread, then make an excuse (her suggestion was needing to remove our tampon) to get away for a few minutes and run as fast as you can. You can probably see the flaws in this approach. :faint:

We need to know what food stage you're on before we can recommend foods for that stage.