Wheetsin

I was never depressed or doubting myself post-op so I have to call an exception to the "we all felt it" approach BUT - I do agree, give it time. My pre-op psychologist told me I would likely feel this. I think I just spent so long debating it & mulling it over in my head (for years!) that I'd already gotten over that part of it early. Isopure made me want to hurl when I was mixing it with Water. Are you mixing with water? If you are, try some "Fat free Carb Countdown" milk made by Hood. 45 calories, no fat, no carbs, 9g Protein per 8 oz. What flavor are you using? If choco or vanilla, whiz a little Peanut Butter in it... or sugar free DaVinci Kahlua syrup. Pour over ice. I *enjoy* my Protein drinks now, but was reasy to gag at the thought of another one made with ice.

I use straws. Like VQ, I get less air when I use them.

I felt fine. Toward the end of the year I started having some complications that required me to go beyond the strictness of induction, but prior to that everything was great. I didn't have the "euphoria" that a lot of people seem to experience with clear-headedness, increased energy, etc... nor did I have the "induction flu" as it's known. I guess I felt perfectly normal, just losing lots of weight. I craved carbs for about 2 weeks. Specifically, orange juice and chocolate chip Cookies (and I don't even like chocolate). The OJ craving went away, but chocolate chippers were my one food I would have killed to have. Everything else that I found myself wanting I could find a very low carb (keep in mind I was eating 20g/day MAX) substitue for, so I do mean LOW -- even pizza, pancakes, cookies, deep fry breading, etc... so never truly felt like I was going without.

maryb - I'm partial to VOlvo (I ended up buying the XC-90 a few weeks ago), but they have a really hot littl ehardtop convertible, C-70. If I liked smaller cars, I'd go for it!

Bad quality, but here's an old pre-fat pic of me at Halloween. What was I thinking? I have a collection of funny pics but I can't find them, will probably have to wait until I'm home & can search the server.

I've not had many PBs (thankfully!) but the worst in terms of location was at a small but busy restaurant around 1pm on a Saturday. I was sitting at the table and knew it wasn't going to unstick itself, and the bathrooms only have 1 stall -- so on top of it already being occupied, I didn't want to keep it busy while I paced & paced waiting for it to come up so I went outside in the parking lot in front of DH's truck. The only thing there was some greenery and a fence, but there were cars/people all around. I'm sure they were thinking, "A fat bulemic??"

Centrum chewables - the orange flavor, and Caltrate (I think?) chewable Ca. I lalso supplement with L-carnatine, CoQ10, fish oil and the occasional biotin.

We don't have JitB here, but did have it where I grew up. I looooved getting a Breakfast Jack. We also had Carl's Jr (don't have it here, but we have Hardee's, which shares the star logo but has a totally different menu - maybe CJ got bought out? Dunno) and they had a really good "Western Bacon Cheeseburger" and some kind of sausage breakfast sandwich I loved getting. I wonder why I'm fat...

Hi Kurt, I followed the induction phase of Atkins for a year. There's no reason for you to be hungry since you're pre-op. The key to Atkins is to eat liberally, just eat the right things. IME, and the experience of an entire message board dedicated to the program, the more fat you eat the more weight you lose... so quit being hungry and go fry some burger patties in butter & top them off with some shredded cheddar and bacon bits.

Wait - I knew it too, I saw it on the Discovery channel. Truly. So what about the atheist - do I win also?

If you weren't getting scared, you wouldn't be normal. My surgery was on a Wed. This was my first surgery ever. I was the most scared the Saturday before surgery. Actually that's not quite true. I was the most scared the moment they told me to lay in the bed in the prep area. I actually had a minor panick attack, started crying, etc. And I'm not a terribly emotional person, so for that to hit says a lot. I still never doubted what I was doing, I just hit a point of being overwhelmed. My overall experience has been great. Surgery took right around an hour, recovery took right around an hour, and except for moments of my own fault, it has been a relative breeze. And one of the best parts about it? I don't give myself a mental beating everyday, punishing myself with constant thoughts about how I should start a diet tomorrow, how I really need to lose weight, why do I always fail. That emotional & mental relief is SO GREAT. It's true freedom.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people - right? Right now I've had 2 fills and am at 2cc in my 10cm band. I feel like I *can* eat a lot more than I *should* be able to. I never ever finish a plate, and I'm not eating anywhere near what I would pre-band, but I do eat more than the "2 - 4 ounces" in my dietician's guidelines. I feel like there is nothing mechanical that stops me from overeating - I'm pretty much exercising my willpower and saying, "I am no longer hungry, I've had enough." But as a fellow bandster once reminded me (thanks Robin!) - the band is there for you when your willpower is not, so keep it snug & ready to go when you need it. I can eat pretty much whatever, haven't tried much bread, haven't tried rice at all - but I can do Pasta... and I definitely know it - in the worst way possible - if I swallow too much at once or don't chew well enough. There are also some foods that I know will be slow to move through, regardless of how well I chew. So restriction is there, but I ask myself - is it there enough? Do I need to get filled to the point that eating more than X ounces causes some sort of sign from the band? So I've been thinking about getting another small fill, maybe .25 or .5 cc. But I've been losing well (in spurts, I've never been a consistent loser), and enjoy the fact that I only have band "issues" very rarely, and always attributable to my own mistakes... so my debate is -- maybe I'm filled enough, and getting any more is just going to make life more uncomfortable... *sigh* How do you know when you're ready for more fill?

And I thought the head games were only going to be dealing with food... I keep having this little voice in the back of my head tell me, "You're stopping eating because you make yourself stop, not because the band is stopping you, so you need a fill." *sigh* This sucks. And rocks, at the same time. Great dichotomy, no?

Not one bit. I wondered if I would, only because I read a LOT of stories about people who wondered what the frig they had done to themselves, and even my pre-op psychologist told me to expect some kind of phase or period where I would doubt the decision I made. But I never had it! Not once! Going IN to surgery I questioned if I wasmaking the right decision, but as soon as I reminded myself of all the good things to come, the doubt went away. All of my debating must have been taken care of in the 4 - 5 years leading up to surgery.

Maybe I shouldn't contribute to this thread considering my personal beliefs, but I will go ahead and post because even though the core subject is not a part of how I live my life, I think you guys know that I would never intend to start trouble, bash, cause problems, etc. There are a few things I believe that organized religion, in our society, is good at. Making money is one of them - perhaps even the best. I have always said, "If you want to get rich, start your own religion" and I believe that. I agree with Alexandra, in a few different ways. I think it's "we're rich, come here and you can be rich too". I also think it's "we look rich so that rich people will want to come here", "bragging rights", and perhaps also "we look rich so the non-rich will stay away". I see this last one particularly at a church very close to our house. We are in an upper-middle/lower-upper class "white collar" area. We have average new construction homes on one side, and an exclusive doctor/lawyer neighborhood on the other, and we're right in between. And then, right across the street, also neighbored by nicer houses, is a very poorly kept trailer park. The church plasters all of our doors with flyers, lines our sidewalks with placards, and leaves little gifts & trinkets in baggies on our doorknobs. They do NOTHING in the trailer park area. In fact there was a person living in the trailer park who was mad about this, went a few roads down, pulled up some of the placards and stuck them in the ground near the trailer park entrance, and the next morning they had been removed. Point being - they actively solicit attendants from our neighborhoods, and actively discourage the trailer park residents. If it was about the faith, the coming-together, mankind - whatever... why would someone's income or living standards matter? (BTW, I have no idea if this is common practice or not, but that same church gives you a "Tithing Booklet" when you join, full of "coupons" (think of the books you get for car/mortgage payments), with a pre-printed tithing amount based on financial information you have to provide when you join the church. So once again - what is it supposed to be about, and what is it reallyabout?)

Oy hey! That was my 1000th post! Please - don't think I'm being argumentative. I sincerely am not. I'm "thinking out loud" so to speak, trying to make sense of this until I get into my groove -- many many moons down the road. Jack, to refer to your guidelines... 1 - I rarely feel hunger, even if I should be eating. I often have to eat when not hungry just to meet my base Protein levels. When I do feel some hunger, it's "superficial" hunger - nothing like what I felt pre-band. My stomach will growl and growl, but the hunger sensation never really hits. But there's no way I'm overfilled, methinks, so it would stand to reason that my loss of appetite is not a function of my fills. Actually, my appetite never came back post-op, and here I am in my 4th month after-the-fact... so I'm not sure that's a good guideline for me. Maybe it is. *shrug* 2 - This one is a generally good guideline, but really hard for me to work under. My proclivity to exception is part of what makes this process so confusing and uncertain for me. I'm a sporatic loser, which (fortunately for them) most people here don't seem to be. I have not lost anything this week. In the past 2 weeks I lost nearly 20 lbs. For 3 weeks before that I didn't lose anything. In the week before that I lost 11 lbs. For nearly 5 weeks before that I lost nothing... (and my 2nd fill came in the middle of those 5 weeks). So -- on average I have lost more than 1 - 2 lbs per week, but on a weekly basis -- I have no reliable information. I could stall for 5 weeks and think I need a fill, only to lose 15 lbs the next week.

Just curious - I've been told that my doctor can "feel" how much fill you need by how much resistance he gets when injecting the saline. But at the same time, he's always given me a set amount, not an amount based on feel (as far as I can tell - unless it has just so happened to "feel" right at exact 1cc increments). Do any of your docs determine fill amt the same way?

Odd site, not quite the information you'd expect to find from the title! So the adjustment-specific information I could find there indicates: Not losing 1 - 2 lbs per week Getting hungry between meals Still eat white bread, fibrous vegetables, large portions Struggling to lose Gaining weight despite eating right & exercising

My body is losing its padding and things are becoming more uncomfortable! So I will express my thoughts in HAIKU: Comfy chair despair Bulging springs make my ass hurt There is no justice!

I used to enjoy the taste of a lot of fast foods - McD's crispy chicken or dbl cheeseburger, BK chicken sandwich, Arby's beed & cheddar, etc. but now fried & greasy foods don't do anything for me. I'd probably still enjoy the taste, but not the feel. I've only had "fried & greasy" fast food once since banding - a chick nug happy meal minus fries (so in short - 4 chick nugs) when I had no other choices, and could only eat two of them b/c it was grossing me out too much. We were at a fish fry last weekend and I had to stick with the veggies b/c I couldn't handle the grease. I have always like Subway and still go there, but get the salad or just the meat on a plate (usually tuna or seafood & crab) -- but I prefer Yellow Sub or Schlotzky's for sandwich foods. I thought I was the only person in the midwest who despised Krispy Kremes. They're WAY too sweet for me. I have no sweet tooth. Blech.

Most companies of any size consider time card falsification grounds for immediate termination, so maybe "all hell will break loose" means you'll have an extra workload for a while. As for the hygiene don't be shy, but don't be offensive. Her apron hanging is not really something she can help, so don't point out the things you just don't like, vs. the things that truly cause you some physical discomfort (like smells). If you're not comfortable saying something to her, ask your supervisor to do it. Part of her/his responsibility is to mediate between employees, so it would not be a stretch for them to address the issue. If you can come and leave when your 8 hours is taken, why are you forced to take a lunch? Isn't it your choice? If you believe there are double-standard in effect, then again - address the issue with your supervisor. Just be smart and diplomatic about the way you bring it up - be objective, factual, and leave your emotions at home that day.

I've had a design drawn for about 12 years now, but doubt I'll ever get it done. The design I drew is a shape that ends up looking kind of like a celtic knot, but is really a combination of symbols found in my mother & father's (and therefore my) heritages. Then some skin, then a "frame" of a tribal-type sun, but inked to look like stone, not solid black. I designed it for the top of my foot so some of the sun "beams" wind around each other & wrap around an ankle, and some down the foot - gives it a very organic feel. The "beams" that don't wind somewhere else point to the classic location of mine/mom's/dad's/husband's zodiac signs and the "shapes" they're made of are actually everyone's names. Hard to describe, took me about 2 years off/on to finish. DH wants a tattoo but isn't sure what to get. His current favorite is one I designed - a dolphin (his fav animal) made entirely of the letters of my name in a tribal-ish style... not true tribal, but very sharp, angular, and distirted to fit within the shape of the dolphin. Hard to describe, again - but when you see it from a distance it looks like a randomly striped dolphin, and from up close it looks like a dolphin made of stretched out and angular shapes like ^ V < >. He wanted my name, but I wouldn't want him to have it overtly, so this is a covert way that also forms his fav animal.

I eat tube meat (generic term for anything prepared like a hot dog) frequently, but I always remove the skin first - no matter how long it takes. My current favorite are some I bought at Sam's Club - chicken "franks" with asiago cheese & spinach inside. MMMMM. As for sandwiches, don't really miss them that much, with one exception -- a good old PBJ on soft white bread. I love me a good PBJ.

Any suggestions on places to go, things to do, must-sees? I attend BSU for my master's degree, but via online courses. I need to make a trip this summer to meet with my advisor/graduation comittee. Any recommendations?