Laura_MD

Good job all! Every step is important. BBK, don't worry about the things you haven't done, focus on all the things that you can do now. Your kids are young and just entering the years where they will remember all the things you do with them, going to little league and football games, and playing soccer. Best of all though, you won't have to worry that other kids are teasing your kids because of your size (as my kids unfortunately did). You can be the "cool Mom" on the block. I wish the band had been an option for me when my kids were younger, but I am getting a second chance with my grandson now!

I think my husband has concocted the absolute best Protein shake out there, but I don't want to get bored, so I will share mine if you will share yours. I use American whey because it is lactose free and has no artificial sweeteners. To make is taste GOOD (yes really good) here is what we do: One scoop of vanilla One scoop of chocolate 2 tsp of Hershey's baking cocoa 4 ice cubes One banana, broken into pieces Water to fill the blender (about 20 oz total ingredients) Add all ingredients (in the order listed for best blending) and puree until smooth and thoroughly mixed. ENJOY! The vanilla makes it creamy, and the chocolate balances the flavor, two scoops of either flavor is just not the same. The cocoa thickens it just enough to fill you up for a while and flavors the shake but only adds 50 calories, no sugar and no fat. The banana does add some carbs, but it gives me the potassium that I need so my muscles don't ache because I workout so much. If you find it is too thick, reduce the amount of ice or let it sit for a few minutes before you drink it so it can melt some. We use the Hamilton Beach personal blender that has a pop on travel lid so you can mix and go easily. Here is the link to see what I am talking about, and K-mart is the cheapest price I found. Hamilton Beach Personal Blender with Travel Lid - Model 16440911 at Kmart.com I hope you enjoy this recipe and I hope you will share yours with me. Laura "Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels." :biggrin:

I follow, and really like, the Body for Life program, and it works great. I did not have any restriction until I went to a new doc in August (9mos after banding), and I still have only minimal restriction now, but I have lost 102 lbs doing the BFL program. I like that I don't have to weight and measure etc., its all about portion control and frequent meals to ramp up your metabolism. Anyone interested in a summary can PM me and I will be happy to share, but I won't bore everyone with the details unless requested.

All of my docs have said to eat a meal (100 calories qualifies as a meal) every 3-4 hours because we eat such small amounts. I am shocked to hear someone trying to make it on only 3 meals a day. Your body must be thinking you are starving it. What is your weight loss like? :biggrin:

I can't tell what is causing your pain when you eat, but I can tell you that I experience the same thing from time to time and I can tell you what has caused mine and what has helped in the past. For me, it was either something got stuck (I took a pill that was too large, or ate sushi rice, or the doughy part of bread), or it was just that I really needed to burp, usually the latter. You see, I have made the discovery that, for me, there are very few foods that actually get stuck or that I cannot eat. The problem usually occurs when I let myself get too hungry and my stomach gets filled with a lot of air. Then, when I eat, as the food tries to pass through the band the air is being displaced by the food, but it has nowhere to go because the food is blocking its escape at the band site. This is much like the air bubbles you get when you try to sink an empty glass or bottle into Water. Until that bubble breaks and the air escapes, the water (or food in this case) cannot get in. When this happens, the pressure builds up in your esophagus and presses on your diaphragm and causes the pain in the shoulder. This will sometimes happen, even with my Protein shakes, so it is not that my food pieces are too large or the wrong consistency, it is just the mechanics of the band and our stomachs. My solution has usually been to ask my husband to burp me. Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy, but I know now why babies cry if you don't burp them properly, it hurts! Sometimes I can make myself burp if it is not too bad, but I have never been very good at that, so I usually ask for his discreet help. I doesn't usually take too much, just a few well placed pats on the back and it dislodges the food or pops the air pocket and I burp like a sailor and go on eating as before. I shared this with someone else on the site today, who was having a terrible time with pain and she tired it. She sent me an e-mail today and said that it worked wonders for her too. I hope this helps you some, but do follow up with your doctor if it continues. I have read many stories of people waiting it out and making the problem much worse than it needed to be. And if you have a true blockage (say from a pill or something) that is nothing to mess around with.:biggrin:

Gee, I would love to know where you were banded because this sounds exactly like the jackoff that banded me, and yes, I fired him. When I got my records, I discovered that the fills he listed did not match up with what he was telling me that he was injecting. I got suspicious when I noticed that he was hiding the syringe in his hand and making sure I didn't see it before the "fill", so I went to another doctor. When they withdrew all the Fluid in my band, there were less than 8cc, he had told me a total of 12.5cc! They checked for leaks but everything was fine. Turns out, he was faking my fills! I hope this is not the case for you, but you never know. Some surgeons have a God complex and the kind of things he is saying to you sounds just like the quack that I had. By the way, I am on the Eastern shore of Maryland if anyone is wondering.

Leena, I took the advice of my nutritionist to cut out the carbs after 4pm but she said (and I have found) that eating every three hours really keeps my metabolism ramped up and having the Protein boost in the evening makes me burn calories throughout the night while I sleep. Otherwise, I am hungry all night, can't sleep, and then that throws off my weight loss big time! I generally have dinner between 6 & 7pm, then have my shake to top off my night between 9 & 10pm. That way, I have a well planned out meal that fills me up for the evening, and then if I get the urge to nibble (which seldom happens because I am still full from dinner), I just remind myself that it is almost time for my shake and I can wait. Starving myself for four or more hours at anytime during my waking hours, sends my body into starvation mode and it stores everything after that as fat stores for the next time I starve it. Good luck with your plan, but I don't think it would work for me.

Congratulations on your success and your 6 month bandiversary (as I like to call it). Keep up the good work. Nice job getting your husband in on the act too. When the success is shared, there is less resistance and resentment and you can Celebrate your improved health together. Good for you two! :biggrin:

That's great! Its not ALL about the scale. Sometimes we need gentle reminders about that.

I am so close I can almost taste it, but then I might gain weight! :-}

Me too! 102 lbs lost (no search and rescue team required), still about 30 to ditch.

FYI: Prevention.com: Diet, Health, Weight Loss, Anti-Aging, and More! (the people who publish Prevention magazine that you see in your doctors office all the time) has some amazing tools to track you food intake, exercise, weight loss, inches lost, BMI, and even your mood so you can see how that effects your eating habits. Best of all, IT'S FREE! I use it to track my food and exercise mainly but I try to keep the other info pretty current as well. It also lets you print your reports to take to your doc or nutritionist so you can show them exactly what you are eating, drinking, and how much you are working out so they can make better decisions about doing fills or spotting problems. I don't mean for this to sound like a sales pitch (like I said, its free) I just think it is a wonderful resource that everyone should have an opportunity to try if they want.

Lori, I can't tell what is causing your pain but I can tell you that I experience the same thing from time to time and I can tell you what has caused mine and what has helped in the past. For me, it was either something got stuck (I took a pill that was too large, or ate sushi rice, or the doughy part of bread), or it was just that I really needed to burp, usually the latter. You see, I have made the discovery that for me, there are very few foods that actually get stuck or that I cannot eat. The problem usually occurs when I let myself get too hungry and my stomach gets filled with a lot of air. Then, when I eat, as the food tries to pass through the band the air is being displaced by the food, but it has nowhere to go because the food is blocking its escape at the band site. This is much like the air bubbles you get when you try to sink an empty glass or bottle into Water. Until that bubble breaks and the air escapes, the water (or food in this case) cannot get in. When this happens, the pressure builds up in your esophagus and presses on your diaphragm and causes the pain in the shoulder. This will sometimes happen, even with my Protein shakes, so it is not that my food pieces are too large or the wrong consistency, it is just the mechanics of the band and our stomachs. My solution has usually been to ask my husband to burp me. Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy, but I know now why babies cry if you don't burp them properly, it hurts! Sometimes I can make myself burp if it is not too bad, but I have never been very good at that, so I usually ask for his discreet help. I doesn't usually take too much, just a few well placed pats on the back and it dislodges the food or pops the air pocket and I burp like a sailor and go on eating as before. I hope this helps you some, but do follow up with your doctor if it continues. I have read many stories of people waiting it out and making the problem much worse than it needed to be. And if you have a true blockage (say from a pill or something) that is nothing to mess around with. Good luck! Laura

As I said, none of the candidates are in the poor house, but McCain did not stand at the podium on national TV and make the claim that he was the only candidate that had ever worked a "real job". Romney opened that can of worms. :frown:

That is a great accomplishment. Thank you for sharing that story. Sometimes it is the tiniest things that we don't even realize that we lost the ability to do until we get it back. People who can tie their own shoes on the top of the shoe (vs the side because we cannot reach our feet directly) and people who can see their feet for that matter. Congratulations on this victory and may you savor every one! Laura

What area of Maryland do you live in? I live in Salisbury (on the eastern shore near Ocean City). I wonder how disbursed we are because it would be great to do things like clothing swaps, etc. if we can find common ground and enough people. Laura:cool2:

I live in Salisbury MD!

That may be true, but the FCC is not fining ABC for any of the male buttocks they displayed, only the female, Charlotte Ross, because they [essentially] claim that it is a sexual organ. That was my point about the male vs female and gay male vs straight male in my earlier post. Hardly seems fair to me!

Juli- congrats on getting back on track! 14lbs in 6 weeks is doable with the band, good luck. It is great that you are working on your MBA, I got mine in 1999, and now I teach at a local college. If you need a resource for any of your classes, I am available to help as needed. It keeps my gray matter moving to recall some of the info that fell victim to "post exam core dumps". (Ha) Best of luck to you! Laura

Jennifer, Thanks for the referral to Dr. Brinkley. Her office returned my call today and I have an appointment for Feb.6th! I could not believe how fast they were and how quickly they fit me in. Not used to that in this field of medicine! However, I was so excited that I forgot to ask about insurance. Do know if they take insurance? (I have BC/BS) I called back but got the answering machine, so I left a message but I was just curious if you knew. Thanks again, Laura

No offense taken. I just didn't get it. Sorry for the abruptness of my reply. :tongue: I understand the mourning process. I can't eat it anymore either, but I don't really miss it. Laura

Pizzaman, Was there a point to this posting?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that releasing the plantar facsia allowed the bone structure of my foot to collapse so now I am virtually flat footed and have chaliced feet because of the improper weight distribution on the bones of my feet. All this force me to try yet another pair of orthodics (though I think these may actually help) to relieve the knee, hip, and back pain that my poor step patterns are causing. WTH, does it never end? Aging sucks and I am still very young and 100+ lbs lighter. I shudder to think what my feet would feel like now if I still weighed 277 lbs!

I had plantar facsiitis in both feet and, like you, I tried everything. But in the end, I had the surgery and the pain was gone instantly. Now, however, years later I am having issues again and just got orthodics last week. So far it has helped a little and I am hoping for a lot more, but I am not betting the farm on it. I hate pain and I hat when my body interferes with what I want to do, so I get very impatient about slow cures. As for activities in the meantime, have you considered Water aerobics or swimming? This is great exercise and it is VERY easy on the joints and the feet. Think about it! Good luck, Laura

I too am VERY liberal, you would not believe..... I was a faithful viewer and huge fan and I saw the whole scene on NYPD Blue that ABC is being fined for. In the story, Dennis Franz's son (9 or 10) walked in on his then girlfriend (later wife) in the bathroom in the early morning. She was nude as she was preparing to shower (apparently the FCC guys shower with their clothes on). When he opened the door, Charlotte's character was facing the sink and her butt was visible to the child and the camera. Then she was startled and turned around to face the child and the camera, but she covered her "sexual regions". The FCC position is that in showing her buttocks, ABC showed a sexual organ. Really? Many people would call that notion perverted. As stated in a previous post, we saw Dennis Franz's but, and Jimmy Smitz, and David Curuso (the red head on CSI:Miami now), and just about every other male cast members butt, and that was ok? What if they showed the gay character's butt, is the male buttocks a sexual organ then? I saw that show IN 2003! Why are they complaining now when the show is not even on the air anymore? Charlotte Ross was smokin' hot and I think the FCC was just looking for a way to fine ABC because they couldn't get a longer look. Get TIVO! These fines are supposed to deter other shows from breaking the "rules" (which I don't believe that NYPD Blue did), so what good do fines do 5 YEARS after the fact? Oh yeah, it's an election year and we have to look like we are busy protecting the public. That 'spains everythin' Pardon my rant, but this really pisses me off (in case you didn't notice). Here's to Charlotte Ross, NYPD Blue, and ABC for pushing the envelope!:frown: