MacMadame

Maybe there is there is another guy there around his level who can take him aside and explain that it doesn't look good ... that people are wondering if they are "doing it" and that he's not behaving professionally? He may just be flattered by her attention and thinking with his little brain and not his big one.

So I went back to Target and I realized why I hadn't found the Atkins or South Beach bars ... they don't sell them individually. I was in the individual section because I wanted to get one bar of each kind to see if I liked the taste before buying an entire box. Most of the ones that were sold individually had 15g of sugar. I think these are bars that were originally marketed as "energy" bars. Even the Balance bar and the Zone bars were like that. I bet there are people eating those things like crazy thinking they are eating healthy when they aren't.

IMO part of it is that the bypass has been approved for us in the US for longer than the band. For a while, insurance wouldn't cover the band in many cases even though it would cover bypass. Lap band was considered experimental at first. The weird thing is that you'd think insurance companies would jump all over lap band since it's cheaper than RnY and would cover it and only cover RnY under special circumstances.

How did you get on the waiting list? I've been looking at the clinical trial web sites weekly and haven't seen anything. I want to sign up!

There are definitely tons of them out there that have nutritional labels that read like a candy bar with some Protein powder mixed in. That's not healthy AT ALL imo. Which is why I didn't buy them. :smile2: I am a big believer that there are no bad foods or good foods though. It's really about choices in the context of your entire diet. If you are deciding between a Milky Way bar or a South Beach chocolate Bar, I think the SB bar is clearly a better choice. If you are snacking on protein bars between meals instead of having a piece of fruit, some carrot sticks or a yogurt, then maybe it's not such a good choice.

Well, one difference is that the Realize band is made from a softer plastic and is wider than the Lap band AP. This is supposed to help with erosion and slippage. In fact, the AP band was made wider for the same reason. Another difference is with the port. The Realize port has these little claws that make it stick to the stomach muscles instead of being stitched in. (However, the surgeon can choose to stitch it instead.) This is supposed to help with port flipping. It is also a "low profile" port so when you lose your weight, it won't stick out as much. The Lap Band has a low profile port option but you have to ask for it. The buckle is different too. I have no idea if it matters though. I just noticed that watching lap band surgery videos. :smile2: The Realize buckle is big and it scared me a bit. The Lap Band AP has its reservoir divided up into sections ... it's like it's pre-creased. The Realize band does not. It does crease when it's filled with liquid, but ends up with less creases. The sections in the Lap Band AP are supposed to help with slippage. The older lap bands had a reservoir that did not go 360 around while Realize does. That's why the AP band was changed. 360 around is better. The Realize band is not put in pre-filled with saline. Sometimes the Lap Band is. From what I've seen here, it's completely variable how soon and how easily someone gets to restriction so I don't see that it matters much. So there are some differences just off the top of my head.

I swear the South Beach and Atkins bars I picked up had a lot of sugar. But the nutritional info on the web says no. Maybe I just picked up the wrong ones. I guess I'll have to try again.

This is what I want from the band. I am sure if I can cut out the between meal snacks and eat smaller portions that I will get to goal. Most of my unhealthy eating is snacking. My meals are actually decent.

I have a 3 pronged approach. First, I have lost tons of weight in my life. So when they say if you just eat right and exercise, you'll lose weight, I say "oh, losing weight isn't the problem. It's keeping it off." Then I blind them with science.... I tell them about the studies that show that yo-yo dieting changes your body so it fights to keep you fat by telling you that you're hungry all the time. I also tell them about the study where they measured the brain waves in the part of the brain that recognizes satiety and how morbidly obese people have weaker brain waves and so often don't feel "full". Then I explain how the lap band works to combat these things so that once you lose the weight, you have a fighting chance to keep it off. If that doesn't work (and it works 99.9% of the time), I say "then I guess you still are driving a horse and buggy to work and cooking your dinner on a wood stove" ... doing things in an easier way is SMART, if you ask me. Doing it the "hard" way just to say you did seems pretty pointless.

I want to get off my blood pressure meds. The fact that I have to take them drives me crazy. I want to take up ballroom dancing and be able to find a partner to compete with. (No one wants to dance with the fat girl.) I want to .... well, that's mostly it. I am a gal of simple wants, I guess.

Well processed solids is mushies. So you do have one, it's just really short and really late. Not sure I could do 5 weeks of full liquids. Does your doctor have an insanely low slippage rate to back up doing it this way? I would do it if I thought it meant less chance of slippage, but otherwise I'd be a bit underwhelmed by such a requirement.

The office job sounds like a trap to me. Yes, you get more per hour but you aren't getting more per week and that's what counts. Also, what if you turn down hours at Dress Barn or LnT because it's the time you are supposed to be in the office and then they cancel?

She and the GM went off to a casino in the middle of the day ... Hmm. Is the GM a guy? Because that just doesn't look good.

I wrote this really long post about it and of course I was too dumb to save it. I'll try to find it and post a link.

Just found out my dh has been telling people I'm getting a lapband. Grrr.

I swear I posted on this thread yesterday. The post monster must have eaten it! I'm in Fremont. No band yet. I'm still working out insurance issues.

You need to be careful about these kinds of numbers. There is no way that one number can be right for everyone. At 6'3" you are going to have a bigger waist than someone who is 5'7". The kind of numbers you want to look at are ratios and % because those adjust for different heights and body types. So for waist, you want to look at your waist to hip ratio, not your absolute waist measurement. It should be below .95. For absolute weight, BMI is not accurate for 25% of the population according to some experts. I would go with body fat percentage, myself. It should be at least 25% or lower, though the "ideal" is lower. The last time I lost gobs of weight, I had people telling me "oh you are going to look so great in a bikini when you are done". I knew that wasn't going to be true. I got down 10 lb. below my goal weight and I looked fantastic in clothes but I could never have worn a bikini without significant plastic surgery. I was happy though. I actually think I look better naked than with clothes but I know when I get to goal, that won't be true. I am prepared for it.

The band helps our bodies shrink but it doesn't do a thing for our heads! But there are other resources: I am working through a workbook called The Food and Feelings Workbook that I bought on Amazon. I'm still in the first section about feelings so I'm not sure yet how well it's going to work. There is also a web site called Shrink Yourself that goes along with a book and they have a short online course you can take for free. http://www.shrinkyourself.com/home.asp?bhcp=1 Also, if you have health insurance, you might have a mental health benefit for some counseling sessions.

I have only told my immediate family and my mom. Once I have the surgery and the weight starts coming off, I will tell people if they ask. But I don't want the world to think I'm inviting them into my business. I've done that before and then you get people asking you how much you lost every day and commenting on everything you put in your mouth. Even if they aren't doing it to be mean, it gets annoying after a while. OTOH, I just found out my dh told a mutual friend of ours! I think I need to talk to him. I don't really mind that much that our friend knows, but I wanted it to be my decision to tell people.

My experience with losing large amounts of weight is that your skin will keep tightening up after you get to goal. Eventually that stops or maybe it won't be enough, but I'm hoping that it will be for my arms and legs, at least as I really try to avoid surgery at all costs. (It took a lot to get me to the point of even considering WLS for that reason.)

I love mine because NO MORE WEDGIES! I get horrible wedgies from regular underwear, even if I buy it a size too big for me. My fat butt just sucks that material right in like a black hole. Plus, they get cleaner in the wash.

If you are in the US, there are no bands in use here that haven't been used in other countries for years. So it's really quite safe to use a "new" band. As for the radio controlled one, I've been watching the various clinical trial websites and there doesn't appear to be clinical trial going for it just yet. The FDA only recently approved it to go into clinical trial so I assume they are setting up the programs now. So it shouldn't be too much longer.

Actually Marie Osmond is using Nutri/system. Valerie and Kirstie used Jenny Craig.

I just found out that Kirstie Alley is planning to start her own line of weight loss centers. Because when you think of successful dieters, you think of people like Kirstie Alley. :w00t:

There are people who believe this but they haven't got good data to back up their assertions. The link between body fat and menses is well-known. It's why elite athletes with low body fat often stop menstruating.