MacMadame

I notice it on the scale either the next time I weigh or 1 week later. I can really see the difference every time I up my exercise. It really kicks my weight loss back into gear. I'm almost to the end and I managed to lose 4 lb. last week and 2 lb. this week. I almost can't believe it! I now am only 12 lb. from my preliminary goal and I expected it to be really hard to get that last 15 lb. off but I upped my exercise and my body responded. In terms of muscle tone, I notice it more now that more of the fat is gone and mostly in my arms.

Me too. I found this and others at: Couch to 5k - C25K Running Program

Do you have a trainer? I don't but have been thinking about it. But I can ride the stationary bike at the gym at work so I have decided to avoid the expense for now.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! The way I look at it is: coffee isn't good for you anyway.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! I think it's great that you are having the surgery so you can enjoy your retirement. Your post reminded me of another "I got my life back" moment -- I get right in the first row with the other shorties when it's time for the group picture instead of hanging back and hoping someone will get in front of me and hide my body.

My surgeon calls it "right-sizing" of the stomach, btw. That's how I think of it too. I didn't think of my stomach as a "perfectly good organ" that I was "mutilating" (as I've seen some people put it) but as a broken organ that needed to be fixed. But everyone has their own POV and some people can't get past the "ohmigod, they are cutting off most of my stomach and THROWING IT AWAY" reaction. I know it took me a while to get past that reaction myself.

Which was most of my list. Here's my list: chicken broth Beef Broth sugar-free jello Sugar-free popsicles Non-fat milk Evaporated Milk, Skim Soy Milk, not flavored Crystal Light and other Sugar-free powdered drink mixes Various Protein shakes and drinks Various protein Soups that are really just broths So you can see why I think of it as "clears + protein drinks". It's also not a real medical designation. If you search the web, you can find medical definitions of clear liquids and full liquids but not "thin" liquids. At the hospital, they called it "Bariatric Clears" btw. But I think they made that up! :biggrin:

I was not quite sure how to respond to this post, myself. I see it two ways. One is that when you are first sleeved, you are on a very low calorie diet and it's imperative that you consume a lot of Protein. At the same time, your stomach is really, really small. This means you are doing a lot of protein supplements and, quite honestly, most of them are pretty gagworthy. But you have to suck it up and choke them down. Then, as you can consume more calories, you add in more stuff, including carbs and fats. But eating such a limited diet is going to really slow down your weight loss and possibly prevent you from getting to goal. But the other POV is that the sleeve will stop you from eating great quantities of food and, even if you don't eat the best diet, that will be a big improvement and you will lose a fair amount of weight and have improvement in your health. My next door neighbor had bypass and his wife tells me that he doesn't eat particularly healthily, yet he is losing weight. Now, he had this bypass 1.5 years ago and is still not at goal. But he is much, much thinner and off all his medicines except the one he takes for kidney stones. Time will tell if he can get to goal and keep it off, though. However, WLS does change your relationship with food. Right now you seem very attached to it. To the point where it plays a much more important role in your life than it should. I could be wrong about this ... I'm not a shrink and this is just a message board so sometimes things don't come across accurately. But that's the strong impression I am getting. Therefore, regardless of what kind of WLS you get or whether you get it at all, I recommend doing some head work. You can join Overeaters Anonymous or buy a good book such as The Food and Feelings Book or you can see a therapist or some combination of the three. But doing the head work is important to success -- the surgery can't do it all. And you have to be willing to change as well. WLS is a BIG adjustment. You go through periods of mourning and anger and great excitement, sometimes all on the same day. If you aren't willing to change, that is going to make it that much harder. I also think you need to talk to a surgeon who does *all* the WLS types and be *very honest* about everything regarding your food issues and see what he says. They can give you advice based on all the many patients they see and who is and is not successful with the various surgeries. I also think you should go to some "Mens" boards and talk to the other guys about their surgeries. I think guys tend to think about this stuff differently than we do and most of the people posting outside the guy forums are women. Maybe they can comprehend where you are coming from better than we can. Good luck, no matter what you decide to do...

I am NOT at work today. I took off because my kids and dh had off for President's Day.

I love my bike too! She's so sleek and beautiful.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! I suggest you ask this question in both the Doctors & Hospitals forum and the Canada forum. More people who might have an opinion on the best doc in your area will see it there. Doctors and Hospitals - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum Canada Local Lap-Band Support - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum

When I was researching a doctor, I used WASaBubbleButt's "How to Research a Doctor" to make my own list of questions. That post is in the LapBandTalk magazine section, if you want to look it up. Here is another list that may give you ideas: Questions to ask your surgeon

Um, people, I was joking... I have been communicating with people over the computer since the 80s -- before there even was an internet -- and at every board I've ever been on, I've seen this sort of discussion. This board isn't friendly to newbies! People who have more experience than me tell me things I don't want to hear! It happens on boards that really are snobby and cliquish, on boards where people make no effort to moderate their tone of voice, on boards that are heavily moderated, one boards that are barely moderated, and on boards that are as welcoming as possible. Which leads me to the conclusion that it's not the boards... I find this board full of helpful information and friendly people. I like it so much that I stayed even after I decided not to get a band at all. And people were friendly and welcoming enough to be okay with my picking a different surgery than them (therefore being neither pre-band nor post-band). I am very impressed with that. Not every board is right for every person and some people are going to be unhappy no matter where they are and convinced it's other people who are the problem, not their general approach to life. Shrug.

We watched Gone in 60 Seconds and The Pursuit of Happyness at home. I want to watch Zach and Miri Make a Porno. Maybe we need to update our Netflix queue.

The taste thing is variable. Different people like different ones. I liked the Alpine Punch the best and it does seem to be popular.

Dan can't be a bitch, he's a guy.

You can put him on ignore.

The thing is, we know what happens when part of your stomach is removed when it comes to complications. That part of the sleeve has been performed for decades on people with stomach cancer and bad ulcers. We know people can live without their stomachs, if they have to. I understand the fear of wanting to reverse something because I've thought that way myself. But it's from hearing stories about people who had operations that included malabsorption or from not having a pylorus valve (i.e., as in RnY), or from operations where they stapled the stomach but didn't remove the part not used to process food and the two pieces grew back. In all those cases, people get weird and serious side-effects that can't be treated. Not all people -- it's a small minority -- but I wasn't willing to risk it at this point in my life. But people don't get that from partial gastrectomies. What can happen is that some people have trouble processing calcium because of the less acidic stomach environment and some people have trouble getting enough B12 because there is less intrinsic factor. But the later happens rarely enough that my surgeon doesn't even have us take B12 to start, but only if it turns out we need it. For the former, taking calcium citrate instead of calcium carbonate is usually enough. (Citrate doesn't need an acidic environment to be absorbed.) Then there are minor inconvenience of sometimes eating too much and being uncomfortable. And a handful of short term problems that usually resolve themselves by 3-4 months out, but always by a year.

Well I certainly HOPE they get easier!!

I did a brick! We biked for about 8 miles (an up and back), then practiced our transitions (mine was about 30 seconds as I just took off my bike helmet and gloves and put on my running hat) and then ran. My legs were like jelly though. Yikes.

I ran today too as part of our "brick" training. I don't know how far or how long as I still have no freaking Nike+ receiver!! I am guessing that it took me about 15-20 min which means I ran 1 mi. minimum. Man, it is really hard to run after biking. My heart and lungs kept saying "go faster, I have more capacity" but legs kept saying "No way!"

That I don't know... I think it's the nature of the one they take. I think it targets gut flora only. But I haven't looked into it as it's not applicable to me. BJean, I exercise like crazy and, if I don't, my weight loss suffers. It may be because I'm older and my metabolism is slower than average (though not a lot slower). It is also because I want to lose the 2-3 lb. a week that is average for my surgery and not settle for the 1-2 lb. that you can get with most diets. Now, at first, you just can't eat that much. I was doing 500 calories a day to start! That went up gradually as my stomach swelling went down. So doing that period, the weight was definitely dropping off, pretty much no matter what. But now I'm up to about 850-900 calories a day at almost 5 months and, if I want to continue to lose at the 2-3 lb. a week rate, I have to burn about 3000 calories a week in exercise. That's a lot of exercise and at a pretty high intensity. Of course, I'm doing that anyway because I'm training for my triathlon. If I was okay with a 1-2 lb. loss a month, I could do a lot less exercise or I could eat a lot more. I just don't want you to get the wrong idea...

I get it at GNC. It saved my butt in the early days because I was getting protein *and* liquids with it. My program wants us on a really low carb diet and so things like cream of wheat are discouraged. We had "thin" liquids for 2-3 weeks, which is like clear liquids, only also all the protein drinks and things like milk. But no pudding, etc. Then "softs" for another 2-3 weeks, which is everything allowed on full liquids, everything allowed on purees and everything allowed on softs. But again avoiding anything with a lot of sugar and carbs. I ate a lot of yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, scrambled eggs, chili and soup.

Mr. Mac and I are going on a date tonight. We're going to a restaurant that doesn't take reservations so we're going to get there at 4:30 just like the old folks! We haven't decided what movie we are going to see though.

There are tons of whey protein isolate powders out there, flavored and unflavored (though the "unflavored" still have a flavor. :thumbup:) You should be able to use any of them.