JulieNYC

I'm with gonnabethin -- Fage yogurt is the perfect food. I put it on Mexican instead of sour cream or eat it plan with a splenda mixed in. YUM. On the crab cakes, the ones from my deli are pretty high fat. They have 360 cals too, but 24 g Protein, so I eat 1/2 along with some veggies. Yummy and a reasonable choice. Ginger would you please, please share your tilapia recipe! I'm dying to make it! Tilapia is my fish of choice (if I have such a thing). The Applebees weight watchers tilapia is pretty good if you're ever out and in a pinch....

You're going to do great! Jump through whatever hoops the insurance company requires and get a band as soon as possible. It'll change your life! Best of luck. This forum is a great place to do all the research you need to feel comfortable with your decision. There is a lot of work in being a bandster, but it's completely worth it. Take care,

My nutritionist says we don't need to consume calories for energy -- we have energy stores we're trying to get rid of -- i.e. fat. We need adequate nutrition (as opposed to energy) that can be achieved, if perfect choices are made, on 800-1000 cals/day. I eat about 900 most days. Some days I don't track and I know I eat a LOT more. Some days I don't care about food and I eat a little less. But most days, I eat about 900, which gets me 55 grams of Protein and keeps me plenty full. Do what feels good for your body. I think that's the only rule.

Ginger, I'm vegetarian and don't cook much either. We sound a lot alike, actually. I didn't eat fish before being banded, but, on the encouragement of my band surgeon, am trying to eat it once a week now. It's a struggle as, to me, fish is meat. Anyway, I start my day off almost every day with a 1/2 cup cottage cheese. I get the "Friendship" brand that comes "whipped" and it is SO GOOD. It's blended smooth so that there are no curds and it is light and airy. I like it better than yogurt and it is so high in Protein. If it's cold, I might eat it with a cup of tomato Soup. Starts my day off with only 80 cals, but 16 grams of protein. I also eat the "Health is Wealth" soy chicken patties. I put them in the toaster and eat them with a side of veggies (usually steamed in the microwave). Sometimes I can't even eat a whole patty. They're fabulous nutrition -- again 16 g protein (I think) with only 1.5 g fat and lower carb and cal (110) than the Morningstar brand (150). Other lunch staples for me are: (1) NutriSystem vegetarian sloppy joe (you can order them without joining the program if you call). These are so tasty and very portable if you're ever traveling and worried about having something band friendly; (2) Mrs. Paul's "healthy select" fish sticks. They're like 170 cals and great protein for 6 sticks and I usually only cook 3 or 4; (3) crab cakes from the deli (the only fish I truly like and crab is fabulous nutrition); (4) Amy's black bean burritos (I eat 1/2 and put a lot of salsa and plain yogurt on it to boost the protein). I don't usually eat dinner. Lunch is my big meal. If I do eat dinner, it's usually a cup of soup or a SF Jello pudding (put the "dulce de leche" flavor in the freezer and eat it like ice cream -- yum)! Hope that helps and please share your ideas with us too! Take care,

Kat, I'm so glad your knee is a little better too. We're all on the mend. I can't WAIT for your post that announces you're "overweight"! That's a biggie. My goal might be in the "overweight" category, as I don't see myself (at least not at this juncture -- who knows) getting to 132, which is what it would take for me to be the highest weight "normal." I got my new shoes, so we'll see if that makes a difference. I'm going to lightly jog in them tonight to see how they do in prep for my run on Sunday. I can always go back to my old pair for the run if I can't break the new ones in quickly enough.

Pennst8er, You can lose as much weight as you want with the band. There are no limits. I don't know the documented amount of the most anyone has ever lost, but there are no limits. You might check out the thread for "super-sized bandsters" in the "Lapband Support" forum. It's designed for people with BMIs in the 50s or above and most of the people there (myself included) need to lose at least 200 lbs. I think there's less of a difference between those that need to lose 200 or 300 than 100 as compared to 200, don't you think? Come check it out.

Betty, Congratulations on your placement at the tournament! That's awesome. When I come to visit, I'd love you to teach me how to play. I was a domino player as a child (I was actually a semi-finalist at the World Championship one year that I entered as a lark -- oh I miss my Grandmother -- she took me) and I hear there are similarities. Boo, Darn straight walking half of your 5 miles counts. It better or I'm in serious trouble come my 4 mile race on Sunday. I'm certain I'll be walking portions of it. It's going to be in the 20s on Sunday. I am NOT jazzed about that. Amourette, I can't wait to live your life. I can't find the confidence to date yet. It's like very early Spring for me in the dating department. I feel the thaw coming, but it's not here yet. Now, when you say you asked your flatmate to leave, do you mean move out, or just leave to cool off for the evening? If you set the boundaries (as you have now unequivocally done), it could still work out for you to be roommates, no? As for your swim date, it sounds fabulous. We need updated pictures of you too, I think! I'm sure you're looking smashing. Dawn, how's the knee? I think I'm feeling sympathetic pains. My left knee is aching a little today from my 60 min of elliptical. My shoes are DEFINITELY worn out, so I'm running to the store on my lunch break to replace them and see if that helps.

Boo, Congratulations to your brother! That's very exciting that he was such a winner on his first competition in such a long time. How wonderful that YOU inspired HIM this time around. As for me, I got in my gym time today. It was supposed to be my day to run, but I did 60 min on the elliptical instead because I've reading Obama's book on the bus and I was so engrossed in it that I wanted to keep on reading. I can't read and run at the same time, but I can read and ellipticise (new word). A funny thing happened tonight. I live on the 4th floor of my building and I wasn't paying attention tonight and I accidentally walked up to the 5th floor! Meaning, stairs are now such a non-event that I passed my floor without noticing! A year ago, I'd have had to have paused 3 times on the way and counted the steps to my door, panting all the way.... And speaking of last year... I've been thinking about something I've never seen on this forum before and I wanted to see what you all thought. I've been giving a lot of thought to the components of long-term weight loss success and, as you all know, one component is support, like what we get on LBT (and, for me, more specifically, on this thread, as I find the smaller group more rewarding). Well, you know how every month there's a thread for the upcoming surgeries? Like, now, there are January and February bandster threads. So, in a couple of months, there will be an April bandster thread, and it won't be us (weird)! Anyway, I was thinking we might want to start an April Bandster Mentor thread, or something like that. We could offer to "adopt" the April 2007 bandsters and be there for them along their journey, from pre-op to whenever it dies down (I envision it being several months -- 6-8 or so, then, if we want to, we can invite them into our ongoing exercise challenge, collapsing it back into one thread). They would benefit form our experience in having a year's head start. We would benefit from it, as well, by being reminded of the true bandster rules through their early experiences, and staying plugged into new bandster developments. For me, it wouldn't be that much of a commitment to check 2 threads (I peruse some of the others on the forum, but don't seriously follow any but this one and, actually, I like it that way). What do you think? Is that something any or all of you would be interested in contributing to in a few months (assuming the newbies are interested too, of course)?

Kat, I'm so excited that your scale moved! Woohoo! You're so close to Onederland, it's incredible!!

Dawn, I'm so sorry for your knee injury. I would take at least 2 days off then SLOWLY start to run your intervals again. Your intervals are probably better for you in terms of weight loss anyway because they keep your heart rate up steadily over a long period of time, instead of running a long interval then walking a long interval. The one thing I know is that if it hurts AT ALL, don't run on it. Don't run through the pain of an knee injury -- you'll be setting yourself up for a much longer recovery. Wait until the pain is totally gone then ease back into it. That's much beter than risking a serious injury. I've not had an injury yet, so I can't speak from too much personal experience. Maybe Boo will have more advice for you. Don't worry -- this is going to be fine and you'll be back on your routine in no time.

Eficka, All this time, I thought you were Greek. I have no idea where that came from! No wonder you are a beauty. Czech women are the most beautiful in the world, in my opinion. I have visited your country three times (I used to live in Paris and it was a lovely overnight train ride, so I did it often). Just in case my post wasn't clear, the $800 is for the laundry only. The gym itself costs about $2,000/year (that does include towels), and to have a locker where you can leave things overnight costs an additional $500/year. So if you want the laundry, in total, you pay about $3300/year. My gym, with locker (but no fancy laundry service) is about $1500/year and is about 70% as nice as the fancy gym. Regarding next month's challenge: Does anyone vote to keep it the same, meaning 17 workouts? Have we found our groove? If so, that's totally ok -- whatever we think is best for the group -- I want this to work long term. Plus, anyone who wants to do more can set a personal goal for the month on top of the group goal (a version of Boo's suggestion).

I'm "secretly" planning to run the NYC marathon in November 2008. That's a long way away, but it's why I'm doing the training runs in 2007 -- to have the option. THe "celebrity" gym here is an Equinox. For $800/year, you can leave your dirty workout clothes in your locker and they'll wash them for you every day so you don't even have to bring clothes with you. Now $800 is an absurd price, but you see what I mean. Also, they do a "summary" of the NY Times for their clients -- everything important in the paper all in a 2 page xerox. That's my kind of service! On the elliptical I rotate between TV and music. I listen to music during the commercials, or sometimes the whole time and I just watch (but not listen to) the TV.

I feel exactly the same way, Boo. Exactly. And the best is yet to come. I got my hour in on the elliptical tonight. It's been really hard to stick to that being in the middle of a move, but I WILL do it every day, even when it's not convenient. The weirdest thing happened. I have this friend Carrie at work who is a tiny little thing. She's very athletic and works out with a trainer at the nicest gym in town. (My gym is nice, but hers is in a different class -- Denzel works out there, for example). Anyway, apparently she was talking to her trainer about me because she's doing the 4M race with me next weekend. He got all excited and decided he wants to train me for free! Now, I already have a trainer, but this guy specializes in training runners, so I really think I could learn something major from him. He's going to leave me some free passes to the "celebrity" gym too. Now, you know, I'm going to fall in love with it and join there too (which would be my third gym membership -- absurd!). Funny. I guess that's all my news for today. Oh yes, I wanted to talk about next month's challenge. Any opinions? My goal is for the group to get to 20 sessions of 45 minutes by April and hold steady from there. So we have 3 months to increase our time by 5 minutes and our sessions by 3. Do you think we should leave the time alone but up the session by 1, to 18 (since it's a short month), then in March up it to 20, then in April increase the time from 40 to 45? That's what I'm thinking, but I'd love to hear from the rest of you.... Take care,

Spydr, I'm having the same thing done, but one month later (I'm a few lbs behind you and my doc wants me at 185 before TT). Tummy tuck and mastopexy on March 28th. If you would keep me informed about the little details along the way that I might not have read about, I'd love you forever! Take care,

Mine said essentially the same thing -- that those who eat around 800 (and under 1000 for sure) lose the best. For me (vertically challenged), they only recommend 50 g protein, 8+ glasses of water per day. I average about 900 cals. Many, many days I eat 800, but once a week or so, I eat 1400 or so -- usually on the weekend when I go out to dinner or am traveling. Seems to work for me, particularly when I track my intake and am really accountable for it.

Name....................Current Weight......Valentine's Goal......To Go Juliegeraci................241.5.................. ..10..........................3.5 Lapbandit.................240..................... .20..........................13 Libra....................... 255.......................20...................... ...10 Indianlight................ 277...................... 20...................... ..18 JulieNYC.................. 218.......................215.................... ....3 Elisabethsew............ 283 (-11)...............282.........................1 Molly, please let us know if there is anything at all we can do for you. I know that probably rings a little hollow right now, but you just hang in there and know that we're here for you. Hugs.

Well, it's official. As of this morning, I'm no longer morbidly obese. It's pretty emotional, actually. I expected this feeling when I got to Onederland, but wasn't prepared for it at 218 (BMI 39). If I went to Dr. Fielding today, I would not qualify for the lap band. So weird. So wonderful. Betty, Never you worry your skinny little self about it -- I'm coming to occupy your guest room! What do you think about Columbus Day weekend -- i.e. October 2007? Not that we have to plan now, but I'm serious about coming. Boo and Dawn, Here's a link to the calendar of all the runs that my runners' club offers. I have to run 9 of them this year. It's not fully updated yet -- if last year's calendar is a guide, once March hits, they have several runs a week of varying distances. I think 10K is going to be my distance. I could see myself building up to running that 3 times a week for the long term, then strength training on 2-3 other days. I'd like to add swimming to my repertoire at some juncture too. Maybe once I have the TT. I'm going to be out of running commission in April and May as I recover from surgery. Starting in June, I'm going to run everything in site! http://www.nyrr.org/races/2007/calendar/february.asp Eficka, yes, keep us posted on where your muscles hurt....Wink. Amourette, you ran for an HOUR! And after sake, no less? You're my hero!!

Kat, I'm so glad my question helped you! That made my day. Your workout sounded quite thorough as well, which also made my day. Dawn, you can ABSOLUTELY run a 5K in March. I'm running a 4M in 10 days! If I have to walk some, so be it. I know that you can get ready for that distance with that much time to train. You should definitely sign up. Then, any chance you'd come to NYC in the summer and run a 10K with me? I have to run my races in NYC this year for them to qualify for the marathon runs, but anyone can join. It could be fun....It's an easy trip from Montreal and you could definitely stay with me, so costs would be low. If you're interested, I'll keep you posted on our options. If not, I have good friends in Montreal and we could probably work in a race there sometime too.... Well, I met the challenge today. And, of my 60 minutes on the treadmill, I ran 30 of them straight. I guess that means I'm officially done with my "couch potato to runner" program. Now I'm going to work on adding a little distance (I'd like to get to 5 miles), then work on my speed (I'm pretty comfortable at a 12:45 pace but it's a stretch to run a 12:00 pace, though I can do that with one minute walk breaks per mile if I feel like that. This has been a big exercise month for me. I feel like I made real strides in running this month. I didn't lose that much weight (I'm due for a drop), but I'm starting to feel like a runner. I'm even starting to collect gear (you need a bunch of stuff for an outdoor run in Feb in Yankeeland)! That's all my news for today. Time to hit the sack. Take care,

Niki, Hire a lawyer. Also, please keep in mind that if you appeal on your own, you usually only have 2 appeals (check your policy on this) before the issue is foreclosed forever. Don't not hire a lawyer, appeal on your own, then find out a lawyer could have helped you. Even when there is an exclusion, lawyers can sometimes get around that because it can be determined to be medically necessary for people with 40+ BMI. Check out the following website. I've not used it myself, but have heard only good things about Walter Lindstrom. He also addresses your exact question in the FAQ: http://www.obesitylaw.com/

Phenomenal!! I'm so excited for you!! Way to go....

Yes, I get the same thing. It's a sharp pain in my left temple. For me, it's a sign that I ate too much more than I got stuck. I started measuring my quantities and making sure to eat less than a cup at a time (could vary for you, of course) and that completely alleviated the problem. Good luck!

Kat, your brother actually sounds charming. People with differences make the world special. I have a question for you. Does your concern for him regarding not having a lot of friends stem from something he's projecting and you're picking up on (meaning loneliness) or is it more that having friends is what you (naturally) want for him? What I mean is, he may not be as aware that he has a void of friends as you are, which would be better than if he's truly lonely. In any event, I'm so glad he has you and your husband as both family and friends. Amourette, your life is so exciting! Even if you're in a bit of a boring spot, you're in Japan! I've always wanted to go...I must have missed the bit about the Beans. I'll go back and read the posts again...Ahh yes. I see it. Question for you -- is it a big deal to get a new uniform when you go down a size, or is it pretty easy? Do they charge you for that? Have a safe flight home. Boo, Happy NSV! Dancing bananas with top hats for you! :D :Banane48: :Banane48: Of course we love you and your lightweight self. I hope to be a lightweight one day too. Your run was inspirational. I hope to use that inspiration tonight as I prefer to run in the morning but couldn't today yet I've got to get one in so I'm ready for my race weekend after next. I don't know what I was thinking signing up for my first race in FEBRUARY at 8 a.m. I'm going to be so cold (Dawn is laughing at me right now). Betty, Sherwin Williams has a great "color visualizer" on their website where you can pick a room that looks most like yours and "paint" it online. Check it out here: http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/paint_color_palette/ Then click "launch color visualizer" in the middle of the page. To see what my room will look like, choose living room #4, "cooled blue" for the wall colors, "extra white" for the trim, and "gypsy red" for the accent color (a lot of my furniture is red). I'll send you an actual pic once I've painted and moved in in a couple of weeks. Roberta, How are you feeling today? Any better? Bluehill, You're ROCKING the challenge this month. I will meet the challenge tonight and keep going too, just like you've done.

I'm SO IMPRESSED with how many of you (not me yet) have finished the challenge already this month. Do you realize we still have 10 days in January!! You guys were with it this month. I'm so proud of all of us. Kat, I just loved your story about being pulled around on the tube. I'm so with you -- that's the kind of thing I wouldn't have thought of participating in last year and now we can! I'm so happy for you. I'm also glad Rick is ok. I choked like that on a plane once (from Atlanta to London and I was in the middle seat of 5). So scary. My weight has been stuck for most of the month as well, so I feel you on that too. We are peas in a pod this month.

Betty, woohoo! Down another 1.5 lbs! You're body is finally saying "ok, ok, I guess I'll give in and get smaller...." Dawn, I'm scheduled to close on my apartment tomorrow! We'll see how it goes. Thanks to you and Boo for my winter running advice. I was supposed to run outside today, but it just didn't happen. At the last minute, I was invited to a health clinic on the west side where Hillary Clinton was giving her first press conference after announcing her candidacy for president. It was really exciting -- more the political process than anything (it's too early in this election for me to have decided whom I'll support). I have a friend who is a doctor at the clinic. Anyway, I'm watching myself (well, the back of my head) on the news tonight. I taped 3 channels! Running first thing in the morning, I promise....You asked about my race -- I'm running a 4 mile race on 2/4 in Central Park. It's the first of 9 races I have to run in 2007, which will qualify me for the NYC marathon in 2008. Now I have no idea if I want to run the marathon or not, but I do want to run the training races, so off I go to Central Park in the freezing winter when I could be inside on my nice warm treadmill....

Bluehill!! -100 WOW! Dancing, juggling, bananas for you! :Banane27::Banane27::Banane27: Can you believe you've lost 100 lbs in way less than a year? Such a success.