Florida Pete

This is a great place to be called a loser unlike pretty much anywhere else in life! Welcome to all the new members to our group! Congrats on all that have been banded already and best of luck to those that are finish off the month for us!

Hi Kelly! Congrats on getting banded! It's a great too as long as you work it! I tool had either no stole or completely loose stole until the day I started mushies. Honestly when you think about it if all your taking in is liquids then all your going to put out is liquids. So I think it's normal. For the ticker go to Graphical Tickers and Trackers: Weight Loss, Trying To Conceive, Pregnancy... and create your ticker. Once you have it copy the BB code and under the User CP here edit your signature and add the BB code in there. Also don't forget what the pin was that you set for your ticker so that you can update it later on as you lose weight.

Congrats on getting banded! I think all of us are having to relearn how much we can eat or cannot eat and what we can or cannot eat. I know tonight I ate to much yet it still seemed so little to me. Big thing to remember is sip your fluids and small bites and chew chew chew when eating solids/mushies.

Heya Jackie, Sounds like to me your missing Protein with your liquid diet. Let me ask you are you having full liquids or Clear Liquids? With full liquids I would make sure to get yourself some Atkins shakes or something similar to have as those will help a lot in the protein area and help you feel full. For the clear liquids I would look at the Special K2O protein waters but just watch them closely since they do have some carbs to them. Best of luck on both the diet and the surgery!

I know what you mean. It almost ment more to me when one of the guys I work with told me yesterday that he can see a little bit of a difference in me.

I have had plenty of times at home and at work where my stomach was growling like a beast but I had no hunger feelings what so ever. I simply ignored it and even a couple of times joked about it with my buddy at work. Fact is our bodies, including out stomach, is learning how to behave differently since we are now eating less food and have this band around our stomach. What you really have to learn is are you actually hungry or not. Don't listen to the sounds. Listen to how you feel. Do you have hunger pains? Also be careful to know when you are hungry and not just think your hungry. Best of luck to all of us with learning how our bodies have changed and are reacting.

Well the Special K2O I would go with it nice and cold. But for the most part I went with the broths. Just added a little salt and pepper to them and I at least felt more like I was having a meal. Oh and low sodium broth is highly recommended even though I added some salt to taste.

Very cool Trey! It's great to meet other Dr. Kuri patients. There is a few of us on here! One friend I have met on here, Saara, actually went for her surgery with Dr. Kuri the same day as I did. Best of luck with your weight loss and living a better and healthier life!:laugh:

You might check into Protein waters like Special K2O that should be available at your local grocery store. Also look into the broths, chicken broth and Beef broth. Those are Clear Liquids and have some protein in them too.

Glad to have you join the group Matty! We're almost in the top 10 for most popular groups!!! LOL - So if there is anymore of you December 2008 Bandsters that want to join us please feel free!

Hi China, I know what you mean about wanting to be surprised. I refuse to weigh myself more then once a week. I know for fact that your body weight fluctuates from day to do so weighing yourself more then once a week is almost defeating in itself. I knew I had lost this week but I made sure to wait. Not to mention it's just cool stepping onto the scale and going "Wow!" lol

Hi China! I have lost 19.2 lbs since my surgery. So in two weeks I lost that much! I am able to get plenty of liquid down and have bumped up the walking. Tomorrow I get to start mushies so we'll see how that part of the diet goes. I am excited to move forward with my weight loss and love seeing how everyone is doing too!

Congrats on being banded!!! Hope everything went great and for a quick recovery!!

Sorry to hear about your surgery date being moved. That sucks but atleast you have already started working on living a better life. I had started my pre-op diet actually 4 weeks early. I am glad I did actually since while on the diet I lost 23 lbs. That really helped to shrink my liver and got a good start on my weight loss. Maybe you can modify your diet for a couple of weeks and then go back full force before your surgery in January. Best of luck!

I have to say that the savings is in the thousands of dollars. If I were to have surgery done here at the local surgeon in the local hospital the surgery was "estimated" at $18,000. I quoted estimated because they would not give me a hard number so that tells me there was going to be hidden cots. Of course after that then I would be covered for 1 year on fills and follow ups. So that's $18000 the first year. With my surgery in Mexico it costed $7,500. No more no less. I can go back there for follow ups and free files but there are travel costs involved in doing that not to mention taking time off of work etc etc. So I found a local place about 45 minutes away that will do my after care. It's $440 the first visit, which includes a fill, and fills after that are $150 each time. So if I get 1 fill every two months for 1 year that is the $440 plus 5 fills at $150 each comes out to $1,190 for after care and fills the first year. So between my surgery in Mexico ($7500) airfare and little spending money ($325) and then aftercare and fills ($1190) my total cost for Mexico surgery comes down too $9,015. So I have to say that surgery in Mexico is a 50% savings compared to surgery at the local surgeon. I have seen surgery as low as $9500 here in the states but again that involves paying for your own after care since most people would have to travel to those locations to get the cheap surgeries.

A big Congrats to you Beth on losing 25 lbs! That is great and just shows that it can be done but that it does take work and dedication. I hope I didn't come off to harsh earlier but I just want everyone to understand that it is rough and it will take self control and willpower to get through really this short time period. Only now after 2 weeks post-op have I even had any hunger and that is quickly cured with a small bowl of soup or an Atkins shake. It may seem like a long time to be on the liquid diet but really it goes by fast. You can do it and you can be successful with this surgery and then with working the band. You just have to remind yourself to why your doing this.

Stick to your diets people! Do exactly as the doc tells you! That is the KEY to a successful surgery. I know it's tough. But you have to remind yourself why you are doing this. You don't want to go through the same experience that RestlessMonkey did in going in for surgery only to be sent home to do the diet more and then finally have surgery two weeks later! No be tough on yourself and be the success that you can be!

Hi Tracy and all! Gotta say this being 2 weeks today Post-Op I am doing great. I weighed myself this morning and I am down another 11.8 lbs this week for a total of 19.2 lbs since surgery. Just a little soreness still around the port incisions but it's healing up well. Today is my last day of the full liquids and tomorrow I finally get to start mushies!! I've been out walking every day and next week my wife and I are going to step up our walking another notch and go a little farther. So how is everyone else doing?

So today is my 2 week anniversary from surgery. Ok so that means it time to weigh myself. I stepped on the scale and booya! 423.0lbs I lost another 11.8 lbs!!!! I am down 23.6lbs for December so far! And this means I have lost 19.2lbs since I got the band! So I beat my December goal already!!! I guess I should now bump my goal up like another 10 lbs so now my new goal January 1 will be 30 lbs lost. Woot!

Hi Kathi, What was explained to me was that the liver is a very large organ in your body. It is located right next to your stomach and thus anytime a surgeon has to operate in or around your stomach area it greatly helps them if the liver is reduced in size. So most surgeons will ask their patients to go on a liver shrinking diet before surgery for this purpose. Most surgeons have many different opinions as to what is the best liver shrinking diet. For me my liver shrinking diet was a 3 week diet of 2 meals a day being low carb shakes, I had Atkins shakes, and then the third meal was a low carb low fat meal. I followed this very closely and when I had my pre-op exame the day before my surgery the doctor was very happy and said I had a very small liver. Success! Not to mention I lost a good amount of weight on the LSD diet too.