jmegirl

Yes! I drink Grey Goose and cranberry with that particular lower calorie cranberry juice when I'm at home. However when I'm out (which is usually the only time I drink), I tend to be at the mercy of the sugary cranberry juice at the bar. :huh2:

Hah. I don't have a problem with chili or shrimp, but tater tots kick my ass (and hurt my band)!!! I love how everyone is different! :glare: For the record, even though tater tots have been one of my favorite things for a long time, I'm actually somewhat pleased that I had them partially get stuck last week. The pain has helped me to swear them off for good! :huh2:

YAY!!! Lucky for me, I haven't had to pay for a fill yet. But my next fill will cost me $15 when I go back to Dr. K because it will have been 3mos past. Thanks so much for the quick reply Mini!!!! I feel better about it now! Before I just thought we were somehow cheating the government LOL. I can't believe it makes that much of a difference!!

At about 4 weeks post-op, just before I got my 1st fill, I got a McDonald's cheeseburger during a moment of weakness. The bun huuuuuurt hurt hurt SO bad. :glare: It only hurt for about a minute, but it was enough for me to know that bread is not for me. I haven't had any bread since. After my 2nd fill, which was just last week, I tried some tater tots. I'd had tater tots since surgery, but apparently my 2nd fill made me a lot tighter! I wasn't chewing them to mush, and after I got about 4 of them down, I again got that intense pain in my chest, only it lasted for a couple minutes. So...tater tots are out of the question now as well. :glare: PS - Monkey, I appreciate your comments. I'm glad I'm not the only one who will tell it like it is, whether it's what the OP wants to hear or not. :huh2:

A question about filing taxes, if I may. My husband says he's done some research and the lap band procedure qualifies as a medical deduction for my 2008 tax return. Did anyone else do that??? Turbo Tax even allowed us to count the cost of flights, hotel, and rental car towards the deduction. I went from having to pay $617 to Federal, to getting $733 back from Federal, just by adding in the medical costs as deductions!!! That just seems crazy, but DH swears it qualifies and is totally legal. I'm just curious if anyone else used the cost of their surgery as a tax deduction. Wanna make sure we aren't breaking the law somehow!!!

Julie you look sooooo beautiful!!!! I'm so jealous of how much weight you've lost! Slow and steady wins the race...ugh. Mini, got any room on the Turtle's Bench over there?

My weigh-in for this week is -0.4. A loss is still a loss, but I can't help but feel if I hadn't indulged last night (3 cranberry/vodkas and a Michelob Ultra ) that maybe I'd have stayed down 0.8 like I was on Friday.

Yahoo! Way to go! You look fabulous!!!!! That's awesome, congrats!!!! Also a fabulous job Julie!!!!

I'm so happy to hear that your port replacement has been postponed. Here's hoping you keep this restriction missy!!! Size 9 in '09 came about mainly because it just sounds really cool. So a few of us decided to make that our 2009 Goal. Whaddya think??? I don't think I'll ever be a size 9, but it sounds good and it's something to aim for!!!

Way to go!!!!!

It would be nice if they would sell the BL protein powders in little individual packets for cheap, so you could try it first and see if you like it. What happens if it tastes like chocolate flavored horse poo?? :thumbup: Oh and I definitely wouldn't last the first week! I'm as lazy as the come, and if Jillian got in my face like that, I'd seriously punch her. I just don't see how all that yelling they do can actually work. So, a little off topic but continuing with the Biggest Loser chat - do you think Bob is gay? :thumbup: I love him to death, but sometimes he strikes me as gay - which doesn't make a darn bit of difference to me, I'm just curious, haha. Any thoughts?

I was actually considering ordering some of the new Biggest Loser products. I am a die-hard fan of the show. I watch it every week, and cry during every episode at one point or another. My DH likes to make fun of me for it, haha. Let me know if you end up ordering any of it, tell me what you think of it. Or I'll just wait a month and see if I can find some reviews online.

Sorry! I totally messed that up, I meant pudding mix. You buy the Jello pudding mix that comes in a box. The SF Cheesecake flavor. That powder is the powder I'm referring to - sorry!!! :thumbup:

HAHAHAAHH!!! :thumbup: CRAFT! I love it. :thumbup: The recipe I've seen is Mocha Cheesecake Protein Shake, which is a scoop of any chocolate protein powder, skim milk (maybe 10oz?), 4oz of the plain greek yogurt, a tablespoon of the SF Cheesecake flavored yogurt powder, and ice - all pureed/blended in a blender. Sounds fabulous to me, haha. But I've not tried it yet.

What's CRS? :thumbup: I love Greek yogurt! It's much thicker and therefore more filling, and it's so low calorie! Did you have the plain kind, or the kind with fruit? I like the plain kind with a teaspoon of low sugar Strawberry jam mixed into it. Also, a way to make extra thick and yummy protein shakes is to mix milk with protein powder and about 4oz of plain greek yogurt, blend it in a blender with some ice. :thumbup:

I found it for you! If you Google you can probably find it cheaper on other websites. The Biggest Loser Protein - 10 oz can , NEW NBC Universal Store NBC The Biggest Loser Health & Nutrition , NBC Universal Store

Today is my 10wk bandiversary. As of today, I've lost about 16lbs. (15.6 - ok we're just gonna round up, hehe). That's an average of 1.6lbs per week, which is spot-on with what they said I should lose....1-2lbs per week. YAY! I've never been SO happy to be AVERAGE in my life! I think today was a good wake-up call for me. I went to see a doctor about this pesky cold. Yes ladies, the cold that I've had off and on since the week after surgery. While writing out my script, he asked how much I'd lost. I told him 16lbs and he asked how long since surgery, so I counted back...10wks today. That's when it hit me, like a sudden bulb over my head - I'm actually losing at the average speed you're supposed to lose. I've been feeling like a failure these last few weeks but now that I think about it, I'm doing pretty good!!! The doctor said so himself. 16lbs in just over 2mos is a really good pace. Much better pace than the fast drop that the Bypass patients have. Much healthier, he says. Gosh, today is a good day!!!

I remember reading a month ago about one of us possibly having a leak, like Dr. K had punctured the tubing when trying to do a fill once. Was it Deb (Tally)? Whoever it was, I've been thinking about her and wondering what's been happening with all of that. I don't recall reading about a resolution on here. Someone clue me in!!! PS - The scale is hardly moving, but I'm really feeling a difference this week ladies. I almost feel...sexy. :laugh: I've got great restriction from this last fill and I'm eating less and feeling satisfied longer, and gosh, I'm just in such a good mood!!! :ohmy: And it's TOM this week, so the fact that I've lost 1/2lb since Sunday is just un-freaking-believable! Where's the dancing-in-my-chair smiley when you need it??? :wink2:

I know you're sort of against me right now, given our argument the other day. But I was wondering if your doctor had actually removed all your fill before giving you more, just to see if what's in there is actually what he's calculated to have put in there? The reason I ask is that one of my friends in the Dr. K thread, she wasn't feeling her restriction like she should have. So she went and had the doctor remove what was in there, and come to find out, she had much less than what should have been in there, leading the doctor to the conclusion that during the course of one of his fills, he must have missed the port and nicked the tubing, thus poking a hole in it and making it leak. They are now in the process of testing the theory, she's going back every two weeks or so to see if it's leaking out like they think. If that's the case, she's going to have to go under anesthesia again and have surgery to have her tubing replaced. :laugh: I only tell this story as a way of letting you know that these things do happen, albeit rarely. You might ask your doctor to check for you, or perhaps he already has checked and you know for certain that there's nothing wrong with the tubing. I certainly hope that's the case for you. I wouldn't want anybody to undergo another surgery because the fill doctor made a mistake. Please let us know what you find out!

Craziness I tell ya!! :thumbdown: Drinking before you eat really shouldn't be a problem. It's not like the liquid you drink is going to stay in your pouch for any length of time. If it does, I'd say you've got some pretty serious restriction!!! :wub:

I would suggest you try to concentrate on taking smaller bites and chewing properly, then if you can get yourself used to doing that all the time, try for another fill. Another fill will only make your stuck episodes worse if you don't get a handle on the big bites.

Dan I'm so glad you've joined our group. Feel free to come here with all of your questions! I've read so many different reactions to hunger following surgery. Some people don't feel hunger for up to a week and have to force themselves to get in their calories/protein. Others are faced with hunger every few hours starting almost immediately. It's really a crap shoot as to which group you'll be in, haha. Personally, I didn't feel real hunger until about Day 6, and even then, I didn't start getting hungry every couple of hours until about 3wks post-op, at which point it was almost time for my fill, so I didn't have much Bandster Hell to go through - thank goodness! I have terrible will power! What you have to remember during this time is that you are not supposed to be losing weight. Sure, it's nice to see the scale move, but you're healing from surgery right now, and for the next 4-6 weeks you're going to see the scale do a lot of great things...and maybe even some not-so-great things. The important thing is that you follow what your body tells you. When you're hungry, eat. Because your body needs nutrients in order to continue the healing process. More often that not, as soon as you start real foods people tend to gain a few pounds. I was thankful to have just maintained once I hit regular foods. But if this happens, don't fret! We've all been there, we've all done that, and it'll be OK. When I went for my first fill, according to Dr. K's scales I had only lost 3lbs....in 4 weeks. Talk about heart-breaking! But he said not to worry, that I was healing and that any loss was a good one. :thumbdown: Gosh, I just love that guy. :wub:

My doctor says as long as it's no more than those two small sips it can't really hurt anything. I'm talking small sips mind you, maybe a total of 3 teaspoons worth of liquid. Every doctor is different, and that's got to be one of the most frustrating things about this whole process. What's good for the goose isn't good for the gander, so to speak. I am constantly annoyed by what I read on this site that doctors have said to other patients, because what I've heard from my own doctor is so different! Carbonated beverages, straws, fills and how often you get them, pre-op diets, post-op diets...:thumbdown:

My doctor says to have 3 meals a day, and if I feel like I need a snack, make sure it's a high protein snack. Also, I make sure to constantly have a water bottle or a glass of Crystal Light with me at all times. I am always taking a sip of something, probably every 5 minutes or so, throughout the day.

That's outstanding!!! GO Deb!!! :coffee: Oh, I can see all my smilies on the right side of the reply box now. Yay! Looks like they fixed something!