Melissannde

I agree the papaya enzyme would be a better choice. It has much less sugar than the pineapple juice. I do keep both on hand "just in case". Hope you feel better soon. And it might not be a bad idea to call your doc's office Monday and talk to one of the nurses.

My doctor recommends 3oz of Protein and 1/2 cup of veggies 3x day with small healthy high protein Snacks in between IF needed. When eating at home (which is most of the time) I weigh my protein out. I measure my veggies. I sometimes then weigh my veggies just for curiosities sake. My protein and veggies together usually weigh somewhere around 6 oz.. sometimes as much as 8. When eating out, I compare my protein portion to a deck of cards and my veggies to a tennis ball. Very appetizing.. LOL I have a digital scale I bought years ago on eBay for weighing packages. It works fine for food. I don't think I paid more than 20.00 for it, but it's been a long time and I really don't recall. I place an empty plate/bowl/cup on it and then turn it on and it "tares" or Zeros out, so that all I am weighing is the food. I've never been given a calorie goal either. I just do what seems to work for me. If I'm not losing weight at a certain calorie goal, I play with it, either decreasing by 100 a day for a week and if that doesn't work, I'll go the other way and increase for a while and see if that works. I'm usually erring on the side of not eating enough. I log all my intake at www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate. This is the one that suits me the best, but there are many other sites: fitday.com, caloriecount.about.com, fatsecret.com (unfortunate name), www.sparkpeople.com. Basically, do what works for you. If your weight loss stalls or slows to a point you want to change it.. try something different. If what you're doing is working.. run with it.

The way I've been taught about the band, we are not to eat to fullness, but eat our measured portions (3oz Protein, 1/2 cup veggies). Many people are told to eat till they're not hungry. If I were given that guideline, I probably would've eaten the house down. Could it be that you misundertood your doctor's instructions? Perhaps what they meant was to experiment on what TYPES of food you can tolerate, not the amounts? from a recent post on the Smartbandsters email list: For you newbies: if you want to test the band: eat a small portion of protein and produce. Stop. Go get really busy doing something else. You will probably forget about eating. Your band is working. See how long you can go before you get PHYSICALLY hungry again. If it's 3-5+ hours, your band is working. Don't try to test it by seeing how much you can eat. We already know you can eat more than you should. Don't try to test it by eating things you shouldn't. They may go down or they may cause you a major problem but it's not worth risking your band over some gummy, sticky, or stringy food you don't need. That said, even if you're careful it might happen anyway because it takes a long time to change a lifetime of eating habits. PRACTICE slowing down, cutting your food into toddler size pieces, chewing more, and making WISE choices. This really does work. Also read Dr. Simpson's post.. it's not about restriction: http://drsimpson.net...newsletter.html

You might even be too tight if it's taking you an hour to eat a meal of 3oz of solid, dense Protein and 1/2 cup veggies. Taking an hour is on the verge of "eating around the band". Ideally you want a meal to last only about 30 minutes. And since you are tight.. are you eating Solid Dense Proteins or are slider foods making their way onto your plate? And yes, the previous poster is correct, your rate of loss will decrease as you have less to loose. I'd keep the appointment on Jan 25, but take in my food journal and just talk to the support staff about your concerns. If they think you are too tight, don't panic, a tiny unfill of .25 cc's or less can ease things considerably without making you overly hungry. (although you may feel that way for a little bit afterwards. I found pushing fluids helped after my tiny unfill) Good luck.

Look for a gym that's not part of a huge chain. I go to one that is locally owned and I was able to pay by the day, week, month or 3 months.. whatever I wanted. I did weekly for a while because that was actually a better deal than daily.

The juice and smoothies might be a problem. One of the cardinal rules of eating after banding (once you're past the healing stages) is no liquid calories except for 1 or 2 servings of skim milk/day. coffee may or may not be an issue, depending on what you put in it. If you can drink it with 1 tablespoon of fat/free half & half or 1 tbspn f/f evaporated milk, etc. and splenda, it should be fine. It's the large, unmeasured doses of creamer and sugar that make coffee unfriendly to weight loss. You'll also find some folks who will come along and say coffee is dehydrating. Maybe if you're drinking a whole pot a day.. but at normal consumption of 2 to 3 cups, dehydration should not be a concern. Water is absolutely the best thing to drink. But it's hard this time of year with it being so cold to want to drink just water. Try squeezing some lemon in your water or floating some cucumber. I use crystal lite sometimes when I'm tired of plain water. It has a little bit of calories, but not too much. Also look at fruit20, Powerade zero, vitaminwater zero, etc. Some people like Sassy water: 2 quarts or 2 litres water (about 8 ½ cups) 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger 1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced 1 medium lemon, thinly sliced 12 small spearmint leaves. Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight. Drink the entire pitcher by the end of each day. Sounds like you're on the right track with exercise and the meals. Just drop the juice and smoothies and up the water and see if that doesn't make a difference.

I don't know anyone personally who has had their band filled all the way, but I'm sure there are a few out there. May I suggest that you approach your eating with the band a bit differently and see if it helps? My doctor says to eat 3oz of Protein and 1/2 cup of veggies and stop. Wait 20 minutes and if still hungry, eat more veggies. Try to avoid processed foods and high glycemic carbs such as potatoes, rice, Pasta, bread and corn. Try to not drink for 30 minutes before and after meals. You might benefit from reading Dr. Simpson's article on how it's not about restriction. http://drsimpson.net/newsletter/March-2010-Lap-band-surgery-newsletter/March-2010-Lap-band-surgery-newsletter.html How I know I need more fill is when I am getting hungry more often than 3 to 5 hours (over several days, not just one day), portions are getting larger and weight loss has slowed waaaaayyy down or stalled and measurements are also not changing. I also keep a food journal online. When I go in for an appointment (and not every appointment is for a fill, sometimes it's just to keep me on track) I print out a weeks worth of my journal so my nurses and I look at my choices and see if I really need a fill or if I need to make better choices. It is normal for weight loss to stall at times, but when this happens to me, it's usually my body is reshaping. Start taking your measurements once a month or so. You may see changes that you don't realize are happening. I started taking measurements back in May when I started getting discouraged.. it really helps to see the numbers change on my waist & hips.. bust, not so much. LOL

That is really fast weight loss. Congratulations! One thing you might want to talk to your doctor about is to watch for gallbladder issues. Really rapid weight loss can cause problems with the GB. There's medications that can be given to prevent problems down the road. Just a FYI. It took me 5 months to lose 70 lbs and I came up with GB problems.. something to think about. Again, congrats on your success and may it continue!

Vicky, While I haven't been diagnosed with arthritis in my knees, I definitely have some pain issues going on. Yes, Zumba CAN be hard on the knees, esp if you have an instructor who is big on jumping. I have two pieces of advice: 1) look for some kind of dance shoe. Nike I think makes one called Musique or something like that. One of my instructors has a shoe that is really unique by the name of GlaGlas. I wear my old New Balances that are worn enough that they don't have as much traction as they used to.. you want a shoe that will slide just a bit. A split sole might also be useful, but not mandatory. Talk to some of the instructors and see what they suggest. 2) Look for a Zumba Gold class. Zumba Gold is basically a low impact class. I've done both regular Zumba and Zumba Gold and I actually got more out of the Zumba Gold. If there's not a Zumba Gold class in your area, modify the regular Zumba. If the instructor does jumps, you stay on the ground. If they do side steps with twisting motions with the knees, just do the side steps without the twist. These are things that I do and no one has any problem with me not doing the steps exactly as the instructor does. I also take a dose of Tylenol before dancing. If you think Zumba might be too much, at least for now, you might like Yoga or Pilates. I find that these are excellent for making me more limber.

I rarely did Protein drinks after surgery. In fact I recently gave away a nearly full canister of powder that I used once or twice. I didn't worry about protein during my refeeding time. However, my doctor has his patients back on regular food in two weeks. If I had to go a longer time before being back on solids, I might be more worried about protein intake. I lived on Campbells Bean with Bacon soup, thinned with 1/2 can of chicken broth and blenderized. sugar free Jello, Sugar Free popsicles, chicken broth, beef broth, yogurts. Other campbells soups too, but bean w/bacon was my favorite. Bariatriceating.com has a recipe for white chicken chili that is out of this world. I made it as is for the family and put mine in the blender.

Should you be concerned? No, not at this point. Wait till you go in for your first fill and then if they can't access your port, then you can be concerned. Relax, it's likely just your body changing as you recover from surgery.

try freecycle. www.freecycle.org I just got 7 , yes 7, bags of clothing this past weekend from a freecycler. I pulled out what I wanted and re-freecycled the rest. All I had to spend was the gas to go pick the stuff up.

Oooo.. I <3 <3 <3 Body Pump. Our gym doesn't offer Body Combat, what's it like?

The gym I go to has 4 different Zumba instructors and I've taken from each one. Every instructor has a different style and different levels of intensity. If you go to one place/instructor and don't fit in, try another. I've been doing Zumba for about a year, some dances I have down, others I still can't get, but no one cares. Just keep moving and enjoying the calorie burn. Ditch the workout.. join the party!! (~ Zumba's motto)

Jake, my doctor suggests that we try eating our 3oz of Protein, 1/2 cup of veggies, then wait 20 minutes. Then if we're still hungry to have more veggies (this is with the understanding that the veggies aren't drowning in butter or some other high calorie sauce). Also my doctor says to wait at least 30 minutes after the meal to drink to allow what food we've eaten time to make us feel full. Drinking the 32oz of water was a good strategy, I just can't tell from your post if you waited a bit before you drank. And not to be discouraging, but sometimes it takes more than one fill to get good appetite dimming. It's not our goal to get "full" like before surgery, the goal is to feel satisfied on smaller amounts. I often have to walk away from the table and give my stomach and brain time to communicate. I can always go back for more if I'm REALLY hungry after 20 minutes. Hang in there, it will get better. You might also read the label on that Honey Bourbon sauce.. if it has HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) or lots of sugar in it, it might be contributing to your hunger. btw, I must tell you your name makes me smile.. I have a great nephew named Jake and Tucker is a family surname.

Most of the time hair loss after weight loss surgery is due to a process called Telogen Effluvium. There's a really good article that explains it in detail here: http://www.obesityaction.org/magazine/ywm22/wlsandhairloss.php I'd like to add that if you are of a certain age, and post-menopausal, it might be MORE than surgery & weight loss going on. I had started to have hair thinning before banding, after banding it got worse. I went to my PCP and had lots of blood work drawn..there are many imbalances that can result in hair loss but nothing was out of order. I got referred to a dermatologist and the Dermatologist determined that my hair loss is not temporary, but permanent due to severe hormonal changes. I've been placed on Rogaine and am thinking about looking into Propecia. While it's very likely that the stress from banding and weight loss is the cause and the thinning will be only temporary, if it really bothers you, get it checked out. In my case, I can prevent further loss, I can't get back the follicles that are gone forever.

Considering how obese I was and that the obesity had already contributed to cancer for me.. no, I don't think so. In fact my only regret so far has been that I didn't do this SOONER.

Try grating a zucchini and using it in place of the pasta. That way you get your veggie and a semblance of pasta. Spaghetti squash works well too.

b = bob's redmill steelcut oatmeal with chopped apple, f/f half & half & some DaVinci s/f pancake syrup. Only able to eat 1/2, rest saved for tomorrow. L = 3oz of beef pot roast, 1/2 cup veggies (green Beans, onions, tomatoes, kohlrabi <in place of potatoes>) preworkout snack = wasa cracker, laughing cow cheese, apple slices Postworkout = Syntrax nectar Protein drink D = same as lunch.

I was never required to crush my medications. We were told to use liquid tylenol at first and by the time we were back on solid foods we could take tylenol capsules or caplets. My doctor doesn't want us to take NSAIDs (Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs) such as Aspirin, Bufferin, Aleve, Ibuprofen, Anacin, etc. Please check with YOUR doctor about what you can take.

Every doctor is different as every patient is different. My doctor usually has his patients back on solid food by the end of two weeks if all is going well. You have to find a doctor that you trust and can follow 90 to 95% of their guidelines. YMMV

I've had a few sips of diet coke in the almost 2 years I've been banded. Never caused me any pain or distention or slippage. I do not drink a whole soda nor do I take the sips very often.. maybe every 4 to 6 months I'll have a few swallows.It was almost a year before I had any after my surgery.

Yes, I have had this too. And I had rapid weight loss at the beginning of my journey. But I'm not getting my GB out, even though my surgeon would like to take mine out. I have an extremely high deductible on my insurance which would essentially make me self-pay, and I don't have 20K laying around for surgery. So I will eat low fat, and take my chances. I do have a few stones, but they are very small. Yes, I know I'm taking a chance, but it's my choice. I only have GB pains when I eat high fat foods. Last pain episode was July 4 when I ate two pork ribs. Probably I could've gotten by with eating only one.. it was the second that did me in. Make sure that having your GB removed is really what you want to do. There are side effects that are not often talked about.. like diarrhea after eating high fat foods. On the other hand, many people have theirs removed and have little to no side effects. Just be sure you are well informed because they sure can't put it back once it's gone. Best of luck to you.

The refunding you infrequently get with the band is not accompanied by nausea. The food usually is not mixed with gastric juices so it doesn't taste nasty. It's a whole different thing than the N&V we're all familiar with from being ill.

I was wondering if it was possible to block a member so that I cannot see their posts? I apologize if this information is posted somewhere, I've been looking off and on since yesterday and cannot find that option. If it isn't possible, would the moderators consider making it so? Thanks!