brianjg

Recently I've been doing a workout on the treadmill that burns a lot of calories and I think it will leave you pretty satisified...although it may not interest you if you're also running. I use a treadmill that has an incline capability. Put it up to a really high incline...start at maybe an 8 or so if yours goes to 15. Then set the speed so that you are still walking, but right before you would have to start jogging (this is about 4 mph for me). After a few minutes, do a minute at a lower speed and less of an incline...then go back up to a higher incline than you were at before. Repeat. It's kind of like an interval workout. I go for about 50 minutes (around 3 miles). I'll do 10-15 at high resistance, than back it down for about 3 minutes and repeat. I burn right around 1,000 calories in 50 minutes.

I do mine in Fargo at Meritcare with Dr. Fabian, I'm not sure what there referral policy is, but he did my surgery and I would highly recommend.

I haven't posted in awhile so I thought I'd update everyone. First of all, it sounds like everyone is doing great! I started at 352 at my first diet visit at the beginning of Jan. I had surgery on 3/9 and was at 324. Today I'm at 298 and I am REALLY excited not to have the 3 in front anymore. So post-band I'm at 26 pounds in 6 weeks. This last week I didn't really lose anything, so I must have hit a plateau, or have just started eating more. I've been hitting the gym 5-6 times/week and am up to a good 45 minute cardio workout. I''m just now starting to lift some weights due to the post-op restrictions. I can't get a fill until 8 weeks after surgery and unfortunately at my earliest date my doc is out of town, and then I'm heading to Vegas for a week. So, May 18 is when I will have my next appointment. I would like a fill sooner cuz right now I can eat more than what I would like. Hopefully I can meet my goal of 100 lbs by August 22.

This is a "soft" type recipe, but for those who need it to be softer, go ahead and throw it in the blender. Easy chicken Tacos (crock-pot style) 5 chicken breast (I use the frozen boneless skinless ones) 2 cups chunky salsa 1/2 large onion 1 can black Beans 1 can chopped green chilis 1 packet taco seasoning salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder Shredded cheese Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder and cut in halves. Place them in the crock-pot with all the other ingredients, chop the onions really fine and drain the juice from the beans. Add about 1/2 cup Water (or less depending on how watery the salsa is). Cook on low for 3 and 1/2 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and then continue to cook on high for another 1 and a half. For the lap-banders, just sprinkle some shredded cheese and maybe some low-fat sour cream and enjoy. For those with non lap-banded family/friends, place on tortillas (fried with the filling are awesome) and all the normal taco fixings. This is probably OK for those maybe 1 month out, and you could always puree it if you don't think it'll go. It works great for me at 5 weeks, but I only had 1 week of puree. Tip: I mix everything up the night before and let it marinate in the fridge.

My mom always used to make these no-bake peanut butter/chocolate Cookies at home, and they were one of my favorites. I just switched the recipe up a little bit to make it LB friendly. The recipe is half of the "normal" and makes about 16 cookies, feel free to double it. Use no-sugar added cocoa (Hershey's makes it or look for baking cocoa). Also, I used reduced fat Peanut Butter and instead of butter I used Brumblen Brown (spelling?) yogurt butter spread (1/2 the cals of butter). All in all, these are pretty tasty and not terrible for you. Ingredient/Cals/Prot: 24 pckts Truvia/0 /0 1/4 c skim milk/22.5/2 4 tbsp cocoa/80/4 1/4 c PB/760/28 1/4 c yougurt butter/180/0 1 1/2 c oats/450/15 Total/1492.5/49 Per cookie (16): 93 calories and 3 grams of Protein Boil sugar, cocoa, milk, butter and salt for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and oats and vanilla. Use a tablespoon to place dough out on waxed paper. **If you want, you can go ahead and add the PB and the vanilla before you boil it, it doesn't make a lot of difference. Tip: 24 pckts of Truvia = 1 cup of sugar (For those that don't know, Truvia is a zero-calorie natural sweetner derived from the Stevia plant, I like it better that Splenda. Tip 2: Instead of cocoa powder, you could try choco Protein Powder to make these a little more guilt-free.

My surgeon recommended one day of clear liquids, two days full liquids, then one week of pureed foods (where I had my surgery they actually give a TV dinner type thing called Tre Puree for that week). He did say, however, that anything pureed would be fine for that week. How are your apetites after surgery? I can't bring myself to eat everything the nutritionists guide recommends and am lucky to get down a couple protein shakes and a few tablespoons of pureed stuff, not to mention the water.

I was banded on the 9th. It hasn't been too bad, a little bit of pain, but nothing that the narcotics they give you don't take care of. I was at the hospital at 5:00 AM and out by about 3:00 that day. The biggest pain is the larger incision where the port is, I can't really feel the others. Today I've had some "gurgling" and a little bit of loose stools, but gas-x strips have helped. I would also recommend getting some liquid tylenol. Oh, and a heads up to a few things that might be on a guys mind: yes, I did have a catheter placed but I was out when they put it in and out when they took it out, so I wouldn't have even known except I was a little sore down south. Also, they did shave my hairy belly.

Hey fellow bandsters! First post for me here. Well, I'm 21 years old, senior in college, and I was just banded yesterday! I'm feeling OK, a little bit of pain when standing up and bending, but nothing that the pain meds and sleep can't handle. The only incision that hurts is the larger one, and I think that is where the port is. I haven't had any gas pains that people talk about. I didn't need to stay overnight, first day (yesterday) I was on clear liquids, and today and tomorrow I am on full liquids (although I haven't been feeling ready to eat, so I had some broth, SF Jello, and one optifast shake). I'm supposed to start the pureed stuff on Thursday. Anyway, just thought I would stop by and say hey and let some people know what they're about to experience!