Unforgettable

I tried that! It was good, but nothing compares to the real thing lol And for the other poster that asked about Protein...my doc recommended a general 60-80 grams/day for women. I usually end up taking about 70-80 in. If I feel like I haven't had enough for the day, I finish my night off with a 25 gram Protein shake.

I've also been told that part of the problem with eating rice and pasta is that if it isn't cooked properly, it will mix with your fluids and swell (makes sense) so you might get too full.

I've had three fills, and have been very fortunate throughout this process. I've had decent restriction since surgery even without the first fill, and I haven't had any intolerances of sutck episodes/PB. So the wraps don't bother me too much. However, I try to stray away from carbs so instead of doing a bread wrap, I do a lettuce leaf wrap so I just swap the bread for a big ol' piece of lettuce.

I don't know what I'd do without greek yogurt. I use plain nonfact greek yogurt as sour cream, so I might do a chicken wrap with veggies and lettuce as my "bread" and I use the yogurt as sour cream. Like others have said, just add some splenda and it tastes like vanilla yogurt. Mix some fruit in there too. Otherwise my most favorite recipe of all is greek yogurt and Peanut Butter - you can use reduced fat, or that PB2 stuff. I use regular peanut butter. Just buy one of the nonfat plain greek yogurts, 5oz, and add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. It is the best treat ever, I have about 1/3 of a cup for Breakfast every morning. Full of great Protein. It's important to make sure you are buying the lowfat or nonfat version. Also the plain version is the way to go if you're counting carbs - the flavored versions usually have 20+ carbs in them.

I get hiccups! That usually reminds me that I should have stopped eating one or two bites early. It's kinda nice because it has helped me learn when to put the fork down.

I have no problems eating rice or bread. I also easily picked up the habit of chewing everything extremely well. Some of my friends that don't tolerate it, admit that they don't chew as well as they should.

195 last week, 192 this week. Surprised me because I haven't changed much. Go for my third fill today so we'll see what next week looks like!

down to 195....was 199 last week. Get my third fill next week and hope to be at my sweet spot because I'm pretty close right now.

Good point Jachut! If the damage is already done, a girdle isn't going to fix it. If you have a lot of excess skin, a girdle may help combat gravity which could cause more damage from the excess skin pulling? But otherwise either the damage has been done and you'll have saggy skin, or you'll be lucky and not have too bad of saggy skin. I love love love spanx in general, wear them everytime I go out!

I'm sorry to hear you feel like this. I can't however agree that LAP-BAND® is a gimmick. What is a gimmick is people thinking that they should lose all this weight in a short amount of time. 47 pounds within 5 months is GREAT! That's around 10 pounds a month, well above the 1-2 pounds/week recommendation. It has worked miracles for some, and not for others - same thing goes for bypass. Have you really done everything you should be doing? Are you eating right and have the right portion control? Do you have good restriction? It sounds like you are exercising good. Why do you think you need a malabsportion surgery? If that's the case, maybe it isn't that the LAP-BAND® failed you but rather it wasn't the surgery you should have had in the first place. And getting bypass wouldn't guarantee your weight loss either. Again I respect your feelings but I just can't agree to statements like "the LAP-BAND® is a gimmick." For the record I have NOTHING against RNY, and would have considered it if it was the correct surgery for my type of eating, but I don't believe it is.

I maintained this week, still in lala ONEderland

Yes, you can definitely die from the lap-band. Just the surgery itself has it's risks - you can die from ANY surgery. Granted the risk is very small, but it is a realistic risk none the less. Plus complications afterwards, like if you're too tight but ignore it, and get dehydrated and ignore that. Again overall the risks are very low. I agree that most people think of gastric bypass when you tell them weight loss surgery, even if you try to explain the difference. WLS in general has a negative experience tacked onto it. Plus people think you should know their opinion because it's the right one, of course. That's why I chose to keep it to myself and close family when I first decided. Now that I'm 2 months post-op and down 30 pounds, I'm opening up a liiiitle more, and finding that the opinions are more positive because people can see the results. The reason I've kept it to myself for the most part is because I don't want anyone scrutinizing every thing I put into my mouth. It's none of their business what was done to my body, basically.

The only thing I didn't think about until right after surgery where I had a 2 minute panic mode of "what the hell did I just put into myself", was the longevity of the band. I wish I asked how long do they really expect this band to be able to stay in my body. Being that I'm younger, I have a hard time seeing myself at age 60 with the original band still in. I can't imagine my stomach being able to tolerate that.

Did your doctor recommend 800cals? I personally think that is a little low and your body may be in starvation mode, holding onto every last calorie. Are you really eating like you should be? Are your portion sizes good? Are you exercising and doing your job to make it easy for the band to do it's job? If you really have done what you should be doing, you also may want to check with your doctor, if you're always thirsty and gained such a large amount of weight in such a short amount of time.

I am taking the Bariatric Advantage chewables...I'm 2 months postop and am completely done with them!! I decided next time I go to the store I'm going to get a different kind because they are just gross to me now. Thankfully, I don't have any problems swallowing big horse pills despite having great restriction. But I may get the flinstones because, let's be honest, they taste great lol My only concern is that my nutritionist told me about research she did that showed that the bariatric advantage had a 70% absorption rate. She said compared to some of the other ones, like centrum, their absoprtion rates were only around 40%.

It more than likely is from "gas". What it really is, is the CO2 they use to inflate your abdomen to make it easier to navigate the tools kinda sticks around after surgery. There isn't actual gas in your shoulder, instead it's actually pushing on your diaphragm and messing with your phrenic nerve, which makes your shoulder hurt. It pretty much sucks and was my biggest complaint lol the only way to get rid of it is walking and letting the time pass. I found that putting my arm in weird positions, like above my head or behind my head, helped alleviate the severe pain.