isaviolinist

I have a similar issue as you. I can never eat early in the day or even early afternoon, so I dont even try (I just stick with a protein shake). For dinner, sometimes I can eat everything, and sometimes I PB after 2 bites. I am working really hard on listening to my body and stopping the MOMENT I get a full signal (runny nose, kind of heavy feeling in my chest...there are a number of them for me). But sometimes I just get stuck right away and am still hungry. I'm going to go for an appointment in January when I'm home with my surgeon - maybe he'll think I need a slight unfill (although I don't want TOO much taken out).

No problem I like fitday because you can track your calories, exercise, weight goals, etc. But I know a lot of people use dailyplate and some other ones as well.

I log everything that goes in my mouth on fitday.com. When I'm not tracking my food I go astray and end up gaining weight (its much easier to eat crap when you don't have to write it down). I also hand in my food logs to my fitness practitioner so he can look at it. I think its an integral part of my success.

Soups and chili are slider foods for me but I love soups. I do feel satisfied after I eat hearty soups/stews (chili, red lentil, korean soft tofu, cioppino etc). I don't feel super full but I don't feel hungry. If I do feel hungry shortly after, its head hunger. I do a pretty good job lately of calorie counting and stopping when I'm out of calories for the day, so I budget for soup if I'm having it. Soups like cioppino are great because there are large pieces of seafood and it definitely makes it so I really can't eat more than a cup. A good balance of soup and non-slider items, plus it is nutrient-rich and contains a crazy amount of protein. I know soups are sliders but I love them and I love making them - as long as I budget for them and practice portion control, I won't be giving them up :rolleyes2:

I'm following both of you now! Here is my blog: Violinist With A Band I post about my lapband journey and I also post a lot of recipes. I love to cook :thumbup: Great thread!

For your ideal weight, you should also seek out someone who can do skin fold measurements so you know how much lean mass and fat mass you have (especially since you have a large frame). My fitness practitioner does this for me every 6 weeks so I can tell how much fat and lean mass I have. He estimates, that when things are ideal, I'll probably have between 130-132 pounds of lean mass on my body. And I'll probably have 14-15 pounds of fat mass (we are aiming for 22% body fat which is the low end of the normal range for a female my age). That weight would put me at a BMI that is in the overweight category. However my body fat percentage would be in the low end of normal. Currently, my BMI puts me at "obese". However, my body fat percentage currently is under 39% which is 'overweight' for women my age. For me, I stopped relying on BMI and I am super focused on getting my body fat percentage down to a reasonable number. I even am getting slightly (but only slightly) less obsessed with the scale and am focusing on building lean mass and getting rid of my fat mass.

Hm, who knows. I think I attributed 10 of my 20 pound loss preop to water weight, but you can never know for sure. I'm bad about that - sometimes I think about what I've lost and I'm like, "eh, the majority of it is water weight", but obviously its not :thumbup: Just be happy its gone Congrats!

I've lost about 3.5 pounds since this past Wednesday. I'm really hoping that by tomorrow I'll be down a solid 4 pounds. I feel like 4 pounds a week for me is pretty good...I got so spoiled because I had two weeks recently where I lost 5 and 6 pounds... :-( I want that loss again. Anyhow, loss is loss and I'm not complaining I've only got 3.6 more pounds to lose to meet my Thanksgiving Challenge goal, and I'm determined to meet and hopefully exceed my goal!! If you look on the spreadsheet (all the way at the bottom), we have collectively lost over 90 pounds!! Way to go everyone!!

Congrats!!!! Wow - what an achievement!! Can't wait to be in your shoes

I cant remember now, but I think my surgeon gave me calorie guidelines (maybe 800 or 900? not sure). I remember they told me I should drink 4 shakes a day (each shake had around 190 calories). I don't think I drank 4 - I probably drank 3 and had a snack (similar ones to you - SF popsicle, SF FF pudding, etc). My calorie intake during that time was pretty low (I rarely made it to 800). But all preop diets are so dramatically different, you should just call your surgeons office and see what they say.

I have the same fears as you do. I am completely determined to get to goal with my band and make it work for me, however I may eventually revise (to sleeve probably). I'm deathly deathly deathly afraid of erosion. The stories I hear about complications due to erosion scare the crap out of me. Additionally, today I found out that my insurance won't cover adjustments. The reason why it was covered before is because my old doc did them under fluoro so the adjustments were billed as xrays. The new doc doesn't do fills under fluoro and gastric band adjustments are not covered (which is so crazy...I have the best insurance you can buy...I can see any physician I want, including physicians in other countries, but I can't get a band adjustment...unfortunate since I have a gastric band ). If I want an adjustment, I'll need to pay 250 dollars everytime. If I just want to have an appointment with no adjustment, I'll have to pay 150.00. I'm beyond irritated about it.

Well I really do love Edamame. So delicious and healthy for you. Here is an edamame burger recipe that is a staple in my diet (I make these almost once a week). Violinist With A Band: Edamame Burger Recipe If there is a supermarket near you that has raw edamame on their salad bar (like Whole Foods), you can skip the step where you cook the edamame. This recipe also uses the whole grain millet which is an awesome, very underused food (its actually a seed). I also make falafel and hummus a lot (chickpeas). I bake the falafel instead of deep frying. If you like the fried taste of falafel you could pan fry them using a nonstick pan and some cooking spray. I'm a sucker for Peanut Butter too. Its fine if you just watch how much of it you're eating and make sure you budget your calories for it. Sometimes I do a bean dip with black Beans and fat free refried beans with tofu which is so yummy. I do a similar vegetarian chili with kidney and pinto beans (and tofu). And I have a recipe for a great red lentil Soup (lentils are beans!) with barley (which is a great source of fiber).

This is actually about my average too. My fat intake is anywhere between 18-30g a day. I don't eat red meat, pork or poultry so I get my Protein from seafood, tofu, Beans, nuts etc. So if I eat an item thats higher in Omega-3 fats (like salmon) or if I have Peanut Butter or soy products/beans that contain essential fatty acids like edamame then my fat intake will be higher. But these essential fatty acids are good for general health so I don't avoid them.

The preop diet definitely helped prepare me. It made eating less already seem normal instead of being shocked after surgery. It also made the 3 days of clear liquid and 2 weeks of full liquids postop much easier. After 5 weeks of liquids, I was definitely happy to go to mushies tho I also used the weightloss as motivation to stick with it even when it was tough. I loved seeing the pounds melting off. My fiance was great for support - he did a lot of the liquid diet with me and when he wanted to eat he went out so it wouldn't be in front of me.

I lost weight this week but about a week and a half ago I hit a mini plateau (it was mini because I kicked it's butt before it got to be a long plateau). To break it, I changed a few things up. For 2 days I did low/no carb (which i dont usually do) and super high Protein (like 100 or more g a day which is more than I usually get), I started walking in addition to my regular exercise. One of the days I ran which I never do. I varied my calories a little. Basically I just tried to throw my body off and it worked. I also started drinking 70 ounces of Water a day. I wasn't getting nearly enough liquid in me everyday. What is your calorie intake per day and what is your exercise routine like?

Hm, I remember I didn't really go out much unless I had to. I spent a lot of time on lbt. Honestly, after the first few days it was okay (I had a 3 week preop diet). The first 3-4 days are the hardest. You could always exercise or go to a movie (or just watch one at home if you think the movie candy/food is not something you want to see). Go for a walk. I lived in the middle of a city and so I didn't go outside for the first few days because there were so many restaraunts all around me calling my name but I love walking - it always centers me.

So happy for you! It must feel so awesome! What are you going to do to celebrate?? Do something really nice for yourself maybe a spa day (and perhaps a little shopping to top it off haha). Lol anyhow, congrats! Can't wait to be in your shoes!

Hey I'm gonna join in too! I can't quite remember where I was at last monday but it was somewhere around 221.6ish I think. This morning I weighed in at 217.6. Less than 4 pounds away from my Thanksgiving goal! Great thread idea - thanks for starting it!

I have Realize Band but I haven't ever heard of X-3. I have the Realize C band.

I post recipes on a fairly regular basis on my blog. The link is in my signature if you want to check it out. Also, your should check out BariatricEating.com - BE, Inc. The number one bariatric website for Protein, Vitamins, and success. There are great recipes on that sight. I use it regularly when I'm looking for a new dish to cook up. You can also really use any recipe and just alter it to cut the calories. Many recipes call for WAY too much oil or butter and often it's really unnecessary to use any at all. What kind of food do you like or what have you been eating that you're tired of? Also are you exercising?

I was just wondering if "the tire" was the last thing to go as you dropped weight? I'm scared that even when Im in the 150s or 140s I'm going to have this stupid tire around my waist preventing me from wearing a normal size or making me look ridiculous in a bathing suit. While I do know that being pear shaped is better on your heart than apple shaped, I do wish my body was more proportioned. I don't want to be in regular tops and plus size bottoms or not be able to find a dress that fits correctly with the top too big and bottom to tight. Any insights are greatly appreciated!

I agree with Cangel about finding a therapist. This is something I've thought about doing too. I'm also a food addict, and while I have been able to control my eating for the most part for the past couple months, I always feel like I'm teetering on the edge of giving in to the addiction. I don't reaLly think that OA is for me (have you looked into it? I know that it has helped many people) but I may think about talking to a therapist. You should too. If you're really cringing at the thought of exercising, how about just taking a walk? I do cross training and cardio 6 days a week but I also take a 2.5-3.5 mile walk everyday. Its not really a power walk, but just a reasonable pace. I love it. It doesn't feel like exercise and it gives me a chance to clear my mind. And a nice side effect is burning an extra 350-400 calories a day. Go out for a walk today to get started back on the right track!